Moses' problem. We find it record ed in the eleventh chapter of Num bers. There was this mixed multi tude which had come up with the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. They were not satisfied with the miraculous provision Cod had given them. They wanted some thing more than just plain manna. In fact, they were anxious to go back to Egypt where they had the opportunity of having cucumbers, melons, leeks, and onions. I do not think any of us can really imagine what the mixed multitude had the privilege of enjoying while on the wilderness journey. Rabbinical tra dition states that the manna which God provided had some miracu lous propensities. That is, this un usual food substance could actually taste like anything the individual wanted it to taste like. It was God's perfect provision. Yet, with all of this, these people said, "We are tired of manna. We do not want anything more of it. We would much prefer having onions, leeks, garlic and cucumbers." What a crowd ! r Moses was so depressed, having | heard all these constant complain- ers who were never satisfied with the best, declared to the Lord, "Wherefore hast thou inflicted thy servant?" Basically he wanted to die. What happened was that he actually put the blame on God. How foolish we are. We have such very limited vision. It was then the Lord told His servant, "Moses, the ruling of these people is not some thing that you have to do. I never told you that you would have to care for all of them individually. The battle is not yours, Moses, it is ! Mine." (We forget that, too, do we not?) And Moses was given 70 men
to help him in the guiding and in structing of these people. The third thing that can often cause discouragement, and it is ex tremely paradoxical, is the area of prosperity. Can you imagine some one who is rich, being able to ob tain all of his desires, yet still being depressed? Someone who has prominence, someone who has po sition, and yet who is discouraged? Well, in a sense that was the case with Jonah. This prophet of ancient days was told to go to Nineveh, capital city of the Syrian empire. It must have been the largest metropolis known in that day. If you could take a city of several million people, that would be Nineveh. Why it even took several days just to go around the perimeter of the central city itself. But Nineveh was a great Gentile stronghold and it was a tremendous threat to Israel's exis tence. Unless God would see fit to destroy Nineveh there was a dan ger that Israel would be destroyed by the Ninevites. So Jonah rea soned in his mind, "Why should I just not forget to tell them to re pent? And that way God will judge them." But of course, we under stand what happened because of Jonah's disobedience. When he fin ally got straightened out with the Lord he went through the streets of this great city. He was pronounc ing the judgment that within 40 days, if the people failed to repent, the city would be destroyed by al mighty God. The account seems to indicate that it was probably abso lutely shocking to Jonah that the men and women turned enmass to God. As a result, of course, they were delivered. This turn of events so staggered Page 41
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