Gift of God Devotional

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the task at hand? Have you ever felt as if God was putting too much on your plate? Have you ever felt like you just wanted to give up? 

Read Numbers 11

Moses was sick of the constant complaints and rebelliousness of the people – he felt as if God was asking too much of him. The people were complaining to each other; Moses, in turn, took his complaint to God.

Focus on verses 10-15.

Moses is pleading with God in what I would call frustration. He’s angry. He’s stressed. Every time he tries to do one thing right, something else goes wrong. In this moment, he pleads with God for relief. He’s venting his frustration. “How do You expect me to do this?” “Where am I supposed to get the resources for this?” “I can’t do this! How do You expect me to do this alone?”

Have you ever cried out to God in frustration like this? I know I have – and it’s been a lot recently.

But look at what happens next: verses 16-17 and 25-26 show us that God gives Moses others to “share the burden.” My study Bible says it like this: “When Moses became overwhelmed by the burden of leading the people, the Lord surrounded him with other Spirit-filled leaders to help him carry the load. God did not remove Moses from his position but rather supplied effective help.”

When you are overwhelmed by life, do you tend to focus on the solitude of your problems, or do you focus on the God-given help around you?

I struggle with this a lot… every instinct in me tells me to shut down and shut out. However, this is not how God designed us to be – He designed us to not be alone.

Who do you have in your corner backing you? Do they build you up? Do they encourage you and push you to be more Christ-like? Or, do they discourage you and tear you down?

We cannot read this story without talking about the rest… the punishment from God. In the beginning of the chapter, we see God get angry at the complaints of the people (verses 1-3). God literally sent fire down onto their camps, until Moses begged Him to stop on behalf of the people. At the end of the chapter, as the people were still eating the meat that God had sent them, He burned with anger and struck them with a severe plague (verses 33-34).

I don’t think God was angry at them for their complaints, but rather for the fact that they complained to each other. Many people are good at complaining to each other; it seems that God is telling us here that we need to take our complaints instead to the One who can actually do something about them.

Who are you complaining to? Are you going around just complaining to anyone who will listen?

I like to use the phrase “time and place” here in this context. God doesn’t tell us “don’t complain” here – the way I see it, there is nothing wrong with going to your fellow believers and discussing your problems, asking for guidance, help, and prayer. Trust me, I have been leaning a lot on the people around me recently. However, that does not mean I should be going around just complaining about my problems to people – what I would call a “woe is me” scenario. We’ve all met people like this. Heck, I myself have been like this before. But this leads us back to Moses and the help he was given by God.

Verse 17 tells us this: “They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.” Now, take the word “people” and substitute it with your problem. I might would say this: “They will share the burden of your self-hate.” Or, “They will share the burden of your doubts.” Now, you fill in the blank.

As I wrap up, I want to make this note… in verse 4, we see this whole story started with these words: “The rabble with them began to crave other food…” Here, the rabble refers to the mixed crowd of Egyptians and others who had followed Israel out of Egypt (see Exodus 12:38). These are not God’s people – they are the ones who are just along for the ride, the ones who are following the bandwagon. 

I think God shows us here that we need to purge these people from our lives. There will always be people that we need to remove from our lives so that they do not tear us down. Maybe not by burning down their tents or giving them the plague, though.

Do you have people around you who are discouraging you and your faith? People who are encouraging you to sin? People who are dragging you down with gossip, complaints, and drama?

Complaining leads to many problems. Jesus tells us not to “grumble among yourselves” (John 6:43). Paul tells us to “do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14). And in 1 Corinthians 10:10, we see Paul tell us not to grumble as “some of them did” who were killed (go back to Numbers 11).

Do you grumble and complain? Do you have people around you who grumble and complain?

Who do you surround yourself with? Do they help you or hinder you?