Christ in all the scriptures Moses the Intercessor

 Christ in all the scriptures

Moses the Intercessor   Numbers 11

Across this chapter we could write "Behold the goodness and severity of God"-Romans 11v22.  Association with God is a solemn, if wonderful experience.  The benefits are incalculable, but the challenges can be severe, as Israel found early on in their wilderness journey.

The goodness of God      He delivered the nation, by mighty power from 400 years of bitter bondage in a strange land.  He led them through the waters of the Red Sea, where their enemies perished.  He gave them His law, and promised blessing on obedience.  He organised them and equipped them for the only true worship on earth.  He formed them into a formidable army, able to meet any who would oppose.  He fed them with manna from heaven every morning, the logistics of which were enormous (Experts have calculated that this involved over 1000 tons of food per day; 4000 tons of wood for cooking and rubbish disposal and 8-10 million gallons of water, per day, for drinking and washing and cleaning in 40 degrees heat.  By any standard, this is massive, even if only a fraction of it is real.  God furnished a table in the wilderness to sustain Israel, as it says in the Psalms.  In mercy He forgave their treacherous sin of idolatry to form them into a worshipping people.  When they demanded flesh to eat, He, miraculously took quails from the skies, redirecting them by a mighty wind to rain upon them what they wanted for a period of one month.  He proved there is nothing He could not do or would not do for them.  How many of us today are the recipients of similar provision??  He listened to the intercession of Moses, He visibly supplied support by spiritually gifting 70 others in the camp to prophesy, which inspired even two young men who did the same.  What is evident in all this narrative is the goodness of God towards an ungrateful people.

The severity of God    A beneficent God is also a holy God, and He cannot alter His character.  We dare not create a God of our own imagination, otherwise we make ourselves God!  He is the eternal, unchanging God, who must oppose sin in every form, and His people must become aware of that.  He must act in accordance with His holy character.  In the future He will pour His fire on a godless world (Revelation 8).   He cannot condone in His people what He will condemn in the world.  He sent fire upon those dwelling in the fringes of the camp who were complaining and spreading unrest-11v1-3.  Deuteronomy 9v22 says, "...at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattavah, ye provoked the Lord to anger".  Psalm 78v21 comments, "Therefore the Lord heard, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel".  The God of beneficent kindness can also be wroth, and we need to learn that.  He understands our frailty, but will not accept our folly.  He must act when faced with rank unbelief and ingratitude.  The particular sin was dissatisfaction with their new lot, which was tantamount to disrespect and distrust in His provision.  At the heart of it was the age old lie of the devil in Eden that God was withholding something good from them (Genesis 3v5).

Moses interceded for them and the Lord withdrew the fire.  In the same way our Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us before the throne (Hebrews 7v25; Romans 8v34; Isaiah 53v12).  Only in eternity will we know how much discipline we were spared by the Lord's intercession for us.  When sin blights our life, and dissatisfaction with the Lord pervades our thinking, God must act but we have one on the throne who speaks for us.  

In 11v4-15 the people among them called "the mixed multitude" (these were people, not indigenous to Israel, who left Egypt with them and sojourned with them).  Scripture is clear that in any large community of professing believers there will always be those who are not of them.  They fomented unrest concerning the food they were eating, saying that the food of Egypt was superior to the manna.  Their rebellion revealed their true nature, and God was angry with them.  Their souls were not right with God, and this was revealed in their criticism of the manna, preferring the sumptious (in their thoughts) food of Egypt.  The fact that the food of Egypt was supplied by God seems to have escaped them, but the episode exposed their true character.  The New Testament speaks of the wheat and the tares growing together, and ultimate separation will only come at the end (Matthew 13).  The modern attempt to create churches with only real believers has ended in tiny (and often arrogant) groups with rank sectarian practices, and not in any honour before the Lord.  None of us have the ability to judge in the here and now the status of any person with God.  Only the Lord knows who are His and He will make it plain.  We are suffering today from puny men seeking to act like God.  He does not require our help!

The Lord created 70 elders and endowed them with the gift of prophecy to alleviate the burden of Moses, which had become too great for him.  He caused a great wind to rain flesh from the heavens in the form of quails, to demonstrate His ability to feed them with what they wanted.  However He sent a plague among them to declare His displeasure; thereafter would only be the daily manna.

Association with God is a cultural shock.  Only those who are real will truly adjust.  In spiritual terms God wants to change not only our destiny but our diet, for He knows what is good for us, and what will enrich us and prosper us.  Next time we shall consider in detail the manna which He sends from heaven for our sustenance on the way to the promised land.