Would You Intercede??

"But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear..." Numbers 14:13

Would You Intercede...Again?!
By Rev. William Dohle

If God took you aside and told you he was going to destroy America but save you and your family...what would you do??

Would you go along with God's plan? (After all, he is God after all!)
Would you negotiate with God? (Come on, God, do I have to bring ALL my family?)
Or... perhaps... just perhaps now...
Would you argue with God to save the whole lot of them??

And if God came to you a second time? Would you do the same? Would you have the guts to stand up to God if God made the same offer again? Or as many times as God offered it to you?

That's what happened to Moses...in the middle of the desert in fact!  The people of Israel have complained one too many times and God is sick of it! God offers Moses a way out. God will destroy the people and raise up Moses as a new nation.

God's already made the offer once. The first time was at Sinai when the people made the Golden Calf and began worshiping it instead of God. There God's anger rained down upon them...but Moses intervened.

Now in the wilderness, the same thing happens. Here God appears in front of the tent of meeting and tells Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."(Num. 14:11-12)

Now what would you say to that?  Yes?  Go ahead, God? Maybe I was wrong to save them on the Mountain, God? Let's talk details, God, about this nation you're going to make of me?

I know many Christians in our world who would shake the dust off their feet, wash their hands of the whole mess, and say, "Go for it, God! I've been waiting for you to intervene like this for awhile!" Maybe not the first time God offers, but certainly the second time. I admit, I too have been tempted to wash my hands of the mess of the community of faith before. When people fight, when arguments arise, and when we wonder where God is in the messiness of life, then we too may want to give up.

But Moses doesn't. Moses, the righteous man of God, shows us what righteous men and women do. What do the righteous do? They stand up for the people, even against God himself! Even when the people are complaining against you and abusing you, Moses still stands up for them. Moses does it in two ways. First...he appeals to God's self-image.

"Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness."(Num. 14:15)

What is Moses saying here? "What will they say about you in Egypt? What kind of God are you showing yourself to be?" In other words, Moses is appealing to who God wants to be. But who is that, you ask? Who is God? Well... Moses needs to remind God here of who God is too.

"And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, 'The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression...Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt until now.'"(Num. 14:18-19)

Reminding God of who God is, Moses appeals to the promises God has made. Promises on which he and the people stand. These promises tell them that God is not a God of wrath and anger, a God who strikes out at people for no good reason, but this God is a God who forgives, who is slow to anger and has steadfast love and faithfulness. This God is ready to relinquish in punishing. This God is good!

If we believe in this God, if we truly believe that God is this good, than we are not compelled to do the same? Are we not compelled to appeal to God on our people's behalf and intercede for them?

In our world today, we are polarized. Republicans against Democrats against Libertarians against Catholics against Protestants against Muslims against Jews against Palestinians against...ahh! The list goes on and on. Jump on Facebook sometime and read how many polarizing shares you get. People so desperately want us to agree with them too. "Share if you love Jesus..."... "Like if you think like I do..."..."Share and Like if you hate Obama!" Many of these posts and much of the media that is produced, isn't loving or forgiving the other side. It is mean and bitter and cruel, especially to those we disagree with.

What if we took a cue from Moses here? Instead of condemning the world, why not intercede on its behalf? God is good and gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...and everything he promises to be. Shouldn't we, God's followers, be the same?

God of life, give us boldness to stand up, even to you, just as Moses did, for your people. Give us hearts of grace that we may give ourselves this way, even as Jesus did for us. Amen.

Can We Do...anything?

Wadi Kadesh...this is where the people would have camped.

Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies."  Number 14:42

Can We Do...Anything?
By Rev. William Dohle

Is there anything you CAN'T do??

I remember in high school, on occasion, we were summoned to the auditorium and there, in front of everyone who came to the assembly, a speaker would come at us with words of motivation.

"There isn't anything you can't do..." they'd say.
"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything..."

Such speakers were often quoted at graduation time.  "The world is ours!" our valedictorian said.  "All we have to do is claim it!"

As an adult, there are other motivational speakers who seem just as wise as they were in high school.  Like Pastor Joel Osteen who declares in one of his sermons, "...if you're going to tap into that hidden treasure you've gotta go where you haven't been before."

But are they right?  Is there really no limit to what you can do if you put your mind to it? 

The people of Israel struggled with this very question in the book of Numbers.  Here, at the Jordan river, they faced a choice... to believe Joshua and Caleb's report and enter into the promised land confident in God's presence or to believe the other spies who discouraged them.  A hard choice to be sure.  One way promised them temporal safety.  The other promised risk...and reward.  Which way would the people choose?

The people chose to believe...the other spies, mocking Joshua and Caleb for their report.  God couldn't do that!  Why would God have brought them into the wilderness to die!  Then they had the nerve to complain about what God had done to get them there in the first place.

What gall, huh?

So... God tells them what will happen.  "As I live, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you..."(Num 14:28-30)

Is this harsh?  Or punishing?  Is God being too mean?

No...not really.  You see, just previously, the people had said that God would leave them in the desert to die.  What God is doing is fulfilling their own prophecy.

"Fine...you want to die in the wilderness?  Be my guest!  I'm in no hurry.  I'll fulfill my promises to your children instead."

You see God knows what the motivational speakers are hinting at.  In some cases, we decide.  We decide what will happen to us.  In our minds, we erupt some crazy scheme or plot or plan.  We prophecy to ourselves...and then make that prophecy happen.

That's what the people did.  They said God would leave them...and God left them.  They said they'd be defeated by the Canaanites and, guess what?  They were defeated by them!  God left them to their own devices.  God let their self-fulfilling prophecies, fulfill themselves.

That's why Moses tells them, "Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you!"

And the other reason Moses says "No"?  Moses says, "because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you."

Once again, consequences follow our actions.  BECAUSE you have not listened to God, God isn't listening to you.

So...can we really do anything if we put our minds to it?

I admit, I believe our positive attitude does help our lives.  In my life, I have found self-fulfilling prophecy to be a scary thing.  God used it to drive me to become the pastor I am today.  Seeds of my ministry were sown back when I was in grade school at Vacation Bible School.  God used self-fulfilling prophecy to bring me to this congregation and to a city that I've always dreamed about.  "I wish I could live in a place..." became reality with God.

Our attitudes can also harm us too.  "They're going to get mad..." I've thought or said...and I've learned those thoughts can actually sour the mood between you and someone else.  Thinking "They're probably not going to like this..." doesn't help you get a good response out of people.

Staying positive and believing can help you in any situation.  But we can't really "do anything."

No amount of positive thinking is going to change your spouse...or cure your cancer...or make you immortal and invincible.  I can think I can fly all I like and believe it in my heart, but that doesn't mean it will be true!

And following God and staying positive doesn't mean bad things aren't going to happen to you either.  It doesn't mean you'll always triumph and succeed with this formula.  Even Moses, with his unshakable faith, didn't live to see the promises of God fulfilled.

Instead in every and any situation we must trust.  Trust that God has our back, our front, and is along side us too.  Trust in God's promises.  Stay positive...and then let life come!  Life might be rough before we die, but we have a God who doesn't leave us behind, but instead calls us forward into the future whatever that future might bring.

Blessed are you, Lord God, king of the universe, for you have called us to follow and obey, to trust, hope, and live in your promises of grace.  Give us confidence and boldness that, even when faced with crazy decisions, we may stand out as people of faith, confident in you.  Amen.

Take heart...and trust!

"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night."  Numbers 14:1

Take heart...and trust!
By Rev. William Dohle

If you had a magical watch that could turn back time, would you use it?  Would you change anything about your past?  What happened to you?  Or perhaps what you made happen to another?

Changing the past is a frequent theme in science fiction literature.  There's something appealing about going back in time and fixing something that went wrong.

But there's one problem.

The past makes us who we are today.  Without the past we wouldn't be the person we are right now.  We'd be someone different, in a different place, a different time, with different people, and with different problems.

Fix any one of those problems and the cycle continues.

We can never go back to the past.  What's done is done.  And we must press forward into whatever the future holds.

That's hard to do.  Especially when the past seems so appealing!

The people of Israel faced this very problem just outside the Promised Land.  From across the Jordan River, they had sent their spies into the land.  Only most of their spies had returned disheartened.  Most said there was no way they could move forward.  Only Joshua and Caleb disagreed and believed that God would do what God had promised.

Disheartened, the people rebel against Moses, crying out to God:

"Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?  Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"  So they said to one another, "Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt." (Num. 14:2-3)

You can hardly blame them.  Here they had traveled across the desert, been chased by Pharaoh's army, eaten strange things like manna and quail, and then are told by their spies that there was no way for them to succeed?  Of course they'd be disheartened!  Of course they'd complain!

Going back to Egypt seemed to be the best idea to them!  After all, they had three meals a day there!  They may have had to work for their supper, but it was better than starving...right?

We too may feel like the people of Israel at times.  Thinking about our lives, we may long for the days gone past.  The "days in Egypt", be they good or bad, always seem better than they were in retrospect.   We remember, not the slavery that we suffered under, but the few good meals that we shared.

Like the people of Israel, we must press on into the future.  No spies have been on before us.  Nobody has scouted out the land we will walk.  We may face giants and all sorts of dangers.  We may even be killed.

But, thanks be to God, we do not travel alone.  We have a God with us who walks us through the past into the future.  As a wise pastor I know says, "We do not know what the future holds.  But we know who holds the future."

So, heartened by this, we press on to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has called us heavenward.  Let us put aside our fears of the future.  Instead, with hope and faith in our hearts, we press on into the future.  There is no other way.

God of Hope, inspire us that we may look, not to the past, but always to the future for the promised land lies ahead of us even now.  Amen.

The Bright Side of Life

"Always look on the bright side of life..." Monty Python, The Life of Brian
"We came to the land you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.  Yet the people who live in the land are strong..."  Numbers 13:27

The Bright Side of Life
By Rev. William Dohle

A few weeks ago I was speaking to someone at church.  They were sharing their experience of the past...

"You know, pastor, we use to have so many kids in Sunday school and church.  The place was packed.  Now there's not that many.  We need to get them back, but I'm afraid we're not going to do it..."

Have you heard something like that said?  A statement that appears to be a positive turned into a negative?

In my neck of the woods, those statements usually start in the past...

We use to...

And then they move into the present...only not in a good way.

But now we can't...

And finally they follow into the dark future.

And I don't think we'll...

I've heard them so many times before I can usually point them out...in others and in myself.  I too have pined after the days gone by, in hopes that God will bring back the past into the present.

What do we do with negativity?  When our view goes from good to bad?  What do we do with ourselves and our lives?  How do we face the day when every day is darker?

The people of Israel faced the same thing after they sent into Canaan their spies.  Twelves spies went, one from each of the tribes of Israel, to check out the land.  The text says...

Moses sent them to spy out the land...and see what the land is like and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees or not. (Num. 13:17-20)

So twelve go out...and what do they find?  They find a land inhabited already by the Canaanites, a diverse group of people from various tribes.  They find grapes which they bring back on a pole and pomegranates and figs.  They find everything just as the Lord had told them it would be.

Good report...right?

Only this report gets a little askew, for when Moses asks them what they thought of it, they replied:

"We came to this land to which you sent us...Yet the people who live int he land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there...We are not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we are."

Talk about a downer report.  Yes it's exactly what God had promised them...but they're unable to take it.  Oh well...time to go back to Egypt, I guess.

Only Caleb and Joshua stood against them and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."

Only two out of twelve remained positive in God's faithfulness!

The ELCA, of which I'm a part of, has experienced declining church membership and worship numbers.  Many point our liberal point of view.  Others point to generational trends.  And still others to the schism that split many of our congregations, forcing us into decline.

The numbers look bleak.  There's only giants and dragons in the land, we say.  We will never survive!

Many people still pine after the days gone by, when our Sunday schools were jam packed, our services needed more services, and everyone was looking for a second pastor and couldn't find one.  They, like the people of Israel, look back at Egypt and think, "At least there I had something to eat.  It may not have been perfect...but I'll take it back still!"

Sadly, those days are gone forever.  And though many still wish we could have what we had then, it's time to look ahead.  It's time to stop dreaming about the days when things were bigger and better than they are now and focus instead on what God has in store for us today!

What does our Promised Land look like?  What challenges will await us there?  What possibilities will open up?  What will the church look like when we cross the Jordan and enter into God's country?

That imagineering, it's hard!  It's really hard work!  The people of Israel complained about their living conditions in the wilderness and imagined the worse because they couldn't imagine anything else.  It is said too that, of those who went with Moses into the wilderness, there were even more who stayed back in Egypt.  Why?  Why wouldn't they go with Moses and with God?  Maybe because the past is so comfortable and quiet and not as scary as facing an uncertain future.

What will we do in the church?  I think that remains to be seen.  God isn't done with us yet, that's for sure.  Our churches may start looking more eccumenical.  We may find ourselves combining buildings or abandoning the church building model all together.  We may find ourselves in the homes of the faithful, around bread and wine.  Or we may find that our church has become the home of other churches too, a community of communities all in the same place.

Whatever happens know this.  His kingdom will come, with or without our help. Even as we decline, thousands of Christians are made every day in places like Africa, South America, and Asia.

So let us not worry ourselves over the reports too much.  Let's focus on the future and what opportunities God may have for us there.  After all, even a walled city can be brought down by the voice of God.

God of possibilities, give us the vision you gave to Joshua and Caleb who saw potential and possibilities when others saw failure.  Amen.

Being "Like Moses"

And the Lord heard it.  Numbers 12:2b

Being "Like Moses"
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, back when we lived in Montana, I had one of "those conversations" with a parishoner.

"Pastor," he said over lunch that day.  "My wife and I are going to start attending the church up the street."
"Okay," I said.  "Can I ask you why?"
"Well, pastor... we need a leader like Moses.  You're not Moses, obviously, but we someone like him who will part the Red Sea and lead us out of slavery and that..."
"Okay..."

A leader like Moses... I left that conversation wondering if he really knows who Moses was and what his leadership was like.  Or whether he just wants someone who'll be a Charleton Heston figure in his life...a popular, charismatic person who'll tell him what to do and boldly go forth with hoards of people behind him.

If that's what kind of leader he wants... that's not Moses.  Not at all.

Moses was a murderer...one quality that would have been a disqualifier today if he had pursued the ministry.
Moses was a coward...he ran away.
Moses didn't want the job...he gave excuse after excuse to God.
Moses didn't know how to speak...imagine a sermon where the preacher whispered his sermon in his brother's ear and his brother relayed the message.
And... most of all...
Moses was extremely unpopular!

It's this last quality that really gets me.  Moses was unpopular.

In our day, we rate a leaders ability based on their popularity.  "People really like you, pastor," is a good sign and "people are struggling with your leadership" is a bad one.  In today's world, we decide things based on a vote or consensus of everyone.  No affirmative vote, no decision.  And, in today's world, you can be kicked out of office(any office) if enough people dislike you.

That wasn't the case in Moses' day...and for good reason too.  Moses was extremely unpopular!

Chapter 11 of Numbers talks about the people's complaints against Moses...how terrible the food was and such.  In the twelfth chapter of Numbers, Aaron and Miriam, Moses' siblings, join the people in criticizing Moses.

"Has the Lord spoken only through Moses," they said.  "Has he not spoken through us also?" (Num. 12:2

This time we're told "And the Lord heard it."

Without delay, the three of them are called out...and God speaks in defense of his servant.

"Hear my words:
When there are prophets among you,
I the Lord make myself known to them in visions;
I speak to them in dreams.
Not so with my servant Moses;
he is entrusted with all my house.
With him I speak face to face--clearly, not in riddles;
and he beholds the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Num. 12:6-9)

Moses and Aaron both repent...but the fact remains.  Everyone had turned against Moses.  Everyone except God!  God still stood with him even when his entire people were against him.

Moses wasn't great because he was popular....or mighty...or any of the other qualities we ascribe to our leaders today.  Moses was great because the Lord had his back!

This story gives me hope.  I struggle with popularity.  On the one hand, we serve the people and if the people need something, we need to work to fulfill that need.  On the other hand...we work for God and some decisions won't be the most popular and we have to learn to live with them.  And if someone wants us to be "like Moses" then they need to understand that Moses wasn't the best character in the world BUT Moses was loved and cherished and chosen by God.

And that's what made him great!

So the next time you see one of your leaders struggling to work for God in a world ruled by popularity, stop and tell them thanks!  Thanks for standing up for what is right, despite the cost.  Thanks for being who they are.  Thanks for doing what may not be the most popular in order to do what is right.

Lord, you chose Moses and set him apart and loved him and came to his defense.  Do the same for us that we might stand up for what is right in this world, no matter what!  Amen!

O Blessed Spirit!

“I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29

O Blessed Spirit!

By Rev. William Dohle

  

              A few months ago, a woman at my congregation came to me and told me she’d like to work on making our own costumes for our Living Last Supper program in the spring.  “We have the workers and we’re gathering the fabric…”  and I said… Great!  Go for it!

  

              Last year, two members of my congregation came to me asking for my blessing as they sought to further their theological education.  One of them is going into Seminary, after a lifetime of soul searching.  The other is going into a lay minister program run through our larger church.  My response… Great!  Go for it!

This past week, the leader of our band, an amazing musician in his own right, was inspired to write Easter lyrics to a popular Halleluiah song.  He sent them to me, asked for my advice, and asked me what I thought of them performing the song.  A day later he added that they’d like to perform it on Good Friday too.  My response… Great!  Go for it!

I have come to understand that permission and praise are the best gift leaders have been given to share.  Permission and praise.

Permission…to explore where the Spirit is calling them.  Whether it be an inspired piece of music, a vocational change, or just a special project.  Permission is a gift given that says… “Go for it!”

Along with permission comes praise.  An essential piece of ministry!  Praise said, “Great!  Wonderful!  Awesome!”  Praise gives that extra little energy to complete the project.  Without praise, our motivation dies on the vine.  Praise is very VERY important to ministry.

 

Both of these help pastors and religious leaders stave off what is the killer of any ministry…burnout!  When you’ve been doing EVERYTHING and there’s NOTHING that is done that you don’t do…you may come to suffer burnout.

Moses did.  As the people complained about the food God had graciously given them, Moses had had enough.  He was burned out.  And he expressed it rather well too.

"I cannot carry all these people by myself, the burden is too great.  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.” (11:14-15)            

             I cannot tell you how many times I have prayed these very words or words like it.  Ministry is draining and can sap the life out of you and your family.  I have prayed that God would end it all before.  I have been that burned out. 

          

              But God answers prayer.  And he answers this prayer too.  For Moses…and for me.

                 

              For Moses the answer comes in two ways.  For one, God sends quail upon the camp, giving his people meat and stopping their complaints…at least for a day or two.

                But another way God answers prayer occurs right after this incident.  In two people named Eldad and Medad.  These two had remained in the camp, but was not listed among the elders who received God’s spirit before.  These two were your spontaneous inspired people.  They began to prophecy in the camp and the people got upset.

                Joshua said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

                But Moses knew that this was also an answer to his prayer.  “Are you jealous,” he says.  “For my sake?  I wish that all the people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

                I too wish this was the case.  I wish God would pour out his spirit on everyone!

                And he does!  He truly does.

                God poured out his spirit upon our musicians at St. Paul, inspiring them with lyrics and with the vision to see where that song could take them.

                God poured out his spirit among those called into ministry, both lay and ordained, at our congregation. 

                God poured out his Spirit among those called to sew and create costumes for a production that would spread the news of Jesus to the world!

                God poured out his Spirit!

                As a leader in the church, my job, like Moses’, is to affirm that and encourage that.  I won’t be stopping them anytime soon.  After all, if what they do is from God, I won’t be able to stop it anyhow.  Instead, I’ll be affirming it in love.  I’ll be giving them “permission” and encouraging them at every turn.  And I will be praising, both their work and the God through whom their work is done.

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the Universe, for you have indeed poured out your Spirit on all flesh.  Give us eyes to see you at work in our inspired moments that everything we do may be done to your praise.  Amen. 

The Allure of Complaint

"My God!  My God!  Why have you forsaken me!?"  Psalm 22:1

The Allure of Complaint
By Rev. William Dohle

Yesterday I had a brand new experience.

Our neighborhood association invited five candidates for city council to come and speak.  Sitting together at a table on our stage at church, they answered questions, one at at time, first from the organizers and later from the audience.

It was just like one of those political debates you see on television!

One thing I noticed though throughout the evening.  Most of the questions were complaints in disguise.  One question focused on the road condition, the other on a proposed housing group moving into the area, another on the budget and still another on the medical mariquana situation in our area.  But they weren't asking about what the candidates would do to fix it.  They were complaining about what had been done.

And the candidates joined in on the complaints too!

A question I offered about the future and how we can get people of various faiths and different races together was ignored.

Of course it was.  I wasn't complaining about anything!

(And speaking of complaints...here I am complaining about their complaining! Go figure, huh?)

So why is complaining so appealing to us?  Why do we do it so well?

Place two people in the same room together and get them talking and before you know it, they're complaining!  It might be the weather or the government or their church or their family or how terrible a week it's been or something else.  But they'll be complaining!

So what do you do when the complaining starts?  Let's look to the Bible for answers.

In the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 11, we are told the people start to complain...

Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. So that place was called Taberah,because fire from the Lord had burned among them. (11:1-4)

First reaction... anger!  How dare you complain, we say.  This reaction is strongest when the complaints are against us.  This is called defensiveness and it's the least healthiest reaction to complaints.  Some people live in this reactive-state, deciding to only attack back at people when they complain against them instead of listening to their concerns.

God gets angry and consumes many in the camp.  But the complaints don't stop there...

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”(11:4-6)

Now the complaints get specific.  Where before they were a general complaint "I wish you would do more of..." or "I wish things were different...", now they've become specific in their displeasure.

Last night I heard this from one woman in particular whose question was called out of the group.  Even the candidates knew who asked the question and she stood up and expressed her displeasure with the council members personally.  Her complaints were very specific.  They sounded like attacks and she sat down not pleased with what any of the candidates had said.

What do you do with this kind of complaint?  Well... it still gets you angry, as it got God angry too.  And since it was directed at Moses, it made him upset as well.  It actually wounds him.

So God solves it by forming a committee and spreading the blame around.

“Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone."(11:16-17)

When they come, God declares the Israelites will have meat and quails are sent among the people.

So... why is this written for us to remember all these years later?  Why are we told about the people's complaints?  Perhaps this passage shows the flow of complaints, not only for the Israelites, but also for us.  Perhaps this can teach us something about the process of complaining.

When complaints come, first we want to lash out.  We want to get angry.  We want fire to come down from heaven and consume them.  We want to get defensive.

If we get past this part, then we feel hurt and betrayed, just as Moses did.  We may even cry out like Moses, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?"  We feel the complaint as bloody wounds.

And then God offers us community.  A family of people to help share the blame.  Seventy of Israel's elders helped Moses out.  In the best of times, this family is the church council in congregations or your friends and family in other times.  This family helps with the burden of complaint.

Then comes the solution from God...only it never looks like much of a solution at all.  Quail came to the Israelite camp to provide them with meat.  These quail didn't squash the complaints.  The people still complained, but they were a mercy from God when everything seemed dark and dreary.

In the end, there's really nothing we can do with complaints and complaining people.  The Bible says they are a "stiff-necked people."  The Bible also says they too are beloved by God.  Perhaps the only thing we can do with them is love them.  We can form our own community around us to help us deal with their affect on our lives.  And then we can pray to God that God would offer some surprising solution to their problem.

It worked for Moses.  Maybe it could work for us too...

Patient God, you sat through the complaints of your people, not just in the wilderness, but throughout the ages.  Give us such patience that we may, with our communities, weather the complaining storm surrounding us.  Amen.