May 29, 2026 - Numbers 11 & Psalm 117

We read Numbers 11 and watch craving turn into contagious grumbling that angers the Lord and crushes Moses under a burden he cannot carry alone. We end with Psalm 117 and a practical remedy for discontentment: reflect and praise God for his steadfast love and faithfulness. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Date

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Friday, May 29th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written

Numbers 11 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_01 0:27

word. Numbers 11. And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Tabera, because the fire of the Lord burned among them. Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, Oh that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at. Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of Adelium. The people went out about and gathered it and ground it in hand mills, or beat it into mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it. Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, every one at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the Lord, Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth that you should say to me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep before me and say, Give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favour in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness. Then the Lord said to Moses, Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you, and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. And say to the people, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for ye have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why do we come out of Egypt? But Moses said, 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? And the Lord said to Moses, Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue doing it. Now two men remained in the camp, one named Aldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, and Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, My Lord, Moses, stop them. But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit on them? And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. And the people rose all that day and all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth Atava, because there they buried the people who had the craving. From Kibroth Atava, the people journeyed to Hazaroth, and they remained at Hazaroth.

Psalm 117 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Psalm 117. Praise the Lord, all nations, extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.

The Anatomy Of Complaining

SPEAKER_01 5:34

I love the definition, really the sort of illustrative telling of complaining that we see here in Numbers 11. Numbers 11, verse 4 says, Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And Tyler, I love that as just kind of a mental picture of our hearts when we are given over to anger. It's like, or rather, I should say, to complaining and to grumbling, because it's like we are just craving things that we do not have, right? Or craving more, perhaps, of what we do have. And so there's this sense of an insatiable soul that can never be satisfied, that leads to complaining and grumbling. And that's how it's defined here in Numbers 11, verse 4. Now, the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. They they craved all kinds of things, but in this specific context, they had a craving for some smoked meat.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

I'm thinking too, like when when you are longing for something that you don't have, sometimes you can, in your grumbling and complaining, become angry. It can be this uh strong feeling of uh discontentment and uh unsatisfaction to where your heart is just saying, I want it, I need it, I must have it. And I'm so unsatisfied because I don't have it that my anger is directed in a certain way because I'm not getting what I want.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, and so we have we have this incredible story of the nation of Israel complaining against God. And even in verse 10, it says, Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clan. So it seems like that this infection of complaining, this craving is not localized within the camp. It seems to be spreading throughout the camp. It says, weeping throughout their clans, plural, everyone at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. So we have the nation of Israel, which again, they're just on the other side of some fantastic works of God, the splitting of the Red Sea, uh, the the quail in the wilderness, the manna that was given to them, Mount Sinai, for crying out loud, with the the cloud and the smoke and the fire, the ten commandments. I mean, there's been all kinds of things, the the construction of the tabernacle, there's been things that have happened to magnify the greatness of God, to display the character of God, and yet on the other side of those things, the nation of Israel is given over to complaining. Even in verse one, as the chapter opens, the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes. Think about that. There's this woe is me kind of attitude. Their misfortunes, they want uh there's a list here of things that they miss from Egypt.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, all the things that they have needed, um, God's hand has provided. Uh the splitting of a rock and a spring flowing uh for all of their needs, both uh of their ways to hydrate themselves, to cleanse themselves, to water their animals, all the things that they have needed, God has taken care of in full.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And so they they have some hindsight amnesia, right? Where they're they're looking to the past with rose-colored glasses, and they're saying, We remember when things were better. We remember when the grass was greener. There in verse five, we remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. I mean, it only costs you your labor for free because you were a slave, right? But that costs nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Oh, how we long for what we used to have. And that can be a temptation that we experience, Tyler, where we can look in reverse to things that we used to have, even if the circumstances weren't ideal. And we can kind of have that hindsight amnesia where we we long for something that we used to have, or maybe something that we legitimately enjoyed that leads us to have this craving in the present that leads us to complaining and grumbling. So that's what we see. They're looking over their shoulder, they're remembering what they had, maybe they're even adding to it with these rose-colored glasses, they're longing for what was, and they're craving what they do not have. And because of that, they are given over to complaining. And the Lord, rightfully so, is angry. He's angry with his people. They are forgetful, they dishonor him in their hearts because of their complaining and their grumbling. And so they're complaining and grumbling ultimately against the Lord, they're complaining and grumbling against Moses, and Moses, he's had it, he's done, right? I mean, he says here in verse 13, where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, Give us meat that we may eat. I'm not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. So Moses is at his wit's end. They're complaining, they're grumbling. Again, there's this there's this desire and craving in the air that seems to be insatiable. And it's it's turning into a demand. Give us meat. It's kind of like uh they they they they're starting to even revolt, and that's even why it talks about in Psalm 95 and in Hebrews chapter 3, the day of the rebellion. Like that's that's where we're headed, that's where this is going. And and if we're not careful, if we let our appetites and maybe even our hindsight looking into the rear view mirror of what used to be, of what we used to enjoy, and what we used to have, that that can create an insatiable craving in the present that leads to a grumbling and complaining heart.

Hindsight Amnesia And Discontent

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Even just yesterday I was having a conversation uh with someone in the community. I was actually at the uh the fruit stand here in Cuna talking to someone, and I asked what they were doing, and uh they said, I can't complain. And they said, Well, I could complain. And I said, Yeah, but that's not good for your soul, is it? And they said, No, no, it's not. Uh so there there's there's this even this intuitive understanding that we recognize that grumbling and complaining, it's like uh rot in the walls of our house. Like it's it's a decay, it's uh it's something that erodes, it leads us to places that we don't want to be. And so if we're not careful, if we allow our appetites and our cravings, uh if we don't do anything about them and give them to the Lord and try to, by his word, uh be refined and corrected, uh, we can get led to this place of complaining and grumbling ultimately against the God that has provided all that we have. He sustains the very breath in our lungs. And the great irony about complaining, Tyler, is that uh the very breath that we use to complain is the breath that God sustains, right? And so Numbers 11 to me is just a great um, it's great as in it's it's almost like unbelievable like what we're seeing here. Uh, but it shouldn't be because this is us, right? We complain, we think about what used to be. We we long for things that we used to have, or we look to the future of what we want to have, and we have these cravings and and we don't get them in the way that we want or on the timeline that we want, and so we complain. And that's not pleasing to the Lord. That that's that's angering to the Lord, right? When God's people forget who God is, what he has done, what he has provided, how he has cared for them, that is something that displeases the Lord. So this is a this is a warning for our church, this is a warning for us as individuals. Uh check our hearts. And remember, we even talked about on Sunday what's one is one of the signs of a hardening heart. You're given over to complaining. And so we see that here in numbers, and we see their hearts getting harder and harder and harder. And ultimately, as a result of their rejection and rebellion against God, they're they're not gonna make it into Canaan because they they keep a longing for uh what they had rather than what God is providing for them now and what he is leading to them later.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

And a a great, a great point to pause and reflect too. If you are someone that's finding your uh your your prayer life to be to be struggling, uh inconsistent, or your time in the word to be inconsistent, uh yeah, it might be a time for you to check and say, am I is there things that I'm longing for that uh that are bringing um dissatisfaction in my life? Am I am I finding my uh finding rest? Am I finding comfort? Am I content in what the Lord is bringing me right here and right now in this season? And uh just ask the Lord to reveal these things to you. He's faithful to bring things to your mind that you need to confess to him, that you need to turn from, and and uh, and that might be grumbling and complaining. Um, so a great reminder for

Replace Grumbling With Praise

SPEAKER_00 14:32

us today. And we were talking before we started recording, PJ. What is the remedy? What do we do when we find ourselves? God brings it to our heart, to our mind that we are complaining. Uh, we confess those things to him and we replace them with praise. And that's how our psalm begins, a short one, uh a two-verse psalm today in Psalm 117. We praise the Lord. Uh, the psalmist is calling all nations, everyone, every human being, look up, look to the God that made you, look to the the creator, uh, extol him, all peoples. For great is his steadfast love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. He is so steady, immaculately, um, with full perfection, so consistent, and he does not change. He is he is the Lord that uh revealed himself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. His steadfastness um reaches to every generation. And we were just praying last night, PJ, in our um student ministry meeting, we were going around and sharing what is praiseworthy? What has God done? What can you think of over the past week, the past month, the past year? How can we be praising the Lord? How can we be encouraging one another, reminding God, uh, reminding each other rather of what God has done in our lives? And for these things, we we praise and we just worship Him. So that's that was a great time of worship and praise and prayer last night. Um, and I think that if we make a habit of this, uh, if we if we have an apple a day, you know, keeps the doctor away. If we have a praise a day, keeps the complaining away. If we think of something new each day, Lord, you are so kind, you are so generous, you are so faithful, uh, you are worthy of praise and worthy of worship. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Well, let's let's be warned by Numbers 11 and let's not uh play the part of the fool in thinking that we are somehow above this, that uh we would not share in the complaining and grumbling uh of the nation of Israel. No, we we'd be right there uh scrapping with the best of them, complaining against the Lord. And so we we need to be on guard. We need to we knew we need I think I love what you just said, a praise a day keeps complaining away. I think that's just a good mantra. When you feel your heart getting these cravings that you know are gonna leave to uh lead to grumbling and complaining, um, you gotta just rehearse to yourself, what am I thankful for uh in the Lord specifically? How can I praise the Lord? How can I identify something in God, who he is, and what he has provided in Christ, that can get my eyes off of the cravings that I have and put them on God Himself. And I think that's gonna help us uh be a people that are thankful and grateful to the Lord for his steadfast love, his faithfulness, and the salvation that he provides and secures for us in Christ.

Final Warning And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.