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From Eternity Past
Their Demands Become Rebellious
The people in terror besought Moses to entreat the Lord for them.
He did so, and the fire was quenched. But instead of leading the sur-
vivors to humiliation and repentance, this fearful judgment seemed
only to increase their murmurings. In all directions the people gathered
at the door of their tents, weeping and lamenting. “The mixed multi-
tude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also
wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the
fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons,
and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: but now our soul is dried
away: there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes.” Yet,
notwithstanding the hardships, there was not a feeble 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 that they
should perish, and this was their response. All their hardships, even
their imaginary sufferings, they charged upon him. In his distress he
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was tempted even to distrust God. His prayer was almost a complaint:
“Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant ... that Thou layest the
burden of all this people upon me? ... they weep, ... saying, Give
us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone,
because it is too heavy for me.”
The Lord hearkened to his prayer and directed him to summon
seventy men possessing sound judgment and experience to share the
responsibility with him. Their influence would assist in quelling insur-
rection, yet serious evils would eventually result from their promotion.
They would never have been chosen had Moses manifested faith cor-
responding to the evidences he had witnessed of God’s power and
goodness. Had he relied fully upon God, the Lord would have guided
him continually and given him strength for every emergency.
Moses announced the appointment of the seventy elders. The great
leader’s charge to these chosen men might well serve as a model of
judicial integrity for the judges and legislators of modern times: “Hear
the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every
man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not
respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the