Eldad and Medad
Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets,
that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (v. 23)
Numbers 11:24-30
Introduction
Jesus said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4.24). This means that God is not made of atoms, molecules and cells like we have been made. Yet He is a person who is all-powerful, all-knowing, merciful and gracious. He is God, the Creator, who made the world out of nothing with His word and breathed the spirit, the breath of life, in to Adam, the first human being. He is God, the Savior, who sent His Son, the Word made flesh, to suffer and die and save us from evil. He is God, the Holy Spirit, who now comes into the hearts of His believers so that we might live by faith and proclaim that faith to this world. The miracle of Pentecost celebrates this great work of God - the sending the Holy Spirit to cause us to be born from above, to be reunited with God, and to be God's voice to all.
On December 12, 1901 Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio transmission from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, a distance of over 2,000 miles. It was an amazing accomplishment and the beginning of a new age of communication. Soon radios would be broadcasting vital information to homes all over the world. What was the message that Marconi sent on that first radio transmission? It was simply the Morse Code letter "S." Why "S," you might ask? He chose the letter "S" because it is the simplest letter in the Morse Code. It is nothing more than three dots. I can't help but see some irony in this. Here we have men trying to send vital information across the ocean beginning with three simple dots. In the Bible we have God crossing from outside this universe that He created to communicate to us that He is God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God. This is the beginning of the most vital information there is in this universe. In this Pentecost message I want to go back to an important Old Testament story to help us understand God's desire to communicate to us and to save us from evil. This is the story of Eldad and Medad.
What Happened to Eldad and Medad?
In Numbers chapter eleven the sons of Israel had been in the wilderness for one year. During that year God had provided manna for them to eat. Manna was a unique kind of food that fell from the sky overnight each day. But the people wanted meat, and so they started to complain. Moses complained to God, and God answered by providing seventy elders or leaders to help Moses. God summoned them all to the Tabernacle at the middle of the camp where He would give them the same Spirit that He had given Moses. What was this "Spirit"? It was the power of God to know and speak His word. After receiving this Spirit, the elders prophesied. "Prophesy" is often misunderstood to mean "telling the future." It can be that, but it is always much more. It comes from the word "to call" or "to announce." A prophet is simply one who is a mouthpiece for God. When God did this, He showed the people of Israel that these men were His servants gifted to know and speak His word.
But there was a little twist in this story. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, didn't make it to the Tabernacle for this special outpouring of the Spirit. We don't know why they were absent. Nevertheless God did pour out His Spirit upon them. This upset Joshua, who thought they might be hypocrites or usurpers who would not follow Moses. But Moses responded with the famous statement: "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11.29) This event reminds us of Jesus' words, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3.8). It teaches us that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of God not of man. It controls man and not the other way around.
The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man
Let's think about the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. Atheists deny the existence of God and the existence of the soul and spirit of man. They claim that all human behavior is controlled by chemicals in the brain, genetics, upbringing, and chance. In the book Determined, the author, a neuroscientist, argues that there is no place for praise or punishment in this world because no one can help the way they behave. We are all the product of the random molecular activity. The author's solution to the world's problems is to show more compassion. But this is where he falls into the hole of absurdity and meaninglessness as all atheists and agnostics eventually do. What is compassion? Is compassion determined? Is it an accident? If so, how can you call for more of it? This view of life is what the Bible calls futile: Those who deny the Spirit of God and the spirit of man "became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1.20). By denying God they have denied the one thing they need above all else, and that is God's compassion. This is the heart of all the problems in the world today. The world has turned from God and has become lost in sin. The results are growing lawlessness and evil, not growing holiness and good. In their misery they cry out for love and compassion, but they know not where it comes. It comes from God.
This is why Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit, and the Bible are so important to us. At the creation of man, God gave him a spirit. He was different from the animals in that he knew God and could love Him. Originally his spirit was holy and in the image of God, but sin corrupted that. Sin didn't destroy his spirit, it just turned his spirit against God. God's answer to this was to come back to man with His Holy Spirit to save him. His Spirit is a spirit of judgment that condemns sin for what it is. His Spirit is also the spirit of compassion and love that bring forgiveness of sin and healing for our spirits. The whole Bible is the story of God coming back into a sinful world to turn it from selfishness and hatred to repentance, faith, and love. This is the Spirit that God gave to Moses and the elders. This is the Spirit David prayed for in Psalm 51 when he said, "Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me." This is the Spirit Joel foresaw when he said, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...," and "whoever calls on the name of the LORD, shall be saved" (2.29,32). And this is the Spirit that fell upon Peter, the apostles and all the people at Pentecost. It is the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirits to bring us out of the slavery of sin to the freedom and joy of salvation.
Does the Spirit of God Speak Through People Today?
The Spirit of Moses and the seventy elders, of Joel, and of Peter and the Pentecost converts is still active and working among us today. At Pentecost we are not just looking back to a time when God was intervening in this world to save it. That same work of the Spirit is going on today. It is going on through me and all other pastors as we preach the word of God. Our churches are like the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Jerusalem. They are places were God's word is spoken to bring people to Jesus, His Son and His sacrifice for our sins. But the Spirit of God is not limited to pastors. This is one of the important lessons from Eldad and Medad. Remember what Moses said, "Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” The work of God's Holy Spirit calling our spirits back to God also works in you.
How does the Holy Spirit come to us today? Let me answer that question by steering you away from the wrong ways people think the Holy Spirit comes. Some people think the Holy Spirit comes through emotions and ecstatic experiences. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was experienced by the people who heard Peter preaching in their own languages. Later in the early church, some Christians were given the sign of the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues. In Greek the word "tongue" is the same word for "language." So when the Bible says people spoke in tongues, it would be just as correct to say they spoke in known human languages. The miracle was that they had never learned the language. This is also confirmed by St. Paul's requirement that if other languages are used in worship, they must be interpreted for everyone to understand. The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit is not the author of gibberish and confusion. So don't think you're going to get the Spirit of God by trying to speak emotional nonsense. That's the flesh, not the Spirit.
But as Moses said, "Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” How does this happen? It happens when we read, mark, and meditate on God's written word that He has handed down to us through the Prophets and Apostles. More than that it happens when we pray for the Holy Spirit to help us believe and understand those words ourselves, and when we ask the Holy Spirit to help us live them and teach them to others. Jesus said in Luke 11.13 that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Peter said that when we repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, we receive the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter four, the Sadducees arrested Peter and John for preaching in the name of Jesus. But they were not silenced. Instead they went to their friends and together they prayed for God's help. Luke tells us "the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (4.31). That is the miracle of Eldad and Medad and of Pentecost that continues to this day. God has answered Moses' prayer!
Conclusion
Martin Luther is recognized as one of the greatest preachers of all time. But what enabled this poor Augustinian monk to preach so boldly of the grace of God in Christ? The answer is found in His devotion to God's word and his devotion to God in prayer. He realized early that the reformation wasn't about him, it was about God. He was constantly setting aside his own strengths to rely soley on the strength of God. You can really see that in a little prayer that he wrote called "The Sacristy Prayer." The sacristy is where pastors put on their robes and make their final preparations for leading worship. Here is his prayer: Lord God, You have appointed me as a Bishop and Pastor in Your Church, but you see how unsuited I am to meet so great and difficult a task. If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long ago. Therefore, I call upon You: I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you; I shall teach the people. I myself will learn and ponder diligently upon You Word. Use me as Your instrument -- but do not forsake me, for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.
Moses wanted you and me and all Christians to have the spiritual strength to believe and to proclaim the Gospel. When you need this strength to talk to a stranger, friend, or family member about Jesus, turn to these two things: First, to God's word in study and meditation; and, Second, to God's Holy Spirit in prayer for faith, for boldness, for wisdom. Amen.
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