Num.11:4-35 ideas for family worship

It’s a young Church, and it behaves in childish ways!  Generally wailing when it doesn’t get what it wants!

This is a tricky passage to deal with at the level of Family Worship, especially with younger children, but the issue is basically focussed on what we want.  The ‘rabble’ want what the world has to offer...  conveniently forgetting the terrible price they would have to pay for the fleeting pleasures of sin (Heb.11:25).  Forget the tyranny, slavery, and the death of our children – at least we’d have the chance to sink our teeth into a melon!  It’s the kind of warped thinking that sin – and our desire for sin – produces.  This could be a great teaching point!  what does the world offer us...  and what is the terrible price we’d have to pay!  You could use adverts as a way of visualising some of this.  How can we cultivate an appetite for the things of God?  How can we be those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matt.5:6)?  How can we long for the future He has redeemed us for?   Do you present involvement in the life of the Church as something to be enjoyed?  As a place where these appetites can be cultivated?

How do we change our appetites?

Another key theme is that of influence.  This might be easier to work with as it feels less abstract.  understanding the dynamics of influencing and being influenced.  In crass terms, we often talk about role-models, or perhaps peer-pressure.  Wanting to fit in is a God-given instinct.  We are supposed to want to fit in with the Church and to find role models (I Cor.11:1 & Phil.3:17).

Timothy is told by Paul: ‘...set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity’ (I Tim.4:12), and the aspiration of Hebrews is that we would ‘imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’ (6:12). 

But this God-given dynamic can also be warped and become deeply problematic.  We see this in Numbers 11, where the rabble actually influences the rest of the Church in a negative way that has a huge impact on the leadership!!  Moses has a kind of spiritual breakdown. 

Why not have a think about who could function as spiritual role models for your child(ren).  As parents this is first and foremost our privilege, but it really helps when we have others around who re-inforce the example we are setting our children in loving the Lord (Deut.6:5-9).  This can be god-parents, others from MIE, other Christian families that you build relationships with...  pray about this as a family... 

AND

think about how you can be an encouraging example to others.  What can you do this week as a family, that would set a great example that could inspire others! 

Num.11:4-35 Bible Study

So, we’re three days out from Sinai, and for the first time the Lord has brought them to a place where they can rest (10:33).  His Presence is with them, protecting and shading them.  Daily they gather the manna (literally heavenly food eaten by angels, see Ps.78:24-25).  And bizarre though it may seem, they ‘began to crave other food’, and wailing about having been redeemed by the Lord.  At least a proportion of the Israelites actually began to wish they could go back to their slavery...  at least they had a varied diet. 

The impact on Moses is a tragedy in its own right.  Amongst the greatest pastors the Church has ever been blessed with, Moses has faithfully led the Israelites out of Egypt.  He has been used by the Lord in singular ways to teach and structure the life and worship of this new-found people.  He has modelled for them the glorious ministry of Christ their Mediator.  He has taught them, interceded for them, led them, endured their grumbling, and their sullen reluctance to embrace the vision of life their Lord has held out to them.  He is likely elated on their behalf at the success of their first journey.  His own response has been one of worship as the Ark was settled back into its place in the Tabernacle (10:36).  But his joy is punctured when he hears ‘the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents’ (11:10).  He is overwhelmed and crushed that – in spite of everything they have experienced over the last year – they would reject the Lord’s purposes for them so fundamentally.  To wish they had never been redeemed...  to long not for the Land the Lord had promised them, but for a return to the tyranny and threat of Egypt...  to refuse to trust that He could and would provide for them!   Moses is pushed to the limit by their petulance, and is actually willing to die if that is the only way out (11:15).  Their heart is revealed (Deut.8:2), and it is not a heart that trusts and delights in the Lord.  Like Esau of old, they would sell their birth right for meal (Gen.25:29-34, contra Matt.4:1-3).

The Lord answers both prayers: Moses’ for help in bearing the burden of the people; and the peoples’ for meat.  Though the manner of answering is radically different.  Elders are raised up to share the burden of the people; and quail to a depth of 3ft falls daily on the camp.  People literally had to wade through quail.  But even this miraculous and extravagant provision doesn’t produce repentance; the people don’t confess the sinfulness of their failure to trust the Lord’s goodness.  They ignored the Lord, and simply stuffed their faces for 24 hours straight (11:22-23).  Finally, the Lord’s anger (and remember, he is slow to anger, so this is an extraordinary moment) could be constrained no longer!  Their ingratitude and greed shows the idolatry of their own appetites.  The people are given a terrifying lesson: sin only ever leads to death.  To choose to be obsessed with our own appetites and desires, rather than with the Presence and provision of the Lord, is to be buried in ‘the graves of craving’. 

Questions

In Exodus 16:31 the manna was said to taste of honey, but here in Num.11:8, it is said to ‘taste like something made with olive oil’.  What’s changed?  What is this teaching us about the spiritual dynamics of our own pilgrimage through the ‘wilderness’ of this age?

Can you understand someone who is offered the bread of angels to live on, but who would rather have the menu of 11:4-5?  What is going on in their mind and heart? 

Who do you think this ‘rabble’ is?  Why are they spoken of in such disparaging terms?

Is Moses’ reaction (11:10-15) appropriate? ...understandable? ...sinful?  Why does the wailing of the people have such a profound impact on the leadership?  How does this insight into the experience of Church leadership effect the way you think about the relationship between a congregation and their leadership?  How would that play out in MIE?

Seeking first the things of the Lord and trusting Him to provide for us remains one of the first lessons He would have us learn (Matt.6:33).  From that passage in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.6:25-34), what do we need to be convinced of before we can learn this lesson?  Can you share from your own experience of being a Christian how this looks for you?  Have you any stories you can share about when you experienced God’s provision after you first sought His Kingdom and righteousness?

Read Phil.4:10-13.  How is Paul’s attitude different from that of the Israelites in Num.11?  Why does Paul call the ability to be content a ‘secret’?  How can we learn this secret?  How can you spot a Christian who is content? 

Do you think that all of the 70 elders were actually Christians (11:25)?  What about Eldad and Medad (11:26)?  Can you experience the Spirit, and even be caught up in the gifts of the Spirit and not be a Christian?  Have a look at Heb.6:4-6.  How can someone who has ‘shared in the Holy Spirit’ then fall away as in Heb.6:6?  Do you think the parable in Heb.6:7-8 helps us understand Num.11 any better?

What do you make of 11:29?  What would it mean if Moses wish were granted? 

Num.9:1-14 Bible Study

Why are we starting in Numbers 9?  Because strange though it first sounds, this is where the Book of Numbers starts.  Compare Num.1:1 (the first day of the second month of the second year...) with Num.9:1 (the first month of the second year)...  and we know it was before the 14th (9:3).  Which raises the question, ‘Why 8 Chapters of legislative material before we get to the action?’.  In part because Num.1-8 sets the context.  It shows how everyone in the Church in connected to and invested in the ministry of the Tabernacle (i.e. the proclaiming of the Gospel to the nations).  That extended introduction also contains the first census (numbering of the people) from which the Book takes its name.  Before we get into the narrative of the journeyings of God’s people, we need to know who those people are, and what it is that defines them.

And so we join the ancient Church a year after their liberation from Egypt.  That year has been spent en route from the land of their captivity (3 months) and then camped at the foot of Sinai.  Whilst there they have been building the Tabernacle, and learning how to worship the LORD there.  Now they are getting ready for their first ‘trial run’ (see 10:11-34 for the first 3-Day journey).  Moving a mass of people the size of the Church is a huge logistical undertaking, and we learn the elegant organisation required.  But first: Passover ‘...in accordance with all its rules and regulations’ (9:3).

That might seem restrictive.  By and large, we don’t appreciate our worship being constrained by rules and regulations.  In our time we tend to prize freedom (and in some cases, spontaneity) as marks of true, spiritual worship.  But that is because, by and large, we have forgotten that as we worship in accordance with the Lord’s directives, He is teaching us about Christ: about His work for us, and about the discipleship to which He is calling us.  This profound Spiritual dynamic in our gathered and formal worship might be news to us, but it has always characterised truly Christian worship.  We need to step back from our obsession with what we want to say in worship, and learn to listen to what He wants to say, and with what He wants us to say!

Questions:

What does it mean to say that ‘some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body’ (v.6)?  Why does coming into contact with death mean they can’t join the worship of the people of God? 

Is there anything today that would mean we can’t join the worship of the people of God?  Can we be rendered unclean in the same way? 

What is the attitude of those who were going to have to miss out on the celebration of the Passover?  Do we ever feel the same about the corporate worship of God’s people?

Why is Moses so cautious about responding to the peoples’ question (v.8)? 

Having read through Num.9:1-14, what would you make of someone who could in the worship of the Church, but decided not to?   Why is the treatment of someone who could have celebrated the Passover but didn’t so severe?  Should this be our attitude today?

How does the Passover teach us about Christ and the Gospel?

There is more going on here than you might realise.  If you want to explore this further you can do so at the Jews for Jesus website.

Who is ‘the foreigner’ that the Lord has in mind in 9:14?  What does this teach us about the nature of the Old Testament Church?  How then should we respond to the idea that in the Old Testament, the Church is an ethnically specific reality (i.e. about a particular race)?

Num.9:1-14 Ideas for Family Worship

Why not have a simple Messianic Passover meal for dinner tonight?  Roast lamb, pitta (unleavened bread), grape juice / wine, parsley (instead of bitter herbs) - I’ll leave it to you to decide whether to have salted water (to remember the tears shed).  You could read the story of the Passover, or watch the film, ‘Prince of Egypt’ and talk about how Jesus is the fulfilment of the Passover.  There are more complicated versions of the Messianic Passover on line, but this would get the idea across.  There is a full account in Ex.12, and bit of liturgy that goes with the meal in Ex.13:14-16.

As you enjoy this simple meal together, talk as a family about what it means to live in a way that is enslaved to sin, under the tyranny of the devil, and under the shadow of death.  And what it means to be liberated to live as the people of God.  There are all kinds of bases you could hit, such as Jesus’ teaching in John 8:31-47; or exploring how ‘celebrity culture’ is born out of our fear of death; or exploring the difference between slavery and freedom, and what it means to be free as a Christian. You might find it helpful to connect it with Communion (see e.g.. Matt.26).

For younger children, you might find this a helpful resource:

Jesus Storybook Bible, ‘God to the rescue’, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDlWC0nQoOI

As parents we are chief evangelists and disciple-makers when it comes to our children.  This gives us an incredible opportunity to talk with our children about what it means to trust in the death of Christ for salvation...  why being good or having your own bespoke spirituality isn’t really going to help...  we can talk with them about how the Lord delivered His people and then taught them how to live by giving them the 10 Commandments.  We can explore what it means to be those who obey everything HE has commanded...  and all in the context of a meal!!

Enjoy.