Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: Battling Depression in Scripture
Post Topic: The Bible’s Greatest Leader Has a Melt Down – Moses
Post in Thread: #4
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Next: The Weepiest Prophet in the Bible Laments – Jeremiah
Scripture: Numbers 11:10-23
Key Verses:
Numbers 11:14-15
I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
Observations
Context
Moses never asked to be the leader of God’s people. When Yahweh called him all those years ago at the burning bush, he’d uttered excuse after excuse. And now the people that he led and loved were turning on him.
The destination was Canaan. The Promised Land. The Land of Milk and Honey. Should have been a two-week journey from Egypt. But… unbelief…aimless wandering…whining people. Even rebellion. How much could Moses take?
They were never hungry. Every day, God provided exactly the right amount of manna. But truth be told, they were gagging on manna. There weren’t enough recipe books to vary the menu. They ate manna soup, manna bread, manna steak, even manna pie – free food to be sure, but they were gagging. They sulked. They complained. They grumbled that back in Egypt, at least they had meat to eat. (Not true).
The Wailing (v10)
Every family was wailing at the entrance of their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry.
Moses has a meltdown (a paraphrase)
Moses turned their wailing into his own sarcastic complaining to God.
- Why have you placed the burden of these people on my shoulders?
- Did I give birth to these people?
- You want me to pretend I’m their mother and carry them in my arms to the Promised Land?
- Kill me please! I can’t handle these grumpy complainers any longer.
God’s Response (another paraphrase)
God was angered by the people’s incessant grumbling rather than gratitude.
- You want meat? I’ll give you meat! You’ll have so much meat it’ll be coming out of your nose.
- You’ll have meat for an entire month!
- Moses interrupted. “There’s not enough fish in the sea or livestock in their midst to feed everyone.”
- What, are my arms too short? Just watch me, Moses!
Interpretation
Author
Moses himself.
Setting
The exact spot cannot be pinpointed, but this narrative takes place in the wilderness of Paran, after a three-day journey from Mt. Sinai. This was a very arid and lifeless desert-scape.
Genre
Numbers is a historical chronicle that track the lives of Moses and the Israelites, but also tracks laws and various lists. It can be thought of as an epic story of traveling and wandering that describes peoples and lands encountered. This section (chapter 11) is a historical narrative account of a specific event, that can be thought of as an anti-epic, in that it describes disharmony and strife.
Takeaways
- The people’s monotonous morning ritual contributed to their dissatisfaction.
- Gather up manna for that day only (except the day before Sabbath).
- Make manna pancakes with no butter or syrup.
- Grind manna into powder to cook into something else later.
- Whine and complain and glare at Moses.
- Rinse and repeat the next day.
- I complain to my wife if I have to eat the same meal twice in the same week. So I can understand the frustration.
- These people, however, brought it upon themselves. There was a reason they were wandering in the wilderness instead of taking possession of the Promised Land – their lack of faith and their lack of holiness.
- Wishing they’d never left slavery in Egypt? Really?
- A number of factors led to Moses preferring death to this struggle in the wilderness:
- His expectation – Out of the triumph of Egypt and the Red Sea, he’d expected to march right into the Promised Land. Not to wander in the desert for decades.
- Complaining – The people’s constant complaining wore him down. What leader wouldn’t lose heart?
- Self-doubt – Moses’ feelings of inadequacies plagued him from the beginning when God called him.
- The burden – Moses loved these people and didn’t want them to suffer. He blamed God for placing their burden on his inadequate shoulders.
- As we read beyond this passage, God did offer some relief. He provided elders to help. And he sent quail. So much meat. The people soon were gagging on their quail, again upset.
- The true resolution to Moses’ depression, however, isn’t obvious from this passage. Relief didn’t come immediately.
- You have to consider the entire story of this great prophet and leader, which we’ll touch on in the Correlation section.
Imagine
At first, the wind had brought relief from the sticky heat of the relentless sun. But now, Moses wished for a return to the stagnant air. He tightened the wrap around his face, but somehow the sand still penetrated into his eyes and his throat. He sensed it caking on his sweaty skin under his tunic.
His top aide, young Joshua, gripped his elbow, guiding him past rows of tents toward the tabernacle. As if I’m a helpless old man. Women mashed manna in their bowls, either ignoring or glaring at him.
A group of Benjamites stepped into the path, blocking them. Joshua leaped in front of Moses, like a mother bear protecting her young. Annoyed, Moses elbowed his way around Joshua.
The Benjamite elder held up a hand. “Abidan son of Gideoni,” Moses said. “What now?”
“Manna, sand, and more manna.” Abidan’s voice came out raspy. “Raw manna. Manna flour. Burnt manna. All the same. It sticks in our throat. Day after day. Why did you bring us to the desert to live like this? Are we livestock, that we can eat no meat? We’d be better off back in Egypt!”
“What do you expect me to do? Am I a sorcerer that can magically turn manna into mutton?”
Anger flashed across Abidan’s face. “You’re the one that brought us out here! You’re the one to whom God shows favor. Does he talk to any of us? Explain his plan to any of us? No! Only to the great Moses! How do we know you are relaying the messages correctly? Have you told him we need meat? Just one day, something different! Have you told him?”
“Where do you think we’re headed?” Joshua said. “Move aside.”
A larger crowd had formed, but now they parted like the Red Sea. As Moses and Joshua passed through them, Moses could feel their pain. He regretted snapping at Abidan. He longed for a simple solution. Why were they so stubborn?
“Meat!” Abidan called from the back of the pack. “Tell him to give us meat!”
The day I noticed that bush on fire but not burning up… I should have turned and run the other way. I told God I wasn’t the right man for the job. Why did he pick me? Just because I spent my youth in the palace of the Egyptian princess? I can’t do this any more. It’s too much.
Correlation
God’s Provision in the Wilderness
- Deuteronomy 2:7 – The Lord watched over the Israelites journey through the vast wilderness. For forty years, the Lord was with them, and they lacked no essentials.
- Deuteronomy 29:5 – During the forty years of wandering, their clothes and shoes did not wear out.
- Deuteronomy 8:15-18
- God led them through the dreadful, waterless land, full of snakes and scorpions.
- He brought water out of the rock and provided manna.
- It was not the people’s strength that sustained them, but God.
40 years later, Moses had learned to fully trust God rather than lean on his own understanding.
Hope When We Are Wandering
Isaiah 43:19 – Feel like you are wandering aimlessly in the wilderness of life, unappreciated by the people around you? God brought you into this wilderness. He creates streams in the wasteland.
Moses’ Legacy
Deuteronomy 32:10-12 – The final verses in the Pentateuch speak for themselves about Moses:
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. 12 For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Things might not have gone down the way Moses envisioned them that night that the Angel of Death ripped the heart out of Egypt. But Moses overcame his despair in the wilderness and trusted God’s plan to play out. Moses left an unmatched legacy.
Application
Generic Applications
- God asks us to step out of our comfort zone to lead others, even when we feel inadequate. Remember – it isn’t about us. It’s about Him.
- Moses loved his people. He advocated for them with God on numerous occasions, pleading for mercy when they didn’t deserve it. He felt a burden for these people. The weight of that burden led to depression, to the point where he asked God to kill him.
- The more we care about a group we are leading or a ministry we guide, the more intensely it affects us when that group flounders or that ministry struggles.
- This is a sign of our commitment, not of our failure.
- Our only solution, as with Moses, is to depend on God.
Personalize it
- Have you been thrust into a leadership role, but you’re not seeing the results you’d hoped for? Perhaps you’re not even seeing progress? Is the stress of it gnawing at your mental health?
- One of Satan’s best lies is that we aren’t worthy of being used by God.
- Ultimately, success is up to God, not us.
- Our job is to do what he asks of us and to leave the results to him.
- If you are haunted by lack of progress or fear of inadequacy, resolve to give it to God. Be content with doing your best and giving the results to him.
- Am I guilty of complaining about leadership in my church?
- Have I considered how the whining Israelites affected Moses’ psyche?
- Can I say an encouraging word to someone in leadership today instead?
- Am I wandering through a spiritual desert? How can the story of Moses encourage me?
Summary
In this series about Bible characters who experienced depression, we are adding a bonus section that summarizes each person’s affliction.
Cause, false expectation, remedy
Cause – Burden of immense responsibility, coupled with an unexpected detour into a seemingly endless wilderness. The last straw to send Moses into a tailspin – the people he loved heaping complaints upon him.
False Expectation – Moses didn’t expect the burden of God’s call to be this heavy. He’d expected to be conquering the Promised Land, not wandering in the wilderness.
Remedy – Moses learned to depend on God; to trust God’s plan rather than try to create his own path.
Moses died at the edge of the Promised Land. He never fully saw the results of his life-endeavor. But in the end, he trusted God, and his legacy lives forever.
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.
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