The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.
Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
“Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, ”
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said,
“Moses, my lord, stop them.”
But Moses answered him,
“Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”
First reading from Sunday, September 26 — Numbers 11:25-29
Moses needed help. Fleeing from the Egyptian army out into the wilderness might be directed by one man for a little while, but once the escape succeeded, the situation changed. Now a large group of mixed tribes (plus various other people) had to be organized, fed and provided with water, have internal disputes settled, instructed about their relationship to their Liberator the Lord, and still be led on towards the Promised Land. Moses complains to the Lord in verse 14: “I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.”
The Lord has Moses choose 70 from those he knows to be leaders among the people, promising to share with them some of spirit of leadership he had bestowed on Moses. When this is done, the 70 begin to “prophesize” (not predict things, but to sing praises of God in the Spirit). Two of those chosen did not make it to the gathering for whatever reason—but received the Spirit anyway. Joshua, Moses’ aide, objects. Like most military commanders Joshua wants everything done in apple-pie order! But Moses speaks the more complete truth:
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”
What does Moses know about this? How did he learn it?
The first chapters of Exodus show us how God was working in Moses’ life from the very beginning, though Moses did not realize it. Much later, during the incident with the burning bush, when Moses is an adult on the run for murdering an Egyptian taskmaster, he has a personal encounter with God. At that point, God gave Moses an explicit call to rescue the Israelites. From then on—through the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—we read of Moses’s ongoing dialogue with God. The Spirit sent by God calls, responds, and directs Moses every step of the way. And that is what Moses’s response to Joshua means: he wants every individual Israelite to have that living, breathing, day-to-day experience of communion with the Lord.
They are not ready for such a thing any more than Moses was as a young man in Egypt. In fact, the entire story of the people in these four books is about the many ways they soundly reject God’s direction whenever possible. We have a lot to learn from those incidents.
Eventually Moses’s hope (“Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”) becomes an inspired prediction by the prophet Joel: “It shall come to pass. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your songs and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even upon your male and female servants, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.” (3:1-2) A prediction fulfilled, beginning with Pentecost and extending in principle to every baptized Christian since.
But only in principle. Far too many of us are willing to “listen to the Spirit” –if we get our way. We want to resist God’s calls and challenges, just as Moses and the Israelites did for so long. When Moses speaks with God, it is often, in practice, a struggle. Moses and God can get exasperated with one another. Moses’s repeated encounters with God under all kinds of conditions and circumstances in those four books illustrate a lot about what such a living, day-to-day relationship with God is like. Then—and now. After all, we are each on our own journey to the Promised Land—and none of us is yet living the Sermon on the Mount as our Lord instructed his followers to do.
For further reflection:
Some say, “God is perfect–he would never become exasperated.” What can I tell you: read Scripture where Moses speaks with God and you will see Moses himself express a number of different emotions. And it is quite difficult to read God’s half of the interactions and not hear exasperation at times in his voice!
Plus, “like father, like son” as the saying goes–remember the (not few!) times in the Gospels where Jesus shows evident exasperation with the Twelve. Or outright anger at the Pharisees. The fact is all human interactions are colored and energized with emotional components. It is part of the way we are made. To make us, God must be far beyond us, and we are in no position to judge him! Our Maker, of course, knows exactly what we are made of–and how to communicate with the ones He has created. Keep in mind how much of the meaning of what is said to us is carried on those emotional strands woven into our speech and writing.
To repeat: all human interactions are colored by and energized with emotion. Including all interactions between human beings and our God. If any doubt remains, read ANY psalm, every one of them inspired by God.