Bible Commentaries
Numbers 11

Verses 1-16

IV

FROM SINAI TO KADESH-BARNEA

Numbers 11:1-12:16

In this chapter we cover only two chapters of Numbers (Numbers 11-12) the section of the outline from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. When they had finished their preparation, the objective point from Sinai was Kadesh, a distance of 150 or 200 miles, but for such a big crowd, eleven days’ journey (Deuteronomy 1:2). But that eleven days does not cover all the time, since they stopped a long time at two places at least. We take up, then, the question of time. After three days they reached Kibroth, where they stopped thirty days. After they left Kibroth, their next point was Hazeroth, where they stopped seven days. So you have forty days covered by this section. In order to get that time you have to compare a great many dates, which I have carefully done. This lesson tells about the first three marching days to Kibroth but does not give the time from Kibroth to Hazeroth, but Deuteronomy 1:2, gives us the eleven days, and so the time must have been eight days. I shall give you the great events that occurred in these forty-eight days. At the beginning of the next chapter, I shall give you some special explanations about Kadesh-barnea. In getting to Kadesh-barnea, three great sins were committed, culminating in a greater sin at Kadesh-barnea, and the one at Kadesh, which we shall not discuss in this chapter, was the second breach of the covenant.

The first sin occurs on that three days’ march from Sinai through that great and terrible wilderness. The people murmured, speaking evil in the ears of Jehovah. It was a complaint against God himself on account of their suffering. A man by himself would suffer, but moving three millions of people with their cattle was much more difficult. So they murmured against God and the fire of Jehovah burned among them and devoured them in the uttermost part of the camp. Some have supposed that the fire was lightning. But they have very little lightning in that country. I think it was a fire that went out from the presence of the Lord. So there is the first sin and the first punishment. "And the people cried unto Moses and Moses prayed unto Jehovah and the fire abated." So this punishment was stayed at the intervention of Moses, their great mediator. What memorial was there of that sin and punishment? "And the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of Jehovah burned among them." That occurred on some one of these three days.

The second sin we find recorded in Numbers 11:3-34. It did not commence with the pure Israelites but with the mixed multitude that followed them from Egypt, not circumcised and not embodied in the covenant. The sin consisted of lusting exceedingly, that is, for a change of food. But that sin went over the Israelites and they wept and said, "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish we had in Egypt," and thus they turned a long look back to the country from which they had come: "Our soul is dried away and there is nothing at all save this manna to look up." That was utter distaste for the food God provided and a rebellious longing for the food of their bondage. In other words, they would rather have fish out of the Nile and vegetables from its banks and remain in bondage than to live on manna and go to the Promised Land. They put their appetites above the relationship with God. You have here a description of manna which you can read. It looked like coriander seed; they gathered it and ground it in mills or beat it in mortars and it had the taste of fresh olive oil. Moses heard the people weeping, every man at the door of his tent, because of short rations in God’s service.

I have been on forced marches with only meal made up with a little salt and burned at the top and bottom and raw inside and in the beat of the summer it would sour in two hours, and I have marched and lived on that for three days. What strange things there are in this world to cry about! Moses said to Jehovah, "Wherefore hast thou dealt ill with thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?" No doubt he was tired of his job. I have known little children to cry for something to eat. "I am not able to bear all this people alone. Kill me, I pray thee, and let me not see my wretchedness." Moses was a very meek and patient man but two or three times he felt like throwing up his job. The Lord loved Moses and gave a remedy for the trouble, viz: the distribution of labor.

We had a case like this before when Jethro came to Moses and Moses was acting as justice of the peace, county judge, district judge and judge of all the supreme court for all the people. At Jethro’s advice there was a division of the judicial Work, but this is a different thing. This is said to be the foundation of the Sanhedrin. Seventy men were appointed for administrative work and notified when to come to be qualified and all of them came but two. When God sent the qualifying power of the Spirit on those that stayed in the camp, as well as on those that went up, that stirred up Joshua a little. He was very jealous for Moses and loved Moses very much. He says, "My lord Moses, here are these two men that did not come up and they are prophesying in the camp. They ought to be made to go back and go through the regular order." Moses replied that he had so many big things that troubled him that little things like that did not bother him a bit. He wished all God’s people could prophesy, whether formally or informally.

That settled the matter from the standpoint of Moses, but it did not give the people what they wanted to eat. God tells them to sanctify themselves against the next day and they shall have flesh. Now comes a doubt in the mind of Moses – and this is a very important scripture (Numbers 11:21) : "And Moses said, The people among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month." Does that mean that flocks and herds shall be slain for them or that fish shall be gathered? But the Lord said, "Is Jehovah’s hand waxed short?"

If you preach on that subject of trusting God, there are four or five other scriptures you should use in connection. These people said, "We take this long journey, what if our children get sick and our old people feeble?" God said, "There will not be a sick or feeble one. Shoes wear out, but these shoes will wear forty years and the clothes, and I will give you a brilliant illumination by night and a cloud to shelter you in the day time." The whole thing is a standing miracle. It was just as easy for God to feed those three million people as it was for Jesus to take five loaves and two fishes and feed five thousand. Another case in history is the case of Elisha, the prophet, who said that at a certain hour the best flour should be sold cheap in a city where the people were besieged and starving. Then Abraham staggered not in unbelief when he considered that the thing promised was physically impossible. I never shall forget bow the old moderator of the Waco association said to his wife when he was dying, "When I am gone you may have a hard time, but don’t you be one of these complaining women." Many a time have I talked to Mrs. Riddle about that and each time she says she is trying to live as her husband told her, and she has not joined the whining column yet.

Now, God gave these people flesh in anger as a punishment for their lack of faith. He just covered them with quails and told them they should eat that food for thirty days. "While it is in your mouth, it will make you sick and the plague shall strike you." The punishment of the second sin was loathsome satiety and was visited with a plague. On this passage is built the statement that no man can eat quail a day for thirty days (Numbers 11:33). "While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague. And the name of the place was called Kibrothhattaavah, because there they buried the people that lusted." The third sin came in a higher quarter. The sinners were Miriam and Aaron, brother and sister of Moses. You should read Dr. Wilkinson’s poem describing this rebellion as coming on for a long time through jealousy. The question in their minds was this: "Hath Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses? Hath he not also spoken to us?" Miriam says, "I remember I watched over this fellow when he was in the ark of the bulrushes. The spirit of prophecy rests on me. Has not the Lord spoken to us?"

What was the occasion of this sin? The first verse says that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. Was this Cushite woman Zipporah, his first wife, or did he here in the wilderness marry again? It had been a long time since he and Zipporah married. He was a little over forty years old and forty years more had passed before he had taken charge of this people. Many commentators suppose that, as Zipporah was a Midianite and a descendant of Abraham, she must in this time have died and Moses married a descendant of Ham. Gush in the Bible means Ethiopia. But Moses had never been to Ethiopia except when he waged a campaign there, and if he married there that would make her the first wife and Zipporah the second. But there was a part of Arabia called Cush and that land of the Cushites included a part of the territory occupied by the Midianites. So that the Cushite woman was undoubtedly his wife, Zipporah. There is not a scintilla of evidence that Moses ever married again. And so Aaron and Miriam had never been satisfied with his marriage with Zipporah.

Then the question comes up, Was it lawful for a Hebrew to marry a Midianite? It was, because the Midianites were descendants of Abraham, and Moses married among his own people, not in the chosen line, but four or five scriptures can be shown to prove that certain marriages were lawful and Moses was violating no law. This shows how long some people can carry a grudge before they blow things up about it. They had been carrying this grudge forty years. But the real grudge was the supremacy of Moses in the camp and they were trying to put it upon some pretext.

"And Jehovah heard it." What a text! "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth." God commanded all the parties to appear before him and he gave his decision squarely in the favor of Moses, and Miriam, who was the instigator, was punished with leprosy, and Aaron begged Moses to intervene, and he prayed to God and she was healed, but God demanded that she stay outside the camp for seven days and that is why they had to stop at that place seven days.

Those are the three sins and the three punishments.

QUESTIONS

1. How far from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea?

2. How long were the children of Israel on the way? Give reason for your answer.

3. What was the character of the way?

4. How many stops on the way? Name them.

5. What three great sins were committed on the way, and where?

6. What was the first sin, its punishment, how stayed and its memorial?

7. The second sin – with whom commenced, consisted of what, and what was their real sin?

8. Give a description of the manna, and how prepared for food.

9. Describe the displeasure of Moses and his appeal to Jehovah.

10. What remedy or provision did Jehovah make for the relief of Moses?

11. Give the case of Eldad and Medad, and what was the lesson?

12. How did this affect Joshua, and Moses’ reply?

13. What question did Moses raise concerning their supply of food, and God’s reply?

14 How did God punish this sin, and what is the origin of the saying, ’"No man can eat a quail a day for thirty days consecutively “?

15. What was the memorial of this sin?

16 The third sin – who were the sinners, the cause, the occasion, who this Cushite woman, the real sin and how long developing?

17. Did Moses violate God’s law of marriage in taking this Cushite woman? Give reason for your answer.

18. How was Moses vindicated and the sinners punished?

19.How long did they stay here, what was the next objective point in their journey and the time required to reach it? Note – Study your chronological analysis closely, looking up all references.