The Seventy Elders
December 25, 2020
Commentary
Many Christians today live their lives in a fog. They allow a cupful of problems to cloud their vision and dampen their spirit. Anxiety, turmoil and defeat strangle their thoughts. Moses had witnessed God’s power in spectacular miracles, yet at this time he questioned God’s ability to feed the wandering Israelites (vv. 21-22). If Moses doubted God’s power, how much easier it is for us to do the same. We see how the Lord helped Moses in a period of despair to solve two difficult problems:
How to pastor so many people. (vv. 16,17) – God commanded Moses to select seventy godly elders to assist him in the spiritual leadership of the people. At the heart of every problem is the problem in the heart and unless people’s hearts are changed by the Lord, their conduct will never change. God gave these men the power of the Holy Spirit to assist Moses in his work. Taking the same Spirit which was upon Moses, God put it upon them. The immediate sign of the Spirit resting upon these seventy men was that they prophesied (v. 25).How to provide meat for all the people. (vv. 18-23, 31-35) – The Jews certainly weren’t going to slaughter their flocks because that would have left them destitute. Moses questioned God as to how he was going to provide meat every day for six hundred thousand grown men. He basically said, “just wathch me” (v. 23). By sending a strong wind, God brought quail right into their camp. The Jews spent two days and a night capturing and killing the birds (v. 32). When God wants to judge people, He lets them have their own way (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). So, He gave them what they asked for, but He sent a plague along with it. The people began to devour the meat, happy that their craving was satisfied; then God’s judgment struck and many of them died (v. 33)
Application
Many lives are being “choked by the cares of this world” (Luke 8:14). But “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (II Tim. 1:7). Lord help me to not live in a fog.
Numbers 11:16– 35 (NET)
16 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the Spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.
18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, for life was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, because you have despised the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”
21 Moses said, “The people around me are 600,000 on foot; but you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22 Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!”
24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He then gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tabernacle. 25 And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.
26 But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the Spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” 28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his choice young men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 30 Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.
31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and brought quail from the sea, and let them fall near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about three feet high on the surface of the ground. 32 And the people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that craved different food. 35 The people traveled from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.
Illustration: A fog covering seven city blocks is composed of 1 glass of water
According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less than one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from sight. (Source Unknown)