NOTES for Num 11:1-35
The story of the quail is interesting in many respects. First of all, because it is a story of God’s action. What connection could there be between the quail, the outpouring of God’s breath, and those prophesying in the camp? Everything is mixed together. And Moses himself asks here for helpers; he says directly to God: did I give birth to all this people? Many questions, many problems, but God’s breath, God’s action, sets everything in its place.
Those who wanted to go back to Egypt receive meat. Moses receives helpers, and along with them criticism and demands from his “faithful” supporters that unauthorized prophesying be forbidden. Everything comes at once, one thing after another. God simply acts; He simply breathed His breath. He neither punishes nor rewards anyone. Each person simply receives what he wanted, but always together with the consequences. Some wanted to return to Egypt because there was plenty of meat there. Those who wanted meat received it, ate their fill, and died of some infection; the birds, apparently, were diseased.
A punishment? No, simply the desire of those who wanted meat at any cost carried through to its end. The meat was received, and if they had to die because of it, none of those who desired meat had asked God about the consequences. Moses wants helpers, but where can they be found? God solves the problem simply: He blesses those whom Moses chooses together with the people, lets them feel His breath, and makes them prophets, at least for a time. After that, each person decides how to use the opportunity that has appeared: of the seventy, two become prophets.
God’s stinginess? Of course not; rather, human irresolution. One can remain what God has made one, but then one will have to change completely, and one’s life will also change completely, and not everyone has enough resolve for that. Moses receives helpers, such as they turned out to be. God did everything; people made use of it according to their own readiness. And envy immediately appeared as well: why is someone over there prophesying without permission?
Moses is glad; he would like all God’s people to consist of prophets, but those around him... those around him are plainly not ready. Well then, God’s people will not consist entirely of prophets. God’s possibilities are unlimited; only the human being is limited, at least as far as his own capabilities are concerned. Desires are another matter: here human potential is almost boundless. This is how the lives of individuals and of the whole people flow, between God’s possibilities, the limitations of their own aspirations, and the boundlessness of their own desires.