In terror the people begged Moses to plead with the Lord for them. He did so, and the fire was quenched. But instead of leading the survivors to be humble and repent, this fearful judgment seemed only to increase their complaints. In all directions the people gathered at the doors of their tents, weeping and lamenting. “The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!’” Yet, despite the hardships, there was not a weak, sickly one in all their tribes.
The heart of Moses sank. In his love for them, he had prayed that his name might be blotted from the book of life rather than for them to perish, and this was their response. They blamed him for all their hardships and even their imaginary sufferings. In his distress he was even tempted to distrust God. His prayer was almost a complaint: “Why have You afflicted Your servant ... that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? ... they weep ... saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.”
The Lord answered his prayer and directed him to appoint seventy men who had good judgment and experience to share his responsibilities. Their influence would help put down rebellion, yet serious evils would eventually result from their promotion. They would never have been chosen if Moses had shown faith as strong as the displays of God’s power and goodness that he had seen. If he had fully relied on God, the Lord would have continually guided him and given him strength for every emergency.
Moses announced the appointment of the seventy elders. The great leader’s instruction to these chosen men could well serve as a model of judicial integrity for the judges and lawmakers of modern times: “Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1:16, 17).
“Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders: and ... they prophesied, although they never did so again.” Like the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, they were filled with “power from on high.” The Lord wished to honor them in the presence of the congregation, to establish confidence in them.
A strong wind blowing from the sea now brought flocks of quails, “about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground.”
All that day and night and the following day, the people worked to gather the food miraculously provided. Immense quantities were secured. All that they did not need for present use they preserved by drying, so that the supply, as promised, was sufficient for a whole month.
God gave the people what was not for their best good because they persisted in wanting it, but they were left to suffer the result. They feasted without restraint, and their gluttony was quickly punished. “The Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” The most guilty among them were stricken as soon as they tasted the food for which they had lusted.
At Hazeroth, the next place they camped after leaving Taberah, a still more bitter trial happened to Moses. Aaron and Miriam had held a position of high honor and leadership in Israel. Both had been connected with Moses in the deliverance of the Hebrews. Miriam, who was richly endowed with gifts of poetry and music, had led the women of Israel in song and dance on the shore of the Red Sea. In the hearts of the people and the honor of Heaven she stood second only to Moses and Aaron.
But in the appointment of the seventy elders, Moses had not consulted Miriam and Aaron, and they became jealous. They felt that their position and authority had been ignored. They thought of themselves as sharing the burden of leadership equally with Moses, and they did not see any need to appoint more assistants.
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