He Will Send Help/Do Not Complain

I enjoyed reading in Numbers 11 this week. In this chapter the children of Israel are all complaining to Moses about the difficulties of wondering around in the wilderness. For example, they complain that they are not able to eat meat like they were when they were in Egypt. These complaints had more than one result.
First of all, Moses became overwhelmed. He was trying to lead the people and take care of their needs and wants. He goes to the Lord with his problems. In verse 11 he says, "wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me." Then in verse 14 he continues, "I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." The Lord does not turn away from Moses in his time of need. Instead, He tells Moses, "Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people,and officers over them...(Numbers 11:16)" Moses was then able to have some of his burden lifted because he could delegate some of his responsibilities to the seventy men that were chosen.
The other result to the complaints Moses brought to the Lord was that the people were finally given meat to eat, but there was a catch. They were given so much that they had more than they needed. At that time, the Lord used the meat to make the people sick with the plague (Numbers 11:33).
I really liked reading this chapter of the Old Testament. If you have been putting off reading this great book of scripture, stop reading what you have been reading and read this instead.

Only One God

This week, as I was reading in Exodus, I payed attention to how many times we are told to only worship the one true God. I started reading this week in Exodus 20. This, as many people know, tells us the ten commandments given to Moses.
The first commandment given was, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3)." The fact that this is the first commandment given by God means that it is the most important. Then again in Exodus 34: 14 he says, "For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord...is a jealous god." When looking at the footnotes, I was also directed to Deuteronomy 6: 14. This verse says, "ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round you about you." The Lord repeated this direction several times because it is important. He wants to make sure that we understand that He is the only God we are to worship.
I think that the commandment to not covet (Exodus 20: 17) goes hand and hand with this commandment as well. In the Topical Guide, it says to "see also desire; envy; greedily; greediness; greedy; jealous; lust." When we are jealous or lusting after objects that other people have, we are in a way worshiping those items. For example, if my neighbor had a really nice car and I wanted that car so much that it was all I could think of. In a way, I would be worshiping that car.
One of the more shocking things that I read concerning this topic was in Exodus 22: 20. The Lord says, "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only , he shall be utterly destroyed." Could you imagine what would happen if this law was still in place? I think that maybe the world could be a better place if people would worship our Heavenly Father rather than the opinion of others.