In this chapter is an account of the people complaining for food other than the manna. It is similar to Exodus chapter 16, so I do not know if it is the same incident or another. If it is another incident then the Israelites did not learn their lesson the first time they asked for meat, did they!
The complaining of the people always cause God to be angry with them. He was their portion and was able to fill them with what He knew they needed. The people complained to God and His holy fire went and burned those in the outskirts of the camp. They cried out to Moses to get YHWH to stop the fire. Moses interceded and God stopped the burning fire.
Among the Israelites were people who were mixed-some were of Israeli/Gentile parentage; others were gentiles. These mixed peoples began to lust for meat and for the type of diet they enjoyed in Egypt. The Israelites joined them in this lusting. They complained in their tents where only God would know. They complained with weeping about the manna being the only food before their eyes. Moses went about the tents and heard them weeping and complaining.
Moses was fed up. He was overwhelmed. He was discouraged. He was so low that he asked God to kill him so he would be free of the burdens of his life. Is there a hint of Moses believing in an afterlife free of wretchedness in vs. 15? The verse says that Moses considered it to be favored of God to be killed to be freed.
Regardless, Moses was unable to bear the burdens of the needs of the people any longer. He was at the breaking point, equating the burden of the welfare of the multitude to that of mother of multiples whom she was trying to nurse each and everyone to satisfaction. Nursing and infant is not very much of a burden. It is necessary for the child to consume what the mother alone could supply by God's design, but when a pregnancy results in triplets, quads, quints and more, one mother just cannot successfully meet the nourishment needs of all of them. .. cont. to pt. 2
The complaining of the people always cause God to be angry with them. He was their portion and was able to fill them with what He knew they needed. The people complained to God and His holy fire went and burned those in the outskirts of the camp. They cried out to Moses to get YHWH to stop the fire. Moses interceded and God stopped the burning fire.
Among the Israelites were people who were mixed-some were of Israeli/Gentile parentage; others were gentiles. These mixed peoples began to lust for meat and for the type of diet they enjoyed in Egypt. The Israelites joined them in this lusting. They complained in their tents where only God would know. They complained with weeping about the manna being the only food before their eyes. Moses went about the tents and heard them weeping and complaining.
Moses was fed up. He was overwhelmed. He was discouraged. He was so low that he asked God to kill him so he would be free of the burdens of his life. Is there a hint of Moses believing in an afterlife free of wretchedness in vs. 15? The verse says that Moses considered it to be favored of God to be killed to be freed.
Regardless, Moses was unable to bear the burdens of the needs of the people any longer. He was at the breaking point, equating the burden of the welfare of the multitude to that of mother of multiples whom she was trying to nurse each and everyone to satisfaction. Nursing and infant is not very much of a burden. It is necessary for the child to consume what the mother alone could supply by God's design, but when a pregnancy results in triplets, quads, quints and more, one mother just cannot successfully meet the nourishment needs of all of them. .. cont. to pt. 2
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