46.q. “Wilderness” – 10.w. “The anger of the LORD blazed hotly”

 

Num 11:10  Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

The childish weeping of the people not only angered the LORD; it also displeased Moses. This frustration drove Moses to God, and he complained that he could never meet the needs of so many people. Moses responded to God the way many of us do in a time of trial. He essentially said, “God, here I am serving You. Why did You bring this upon me?” It’s easy to say God did not bring this upon Moses – a carnal and ungrateful people did. Yet, though God did not directly afflict Moses with this, He ultimately allowed it. God allowed this for the same reason God allows any affliction – to compel us to trust in Him more, to partner with Him in overcoming obstacles, and to love and praise Him more through our increased dependence on Him and the greater deliverance He brings. For these reasons and more, God sometimes appoints affliction for His people. Understanding that the job of leading Israel was too big for Moses was good. It could lead him to rely on God, and not try to do the work apart from God. Moses could not bear all these people alone; God will do it in him and through him. In a sense, God wanted Moses to see his wretchedness – his inability to do what God called him to do in his own strength. As the Apostle Paul later learned, God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. (Guzik)

Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,…. So general was their lusting after flesh, and their discontent for want of it; and so great their distress and uneasiness about it, that they wept and cried for it, and so loud and clamorous, that Moses heard the noise and outcry they made every man in the door of his tent: openly and publicly, were not ashamed of their evil and unbecoming behaviour, and in order to excite and encourage the like temper and disposition in others. The anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; because of their ingratitude to him, their contempt of the manna he had provided for them, and their hankering after their poor fare in Egypt, and for which they had endured so much hardship and ill usage, and for the noise and clamour they now made, Moses also was displeased; with the people on the same account, and with the Lord also for laying and continuing so great a burden upon him, as the care of this people. (Gill)

Do you ever find yourself complaining because of wanting something you don’t have or wanting more of something you do have? There are always things of this world that will entice us to covet them. There will be times that we aren’t tempted by it and other times out of the blue we are just acting childish before God with our selfish desire(s). We are told to make our requests to Go, but let us be sure they are in line with His will and purpose and our hearts are not seeking worldly pleasure over service to God.

4.y. Have I any help in me?

Job 6:8  “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?

Numbers 11:14-15    I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me.  If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

1 Kings 19:4   But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Jonah 4:3  Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Psalms 32:4  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Isaiah 48:10-13    Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.  For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.  “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.  My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.

Affliction has a way of wearing us down to a place so void of hope that we seek God to just put us out of our misery.  It is not as though we are the only ones who have felt this way or have been afflicted.  The truth is many before us and many after us will experience affliction, this place where we are so over-burdened that our searching for God is hard if not almost impossible.

In the plans and purposes of God, we are allowed to experience and walk through affliction.   It can be to draw us out of sinful path or to draw us into a much deeper and closer walk with Him.  The path of affliction strips away the glossy veneer of this world’s false promises and our dependence on them.  It takes away the lure it has and exposes it for what it is.  Affliction will peel away the skin covering every nerve of our being and leave us wanting nothing this world has to offer.

When all is stripped away it is when we no longer hang on to the temporary things of this world and look only to Jesus Christ.  It is in Him that we find comfort to our hearts deep in our souls.  It is unpleasant but so glorious to have been afflicted and stripped of that which pulls us away from Jesus Christ.  Only those who have experienced this type of affliction can tell of its blessed effect in and on their lives.

I can tell you that affliction without having Jesus Christ in your life leaves you with no hope but can lead you to Hope in Him.  Affliction with Jesus Christ will increase your hope and take you on deeper paths of worship, honor, and glory for Him. Refined in the Furnace of Affliction.