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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
the disobedience of Israel, and hearing their murmurings against his
commands, and against God himself. He declared before the Lord that
he had rather die than see Israel, by their perverseness, drawing down
judgments upon themselves, while the enemies of God were rejoicing
in their destruction. In his distress he said, I am not able to bear all
this responsibility alone, because it is too heavy for me.
The Lord directed Moses to gather before him seventy of the elders,
whom he knew to be the elders of the people. They were not to be
those only in advanced years, but men of dignity, sound judgment, and
experience, who were qualified to be judges, or officers. “And bring
them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there
with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there; and I will
take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and
they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it
not thyself alone. And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves
against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears
of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with
us in Egypt; therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye
shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor
twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils,
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and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have despised the Lord
which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we
forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, The people among whom I am,
are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them
flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds
be slain for them, to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be
gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto
Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether
my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”
Moses himself showed a manifest distrust of the power of God, for
which the Lord rebuked him. By this question of the Lord to Moses,
he was made to understand that nothing was impossible with the great
Ruler of the universe. He reproved Moses for his forgetfulness of his
miracles. He who could divide the Red Sea, and bind the waters that
they were like a wall on either side of Israel, as they passed through
on dry land, and could rain them bread from Heaven, and bring them
water out of the flinty rock, could provide meat to supply the host of
Israel.