But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’!  Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?”  The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?  Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.  Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. 

Numbers 11:21-25

During the Exodus we see a remarkable event foreshadowing God’s release of the Holy Spirit during the Pentecost described in Acts 2.  It is an amazing event where God takes a portion of the Holy Spirit from Moses and distributes Him among seventy elders at the tent of meeting, and two other men who remained in the camp, and they all prophesied for a brief time.  God anointed them with the Holy Spirit and people noticed their change and attributed their change to God’s holy hand on them.

The brief event is imbedded in a larger account of God’s people complaining about food, God hearing their complaints and responding by granting their request but doing so in judgment.  God anoints some into His holy service and punishes others by granting their request.  When might an answered prayer be a form of punishment?  The question is worthy of contemplation.  Let’s take a closer look at the passage.

Shortly after leaving Mount Sinai heading for the Promised Land, led by “the rabble among them” (see Numbers 11:4), God’s people began to complain about their food.  They complained so much that Moses approached God on their behalf.  God was angry.  He instructed Moses to bring 70 of the elders with him to the tent of meeting, and He would provide an unnatural number of quail for the people to eat.  God said,

You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you – because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”  Numbers 11:19-20

Moses questioned God.  He asked how God could possibly provide enough quail for over 600,000 people for a month?  God answered,

“Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”  Numbers 11:23

God’s question suggests the answer.  God is all powerful.  God’s power surpasses understanding and imagination.  God’s power is without limit.  It’s like when the angel appeared to Mary explaining how she would soon become pregnant, the angel said,

And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  Luke 1:36-37

God has the power to open barren wombs.  God has the power to produce and provide as many quail as He desires exactly when He desires.  God has the power to accomplish His will, whatever that may be.

After promising what would happen, God delivered.  Numbers continues saying,

Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on the ground.  So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.  But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.  So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.  From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.  Numbers 11:31-35

God judged and punished the people “who had the craving” (Numbers 11:34) which was apparently “the rabble among them” (Numbers 11:4).

Between the complaint and the provision, we see a remarkable account of God apportioning some of Moses’ anointing of the Holy Spirit among 70 of the elders.  The account sounds like that certain Pentecost described in Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  Acts 2:1-4

Over a thousand years earlier the following happened:

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.  Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp.  And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”  And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”  But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”  And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.  Numbers 11:24-30

God took some of the Holy Spirit that was on Moses and spread Him around the 70, and they prophesied.  Two men who were still in the camp also received the Holy Spirit and prophesied.  Moses’ response is beautiful.  He says,

“Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”  Numbers 11:29

How beautiful would it be if everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit?

In Numbers 11 we see God promising to provide, His anointing of individuals, and His miraculous provision far exceeding natural expectations, vision and imagination.  It is an amazing snapshot of God’s holy grace, and how He hears our cries for help and responds both physically and spiritually, and beyond that, it provides remarkable foreshadowing to God’s unleashing of the Holy Spirit at that certain Pentecost described in Acts 2.  Sovereign God, the holy Creator of the universe who breathes the breath of life and has power beyond our ability to imagine, hears our prayers and responds.

But here He responds in judgment.  Exodus and Numbers each contain accounts of God providing quail to His people during the exodus.  In Exodus, shortly after they miraculously crossed the parted sea, long before reaching Mount Sinai, God’s people complained and God provided water (see Exodus 15:27), manna (see Exodus 16:13-21), and quail (see Exodus 16:13).  God’s provision of quail was a blessing in response to their complaints.  In Numbers, after camping at Mount Sinai for a year and receiving the Law, God’s people left Mount Sinai and started their journey to the Promised Land, and shortly after leaving they complained about their food.  God provided quail, but He did so in judgment, and the people who led the rebellious complaints were killed (see Numbers 11:4 and 34).  God answered their prayer by giving them what they desired, but He did so in judgment. 

What caused the difference?  Both times God heard their cries, both times their cries were essentially the same, but one time God responded with blessing and the next time He responded with judgment.  What changed?  The two events were separated by God’s provision of the Law. 

As Jesus says, those to whom much is given, much is required (see Luke 12:48), and God gave them His holy Law, He showed His presence through the cloud that descended on the tent of meeting and the pillar that guided their way and through His visible anointing of Moses and the 70 elders, and by His daily miraculous provision, yet they did not live up to the requirements.  They were given much, they were continuously blessed, and this led to their death.  This is why Paul says the Law kills.  Paul writes,

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are qualified of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our qualification is from God, who has made us qualified to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  2 Corinthians 3:4-6

He continues writing,

Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory?  2 Corinthians 3:7-8

God’s people of the exodus saw God’s glory.  They were given remarkable access to Him, and guidance by Him, and daily provision.  How much more has God given us?  He gives His Holy Spirit to everyone who believes in Christ Jesus and who submit to Him as Lord.  We have free access to His holy word in a variety of translations.  We have His continuous provision and blessing in abundance.  Like God’s people of the exodus, we have been and are continuously blessed, and we know that to whom much is given, much is required, yet we regularly fail. 

At what point does God choose to answer our prayers as punishing judgment?

So, there’s that, and there is also this amazing account of God’s miraculous provision and His anointing of the Holy Spirit and calling His people into His service, and it is all blended in a single chapter of the Book of Numbers.  Please know that through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God is with you and He is able to do far more than we can ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20).  May you bow before Christ Jesus and receive His anointing, and His blessing, and His abundant life, and all His promises, and may you serve as His disciple in everything you do.  Amen.