32. The People Complain and Rebel

Over 600,000 people had begun the journey from Egypt with Moses. Some of them seemed to be unhappy or dissatisfied all the time. The unhappy people did a lot of complaining.

It made God very angry when the people complained. He had done many wonderful things for them, but they quickly forgot them. Not long after they left Mount Sinai, the people began to complain because they were tired of eating the manna that God provided every day.

"I will send the people meat for a whole month," God told Moses. "They will have so much of it, it will make them sick."

The next day a flock of quail flew into the camp. There were so many, the people stayed up for two days gathering them to eat. The people who had complained the most ate too much of the meat. They got sick and died. It was a hard lesson for everyone.

Moses led his people to the borders of Canaan, the Promised Land. As God had instructed him, he sent a group of men from the camp as spies to go into Canaan and see what the land and the people were like.

After nearly six weeks, the spies returned. They brought with them all kinds of beautiful fruits.

"It is a lovely land, indeed," they said. "The people seem very happy there. They are big and strong. If we try to take the land, they will kill us."

Caleb and Joshua were two of the spies who had gone with the others. "Yes, the people are mighty," they said, "but we have nothing to fear. God promised us this country. He will take care of us."

But the people saw the other spies shaking their heads in disagreement. "We have come all this way from Egypt just so the Canaanites can kill us," they said to Moses. They complained louder and louder.

God didn't like their complaints and threatened again to destroy the Israelites. But after Moses begged for mercy, God spared all but the ten spies who had given a bad report.

Shortly after they returned to the desert, a man named Korah got some of his friends and some of the Israelite leaders to rebel against Moses. When Moses heard what they were up to, he told them to come to the tabernacle the next day with a cup for burning incense.

A great crowd gathered around Korah and his men. Moses and' Aaron stood to one side and Korah on the other.

"God will now show you who should be your leaders," Moses said to the people. "If these men live, then I am not the one. But if the earth opens to take them, you will know that God has chosen Aaron and me."

Just then the ground underneath Korah opened up and swallowed him and all his men.

The Israelites began to think that what had happened to Korah was Moses' fault. A group of them headed for the tabernacle. As they came nearer, the cloud of the Lord appeared over the tent. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the cloud. Moses prayed that God would forgive his people.

Then God told Moses to get a rod from each one of the twelve tribal leaders and lay them before the tabernacle. Moses obeyed, and the next day Aaron's rod had sprouted leaves and fruit. That was God's message to the people that Aaron was his chosen leader of the tabernacle.

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