From Sinai to Kadesh
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them unto the tabernacle of the congregation,” He said, “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.”
The Lord permitted Moses to choose for himself the most faithful
and efficient men to share the responsibility with him. Their influ-
ence would assist in holding in check the violence of the people, and
quelling insurrection; yet serious evils would eventually result from
their promotion. They would never have been chosen had Moses
manifested faith corresponding to the evidences he had witnessed of
God’s power and goodness. But he had magnified his own burdens and
services, almost losing sight of the fact that he was only the instrument
by which God had wrought. He was not excusable in indulging, in
the slightest degree, the spirit of murmuring that was the curse of
Israel. Had he relied fully upon God, the Lord would have guided him
continually and would have given him strength for every emergency.
Moses was directed to prepare the people for what God was about
to do for them. “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
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two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a
whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, 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?”
“The people, among whom I am,” exclaimed Moses, “are six
hundred thousand footmen; and Thou has 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?”
He was reproved for his distrust: “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?
thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or
not.”
Moses repeated to the congregation the words of the Lord, and
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