King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 10 notes
1And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
2And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.
Why did the people cry to Moses? Why did they not cry out to the Lord themselves?
They did not know how to access God... Moses was their mediator — sad 😔, when that was not the initial plan.
Moses often pleaded for the people.
On Mount 🗻 Sinai, when God made up his mind to start a new nation with Moses,
Moses advised God against it. Who was Moses to make suggestions to God? And interestingly, God did rescind his decision and heeded Moses's advice.
This tells us a lot about God and about us. We are indeed his sons, and sons do reason kingdom 👑 business with their father the king.
Even when sons are not of age, their father is delighted to hear out their innocent counsel.
And when they are of age, then truly their counsel is heeded.
But their father the king 👑 encourages them to speak up on kingdom matters and to reason with them. Indeed it delights him to hear their thoughts 💭 on issues.
So it is with us. Yet religion preaches things to the contrary.. So we fear 😱 God our father and we barely speak to him or reason things out.
We just cry and grope and plead always, and that has its place, as we saw with Moses, but there is the place of reasoning with the Lord, which most of us never do because of religious indoctrination and lack of knowledge of the Lord and who he is to us and we to him.
3And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.
4And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
6But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
7And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.
8And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
9And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.
Oh, I wonder how it looked — not the manna, but when it appeared.
I can imagine waking up early dawn before the dew settles and sitting to see the formation of the manna,
watching as the dew dried up, and as it did, the manna began forming.
Exodus 16:14 KJV
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
A whole new law of matter and water evaporation existed in the camp of Israel 🇮🇱 — their dew turned not into water vapour but into manna, the bread of angels.
Oh, how I would love to see that moment and the transformation right before my eyes 👀
Here we are told the manna fell upon the dew.
But I don't think 🤔 it fell in the sense that you could see the manna dropping from heaven physically.
To the eyes 👀, it appeared on the dew out of the blue, and as the dew dried up you had the manna.
Exodus 16:14 KJV
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
So combining all these pieces of information,
we see that the manna appeared with the dew, and just as you don't see the dew falling from heaven, so you do not see the manna fall.
But knowing the manna is from God, who is in heaven, and manna is the bread of angels 😇,
it is right to describe it as falling on the earth from heaven 🌎, just as the dew falls on the earth.
However, in appearance to the eyes 👀, it seems to appear when the dew appears, and especially as the dew dries up, the manna is revealed.
This is how we piece together scripture to derive interpretation and understanding.
And I trust the Lord that he would give me understanding of the trinity also, with all the divers 🕊 seemingly contradictory scriptures.
10Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.
11And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?
12Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?
13Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.
14I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
15And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
16And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.
17And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.
18And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.
19Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;
20But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?
21And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
The people wanted flesh to eat, but they had livestock. I don't get it.
22Shall the flocks and the 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 had so gotten into God and his realm that he could have a face to face conversation and even question 🙋 the ways of God.
23And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
24And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.
25And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.
A few key 🗝 things to note 🗒:
1. God came down 👇 into the cloud 🌥.
2. God took of the spirit upon Moses.
3. The spirit upon Moses was given to Moses by God; in other words, the spirit of God was upon Moses.
4. That same spirit is now given among the 70, with the evidence of their prophesying.
5. The same spirit is not divided into seventy parts just because he is upon 70 people, but that spirit is omnipresent and thus can rest on 70 people at a time.
6. The one spirit gives them utterance in prophecy.
7. God, who is spirit and gives his spirit to be upon Moses, at that same time speaks to Moses, and Moses speaks back to him.
8. This is much like Jesus in Jordan during his baptism: the spirit descends upon Jesus and God speaks to Jesus.
9. In point 7 we see a duality, whiles in 8 we see a trinity.
10. Even though God's spirit is upon Moses and he teaches Moses the voice of God, justice, judgements, discernment etc., Moses recognizes that there is one God, and the fact of God's spirit upon him does not produce another God.
11. The spirit is an extension of the many possibilities, powers and/or attributes of God, so he continues in his conversation with God.
12. Same with Jesus, who often refers to, talks to and prays to the Father, though many times he also teaches about the spirit of the Father.
God is one, and he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but in the Old Testament he is Father and Spirit.
Another quick thought 💭.
When God was on with Moses literally, and manifested even physically, who was on his throne? When God comes down in the cloud 🌥 and perpetually was with Israel 🇮🇱,
was his throne empty, or was he seated?
God is spirit, so he is omnipresent, and even his manifest presence, so called, can be at many places; indeed his manifest presence is omnipresent, or better put, can be omnipresent if he chooses to.
26But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.
27And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
28And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.
One of the young men... I wonder, what was there about Joshua that first caught the eye 👁🗨 of Moses?
Did he at one time make a bold statement of absolute trust in the Lord that caught his attention??
29And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!
Wow, glory.
And this desire is fulfilled in us as believers today.
We all have the spirit and we all do prophesy.
30And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
32And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
33And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.
34And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.
Wasn't 1000 kilograms of meat, as some versions put it, a bit too much meat 🥩 for a month per household?
They were literally picking for months.
They doubted when again there would be such a miracle. And God saw their hearts 💕 and evil faithless ways...
And he struck them.
35And the people journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.