Last Sunday, churches around the world celebrated Pentecost. It is the moment when the Holy Spirit blew through the walls into a room full of huddled, frightened disciples, dropping fire onto their heads. And in that moment, the Church was born. The community Jesus labored to nurture for 3 years during his public ministry birthed into a new moment.
As potent and monumental as this moment is, it begs an important question:
If Pentecost was the “arrival” of the Spirit, was the Spirit not at work in God’s people until this moment? Are we to understand that prior to this, the spirit was somehow less present?
To answer this question, we will return to the story in my last post fromNumbers 11 where Moses is being pressed hard in his leading of the grumbly Israelites in the desert. So pressed, in fact, that he actually asks God to relieve him of his post, and of his very life! “If you’re going to treat me like this, please kill me. If I’ve found favor in your eyes, then don’t let me endure this wretched situation.” (Numbers 11:15).
God responds to Moses’ despair with an invitation. God often responds to despair this way. By calling us to participate with him. He tells Moses to gather 70 men known to be elders and officers and to call them to the meeting tent. God knows that if Moses is to experience a shift of perspective, he’s going to need to see the power of God’s spirit at work. Yes, the Spirit! As we move into the rest of this story, I would invite you to pay attention to the presence of the spirit. God says he is going to take “some of the spirit that is on you and place it on them.”(vs. 17)
What are we to make of God’s words? What “spirit” is this? God’s spirit. What did the spirit do? Let’s pick things up where we left off last week.
Sizing up the Situation
Moses is understandably reluctant to comply with God’s instructions. First of all, gathering 70 people in one place is what I call a calendaring nightmare. If you’ve ever tried to get a group of leaders to stop what they are doing and step away from their homes to come to an important meeting, you can understand that step one was not a gimme. Moses had to get the men to the house of worship. But there was also the presenting problem that the people were rising up against God and Moses because they missed their meat-filled plates from Egypt. Nonetheless, God directed Moses to get those leaders into the tent. God promised that if he could do that, that he would “descend and speak with you there…then they will carry the burden of the people with you so that you won’t bear it alone.” (vs. 16)
While Moses is still expressing his severe skepticism (vs. 21), God speaks: “Is the Lord’s power too weak? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
Is this not the crux of the matter for most of us? We size up our situation, see the gloom and doom, the hard to please people, the unlikely logistics and toss our hands in the air and say, “What’s the use?” And to that, God always says: “Try me”. Thank goodness Moses did.
In vs. 24 we read that Moses goes into the camp and says, “Ok, I know you are steamed about surviving on manna and missing your meat, but God told me to see if 70 of you would be willing to join me in worship tonight.” 70 elders step forward and Moses assembles them around the meeting tent. And low and behold, God does exactly what he said he would: “The Lord descended in a cloud, spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and placed in on the seventy elders.” (vs. 25)
End of the story, right? Not so fast. Plot twist.
We read that “when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but only this once.” (vs. 25) Interesting. This is a very specific detail. This doesn’t sound quite like the scene in Acts 2 with prophesy gone wild in all directions. Yet, the spirit was there, and did something. The 70 men who stopped their complaining long enough to gather for worship got just enough of the spirit that they prophesied. Once.
Verse 26 tells us that meanwhile, back in the camp, there were two men who had stayed back. They didn’t join the others in the tent.
Their names were Eldad and Medad and the text simply says, “and the spirit rested on them”. (vs. 26) That is all we know about these two guys. Their names and that the spirit rested on them. Part of why I love reading scripture is because whoever recorded it obviously decided these two needed to be named in the history books. Nevermind that we never hear another word about these two ever again. Just here. This one verse. Their names, and that “the spirit rested on them.” We read that they were “registered” (meaning, on the list of the elders in the community), but they didn’t go to the tent.
Instead, they prophesied in the camp. Bold move boys.
And someone in the community seems to think this is a problem.
Redefining Leadership
They run and tell Moses, “Eldad and Medad didn’t go to the meeting like you asked. They are prophesying in the camp.” Interesting. While a group of elders are gathered in the appointed meeting place, the spirit shows up and they prophesy. Just once. But the two who stay back in the camp, apparently experience the spirit “resting” on them. In other words, the spirit stayed in an ongoing way. Medad and Eldad seemed moved on behalf of their people. They felt that someone needed to remain among them where the spirit of grumbling is breaking out against the community of God’s people. I don’t think it’s that they were looking to buck Moses’ leadership or God’s authority, but rather that they were spirit-led men who knew that someone should stay in the camp and do the work of prayer and ministry of the spirit right there. And so they did.
Joshua is Moses’ young aid and upon hearing the report from the whistleblower, appeals to Moses to stop them. Joshua respects Moses as a leader. He calls him “My master” but follows it up with a strong directive to his boss: “These guys didn’t fall in line with the rest of us and should be stopped.”
Moses doesn’t see it that way. He said, “Really Joshua? Are you feeling protective of me as a leader? Joshua, don’t you see what just happened? I obeyed what God asked of me in bringing the 70 men here, but Eldad and Medad obeyed what God asked of them, and the result is that there is spirit-filled prophesy in the camp!”
Sometimes I think it is easy to size up who is a leader by their title. But I think this story gives us another option. Determine leadership by action and posture. Not everyone who shows up to the meeting tent passes the test. Eldad and Medad cared deeply about their community and wanted to remain with the people in their pursuit of the spirit.
Moses concludes that not only should they not be stopped but reminds Joshua of the ultimate goal: “If only ALL the Lord’s people were prophets with the LORD placing his spirit on them!”
~Numbers 11:29
An Unknowing Glimpse Forward
Which is perhaps Moses’ way of longing for Pentecost. There in that moment, Moses seems to say, “Oh, Joshua – wouldn’t it be great if someday the Spirit of God broke out on ALL God’s people? Can you imagine what would happen?” I’m sure Moses couldn’t imagine. But that is exactly what happened some 1400 years later when the wind and fire rushed into the room and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4)
So people of God, what might this Spirit be doing in our midst?
The same spirit that was in Moses is the same spirit that God redistributed to 70 elders to help him lead. It is the same spirit that Eldad and Medad leaned towards in order to bring the presence and power of God among their people. It is the same Spirit that broke through the walls and birthed the Church.
And it is the same spirit that we have at our disposal today as God’s people.
While Pentecost is undeniably a monumental moment for the Church, and its significance is not to be missed, let’s not slip into mountaintop thinking that disregards that this same spirit has been at work in God’s people for thousands of years.
And when it shows up in us, it can move us to prophesy once or to bring an ongoing presence into a community. Either way, we are better for it. What might the Spirit want to do in and through you today? May you take courage in knowing you are joining a movement that has already been at work among us as God’s people. As Acts 2 reminds us:
16 Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
18 Even upon my servants, men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
Acts 2:16-18
May it be so among us as the people of God. Amen.