However, we cannot but see that, in shrinking from a position of weighty responsibility, Moses was really giving up a place of high dignity and holy privilege. This seems most evident from the following passage: “And 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_. And 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.’” (Ver. 16, 17.)
Was there any additional power gained by the introduction of seventy men? Not spiritual power, certainly, inasmuch as it was only the spirit that was upon Moses after all. True, there were seventy men instead of one, but the multiplication of men was no increase of spiritual power. It saved Moses trouble, but it lost him dignity. He was henceforth to be a joint-instrument instead of the sole one. It may be said that Moses (blessed servant as he was!) did not want dignity for himself, but rather sought a shady, retired, humble path. No doubt; but this does not touch the question before us. Moses, as we shall see presently, was the meekest man upon the face of the earth; nor do we mean even to hint that any mere man would have done better under the circumstances. But then we must seek to bear away with us the great practical lesson which our chapter so impressively teaches. The very best of men fail; and it seems exceedingly plain that Moses, in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, was not in the calm elevation of faith. He appears, for the moment, to have lost that even balance of soul which is the sure result of finding one’s centre in the living God. We gather this, not merely from the fact of his tottering beneath the weight of his responsibility; but let us ponder the following paragraph:—
“And 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. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but 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?’ And 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. Shall 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?’ And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether My word will come to pass unto thee or not.’” (Ver. 18-23.)
In all this we see the working of that spirit of unbelief which ever tends to limit the Holy One of Israel. Could not the almighty God, the possessor of heaven and earth, the Creator of the ends of the earth—could not He provide flesh for six hundred thousand footmen? Alas! it is just here we all so sadly fail. We do not enter, as we ought, into the reality of having to do with the living God. Faith brings God into the scene, and therefore it knows absolutely nothing of difficulties—yea, it laughs at impossibilities. In the judgment of faith, God is the grand answer to every question—the grand solution of every difficulty. It refers all to Him; and hence it matters not in the least to faith whether it be six hundred thousand or six hundred millions; it knows that God is all-sufficient. It finds all its resources in Him. Unbelief says, “_How_ can such and such things be?” It is full of “Hows;” but, faith has one great answer to ten thousand “hows,” and that answer is,—GOD.
“And 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. And 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.”