Continuing on from our previous study, we find ourselves still looking at Numbers 11: 4 and the situation involving a mixed multitude of peoples who accompanied the Chosen People in the Exodus out of Egypt. The passage reads beautifully as:
CJB Numbers 11:4 Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life; while the people of Isra’el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (Num 11:4 CJB)
This issue of a mixed multitude appears to be a most intriguing element to the Exodus story. Most accounts of the story of the Exodus focus main upon the Children of Israel and all their associated problems and challenges. However, this mixed multitude or in the Hebrew, this rabble, paints for a us a most fascinating story and life lesson. So many parallels here. So many analogies here. So many truths to be taken in and incorporated into our lives quite frankly. There is of course the low hanging fruit of matter that suggests the lesson to be learned here is to watch very closely those who are in our lives that are unequally yoked, so-to-speak. Clearly the rabble never anticipated the testing phase of the Exodus journey and thus they wanted off the bus quite early. Their influence upon the Chosen of Yehovah was evident in the latter half of this verse. Fast forwarding roughly 4-millennium, we can see the dangers of rabble in our walk with Messiah. Oh these folks may not be part and parcel of our walk with Messiah, but they are always present in various segments of our daily lives: unbelieving and unsupporting family members; grumpy and negative neighbors; co-workers and bosses who see the badge of our Faith as nothing more than a ploy to get time off for so-called “Jewish Holidays” or taunting us for being in supposed “cults.” It is these that often drive us to the very edge of compromise and drag us in to their unclean conversations and or personal and professional life problems that cause us great discomfort and frustration.
I know, for example, that I face each day I go in to the office a litany of staffers who come to me with their seemingly petty issues and expect me to make those problems magically go away. Or I am dragged into meaningless conversation that ultimately leads me astray and I find myself thinking, feeling, and saying things that are not of Kingdom essence. As we clearly see in the latter half of this verse, the Children of Israel “renewed their weeping” for food. I tell you, this Messianic life is a vicious circles much of the time and it can certainly weigh upon psychologically and physically if we are not girded about on our spiritual bodies with the whole armor of Yah.
CJB Ephesians 6:11 Use all the armor and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. (Eph 6:11 CJB)
But then, there is the higher level thought behind all this and that involves the overall leaven that infuses our lives on a daily basis. I’m not a huge fan or one who defers to commentary on the Bible, but I do from time to time enjoy reading what other well knowing experts or even lay folk think about a particular passage or Torah concept. According to Matthew Henry for instance (and I absolutely love this term he used to describe the rabble), this mixed multitude became “hangers on.” He goes on to describe these “hangers on” as individuals who saw and opportunity to latch on to the anticipated blessings of Yehovah that would be extolled upon the Children of Israel (my wording of his). I have to tell you, this gave me great cause for pause and reflection as he goes further to say that “scabbed sheep can easily infect a flock and he concludes his description likening the hangers on to leaven that leaven the whole lump.
Leaven and Scabs
One of the major challenges to those of us who embrace the Messianic lifestyle has to do with all of the elements that make up our life that can virtually infect us and hinder our walk with Messiah. As I mentioned above, the low hanging fruit is easily identified as those people who provide us opportunities to falter and stumble along the way. This situation my friends can be managed if we are careful to understand what it is that these hangers on bring to the table of our lives. In some cases we can simply dismiss them and have nothing to do with them unless we absolutely are forced to deal with them in a situation or problem. On the other hand, there are those we are either married to, related to and live with, or have to work with in order to make a living. In these cases, it may take a little more finesses than a simple dismissal. It may require that we set barriers and rule around how we will deal with them and what we will and will not tolerate from them. It may come down to having those “crucial conversations” (the name of a leadership book that describes having critical conversations to get your point across) with these individuals in order to establish an understanding as to what it is they are doing to create havoc in your life.
But then there is the compendium of things in and around us that have a leavening and scabbing influence upon our walk with Messiah and with that, we’ll pick this up next time.
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