B'midbar (Numbers) 11 & 12

Numbers 11

1 But the people began complaining about their hardships to ADONAI. Sounds kind of like us, doesn't it? :-/ Nothing wrong with pouring your heart and frustrations out to YAH though, but when we start complaining and are ungrateful for all He has done for us, well, you can only imagine why He acts the way He does in the following verses.

When ADONAI heard it, his anger flared up, so that fire from ADONAI broke out against them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. :-0 Oh my....

2 Then the people cried to Moshe, Moshe prayed to ADONAI, and the fire abated. Praise YAH for Moses!!

3 That place was called Tav'erah [burning] because ADONAI's fire broke out against them.

4 Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life again, sounds like us. We want things to be easy for us. And when they are not we complain and grumble and end up making life miserable to the people around us. I am guilty as charged. I praise Him for the wonderful gift of repentance though. \o/ ...
Would it be considered greed if we were like these folks and asked for an easier life? I mean compare them to us now in 2009, we have got it made 100% even if we have to live paycheck to paycheck and have to get our food from a food bank. So what? You have food, right? Begin praising the LORD. You live paycheck to paycheck? Well praise the LORD for that job each and every day because we all know one can lose a job faster than we think.
YAHWEH didn't save us to have an easy life. Several times in the New Testament Yeshua tells us we need to pick up our cross daily and follow Him.
; while the people of Isra'el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, "If only we had meat to eat! This shows they were just unhappy about the food already provided to them...tsk..tsk... :-)

5 We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt - it cost us nothing! -and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic! Mmmmm onions and garlic

6 But now we're withering away, we have nothing to look at but this man." Withering away? Really? Come on...a little over dramatic there aren't we?

7 The man, by the way, was like coriander seed and white like gum resin.

8 The people would go around gathering it and would grind it up in mills or pound it to paste with mortar and pestle. Then they would cook it in pots and make it into loaves that tasted like cakes baked with olive oil.

9 When the dew settled on the camp during the night, the man came with it.

10 Moshe heard the people crying, family after family, each person at the entrance to his tent; the anger of ADONAI flared up violently; and Moshe too was displeased. Even Moses was getting annoyed with his people...can't blame the fellow...I would have pulled all my hair out if I had to hear grownups whine and complain and grumble on this very long journey.

11 Moshe asked ADONAI, "Why are you treating your servant so badly? Why haven't I found favor in your sight, so that you put the burden of this entire people on me? Poor Moses...blaming himself like that :-(

12 Did I conceive this people? Was I their father, so that you tell me, 'Carry them in your arms, like a nurse carrying a baby, to the land you swore to their ancestors?'

13 Where am I going to get meat to give to this entire people? - because they keep bothering me with their crying and saying, 'Give us meat to eat!'

14 I can't carry this entire people by myself alone - it's too much for me!

15 If you are going to treat me this way, then just kill me outright! - please, if you have any mercy toward me! -and don't let me go on being this miserable!" The poor guy...I just want to reach out and hug him and let him know everything will be alright. YAH is in control.


16 ADONAI said to Moshe, "Bring me seventy of the leaders of Isra'el, people you recognize as leaders of the people and officers of theirs. Bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with you.

17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit which rests on you and put it on them. Then they will carry the burden of the people along with you, so that you won't carry it yourself alone.

18 "Tell the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; because you cried in the ears of ADONAI, "If only we had meat to eat! We had the good life in Egypt!" All right, ADONAI is going to give you meat, and you will eat it.

19 You won't eat it just one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days,

20 but a whole month! -until it comes out of your nose and you hate it! -because you have rejected ADONAI, who is here with you, and distressed him with your crying and asking, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'" You reap what you sow...they whined and carried on as if YAH had forgotten all about them and now they are going to have payback for their lack of faith and trust in the Divine.

21 But Moshe said, "Here I am with six hundred thousand men on foot, and yet you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!'

22 If whole flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would it be enough? If all the fish in the sea were collected for them, would even that be enough?"

23 ADONAI answered Moshe, "Has ADONAI's arm grown short? Now you will see whether what I said will happen or not!"


24 Moshe went out and told the people what ADONAI had said. Then he collected seventy of the leaders of the people and placed them all around the tent.

25 ADONAI came down in the cloud, spoke to him, took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied -then but not afterwards.

26 There were two men who stayed in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad, and the Spirit came to rest on them. They were among those listed to go out to the tent, but they hadn't done so, and they prophesied in the camp.

27 A young man ran and told Moshe, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!"


28 Y'hoshua, the son of Nun, who from his youth up had been Moshe's assistant, answered, "My lord, Moshe, stop them!"

29 But Moshe replied, "Are you so zealous to protect me? I wish all of ADONAI's people were prophets! I wish ADONAI would put his Spirit on all of them!" AMEN!!! But in the same sense...YAH has poured out His spirit among many of His followers today...they just don't realize it. :-)

30 Moshe and the leaders of Isra'el went back into the camp;


31 and ADONAI sent out a wind which brought quails from across the sea and let them fall near the camp, about a day's trip away on each side of the camp and all around it, covering the ground to a depth of three feet. Can you imagine walking through 3 feet of quail? That's what about knee to mid thigh length? Ewwww....lol.

32 The people stayed up all that day, all night and all the next day gathering the quails - the person gathering the least collected ten heaps; then they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

33 But while the meat was still in their mouth, before they had chewed it up, the anger of ADONAI flared up against the people, and ADONAI struck the people with a terrible plague.
Wow... I noticed it doesnt say of the people thanked him or not for the meat, so were they satisfied? Ungrateful? In disbelief? Either way, YAH was just mad at the whole ordeal and how it turned out.


34 Therefore that place was named Kivrot-HaTa'avah [graves of greed], because there they buried the people who were so greedy. May we not become buried in our own 'graves of greed' in this life.

35 From Kivrot-HaTa'avah the people traveled to Hatzerot, and they stayed at Hatzerot.




Numbers 12

1 Miryam and Aharon began criticizing Moshe on account of the Ethiopian (Cushite) woman he had married, for he had in fact married an Ethiopian (Cushite) woman.

2 They said, "Is it true that ADONAI has spoken only with Moshe? Hasn't he spoken with us too?"ADONAI heard them. Yahweh heard them and He hears us as well. He hears when we think He has forgotten us and we are doubled over in pain, in grief, in despair. He hears us when we praise His name and when we curse His name. He hears us.

3 Now this man Moshe was very humble, more so than anyone on earth. O' LORD, make me have the humility like your servant Moses....


4 Suddenly ADONAI told Moshe, Aharon and Miryam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting."The three of them went out.

5 ADONAI came down in a column of cloud and stood at the entrance to the tent. He summoned Aharon and Miryam, and they both went forward.

6 He said, "Listen to what I say: when there is a prophet among you, I, ADONAI, make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream.

7 But it isn't that way with my servant Moshe. He is the only one who is faithful in my entire household. Are we the only ones serving GOD in our households? Don't lose hope!!! You must continue on in the faith or else satan will have his way. Keep your faith, keep your prayer life, keep faithful to church, keep faithful to the One who set you free. Even if your family mocks you, they really aren't mocking you, they are mocking GOD.

8 With him I speak face to face and clearly, not in riddles; he sees the image of ADONAI. So why weren't you afraid to criticize my servant Moshe?"

9 The anger of ADONAI flared up against them, and he left. I think we get to see YAH's patience here in the book of Numbers. :-) Yes He is all loving...but He knew with the fall of Adam, we all weren't going to be the brightest crayons in the box. :-) I praise Him for His long suffering towards us...


10 But when the cloud was removed from above the tent, Miryam had tzara'at (leprosy), as white as snow. Aharon looked at Miryam, and she was as white as snow.

11 Aharon said to Moshe, "Oh, my lord, please don't punish us for this sin we committed so foolishly.

12 Please don't let her be like a stillborn baby, with its body half eaten away when it comes out of its mother's womb!"

13 Moshe cried to ADONAI, "Oh God, I beg you, please, heal her!" Moses reminds me of us...when we hear of family members stricken with cancer and how we beg YAH to heal them. It hurt Moses to see the one he loved with a possible deadly disease, just like it hurts us. It's nice to know Moses was human. :-)

14 ADONAI answered Moshe, "If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn't she hide herself in shame for seven days? So let her be shut out of the camp for seven days; after that, she can be brought back in."

15 Miryam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not travel until she was brought back in. Obviously YAH had mercy on her and let her live. What a blessing that those folks waited for her as they could have easily just up and left to go to the next destination.

16 Afterwards, the people went on from Hatzerot and camped in the Pa'ran Desert.

I hope everyone's week is off to a good start. Mine is. :-) I am so thankful to be able to see another morning, another sunset.

Last week our roof got fixed. The gentleman was here for 3 hours. He cut these huge monster tree branches off the roof (they are still sitting in our backyard as we haven't called a tree removal service to come haul them away) and then proceeded to patch up the main 3 holes he found.

Total cost: $450. Not bad...not bad at all I say.

This past Sunday I was able to go to church and it was so nice...just the breath of fresh air I needed. We had a guest speaker from Deer Lodge TN and I followed him on the devotion, but when it came time to his message in the church service, I was just kind of like 'huh'? Not really understanding what he meant...oh well..

There was fellowship meal afterwards and I yakked with some sisters.

One of the sisters invited me and my hubby to have dinner at their house soon (maybe spring break when hubby has off) and I asked him if he would be okay with that and he said he doesn't mind.

The Yoders are such great folks. I think Bro. Yoder is one of the few most humblest men I have ever met. :-)

Well my beloved should be home soon from his evening class and I would like to get some more Bible reading in, so I will let ya'll go.

GOD be with you all this week,

Dawn