A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath

23. Numbers Chapters 10 to 12

Chapter 10 begins with God’s instruction to Moses that two silver trumpets

should be made to call all the people together, and to break camp in preparation

for setting off across the desert. The sounding of the trumpets was to be, for all

time, the duty of the Aaronite priests. Verses 9 and 10 instruct when the

trumpets should be sounded in the future. On the second year of the exile, on

the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud lifted from above the

Tabernacle and led the Israelites onward. Moses’ brother-in-law went with

them as a guide. Verses 11 to the end of the chapter describe the order in which

they were to break camp.

Chapter 11 describes much trouble. The people became very angry about their

hardships and complained to the Lord. This made Him very angry and He set

fire to one end of the camp (verses 1, 2 and 3). Then a party of strangers joined

the Israelites and grumbled about the food on offer. This disturbed the Israelites

who began to think of the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt — fish,

cucumbers, water-melons, leeks, onions and garlic. All they had was manna

which were like honey wafers. They were sick of manna, and this grumbling

made the Lord very angry.

Moses also was very troubled. He asked the

Lord why he had to carry the burdens of the

whole people. He wanted to know where he

could find meat for such a vast number of

people. Of course, as He always does, the

Lord came up with a solution. He

transferred part of Moses’ responsibility to

seventy elders of the tribes (verses 16 and

17). The Lord also said that He would

supply everyone with meat for a whole

month until they were heartily sick of it

(verses 18-20).

Moses now calls the Elders together and tells them they are to share

responsibility with him. Verses 26-30 tell of what happened to two Elders

who were left behind in the camp. Verses 31-34 describe how the Lord

provided meat for the Israelites and what happened when they had too much of

it. Quails are very small game birds and the only ones that migrate. Their

migration from Africa to Europe would have taken them across the Israelites in the desert. Chapter 12 is very troubled and

bitter. Miriam and Aaron took sides

against Moses because he had

married a Cushite woman. Probably

this was just an excuse

and the real reason was that they

were jealous of Moses as the

leader. God came in a cloud and

confronted Aaron and Miriam. He

told them that Moses, alone, was

faithful to Him. God punished

Miriam with a skin disease, probably because she was the instigator of the complaint about Moses. Verses 11 - 16 tell us what happened next and how long it took for Miriam to be forgiven and cured.