Numbers 11:16 - Meaning and Application

Here we have God’s gracious answer to both of the earlier complaints. His goodness takes the occasion from human sin and weakness to show itself even more clearly.

First, God provides relief for the burden Moses, Israel’s leader, complains of. If governing the people feels too heavy for him, God does not remove him from office, though he would have deserved that if God had judged him strictly. Instead, God gives him helpers who are, as the apostle says, “helps in government” (1 Corinthians 12:28). They are not meant to lessen Moses’ honor, but to make his work lighter and help him bear the people’s load.

To make this help both fitting and useful, Moses is told to choose the men himself (Numbers 11:16). The people were too angry, restless, and unstable to be trusted with the choice. Moses must be satisfied with the selection so he will not later complain about it. He is to choose seventy men, matching the number of souls who went down into Egypt. They must be men he knows to be elders, meaning wise and experienced men. Those who had already served well as rulers of thousands and hundreds (Exodus 18:25) are now promoted to a better rank. They must be real elders, not just men with a title, but men who actually do the work.

We also read of seventy elders who went up with Moses to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1), but that was only for that one event. These men were appointed for ongoing service. In later years, the Jewish Sanhedrin, their highest court, was made up of seventy men. Our Lord seems to have had this in mind when he chose seventy disciples to help the apostles (Luke 10).

God also promises to equip these men for the task. If they were not fit for the work, he would make them fit, because otherwise they might hinder Moses instead of helping him (Numbers 11:17). Moses had spoken too boldly to God, yet God does not cut off fellowship with him. God bears with us a great deal, and we must bear with one another. He says, in effect, that he will come down and speak with Moses when Moses is calmer. He will take some of the same spirit of wisdom, godliness, and courage that was on Moses and put it on them.

This does not mean Moses will have less of the Spirit because others share in it, or that the others will become equal to him. Moses still remains unmatched (Deuteronomy 34:10). But they will receive enough of a governing spirit for their place, and a spirit of prophecy to prove that God truly called them, since Israel was ruled as a theocracy, a nation directly governed by God. This teaches us that those whom God uses in any work, he also equips for it. If a person is not qualified in some measure, he should not think he has been truly called. It also reminds us that every good gift comes from God, the Father of lights.

Second, even the desires of the complaining people will be met, so that every mouth may be stopped. They are told to sanctify themselves (Numbers 11:18), that is, to prepare themselves to meet God in a way that will show both mercy and judgment. “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel” (Amos 4:12). God says, or rather threatens, that they will have all the meat they want. For a whole month they will not only be fed, but feasted, with meat, in addition to their daily manna. If they have no better control of their appetites than they have shown so far, they will grow sick of it (Numbers 11:19-20). They will eat it until it comes out of their nostrils and becomes disgusting to them.

This shows the emptiness of the pleasures of the senses. They can make us tired, but they cannot truly satisfy us. Spiritual pleasures are different. As this world passes away, so do its sinful desires (1 John 2:17). What people greedily crave for a moment can soon become repulsive to them. It also shows how ugly gluttony and drunkenness are. They force the body beyond what it should bear and turn what should be health into sickness. These sins punish themselves, though that is not the only judgment they bring. And it shows how right it is for God to make loathsome to men the very thing they inordinately longed for. God could make them hate meat as much as they had hated manna.

Moses then objects that such a promise seems impossible to fulfill (Numbers 11:21-22). His question is much like the disciples’ later question, “Where can a man get enough bread to feed these people?” (Mark 8:4). Some try to excuse Moses and say he was only asking how the supply would come. But his words still sound too much like doubt and distrust of God. He points to the size of the people as if the God who gave bread to them all could not also provide meat. He thinks of meat from beasts or fish, since those are large sources of food, not realizing that even birds would be enough. God does not see as man sees, and his thoughts are higher than ours. Moses also points to the great appetite of the people, asking how it could be enough for them. Even strong believers sometimes struggle to trust God when outward circumstances look against them. It is hard to believe against hope when all second causes, all visible means, seem to say otherwise. Moses himself could hardly keep from saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” when that was the common complaint around him. This was weakness in him.

God gives a brief but complete answer: “Has the Lord’s hand become too short?” (Numbers 11:23). If Moses had remembered all the mighty works of the Most High, he would not have raised these doubts. God reminds him of those works, since this objection really questioned divine power, the same power Moses had often seen, and even served as its instrument. Had God not sent the plagues on Egypt, divided the sea, brought water from the rock, and rained bread from heaven? Had that power failed? Was God weaker now than before, or tired of what he had done?

Whatever our unbelieving hearts may suggest, God’s hand is not short. Nothing can limit his power except his own will, and with him nothing is impossible. The hand that measures the waters, marks off the heavens (Isaiah 40:12), and holds the winds in his grasp (Proverbs 30:4) is not short. And it has not become short over time. He is as strong as ever. He does not faint or grow weary. That truth is enough to silence our mistrust when means fail us. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God brings Moses back to this first truth and teaches him again the ancient name of God, the Lord God Almighty. Then he puts the matter to the test: Moses will see whether God’s word comes true or not.

This shows that God values his word above all his name, in the sense that his works always match what he says. When God speaks, it is done.