Moses, James, and faith

This morning as I was reading in Numbers 11, I found verses 10-35 quite applicable. While this should be no surprise to any Christian, it is always exhilarating to have the Holy Spirit awaken us to His truths! In verse 10 Moses comes to the Lord with some concerns. I read this passage with a whiny and complaining tone. MacArthur seems to believe Moses had a tone of confession. After thinking that over, it makes sense that Moses would come to God that way. He seems frustrated with this stiff-necked people. He seems exhausted and overwhelmed. He probably had a bit of a whiny tone, but not as much as I had implied.

Moses expresses his concern to the Lord. The Righteous One then solves Moses' problem by appointing seventy elders to assist Moses with his work. The Lord promises to supply enough meat to feed the Israelites for a whole month. Moses points out that there are "600,000 on foot." Moses then wavers in his faith. He actually questioned whether or not God could feed the Israelites for one month without slaughtering their livestock. The Lord's response in verse 23 is startling:

"Is the Lord's power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not."

The Lord then proceeds to fulfill His promise so that the Israelites ate until the quail came

"out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you."

The craving of the Israelites quickly turned to loathing. We also see that their greed or covetousness for meat was sinful and offensive to the Lord. In fact, He began to wipe them out because of it!

As I read the Lord's reply to Moses' doubt in verse 23, my thoughts ran to Job. It really sounds as if the Lord is talking to Job! Moses was delivered out of Egypt by the very hand of God! He talked with God on the mountain. He even saw God's back! God revealed His glory to Moses! Now Moses was doubting the power of God to supply meat for a month? Moses had just finished instituting the Law of God with all its required sacrifices. The Lord required these sacrifices! Would He not provide for the animals to sacrifice? From our point of view Moses' unbelief is ridiculous.

But are we that much different? We pray telling God what an awesome God He is. We speak of His glory and is power and might. We insist that when other people are in trials they must consider it all joy! We remind them of Romans 8:28. We might even pray that God would bring trials to mature us and bring Him glory! Then, when God is faithful and gracious enough to bring the trial, we question Him! We complain! We mope and whine! We waver in unbelief! We ask where is God? We forget about His word and His promises!

James tells us to ask in faith. He is not just talking about not praying. It would take at least another sermon, if not a blog series, to hammer that truth home. James is saying that if, while we are asking, we do not unwaveringly, steadfastly believe that God will answer our prayer, we are double-minded and unstable! A prayer with any unbelief does not bring God the glory due His name! It shows Him that we do not really believe what He says about Himself! It reveals that we do not believe He has accomplished all that He has done! Such a mindset is an offense to God and reveals our weakness! He never needs to prove Himself to us. Our unbelief is merely fruit of our sin. Yet He so graciously continues to love us and intercede for us!

I pray that we would never be found doubting the power of God. Our world berates us with an endless onslaught of deceit. As we take every thought captive and hold it up to the infallible, inerrant, inspired word of God, I pray that we will find confidence in Him and His word!