Numbers 11:24-30
May 24
David A. Davis
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I wonder who among us this morning hasn’t made this mistake at home. Someone in your house has made dinner. Maybe they didn’t work at it for hours, but they did think about what to have, and they took the time to cook it, and they are about to serve it. It’s dinner time in your house. And you have just arrived: in from practice, or from work, you have just come from the train, or from a piano lesson, or from a math tutor, dinner is on the table, and as you come in the door and look at the table, you make the mistake. You can’t help yourself. You should have stopped yourself: “Are we having meat loaf again? Fill in the blank: chicken, pasta, salmon, taco salad, burgers, whatever. It was a mistake. The complaining part. It was a mistake.
The scripture lesson for this morning is a story of complaint; complaint against food, complaint against God, and it is a story of biblical proportion. Moses was leading the people of Israel through the wilderness. The people were complaining because all they had to eat was that manna from heaven. According to the Hebrew bible, the manna “was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin.” God provided the manna for their journey through the wilderness, and now they were getting tired of it. They had had enough manna. “We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, “ they wined nostalgically. According to the scripture, some of the complainers “had a craving”. “If only we had meat to eat,” They complained to God and to Moses and to anyone who would listen. “Give us meat. Give us meat. Give us meat!” Moses complained to God, “Where am I going to get meat to feed all these people?…. Why did you lay the burden of these complainers on me?… I can’t carry these people alone, all by myself, they’re too heavy for me?….. If I have found any favor in your sight, do not let my misery continue!”
The Lord’s response to Moses about meat, the Lord’s response concerning the people’s complaint about what’s for dinner; that is the beginning of our text for this morning.
Numbers 11:16-30
So 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. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself. And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore, the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?” The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. Then 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.
Two 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, so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua, son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But 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!” And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
Chapter 11 goes on to describe an abundance of quail brought in by the wind from the sea. So many quail fell from the sky that they were piling up knee high on the ground. It took the people two or three days just to gather them in. You have to eat a whole lot of quail to make it come out your nose. The story ends with a plague from God being sent against those who “had the craving.” They died while the meat was still stuck between their teeth. So be careful the next time you make that mistake of complaining about what’s for dinner.
There is another common, if not universal, response described here in the story, one that we all can recognize. It’s when Joshua comes on the scene. Joshua, the Son of Nun; Joshua, who brought the walls of Jericho tumbling down; Joshua, the right-hand man to Moses and the future leader of God’s people. Joshua heard the report that Eldad and Medad were prophesying back in the camp. They weren’t where they were supposed to be out at the tent, which by the way is where Joshua was always in charge. He was the attendant, the keeper of the tent of meeting. The two men didn’t join the 70, so maybe actually 68 elders were at the tent. Two weren’t playing by the rules. They weren’t with the in-crowd. Eldad and Medad weren’t doing it right when it came to prophecy and spirit, and marching to the same drumbeat as the other elders. A young man ran and tattled on Medad and Eldad. Or maybe he was just shocked that they were prophesying no wear near the tent. So Joshua runs up to Moses. “My lord, Moses, stop them!” We can’t do that. We can’t have that! That’s not how it works. They’re not with us. That’s not how it is supposed to be! Moses, stop them. I bet he stomped his feet, too! Stop… them.
Eldad and Medad. Those are some names worth remembering. Not because they sound like characters from The Hobbit or Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. No, the names are worth remembering every time you think you can predict where the Spirit of God is going to blow, every time you think you can define what the Spirit of God is going to do, every time you think you can control the Spirit of God and where the Spirit rests.
Eldad and Medad; for whatever reason, the two of them remained in the camp when all the others went out to the tent. They separated themselves from the group, or they were on the fringe, or they were just late, or they didn’t get the memo, or they forgot their homework, or they skipped class. Who knows? But the prophesy, the religious experience, their own encounter with God, it happened right there in the camp, away from all the others, away from the tent, away from Moses, away from Joshua.
The Spirit rested on them when no one would have expected it. Rested. Not anointed. Not inspired. The Spirit didn’t fall upon them or overwhelm them or transform them. The Spirit rested on them. The Hebrew verb is nuah, to rest. To the ear it in the Hebrew, it sounds a lot like the word for Spirit, wind, and breath….ruah. The word “to rest” isn’t all that common when it comes to describing the action of the Spirit of God. In II Kings, when the mantle of the prophet Elijah was passed to Elisha, the whole company of prophets saw Elisha at a distance and they said, “The Spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” Nuah. In Isaiah, the 11th chapter, familiar words about the Messiah: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him. Nuah.
As we read and heard in the text, the prophets stood by the tent of meeting, the spirit did indeed rest on them, and they prophesied. But they did not do so again”, scripture records. But nothing is said about whether or not Medad and Bildad would prophesy again. Makes me wonder if the unexpected Spirit rested on them….forever.
I was confirmed the summer after my ninth-grade year. That ninth-grade year, a few of the youth leaders back then were dabbling in the charismatic movement. Talking a lot about the Holy Spirit, and yearning for the miraculous in our midst, and sparking emotions. There was some Pentecostalism sneaking into the Presbyterian youth group. One Sunday night after fellowship, I was invited to stay for prayer with a couple of the youth leaders (not the youth pastor) and some of the upperclass members in the youth group. We went into the sanctuary and came up the chancel. The room was dark, but the chancel lights were on. We sang, and we prayed. Then they told me that they were going to lay hands on me and pray for me to receive the gift of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is one of the gifts mentioned in scripture. In the Pentecostal movement, speaking in tongues is a kind of prayer language that is beyond words and understanding. I stood in the middle of a circle as they prayed for me for what seemed like an hour. Some were whispering. Others were shouting. They kept praying and praying for me. And nothing ever happened to me in terms of tongues or a particular gift of the Spirit. I failed them, I guess. Finally, they gave up. We sang some more and went home. Not surprisingly, I can’t remember what those youth leaders said to me when they found out they couldn’t control the Spirit. They weren’t looking for the Spirit to rest on me, they were trying to throw it at me. Over the years, as I have thought about that weird experience back in the fall of 1976, fifty years ago, a few things come to mind. It was pretty spiritually traumatic, to be honest. That might be an understatement. And then I think about forty years of being a preacher. Maybe their prayer worked, just not how they wanted it to. Tongues of a different kind.
Eldad and Medad. Maybe it wasn’t Pentecost with the rush of a mighty wind, and with tongues of fire and many languages and all hearing like their own, and 3,000 people being baptized. Eldad and Medad. A Pentecost moment nonetheless. Remember those names when you find yourself in a conversation where some folks think they know where the spirit is at work and where it isn’t. Or they can just decide who is in, who is out, who is cool, who is not, who belongs, who doesn’t, who fits in, who stands out, who can sit at this table at lunch, who lives in the right neighborhood, who comes from the right country, who deserves a place, who can stay and who can’t. The two unexpected prophets were on the outside, not even looking in. Eldad and Medad. You ought to remember those names. The Spirit rested even and especially on…them.
If you listen closely this morning, I think you still hear the echo here in the room from Confirmation Sunday last week. “Defend, O Lord, your servants with your heavenly grace, that they may continue yours forever, and daily increase in your Spirit more and more, until they come into your everlasting kingdom.” Daily increase your Spirit more and more. That’s a prayer for the spirit to rest. Nuah. We prayed that the Spirit would rest on our confirmands. We prayed one by one. The only thing you could hear in the room was that prayer. The prayer for the Spirit to rest… forever.
You ought to remember those names. Eldad and Medad and Phoebe and Joelle and Samuel and Zachary and Bree and Hank and Logan and Chloe and Isabel and Anna and Vinny and Emily and Ford. A prayer for the Spirit to rest on them and you and me….forever.
Rest on us, Lord. Rest on us.