...That the LORD's People Were All Prophets

Passage: Numbers 11:16-29

Is the Holy Spirit a New Testament phenomenon? Christians often assume that the biblical underpinnings of our doctrine of the Trinity – that is, our conviction that the God of the Bible is one God in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – are found exclusively in the New Testament. There’s no Jesus in the Old Testament, is there? Certainly there’s no distinction amongst the persons of God revealed in the Old Testament. Is there?

As a matter of fact there are references to all three persons of the Trinity throughout the Old Testament. The God of the Bible is a God who is eternally one in three. The difference is that when Jesus the Son enters the world he paints a more complete picture of the God of whom people had only caught glimpses before. Jesus is the complete picture of God the Son; and Jesus teaches explicitly about God the Spirit. The Spirit, in turn, becomes an experienced reality for Jesus’ disciples at Pentecost and following. Veiled references to the three persons of the Trinity become clear when viewed through the lens of God's revelation through Jesus Christ.

There are Old Testament passages, like Numbers 11, that describe the reality of the Spirit in nearly Pentecostal terms. In this passage, God commands Moses to set aside a special group of people who will help bear the burden of leading the Israelites. When these “seventy elders” are selected, “the power of [God’s] Spirit rests on them” and they “prophesy”. They experience something very similar to that which the apostles experience at Pentecost. There are two significant differences. First, the Spirit doesn’t remain with them in a lasting capacity; Second, the Spirit is given only to this select group within God’s people. When Joshua, Moses’ right-hand man expresses concern about the selective nature of the Spirit’s manifestation, Moses says this remarkable thing:
“Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

It’s as though Moses foresees that which God has in mind all along: the day on which God’s Spirit is given to all his people. The day on which they all become prophets; priests; kings. In fact that day has come. The Spirit that descends and indwells in moderation pre-Christ is poured out in abundance at Pentecost. All who believe in God the Son are inhabited by God the Spirit. By the Spirit we are given, as Peter puts it, “the words of life.” Moses’ wish came true: the Lord’s people are all prophets. What a responsibility…and what a gift.