Up to nearly the end of chapter 10, we have been looking at the blessed ordering and arranging of God for His beloved people while passing through the wilderness. Then, after God has given the order of His people’s march with the lessons of His arrangement, He begins to tell us the varied failures of His people during their march. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning;” and “they are written for our admonition;” so our desire should be to know why this is recorded, and in what way their failures may be warnings for us. We are supposed to profit by the failures of others, both in the Old and New Testament. A great part of the Epistles is taken up with the mistakes and failures of others.
Israel had been resting a long time in the wilderness of Sinai; and the mistake Moses made was in wanting Hobab to be eyes for them. God’s guidance is all that the saint of God needs. If a young Christian is perplexed one can understand his turning to one more experienced; but if he gave him his mind, and what he had learned, it would not do the younger one any spiritual good, because he would not be acting according to his own faith, but on the faith of another. So it is the wisdom of such to turn the enquirer to the word of God, and let him be exercised as to the word himself, and do what he does to the Lord for himself: that would do him good.
So this was their first journey, to Paran. Of course, we do not get all the details. God gives to us what is right for us to know, and what is not right for us to know is withheld. God is perfect in all His ways.
And it came to pass that when the people murmured, it was evil in the ears of Jehovah; and Jehovah heard it, and his anger was kindled, and the fire of Jehovah burned among them, and consumed [some] in the extremity of the camp (11:1).
“And the people complained.” I daresay it was a bit of a tax to them! We are made to feel this is not our rest, but a place of testimony. That was why God brought them there. Turn to Deuteronomy 8:1-31All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. 2And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 3And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:1‑3). It is very sweet when reading a Scripture like that to know that the Lord Jesus as a Man read it Himself, and at the right moment quoted it to Satan. The Lord has left us an example, and when the enemy came to Him, He said, “It is written.” And when Satan misquoted it, the Lord knew that; He did not need to put God to the test to demonstrate the truth of His word, so He said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Then again, when he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, He said, “Get thee hence, Satan; it is written.”
We are told to have on the whole armor of God, and there is no armor for the back. So we must face him, and we have the sword of the Spirit, the only aggressive weapon: ― “It is written.”
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you;” but resist him with the word of God. Do not stop to reason with him. In meeting Satan the Christian always meets a defeated foe. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
They were traveling for three days. We must not think they were traveling all the time day and night; no doubt they were resting and then going on to the rest suitable for their camp. Then we must remember their food was given daily, and fell round the camp, and they went out and gathered it. So that cloudy pillar was not moving all the time. I do not say it came down, for it came down on the tabernacle, and that was being carried; but no doubt there were times of refreshment, and time for gathering the manna.
But still it was weariness for them while God went before to search out a suitable camp, and they got displeased. In another place, their soul was discouraged because of the way; here they complained, and were chastened for it. “The fire of the Lord burnt among them.”
Some have suggested it was lightning, but we must not be wise above what is written. In 2 Kings 1, when the king of Israel sent to Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, the fire of the Lord fell and burnt up two captains with their fifties. And also fire came out from Jehovah, and slew Nadab and Abihu. That was quite in keeping with the dispensation; but when we turn to Luke 9:51-56,51And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. (Luke 9:51‑56) we find John (who had had to be corrected in verse 50), desiring to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans who would not receive the Lord; and He said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,” and He went to another village. That shows the difference of the dispensation.
Before the law was given God dealt with Israel in pure grace, but they did not appreciate it, and preferred to get the blessing on the ground of law-keeping.
It was not so, but refers to His not being received of the Samaritans. That is what He referred to there; and it was said to a man who declared, “Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” That man was after present advantage; the Lord knew his heart: he thought it would be better for himself, but the Lord showed him how He Himself was treated. That was not said in the neighborhood of Bethany.
And the people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Jehovah-and the fire abated. And they called the name of that place Taberah; because a fire of Jehovah burned among them (11:2, 3).
So however men may speculate about this fire, it was chastisement from God, and severe chastisement. The meaning of the word “Taberah” is “burning.” Then when Moses, the intercessor, prayed to Jehovah the fire was quenched. That would hardly be language in keeping with what those think who regard it as lightning.
And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted; and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us flesh to eat? (11:4).
The “mixed multitude,” were those who came up with Israel, the wonderful people God wrought so marvelously for in Egypt. They thought it would be a good thing to identify themselves with a people for whom God so wrought. There was no work of grace in them.
There are those who associate with Christians for the hope of present gain, like the man we referred to just now, who said, “Lord, I will follow Thee.” There are people who do not seek to do it clandestinely. I have known a young man say, “I shall join that body of Christians, they help one another.” I remember a brother who had belonged to a large so-called “church,” and sought fellowship, confessing that what he had come from was largely a political machine, and a place to help you get on in the world; and also a mean of raising money.
We have seen this selfish spirit expressed in that New Testament Scripture, and we see it in this mixed multitude. So it is no wonder they were not prepared for going through the wilderness with its hardships; and they fell a-lusting, and the children of Israel too.
It is surprising how we are all influenced. At one time a brother may influence a person in a wrong direction, at another time in a right. In John 20 John outruns Peter; Peter, not content with looking, went in, and John followed; he influenced John in a right direction. But in the next chapter, when Peter said, “I go a fishing,” he led the six disciples wrong.
We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic (11:5).
They forgot all about their bondage and their groaning, when required to make bricks without straw; but they remembered the fish, and cucumbers and melons, and leeks, and garlic and onions. We know there is not an idle word in Scripture; and there is a meaning in telling us all this. There are only six things enumerated as belonging to Egypt. Deuteronomy 8:88A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; (Deuteronomy 8:8) tells us what was produced in Canaan, the figure of the heavenly places we have to do with now: “A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive and honey.” There are seven things there. Every bit has its meaning.
I suppose upon the surface we can see that our conversation will betray what we feed on. From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. What you feed on you will speak of. Some things are not so obnoxious as others; everything is not equally bad. I suppose a person feeding on cucumbers and melons would not be likely to be offensive to others; but those that feed on leeks, onions, and garlic would be very offensive.
And now our soul is dried up: there is nothing at all but the manna before our eyes (11:6).
But the solemn thing was that they said: “There is nothing at all beside this manna.” The manna is despised twice, the record of both being found in the book of Numbers only. In chapter 21, thirty-eight years after, when this generation had passed away, we find it again.
Here they were contrasting the wilderness with Egypt; but thirty-eight years after they were not doing so. They thought they had just come to the land, and only had to pass through the land of Edom; but the king of Edom would not allow them to do so, and they had to turn back, and compass the whole land of Edom. It was like beginning the whole wilderness journey again, and there was murmuring, and again the manna was despised. That is why you get the fiery serpents, and what the Lord Jesus referred to in John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14).
I suppose this tells us that it is a very blessed thing if one is satisfied with Christ only. We say:
“O Lord, Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill;”
and it is blessedly true; but there is a possibility of declining, and not finding all our fresh springs in Christ. If He is not a satisfying portion, there is a turning to the world according to our natural taste; but it is a blessed thing to be thoroughly satisfied with Christ. Comparatively few are always satisfied with Christ. There is a desire and a lust after something else.
And the manna was as coriander seed, and its appearance as the appearance of bdellium (11:7).
The manna was a type of Christ the true Bread, the Bread of God come down from heaven, ―the Lord Jesus in His humiliation, in His lowly grace. We looked at it in Exodus 16. Here “the manna was as coriander seed;” there “as the hoar frost:” a “small round thing.” We are reminded by that whatever low place the Lord took here below, He was nevertheless the Eternal One. A cube in Scripture is finite perfection; but a round thing has no beginning and no end, pointing to the Eternal One, though here in lowly guise. In Psalms 119:141,141I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts. (Psalm 119:141) we read, “I am small and despised,” no doubt referring to the remnant there; but here it is of the Lord Himself.
All the things enumerated as belonging to Egypt have to be stooped for.
There are three marked types of Christ as the food of Christians. The Passover comes first. If you have not eaten of the Passover you cannot have any taste for the manna. So if you do not know His death for you, you can have no relish for Christ in the Gospels.
The wilderness is the place of human destitution and heavenly supply. There is nothing here to minister to the new man. All must come down from above. So in the wilderness Israel get the manna; and in Canaan, the old corn of the land. We have all three as food for ourselves.
I do not think we can say anything as to the color of bdellium. A good many learned men say it is the color of pearl. At any rate, we can be quite sure, whatever the figure used, it brings out some of the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All are suggestive of an Infinite Object, though we see Him as a Man in the Gospels. Some may call it hyperbole, but I regard it as bringing an infinite Object before us, when in John 21 it says the world itself could not contain the record of all the things Jesus did. You can never reach the end of that subject, ―never!
The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it with hand-mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of oil-cakes. And when the dew fell upon the camp by night, the manna fell upon it (11:8, 9).
The wise men of the world, learned men, see in this, when put alongside Exodus 16, two different accounts of the same thing; and therefore set this as contradictory to that, and call that Elohistic and this Jehovistic. But it is peculiar, as a brother now with the Lord has said, that in the account in Exodus we find Jehovah mentioned about a dozen times, and Elohim not at all.
The truth is they were two different occasions, and there is nothing contradictory in either. It says in Exodus 16:31,31And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (Exodus 16:31) the manna was like “wafers made with honey;” and I gather that, as it fell before prepared at all, it had the taste of honey; but here (Num. 11:88And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. (Numbers 11:8)), it is prepared, cooked, and then it had the taste of cakes made of fresh oil.
In John 6 we have the manna, and in John 7 the living water; so Exodus 16, and 17, correspond with John 6 and 7.
And Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, everyone at the entrance of his tent; and the anger of Jehovah was kindled greatly; it was also evil in the eyes of Moses (11:10).
Then we have the same old story found throughout the word of God from beginning to end: man, as man, is an utter failure. He fell in paradise; and to check the violence and corruption succeeding the fall, the sword was put into the hands of Noah. Noah was the first magistrate, but he was not able to keep himself. He failed himself and got intoxicated. Then, in the case of the priesthood, Nadab and Abihu failed; and here we have the failure of Moses and of the children of Israel.
And when we come to the church, there is the same thing. That was set up of God in purity and blessedness, yet decay set in before the apostles passed away. There had been such terrible declension that John could speak of “many antichrists” and “the last hour” in his day. And even the millennium will be to exception. Those who will have known the beneficent reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will finally rise in rebellion. So right through there is one solid tale of utter failure. The only thing for as is grace. We all want more grace. “I labored more abundantly than they all, ―yet not I, but the grace of God.” The only thing that avails is God’s grace. But that is something we cannot take in a stock of. We are called upon to be strong in it, and to grow in it, but we cannot have it independently of God. We need a constant supply.
I was thinking as we turned to Exodus 16 that those who talk of it being the same account, but from a different manuscript speak of the quails. We here have the manna despised, and God sending the quails. And in Exodus 16 we get God hearing their murmuring, and the quails coming up in the evening. So there was the giving of quails in Exodus with their murmuring; and also in Numbers when the manna was despised. In Exodus 16 they were under grace; in Numbers 11 They are under the government of God. He answered their prayer and sent leanness into their souls.
It shows how careful we ought to be as to what we pray for. We never should pray for what we naturally like. So it is possible for a person who is tried to pray for earthly prosperity; it may be granted with spiritual destitution.
And Moses said to Jehovah, Why hast thou done evil to thy servant, 2nd why have I not found favor in thine eyes, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people, have I brought them forth, that thou sayest to me, Carry them in thy bosom, as the nursing-father beareth the suckling unto the land which thou didst swear unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat! I am not able to bear all this people alone, for it is too heavy for me. If thou deal thus with me, slay me, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, that I may not behold my wretchedness (11:11-15).
Moses wanted to die. One or two things connected with that come to mind. Turn to 1 Kings 19:4,4But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. (1 Kings 19:4) etc. So those two men, Moses and Elijah, so prominent in the Old Testament, ―one known as the giver, the other as the restorer of the law, — both desired to die; but God gave them better than they asked for, and they are both seen with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration.
There is something very striking about the Lord and those seen with Him there. The Lord fasted forty days; so did Moses; so did Elias. But there is a contrast here with what Paul is led to write of himself by the Spirit of God in 2 Corinthians 11:24-2724Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. (2 Corinthians 11:24‑27). Five times he had thirty-nine stripes laid on his back; for God’s ordinance was that they should not exceed forty: thrice was he beaten with rods; and there was no restriction to their number, for this was not subject to God’s ordinance at all, but was inflicted by the hands of lawless Gentiles. A night and a day he was in the deep: only think of the dear apostle floating about on a plank or something in the Mediterranean for a day and a night! We should not have had this list if the naughty Corinthians had not compelled him to speak as a fool. He would far rather speak about the Lord than about himself. “Besides all this... the care of all the churches.”
Poor Moses failed and broke down; he was overwhelmed. The apostle is a contrast. Connect it with 2 Timothy 2:9,9Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. (2 Timothy 2:9) “I suffer trouble, as an evil-doer, even unto bonds.” He wrote from the prison at Rome; “therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” He did not murmur about it. He did not mind what he went through for their sakes. It shows what God’s grace can do. It is this that makes the difference.