Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: The people complain against the Lord and receive a plague, the Lord provides meat for them to eat in the wilderness, Aaron and Miriam complain against Moses Miriam becomes leprous because of it, Moses asks the Lord to her and He does, Moses sends 12 spies to spy out the promised land, and only two return with a positive report.
When the people complain, it displeases the Lord, and a fire burns and consumes some of them on the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cry out to Moses, and he prays to the Lord, and the fire is quenched. The mixed multitudes among them become greedy for meat, and the Israelites with them, and they look back with fondness on the food in Egypt and complain about the manna. Moses hears the people weeping in their tents, and God's anger is aroused, and he is also displeased. So Moses asks the Lord how he has not found favor with Him that the burden of all the people should have been placed on him. He asks the Lord where he is to get meat for all the people and tells Him that the burden of the people is too great for him to bear. He says If God is going to treat him this way, to please just kill him if he has found favor so that he will not have to "see [his own] wretchedness." So the Lord tells him to gather 70 elders to the tabernacle, and that He will come down and take of the Spirit that is on Moses and put it on them so that they will bear the burden with him. He says for him to gather Israel and tell them to consecrate themselves, because the next day the Lord will give them meat, because He has heard them saying how good they had it in Egypt. However, they will eat so much meat that they will be sick with it- for a whole month- until they hate it, because they have "despised the Lord who is among [you]" and asked why He even brought them out of Egypt. The number of them is 6,000 men total, not counting women and children, so Moses asks how they are to get that much meat for so many people. God responds by basically saying, "You'll see. Do you not think I am powerful enough?" So Moses does all this, and the Lord comes down in a cloud. When the spirit comes on the elders, they prophesy, but only that once. However, two men remained in the camp (elders), but the Spirit still comes on them, and they prophesy, and a young man tells Moses, so Joshua, Moses's assistant, answers and tells Moses to forbid them. But Moses asks if he is "zealous for my sake," and that he wishes all God's people were prophets, and that God would put His spirit upon them (basically saying that it is a good thing and not to stop them.)
A wind goes out from the Lord and brings quail from the sea near the camp, about a day's journey away, and covers two cubits (3 feet) from the surface of the ground. However, while they are still chewing, God's wrath is aroused against them, and He strikes them with a plague.
Then, Aaron and Miriam "[speak] against Moses" because he had married an Ethiopian woman, and they say, "Has God only spoken to Moses? Has He not spoken to us as well?" (paraphrased), and the Lord hears. Scripture then writes that Moses is the most humble man on all the earth at that time. The Lord calls Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the tabernacle of meeting and comes down in a cloud, and He calls Aaron and Miriam forward and speaks to them. He tells them that He speaks to prophets in visions and dreams, but with Moses, He speaks "face to face" and plainly, "not in dark sayings," because "Moses is faithful in all [His] house," and Moses even sees His form. He asks them why they were not afraid, then, to speak against Moses. So God's anger is aroused against them, and He departs in the cloud. When he does, Miriam suddenly becomes leprous. So Aaron repents to Moses and begs for mercy on behalf of Miriam, and Moses cries to the Lord and asks Him to heal her. The Lord tells Moses that if her father had spit in her face, she would be shamed for seven days, and that she should be shut out of the camp for seven days. And the people do not journey until she is brought back and healed.
The Lord tells Moses to send men to spy out the land of Canaan, one leader from each tribe. Hoshea from the tribe of Ephraim, whom Moses had named Joshua ("God is deliverance"), is among them. Moses tells them to see what the land is like, whether the people are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land is good or bad, and whether the cities are like camps or strongholds and also if there are trees. He tells them to be courageous and bring some of the fruit of the land back with them. So they spy out the land and go to Hebron. They cut down a branch between one cluster of grapes and carry it back, two of them holding the grapes on a pole. They also bring figs and pomegranates. They return after 40 days and go to Moses and Aaron and all of Israel in the wilderness of Paran. They tell them that the land "flows with milk and honey" and show them the fruit. However, they say the people are strong, the cities fortified, and that there are many people who dwell there. Caleb, however, "[quiets] the people and tries to rally them to take the land, saying that they are able, but the others who went with them say they are not able. So they give a bad report of the land. They say the land "devours its inhabitants," and that the men are like giants and that they became "like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
"Hindsight is 20/20," but not always. Sometimes our minds play tricks on us, and we see the past through rose-colored glasses. The Israelites should have been focusing on how free they were, but all they could think of was the good parts of Egypt (however small.) They magnified those in their minds. Sometimes, it is better to forget!
We need to be very careful who we speak against, and that includes all of God's children! God takes it very seriously!
How easy it is to fall back to doubt and unbelief even after all we have seen God do in our lies. We must pray and ask Him to help us to never become complacent.