What is the significance of Numbers 11:1–2?

The Lord was in the process of judging Israel by fire when Moses interceded in prayer “and the fire abated.”

A common sense reading of the verse suggests that the fire would have continued had Moses not prayed. Scripture is full of examples of God changing his plans in response to human prayer and repentance. And this suggests that God’s plans are not eternally fixed, as the classical view teaches. He is the God of the possible, not merely the God of the unalterable.