21/03/2023
WHEN WE PUT GOD IN THE DOCK! - NUMBERS 11:11-23
Questions, questions and questions!
It looked very much like a court room scenario where the accused, edged in in the dock, is obligated to respond to every question the prosecutor and the defense counsel may pose at him.
Moses 'fired' six questions in a row at God whom, as it were, was now standing trial before God-knows-whom!
In response to his many questions, God told him what he, Moses, should do and what He, God, would do!
Moses seemed not to have any problem regarding what God asked him to do, i.e., appointing 70 elders and bringing them before the Lord. 'Oh, well, that's no big deal', Moses seemed to have thought! So, he didn't worry about that!
However, Moses was less than satisfied with what God said lay within divine omnipotence! His worry now was how God would be able to provide meat for those many mouths – more than 2 millions! Hence his remarks, '...“The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” - Numbers 11:21-22 ESV.
In other words, ‘Where would God get the meat from that would be sufficient for this large number of people?’
Probably thinking he was debating with his father-in-law or some other human authority figure, Moses was more or less saying, 'Sir, it seems you don't know what you're promising to do! We are talking about more than half a million souls here and that figure does not include women and children. Sir, it's like you don't know that we have more women and children than men, which no doubt brings the total number to roughly over 2 million mouths. Escuse me, where on earth would you get sufficient meat to satisfy this large number of people'?
Moses thus reduced God to the same level as humans who are by nature limited in power, wisdom, knowledge and resources!
Overwhelmed with pressure of ministry or business and others beside, you and I often behave like Moses. We tend to forget God's faithfulness in times past and begin to worry, not only about how we may discharge our own responsibilities, but also how God would go about those that are purely within divine omnipotence!
Come to think of it, how was it any of Moses' business which methodology God chose to answer his prayers or to meet the people’s needs? And how is it any of your or my business whichever methodology divine omnipotence chooses to answer your or my prayers or to meet your or my needs?
The more we focus our attention on the enormity of whatever situation we might be facing, the larger the magnitude of the problem and the greater the tendency to dismiss the possibility of divine intervention.
Why? The larger the magnitude we ascribe to the problem, the more it obscures divine omnipotence! Thus, having considered all humanly possible avenues for solution and having written off the situation as hopeless, we often mistakenly limit God's ability and reduce it to the same level as that of humans!
Meanwhile, God's response in Numbers 11:23 challenges us to stop walking by sight but by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1: 17; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:37-38;). As we read later, God did provide meat for his people as he had promised but he didn't follow either of the options that Moses earlier thought of (Isaiah 55:8-9)!
Therefore, whenever you feel overwhelmed by circumstances, rather than putting God in the dock and firing questions at Him as if you were a lawyer, you must remember that you do not have many options but one, and that is to take the matter to the Lord in prayer (Psalm 37:5; 55:22; Hebrews 13:5; 1 Peter 5:7) and simply trust in the solution he may be proffering either from the word of God or through the wisdom of elderly saints around us whose testimonies are untainted in any form!
After all, God has a track record of doing the impossible! In Exodus chapters 4-17, he did spectacular things that had never happened before - he brought 9 devastating plagues on the Egyptians and capped it with the tenth - killing all first born of man and animal in one night. Not that alone, He parted the sea, made bitter water potable, brought out water from the rock and defeated the enemy that rose up against them!
Therefore, when it comes to caring for and defending His people, ‘what God cannot do does not exist'!
Consequently, like that line from the second stanza of John Newton (1725-1807)’s poem, ‘Be Gone, Unbelief’ that says, inter alia,
'Though cisterns be broken/ And creatures all fail,/ The word He has spoken/Shall surely prevail’, we need to rekindle our faith in His word that since He is 'the God of all flesh, nothing is too difficult for Him to do' - Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Luke 1:37!
Until Christ comes for the Church, no Christian can escape moving from one overwhelming situation to the other! This is the reality of the Christian faith. It is particularly more so for those in leadership. Therefore, learning to walk by faith is a lifelong requirement that you and I must cultivate!
