This is made due to Pastor Dan of Crossroads' sermon on Numbers.
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- timlyg on Bible Study: The Book of Numbers
- timlyg on Bible Study: The Book of Numbers
- timlyg on Bible Study: The Book of Numbers
- timlyg on Bible Study: The Book of Numbers
- timlyg on Bible Study: The Book of Numbers
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Chapter 1
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Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
verse 10: The people really wept out of despair, sinful regret of "choosing God" rather than their old enslaved lifestyle which provided better food than God's manna even though manna was actually quite savory: Like wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:31), Like cakes baked with olive oil (Numbers 11:8).
Lust (boring daily manna, Numbers 11:5) over gratitude. They wept for the "free" food, but that food came at the cost of their children's lives, physical torture, and complete subjugation ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "In his famous sermon titled The Lie, Reformed theologian Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explained that this is exactly what sin does to the human mind. It causes people to forget the agonizing chains of their past and romanticize their old bondage, simply because they are temporarily uncomfortable with God's path of holiness in the present."
This is how Israel will miss the point of Jesus (the bread of life - the true Manna): We tend to focus heaven as a place for our absolute indulgence, not really the presence of God.
John Calvin observed that when the human heart is gripped by lust or discontent, it will deliberately falsify history. They blot out the reality of their brutal enslavement, the murder of their baby boys, and the bitter groaning that originally made them beg God for rescue.
Moses was displeased for possibly two reasons: 1. His people's rebellion against God, 2. Overwhelming burden from his people.
Keep in mind that when they were weeping at the doors of their tents, they were all facing the tabernacle.
v.16: 70 elders gathered by Moses, anointed by God. This is the foundational principle of Presbyterian church's office of RULING ELDERS.
v.19-20: You shall eat a whole month (not just 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 days) - The quail is a curse from God to the Israelites.
v.26 There's no mistake here that these two who remained in the camp (Eldad & Medad), were of the 70 elders. They were not some random individual unregistered by Moses.
V.27-29 Eldad and Medad served as an example that God's calling is not restricted to a specific denomination, geographical significance, procedure, man-made calling (i.e. sent out by the Church). I think the pastors (Pastor David Su K.T. 蘇桂村牧師 of Elmhurst Reformed Church of Newtown, Pastor Chris of GCC) were wrong about this callings must be sent out from the Church. Of course, they would probably argue that Eldad and Medad were first called by Moses (elected by man) rather than a direct calling from God. They would call this in accordance with Reformed Church Polity (government): that this specific order—human election followed by divine anointing—highlights how God operates through orderly means. A distinction is always made between the External Call (the church recognizing and appointing a person to an office) and the Internal Call (the Holy Spirit actually equipping, regenerating, and anointing that person for the work). Perhaps they overlooked Calvin's consideration for Extraordinary Call (i.e. Elijah), and being too full of themselves of their institutions in the structure of The Ordinary Call. Calvin understood the ordinary call in time of orderly functioning church, that God works through the human means He instituted, such as Moses registering elders and then God ordains them; While the Extraordinary call is recognized as occurring when the institutional church has collapsed, corrupted, or spiritually fallen.
"God, in His ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure." (WCF 5.3)
This (what Joshua is saying to Moses) reminds me of Calvin's criticism of the "unauthorized" man in Mark 9:38-40 (Luke 9:49-50). Saying that Jesus merely tolerated that man since irregular ministry is actually advancing the Gospel and doing no harm to the truth. We shouldn't unseasonably prevent the kingdom of God from being advanced.
However, that doesn't mean that Calvin is right here. Folks like Matthew Henry, John Gill, Matthew Poole, would all disagree with Calvin here. This is a debate within Reformed history regarding Church Order vs. Spiritual Liberty. Calvin focused on the Danger of Chaos (i.e. facing the Anabaptists, etc.); while The later Puritans focused on the Danger of Formalism (i.e. facing rigid structures of the Church of England).
This certainly has nothing to do with Paul's Philippians 1, where people were preaching Christ out of bad motives, which is a very different topic because here we are dealing with proper motive without questioning it.
v.29 “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Here it is clear that Moses is against John Calvin's take on the "unauthorized" men principle. Of course, Calvin would have agreed here, that no one is to prevent the free will of the Holy Spirit working in men. I believe Calvin should have apply his "unauthorized" men principle somewhere else, such as the kings should not act as priests: The separation of church and state.
v.31 Quails falling outside (beside) the camp while manna is presumed still provided INSIDE the camp. But quails were in abundance, up to a day's journey around the perimeter of the camp and 2 cubits deep.
v.33 It's possible from a medical and historical perspective that the Israelites did not understand the biological connection between the quail and the plague, and perhaps there wasn't one such that the plaque was mysteriously not linked to the biological condition of the quails at the time (may not be bird related like bird flu SARS).
Chapter 12