Daily Devotion | Numbers 11:1–15 | 2026 April 28

Title: Daily Devotion | Numbers 11:1–15 | 2026 April 28

Scripture: Numbers 11:1–15 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 April 28

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

All right, dear brothers and sisters, peace to you. Thanks be to God for His grace. We have come to a new day to study Daily Devotion. The passage we are studying today is Numbers 11:1–15. Let us pray. O God, we thank You. We thank You that You are willing to treat us with such kindness and mercy. Lord, You have recorded the experiences of these Israelites in Scripture so that they may become a lesson for us. Lord, we ask You to enable us to be watchful, to follow You, and truly to place ourselves before You, to imitate Your likeness, to become Your people, and truly to glorify Your name in this life. We pray and ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

All right, let us look at Numbers chapter 11. The style and atmosphere of chapter 11 are clearly different from chapter 10. In chapter 10, what we saw was this: however God commanded Moses, that was how the Israelites acted. This kind of statement appeared repeatedly, showing their obedience. But as soon as chapter 11 begins, they start grumbling. The people grumbled, and their evil words reached the ears of the LORD. When the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and fire burned among them.

Then what exactly were they grumbling about? It is not recorded. But if we compare this with Exodus, at this time they were probably complaining that there was no water. It should be because they had traveled for three days. After walking in the wilderness for several days without water, they began to grumble, and then even fire broke out. Fire burned, and the people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So this kind of pattern would also continue to be repeated later in the history of Israel: the Israelites sin, God strikes them, then the Israelites cry out, and then God turns away His disaster. So verses 1–3 present this pattern.

So here, through this passage, we very clearly see that God is a God who delights in mercy and delights in forgiving sin. As soon as the people cried out and Moses prayed, the fire died down. So this is a pattern. But here we still need to stop and think about some further things.

The first thing is: why did the people grumble? The reason has already been mentioned. It was because there was no water. But during this year, had they not received grace? Had they not built the tabernacle and received so many benefits? How is it that as soon as there was no water, they began to grumble? I think here we need to enter into the historical situation at that time and consider the situation of the Israelites, so that this may become, as Paul says, a lesson for us. If it is to be a lesson, you need to enter into their situation, and then you will know what kind of hardship they were facing.

This group of Israelites, when they were in the wilderness, followed the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, right? You might say, “Isn’t that quite good? You don’t even need to worry about anything, right? Just follow the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Why would you grumble?” But actually, that is how we think when we stand in a very idealized position. If you were an Israelite and you were walking in the camp of Israel at that time, in fact, you would have many complaints.

Why? First, you do not know why it moves. Second, you also do not know why it stops. And in this process, you are like a fool, as if you cannot make decisions about anything. You have your own ideas: Why not go this way? Why not go that way? Right? Why must we take this road? All these things could become reasons for the Israelites to grumble. Later, when they oppose Moses, this is exactly the reason.

There is also an even more realistic matter, namely, the hardships of life. Walking in the wilderness, first of all, means there is no water. In such a life without water, life was indeed very difficult. Of course, you could say that God would provide it, that where God provides water there must be a river, right? You could go and draw water. But this kind of life was naturally extremely inconvenient, because in Egypt they had a great river, right? Life was very convenient. Now life was inconvenient. Where were they to go? Although they could find water, life was inconvenient, or the water resources were insufficient, and things like this.

So in fact, what I want to express is that grumbling in the wilderness is a very normal thing. I am not trying to make excuses for the people. I hope you can find the situation and then understand why they grumbled. They did not grumble for no reason. The sinfulness of man always takes his own needs as the measure of satisfaction. When his own life becomes worse, when his standard of living declines, he will complain against God: “Why have You given me so many hardships? Why have You given me so many difficulties?” Even many Christians grumble in the same way.

All right, this is the first point we have spoken about: why did they grumble? The second point you must remember is that God’s anger was kindled. If you compare this with Exodus, you will see a very clear contrast. In Exodus chapter 15, after they crossed the Red Sea, right, they traveled for three days and could not find water. Then in Exodus 15:24, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. He threw the tree into the water, and the water became sweet. You see, there, there was no matter of God’s anger being kindled.

And later, including the quail incident that we will speak about below, there was also no matter of God’s anger being kindled. So very clearly, you see two patterns: before the covenant and after the covenant, God’s way of handling the problem is different. It is the same kind of complaint. Previously, they complained that there was no water. Here, why did they complain at Taberah? It was probably also because there was no water. But the result was that God’s anger was kindled, and fire burned among them. Then next, when they complained that there were no quails and no meat to eat, it was the same kind of grumbling. In Exodus 16, God sent down quail. But here, in this place, God begins to punish them.

So here we see different patterns. Before the covenant, before receiving the law at Mount Sinai, before the sanctuary and all these things, when they grumbled, God seemed to let it pass. That was like a child. But now it is different. Now when you grumble, God will come and strike you. So these are two completely different things. Although both are God’s people, at that time your life was still young. You had just come out of Egypt, and I did not hold it against you. But now you have already stayed here for a year. Here you have received My statutes and ordinances. You have also known them and learned them. Now, if you grumble again, I will discipline you heavily.

So, brothers and sisters, you need to remember this: as our life grows, God’s leading of us is different. In the past, when our life was young, perhaps God did not yet deal with you. But now God begins to strike you. At this point, I believe someone will immediately say, “Oh, Pastor Chen, then I do not want to be baptized. I will just remain a little child. Then God will not deal with me.” I have really heard such a statement. This shocked me very much. So a person like this, in fact, simply does not know salvation or Jesus Christ at all. That is why he can say such ignorant and foolish words.

What? “I do not want to be baptized. I do not want my life to grow. I also do not want to read the Bible. I will just attend gatherings. I will attend gatherings, and everyone will treat me as a child. If I make mistakes, God will not strike me. Once I read Scripture, pray, get baptized, join the church, and become a member, then I am in trouble, because God will discipline me.” You see, this kind of thinking is foolish to such a degree. It takes pleasure in the enjoyment of the flesh and fundamentally does not take pleasure in God.

Whether such a person is saved is actually very much worth questioning. So brothers and sisters, I want to tell everyone: after you are baptized, join the church, and commit yourself to the church, God’s discipline toward you will become stricter. What He did not pursue before, He now begins to pursue. This is not a bad thing. This is a good thing. It is so that our life may become more mature. And a person also cannot remain a child forever. Such a thing is impossible.

So we need to remember what God’s intention is. Therefore, the second point is that God was about to become angry. And this matter of fire burning the camp, when we read it now, seems as if it is not a big thing. But this matter of fire burning the camp is actually a very serious matter. Why? If you have watched or read anything about ancient Chinese history, things like “fire burning the linked camps,” you know that fire burning linked camps is a very terrifying thing. In a military camp, you have nowhere to hide. Do you know why a military camp must guard against fire? Because once fire burns in everyone’s camp, you—we mentioned this camp in the past two days—the camp was arranged with every camp right next to another. Think about it. Those tents were all next to one another. Once this fire starts, you have nowhere to hide.

So fire burning linked camps is a very terrible thing. And I hope you can understand that the matter of the fire burning at the outskirts of the camp at that time—do not think this was a small matter. This was a very major matter. So we can see that God’s anger burned all the way to the outskirts of the camp. God was angry. Then the third step was supplication. When the fire broke out, thanks be to the Lord, these people still knew that it was not because they had failed to pay attention to fire prevention, and it was not because something somewhere had gone wrong. They knew that they had offended God. So they came to find Moses.

“Moses, today please come and plead with God. We have sinned.” All right, Moses prayed to the LORD, and then the fourth step was that the fire died down. So I hope everyone sees this pattern. First, the Israelites sinned. Second, God became angry. Third, the priestly intercession. Fourth, the fire died down. In the third step, we very clearly know that this points to Jesus Christ. This is not merely Moses’ prayer. As the mediator between the Israelites and God at that time, his prayer did not have finality. Therefore Hebrews mentions that there is a mediator greater than Moses. The intercession of that Mediator for us is what truly causes God’s anger to be turned away.

Finally, in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ bore for us the punishment that we deserved, and He also imputed His righteousness to us, so that we may be counted righteous in God. So this intercession of Jesus Christ, this pleading of Jesus Christ, causes the anger of God toward us to be turned away, and causes us to be reconciled to God again. Therefore, in those short three verses, or two verses, the whole story of redemption is given in a general summary, so that we may see more clearly the effect of this priestly intercession, this intercession of the God-man Mediator, and so that we may better rely on Christ.

In this life, we still sin. After believing in the Lord, we will still sin and still fall. What should we do? When God’s anger is kindled against us, we can only come before God and plead for God’s mercy, for the blood of Christ to cleanse and cover us, and God forgives us in Christ. But after that, we cannot continue to sin, right? You cannot continue to act willfully and recklessly. We must repent.

This is what we have said about verses 1–3. After this incident happened, the matter of wanting to eat meat appeared again. So here we really need to be careful about man’s covetous desires. On this road through the wilderness, you need to think carefully about God. I have reminded everyone many times that you must practice spiritual eating. Do not be enticed by the world, because there are many things of desire in the world, things that our flesh likes very much, right?

Now once you believe in Jesus, right, it is again Bible reading and prayer, and you also do not have time to go out and play. You feel as if you are living like a monk. You feel that, in the way Chinese people speak, it seems like asceticism. What meaning is there in this Puritan life? This is just like the complaint of the Israelites. Was this manna good or not? This has to be viewed from two sides, right? If you view it from the perspective of God’s provision, it was manna. You did not need to labor. As long as you properly feared God, He gave you the supply for your life. From this angle, manna was the best thing, right?

If you were not in the wilderness but in the secular world, you would still have to cultivate fields, plow the land, water it, and so on. Then the food would grow. Now you do not need to do that. You only need to go and gather it each day. Is this a blessing? Of course this is a blessing, right? This is a very good thing. This manna was like coriander seed and like pearls. The people walked around and picked up the pearls, picked up the manna, and then they just had to grind it. What a good thing this was. But from another angle, this could be a bad thing. Why? In terms of flavor, in terms of texture, in terms of the richness of food, once your appetite has been stirred up, from this angle, it becomes very difficult for you to adapt, right?

They wanted meat, cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, ginger, and garlic, right? Once these things come to mind, think about how good a fragrant pot of meat would be. Now our strength is dried up. So from the perspective of desire, manna was a very bad thing, right? “I would rather labor. I would rather farm and plant fields, as long as I can eat what I want. Now I do not like this thing.” I think this is especially reminding us Christians that you need to pay attention to your appetite. You need to see the world clearly. Many of us have very picky appetites. We hope for flavorful food. We do not want to eat manna that looks bland and tasteless like coriander seed. This is truly our deficiency.

This kind of ascetic joy—I especially mentioned it this time as well. When we worship God, there is in fact supreme joy. But this joy is not easily obtained. It is not like eating a big pot of stewed meat, right, and feeling so happy. Beer with meat. Now the crayfish is also served, right? You think about this whole table, right? The warm breeze blowing, the beer being drunk, right, the garlic-flavored crayfish being eaten, right? When you think of this scene, your mouth waters. Your life seems to have found the meaning and value of life. Then you say, “Reading the Bible and praying all day—what meaning is there in this? Again I have to read Scripture; again I have to pray.”

Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful about our appetite. There are many things in this world that attract us. I have always spoken about short videos, right? You need to be especially careful and attentive toward the things of this world. Many people do not pay attention to practicing this kind of spiritual nearsightedness of the eyes, and very quickly they are enticed away by the world. Again they want to buy this, and again on Pinduoduo this thing is good, that thing is useful, “I want this, I can also buy that. With one yuan I can buy many things.” For the sake of one yuan, you buy these things, but in the end, how much time have you delayed for yourself? So I can only urge you not to keep engaging with this matter anymore.

This is a lesson, right? The rabble among them had a strong craving, and the Israelites wept again. Each one stood at the entrance of his tent and cried, “I want to eat meat.” They completely forgot what a grace it was that manna came down from heaven. How good it was. As you walked along, you could think carefully about the law, right? “The law that the priest taught last week—I have not yet memorized it. Let me study it well.” Yes, I do not even need to cook. How good that is. But no, desires are many. So all these things are truly, as Paul said, written for our instruction. We must be careful not to say casually, “You have not given me this, You have not given me that. I do not like this plain and simple thing. I do not like walking this wilderness road. There is no scenery—only wilderness, nothing but wilderness. What meaning does my life still have?”

The meaning of your life is precisely to hope for the new heavens and the new earth in the wilderness. You must let yourself continually be immersed in God’s Word, to experience that supreme joy which God has established in heaven. This is our goal. If you turn your eyes to the world, right, and think of things like iron-pot stewed goose—once you start thinking of such things, you are already thinking wrongly. This world will be destroyed. As I mentioned in this week’s sermon, this world will be destroyed. All these visible things—palaces, fine mansions—will be like Sodom and Gomorrah. In the days of Noah there was the flood; later there was Sodom and Gomorrah. Even places that seem so good, like Hong Kong or Macau—places not lacking in prosperity—God can destroy them.

Therefore, the safest and most secure place is the wilderness. This is truly where we live and establish ourselves in this life—continually journeying, continually laboring, for the sake of God’s kingdom, and receiving that kind of peace within the supreme joy of God. This is our path.

Next, after Moses heard the weeping, Moses himself was not pleased either. Moses began to have a complaint—he complained to God. Of course, God did not immediately rebuke Moses here, though later He did discipline Moses. That is something we will talk about later. But what was Moses’ problem? Moses became unhappy. “Why have You dealt ill with me?” right? “You have laid the burden of managing these people upon me. Did I conceive them? Did I give birth to them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom,’ until they reach the land? Where am I to get meat to give all these people? Now they are all crying to me, ‘Give us meat to eat.’ Are they not trying to kill me? Are they harming me? This burden is too heavy for me; I cannot bear it.”

“If You will treat me like this, please kill me at once—I cannot go on living like this.” This is Moses’ complaint. So here we truly see the difference between Moses and the Lord Jesus. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly bore everything without a single complaint. He faithfully served God’s people, all the way until He wore the crown of thorns, was beaten, and was nailed to the cross. And still He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Without comparison, there is no clarity. Without comparison, we cannot see it. Moses, though a faithful servant, here pours out a whole stream of complaints before God.

So from this perspective, Moses is actually the same as the Israelites. The Israelites complained to God because they had no water to drink and no meat to eat. Moses complained to God because his work was too heavy: “Why am I so tired? Why am I so exhausted? Others can go and enjoy themselves; others can watch movies; others can go out into the sunshine.” You open the window and imagine yourself wandering in that bright spring scenery. But now you have to read Scripture, to pray, to study. And so you begin to complain to God: “God, why am I so tired? Why am I suffering so much? Others can enjoy themselves.” In fact, Moses is the same as the Israelites. Moses also needs a mediator. This is what we must read out of this passage.

Although Moses was a mediator between God and the people, he still had the nature of a man. He did not have divinity. The true salvation belongs only to Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. Look at this long complaint. From verse 11 to verse 15, Moses’ complaint is so long. The complaint of the Israelites is only one or two verses, right? Verses 5 and 6 record the Israelites’ complaint. But Moses’ complaint is so extensive. So Moses himself also needs a mediator. Truly, he needs that true Mediator.

Here, what we see is God’s love—the love of God toward us sinners in Jesus Christ. Moses is the same; he is also a sinner. Of course, we can understand Moses’ burden. Just as we understand the Israelites, we can also understand Moses’ complaint. So many people, all saying, “We want food.” And You, God, have given me this responsibility of managing them—I cannot do this. I did not conceive them, nor did I give birth to them. Yet You ask me to carry them. I will not carry them anymore. I will not do this work. Moses is really throwing down his burden here.

But God still has mercy on Moses. God has mercy on Moses in Christ, just as God had mercy on the Israelites through Moses. So when we read Scripture, it must point to Christ. Our Christ-centered interpretation absolutely accords with Scripture and is correct. I have this confidence. Do not listen to those who speak from liberal theology and say that our theological interpretation is wrong. May God have mercy on us.

Let us stop here. May God lead us so that in Jesus Christ we may experience this true love and true mercy. We give thanks for the redemption of Jesus Christ. And within Jesus Christ, we also learn obedience. Moses should not become our ultimate example. Rather, we truly imitate Christ—without any complaint, living before God. All right, today’s sharing ends here. Thank you, everyone.