Prophesying Without a License

Passage: Numbers 11:24-30

This story acts as a kind of bizarre intermission between two installments of another story. The bigger story recounts God’s response to the Israelites’ complaints about their menu options. They’ve been eating manna for three squares a day, and they’re sick of it. They complain, and God says, “Fine, you want meat? I’ll give you meat. You’ll eat so much meat it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it!” (God’s words, not mine).

Before God makes good his promise, Moses asks for a break from the constant headache his people have become. God responds by calling a conference of Moses and seventy of the elders of Israel. They gather at the Tabernacle, and God’s cloud envelopes them. They are overcome by God’s Spirit and, we’re told, begin prophesying. We don’t know exactly what this looked like, but it must have been remarkable. Because as the seventy elders are prophesying at the Tent, two elders who missed the memo (their names are named Eldad and Medad) start doing the very same thing back in the camp. Well, Moses’ trusted aid, Joshua, sees these two guys prophesying. He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but it looks unauthorized, so he runs to tell Moses about it. And he urges Moses to put a stop to it. Moses says, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all God’s people were prophets and God’s Spirit would rest on all of them.”

Remarkably, a very similar interaction occurs between Jesus and his disciples in Mark 9:

"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension we see Moses’ wish come true. The Holy Spirit is given to all of God’s people. The Spirit is at work in lives and communities around the world. There are times when we are suspicious or jealous of those with whom the Spirit is visibly present. Moses’ words to Joshua, and Jesus’ words to his disciples caution us to check this response. We’re all part of the same family. And we’ve all been caught up in the same great work. Don't disparage the Spirit's work, no matter how you feel about those in whom the work is being done. Celebrate it. It's simply another expression of the greatest gift you and I have ever received.