Numbers 11:16-30--Elders Appointed to Aid Moses

Numbers 11:16-30
English Standard Version

Elders Appointed to Aid Moses
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 And I will come down and talk 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 with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. 18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” 21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” 23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. 25 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 as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

​26 Now 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, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

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The Lord commanded Moses to gather together seventy men who are elders of Israel, known to be both elders and officers over them--I think this means that the people listen to them so that they have authority in both spiritual and civil matters.  It is from this idea that the idea of the Sanhedrin will come later after the time of the Babylonian exile--they will go back and look at this and say that the people lacked leadership from the elders and they will use the number 70 that the LORD had set here.

These elders were to come out from among the people to stand with Moses and they would hear what the Lord had to say to Moses so that they too could be responsible for helping to lead the people.  These may already be the men that were chosen to help Moses judge the people in Exodus 18 as their qualifications seem similar, only this time it was a command from the Lord instead the advice of Moses' father-in-law.  God promises to take some of the same Spirit that had been given to Moses (the Holy Spirit) and also give it to these seventy men so that "they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you may not bear it yourself alone."  See how God was gracious to not grant everything that Moses said, but to hear what Moses really needed.  This is not the first time that God has done this for Moses, as God sent his brother Aaron with him to speak to Moses and to help lead the people as high priest.

God gives the answer about the people requesting meat to to Moses, who will later relay the message to the seventy elders.  They are to tell the people to consecrate themselves (make themselves clean and holy) for tomorrow they will feast and will eat meat.  But God is going to give them so much meat to eat they are going to be sorry that they asked for it.  God would give them meat to eat for a whole month "until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you."  Why does God respond this way to their request?  Because He knows what is at the heart of the grumbling and complaining.  The people have rejected Him and His plan and His provision.  He has provided what is good and perfect for them, and they desire to turn back to what they had when they were in slavery, "because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”

Moses cannot imagine how there will be enough meat to feed 600,000 people for a whole month without killing all the animals (and they need those animals for their sacrifices).  Of note here is that the diet of the people back then was different than ours today.  We think of eating meat every day as a normal thing, but for them they were largely vegetarian still and only ate small amounts of meat of special occasions.  The exception to this was the priests who fed their families from their portion of the sacrifices that happened every day and they were commanded to eat all of the sacrifice that day and not let any go to waste.  It was God's provision to them and this should be seen as something luxurious for them.  God answers Moses with a rhetorical question that is along the lines of "Is there anything too hard for me?"  or "Have I stopped being God?."  He has done so many miraculous things and yet this is the thing that Moses can't believe that God can make happen?  God's answer is basically one of "Just you wait and see."

Moses tells these words to the people and the seventy elders are gathered around the Tabernacle to be dedicated to the Lord and so that the the Spirit of the Lord may come upon them in a very visible and public way so that everyone will see that these are the men that not only Moses has chosen, but that the Lord has chosen, for the Spirit enabled these seventy men to prophecy for a time, but then they did not continue to do so.

Two of the seventy that were chosen had remained in the camp for some reason and had not gathered at the Tabernacle as requested, and the Spirit of the Lord also came upon them so that they too began to prophecy in the camp.  A report came to Moses from a young man that ran to tell him “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

We then see something unusually as Moses' protégé, Joshua the son of Nun, yes, the same Joshua the the book of Joshua is named after who would lead the people after Moses' death, spoke up and asked Moses to stop them.  I assume Moses correctly identifies the root of this request as jealousy, but it being jealousy for Moses' sake.  Perhaps Joshua thought, "Moses, they are making you look bad and undermining your authority because you commanded them to come and they didn't, yet they are still acting with power and authority."  Then Moses says something interesting that is fulfilled in Christ--"Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”  Meaning that Moses wished that all of the congregation would have God's Word put in their mouths by the Spirit of the Lord so that they could speak as His spokesmen and ambassadors to say "Thus sayeth the Lord."  Now, I'm not saying that the Lord makes all of us to be prophets as He gives various gifts to various members of the Body (see 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and possibly other passages, though these three are pretty well agreed upon to contain lists of spiritual gifts).  The part that I wanted to point out though is that Moses desired for all of God's people to receive the Spirit and be able to exercise spiritual gifts--not just their leaders.  That is something that we do have today in Christ.  We may not all have the gift of prophecy, but all of us who are in Christ have received the Holy Spirit and have received spiritual blessings and spiritual gifts that equip us for the ministry that we have been called to do in Christ.

We would love it if the story ended there, but we know better.  The people are going to get what they asked for (meat) in an overabundance and it's also going to bring with it something they don't want--God's anger, because once again the people made this request because they were rejecting God--not just rejecting Moses and Aaron, but the God who put them in charge to lead the people.  They were questioning God's plan to take them out of Egypt to save them and whether the journey to that place of salvation was worth it or if it would have been better to have stayed in slavery because they enjoyed the things that satisfied their appetites that they had back there--not just meat, but onions and leeks and other flavorful vegetables.  All they had to eat and sustain them now was manna (which literally means "What is it?").

The people of Jesus' day got this wrong too as they thought it was Moses who led the people and gave them manna to eat.  They did not see the manna as bread that came down from heaven, but this is exactly what Jesus says He is in John 6 and that unless they eat of Him, they have no part in the kingdom of God.  See John 6, especially verses 29 through 59.  Jesus is the Bread of Life that the people rejected just as the Israelites in the wilderness were rejecting the manna they had been given, but Jesus is better than the manna they received for they ate the manna and still died in their sin and rebellion.  Those who believe in Jesus will be given eternal life and they will never die.  What a promise!  That too seems unbelievable, but is it any harder to believe than the fact that God was going to provide meat for 600,000 people in the middle of the wilderness for a whole month?  Is anything too hard for the Lord?