The Seventy Elders

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. That's where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. I'm so glad to be with you this morning. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Father, we pray that as we read your word, your Holy Spirit would be working in our hearts. We need you to teach us, Lord. So please, Father, help us. Help us to understand. Help us to follow after you. Help us to love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, Numbers 11, beginning at verse 16, and we'll read to verse 30. Here we go.
So the Lord said to Moses, gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people of the officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you. that you may not bear it yourself alone.
Then you shall 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 shall give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt, therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, not two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you. and have wept before him, saying, Why did we ever come out of Egypt?
And Moses said, The people whom I am are among six hundred thousand men on foot. Yet you have said, I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month. Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them? And the Lord said to Moses, Has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders.
And it happened when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied all together, they never did so again. But two men had remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle, yet they prophesied in the camp.
And a young man ran to Moses and said to him, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. So Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, Moses, my lord, forbid them. Then the Lord said to him, are you zealous for my namesake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
All we need to ask ourselves are A, B, C's. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do, right? So what's this about? Well, remember last time we were together that Moses had complained to the Lord. It was too much for him. Nathan had said Moses was having a Job moment. How am I supposed to handle all these people, Lord? They're complaining and I can't make meat just appear out of thin air. And so Moses is answered by the Lord. And it's the Lord who speaks to Moses in verse 16. And he tells him a few things. He says, right, gather the 70 people. Gather the elders. I'm going to put my spirit upon them. That same spirit that rests on you, I'm going to put it upon them. And then I'm gonna give enough meat for the people to eat.
Not one day, not two day, not three day, not five day, not seven day, not 10 day, but 30 days, a whole month worth of meat. And Moses is like, whoa, Lord, Lord, how are you gonna do that? He's thinking in his mind, logically, functionally, how's this gonna work? Are we gonna have to kill all the animals? That's not going to be enough to eat for 30 days. Are we going to have to go out to the sea and are you going to gather up all the fish of the sea? How's this going to work?
And the Lord says, do you not believe how strong I am? Has my arm been shortened? Just wait, buddy. You're going to see it with your own eyes. And so Moses listens to the Lord. And the first thing that happens is he calls together all the elders, right? Those 70 different men. They all come together. And the Lord does what he promises.
He takes that same spirit that's on Moses and he puts it on those 68. Now there's two who don't show up. Why they don't show up, we don't know. but they don't show up, and the Lord even gives his spirit to those two out in the camp. And here comes somebody, and they tell Joshua, and Joshua's like, Moses, look, they didn't even come. We gotta stop this. And Moses is saying, don't be zealous for my sake, right? He's saying, we gotta trust the Lord in this. We need to listen to the Lord. But notice what the Lord says.
This is where I wanna pick up. For a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, Why did we ever come up out of Egypt? What's at the heart of this? And I've got that double underlined in mine. I also have underlined in mine and starred, verse 23, Has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.
The heart of this? Is God saying, this is a lack of faith, guys? You're not remembering what it was like in Egypt and you're not trusting me as your covenant king. You think that somehow I was able to part the Red Sea, I was able to wipe out the Egyptians, I was able to give you the law, and I'm not able to give you meat? Do you doubt my goodness? Do you despise your covenant king?
I've given you food every day for a year. You didn't have to sow, you didn't have to plant, you didn't have to reap, you didn't have to tend, you didn't have to do any of that. Every morning you went out and there was food. And you despised the delicacies I've provided for you.
I think that's where we get at our covenant calling today. We're so discontent with where our King has led us. So often in our lives, we're just sad about what's going on in my life, and why isn't God giving me this, and why is the Lord not doing that? And this is exactly what he was trying to tell us in the 10th commandment.
Don't covet what your neighbor has. Don't covet his wife, don't covet his kids, don't covet his car, don't covet his animals, don't covet how the sighting on his house looks, or how great his business is. Remember what the Lord's given you. Have your days filled with thankfulness.
His arm hasn't shortened. He hasn't forgotten his love and mercy to you. The Lord cares for us. Our job is to remember. To remember that the Lord is not stingy with his children. But if the Lord has given us even Jesus Christ, how will he not with him also give us all good things? We get to inherit the kingdom. Don't grow weary following the king. It's hard. I understand it's hard.
Pray for a spirit to give you contentment and thankfulness today. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you that it's easy for us to be grumblers and complainers. to remember the good old days or something like that and forget the pain and the sorrow that we endured. Lord, we pray that you would renew our joy, increase our faith, teach us to be grateful and thankful and to walk by faith and not by sight. Let us love you, Lord, in Jesus's name.
Amen. Well, may the God of strength encourage you and strengthen you for your days ahead and even this day. I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week.
If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.