Yahweh's Response To Moses: The Appointment of the Seventy Elders and The People Will Have Food (Numbers 11:16-23).
At Moses' plea Yahweh graciously responded to both his problems, not by killing him, but by providing helpers for him and subsequently meat for the people. God does not desert those who trust Him simply because they sometimes have doubts. If we trust Him and come to Him God is never without an answer to our problems. First He calmly tells us, as He did Moses, to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and rather do something about it, then He explains that He too will do something about it.
We should note the contrast between the seventy elders and the people. This is a deliberate contrast. The giving of the Spirit is described like a breath of fresh air in the midst of the people's craving for flesh and its provision to their cost. Here on the one hand are these men receiving the Spirit. And there on the other are the people craving flesh. Both are blessed by Yahweh's ruach (‘spirit, wind' - the one by the spirit, the other by the wind), but in the one case it is permanent and results in a permanent transformation, in the other it results in greed and plague. This was due, not to God's perversity, but to the perversity of the people. God longs to bless all, but only those who will receive it are truly blessed.
The structure of the first section is as follows:
a Moses to gather the seventy men (Numbers 11:16).
b Yahweh will endue them with the Spirit to help Moses
c The people are called because they said, ‘who will give us flesh to eat, it was well with us in Egypt?'
c The people will be surfeited with flesh because they said, ‘why came we forth from Egypt?'
b Can Yahweh provide food for all the people? (Numbers 11:21-22).
a Yahweh's promise for both will come about (Numbers 11:23).
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you bear it not yourself alone.”
He told him to choose out seventy elders of Israel, men whom he knew to be true and reliable elders, with officers over them (thus he must include the most senior elders), and bring them to the Tent of meeting. The purpose was that they might stand there with Moses before Yahweh, as those who would be his assistants. They were to be endued in order to perform the supervisory task that up to this time he had borne alone.
The number seventy indicated divine perfection intensified (7x10) and would demonstrate that they were chosen by God and that they represented the patriarchate (the seventy) that had ‘entered Egypt' when they too fled because of shortage of food (Exodus 1). Here again ‘the seventy' would be in authority over Yahweh's people.
Then, Yahweh promised, He would Himself ‘come down' and talk with Moses there. And He would take some of the Spirit that He had put on Moses and put it on them. Thus fortified by the Spirit they would be able to help to bear the burden of the people so that Moses need not bear it alone. This did not mean that somehow Moses would lose some of the Spirit that was within him. It was a declaration to all that these men would succeed because they had received something of the Spirit that possessed Moses. Moses was like a burning flame. Fire could be taken from him without him being diminished. It was still to Moses that all should look. Joshua understood this rightly (Numbers 11:28). Where Joshua's understanding failed was in that he did not recognise that it was still open to Yahweh to work as He would, and Moses' yearning that all the people might have the Spirit.
There can be no real doubt that we are to see here the ‘Spirit of God'. It was He Who possessed Moses. Now He would come on the selected elders too. God Himself would possess them and guide them.
“ And you say to the people, “Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and you shall eat flesh; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, ‘Who shall give us flesh to eat, for it was well with us in Egypt?' Therefore Yahweh will give you flesh, and you shall eat.”
Then he was to call the people together and call on them to ‘sanctify themselves' ready for the next day when He would act and provide them with meat. That is, they had to wash their clothing and ensure that they were ritually clean. By doing this they were made to recognise that what followed did come from Yahweh. They could only receive it by preparing themselves. God wanted this to be a spiritual experience for them which would then turn them to the things of the Spirit.
So Moses must not allow them to get away scot free. They were to be made aware that God knew of their behaviour. When they had wept they had wept in the ears of Yahweh. He had been fully aware of their weeping, and the true reason that lay behind it. They had said, “who will give us flesh to eat for it was well with us in Egypt” '. They had turned away from God's purposes for them, back to Egypt. Hopefully when they heard this they would feel ashamed, For the truth was that it had not been well with them in Egypt. The Egyptians had not come to them saying, ‘Here you are, have as much meat as you want'. But now Yahweh would. Yahweh would give them flesh to eat.
“You shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole moon period, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you, because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why did we come forth out of Egypt?' ”
‘And Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred 'eleph footmen, and you have said, ‘I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.' Shall flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?” '
Moses could not believe his ears. Where was Yahweh going to get so much meat from? Were there not six hundred units of foot men to be fed, to say nothing of their families? And yet Yahweh had promised that they would have food for a whole month. Would it mean killing their flocks and herds? That was something that they did not wish to do. They would need those when they entered the land. Or were there enough fish available in the nearest sea to meet their needs? He was clutching at straws. He did not believe that God could do it. How quickly even Moses had forgotten what God had done in Egypt.
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Is Yahweh's hand made short? Now shall you see whether my word shall come about to you or not.'
Yahweh challenged him in return. Did he really think that Yahweh's arm had been foreshortened? Did he really think that anything was too hard for Him? Let him wait and see. He would soon see whether Yahweh's promise came about or not.