Numbers 11:12-29 NKJV
Moses was upset with God because he had to listen to the complaints of the people he was leading, and he had enough of their complaints. One could say he was bold in questioning God when he blurted out “Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth?” sounds like a serious conversation one a person would have had with his or her natural boss—not God. Moses may have been angry because God told him to carry the people in his arms, like a nurse carrying an infant, to the promised land.
Moses may have been thoroughly disgusted when he posed the question “Where can I get meat for all these people? He explained to God that the people were yelling, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ Surely in any generation that can be pretty annoying. Moses voiced that he was stressed, from the burden of leading the people alone. Moses may have felt that God had given him more than he could manage. He voiced his feelings in telling God to kill him if He was going to treat him in that manner for, he did not want to see failure. However, God gave Moses solutions to the demand for meat, his need for help, and after another complaint, God shared Moses’ Spirit with seventy elders who prophesied and helped Moses run the camp (see Numbers 11:16-25).
As the story comes to an end. A young man saw two men prophesizing, who did not belong in Moses’ camp, so he ran to inform Moses. Moses response was “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!” Luke in Acts 2:17 repeated the words of Joel regarding the Spirit being poured out on all people and the sons and daughters having the ability to prophesize. Wow! I am purely in awe! I am sure you know that Moses’ wish came true at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-47).
Moral of the Story: We do not know that the words we speak or what we wish for God has already purposed them. What is your moral of the story?
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