MOSES’ PRAYER AND THE PEOPLE’S COMPLAINING.
Numbers 10:35-36, Numbers 11:1-3.
Moses’ prayer (NUMBERS 10:35-36) encourages us to begin and end every day, and every journey, with prayer.
When he says, “Rise up” (NUMBERS 10:35), it is not as if the LORD has been sleeping: for ‘Behold, He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps’ (cf. Psalm 121:4).
In the morning we pray that the LORD will ‘arise’ and go before us, and ‘scatter’ those who oppose His cause (cf. Psalm 68:1). But the ultimate rising up and scattering is fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 2:14).
Again, when he says, “Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel” (NUMBERS 10:36), it is not that He has left them: for He has promised, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee’ (cf. Hebrews 13:5).
In the evening, it is good to lie down assured of the LORD’s continuing presence with us: for ‘so He giveth His beloved sleep’ (cf. Psalm 127:2).
When the Ark of the Covenant comes to rest, this anticipates the presence of the LORD with His church at the end of the age (cf. Revelation 21:3).
“And the people were as complainers evil in the ears of the LORD,” begins NUMBERS 11:1. The people were ‘murmuring' against the Lord (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:10) - which became an ongoing problem.
“The LORD heard,” even if Moses did not: for the LORD ‘knoweth the secrets of the heart’ (cf. Psalm 44:21).
“And His anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and devoured at the extremity of the camp.”
This caused the people to cry out to Moses, who interceded for them (NUMBERS 11:2). In this Moses is a type of Christ, the Mediator between God and man (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5).
“And the fire subsided.” Just as it was not started by human hand, so it was not extinguished by human hand – showing that the LORD is soon intreated, even when our calamities are the consequence of our own sin.
As a commemoration of what happened there, that place became known as “Taberah” or ‘burning’: “because the fire of the LORD burnt among them” (NUMBERS 11:3). This highlights the danger of a complaining spirit.
