In the Wilderness Part 4 - Breakdown

Yesterday, we continued our series In the Wilderness. Last time we looked at the Israelites complaining in Numbers 11:1-9; this time we looked at the effect on Moses in v10-17.

These verses are a crisis for Moses, and in some ways he never really recovers. In the previous year, he has saved the nation three times by praying for them (Exodus 17, Exodus 33, Numbers 11:2). He never does that again. Instead we keep on getting challenges to Moses' leadership.

Moses' biggest problem in this passage is the weight of unrealistic expectations. The people are acting like little children, and expecting him to carry them. They are asking him to provide the whole nation with meat. Both of those are things that God had done earlier in their wanderings. God provided them with quail in Exodus 16 and said in Exodus 19 that he had carried the nation "on eagle's wings". But Moses forgets that. He listens to the people's unreasonable expectations of him and starts to expect the same of himself. The result can only be disappointment and catastrophe.

But it's not just Moses who takes on unrealistic expectations. Many of us do it ourselves from time to time, whether expectations that other people bring to us, or ones that we carry for ourselves. And it's dangerous. In Moses' case, it even led to a breakdown and to asking God to kill him!

How can we cope when we find ourselves in that sort of situation?

1) Hold onto God. Moses doesn't even seem to believe God is good any more, but he still holds onto him, and God carries him through. We see the same again and again in the Bible; lots of the "heroes of the faith" find themselves completely out of their depth, but they hold onto God and he rescues them. Moses, David, Elijah, Job, Jeremiah, … In Moses' case, it's by God equipping more leaders to carry the spiritual burden of the people. In Elijah's case it was by an angel turning up and making breakfast for him (1 Kings 19).

2) Be realistic. We are fallible human beings. It really helps sometimes to make lists of what is God's responsibility, what is our responsibility and what are other people's responsibilities. How other people respond to us is their responsibility, not ours. We are called to love others, not to be loved by them. We are called to show God's love and truth to others, not to convert them.

3) Keep coming back to the gospel. It doesn't matter whether we live up to other people's expectations of it. It doesn't even matter whether we live up to our own expectations, because all of those expectations have already been put onto God's chosen leader, who has suffered for them, and died for them, and been raised to life. What matters is that if we trust God, in Christ Jesus we are adopted into God's family, and God's response to us is "This is my child, whom I love, with them I am well pleased."

Jesus lived with only one priority – to do what his Heavenly Father wanted him to do. That is how he could say his famous words at the end of Matthew 11:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

May we know the lightness of Christ's burden as we seek to serve him this week!

God bless,

John