Word of Encouragement (09/29/2022)
And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. (Num. 11:1-2)
The Bible does not give us a detailed account of what happened. It simply says that the Israelites went back to their old way of complaining again. We can’t be sure what complaining “in the hearing of the LORD” exactly means. It seems like Moses was not aware of this, which means that, on this occasion, they did not bring their grievances to Moses. Did they gather among themselves and complained, even conspiring against Moses and his leadership so they could go back to Egypt? Or was there a general sense of resentment among the people regarding the difficulty of their journey?
But the LORD heard their complaints, and He punished them by sending the fire of the LORD. The LORD is not mocked. Not only does He see our actions and hears our words, but He also hears our thoughts, too. I’m not saying that we are accountable for every thought that pops into our heads. We can be tempted and not sin (as was the case with Jesus, Heb. 4:15). What I’m talking about is choosing to dwell on sinful thoughts and relishing them with our minds. For the LORD to punish the Israelites, they did not just have the thought of how difficult the journey was; they allowed that thought to be conceived and give birth to bitter complaints against God.
Terrified by the fire of the LORD, the Israelites cried out to Moses. What this action signified is not very clear. We notice that they cried out to Moses, not to the LORD. There was nothing wrong with this choice, of course. After all, Moses was the covenant mediator between the LORD and Israel. And dealing with Moses was easier because they could see him and find him easily. What is ambiguous is what they did: they cried out to Moses. Regarding the Hebrew verb, TWOT (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament) says, “A strong outcry frequently indicates that righteousness is absent or judgment is being executed.” This verb was used in Ex. 2:23: “And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.” Obviously, they were crying out to the Lord for the injustice of the Egyptian bondage.
What is troubling about the way the verve is used in today’s passage is what they were crying out against—that is, what was the injustice they were crying out against? It was none other than the LORD’s punishment on them by the fire of the LORD! There doesn’t seem to be much penitence. They only thought about the severity of God’s punishment, not the seriousness of their sin, which incurred it. How could God relent His anger against them?
It was only because Moses prayed for them as their mediator and intercessor. Of course, Moses had no merit in himself to bring about God’s forgiveness. It was because God appointed him as their covenant mediator and intercessor. But even that was not enough. For God cannot arbitrarily grant such authority to a sinner against His justice. If Moses’ intercessory prayer “worked,” it was only because he was a type of Christ, our true Intercessor, whose merit of perfect sacrifice and righteousness alone can cover all our sins. As Moses prayed as a type of Christ, Christ’s merit as the true Intercessor was communicated to him to make his intercession efficacious.
If God was willing to grant the not-so-repentant Israelites forgiveness (which was only temporary, by the way), how much more willing and ready He must be to grant forgiveness to those, for whom Christ laid down His life, who confess their sins and desire to repent in sincerity? And we have the assurance that Christ will make our prayers efficacious if we pray according to His will.