What is the meaning of Numbers 11:22? If all our flocks and herds were slaughtered for them Moses pictures the total liquidation of Israel’s livestock—everything they had driven out of Egypt (Exodus 12:38). - He counts six hundred thousand men on foot (Numbers 11:21) and realizes the herds could never cover a month of meat for that many people. - His math feels reasonable, yet it forgets that the LORD once filled Egypt with frogs (Exodus 8:1-6) and later would feed Elijah by ravens (1 Kings 17:6). - Scripture repeatedly shows God providing beyond natural limits (Psalm 105:40; Nehemiah 9:15). The verse invites us to acknowledge the limits of our own calculations whenever God speaks. would they have enough? This first “would they have enough?” exposes Moses’ doubt, a moment where even a faithful leader underestimates divine capacity. - Philip voiced the same hesitation: “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a little” (John 6:7). - Israel earlier asked, “Can God set a table in the wilderness?” (Psalm 78:19-20). - God’s answer always points back to His character: “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). Our doubts often sound sensible, yet they forget the One who measured the waters in His hand (Isaiah 40:12). Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them Moses shifts from land animals to the vast, unreachable sea—an exaggerated picture for a desert people. - The Jordan and the Red Sea had already obeyed God’s voice (Exodus 14:21-22; Joshua 3:15-17); catching every fish would be no harder. - Psalm 78:27 recalls how God “rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea,” showing that the Lord can summon provision from any realm He pleases. - Jonah discovered God’s command of the sea’s creatures when a great fish swallowed him (Jonah 1:17). Moses’ scenario, though extreme, still underestimates the Creator who rules both desert and ocean. would they have enough? The repeated question highlights the real issue: sufficiency. - God responds in the very next verse, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether My word will come to pass for you or not” (Numbers 11:23). - Isaiah echoes, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save” (Isaiah 59:1), and Paul testifies that He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). - The quail will soon arrive “about three feet deep…and all that day and night” (Numbers 11:31-32), proving that divine supply dwarfs human arithmetic. Whenever we worry about “enough,” God invites us to look at His arm, not our stockpile. summary Numbers 11:22 captures Moses’ honest but shortsighted attempt to calculate God’s promise. By picturing every animal slaughtered and every fish netted, he underscores the impossibility of feeding Israel through human effort. Twice he asks, “would they have enough?”—and twice God answers, “My arm is not too short.” The verse reminds us to trade our spreadsheets for faith, trusting the limitless Provider who speaks and supplies. |
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