I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
The cry belongs to Israel's murmuring in the wilderness and the judgment at Taberah, when complaints against God showed rebellion after great evidence of His power and after covenanting to obey Him. At that time Israel wept throughout their families at the doors of their tents for flesh meat, dissatisfied with the food God provided and craving meat for themselves. Though manna from heaven was given them, even angels' food, it did not satisfy them, and they mourned and murmured because they could not have flesh meats as they desired.
God granted the craving and gave that vast multitude quails in abundance, but gave the meat in anger as transgression that reaped its result. He worked no miracle to preserve life, and while the flesh was still between their teeth plague came upon them and many died while eating it, destroying thousands of their number. Moses felt unable to carry the responsibility of leading Israel alone because the people's complaints and demands made the burden too heavy for him, leaving him overwhelmed by responsibility.
The burden too heavy to bear alone was continually witnessing Israel's disobedience and hearing their murmurings against his commands and against God Himself. Placed by God as a nursing father to make the people's sufferings his own, he found their unsubmissive spirit too heavy to carry. He would rather die than watch their perverseness draw down judgments upon themselves while the enemies of God rejoiced in their destruction. He felt the weight and responsibility of the work entrusted to him more deeply than Aaron and Miriam, though they had been chosen to assist him, and God had been his counselor.
His words were spoken in displeasure and distress in a state that nearly distrusted God and asked to die, and they were almost a complaint that did not honor God. He magnified his burden, though God was the true worker and Moses was only His instrument. He could have borne the burden had the people supported him, but their perversity and his fear of seeing Israel disgraced weighed on him. Had he trusted fully in God, God would have strengthened and guarded him without any enlarged authority of others.
God relieved him by directing him to appoint seventy elders, dividing the burden among seventy men instead of leaving it on one person so they could help bear the people. The sharing was accomplished by taking of the Spirit upon Moses and putting it upon those elders so they could help bear the burden. Though the best qualified man in Israel to lead the people, Moses declared he could not carry the work by himself because he did not want to keep all the honor of government for himself, and knew he must share the responsibilities with counsellors.
Sharing the government means choosing wise, God-fearing, able men who fear God, love truth and hate covetousness, keeping them in their position of trust while they prove loyal and faithful. They serve as rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens who show favor to no one, do no wrong to gain favor, take no bribes, refuse to be overawed by evil men, and let equity govern every decision, with only the causes too hard for them brought to Moses. The craving for flesh shows why temperance in eating and drinking matters, because health reformers have clearer minds to discern what does and does not affect the salvation of the soul.
The cry belongs to Israel's murmuring in the wilderness and the judgment at Taberah, when complaints against God showed rebellion after great evidence of His power and after covenanting to obey Him. At that time Israel wept throughout their families at the doors of their tents for flesh meat, dissatisfied with the food God provided and craving meat for themselves. Though manna from heaven was given them, even angels' food, it did not satisfy them, and they mourned and murmured because they could not have flesh meats as they desired.
God granted the craving and gave that vast multitude quails in abundance, but gave the meat in anger as transgression that reaped its result. He worked no miracle to preserve life, and while the flesh was still between their teeth plague came upon them and many died while eating it, destroying thousands of their number. Moses felt unable to carry the responsibility of leading Israel alone because the people's complaints and demands made the burden too heavy for him, leaving him overwhelmed by responsibility.
The burden too heavy to bear alone was continually witnessing Israel's disobedience and hearing their murmurings against his commands and against God Himself. Placed by God as a nursing father to make the people's sufferings his own, he found their unsubmissive spirit too heavy to carry. He would rather die than watch their perverseness draw down judgments upon themselves while the enemies of God rejoiced in their destruction. He felt the weight and responsibility of the work entrusted to him more deeply than Aaron and Miriam, though they had been chosen to assist him, and God had been his counselor.
His words were spoken in displeasure and distress in a state that nearly distrusted God and asked to die, and they were almost a complaint that did not honor God. He magnified his burden, though God was the true worker and Moses was only His instrument. He could have borne the burden had the people supported him, but their perversity and his fear of seeing Israel disgraced weighed on him. Had he trusted fully in God, God would have strengthened and guarded him without any enlarged authority of others.
God relieved him by directing him to appoint seventy elders, dividing the burden among seventy men instead of leaving it on one person so they could help bear the people. The sharing was accomplished by taking of the Spirit upon Moses and putting it upon those elders so they could help bear the burden. Though the best qualified man in Israel to lead the people, Moses declared he could not carry the work by himself because he did not want to keep all the honor of government for himself, and knew he must share the responsibilities with counsellors.
Sharing the government means choosing wise, God-fearing, able men who fear God, love truth and hate covetousness, keeping them in their position of trust while they prove loyal and faithful. They serve as rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens who show favor to no one, do no wrong to gain favor, take no bribes, refuse to be overawed by evil men, and let equity govern every decision, with only the causes too hard for them brought to Moses. The craving for flesh shows why temperance in eating and drinking matters, because health reformers have clearer minds to discern what does and does not affect the salvation of the soul.