Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29 (NRSV)
Read Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29 on biblegateway.com
Verse 4The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, "If only we had meat to eat! Verse 5We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; Verse 6but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." Verse 10Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. Verse 11So Moses said to the Lord, "Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Verse 12Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,' to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Verse 13Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, 'Give us meat to eat!' Verse 14I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. Verse 15If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once-if I have found favor in your sight-and do not let me see my misery."
Verse 16So the Lord said to Moses, "Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you.
Verse 24So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Verse 25Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Verse 26Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. Verse 27And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." Verse 28And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!" Verse 29But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!"
Devotion
Are there days you’ve just had it? Things don’t go the way you'd planned? Responsibilities and tasks you gladly signed up for are dragging you down? All you hear are complaints? Apparently, Moses was having one of those days. Who could blame him for getting fed up with the rabble of the crowd? Even the Lord was angry, but that did not end the conversation. Moses took his complaints directly to God and God came up with a solution: "Let's share the Spirit!"
God's solution wasn’t without controversy. Does that surprise us? The Lord took some of God’s Spirit and put it on the seventy elders gathered in the tent. Good thinking! Now there were seventy others besides Moses who could share God’s prophetic word—pressure was off Moses. Yet more griping followed when two others, Eldad and Medad, who were standing outside the tent, also received a portion of God's Spirit. How could this be? Moses knew and took it all in stride, because he himself was "in-spirited." The wind blows where it will. God keeps breathing the breath of new life into the world. Once God’s Spirit is let loose it cannot be contained. All we can finally do is learn how to share that Spirit in the community!
Prayer
Breathe on me breath of God. Renew my weary spirit with your Spirit of life. Inspire me to share that Spirit with others. Amen.