Quails
15
“And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord,
and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them
round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and
spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it
unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that when the spirit rested
upon them they prophesied, and did not cease.” This prophetic gift
rested upon the judges and elders to establish the confidence of the
people in them, and to be a sign that God had chosen them to unite
their authority with Moses, and assist him in the work of subduing the
murmurings of the people during their sojourn in the wilderness, and
thus ease the task upon Moses.
“And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails
from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey
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on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round
about the camp, and, as it were, two cubits high upon the face of the
earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and
all the next day, and they gathered the quails. He that gathered least
gathered ten homers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves
round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord
smote the people with a very great plague.”
In this instance the Lord gave the people that which was not for
their best good, because they would have it. They would not submit to
receive from the Lord those things which would prove for their good.
They gave themselves up to seditious murmurings against Moses, and
against the Lord, because they did not receive those things which
would prove an injury to them. Their depraved appetites controlled
them, and God gave them flesh meats, as they desired, and he let them
suffer the results of gratifying their lustful appetites. Burning fevers
cut down very large numbers of the people. Those who had been most
guilty in their murmurings were slain as soon as they tasted the meat
for which they had lusted. If they had submitted to have the Lord
select their food for them, and had been thankful, and satisfied for
food which they could eat freely of without injury, they would not
have lost the favor of God, and then been punished for their rebellious
murmurings, by great numbers of them being slain.
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