Then we left Horeb, Moses said, and passed through all that immense, forbidding (yârêʼ, והנורא) wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.[1] The word forbidding gives the impression that the fearfulness of the wilderness was primarily environmental. But I would be remiss in a study of fear to ignore what happened in that immense, forbidding wilderness (Numbers 11:1, 2 NET).
When the people complained, it displeased the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה). When the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) heard it, his anger burned, and so the fire of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp. When the people cried to Moses, he prayed to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), and the fire died out.
Without minimizing the fearfulness of this incident the word complained may be a little misleading, particularly in light of the subject headings: The Israelites Complain, Complaints about Food and Moses’ Complaint to the Lord. The Tanakh reads: And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of HaShem;[2] and when HaShem heard it, His anger was kindled… The implication seems to be that the people thought yehôvâh would not or could not hear them. And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto HaShem, and the fire abated. They got that message. Their complaints about food were made more or less to Moses (Numbers 11:4-6 NET).
Now the mixed multitude who were among them craved more desirable foods, and so the Israelites wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are dried up, and there is nothing at all before us except this manna!”
Moses did not respond as a murmurer. He took his frustration directly to yehôvâh (Numbers 11:11-15 NET):
“Why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me? Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers? From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’ I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me! But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.”
The fire of yehôvâh did not fall upon Moses. He received help instead. I’ve written elsewhere about the help Moses received. Here I want to return to fear. “And say to the people,” yehôvâh said to Moses (Numbers 11:18-20 NET):
‘…you have wept in the hearing of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, for life was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) will give you meat, and you will eat. You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, because you have despised the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”
Even Moses was concerned about making such a promise publicly. “The people around me are 600,000 on foot,” He said, “but you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”[3]
“Is the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) hand shortened?” yehôvâh replied. “Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!” So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord (yehôvâh).[4] The mere fact of complaining was not so much the issue as the manner of the complaint and the faithfulness of the complainant (Numbers 11:31-33 NET).
Now a wind went out from the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) and brought quail from the sea, and let them fall near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about three feet high on the surface of the ground. And the people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) burned against the people, and the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) struck the people with a very great plague.
I’ve written about Miriam’s challenge to Moses’ authority and what happened to her elsewhere. The people of Israel had ample opportunity to fear yehôvâh in that immense, forbidding wilderness. And here I am thinking of what yehôvâh told Isaiah, admittedly, many centuries later (Isaiah 8:12, 13 NET):
“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word. Don’t be afraid (yârêʼ, תיראו) of what scares (môrâʼ, מוראו) them; don’t be terrified (ʽârats, תעריצו). You must recognize the authority (môrâʼ, מוראכם) of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who commands armies. He is the one you must respect (ʽârats, מערצכם); he is the one you must fear.”
In the Septuagint the Hebrew word yârêʼ (והנורא; translated forbidding in Deuteronomy 1:19) was translated φοβερὰν (a form of φοβερός) in Greek. Though φοβερὰν doesn’t occur in the New Testament, other forms of φοβερός do (Hebrews 10:26-31 NET):
For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, but only a certain fearful (φοβερὰ, another form of φοβερός) expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies. Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a terrifying (φοβερὸν, another form of φοβερός) thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The people of Israel were plagued by a fearful expectation of judgment rather than a fear of yehôvâh that entailed faith or reverence. And that fearful expectation of judgment led to a chronic mistrust of yehôvâh’s motives. I hear it even in their request to send spies into the promised land. I made the following table assuming that Moses consulted yehôvâh before acting on the people’s request.
| Numbers 13:1-3 (NET) |
Deuteronomy 1:20-23 (NET) |
| Then I said to you, “You have come to the Amorite hill country which the Lord our God is about to give us. Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!” So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.” I thought this was a good idea… | |
| The Lord spoke to Moses: “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. | |
| You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord. | …so I sent twelve men from among you, one from each tribe. |
| All of them were leaders of the Israelites. |
Most of the spies returned from the promised land fearing the people who lived there rather than yehôvâh. “We are not able to go up against these people,” they said, “because they are stronger than we are!”[5] The rest of the people of Israel defied yehôvâh and refused to enter the promised land, saying, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness [Table]! Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt [Table]?” So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt [Table].”[6]
Their mistrust was evident to Moses: You complained among yourselves privately and said, “Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us! What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there.”[7]
At Sinai Moses said to the people, “Do not fear (yârêʼ, תיראו), for God has come to test you, that the fear (yirʼâh, יראתו) of him may be before you so that you do not sin.”[8] It is important to recognize the results of that test: The fear of the Lord is weakened through the flesh, just like the law. Jesus gave Nicodemus his summation of the human condition revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures (John 3:3, 5-8, 10 NET):
“I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God [Table]…unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit…Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?”
Precious few in Israel were led by his Spirit (Numbers 11:16, 17 NET):
The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.”
I am certainly no better than the people in that immense, forbidding wilderness, arguably worse given my advantages. I told Him I preferred not to have been born. The fire of yehôvâh did not consume me because He came to earth in human flesh as Jesus the Messiah and died for our sins: he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.[9]
Though his Holy Spirit had been given, I was so busy doing I was still fairly clueless how to be led by Him. In fact, if I remember correctly, I was thinking that the written words in the Bible were similar to divine programming taking over my mind. Oh, well. It kept me reading and trying to know Him through those written words. None of this is to say that I am some kind of genius at being led by the Holy Spirit now. Anyone who knows me knows that I have my fearful moments when I wrest back control resulting, more often than not, in an outburst of anger (Galatians 5:19-21 NET).
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!
I have no excuse for it. But it happens at work mostly, when I’m responsible for the quality of others’ work. (Sometimes I work alone or someone else is lead.) Though the work is seasonal we are salaried. I don’t work again until January. I definitely want to finish my working career at this job. Though the knowledge and self-awareness of my fear of losing this job would seem to be helpful, it’s not when I think about it too much. Then I add the fearful expectation that God will allow, or cause, all hell to break loose when I’m the lead to test me and make me better: The I-prayed-for-patience-so-God-gave-me-children syndrome.
Do not be afraid (yârêʼ, תירא) or discouraged![10] Moses said. The Greek word used for yârêʼ in the Septuagint was φοβεῖσθε (a form of φοβέω). When the disciples saw [Jesus] walking on the water they were terrified (ἐταράχθησαν, a form of ταράσσω) and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear (φόβου, a form of φόβος). But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage (θαρσεῖτε, a form of θαρσέω)! It is I. Do not be afraid (φοβεῖσθε, a form of φοβέω).”[11]
Then I said to you, Moses said, “Do not be terrified (ʽârats, תערצון), or afraid (yârêʼ, תיראון) of them!”[12] The Greek word used for yârêʼ in the Septuagint was φοβηθῆτε (another form of φοβέω). But I will warn you whom you should fear (φοβηθῆτε) Jesus said. Fear (φοβήθητε, another form of φοβέω) the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear (φοβήθητε) him![13]
I would do well to remember this if I persist in turning back from being led by the Holy Spirit. But I freely admit, fear doesn’t work well on me for anything positive. It is weakened through the flesh. I respond better to love and mercy. Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Jesus continued. Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid (φοβεῖσθε, a form of φοβέω); you are more valuable than many sparrows.[14]
I should take that more to heart when I’m afraid of losing my job, and be more thankful. I have a much more violent, hair-trigger temper than the one that comes out to play at work. And having been forgiven for the very same fear and mistrust, I find it much easier now than when I began to study the Old Testament to forgive the people of Israel and to learn from their mistakes (Romans 15:4 NET).
For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.
[2] From Names of God in Judaism under the heading ‘Other names and titles’: As the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period, Jews began to read “Adonai” at its appearances in scripture and to say “Adonai” in its place in prayer. Owing to the expansion of chumra (the idea of “building a fence around the Torah”), Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews, leading to its replacement by HaShem (“The Name”).
[5] Numbers 13:31b (NET) Table