Sermon Central
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Problems
Contributed by Lou Nicholes on Nov 10, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: God helps Moses with his problems in leading the Israelites.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PASSAGE:
According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less that one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from your sight. Many Christians today live their lives in a fog. They allow a cupful of problems to cloud their vision and dampen their spirit. Anxiety, turmoil and defeat strangle their thoughts.
We see how the Lord helped Moses in a period of despair to solve two difficult problems:
1. How to pastor so many people. (vv. 16,17) - God commanded Moses to select seventy godly elders to assist him in the spiritual leadership of the people. At the heart of every problem is the problem in the heart and unless people’s hearts are changed by the Lord, their conduct will never change. These men gathered at the tabernacle and God gave them the power of the Holy Spirit so they could assist Moses in his work. Taking the same Spirit which was upon Moses, God put it upon them. The immediate sign of the Spirit resting upon these seventy men was that they prophesied (v. 25).
2. How to provide meat for all the people. (vv. 18-23, 31-35) - The Jews certainly weren’t going to slaughter their flocks because that would have left them destitute. By sending a strong wind God brought quail right into their camp. The Jews spent two days and a night capturing and killing the birds (v. 32). When God wants to judge people, He lets them have their own way (Rom. 1;24, 26, 28). “So, He gave them what they asked for, but He sent a plague along with it. The people began to devour the meat, happy that their craving was satisfied; but then God’s judgement struck and many of them died (v. 33)
APPLICATION:
Many lives are being “choked by the cares of this world” (Luke 8:14). But “God has not given us a spirit of power and love and discipline” (II Tim. 1:7). Lord help me to not live in a fog.
