Who leads God’s people?  God, duh.  That is fine and good if God is a fire and flame before them, but what about when God is more mysterious, not face to face.  Who leads?  That is the question at the heart of Numbers 10-17.  I am re-continuing my walk through the imperatives uttered by God in scripture.  These are the times when God would say, “Do this now,” and usually the consequences are life and death.  What would God command us today?

Numbers 10:2 “Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp.

The ex-slaves have been camped at the bottom of the mountain, and it is time to move.  There is no GPS.  There aren’t even wristwatches to synchronize.  The silver trumpets would be the call to break camp.  This isn’t an army moving through the wilderness, this is a herd of men, women, children, and animals.  God makes promises for how the horns will be used in the land, but ultimately they remind the people “I am Yahweh your God.”

Numbers 11:12 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?

This imperative of “carry them” is from Moses to God.  It is an urgent ask.  Moses is burdened by the cries of the people.  They had cried out to God.  He freed them from slavery.  They got hungry and cried out to God.  God sent manna.  They now desire meat.  Moses can’t bear all the complaining.  But we shouldn’t read the grumbling passages as a child does.  This isn’t the whine of a spoiled child.  These are parents and grandparents coming to Moses.  They have had family die on the journey, and some of them died at God’s hand (11:1).  Moses needs a sign from Yahweh before things get ugly.  So Moses desperately asks “You carry them.”

Numbers 11:16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.

The two commands in this verse are “gather” and “bring them”.  This is God’s solution to Moses’ grumbling-over-meat problem.  Moses needs people help before he needs calorie help.  Moses is to bring the elders, the indigenous leaders, of the people to tent of meeting.  God is saying, “I’ll carry these people by sending you people.”  We often ask God for help, and the help is often those around us that we hadn’t thought of sharing our burden.

Numbers 11:18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.

“Consecrate yourselves” could also be “sanctify” or “prepare for holiness.”  God is going to bless the people.  Will they be spiritually ready?

Numbers 12:4 And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out.

God helps Moses by providing help and by providing meat.  God isn’t done purifying the people though. In 11:31-35 Yahweh sends a plague that results in the destruction of the people “who had the craving,” which refers to not just their desire for meat but their desire for the things of Egypt.  God’s promised land people aren’t “old land” people.  So with more dead brothers, cousins, and parents, Moses’ brother and sister, Miriam and Aaron also grumble.  Were the two seeking power for its own sake, or were they genuinely concerned about following a brother prophet that kept leading in a way that resulted in destruction?  Either way, God doesn’t let the family infighting slide.  Who is going to be boss isn’t for them to decide.

Numbers 12:6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.

“Hear” is the common verb for what you do with your ears.  If God has to command these prophets who would take Moses’ place to hear, then what were they doing before?

Numbers 13:2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”

“Send men” is exciting for the herd.  Finally, they aren’t sitting around.  All tribes are to be represented.  The word for “spy” is not official espionage but “seeking out,” such as 10:33 where the ark seeks out the next campsite.  Notice, were the men sent to assess battle readiness of their enemy?  Not necessarily, the chief focus of their seeking out is the land that “I am giving to the people.”  It is tragic that their report is mainly about the people they can’t defeat.

Numbers 14:25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

Surprise!  The people rebel again.  God brought them to the land of promise and all they see are the things they can’t defeat.  God’s promised land people don’t want the promised land part of the deal.  God promises that “none of those who despised me shall see it” 14:23.  God doesn’t leave the people at the border of these powerful kingdoms.  He instructs the people to go wander into the safety, but not abundance, of the wilderness.

Numbers 15:2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you

Numbers 15:18 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you

Numbers 15:38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.

The return to the wilderness is not wasted time.  God instructs the people in this time of judgment.  These commands would help encourage the people because they begin, “When you come into the land.”  The punishment does not trash the promise.  God has his prophet speak to God’s people.  The specific instructions concern sacrifices and how to remember God’s commands.  Good idea.

Numbers 16:21 “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”

A people who follow false-prophets can’t be promised-land people.  Fortunately, the people quickly repent.

Numbers 16:24 “Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

Stand back and watch this.  The earth swallows up the false prophets and their families.  The grumbling nation that thinks Moses is just making it all up and leading them astray watches in amazement.

Numbers 16:37 “Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy.

Korah’s rebellion begins with the idea, “Anybody can do your job,” but ignores the truth, “Only Moses can do what God called Moses to do.”  Moses authority is questioned, but God’s authority to claim whom he wants is at stake.  Yahweh’s agency and personhood are at stake.  Is this God of the ex-slaves going to be a God for the priests with the most power or the real God that chooses whom he will?

This last imperative of Korah’s rebellion is to have Aaron’s sons step right into the place where the false priests were consumed.  And God lets them approach.  And all the people see it.

Numbers 17:10 “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony”

The people grumble again.  This time they state plainly, “You have killed the people of Yahweh.”  Hold on, did they not see the earth open up and fire come from the sanctuary.  Was that Moses?  No.  God sends a plague and the priest Aaron does what priests do.  “He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped” (16:49).  God asks for a final test to affirm his authority to choose his priests and prophets.  Every tribe is to put a staff in the tabernacle, and only Aaron’s buds.  A dead walking stick grew green overnight.  God commands that the staff be put at the center of the worship place.

In this section of Numbers, God’s authority to choose a prophet and priest is assaulted constantly by the grumbling of the people.  Any notion of democracy or politics is thrown out at Korah’s rebellion.  Having the most voices doesn’t make you right.  The righteous God makes you right.  Most importantly we see a God that is long suffering with the people.  Their identity still centers on Egypt.  They “crave” Egypt.  God culls promised-land people that reject the promised-land, but God declares he will be faithful to the next generation.