Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 11-13.

Today’s passage recounts several occasions where trouble broke out among the people of Israel.  Before today I never noticed that the passage indicates that a part of the fault for these problems belonged to Moses.  First, some of the discontent among the people resulted from Moses failing to set up a system for the people to resolve conflicts and report their discontent.  When the people began complaining about the lack of variety in their diet, Moses recognized that he could not carry the burden alone and cried out to God for help.  God answered Moses by pouring His Spirit out on 70 leaders of the people chosen by Moses.  Then we have an incident where Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses getting all of the credit for leading the people (complaints which the passage tells us came about because Moses had married a non-Israelite).  The writer chooses this point to tell us that Moses was a very humble man.  I read this as telling us that Moses was hesitant to shut down arguments for another course of action after a decision had been reached.  Now I want to be clear, I do not think that Moses was to blame for these incidents, merely that there were things he could have done differently which may have ameliorated the discontent.  For example, Miriam and Aaron, who complained about Moses getting all of the credit for speaking with God, could have stepped up and established a team like the 70 leaders whom Moses appointed when things got to be too much for him.   For that matter, the people could have appointed a team like that to report to Moses.  So, while Moses could have done things better as a leader, those who followed him are to blame for not making up for his shortcomings (and when I say “shortcomings” I do not mean that someone else would have been better, every human being has ways in which they fall short of this sort of leadership task).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.