Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

The Beginning of Complaints

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Beginning of Complaints

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Track: 18

Dictation Name: RR181J18

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Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we joyfully acknowledge how great and marvelous thou art. How manifold thy mercies and blessings, how good thou art to us who so often cannot be good to ourselves. Our God, we thank thee and we praise thee, and we come into thy presence rejoicing in all these things and more. We open wide our mouths that thou mightest fill them. We commit our ways unto thee that thou mightest guide them. Instruct us, O Lord, by thy Holy Spirit, and make us, in all things, a faithful and a thankful people. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is from Numbers 11:1-9, and our subject: The Beginning of Complaints. Numbers 11:1-9. The Beginning of Complaints. “And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the Lord burnt among them.” Taberah in Hebrew is “burning.”

“And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.”

When I was a boy, this was one of the most widely used texts in the Old Testament. I grew up hearing this preached again and again,because of its very great importance which is totally ignored, totally forgotten now. We’re going to spend five Sundays dealing with this, twice on verses 1 through 9. Today will simply be an introduction, and when we finish, you will appreciate why this is forgotten in our time, because it tells us a great deal about our age, that it does not see this text, the whole chapter as so critically important.

This episode occurs at a place called Taberah, or burning, because we are told that “there the fire of the Lord burnt among them.” Hebrews 12:29 tells us, “Our God is a consuming fire.” We are given no details concerning this fire. Since it consumes some who are in the uttermost parts of the camp, we must assume that it came out of the center, the sanctuary. Fire went out from God in judgment upon the people to destroy many of them.

The immediate cause of this judgment was the cry, “Who shall give us flesh to eat?” Israel had left Egypt with its livestock. This, they apparently did not want to use, and in a sense, you can say they needed to preserve most of it as breeding stock when they reached the Promised Land. They preferred, however, whining to God for a miracle to provide them with mean, even though God was daily providing them with manna, six days a week, at any rate.

The complaint began with a mixed multitude, and next week we’ll deal more with the significance of that, the foreigners and other Israelites who had left Egypt together. These foreigners were Egyptians and other peoples. Because they were less restrained, the aliens expressed the discontent first, but the blood Hebrews soon echoed it. In fact, we are told they felt so sorry for themselves, they wept. They wept in self-pity.

Now, John Knox was a man without self-pity. Ridley, who wrote the classic biography of him, and Ridley was no Calvinist by any stretch of the imagination, nonetheless said the remarkable thing about Knox was that he was a galley slave for some time. Now, I have a book, a relatively rare book, on the torments of Protestant slaves in French galleys. The galleys were naval vessels. Men were chained to an oar. This meant that they ate there, they defecated and urinated there, and could not move. A French naval galley ship could be smelled a few miles out at sea. It was one of the most horrifying experiences a man could go through, and as Ridley said, with no lack of admiration. It tells us a great deal about John Knox, that never once did he refer to the experience with any self-pity. Never. In fact, he was so bold that no one dared to be a chaplain on that ship, because he would correct them. He knew the mass, having been a priest, better than they did, and he knew the Bible the way the chaplains did, so he drove such people off the ship. Not a one could stay aboard when John Knox was there. No self-pity. Contrast that with these people whom God had so blessed, was daily blessing with manna and all they could do was to whine and complain. Knox said, in a sermon on the first temptation of Christ, in 1556, “I measure not the truth in favor of God by having or lacking of bodily necessities, but by the promise which he has made to me, as He himself is immutable, so is His word and promise constant.” That was John Knox. Israel had been delivered from slavery, and from an effort to destroy them as a people, all they could remember of Egypt was a wretched matter of diet.

According to Heroditus, Egypt fed the pyramid workers and no doubt all its enforced labor forces, radishes, onions, and leaks, a meager diet. Looking back now, however, the idealized the life in Egypt they had been fed as slaves. By contrast, they thought, God was not feeding them as well. Their diet was now restricted in the main{?} to manna and they were already weary of it. They felt entitled to better things than God gave them, and they wept in self-pity. The taste of the manna was as the taste of fresh oil, or in more modern language we would say, fresh honey, as a dainty dish. According to Exodus 16:31, the taste was like that of wafers made with honey.

The fact that the complaining began among the aliens or literally, in the Hebrew, the “riff-raff,” is of interest. The complaining began among the riff-raff. Now, and this is especially relevant to what we face in the United States today, and what Europe faces. A people with a strong faith can absorb great numbers of aliens, command their allegiance, and convert them to their beliefs and their culture. When the faith of the dominant majority wanes, the militant minorities begin to sway and govern it. Israel’s hunger for fresh vegetables, fish, and meat was stronger than its love of God and freedom under God. Israel felt entitled to better than God gave them, and so He gave them judgment.

Similarly, mothers have often told weepy and unruly children, “If you want something to cry about, I’ll give it to you.” Now, that was the Lord’s attitude, and He did. We should not judge the manna by Israel’s complaints. Asaph tells us, inspired of God in Psalm 78:22-25, that the manna was angel’s food and the corn of heaven. The health and preservation enjoyed in the wilderness by Israel makes clear that Israel’s description of manna was not true. It was the most highly nutritious food they could get, and God gave it to them. Their professed aversion to it tells us more about them than about manna.

Israel whined about the diet, and then it cried out against God’s judgment. Moses interceded with God and the judgment was halted, for the moment. The only result, we are told, in verse 4, is that they wept again, asking, “Who will provide us with meat?” They wanted the best possible diet, not freedom, not responsibility. Israel’s complaint is, “Our souls, or our life restraint is dried up,” according to verse 6. This in itself was a lie. They were provided with a superior and nutritious food. They wanted, however, something to appeal to their appetite, and they found God wanting for failing to provide it. Theirs was a sin of both discontent and ingratitude. Given the realities of their situation, they should have been grateful to be alive, and given the magnificence of their deliverance and providential care, they should have been not only contented, but thankful.

Years ago, as a child, in a situation I remember vividly, I heard someone comment with telling accuracy, prophetically as events soon showed, “An ungrateful man is dangerous. An ungrateful man is dangerous.” The word “complained” in verse 1 can be translated “murmured.” Not the goodness of God, that their own desires governed them so that when they opened their mouths, they revealed an ungrateful and complaining heart. The fact that their complaints were directed at Moses did not negate the fact that it was God whom they found unsatisfactory.

All too much complaining and murmuring on our part is against providence, against God. We find God’s providence unsatisfactory, and we therefore complain about particular things rather than openly challenging God and His government. Israel had, at Sinai, covenanted to obey God and to keep His law. All too quickly, it was clear that they wanted only good from God and no testing nor trouble. This complaining spirit remained with Israel, flaring up again and again over the years. For this reason, the older generation was kept in the wilderness for forty years to die there. God rightly saw complaining as a form of rebellion, and he has never rewarded such behavior. But a socialist society rewards complaining, and envy, and ingratitude, all things God hates. The statist order so created becomes steadily anti-Christian, and it corrupts all that it touches. In a sense, you can see from that why, as we go through this chapter, we’re going to see why something that seventy years ago was preached about constantly is now forgotten, no longer preached about.

The word translated as leeks apparently means “herbs.” Fish were, in Antiquity, especially abundant in the Nile, and they were, therefore, a free part of the people’s diet. Because of the plentiful supply of herbs, foods in ancient Egypt were well spiced and therefore, easily made more appalling. In a sense you could say that, in Antiquity, the Egyptians were what the French have become in the modern world; able to create gourmet dishes out of very ordinary products, because of their seasonings and spices.

Well, these things meant more to the people than God’s covenant and their freedom. Their long servitude in Egypt had made them slaves in spirit. We must remember the similarity which Dabney pointed out a century and a half ago, approximately, between a welfare economy, or socialism, and slavery. In fact, he said the slavery of the south was an old fashioned and a dying variety, but the slavery that was coming in the north was a danger for the future of the country. Responsibility has been replaced with the expectation of being helped. A sense of entitlement governs people, and even God is approached with an entitlement mentality, and this marks a great many evangelicals, and a great many modernists, a great many in every branch of Christendom, an entitlement mentality today. The purpose of God’s judgment is the destruction of this evil mentality, and that’s what this chapter is about.

The Septuagint for verse 1 reads, “And the people murmured sinfully before the Lord.” St. Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 10:10, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.” God could not build His kingdom with such a people, so He destroyed them. Thomas Scott’s comment of a couple centuries or more ago is excellent. He said, “Fallen man is a discontented creature, for having forsaken his proper rest, he feels himself uneasy and wretched, how much so ever he is prospered or distinguished. Ambition, sensuality, covetousness and malice are diseases of the soul which are not abated, but increased by indulgence and they who are under the power of them like persons in a fever, are constantly desirous of changing their place and posture, as if that were the cause of a disquietude which indeed, springs merrily from distemper. While this is the case, every appointment of God must excite secret or open complaint, and though discontent has its abatements {?} yet there is no cure till the soul returns to its rest, in the knowledge, love, and favor of God, and in a cordial reliance on His wisdom, truth, and power, and in acquiescence in His will.”

Humanistic scholars regard the Bible as a product of Hebrew culture, and it has become routine, commonplace, to write of Israel’s genius for religion. Gleason L. Archer, Jr. rightfully corrected this idea, calling attention instead to what he called, “the natural Hebrew genius for irreligion and apostasy,” which the whole of the Bible chronicles.

The term “mixed multitude,” and we’ll deal with that more next week, is translated as “rabble,” rightfully, by some commentators, and others riff-raff. It refers to a collection of peoples. The implication is that there is lack of any cohesive element. These are people who come together with no common bond, except to complain. The fact that they could dominate all Israel so quickly indicates the religious and moral bankruptcy of the people. The temper of a mob can work only where there is no superior nor governing faith, and that is our problem today. The people who call themselves Christians are the vast majority of the United States. There are churches everywhere, but they do not preach on this chapter. There is no backbone in their theology and in their profession of faith. A rabble is swayed by the moment’s impulse, and where the majority has no real faith, only a form of godliness as St. Paul said, But lacking the power thereof. They are swayed by the rabble, and churches everywhere today, where the faith is professed and where people claim to believe the Bible from cover to cover, they’re easily swayed, envy dominates them, and now as a relative freedom has come to the Soviet Union for the churches, and to central Europe, what is coming home, as someone told me by telephone this week is, the biggest problem the church faces there now is that their people are socialists. They’ve been under it for a generation and they are brainwashed by it, or persuaded by it, so that their mentality is socialist, and envy governs them more than Jesus Christ. A people of faith are not subject to such shallow emotions and experiences. They are governed by God and His word.

As I said when I began, when I was a boy, Numbers 11 as a whole, and Numbers 11:1-9, which we’ve just dealt with, was a text very much preached upon. The necessity for a thankful heart was stressed, and the need to see God’s providence in all things, we are going to, therefore, continue with a study of this important text, because it is so much needed in our time, and it will tell us why the Christian community, so called, is so impotent in the face of the overwhelming problems, and how the pulpits must again address themselves to what God, through Moses, addresses himself throughout this chapter. Otherwise, we too will be a generation to die in the wilderness before God’s judgment delivers our land from the growing evil which is pervading it. Numbers 11 is an urgently important chapter, and as we continue, we will see the implications of so many things, and how the theme is dealt with again and again through the Bible. Why Paul returns to it when he warns the church. Why the Psalms, more than once, return to this chapter as they warn people, and as they write into the Psalter inspired of God, references to this episode, so that, as they worshipped and sang, because the Psalm was their hymnbook, they would be reminded of what this chapter is about. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto thee for thy word, and we pray that thou wouldst deliver us, and thy church the world over, from the sins of discontent and ingratitude. Make us mindful of how rich we are in Christ, that this is not a place where we are to be protected from evil, but to overcome evil, to be made more than conquerors through Christ, through battle, through contending with the powers of darkness. Oh Lord, our God, we beseech thee, deliver us from these sins and make us strong in thy faith, in thy spirit, in thy word. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] Would you consider those various protests organized complaints? {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. There are do-nothing people. They complain, but they themselves are guilty of so many of the things they complain about. They’re not peacemakers. They’re not people who live and contribute to a godly and a clean environment. They’re not people who do anything but as Pharisees, whine and complain about the world because it wasn’t a paradise when they came into it. So, we have become a generation of whiners and complainers, and this is why, I think, we’re moving into judgment. We have the nominal Christian forces to make a very different world, and we’re not doing it.

I was taken aback when I came to this chapter and read it, because I suddenly realized, “I used to hear so many sermons about this as a boy. This was the kind of thing that visiting preachers or pastors turned to regularly to warn people, because this was back in the twenties, it was a time of affluence, and their warning was, “We in America, as we face an age of marvels and of prosperity, should not be ungrateful as the Hebrews in the wilderness were.” So, to this day, I can remember vivid preaching, fiery preaching, in fact. Enough to make me feel some of the temper and spirit with which they preached, when I realized it was a forgotten text. Yes?

[Audience] During the Depression, I recall, the complaints came from the well-to-do rather than from the people who were affected.

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes.

[Audience] But today, the complaints come from all levels.

[Rushdoony] That’s right, and complaining goes hand in hand with the spirit of envy, so that envy is beginning to become the dominant emotion in people. They are envious of everything and everyone. It’s no wonder that our politics has been called the politics of envy. Are there any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Oh Lord, our God, we beseech thee, give unto thy people here and the world over, a spirit of thanksgiving, of gratitude, of praise, that instead of fire going out from thy sanctuary unto thy people, there may go forth blessings, and victory as we contend with the powers of darkness. Make us more than conquerors in Christ, we beseech thee. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape