Hey Bible Readers I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap [Music] yesterday the camp set out for the first time in a year and today we saw a series of struggles with complaints gossip and unbelief we opened today with grumbling we don't know what the grumbling in these first three verses is about but it seems to be unwarranted because in his anger God sends a fire around the edges of the camp then they start grumbling again about food their complaints aren't related to an unmet need God has given them Manna to eat this is over a want it's not desperation it's entitlement this is about doubting God's goodness in their lives he provided for them and they didn't think that it was sufficient once again they look longingly back at Egypt and they don't realize that whatever God calls you to endure with him is better than any kind of abundance without him and let's be honest it wasn't like they had abundance in Egypt anyway they're romanticizing the past in 1120 God calls there complaining a rejection of him that really makes me want to guard my words Moses is stressed out by all their crying and he takes all his frustration out on God but God isn't his problem the people are his problem maybe you can relate anyway Moses intercedes for the people and God addresses the real problem his solution involves not only a delegation of responsibility which Moses can do but a distribution of God's spirit which only God can do when God the spirit is distributed among them they begin to prophesy what does this mean prophecy at the very least is truth telling Moses says he wishes all God's people were prophets and Paul reiterates this in the New Testament in First Corinthians 14. up to this point Moses was the only one communicating the words of God to the people but here there are lots of others doing it now this brief moment of Prophecy helped establish trust this is a blessing to the whole group because now these leaders within the camp are showing evidence of being connected to God as well having the Spirit Carries a real weight and responsibility for these new leaders and Moses is thrilled to share Authority with them even though God maintains that he and Moses have a distinct relationship God says he'll send the meat that the people want in fact he'll send so much of it that they regret asking have you ever heard the stories of lottery winners whose entire lives are ruined by their winning and who regret ever playing to begin with that's kind of what this reminds me of God sends a wind that blows a lot of quail into the area piling their dead bodies up three feet high it's like a snowstorm but with birds those who gathered the least amount of quail gathered more than one thousand two liter bottles but at the start of their coil Feast God's truck some people with a plague directly related to their grumbling and their mistrust of his heart I'm confident he was just in which people he struck down after all he knows hearts and he sees everything they named that place kibrothava which translates to Graves of craving that's potent after Moses deals with the people's Gremlin a fire outside the camp more grumbling a plague inside the camp then he gets hit with some family drama he can't catch a break Miriam and Aaron his sister and brother push back on his leadership and throw out Prejudice remarks against his wife who was from Ethiopia Moses doesn't fight back maybe he trusts God to act or maybe he's just too emotionally exhausted at this point to try to fight such Petty battles when there are real lives at stake or maybe both God calls all three of them into a meeting and rebukes Miriam and Aaron this reminds me of when God rebuked job's three friends then God strikes Miriam with Leprosy she's probably the one who stirred up the whole sibling rivalry and Moses asked God to heal her God does but then puts her in time out for a week and she has to live outside the camp and get clean and probably think about what she's done but even these consequences doled out by God are still a means of restoration not just punishment one thing worth noting is that the entire Camp was impacted by Miriam's sin of gossip and slander they had to wait another week before they could set out again no one sins in a vacuum our sins impact others when they finally do move on and head to the Wilderness of perin God tells Moses to send 12 Spies a leader from among each tribe to spy out the land he's promised them since their enemies are currently inhabiting it you probably recognize the name of one of the spies Joshua he was the leader of the impromptu army they had to throw together when they got attacked by the amalekites in Exodus 17. he was Moses assistant and he'll also be Moses successor when Moses eventually dies we'll also see that Moses pulls a bit of a god move with him renaming him from Hosea which means he saves to Joshua which means Yahweh saves I'm giving you all these details because we get to read the whole book of Joshua's adventures in about three weeks today was a good day to see what kind of character Joshua displayed after spying out the land of Canaan for 40 days and seeing how amazing and fertile it was only two of the leaders believed God's promise that they can take the land those two are Caleb from the tribe of Judah which is the largest tribe and Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim which is possibly the smallest of the 12 non-levite tribes at this point the greatest and the least the other 10 spies leaders of their tribes doubt that God will provide this is a big deal and in fact it's a game changer When leaders are afraid When leaders don't trust God followers certainly won't either more on that in the days to come the last thing I want to point out is the reference to the Nephilim here you may remember them from Genesis 6 ancient Jews believe these to be a crossbreed between humans and fallen angels how can they show up here again if God wiped him out during the flood here are three theories first it's possible that more Fallen Angels were up to the same old tricks second it's possible that the legend of the Nephilim was carried down to the generations and that it just became a term they used to refer to any kind of particularly large people kind of like the way we might use the word Viking today third since the ten spies who doubted were so afraid they're likely just exaggerating to scare the people out of taking the land this report of Nephilim in the land was never confirmed by God Joshua or Caleb so it's probably just fear talking what was your God shot today I loved the moment where God the spirit spread himself out across the elders as a person in leadership this made my heart breathe a sigh of relief Moses finally has some teammates and as the lover of the Trinity it's beautiful to think of the three distinct persons of our one unified God all represented in the camp in various ways God the Father dwelling in the holy of holies God the spirit resting on Moses and the others he chose and likely but not certain God the son appearing as the pillar of cloud and Fire I would have loved to be in that camp to see the Trinity on display in such a unique way but to be honest it's probably a good thing I wasn't because I definitely would have been one of those people complaining about the lack of meat I trust God has me right where he wants me right here with him right now and he's where the joy is how great would it be if your church joined us in reading through the Bible next year we would love that so whether you're on staff at a church or you know someone who is or maybe you're brand new at a church but you're feeling bold enough to send an email through the contact page of their website we would love for you to mention the Bible recap and suggest us as a way to help your whole church read through scripture together next year tell your church how much it has changed your own walk with God and how surprisingly doable it is we even have a weekly discussion guide that makes it ideal for home groups to walk through the Bible recap together in community you can point your church to the church page of our website for more info the Bible recap.com forward slash Church [Music]