MOSES' WISH

Numbers 11 tells the fascinating story of Moses and God getting frustrated with the Israelites as they complain about having nothing but manna to eat.

They want meat and they have fond memories of the food they used to enjoy back in Egypt - when they were SLAVES.

There's material here for several different sermons.

But this week I was focused on the tail end of the story. God eases Moses' burden by calling out 70 other leaders and taking some of the Spirit that is on Moses and spreading that Spirit among the 70.

And "when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied". 

I think the average church member hears that word "prophesy" and envisions these 70 men making weird, symbolic pronouncements of events that would occur hundreds of years in the future.

But is that what the Israelites were needing at the moment?

What they needed was correction, rebuke, and guidance. Perhaps a reminder of God's faithfulness and provision in the past. 

That seems to be what is meant by prophesying in the New Testament, anyway, and it makes sense here.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, "1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort."

There's a curious epilogue in the story of Moses and the 70 new prophets of Numbers 11. Two of the men never left the camp to join the big gathering of leaders and they end up prophesying back at the camp among other people. Joshua finds this to be out of order and tells Moses that he ought to stop them.

At this point, Moses does a bit of foreshadowing of a big change coming in the future:

29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Now and then you hear a little talk about speaking in tongues, but when was the last time you heard any teaching on prophesying in the local church? And yet, according to Paul, this is the big advantage of living in this current era of the human story: We have the Spirit and He can speak through us to edify the Body of Christ.

I need to do more thinking, reading, and praying about this because I confess my own ignorance and fear of this aspect of what the church is meant to be doing.