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After leaving Mt. Sinai, the Glory cloud led the Israelites into the desert of Paran (Num 10:12). This is a region that was mentioned previously in Genesis as the territory where Ishmael and his descendants made their home (Gen 21:21). The territory of the Ishmaelites and their kinsmen the Midianites must have shared a common border (Gen 16:15; 25:1-4; 1 Kng 11:18). We are told in the story of Joseph son of Jacob that Midianites and Ishmaelites operated caravans and did business together in the slave trade (Gen 37:25-27, 28). Scripture locates the wilderness of Paran north of Mt. Sinai and south of Canaan.
As for the location of the wilderness of Paran, the best guess is that it began south of Canaan near the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea. It was also north of the Gulf of Aqaba and formed a border with Edomite territory that was located south of the Dead Sea in the mountainous region of Seir.
| Scripture references to the Wilderness of Paran | |
| Gen 21:21 | He [Ishmael] made his home in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 10:12 | The cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran. |
| Num 12:16 | Then the people moved on from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 13:2-3 | 'Send out men, one from each tribe, to reconnoiter the land of Canaan which I am giving the Israelites. Each of them is to be a leading man of the tribe.' At Yahweh's order, Moses sent them from the desert of Paran. All of them were leading men of Israel. |
| Num 13:26 | Making their way to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, they made their report to them and the whole community, and displayed the country's produce. |
| Dt 1:1-2 | These are the words which Moses addressed to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven day's journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. |
| Dt 33:2 | Yahweh came from Sinai, from Seir he dawned on us, from Mount Paran blazed forth, for them he came, after the mustering at Kadesh, from his zenith as far as the foothills. |
| 1 Sam 25:1 | Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn him. They buried him at his home in Ramath. David then set off and went down to the desert of Maon [Paran]. |
| 1 Kng 11:18 | They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt ... |
| Hab 3:3 | Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth. |
Chapter 11: The Discontent of the People
The events that are recorded in Numbers Chapters 10:33-12:16 took place on the journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-Barnes in the wilderness of Paran (Num 10:11-12, 33). The two interwoven themes of this section are the crisis over the people's complaints and the crisis concerning the challenge to Moses' leadership. The complaints the people made are similar to the complaints they raised on the journey from Egypt to Mt. Sinai (see Ex 14:11-12; 15:22-25; 16:1-3; 17:1-7). As in some of those earlier episodes, the complaints voiced by the people in Numbers Chapters 10-12 are followed by divine action and ends in the commemoration of the event by naming the site (Ex 15:23; 17:7).(2)
The Israelites, led by the Glory Cloud and the Ark (and possibly by Hobab), set out from Mt. Sinai and encamped at three different sites on the journey. The first encampment was at a place the Israelites named Taberah (burning/conflagration), three days north of Mt. Sinai. It was one of the three places on the journey where the people provoked Yahweh's wrath (Num 11:3, 34-35; Dt 9:22).
Numbers 11:1-3 The People Complain
Question: This was not the first nor the last time the people complained bitterly about their hardships. When did the Israelite's complaints on the Exodus journey begin? See Ex 14:11-12 and the incident in 15:22-25 after a three day desert journey.
Answer: Their first complaints began immediately after leaving Goshen when the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites. But just like at Marah, which was the first encampment after traveling thorough the desert for three days, the people's complaints after leaving Mt. Sinai began after three days of desert travel.
Question: God was very patient with the Israelites in the journey to Mt. Sinai; however, at the first encampment on the journey out of Egypt when the people complained that they had no water, Yahweh gave the Israelites what warning in Exodus 15:26?
Answer: If they listened carefully to His commands and obediently follow those commands, God would never inflict on them any of the disasters that were inflicted on the Egyptians.
Question: At the first encampment three days after leaving Mt. Sinai, God struck the edges of the camp with fire-a sign of divine wrath and a means of purification. What Egyptian plague might the fire recall?
Answer: In the seventh plague, fire in the form of lightening struck the earth with the hail.
Question: In this journey that was to begin the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, why wasn't God as patient with the people's complaints as He was before the rendezvous at Sinai?
Answer: At this point in the people's relationship with Yahweh they had vowed their covenant obedience to Him as their sovereign Lord and God. It was a covenant oath that had been sworn at Mt. Sinai.
In his role as the people's covenant mediator, Moses interceded with Yahweh and God stayed His wrath/judgment. The fire at the first encampment was both a sign of His wrath and a divine warning-it was a warning the Israelites did not heed.
Numbers 11:4-9 The Complaints Continue at the Encampment at Kibroth-ha-Taavah
Question: What was significant about their cry: "Who will give us meat to eat?"
Answer: It was a challenge to God to provide meat for them and carried with it the accusation that God had not been properly taking care of His people.
Question: What was the people's chief complaint?
Answer: They wanted meat-the manna didn't satisfy them.
Question: While it was true that they only had the manna for food, in what various ways could the manna be prepared? See Num 11:8
Answer: It could be ground into flour, boiled or made into baked cakes or griddle cakes.
It was compared to the seed of the coriander plant and to bdellium, probably a gum-like resin. The gift of the manna every morning was consistent, like God's promised protection.
- The manna was like coriander seed that was used to make food flavorful; therefore, the manna was not bland.
- It was white; therefore it was pleasing to the eye and easy to see.
- It was plentiful; therefore everyone had enough to eat.
- It was clean because it fell on a layer of evening dew.
- It could be prepared in a variety of ways; therefore it was not monotonous.
- It tasted like honey or rich cream; therefore it was sweet and easy to digest.
- It was free and was ready to be harvested without fail six days a week, and a double portion was collected on the day before the Sabbath.
Numbers 11:10-15 Yahweh's Anger and Moses' Intercessory Prayer
Question: What was Moses' response to the people's complaint? Was the mission to liberate his people something Moses had enthusiastically embraced? See Ex 4:10-17.
Answer: Moses had no sympathy for the complaining people. He also cried out in his frustration that God had made him responsible for these ungrateful and unruly people, perhaps a subtle reminder to God that he didn't want this job in the first place!
Question: What is Moses' petition to God?
Answer: He asked God to let him die.
Moses will not be the first prophet who, overcome by the burden of his responsibilities and a sense of a failed mission, will suffer an emotional collapse and ask God to let him die. The prophet Elijah had a similar death wish (1 Kng 19:4), and the prophet Jeremiah, overcome with the burden of his mission, cursed the day he was born (Jer 20:14-18). In each of these moments of personal crisis, God displayed tender compassion for His prophets.
Numbers 11:16-23 Yahweh's Reply
In His mercy God immediately addressed His covenant mediator's distress by lessening the great burden of being solely responsible for the spiritual and physical needs of the Israelites.
Question: What did God tell Moses to do?
Answer: He told Moses to call together seventy tribal elders.
Numbers 11:24-30 The Gift of God's Spirit to the Elders
This is the transition phase in this part of the narrative concerning the people's desire to eat meat. The word ruah is repeated five times in 11:17-29, referring to God's Spirit. In Scripture five is the number signifying power and grace.
Question: When God's spirit was put upon the elders, why did the elders prophesy only once? See Joel 3:1-5/2:28-32 and Acts 2:17-21. When will Moses' heart felt desire that all Yahweh's covenant people could be prophets endowed with God's Spirit be fulfilled?
Answer: The elders received a temporary anointing of the Spirit of God to show the people that they were divinely appointed. Moses' desire will be fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday in 30 AD when God's Holy Spirit fills and indwells the New Covenant people praying in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.
The liturgy of the Church sees in the priesthood of Aaron, the service of the Levites, and the institution of the seventy elders a prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant (CCC 1541). The full indwelling of God's Spirit was not to come until the Jewish Feast of Pentecost in 30 AD, fifty days after Jesus Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension, when God the Holy Spirit filled and indwelled the New Covenant Church. It is a gift each newly re-born Christian receives in the Sacrament of Baptism; it is a gift that is only given once (CCC 691, 1272).
Numbers 11:31-35 The Quails
The narrative of the people's sin at the second encampment is divided by the gift of God's spirit to the seventy elders. There is a play on words in the "wind" (ruah) sent by Yahweh in 11:31 and the spirit (ruah) of Yahweh taken off Moses and given to the seventy elders of Israel in 11:17 and 25-29.
Question: What was the daily collection of the manna? Compare the daily manna collection of the collected quail. See Ex 16:16, 22.
Answer: The daily manna collection per person was one homer and two homer on Fridays. The quail collected per person was ten times the daily ratio.
Question: What happened to the greedy people when they devoured the quail meat?
Answer: They were struck down by a plague.
This is the second record of the feeding of quail in Scripture. The first miraculous quail feeding occurred in Exodus 16:12-13.
Question: How are the two events similar and how are they different?
Answer: Both events are associated with the gift of the manna. In the first event the people gratefully accepted the manna and in this event some of the people were ungrateful in rejecting the gift of the manna.
Is it interesting that the sequence of events in Numbers 10:33-11:32 is a repeat of the sequence of events in Exodus 14:22-16:18:
| The journey from Egypt to Sinai | Traveled for 3 days Ex 15:22 | The people complained Ex 15:24 | The manna Ex 16:4-5 | The quail Ex 16:13 |
| The journey from Sinai to Paran | Traveled for 3 days Num 10:33 | The people complained Num 11:1 | The manna Num 11:7-8 | The quail Num 11:31-32 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 | ||||
The manna blessing continued for forty years but the gift of the quail is only mentioned twice in Scripture, in Exodus 16:13 and in Numbers 11:31-32. I
| manna & quail Ex 16:4-34 | 40 years mentioned Ex 16:35 | manna & quail Num 11:4-7; 31-33 | 40 years mentioned Num 14:33-34 | end of the 40 years Josh 5:6 | manna ends Josh 5:12 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 adapted from a chart in The Pentateuch as Narrative, page 274 | |||||
Some scholars have attempted to associate the miracles of the quail and the manna with natural phenomena. In the autumn large flocks of quail are known to migrate from Syria, Egypt, and Arabia southward to central Africa and then return in the spring. In this long migration, sometimes large flocks of birds fall to the ground from exhaustion. Since the quail miracle is only recorded twice in Scripture (with both episodes taking place in the early spring), it is possible that it was a natural phenomenon. However, it cannot be denied that God used that "natural" occurrence at a very specific time and at a very specific place to address the needs of the Israelites on two different occasions.
St. Augustine wrote that the Lord often disciplines sinners who refuse to be guided by His law by granting them the sin they stubbornly run after and leaves them to reap the dire consequences in order to call them to repentance; just as in His mercy He refuses a petition of the righteous that might bring them harm (St. Augustine, Letter 130). God's judgment in submitting rebellious and persistent sinners to the consequences of their sins was a topic in St. Paul's letter to the Romans: In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behavior. And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, libelers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love or pity. They are well aware of God's ordinance: that those who behave like this deserve to die-yet they not only do it, but even applaud others who do the same (Rom 1:28-32).
We must not disregard God's abundant goodness, tolerance and patience, nor should we fail to realize that God's temporal judgments are redemptive-He wants to call the sinner to repentance before the sinner faces his eternal judgment.
Question: What does Paul write is the consequence the unrepentant sinner brings on himself in Romans 2:5-11?
Answer: In the Day of Judgment, God "will repay everyone as their deeds deserve": For those who aimed for glory and honor and immortality by persevering in doing good, there will be eternal life; but for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth but injustice, there will be the fury of retribution. Trouble and distress will come to every human being who does evil ... (Rom 2:7-9).
Question: Of what sins were the complainers guilty? See Gal 5:19-21; CCC 1850; and handout 3.
Answer: Gluttony, dissension, strife, causing factions within the community and ultimately the lack of gratitude for God's good provisions.
God did not hold the Israelite's accountable for their sins of ingratitude and rebellious complaints until after the ratification of the Sinai Covenant when the Israelites swore an oath of obedience to Yahweh and His covenant: Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey' (Ex 24:7). It was after the covenant ratification that the Israelites became responsible for bearing the consequences of their lack of trust, obedience and faithfulness to God.
Chapter 10
Moses' Positive Historical Examples and the Appeal to the Israelites to Circumcise their Hearts
In this section (10:1-11), Moses gives three positive historical signs of Israel's covenant with Yahweh: the Ark of the Covenant, the two tablets of the covenant treaty documents that are kept in the Ark, and the Levitical ministers-the priests of Aaron's line and the lesser ministers of the Levites who serve Yahweh in the holy Sanctuary.
Deuteronomy 10:1-5
The Tablets of the Covenant
Moses is retelling events that occurred in Exodus 34:1-29
Question: What is different concerning the tablets of stone in Moses second forty day period on the mountain? See Ex 24:12 and Ex 34:1.
Answer: In the first ascent of the mountain, God provided the tablets of stone, but in the second ascent Moses was required to bring two precut tablets. In the first event God provided everything, but in the second event Moses had to cooperate with God's plan by providing the tablets.
Deuteronomy 10:6-10 The Priesthood of Aaron, the Levitical Ministers, and the departure from Sinai
Some of the place-names mentioned in verse 6 are also mentioned in Numbers 33:30-31, except they are in reverse order in this passage. Jotbathah is also mentioned in the list of campsites in Numbers 33:33-34, but the encampment prior to Jotbathah is listed as Hor-Gidgad. Since the list in Numbers chapter 33 is contrived to make a list of 42 sites, it is possible the Israelites retraced their steps and visited a campsite more than once. Numbers 33:38 records that Aaron died at Mt. Hor, seven campsites after Moseroth (Num 33:31-38). It is uncertain if Moserah in verse 6 is an alternate spelling or a different site at the foot of Mt. Hor. Gudgod is Hor-Hagidgad in Numbers 33:32. It may be an alternate name; the Septuagint and several Hebrew manuscripts read har haGidgad "the mountain of Gidgad" (Weingeld, Deuteronomy, page 420). The location of these sites has not been identified.
Just as the tablets were restored after the sin of the Golden Calf with the renewal of the covenant with Israel, the priesthood of Aaron was restored and when he died his son was appointed to succeed him as High Priest. In addition, the Levites, who consecrated themselves in the blood of the rebels in the Golden Calf revolt, served Yahweh in the Sanctuary as His lesser ministers (Ex 25:25-29; Num 3:11-13; 8:5-22; 18:5-7).
The tribe of Levi was given the special position as servants of the chief priests for their heroism in putting down the rebellion of the Golden Calf (Ex 32:25-29), thereby replacing the first-born sons who should have been the first to rally to Moses (Num 1:50; 3:6-8, 12; 8:16). The Levites were separated from the other tribes of Israel and dedicated to God in a ceremony in Numbers chapter 8 in which the other Israelites gave up their claim on the tribe of Levi, giving them over to Yahweh's service, no longer to be counted among the twelve tribes (Num 8:9-11)(3)
After their dedication, the three clans of Levites were given the privilege of transporting the Sanctuary and the sacred items of furniture (Num 4:1-33). The events in Numbers 4 took place after the events of the Levite dedication in Numbers 8 and before the tribes left Mt. Sinai; therefore, what is mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:8-9 took place prior to what is mentioned in verses 1-7.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 Covenant Union with God is Based Upon Love
In the conclusion to this part of his discourse, Moses explains Israel's obligations to Yahweh, using the same phraseology found in secular Near Eastern covenant treaties:
- The declaration of loyalty to the Suzerain (Dt 10:1-22)
- The historical exposition (Dt 11:2-7)
- The description of the land God will bestow on His vassal (Dt 11:10-12, 14)
- The promises and warnings/blessings and curses (Dt 11:16-17, 22-23, 26-29
In Deuteronomy 10:12, 15; 11:1, 13 and 22 Moses makes it clear to his people that a two-fold love lies at the core of Israel's covenant relationship with Yahweh. As in a marriage covenant, each party has covenant obligations to fulfill in the expression of that mutual love. The Israelites numbered seventy heads of families when the migrated into Egypt in Genesis 46:8-27, but now their numbers are far greater.
Question: What are Yahweh's covenant-love obligations?
Answer: To fulfill the oath He swore to the Patriarchs that their descendants will inhabit the Promised Land and that Yahweh will be their God.
Question: What are Israel's covenant-love obligations to her Lord?
Answer: To demonstrate her love and loyalty in the form of the reverent observance of her Lord's stipulations, the mitsvot (commandments) of His divine Law.
Deuteronomy 10:6 Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer ... Circumcision of the male foreskin was a "sign" of the covenant with Abraham that was continued in the Sinai Covenant (Gen 17:10; Ex 12:48; Lev 12:3), but in this passage Moses asks for more than the physical sign of circumcision.
Question: What is Moses asking as the sign of covenant loyalty? How does one accomplish "circumcision of heart"? See Jer 4:3-4, 9:24-25 and Rom 2:25-29 and use those passages in your answer.
Answer: He is asking for the spiritual obligation of whole-hearted commitment. The remedy is to remove heart hardening sin so the seeds of God's commandments can be implanted spiritually in one's heart, to take root and grow, producing the fruit of righteousness. Those who stubbornly remain uncircumcised of heart will fail in living in obedience to Yahweh's commands. Physical circumcision was intended to be the outward sign of an inward condition. According to St. Paul, physical circumcision without spiritual circumcision is without value.
In the retelling of Israel's failures in the past forty years, Moses has shown that the Israelites have no cause to feel deserving or self-righteous. In the conclusion of this section of his homily in chapter 11, Moses will appeal to the Israelites to be totally obedient to God in the future by summarizing the principles that must guide the people's behavior if they are to avoid repeating past failures.
+++
A Daily Defense
Day 61 The Age of Miracles
CHALLENGE: “God doesn’t give private revelation or perform any miracles today. These stopped with the first century: ‘As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away’ (1 Cor. 13:8–10)."
DEFENSE: This argument mistakes the time frame Paul is discussing. He says these will pass away “when the perfect comes.” To claim that happened in the first century, you have to identify what “the perfect” was.
Suggestions include the death of the last apostle and the writing of the last book of Scripture. Paul speaks of “our knowledge” being imperfect, but he is not thinking it will be perfect at the close of the apostolic age or the writing of the last book of Scripture—neither of which he mentions.
He writes: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11). He describes our present knowledge as “childish” compared to how we will come to know God.
But the Faith had already been “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) in Paul’s day, and his knowledge was not childish compared to what was known in A.D. 100, by which time the canon was completed.
He also writes: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Paul did not understand the Faith “dimly” compared to how it would be understood a few decades later.
Finally, the one who has fully understood him is God, and thus it is God who he refers to seeing “face to face.” He thus expects perfect knowledge to arrive at the Second Coming, when we will see God (1 John 3:2). That is when these gifts will pass away.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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After leaving Mt. Sinai, the Glory cloud led the Israelites into the desert of Paran (Num 10:12). This is a region that was mentioned previously in Genesis as the territory where Ishmael and his descendants made their home (Gen 21:21). The territory of the Ishmaelites and their kinsmen the Midianites must have shared a common border (Gen 16:15; 25:1-4; 1 Kng 11:18). We are told in the story of Joseph son of Jacob that Midianites and Ishmaelites operated caravans and did business together in the slave trade (Gen 37:25-27, 28). Scripture locates the wilderness of Paran north of Mt. Sinai and south of Canaan.
As for the location of the wilderness of Paran, the best guess is that it began south of Canaan near the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea. It was also north of the Gulf of Aqaba and formed a border with Edomite territory that was located south of the Dead Sea in the mountainous region of Seir.
| Scripture references to the Wilderness of Paran | |
| Gen 21:21 | He [Ishmael] made his home in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 10:12 | The cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran. |
| Num 12:16 | Then the people moved on from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 13:2-3 | 'Send out men, one from each tribe, to reconnoiter the land of Canaan which I am giving the Israelites. Each of them is to be a leading man of the tribe.' At Yahweh's order, Moses sent them from the desert of Paran. All of them were leading men of Israel. |
| Num 13:26 | Making their way to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, they made their report to them and the whole community, and displayed the country's produce. |
| Dt 1:1-2 | These are the words which Moses addressed to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven day's journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. |
| Dt 33:2 | Yahweh came from Sinai, from Seir he dawned on us, from Mount Paran blazed forth, for them he came, after the mustering at Kadesh, from his zenith as far as the foothills. |
| 1 Sam 25:1 | Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn him. They buried him at his home in Ramath. David then set off and went down to the desert of Maon [Paran]. |
| 1 Kng 11:18 | They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt ... |
| Hab 3:3 | Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth. |
Chapter 11: The Discontent of the People
The events that are recorded in Numbers Chapters 10:33-12:16 took place on the journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-Barnes in the wilderness of Paran (Num 10:11-12, 33). The two interwoven themes of this section are the crisis over the people's complaints and the crisis concerning the challenge to Moses' leadership. The complaints the people made are similar to the complaints they raised on the journey from Egypt to Mt. Sinai (see Ex 14:11-12; 15:22-25; 16:1-3; 17:1-7). As in some of those earlier episodes, the complaints voiced by the people in Numbers Chapters 10-12 are followed by divine action and ends in the commemoration of the event by naming the site (Ex 15:23; 17:7).(2)
The Israelites, led by the Glory Cloud and the Ark (and possibly by Hobab), set out from Mt. Sinai and encamped at three different sites on the journey. The first encampment was at a place the Israelites named Taberah (burning/conflagration), three days north of Mt. Sinai. It was one of the three places on the journey where the people provoked Yahweh's wrath (Num 11:3, 34-35; Dt 9:22).
Numbers 11:1-3 The People Complain
Question: This was not the first nor the last time the people complained bitterly about their hardships. When did the Israelite's complaints on the Exodus journey begin? See Ex 14:11-12 and the incident in 15:22-25 after a three day desert journey.
Answer: Their first complaints began immediately after leaving Goshen when the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites. But just like at Marah, which was the first encampment after traveling thorough the desert for three days, the people's complaints after leaving Mt. Sinai began after three days of desert travel.
Question: God was very patient with the Israelites in the journey to Mt. Sinai; however, at the first encampment on the journey out of Egypt when the people complained that they had no water, Yahweh gave the Israelites what warning in Exodus 15:26?
Answer: If they listened carefully to His commands and obediently follow those commands, God would never inflict on them any of the disasters that were inflicted on the Egyptians.
Question: At the first encampment three days after leaving Mt. Sinai, God struck the edges of the camp with fire-a sign of divine wrath and a means of purification. What Egyptian plague might the fire recall?
Answer: In the seventh plague, fire in the form of lightening struck the earth with the hail.
Question: In this journey that was to begin the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, why wasn't God as patient with the people's complaints as He was before the rendezvous at Sinai?
Answer: At this point in the people's relationship with Yahweh they had vowed their covenant obedience to Him as their sovereign Lord and God. It was a covenant oath that had been sworn at Mt. Sinai.
In his role as the people's covenant mediator, Moses interceded with Yahweh and God stayed His wrath/judgment. The fire at the first encampment was both a sign of His wrath and a divine warning-it was a warning the Israelites did not heed.
Numbers 11:4-9 The Complaints Continue at the Encampment at Kibroth-ha-Taavah
Question: What was significant about their cry: "Who will give us meat to eat?"
Answer: It was a challenge to God to provide meat for them and carried with it the accusation that God had not been properly taking care of His people.
Question: What was the people's chief complaint?
Answer: They wanted meat-the manna didn't satisfy them.
Question: While it was true that they only had the manna for food, in what various ways could the manna be prepared? See Num 11:8
Answer: It could be ground into flour, boiled or made into baked cakes or griddle cakes.
It was compared to the seed of the coriander plant and to bdellium, probably a gum-like resin. The gift of the manna every morning was consistent, like God's promised protection.
- The manna was like coriander seed that was used to make food flavorful; therefore, the manna was not bland.
- It was white; therefore it was pleasing to the eye and easy to see.
- It was plentiful; therefore everyone had enough to eat.
- It was clean because it fell on a layer of evening dew.
- It could be prepared in a variety of ways; therefore it was not monotonous.
- It tasted like honey or rich cream; therefore it was sweet and easy to digest.
- It was free and was ready to be harvested without fail six days a week, and a double portion was collected on the day before the Sabbath.
Numbers 11:10-15 Yahweh's Anger and Moses' Intercessory Prayer
Question: What was Moses' response to the people's complaint? Was the mission to liberate his people something Moses had enthusiastically embraced? See Ex 4:10-17.
Answer: Moses had no sympathy for the complaining people. He also cried out in his frustration that God had made him responsible for these ungrateful and unruly people, perhaps a subtle reminder to God that he didn't want this job in the first place!
Question: What is Moses' petition to God?
Answer: He asked God to let him die.
Moses will not be the first prophet who, overcome by the burden of his responsibilities and a sense of a failed mission, will suffer an emotional collapse and ask God to let him die. The prophet Elijah had a similar death wish (1 Kng 19:4), and the prophet Jeremiah, overcome with the burden of his mission, cursed the day he was born (Jer 20:14-18). In each of these moments of personal crisis, God displayed tender compassion for His prophets.
Numbers 11:16-23 Yahweh's Reply
In His mercy God immediately addressed His covenant mediator's distress by lessening the great burden of being solely responsible for the spiritual and physical needs of the Israelites.
Question: What did God tell Moses to do?
Answer: He told Moses to call together seventy tribal elders.
Numbers 11:24-30 The Gift of God's Spirit to the Elders
This is the transition phase in this part of the narrative concerning the people's desire to eat meat. The word ruah is repeated five times in 11:17-29, referring to God's Spirit. In Scripture five is the number signifying power and grace.
Question: When God's spirit was put upon the elders, why did the elders prophesy only once? See Joel 3:1-5/2:28-32 and Acts 2:17-21. When will Moses' heart felt desire that all Yahweh's covenant people could be prophets endowed with God's Spirit be fulfilled?
Answer: The elders received a temporary anointing of the Spirit of God to show the people that they were divinely appointed. Moses' desire will be fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday in 30 AD when God's Holy Spirit fills and indwells the New Covenant people praying in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.
The liturgy of the Church sees in the priesthood of Aaron, the service of the Levites, and the institution of the seventy elders a prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant (CCC 1541). The full indwelling of God's Spirit was not to come until the Jewish Feast of Pentecost in 30 AD, fifty days after Jesus Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension, when God the Holy Spirit filled and indwelled the New Covenant Church. It is a gift each newly re-born Christian receives in the Sacrament of Baptism; it is a gift that is only given once (CCC 691, 1272).
Numbers 11:31-35 The Quails
The narrative of the people's sin at the second encampment is divided by the gift of God's spirit to the seventy elders. There is a play on words in the "wind" (ruah) sent by Yahweh in 11:31 and the spirit (ruah) of Yahweh taken off Moses and given to the seventy elders of Israel in 11:17 and 25-29.
Question: What was the daily collection of the manna? Compare the daily manna collection of the collected quail. See Ex 16:16, 22.
Answer: The daily manna collection per person was one homer and two homer on Fridays. The quail collected per person was ten times the daily ratio.
Question: What happened to the greedy people when they devoured the quail meat?
Answer: They were struck down by a plague.
This is the second record of the feeding of quail in Scripture. The first miraculous quail feeding occurred in Exodus 16:12-13.
Question: How are the two events similar and how are they different?
Answer: Both events are associated with the gift of the manna. In the first event the people gratefully accepted the manna and in this event some of the people were ungrateful in rejecting the gift of the manna.
Is it interesting that the sequence of events in Numbers 10:33-11:32 is a repeat of the sequence of events in Exodus 14:22-16:18:
| The journey from Egypt to Sinai | Traveled for 3 days Ex 15:22 | The people complained Ex 15:24 | The manna Ex 16:4-5 | The quail Ex 16:13 |
| The journey from Sinai to Paran | Traveled for 3 days Num 10:33 | The people complained Num 11:1 | The manna Num 11:7-8 | The quail Num 11:31-32 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 | ||||
The manna blessing continued for forty years but the gift of the quail is only mentioned twice in Scripture, in Exodus 16:13 and in Numbers 11:31-32. I
| manna & quail Ex 16:4-34 | 40 years mentioned Ex 16:35 | manna & quail Num 11:4-7; 31-33 | 40 years mentioned Num 14:33-34 | end of the 40 years Josh 5:6 | manna ends Josh 5:12 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 adapted from a chart in The Pentateuch as Narrative, page 274 | |||||
Some scholars have attempted to associate the miracles of the quail and the manna with natural phenomena. In the autumn large flocks of quail are known to migrate from Syria, Egypt, and Arabia southward to central Africa and then return in the spring. In this long migration, sometimes large flocks of birds fall to the ground from exhaustion. Since the quail miracle is only recorded twice in Scripture (with both episodes taking place in the early spring), it is possible that it was a natural phenomenon. However, it cannot be denied that God used that "natural" occurrence at a very specific time and at a very specific place to address the needs of the Israelites on two different occasions.
St. Augustine wrote that the Lord often disciplines sinners who refuse to be guided by His law by granting them the sin they stubbornly run after and leaves them to reap the dire consequences in order to call them to repentance; just as in His mercy He refuses a petition of the righteous that might bring them harm (St. Augustine, Letter 130). God's judgment in submitting rebellious and persistent sinners to the consequences of their sins was a topic in St. Paul's letter to the Romans: In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behavior. And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, libelers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love or pity. They are well aware of God's ordinance: that those who behave like this deserve to die-yet they not only do it, but even applaud others who do the same (Rom 1:28-32).
We must not disregard God's abundant goodness, tolerance and patience, nor should we fail to realize that God's temporal judgments are redemptive-He wants to call the sinner to repentance before the sinner faces his eternal judgment.
Question: What does Paul write is the consequence the unrepentant sinner brings on himself in Romans 2:5-11?
Answer: In the Day of Judgment, God "will repay everyone as their deeds deserve": For those who aimed for glory and honor and immortality by persevering in doing good, there will be eternal life; but for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth but injustice, there will be the fury of retribution. Trouble and distress will come to every human being who does evil ... (Rom 2:7-9).
Question: Of what sins were the complainers guilty? See Gal 5:19-21; CCC 1850; and handout 3.
Answer: Gluttony, dissension, strife, causing factions within the community and ultimately the lack of gratitude for God's good provisions.
God did not hold the Israelite's accountable for their sins of ingratitude and rebellious complaints until after the ratification of the Sinai Covenant when the Israelites swore an oath of obedience to Yahweh and His covenant: Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey' (Ex 24:7). It was after the covenant ratification that the Israelites became responsible for bearing the consequences of their lack of trust, obedience and faithfulness to God.
Chapter 10
Moses' Positive Historical Examples and the Appeal to the Israelites to Circumcise their Hearts
In this section (10:1-11), Moses gives three positive historical signs of Israel's covenant with Yahweh: the Ark of the Covenant, the two tablets of the covenant treaty documents that are kept in the Ark, and the Levitical ministers-the priests of Aaron's line and the lesser ministers of the Levites who serve Yahweh in the holy Sanctuary.
Deuteronomy 10:1-5
The Tablets of the Covenant
Moses is retelling events that occurred in Exodus 34:1-29
Question: What is different concerning the tablets of stone in Moses second forty day period on the mountain? See Ex 24:12 and Ex 34:1.
Answer: In the first ascent of the mountain, God provided the tablets of stone, but in the second ascent Moses was required to bring two precut tablets. In the first event God provided everything, but in the second event Moses had to cooperate with God's plan by providing the tablets.
Deuteronomy 10:6-10 The Priesthood of Aaron, the Levitical Ministers, and the departure from Sinai
Some of the place-names mentioned in verse 6 are also mentioned in Numbers 33:30-31, except they are in reverse order in this passage. Jotbathah is also mentioned in the list of campsites in Numbers 33:33-34, but the encampment prior to Jotbathah is listed as Hor-Gidgad. Since the list in Numbers chapter 33 is contrived to make a list of 42 sites, it is possible the Israelites retraced their steps and visited a campsite more than once. Numbers 33:38 records that Aaron died at Mt. Hor, seven campsites after Moseroth (Num 33:31-38). It is uncertain if Moserah in verse 6 is an alternate spelling or a different site at the foot of Mt. Hor. Gudgod is Hor-Hagidgad in Numbers 33:32. It may be an alternate name; the Septuagint and several Hebrew manuscripts read har haGidgad "the mountain of Gidgad" (Weingeld, Deuteronomy, page 420). The location of these sites has not been identified.
Just as the tablets were restored after the sin of the Golden Calf with the renewal of the covenant with Israel, the priesthood of Aaron was restored and when he died his son was appointed to succeed him as High Priest. In addition, the Levites, who consecrated themselves in the blood of the rebels in the Golden Calf revolt, served Yahweh in the Sanctuary as His lesser ministers (Ex 25:25-29; Num 3:11-13; 8:5-22; 18:5-7).
The tribe of Levi was given the special position as servants of the chief priests for their heroism in putting down the rebellion of the Golden Calf (Ex 32:25-29), thereby replacing the first-born sons who should have been the first to rally to Moses (Num 1:50; 3:6-8, 12; 8:16). The Levites were separated from the other tribes of Israel and dedicated to God in a ceremony in Numbers chapter 8 in which the other Israelites gave up their claim on the tribe of Levi, giving them over to Yahweh's service, no longer to be counted among the twelve tribes (Num 8:9-11)(3)
After their dedication, the three clans of Levites were given the privilege of transporting the Sanctuary and the sacred items of furniture (Num 4:1-33). The events in Numbers 4 took place after the events of the Levite dedication in Numbers 8 and before the tribes left Mt. Sinai; therefore, what is mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:8-9 took place prior to what is mentioned in verses 1-7.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 Covenant Union with God is Based Upon Love
In the conclusion to this part of his discourse, Moses explains Israel's obligations to Yahweh, using the same phraseology found in secular Near Eastern covenant treaties:
- The declaration of loyalty to the Suzerain (Dt 10:1-22)
- The historical exposition (Dt 11:2-7)
- The description of the land God will bestow on His vassal (Dt 11:10-12, 14)
- The promises and warnings/blessings and curses (Dt 11:16-17, 22-23, 26-29
In Deuteronomy 10:12, 15; 11:1, 13 and 22 Moses makes it clear to his people that a two-fold love lies at the core of Israel's covenant relationship with Yahweh. As in a marriage covenant, each party has covenant obligations to fulfill in the expression of that mutual love. The Israelites numbered seventy heads of families when the migrated into Egypt in Genesis 46:8-27, but now their numbers are far greater.
Question: What are Yahweh's covenant-love obligations?
Answer: To fulfill the oath He swore to the Patriarchs that their descendants will inhabit the Promised Land and that Yahweh will be their God.
Question: What are Israel's covenant-love obligations to her Lord?
Answer: To demonstrate her love and loyalty in the form of the reverent observance of her Lord's stipulations, the mitsvot (commandments) of His divine Law.
Deuteronomy 10:6 Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer ... Circumcision of the male foreskin was a "sign" of the covenant with Abraham that was continued in the Sinai Covenant (Gen 17:10; Ex 12:48; Lev 12:3), but in this passage Moses asks for more than the physical sign of circumcision.
Question: What is Moses asking as the sign of covenant loyalty? How does one accomplish "circumcision of heart"? See Jer 4:3-4, 9:24-25 and Rom 2:25-29 and use those passages in your answer.
Answer: He is asking for the spiritual obligation of whole-hearted commitment. The remedy is to remove heart hardening sin so the seeds of God's commandments can be implanted spiritually in one's heart, to take root and grow, producing the fruit of righteousness. Those who stubbornly remain uncircumcised of heart will fail in living in obedience to Yahweh's commands. Physical circumcision was intended to be the outward sign of an inward condition. According to St. Paul, physical circumcision without spiritual circumcision is without value.
In the retelling of Israel's failures in the past forty years, Moses has shown that the Israelites have no cause to feel deserving or self-righteous. In the conclusion of this section of his homily in chapter 11, Moses will appeal to the Israelites to be totally obedient to God in the future by summarizing the principles that must guide the people's behavior if they are to avoid repeating past failures.
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A Daily Defense
Day 61 The Age of Miracles
CHALLENGE: “God doesn’t give private revelation or perform any miracles today. These stopped with the first century: ‘As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away’ (1 Cor. 13:8–10)."
DEFENSE: This argument mistakes the time frame Paul is discussing. He says these will pass away “when the perfect comes.” To claim that happened in the first century, you have to identify what “the perfect” was.
Suggestions include the death of the last apostle and the writing of the last book of Scripture. Paul speaks of “our knowledge” being imperfect, but he is not thinking it will be perfect at the close of the apostolic age or the writing of the last book of Scripture—neither of which he mentions.
He writes: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11). He describes our present knowledge as “childish” compared to how we will come to know God.
But the Faith had already been “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) in Paul’s day, and his knowledge was not childish compared to what was known in A.D. 100, by which time the canon was completed.
He also writes: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Paul did not understand the Faith “dimly” compared to how it would be understood a few decades later.
Finally, the one who has fully understood him is God, and thus it is God who he refers to seeing “face to face.” He thus expects perfect knowledge to arrive at the Second Coming, when we will see God (1 John 3:2). That is when these gifts will pass away.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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After leaving Mt. Sinai, the Glory cloud led the Israelites into the desert of Paran (Num 10:12). This is a region that was mentioned previously in Genesis as the territory where Ishmael and his descendants made their home (Gen 21:21). The territory of the Ishmaelites and their kinsmen the Midianites must have shared a common border (Gen 16:15; 25:1-4; 1 Kng 11:18). We are told in the story of Joseph son of Jacob that Midianites and Ishmaelites operated caravans and did business together in the slave trade (Gen 37:25-27, 28). Scripture locates the wilderness of Paran north of Mt. Sinai and south of Canaan.
As for the location of the wilderness of Paran, the best guess is that it began south of Canaan near the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea. It was also north of the Gulf of Aqaba and formed a border with Edomite territory that was located south of the Dead Sea in the mountainous region of Seir.
| Scripture references to the Wilderness of Paran | |
| Gen 21:21 | He [Ishmael] made his home in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 10:12 | The cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran. |
| Num 12:16 | Then the people moved on from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the desert of Paran ... |
| Num 13:2-3 | 'Send out men, one from each tribe, to reconnoiter the land of Canaan which I am giving the Israelites. Each of them is to be a leading man of the tribe.' At Yahweh's order, Moses sent them from the desert of Paran. All of them were leading men of Israel. |
| Num 13:26 | Making their way to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, they made their report to them and the whole community, and displayed the country's produce. |
| Dt 1:1-2 | These are the words which Moses addressed to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven day's journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea. |
| Dt 33:2 | Yahweh came from Sinai, from Seir he dawned on us, from Mount Paran blazed forth, for them he came, after the mustering at Kadesh, from his zenith as far as the foothills. |
| 1 Sam 25:1 | Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn him. They buried him at his home in Ramath. David then set off and went down to the desert of Maon [Paran]. |
| 1 Kng 11:18 | They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt ... |
| Hab 3:3 | Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth. |
Chapter 11: The Discontent of the People
The events that are recorded in Numbers Chapters 10:33-12:16 took place on the journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-Barnes in the wilderness of Paran (Num 10:11-12, 33). The two interwoven themes of this section are the crisis over the people's complaints and the crisis concerning the challenge to Moses' leadership. The complaints the people made are similar to the complaints they raised on the journey from Egypt to Mt. Sinai (see Ex 14:11-12; 15:22-25; 16:1-3; 17:1-7). As in some of those earlier episodes, the complaints voiced by the people in Numbers Chapters 10-12 are followed by divine action and ends in the commemoration of the event by naming the site (Ex 15:23; 17:7).(2)
The Israelites, led by the Glory Cloud and the Ark (and possibly by Hobab), set out from Mt. Sinai and encamped at three different sites on the journey. The first encampment was at a place the Israelites named Taberah (burning/conflagration), three days north of Mt. Sinai. It was one of the three places on the journey where the people provoked Yahweh's wrath (Num 11:3, 34-35; Dt 9:22).
Numbers 11:1-3 The People Complain
Question: This was not the first nor the last time the people complained bitterly about their hardships. When did the Israelite's complaints on the Exodus journey begin? See Ex 14:11-12 and the incident in 15:22-25 after a three day desert journey.
Answer: Their first complaints began immediately after leaving Goshen when the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites. But just like at Marah, which was the first encampment after traveling thorough the desert for three days, the people's complaints after leaving Mt. Sinai began after three days of desert travel.
Question: God was very patient with the Israelites in the journey to Mt. Sinai; however, at the first encampment on the journey out of Egypt when the people complained that they had no water, Yahweh gave the Israelites what warning in Exodus 15:26?
Answer: If they listened carefully to His commands and obediently follow those commands, God would never inflict on them any of the disasters that were inflicted on the Egyptians.
Question: At the first encampment three days after leaving Mt. Sinai, God struck the edges of the camp with fire-a sign of divine wrath and a means of purification. What Egyptian plague might the fire recall?
Answer: In the seventh plague, fire in the form of lightening struck the earth with the hail.
Question: In this journey that was to begin the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, why wasn't God as patient with the people's complaints as He was before the rendezvous at Sinai?
Answer: At this point in the people's relationship with Yahweh they had vowed their covenant obedience to Him as their sovereign Lord and God. It was a covenant oath that had been sworn at Mt. Sinai.
In his role as the people's covenant mediator, Moses interceded with Yahweh and God stayed His wrath/judgment. The fire at the first encampment was both a sign of His wrath and a divine warning-it was a warning the Israelites did not heed.
Numbers 11:4-9 The Complaints Continue at the Encampment at Kibroth-ha-Taavah
Question: What was significant about their cry: "Who will give us meat to eat?"
Answer: It was a challenge to God to provide meat for them and carried with it the accusation that God had not been properly taking care of His people.
Question: What was the people's chief complaint?
Answer: They wanted meat-the manna didn't satisfy them.
Question: While it was true that they only had the manna for food, in what various ways could the manna be prepared? See Num 11:8
Answer: It could be ground into flour, boiled or made into baked cakes or griddle cakes.
It was compared to the seed of the coriander plant and to bdellium, probably a gum-like resin. The gift of the manna every morning was consistent, like God's promised protection.
- The manna was like coriander seed that was used to make food flavorful; therefore, the manna was not bland.
- It was white; therefore it was pleasing to the eye and easy to see.
- It was plentiful; therefore everyone had enough to eat.
- It was clean because it fell on a layer of evening dew.
- It could be prepared in a variety of ways; therefore it was not monotonous.
- It tasted like honey or rich cream; therefore it was sweet and easy to digest.
- It was free and was ready to be harvested without fail six days a week, and a double portion was collected on the day before the Sabbath.
Numbers 11:10-15 Yahweh's Anger and Moses' Intercessory Prayer
Question: What was Moses' response to the people's complaint? Was the mission to liberate his people something Moses had enthusiastically embraced? See Ex 4:10-17.
Answer: Moses had no sympathy for the complaining people. He also cried out in his frustration that God had made him responsible for these ungrateful and unruly people, perhaps a subtle reminder to God that he didn't want this job in the first place!
Question: What is Moses' petition to God?
Answer: He asked God to let him die.
Moses will not be the first prophet who, overcome by the burden of his responsibilities and a sense of a failed mission, will suffer an emotional collapse and ask God to let him die. The prophet Elijah had a similar death wish (1 Kng 19:4), and the prophet Jeremiah, overcome with the burden of his mission, cursed the day he was born (Jer 20:14-18). In each of these moments of personal crisis, God displayed tender compassion for His prophets.
Numbers 11:16-23 Yahweh's Reply
In His mercy God immediately addressed His covenant mediator's distress by lessening the great burden of being solely responsible for the spiritual and physical needs of the Israelites.
Question: What did God tell Moses to do?
Answer: He told Moses to call together seventy tribal elders.
Numbers 11:24-30 The Gift of God's Spirit to the Elders
This is the transition phase in this part of the narrative concerning the people's desire to eat meat. The word ruah is repeated five times in 11:17-29, referring to God's Spirit. In Scripture five is the number signifying power and grace.
Question: When God's spirit was put upon the elders, why did the elders prophesy only once? See Joel 3:1-5/2:28-32 and Acts 2:17-21. When will Moses' heart felt desire that all Yahweh's covenant people could be prophets endowed with God's Spirit be fulfilled?
Answer: The elders received a temporary anointing of the Spirit of God to show the people that they were divinely appointed. Moses' desire will be fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday in 30 AD when God's Holy Spirit fills and indwells the New Covenant people praying in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.
The liturgy of the Church sees in the priesthood of Aaron, the service of the Levites, and the institution of the seventy elders a prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant (CCC 1541). The full indwelling of God's Spirit was not to come until the Jewish Feast of Pentecost in 30 AD, fifty days after Jesus Resurrection and ten days after His Ascension, when God the Holy Spirit filled and indwelled the New Covenant Church. It is a gift each newly re-born Christian receives in the Sacrament of Baptism; it is a gift that is only given once (CCC 691, 1272).
Numbers 11:31-35 The Quails
The narrative of the people's sin at the second encampment is divided by the gift of God's spirit to the seventy elders. There is a play on words in the "wind" (ruah) sent by Yahweh in 11:31 and the spirit (ruah) of Yahweh taken off Moses and given to the seventy elders of Israel in 11:17 and 25-29.
Question: What was the daily collection of the manna? Compare the daily manna collection of the collected quail. See Ex 16:16, 22.
Answer: The daily manna collection per person was one homer and two homer on Fridays. The quail collected per person was ten times the daily ratio.
Question: What happened to the greedy people when they devoured the quail meat?
Answer: They were struck down by a plague.
This is the second record of the feeding of quail in Scripture. The first miraculous quail feeding occurred in Exodus 16:12-13.
Question: How are the two events similar and how are they different?
Answer: Both events are associated with the gift of the manna. In the first event the people gratefully accepted the manna and in this event some of the people were ungrateful in rejecting the gift of the manna.
Is it interesting that the sequence of events in Numbers 10:33-11:32 is a repeat of the sequence of events in Exodus 14:22-16:18:
| The journey from Egypt to Sinai | Traveled for 3 days Ex 15:22 | The people complained Ex 15:24 | The manna Ex 16:4-5 | The quail Ex 16:13 |
| The journey from Sinai to Paran | Traveled for 3 days Num 10:33 | The people complained Num 11:1 | The manna Num 11:7-8 | The quail Num 11:31-32 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 | ||||
The manna blessing continued for forty years but the gift of the quail is only mentioned twice in Scripture, in Exodus 16:13 and in Numbers 11:31-32. I
| manna & quail Ex 16:4-34 | 40 years mentioned Ex 16:35 | manna & quail Num 11:4-7; 31-33 | 40 years mentioned Num 14:33-34 | end of the 40 years Josh 5:6 | manna ends Josh 5:12 |
Michal E. Hunt © 2010 adapted from a chart in The Pentateuch as Narrative, page 274 | |||||
Some scholars have attempted to associate the miracles of the quail and the manna with natural phenomena. In the autumn large flocks of quail are known to migrate from Syria, Egypt, and Arabia southward to central Africa and then return in the spring. In this long migration, sometimes large flocks of birds fall to the ground from exhaustion. Since the quail miracle is only recorded twice in Scripture (with both episodes taking place in the early spring), it is possible that it was a natural phenomenon. However, it cannot be denied that God used that "natural" occurrence at a very specific time and at a very specific place to address the needs of the Israelites on two different occasions.
St. Augustine wrote that the Lord often disciplines sinners who refuse to be guided by His law by granting them the sin they stubbornly run after and leaves them to reap the dire consequences in order to call them to repentance; just as in His mercy He refuses a petition of the righteous that might bring them harm (St. Augustine, Letter 130). God's judgment in submitting rebellious and persistent sinners to the consequences of their sins was a topic in St. Paul's letter to the Romans: In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behavior. And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, libelers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love or pity. They are well aware of God's ordinance: that those who behave like this deserve to die-yet they not only do it, but even applaud others who do the same (Rom 1:28-32).
We must not disregard God's abundant goodness, tolerance and patience, nor should we fail to realize that God's temporal judgments are redemptive-He wants to call the sinner to repentance before the sinner faces his eternal judgment.
Question: What does Paul write is the consequence the unrepentant sinner brings on himself in Romans 2:5-11?
Answer: In the Day of Judgment, God "will repay everyone as their deeds deserve": For those who aimed for glory and honor and immortality by persevering in doing good, there will be eternal life; but for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth but injustice, there will be the fury of retribution. Trouble and distress will come to every human being who does evil ... (Rom 2:7-9).
Question: Of what sins were the complainers guilty? See Gal 5:19-21; CCC 1850; and handout 3.
Answer: Gluttony, dissension, strife, causing factions within the community and ultimately the lack of gratitude for God's good provisions.
God did not hold the Israelite's accountable for their sins of ingratitude and rebellious complaints until after the ratification of the Sinai Covenant when the Israelites swore an oath of obedience to Yahweh and His covenant: Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey' (Ex 24:7). It was after the covenant ratification that the Israelites became responsible for bearing the consequences of their lack of trust, obedience and faithfulness to God.
Chapter 10
Moses' Positive Historical Examples and the Appeal to the Israelites to Circumcise their Hearts
In this section (10:1-11), Moses gives three positive historical signs of Israel's covenant with Yahweh: the Ark of the Covenant, the two tablets of the covenant treaty documents that are kept in the Ark, and the Levitical ministers-the priests of Aaron's line and the lesser ministers of the Levites who serve Yahweh in the holy Sanctuary.
Deuteronomy 10:1-5
The Tablets of the Covenant
Moses is retelling events that occurred in Exodus 34:1-29
Question: What is different concerning the tablets of stone in Moses second forty day period on the mountain? See Ex 24:12 and Ex 34:1.
Answer: In the first ascent of the mountain, God provided the tablets of stone, but in the second ascent Moses was required to bring two precut tablets. In the first event God provided everything, but in the second event Moses had to cooperate with God's plan by providing the tablets.
Deuteronomy 10:6-10 The Priesthood of Aaron, the Levitical Ministers, and the departure from Sinai
Some of the place-names mentioned in verse 6 are also mentioned in Numbers 33:30-31, except they are in reverse order in this passage. Jotbathah is also mentioned in the list of campsites in Numbers 33:33-34, but the encampment prior to Jotbathah is listed as Hor-Gidgad. Since the list in Numbers chapter 33 is contrived to make a list of 42 sites, it is possible the Israelites retraced their steps and visited a campsite more than once. Numbers 33:38 records that Aaron died at Mt. Hor, seven campsites after Moseroth (Num 33:31-38). It is uncertain if Moserah in verse 6 is an alternate spelling or a different site at the foot of Mt. Hor. Gudgod is Hor-Hagidgad in Numbers 33:32. It may be an alternate name; the Septuagint and several Hebrew manuscripts read har haGidgad "the mountain of Gidgad" (Weingeld, Deuteronomy, page 420). The location of these sites has not been identified.
Just as the tablets were restored after the sin of the Golden Calf with the renewal of the covenant with Israel, the priesthood of Aaron was restored and when he died his son was appointed to succeed him as High Priest. In addition, the Levites, who consecrated themselves in the blood of the rebels in the Golden Calf revolt, served Yahweh in the Sanctuary as His lesser ministers (Ex 25:25-29; Num 3:11-13; 8:5-22; 18:5-7).
The tribe of Levi was given the special position as servants of the chief priests for their heroism in putting down the rebellion of the Golden Calf (Ex 32:25-29), thereby replacing the first-born sons who should have been the first to rally to Moses (Num 1:50; 3:6-8, 12; 8:16). The Levites were separated from the other tribes of Israel and dedicated to God in a ceremony in Numbers chapter 8 in which the other Israelites gave up their claim on the tribe of Levi, giving them over to Yahweh's service, no longer to be counted among the twelve tribes (Num 8:9-11)(3)
After their dedication, the three clans of Levites were given the privilege of transporting the Sanctuary and the sacred items of furniture (Num 4:1-33). The events in Numbers 4 took place after the events of the Levite dedication in Numbers 8 and before the tribes left Mt. Sinai; therefore, what is mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:8-9 took place prior to what is mentioned in verses 1-7.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 Covenant Union with God is Based Upon Love
In the conclusion to this part of his discourse, Moses explains Israel's obligations to Yahweh, using the same phraseology found in secular Near Eastern covenant treaties:
- The declaration of loyalty to the Suzerain (Dt 10:1-22)
- The historical exposition (Dt 11:2-7)
- The description of the land God will bestow on His vassal (Dt 11:10-12, 14)
- The promises and warnings/blessings and curses (Dt 11:16-17, 22-23, 26-29
In Deuteronomy 10:12, 15; 11:1, 13 and 22 Moses makes it clear to his people that a two-fold love lies at the core of Israel's covenant relationship with Yahweh. As in a marriage covenant, each party has covenant obligations to fulfill in the expression of that mutual love. The Israelites numbered seventy heads of families when the migrated into Egypt in Genesis 46:8-27, but now their numbers are far greater.
Question: What are Yahweh's covenant-love obligations?
Answer: To fulfill the oath He swore to the Patriarchs that their descendants will inhabit the Promised Land and that Yahweh will be their God.
Question: What are Israel's covenant-love obligations to her Lord?
Answer: To demonstrate her love and loyalty in the form of the reverent observance of her Lord's stipulations, the mitsvot (commandments) of His divine Law.
Deuteronomy 10:6 Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer ... Circumcision of the male foreskin was a "sign" of the covenant with Abraham that was continued in the Sinai Covenant (Gen 17:10; Ex 12:48; Lev 12:3), but in this passage Moses asks for more than the physical sign of circumcision.
Question: What is Moses asking as the sign of covenant loyalty? How does one accomplish "circumcision of heart"? See Jer 4:3-4, 9:24-25 and Rom 2:25-29 and use those passages in your answer.
Answer: He is asking for the spiritual obligation of whole-hearted commitment. The remedy is to remove heart hardening sin so the seeds of God's commandments can be implanted spiritually in one's heart, to take root and grow, producing the fruit of righteousness. Those who stubbornly remain uncircumcised of heart will fail in living in obedience to Yahweh's commands. Physical circumcision was intended to be the outward sign of an inward condition. According to St. Paul, physical circumcision without spiritual circumcision is without value.
In the retelling of Israel's failures in the past forty years, Moses has shown that the Israelites have no cause to feel deserving or self-righteous. In the conclusion of this section of his homily in chapter 11, Moses will appeal to the Israelites to be totally obedient to God in the future by summarizing the principles that must guide the people's behavior if they are to avoid repeating past failures.
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A Daily Defense
Day 61 The Age of Miracles
CHALLENGE: “God doesn’t give private revelation or perform any miracles today. These stopped with the first century: ‘As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away’ (1 Cor. 13:8–10)."
DEFENSE: This argument mistakes the time frame Paul is discussing. He says these will pass away “when the perfect comes.” To claim that happened in the first century, you have to identify what “the perfect” was.
Suggestions include the death of the last apostle and the writing of the last book of Scripture. Paul speaks of “our knowledge” being imperfect, but he is not thinking it will be perfect at the close of the apostolic age or the writing of the last book of Scripture—neither of which he mentions.
He writes: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11). He describes our present knowledge as “childish” compared to how we will come to know God.
But the Faith had already been “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) in Paul’s day, and his knowledge was not childish compared to what was known in A.D. 100, by which time the canon was completed.
He also writes: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Paul did not understand the Faith “dimly” compared to how it would be understood a few decades later.
Finally, the one who has fully understood him is God, and thus it is God who he refers to seeing “face to face.” He thus expects perfect knowledge to arrive at the Second Coming, when we will see God (1 John 3:2). That is when these gifts will pass away.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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