The Dream of Moses
When I was a teenager, one day I was hanging out with my friends at the mall, and I was filling out this form to win a new car. (We’ve all done that before, right?) You know there’s always those new cars at the mall, and you can win them for free — you just have to write down a lot of information. So that’s what I was doing, and then suddenly this mall-walker approached me and he says, “Son, what are you doing?”
I said, “I’m trying to win this car.”
He said, “Well did you read the fine print?!”
And I wasn’t very smart, but I was respectful, so I said: “No sir, I did not.”
And then, with a look of contempt on his face, he said, “And that is what is wrong with your generation!” And he turned around and mall-walked off.
And I’ve never entered another sweepstakes in my life. True story. What the man said landed. I don’t have time to read the fine print (who wants to do that?), but I also don’t want to be what’s wrong with my generation, so I just leave the whole thing alone.
But that’s not our approach to the Old Testament! Like the apostle Paul says, we believe that everything here has been written for our instruction, even the fine print, and that’s what we’re gonna look at today. And I’ll go ahead and tell you it’s not pretty. In just two chapters here, Chapters 11 and 12 — there are three different complaints; God’s anger is mentioned four times; and people die with food in their mouths.
The fine print is bad. It shows us a nation in decline, but that’s not what it would seem like at the end of Chapter 10. There’s a stark contrast in these chapters I want you to see: there’s the shiny new car on one hand, then there’s the fine print on the other hand, and then there’s what it means for us.
And that’s the outline for this sermon. If you like outlines, I’m going to call these movements. There are three movements we’re going to track in this story:
See the shiny new car
Read the fine print
Take something home
Father, thank you for your Word and for this gathering. We ask now for you to bless the unfolding of your word. Let there be light! In Jesus’s name, amen.
1. See the shiny new car
Say you’re strolling through the Old Testament, in the Book of Numbers, and you come upon the end of Chapter 10. In verse 11, we read that Israel is finally, actually leaving Mount Sinai. The first ten chapters have been preparing for this, but now it’s happening. That cloud that is the manifestation of God’s presence begins to move, and verse 13 says, “at the command of the Lord by Moses” the people follow. And they follow in a certain order. The tribe of Judah is first in line.
Judah’s Prominence
We begin to see in Numbers the emerging prominence of Judah, and it’s what we’d expect by now if we remember the Book of Genesis. If you remember, in Genesis 49, when Jacob blesses his 12 sons, he gives this amazing blessing to Judah. He says,
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Genesis 49:10).
Judah is special in God’s plan. This is the tribe that King David will be from, and eventually this is the tribe Jesus is from. Jesus is the Lion from the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), and we see Judah’s importance start to play out in Numbers. Judah is first.
Abrahamic Promise
But not only that, look at Hobab in verse 29. Hobab is Moses’s brother-in-law, which means he was a Midianite (a Gentile). But look what Moses says to him in verse 29:
“We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’”
Bible quiz: Where did God first say he’d give this land to Israel? What book of the Bible?
Answer: Genesis. This is God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:7. Abraham was in the land of Canaan and God said to him, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Moses makes a direct quote of that promise. He knows about it. He says, verse 29:
“We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to Israel.”
Moses says this again in verse 32:
“And if you do go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you.”
So get this: Moses is expecting that the Lord will do them good, and he’s saying to this Gentile that if he sticks with Israel, God’s blessing on Israel will be a blessing to him. Moses seems to think that through Israel the Gentiles will be blessed.
Bible quiz: Where does Moses get that idea? What book of the Bible?
Answer: Genesis. Again, this is in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12! God told Abraham that he would bless him and make him a blessing. All the families of the earth — Gentiles — would be blessed through him.
And that is happening here! It’s like Moses has taken Genesis as his script, and he’s just checking off the boxes. The blessings are flowing. God is doing it!
This is a shiny, new car, and nothing makes that more obvious than verses 35 and 36. The fulfillment has begun, and you can kind of hear a good movie theme song in the background.
And whenever the ark set out, Moses said,
“Arise, O Yahweh, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” 36 And when it rested, he said, “Return, O Yahweh, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”
This is epic! Count me in! I’m ready to sign up and be part of this thing. Let’s go!
But wait a minute.
There’s some fine print. This is the second movement.
2. Read the fine print
And I want you to see that it really does function like fine print in the storyline. Look back at Chapter 10, verse 12. I want you to see this. Chapter 10, verse 12.
Verse 12,
“…and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.”
This is their departure/arrival. They leave Sinai and settle in Paran. Got it?
Now turn over a couple of pages to Chapter 12, verse 16. Chapter 12:16,
“After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.”
This is when they get to where we’ve already been told they end up. Chapter 12, verse 16 tells us the same thing that Chapter 10, verse 12 tells us. The people go from Sinai to Paran. From the high view, we already know this from Chapter 10; then Chapter 12 repeats it — so what’s the point of Chapters 11 and 12 in-between? Well it’s the fine print. The details.
Three Complaints to Come
And this is how it starts, 11:1,
“And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes…”
The Jurassic Park theme song is over and this is not good, but we need to pace ourselves here. This is the first of three complaints we read about in Chapters 11 and 12. For each complaint,
God responds in anger, Moses prays, and the place where it happened is given a name.
So we’re gonna track these complaints by the names. If you like to think in order, think of it like this: Sinai is where they’re starting from; Paran is where they arrive. And there are three stops in-between: Taberah, Kibroth-hattaavah, Hazeroth. (And those are all the Hebrew names transliterated in English, but for the meaning in English, these three places mean Burning, Craver’s Graveyard, Separation — and I’m gonna talk about them like that.) First …
Complaint #1 — Burning (11:1–3)
We don’t have too many details here, just that the people complained about their “misfortunes” — and that word for misfortunes is actually the Hebrew word that means “evil.”
That’s how the Israelites were thinking about their hardships. They complained about the evil they had experienced, and immediately, if we’re reading carefully, we’re supposed to pick up on a contrast. Because in the previous chapter, just a few verses earlier, we read the word “good” three times. Moses says Yahweh has promised good to Israel, and with whatever good Yahweh does to Israel, they’ll do good to Hobab. It’s all good according to Moses. That’s God’s heart.
But then the people are complaining about evil. Hardship. Misfortune. And we don’t know exactly how they were complaining — maybe they were commiserating in small groups, maybe a guy was having a private conversation with his wife, maybe they were alone in their car in traffic — we don’t know, but however they did it, it was hatred of God.
They considered their situation to be evil, and they blamed God for it. And God heard it. (Because, heads up, God hears everything.)
And his fierce anger was kindled. In response, he sent fire among the people and burned up the outlying parts of the camp, which implies that if you were hanging out in the outlying parts of the camp, you were consumed by the fire. And this terrified the people. There’s fire around them! Is it gonna stop? Is it coming in?
So they cried to Moses; Moses prayed to the Lord; the fire died down; the place got its name.
All of this happens in three verses. Pretty straightforward. There’s not a lot of details on purpose.
Because this first complaint is meant to be a kind of preview for what’s to come. In case we got too excited about the end of Chapter 10 and we think we’re gonna win a shiny new car — because it takes less than two weeks to get from Sinai to Canaan, we got this! — well Chapter 11 opens by thumping us between the eyes and says: Not two weeks, try 40 years. This is going to be bad, and the problem is not God; the problem is the people. That’s what this place, the Burning, tells us. But now let’s look at the second complaint.
Complaint #2 — Craver’s Graveyard (11:4–35)
This is kind of a spoiler alert, but this place is called Craver’s Graveyard. So good luck. There’s a lot of fine print here. I’ll be quick.
It starts with “the rabble.” I want you to see that word in Chapter 11, verse 4. Find that for just a second. 11:4 — the word “rabble.”
Verse 4,
“Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again …”
One question we need to answer is, “Who is this rabble?” — and I want you to see that this verse tells us they are different from the people of Israel. The King James Version actually translated the word as “mixed multitude.” These people would have been non-Israelites who came with Israel when they left Egypt. Another good translation of this word is “riffraff” — this is a negative group. They’ve tagged along with Israel and now they’re the ones who had the strong craving. But notice that it’s the people of Israel who complain.
So the riffraff at least influenced Israel, but it’s Israel who is whining, and it’s Israel who says, “Oh that we had meat to eat!” — And just a heads up, this gets really gross. The people say:
“We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
And it’s fascinating in this story, because right away in verse 7, as an aside, we’re told again what manna is. It’s like the writer is saying: Let me remind you about the stuff they’re complaining about.
And it’s all very positive. Manna’s appearance is like a bdellium — that’s a precious stone from the Garden of Eden; it’s incredibly versatile in terms of what you can make with it; it tastes like cake; and it falls from heaven. Verse 7 defends manna and it’s meant to be a correction to the complaint.
Because, first off, there was no free lunch in Egypt. That’s a lie. The only free food these people have ever experienced was the stuff that falls from heaven — and that’s another difference.
Look at the food mentioned from Egypt: fish, cucumber, melons, leeks, onions, garlic. One thing that all these food have in common is that they come from below. It’s not a coincidence. This is grave food. So Yahweh has been providing heavenly food that literally costs nothing — it falls down from heaven — but they’re craving grave food that will cost them their lives.
And Moses was done.
The people are weeping and whining, and verse 10 tells us that the “anger of the Lord blazed hotly.” And the ESV says Moses was “displeased.” And that’s not as strong as the original word here. The word behind “displeased” is again the Hebrew word for “evil.” Literally, the verse says “it was evil in the eyes of Moses.”
And Moses wants out, and he tells God starting in verse 11. And some readers take Moses’s words here as another complaint, but I think we should tread carefully in how we view Moses. He knows more about what’s going on here than we do. He’s God’s prophet, and God does not correct him here, but instead, God helps him.
See, the reason Moses is dejected is because he knows how this is going to play out. He knows the people haven’t learned anything. He knows they’re too evil to make it to the Promised Land — even if God gives them what they want. Because God says he will.
God says he’d send them meat, but down in verse 21, Moses knows that even with that provision, it won’t be enough for the people. God could empty the ocean for these people and it still won’t be enough. Their lust, like all lust, is insatiable. Always craving, never satisfied.
So Moses responds the way he does here because it’s certain he’s going to see these people die, and frankly, he can’t handle all that carnage by himself. He knows this thing is going down, and he just can’t bear that burden alone, and God seems to understand.
Because he tells Moses to choose 70 elders from the people; God will share his Spirit with them; and they’ll be able bear the burden with Moses. (And there’s a little story within the story that we’re gonna come back to, but for now skip to verse 31.)
God does indeed send meat — he dropped quail for them just outside the camp. And people who craved meat went out to get it, and as they were eating it, while the meat was still in their mouths, God’s anger was kindled, and he struck them all down. And the rest of the people buried them there, and the place got its name: Craver’s Graveyard.
Then they left there and came to a new place — and a new place meant a new complaint — complaint #3.
Complaint #3 — Separation (12:1–16)
We’re still in the fine print, and one detail to notice about the previous two complaints is that God’s judgment took place just outside the camp — The burning was the outlying parts of the camp (11:1); the cravers gathered the quail outside the camp and were spread out (11:31-32).
Remember how the camp was set up: the tabernacle, God’s presence, was at the center; there was Moses and Aaron, and the priests, and then the Levites, and then the tribes of Israel, and then the outer camp.
Well, all the mess was happening out here for the first two complaints, but look at Complaint #3, Chapter 12, verse 1:
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. [Because, again, heads up, the Lord hears everything.]
And if we keep reading, we see that God defends Moses, and he says of Moses the most honoring, commending words that he’s said about any man besides Jesus. Moses is the meekest man on the face of the earth; he’s been faithful in all of God’s house; God speaks with him face to face.
We learn very quickly that Miriam and Aaron’s complaint about Moses is unjustified; God’s anger is kindled once again; Miriam is struck with leprosy; Moses prays; Miriam is separated from the people outside the camp; they waited for her seven days and after she was brought back in, they leave, and the place gets its name: Separation.
There’s a lot of details we could pursue in this complaint, but the main thing to see is where the complaint is coming from. This is not outside the camp, but this was about as close to the center as you can get. Aaron was the priest; Miriam, Moses’s sister, was a prophetess (she was a singer, a female vocalist). These are two people upfront. They’re leaders. And even they complain.
This is the nail in the coffin about the condition of these people. From the outside even now to the inside, it’s a mess. It’s dysfunctional and toxic — as readers, our hope is all but lost.
And there’s a kind of whiplash. We go from the shiny new car and lots of hope, to suddenly we find ourselves in these details, bogged down into something we just want to get out of — like Moses did.
Personally (and this was new for me — I’ve always been more of an Abraham-guy than a Moses-guy), but I felt sorry for Moses this past week. I felt heavy with him. I would not want his calling … and if y’all were like Israel here I wouldn’t want my calling.
But here’s the thing: you’re not. We are not like Israel. And this is what we take home from this story.
3. Take Something Home
Let’s go back to Chapter 11 when Moses appoints the 70 elders. There’s a mini-story in verses 24–30 that I want to show you.
It’s an amazing scene: God sends his Spirit on these elders and they start prophesying — and the prophesying here was word-ministry. They spoke words of guidance. They were confirming that they can help Moses instruct the people. And there are these two guys who apparently kept prophesying after the others had stopped. Their names were Eldad and Medad, but their names mean “God-Loved” and “Beloved.” Which, in light of what we’ve been seeing, these are positive names. It’s a glimmer of something good.
Well they’re prophesying, and one guy hears them and runs to tell on them. And then, suddenly, there emerges a new character in Numbers, a man named Joshua. Joshua is Moses’s assistant, his disciple, and he says, “Mr. Moses, stop these guys.”
God-Loved and Beloved were doing word-ministry, and Joshua thought they were undermining Moses’ authority, but actually they were serving it. Moses is not concerned. He says this is a good thing. Don’t be jealous for me. He says, verse 29:
“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
All of sudden, piercing through this dark story there’s light. And it leads us to imagine a different kind of people, under a different kind of leader, perhaps one whose name is Joshua.
See, there’s no doubt this little story is meant to be a marker of hope. It’s a foreshadowing of the New Covenant community. Because what Moses wishes does happen. Even later in the Old Testament storyline, God speaks through the prophet Joel about this new covenant community, and he says,
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit. (Joel 2:28–29)
So the Holy Spirit is not just for Moses, and just for the 70, but the Holy Spirit is in everyone who then has the ability to do word ministry. This is all true of us right now.
Right now, every Christian — every member of this new covenant community — can take this Book in your hands and you can go to any other member in this community and you can open this Book and help them. You can encourage them with God’s word. You can show them what God says.
Get this: what we have church was a dream for Moses.
We don’t have to worry about God’s anger toward us, or about him striking us down, because God has already done that.
And I’m not talking about this place called the Burning, or the Craver’s Graveyard, or Separation, but I’m talking about the Place of a Skull — Golgotha.
At that place, God’s anger burned hotly and he poured out fire, as it were, on our sin. On our complaining and craving, God poured out his judgment — but it wasn’t judgment on us, it was judgment on Jesus as our substitute.
We are not like faithless Israel because our sins have been atoned for, once and for all, by the death of Jesus Christ. And he has given us his Spirit to believe. He keeps us. Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost, the whole way — and this morning we rest in him. We worship him. We give him thanks.
That’s what we do at this Table.
The Table
At this Table, we as Christians come here to remember what Jesus has done for us. Together, as a brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the new covenant community, we say Jesus, thank you. Jesus, you are strong and kind and we trust you.
