Numbers 11 - 13 (28th Feb) - Xiao Woon

Numbers 11
The People Complain

The children of Israel complained about the food that God provided for them. They had intense craving for meat and they wept. They compared with the food they had back in Egypt and kept complaining. God’s anger was greatly aroused. Moses was also displeased when he heard them weeping. Moses then blamed God, saying that God gave him the burden of the people which is too heavy for him to bear.

God provided them with manna, yet they complained. Sometimes we are just so irritating. When God provides us with something, we are not contented and do not thank God for providing but instead ask for more. Let us not de2 cun4 jin4 chi3 with God…
Do we blame God too? At times when we face trials and tribulations, do we not look to God for help and thank God for the circumstances in which we can learn from, but instead blame Him for whatever that we are facing?

It is so easy to complain and blame God for something bad that happened in our lives for it is in our sinful nature to do so. However, always remember that everything happens for a reason. God will not let us suffer so that He can be happy in our sufferings (He is not sadistic)…but He allowed/placed circumstances in our lives so that we may learn from them, and to help mould our characters.

Let’s not complain/blame, but give thanks to God for EVERYTHING. It is not easy to give thanks in our problems, but let us try our best to do so=)

The Seventy Elders

The Lord told Moses to gather seventy elders to the tabernacle of meeting so that He may speak to them. The Lord told Moses that He will take of the Spirit upon Moses and will put upon the elders, that they may bear the burden of the people with him. He also told Moses to tell the people to sanctify themselves and they will eat meat for a whole month, until it comes out of their nostrils (imagine meat coming out of your nose!) and becomes loathsome to them. Sense the Lord’s anger in His tone of speaking about this.
Moses doubted God’s ability to provide the meat for so many people and God just told him to see if His word is true.

The Lord sends Quail

The Lord brought quail through a wind and the people gathered the quail, but before they could chew it, the Lord struck them with a great plague. (Imagine u die at the moment u were able to bite the food that u craved for. Sian right.)

The Lord is good to Moses despite him blaming Him. He lightened his load by spreading the burden to the elders. Let us not take God’s goodness for granted. Never doubt God’s ability! He is not called Lord Almighty for nothing! He is the God of miracles!

Numbers 12
Dissension of Aaron and Miriam

Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses. The anger of the Lord was aroused and Miriam became leprous when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle. Moses cried out for God to heal her. God shut her out of the camp for seven days then she was brought in again.

Let us not speak against anyone so that we may be right before God. Don’t wait till God teaches us a lesson then we realize that we’ve sinned. Always keep check of the words we speak out and our actions so that we may be right before God.

Numbers 13
Spies sent into Canaan

God told Moses to send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which He is giving to the children of Israel. So Moses sent men who were heads of the children of Israel. They returned from spying out the land after forty days and brought back word to them and showed them the fruit of the land. They told Moses that the land indeed flows with milk and honey, that the people there are strong, the cities are fortified and very large. Caleb said they should go up and take possession of the land, for they can certainly do it. But the men who gone up with him said that those people were stronger than the Israelites. They then spread a bad report of the land to the Israelites, saying that it is a land that devours its inhabitants.

Verse 33: “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Rev Melyvn Mak once mentioned this verse and the learning point was that what u perceived yourself to be will be what others perceive of you. So if you see yourself as someone small and easily defeated, then you will appear small in the way you portray yourself and people will then see you as small and easily defeated.
Do not look down on yourself. You are a son/daughter of God! Not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of God that we can do what we cannot on our own =)

Praise the Lord! =)