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Terrible Grumblings of God’s People
237
Their Demands Become Rebellious
In terror the people begged Moses to plead with the Lord for
them. He did so, and the fire was quenched. But instead of leading
the survivors to be humble and repent, this fearful judgment seemed
only to increase their complaints. In all directions the people gath-
ered at the doors of their tents, weeping and lamenting. “The mixed
multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the
children of Israel also wept again and said, ‘Who will give us meat
to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the
cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but
now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this
manna before our eyes!’” Yet, despite the hardships, there was not a
weak, sickly one in all their tribes.
The heart of Moses sank. In his love for them, he had prayed that
his name might be blotted from the book of life rather than for them
to perish, and this was their response. They blamed him for all their
hardships and even their imaginary sufferings. In his distress he was
even tempted to distrust God. His prayer was almost a complaint:
“Why have You afflicted Your servant ... that You have laid the
burden of all these people on me? ... they weep ... saying, ‘Give us
meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all these people alone,
because the burden is too heavy for me.”
The Lord answered his prayer and directed him to appoint sev-
enty men who had good judgment and experience to share his re-
sponsibilities. Their influence would help put down rebellion, yet
serious evils would eventually result from their promotion. They
would never have been chosen if Moses had shown faith as strong
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as the displays of God’s power and goodness that he had seen. If
he had fully relied on God, the Lord would have continually guided
him and given him strength for every emergency.
Moses announced the appointment of the seventy elders. The
great leader’s instruction to these chosen men could well serve as a
model of judicial integrity for the judges and lawmakers of modern
times: “Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously
between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. You
shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as