Eldad and Medad Numbers 11:24-31 Pentecost

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.

 

 

 

God Came Down from Heaven Genesis 11.1-11

God Came Down from Heaven

Sermon for Pentecost June 8, 2025

Faith Lutheran Church, Beaufort, South Carolina

The Tower of Babel, Genesis 11.1-11

(NKJV) 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as
they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Introduction

     Today, as we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, I would like to bring your attention to the important Old Testament lesson of the Tower of Babel. I want to focus on several important questions that this lesson brings up. But the most important question is whether or not God comes to us, and if so, how and why? 

Is Genesis Real?

     Before we get to that we have to wrestle with the question about the reality of the Book of Genesis itself. A hundred years ago this wouldn't have bothered many Christians at all. But today many people think this book is a book of myths. We are told that Genesis is just stories which might have some useful meanings for us, but they are not real. I completely challenge that with a few very important questions of my own: If you deny the account of Creation, of the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel, you have a lot of explaining to do. Will your explanations be any better than those of Genesis? If God didn't create the world, who did, and how? Of course we are told it all happened by accident through a process of random chance over millions of years. But the reality is that nothing gets built by accident. We all know that. If God didn't destroy the world through the Great Flood, then why do we find fossil graveyards where many creatures all died at once, and all their remains were fossilized at the same time? Why do we find layers of sediment that span continets? If God didn't confuse the languages at Babel, then why are there over seven thousand languages in the world? Wouldn't nature have taken a different approach? Wouldn't it be much better for the survival of human beings to have a better way to communicate with one language? Isn't this the way animals communicate all over the world? 

     These ideas are the real myths, not the records of Genesis. These are the myths that men imagine because they are determined to think of the world without the presence and the involvement of God. If they did that, their souls would be involved. They would have respond to God's call to repentance. They would have to receive His forgiveness. And they would have to live their lives according to His will. It is because they want none of this, and want life on their own terms that they imagine the myth of a world without God. In many ways they are like the men of Shinar that we hear about in Genesis chapter eleven. 

What Is Our Identity?

     Before we get to the main question, "Does God come to us and how?" there are a couple of important questions that God wants us to notice. First of all, the men of Shinar were confused about their identity. They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves..." (11.4). The Bible always warns us "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16.18). Having cut themselves off from God, they were lost, drifting, and they hoped to find an anchor by accomplishing something that everyone would think is great. We are certainly tempted to this ourselves. We want to be recognized for something: our hobby, our career, our accomplishments, our enthusiasim for certain things. None of these are necessarily bad until they become the main identity and focus of our life. 

     A Christian's main identity is in their relationship to God. John the Apostle spoke about this in his first letter. Four times in that short letter he identifies Christians as "the children of God." In chapter three he said, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" (3.1). Paul said, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," (Romans 8.16). This is a good identity because it's not really about us. We didn't make ourselves the children of God. We became the children of God as He called us, forgave us, and put His name and His pride and joy upon us in our baptism. Our significance is that God loves us, and nothing can ever destroy that or take it away from us.

The Fear Factor

     Notice, also, that the men of Genesis eleven are afraid of something. They said, "let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered over the face of the earth" (11.4). Within five or six generations from Noah and the Great Flood, many people were forsaking God. God had commanded them to spread out and repopulate the world. In Genesis nine, God repeated the same command he gave to Adam and Eve, to "be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill the earth" (9.1). That command still stands today. It was never taken away. But the men of Shinar did not care about this. They only cared about themselves. When that happens, when men forsake God, initially they think everything is going to be great, all will be happy. But there is really no joy without God. Gradually fear begins to lay its grip upon them. In Psalm fourteen David describes the fools who say "there is no God" (14.1). They have "turned aside," (14.3). "There they are," David said, "in great terror" (14.5). 

     As Christians we are also tempted by fear. But there is a difference between the person who trusts in God and the person who does not. The Christian may be bumped off his firm foundation of faith by the troubles of life: sickness, accidents, or violence. But he has a foundation to climb back to. The unbeliever has nothing but to sink into the abyss of doubt. The men of Shinar were trying to create a sense of security by building this huge tower. They put their trust in themselves, and that never ends well. Psalm 146 tells us: "Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish" (3-4). We have to be careful not to fall into the same trap thinking that our money, our strength, our government, or our technology will save us. 

Does God Come to Us and How?

     We've seen how Genesis is a book of realities - very important realities. We've seen how important it is to have our identity with God and how that saves us from fear. Now let's look at the main question: "Does God Come to Us and How and Why?" 

     Here we begin with what is probably the funniest verse of the Bible. God sometimes uses humor to make a point. So far everything has been about the men of Shinar and their famous building project. They are proud of this. This is going to save them. This will make a name for themselves. It will reach to the heavens. Then comes verse five: "But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built." Psalm two describes something similar. The kings of the earth set themselves agains God but then verse five: "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The LORD shall hold them in derision." So Moses said that God has to "come down" to see the this tower that the men have built. Here God is showing us His infinite majesty and power by using a familiar human experience. It is as if God is looking down from heaven like we might look down upon a tiny ant colony. They are building something which in their eyes is great. But from God's perspective He can barely see it. He has to "come down" to see it. 

     God does come to us in many ways. For the men of Shinar God came in judgment by confusing human language and making it impossible for them to do all that they might try to accomplish. In the very next chapter we read that God came into this world in a much different way. He came to Abram and promised to make him a great nation - a nation that would in fact bring a blessing to all the families of the earth (12.3). This was part of God's ongoing plan of salvation - His plan to come back into this sinful world in order to save it. Down through the ages God came into this world through His prophets speaking the ringing words of truth. The heart of that message was always the same: Repent and Believe. Repent of the sins that destroy, and believe in the grace of God that saves. 

     The prophets all pointed to a special person who would accomplish this salvation for the world. They called Him the Messiah, the Christ. When Jesus came into the world at His birth, Matthew quoted Isaiah, "Behold the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name 'Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God with us'" (1.23). 

     As we remembered last Sunday, Jesus lived and died and rose again for our salvation. He then ascended to the right hand of God. Today we remember what happened just ten days later. Jesus' disciples were gathered together in prayer in Jerusalem. As Jesus had promised, the Holy Spirit came upon them and enabled them and all Christians to believe in and proclaim the presence of God. The miracle of Pentecost is similar to the miracle a Babel. There God came in judgment to confuse languages and to slow the spread of evil. At Pentecost that judgment was reversed as God enabled Peter to speak in his language and yet be understood by people of many different languages. 

Conclusion

     Yes, God does come to us. He came through the prophets, through Jesus, through His apostles. We are living in a very special time as Peter said in his Pentecost sermon. These are the last days. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh..." He goes on to say that our sons and daughters, young and old, menservants and maidservants shall prophesy. The word "prophesy" means much more that saying things about the future. It is simply speaking the words of God. This is happening all the time. Mothers and fathers are teaching their children about Jesus. This church is proclaiming the Gospel. You are bearing witness to Jesus in your words and deeds wherever you go in the world. The world around us may act like the men of Shinar trying to live without God. But we, the children of God are here, and we are here to bring them the saving presence of God. Amen.