The Lord spoke with Moses concerning his need for help in leading the people. While Moses had been a great leader, the people numbered over 600,000 men plus women and children. Some estimate over 3,000,000 people were included in Israel. God had Moses to call the seventy elders to the tabernacle, and the cloud descended while the Spirit put the same anointing upon them as He has placed on Moses. As he did, they began to prophesy. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, were not at the tabernacle, but began to prophesy among the people. When Moses’ assistant heard this, he implored Moses to stop them. Moses’ response was surprising:
29 Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
The people had asked for meat, and God was now going to give them their desire. After the interlude concerning the appointment of elders, the passage turns its attention back to their request. God sent quail to hover above the ground for a few miles around the camp. He said that He would provide them more meat for a month than they could eat. They went out and gathered a minimum of a homer of quail. This equaled 55 gallons of quail per person. They ate, then God sent a plague on them for giving in to their cravings. Moses called the place Kibroth Hattaavah, which means “graves of craving.” Then they moved to Hazeroth.
God knew that Moses would need help as a leader with the multitude he was to lead. No man can handle that sheer number of subjects alone. While they had appointed leaders in Israel before, they now had seventy who were anointed by God to help carry Moses’ load. Today’s church needs lay leadership that extends the pastoral ministry in meaningful ways. It takes more than one person to grow and lead a church! The quail came as a supposed answer to prayer. However, the gift became a curse, as the Lord observed the craving, or lust, that they people had for the meat. God judged them and many died as a result of their lust. Two things speak to us from this passage: leadership is a team effort, and craving can negatively shift our focus from worshipping the true God.
Devoted To You 