This morning my reading had me in Numbers 11 where the children of Israel are complaining again. They want to go back to Egypt because they don't have any meat to eat here in the wilderness. As a group of people they complain quite often; you get used to reading it. But something else struck me as I read this morning. Moses complained in Numbers 11:11-15
Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me,‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
He was tired and felt the burden of this people.Was that wrong? No, there were over 600,000 people and one man being concerned for their welfare is bound to feel burdened. But notice the way he complained.
Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me,‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
The first thing we notice is Moses telling God that He is dealing ill with him, His servant. Moses is accusing God of not treating him right! After all that Moses had seen God do thus far in his life, including all the plagues in Egypt, which God kept from the children of Israel, he felt God was being unfair. "You are not treating Me right!" I have to confess there are many times in my life where I have done just that. I felt that God was being unfair to me and He had no reason to do it.
Tangent: I was going to write that life is never fair. But I can't. I just started another Bible study on the Gospel of John and in verse 4 it says:
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
God does all things well. And if I want to to talk about things being unfair, people are unfair. If I say God is unfair, I better define how He is unfair. He is "unfair" in that He allows sinners to be saved by His grace, redeeming them by the precious blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and making them righteous enough to be called the children of God, and allowing them to live eternally with Him. As sinful men, they don't deserve ANY of that. But He graciously gives it to them. I wish I could be that unfair to those around me.
Back from tangent: One thing Moses got right in that sentence is that He is God's servant. It's a good reminder for me: I am God's SERVANT first. I am not His equal. When He saved me, He bought me with the life of His very own Son. I am a servant for life. A servant does what he is told.
Moses then goes on to accuse God of not finding favor in Moses and laying the burden of this people on him. Moses seems to overlook the fact that he gets to talk with God and behold His form (Numbers 12:8). No one else in Israel had that privilege. Moses was indeed in great favour with God.
God never lays burdens on us that He knows we can't handle without Him. He says in Matthew 11:30
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
God allows burdens in our lives that we may rely upon Him for the strength we need. Did God want Moses to love the children of Israel as a mother loves her nursing child? Yes, but to carry the weight of the responsibility for caring for them on his own? No, he, and we, are too look to God because in and of ourselves we cannot do it on our own.
