Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

Rebellion Against God

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: Rebellion Against God

Genre:

Track: 20

Dictation Name: RR181K20

Location/Venue:

Year:

O give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, our hearts rejoice in thee, knowing that our times are in thy hands, and thy purposes for us are altogether righteous and holy. We pray, our Father, that thou wouldst give us grace, to take our hearts and minds off the present and see things in thy perspective in terms of all thy purposes in time and eternity, which are altogether righteous and holy. Bless us by thy word and by thy spirit, and teach us, our Father, to dwell in thy courts and to be satisfied with the goodness of thy house. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is numbers 11:10-23. Numbers 11:10-23. Rebellion Against God. “Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness. And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord'S hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”

The burden of dealing with an ingrate people was becoming an intolerable burden for Moses. The fire of God’s judgment newly destroyed many people. It was just a day or two before, but they were again weeping with self-pity over their lot. Moses was so weary of these whining, complaining people, that he longed for death to relieve him of the burden of leadership over a nation of ingrates.

Moses felt that he, a man, was in effect, being required to be a wet nurse to a nation of babies. The image is deliberately an impossible one. How can a man be a wet nurse to a whole nation of crybabies? The demand of the people lacked all common sense. Their herds of livestock were, in the main, needed for breeding stock in the Promised Land. Only an occasional one could be used for meat. They were demanding continuous miracles from God and Moses, miracles designed to satisfy their demands. Their attitude was, “If we are God’s chosen people, then we should have abundant supplies and no problems.” Like so many since, they had a fairy tale belief in God, not a living faith.

Moses, in praying to God, calls attention to two problems. First, there is a demand of the people for meat. How can he meet that? God promises him a miraculous answer which will supply Israel with a month’s supply of meat. At the same time, it will be a judgment upon them all, so that God’s apparent blessing will become a curse. Second, coping with all the complaints of the people was exhausting Moses. It’s hard enough to hear two or three people whine, but when you add six hundred thousand families, two million people who are whiners, it was enough to make Moses so weary that he longed for death as a relief.

Earlier, the system of elders had been established. The root of the word elder, by the way, in Hebrew, means “a bearded one.” These were men who ruled over Israel, an elder over ten families, elders over hundreds, and then thousands, with seventy elders at the top. Now Moses declares that God has summoned these seventy men, and by his spirit, He will empower the seventy elders who presided over all Israel to enable them to help Moses bear the burden of the people and to fill them with the spirit, a kind of Pentecostal experience. Their duties had previously been familial and tribal. Now they are to assist Moses in the religious government to all the people.

Moses had prayed for God’s help. God’s answer directed him to human help, hardly the answer Moses wanted. However, if God’s people were going to grow, they would have to learn to govern themselves under God. The seventy elders became a partial blessing to Moses. The meat God gave was soon a curse to the people. We cannot ask God’s miracles to replace human responsibilities without judgment.

In verse 21, Moses refers to 600,000 men he must deal with, the heads of families. Finding them all meat seemed an impossible task. Now some armchair scholars are very critical of Moses’s prayer. They see him as showing the same sin as the people. It is obvious that God did not see things that way. We are told, in verse 10, the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. If God felt that way, would He expect Moses to react with sweetness in light? It’s false Christianity that says people should always react with sweetness and light. Where God does not condemn Moses, it is presumption and sin for men to do so. Yet, one European commentator goes so far as to speak of Moses’s tantrum. Others are not as harsh, but too many seem to believe that Moses should have been a stoic, unfeeling, in the face of two million people whining and complaining. Now, that’s asking the impossible, and I’d like to see some of these scholars who condemned Moses put up with that kind of thing. The simple fact is that Moses is weary, and he feels inadequate to the task of dealing with an ungodly people. As we shall see later on in this chapter, the seventy elders brought in to assist Moses are above all else, filled with the spirit to prophesy, to proclaim God’s word to all who are near.

As a result, their first and foremost task was to witness in the spirit of God to God’s requirements, and to support the testimony of Moses. Since these seventy elders were called by God to assist Moses, it follows that their prophesying was to declare God’s judgment on Israel for rebelling against God and Moses. Nothing God did through these men had any purpose other than to support and uphold Moses, and the word of God through Moses was to be upheld by these men. It was anger over that authenticated word that soon after led to the rebellion headed by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, as leaders of two hundred and fifty princes. We will come to this in Numbers 16.

The premise of the rebels was that their word was as good as Moses and the seventy elders. Sin is sin wherever it occurs. In Numbers 11:1, we see that the sin began in the riff-raff. It continued through all Israel, and it included important princes. Lesser abilities do not excuse in, nor greater abilities and status. Sin is sin, always, in God’s sight, and always without excuse. Superficially, the excuse and the issue was food. The people complained about manna and recalled vividly their diet in Egypt. If we accept their version, we join them in their sin. Sinners always have reasonable and logical explanations for their actions and demands. They are adept at using reason to vindicate sin.

God tells Moses to tell the people what their real sin it. “Ye have despised the Lord which is among you.” Our Lord declares “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The people knew that God was in the camp in a special way. Christians no less know the promise of Matthew 18:20. God, the Lord Christ, is with us. In both instances, the conclusion of God is the same. Wherever a whining and complaining spirit prevailed, “Ye have rejected or despised the Lord.”

When God declares that He will provide meat for all the nation, Moses is startled, and he reminds God of the number of families involved. God is patient with Moses because Moses is not showing unbelief, but bewilderment. God’s answer is short and to the point, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?” God, who had sent ten plagues on Egypt, parted the Red Sea, destroyed the Egyptian army, and fed His people with manna could also provide them all with meat. As our Lord tells us, “With God all things are possible.”

Israel, to prepare itself to receive the meat promised, was required to sanctify itself to be ready for the meat which would arrive the next day. While Moses told the people this requirement, we are not told whether or not they complied. According to John Erkwahart{?}, an area was discovered which was probably the campsite of this incident. About forty miles from Mt. Sinai, there are indications of a large and ancient encampment with remains extending for miles around, and there are evidences of many, many graves. Israel, at this point, resembled too many modern societies. It wanted all the advantages of slavery at the same time as the advantages of freedom. Slavery, whether we call it socialism or anything else, offers security; whereas freedom requires responsibilities and is full of risks. The slave mentality will distrust freedom under God.

To return to the requirement of sanctification, or consecration before the meat is given, the promised meat as God provided, miraculously given, and as H. Snath{?} commented, “It is a sacred meal, and the people must be ritually clean in order to eat it. This is a sacred meal,” Snath added, “but one for punishment and not for new life and strength.” This is why Paul says that some who partake of communion unworthily drink and eat damnation unto themselves. It was a form of communion, and therefore, judgment because of their ungodliness. There is an apt comment about this in the Apocrypha in the Wisdom of Sirach, who said, “All things prove good to the ungodly, just as they turn into evils for the sinful.” Thomas Scott very aptly described Israel’s problem at this point while warning us of a like sin when he wrote, “Fallen man is a discontented creature, for having forsaken his proper rest, he feels himself uneasy and wretched how much so ever he has prospered or distinguished.” Scott’s comment tells us why this chapter, once popular with preachers, is now neglected. Discontentment and whining are now too often seen as evidences of sensitivity by noble souls.

God’s judgment on Israel is not a gentle one. According to verse 20, for a whole month they would have meat, but they would also be smitten with an ailment which would have them vomiting violently even through their nostrils. God is obviously not the person of sweetness and light some would have Him to be. Years ago, I heard one profane and blasphemous man say of the God revealed in this and like passages that he sounded like a lean and mean Scotchman. Well, perhaps that man had a professor, had John Knox, a man he detested, in mind. At any rate, he now no doubt knows more about the matter, being almost certainly dead some years. I was very, very much interested when I was told very recently how, in one church, the women’s group sat down, they felt that the sermon subjects were not the right ones, and they listed all the things they did not want preached about. Then, they came to “What do we want our pastor to preach about?” and they could come up with only one subject and one verse: “God is love.” IN other words, they were in clear evidence, guilty of the sin which Jeremiah said was going to destroy the whole nation because what was it that they were telling the preachers? “Speak unto us smooth things.” In other words, give us sweetness and light. Speak unto us smooth things, and Jeremiah said that judgment of God upon the whole nation was to be its destruction, that he would be destroyed. Is it any wonder, that as one scholar has said that in studying the Bible believing churches, and asking them simple questions about the essence of the faith, they have found that the average runs in Bible believing churches, fifty to seventy-five percent were obviously unconverted, who don’t want anything but sweetness and light. That’s all they believe in, and if you say anything more, you’re not a godly preacher. What a fearful fact this is, and this is why Numbers 11 is so important a text, and why it must be preach3ed. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy whole word. We thank thee that thy word speaks not to please us, but to guide us, to inform us, to correct us, to wean us from sin, from discontentment, and from complaining. We thank thee that though men are dishonest and flattering, thy word is truth, and thy word speaks to our every need, to our need for rebuking and our need for comfort, and it is only thy rebuke and thy comfort which stand. How great and marvelous thou art, O Lord, and we praise thee, and we thank thee. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] It seems like {?} warning {?} state.

[Rushdoony] Yes. It is very definitely, and as I wrote in Politics of Guilt and Pity, what we did in 1864 and 5 was not to abolish slavery entirely, we only abolished the private ownership of slaves. We did not abolish state ownership. Now, the legal definition of slavery is ownership in the labor of others. Your ability to command their work. Now, what does the IRS do? For over four months of every year, it commands your labor, and it takes it, five months? Yes, thank you for correcting me. Now, that is legally slavery. There is a woman who was a manufacturer, the Flannigans knew her, what was the name of the pastor of the church there, the Christian church, in Westwood?

[Audience] In Westwood?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Whose sister it was who was this prominent manufacturer. Well, at any rate, for years, she tried to get the withholding tax into the courts as involuntary servitude. What was her name?

[Audience] It started with a “B” I think.

[Rushdoony] Yes, if you can remember. Yes, let us know because she deserves to be remembered. The courts knew she had them over the barrel and refused to allow her case, because she said every employer now is put into involuntary servitude, as well as vast numbers of people. We are compelled to do the bookkeeping and so on for the government, and she was right, of course. Kellems.

[Audience] Kellems.

[Rushdoony] Vivian Kellems was her name. She fought all her life to try to get a court to hear her case, and they knew that they had no argument against her case. In terms of the law against slavery, the federal government and now state governments were and are guilty of enslavement. So, of course, the welfare economy is slavery, and the people who want slavery is going to go lusting after more and more welfarism. You can recognize a slave very easily. They’re all around us, and they’re taking advantage of every opportunity to increase the slavery, and they are the whiners and complainers. Any other questions or comments? That, I think tells you another reason why this chapter is not popular today. It goes against the grain of too many, and there are a great many passages like that. How long has it been since Jeremiah’s condemnation of all the preachers and prophets who were preaching smooth things, when the nation was on the brink of total disaster?

[Audience] {?} involved in that, too. Carim Griffith{?} and Beverly Nills{?}.

[Rushdoony] I think you’re right. Yes, yes. The interesting this is, and it was an indictment of the country, when Vivien Kellems began her suits, filing again and again here and there, there were no men among the many millionaire manufacturers in the country who stood with her, only a handful of women. Vivien Kellems deserves to be remembered. I met her on one occasion, and she was a delight to meet. She was a fearless, courageous woman, and she enjoyed a battle. She had no love of the bureaucracy. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude in prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for those in our time who are standing up or have stood up against slavery, against the whiners and complainers of our day, against those to whom much is given, and in return only in gratitude and complaints are forthcoming. We thank thee that thy judgment, as of old, is sure and certain against all such. Make us a grateful people in all things, and give us a clear and open triumph in the face of these ungodly slaves. Bless us by thy word and by thy sprit, this day and always. Grant us thy peace and thy protection in the face of all troubles and adversities, and teach us to sing thy praise. 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.

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