Moses was feeling very overwhelmed. God had put him in charge of leading the Israelites through the desert to the Promised Land. It was a really big job, and all the people did was complain.
The Israelites were never happy with the food God gave them to eat, and they kept wishing they were back in captivity in Egypt, where they at least could eat meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks and garlic.
God heard their complaints, which made him very angry. Once, God became so angry that his fire caused the outer edges of the Israelites’ camp to burn. The people cried out to Moses, who prayed to God to put out the fire.
Moses was at his wit’s end.
“Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?” Moses asked God. “I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.”
So God told Moses to gather the 70 elders of Israel at the tent of meeting. This was where Moses and other people would go to talk to God.
“I will come down and speak with you there,” God told Moses. “I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will confer it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you.”
God also gave Moses a message for the people: He had heard their complaints, and he was going to give them meat to eat. But, he told Moses, since the people had rejected him by their complaining, he was going to give them so much meat that they would get sick of eating it.
So Moses gathered the elders at the tent of meeting, where God took some of his spirit from Moses and bestowed it on the men, who then began prophesying. There were two elders who had remained in the camp instead of going to the tent of meeting, but they, too, received the spirit and began prophesying.
Joshua, Moses’ aide, heard the two elders. He ran to Moses and told him they should be stopped.
“Are you jealous for my sake?” Moses asked Joshua. “If only all the people of the Lord were prophets! If only the Lord would bestow his spirit on them!”
Then Moses and the elders went back to camp.
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Numbers 11
Q&A
1. Why was Moses feeling overwhelmed?
2. How as God going to help Moses?
