Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets (Numbers 11 - Part 2)

Moore's Corner Church

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March 23, 2022

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Part 3 (Restoration & Forgiveness / Galatians 6)

00:05: Numbers chapter 11, we're gonna pick up in verse 18. That's about where we left off last time.
00:13: So Numbers chapter 11, verses 18 through 35.
00:20: You shall say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat.
00:27: For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord saying, who will give us meat to eat?
00:32: For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat.
00:42: You shall eat not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor 10 days, nor 20 days, but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have despised the
00:59: Lord who is among you and have wept before him saying, why did we ever come up out of Egypt?
01:07: The people who I am among are 600 ,000 men on foot. Yet you have said,
01:14: 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?
01:25: Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to provide enough for them?
01:32: Has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what
01:37: I say will happen to you or not. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the
01:45: Lord. And he gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle.
01:54: Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took off the spirit that was upon him and placed the same upon the 70 elders.
02:04: And it happened when the spirit rested upon them that they prophesied, although they never did so again.
02:14: But two men had remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad and the name of the other,
02:21: Medad. And the spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle.
02:32: Yet they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses. Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
02:42: So Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered.
02:48: Moses, my Lord, forbid them. And Moses said to him. Are you zealous for my sake?
02:57: Know that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.
03:06: And Moses returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel. Our wind went out from the
03:18: Lord and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp.
03:24: About a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp.
03:30: And about two cubits above the surface of the ground. And the people stayed up all that day, all night and all the next day and gathered the quail.
03:41: He who gathered least gathered 10 homers and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
03:49: But while the meat was still between their teeth before it was chewed, the wrath of the
03:54: Lord was aroused against the people. And the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
04:04: So he called the name of that place Kibrath Hatayava because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.
04:14: From Kibrath Hatayava, the people moved to Haziroth and camped at Haziroth.
04:21: Okay, so this is part two of our study of Numbers chapter 11. Last time we saw how obedient Israel has now become, once again, complaining, rebellious
04:33: Israel. And do you remember how the mixed multitude, they had influenced
04:40: God's people to such a degree, they became discontent. And now the
04:46: Israelites are complaining how they wanna go back to Egypt, which is just unbelievable when you think about it.
04:54: And one of the issues is they're not happy with the manna. They're asking the
04:59: Lord in a sense, where's the beef, right? Where's the meat?
05:05: We demand meat to eat. So what is God gonna do? He's gonna give them meat.
05:12: Look at verses 19 and 20. You shall eat not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor 10 days, nor 20 days, but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.
05:30: Why would God do that? Well, keep reading because you have despised the Lord who is among you and have wept before him saying, why did we ever come out of Egypt?
05:43: So this is the first thing we're going to look at. And then the second thing, which I think is an even more significant part of the chapter, how
05:52: God's spirit comes upon these men, the 70 elders, and it causes them to prophesy.
06:01: So you have the 70 elders chosen and they're given the Holy Spirit to empower them for the work of ministry.
06:09: First, the 70 elders prophesy. We're gonna read that. And then two men in particular,
06:16: Eldad and Medad, they begin to prophesy in the camp and they're concerned about it.
06:23: Joshua is really concerned about it. Why do you think that is? So here they are prophesying in the camp.
06:31: Why would that bother Joshua? Anyone want to take a guess? Mary. Because they were not, they didn't go to the tabernacle like everybody else did.
06:41: Okay. So it was kind of a rebellion. Okay, so they seem like there might be a rogue element among the people.
06:48: Joshua clearly doesn't think they're sanctioned to do this, right? They're not allowed to prophesy or to preach.
06:56: Who did these guys think they are, basically? And it might have seemed like a rebellion was starting to form against Moses.
07:05: And Moses really responds in a surprising way, surprising to Joshua, certainly. And he says that, oh, that all
07:13: God's people were prophets. And this desire of Moses actually becomes a prophecy in the book of Joel.
07:21: And that has implications for the day of Pentecost. But look at verse 29.
07:27: Then Moses said to him, are you zealous for my sake? Or are you jealous? It's another way you could put it.
07:34: Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.
07:41: And I don't think this is just Moses' desire. This is God's desire.
07:48: So this is gonna tie in with the day of Pentecost, have implications for the New Testament church.
07:54: Look at Exodus 11, verse 18. We'll start here. Then you shall say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat.
08:05: For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.
08:12: Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. So when he says, consecrate yourselves, another way you can look at this, he's saying, prepare yourselves to meet with God.
08:25: Although they're gonna be meeting with God in judgment. That's not the way you wanna meet with God.
08:34: If you think about it, everybody is going to meet God one day. Everybody is going to stand before God.
08:40: And you're either going to meet him in judgment or to receive an eternal reward.
08:47: But let's start to Psalm 106. Psalm 106 gives us a little insight into this passage.
08:57: Maybe you've heard the expression, thank God for unanswered prayers.
09:04: Okay, that's a country song too. I guess I was familiar with it. I don't listen to country music.
09:10: I don't wanna alienate anyone, but I hate country music. But yeah, I'm making enemies now.
09:21: But the sentiment, I like the older stuff if I'm gonna listen to it. But if, now
09:28: I lost my train of thought. Thank God for unanswered prayers.
09:35: The sentiment is true enough, right? Cause there are things maybe you've asked for and God didn't give it to you.
09:42: And it's a good thing that God didn't give it to you. Other times
09:48: God's people will ask for things and God is gracious in giving these things.
09:55: But sometimes we're glad God doesn't give us what we asked for. That's the moral of the story.
10:01: Be careful what your motivation is. Be careful for what you ask for, God just might give it to you.
10:06: Look at Psalm 106 verses seven through 15. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders.
10:15: So this is the Psalmist speaking to the Lord. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders.
10:21: They did not remember the multitude of your mercies, but they rebelled by the sea, the
10:27: Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty power known.
10:35: He rebuked the Red Sea also and dried it up. So he led them through the depths as through the wilderness.
10:44: He saved them from the hand of him who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
10:50: The waters covered their enemies and there was not one of them left. Then they believed his words and they sang his praises and they soon forgot his works.
11:04: They did not wait for his counsel, but they lusted exceedingly.
11:09: This is the part that ties in with numbers 11, but they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tested
11:16: God in the desert. And he gave them their request, but what?
11:24: He sent leanness into their soul. I think it's a common thing for people to think, if I just had this, then
11:36: I'd be happy, right? If I could just resolve this one thing, if I could just break away and be here instead of there and have this instead of that, then
11:47: I would be satisfied. The sad part about that is
11:53: God's people often seek pleasure, not in God himself, but in carnal things.
11:59: And that's what you see the children of Israel doing. They're not looking to God and trusting in God.
12:05: They're rebelling against God and they're just fixated on having meat to eat.
12:11: Now that sounds maybe ridiculous to us. Of course, if you were there eating the same thing every day you might have this craving, but it's how they went about it that was all wrong.
12:25: What did Paul say in Philippians four? I've learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.
12:31: And then Paul goes on to talk about, I know what it's like to have a little, I know what it's like to have a lot.
12:38: And he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And people have taken that, if there's any verse that people take out of context, that's the one.
12:48: You can do anything. You can put anything, do anything you put your mind to. I don't think that's what he's saying.
12:55: Paul's saying, I can endure anything because Christ gives me the strength. Lord, give me the strength to stay faithful no matter what situation
13:04: I find myself in. But let's go back to Exodus chapter 11. One thing we know for sure, the
13:10: Israelites were not content. They were not content. So are we content today?
13:20: Are you content tonight? You think about all you have, what's going on in Eastern Europe.
13:28: Think about the people there that are suffering and how good you have it.
13:34: We can get so focused on our own problems and become discontent. If only this could happen, if I could only have this, you could be over there.
13:43: You know, you could be in the wilderness eating bread every day. So it's a matter of being content in whatever state you are in.
13:54: Here's a new thought. Maybe we should start thanking God for the things he has refused to give us.
14:01: Just the things we ask for and he says, no. Why? Because he knows we can't handle it. So they ask for meat,
14:07: God's gonna give them meat. He knows they can't handle getting the meat, we'll see that.
14:13: So this is interesting, the way Moses responds.
14:18: It's like Moses responds with a little skepticism, right? He asked, where's all this gonna come from?
14:27: How many men are on foot? What does it say? 600 ,000 men on foot.
14:33: So this is like, yeah, well, this is the military age men plus everybody else.
14:40: So where are you gonna find the meat to feed all of these people? What are you gonna do? Empty all the seas and take all the fish?
14:48: God, this seems impossible. So it's almost like there's a ripple effect. The mixed multitude complains, that goes to the
14:54: Israelites. The Israelites grumble and complain. Moses is stressed out. Now Moses is sort of doubting
15:00: God. And keep in mind, when we do things wrong and complain, it kind of has a ripple effect on everybody else.
15:07: But look at what Moses says or what the Lord says back when he asks him, how are you gonna do this?
15:14: Verse 23, and the Lord said to Moses, has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what
15:22: I say will happen to you or not. And the arm of the Lord represents his strength, his power.
15:34: This is not a problem for God, how to give the meat to feed all these people.
15:39: Look at verse one, this is how he does it. Now a wind went out from the
15:44: Lord and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp.
15:50: Verse 32, then the people stayed up all that day and all night and all the next day and gathered the quail.
16:00: These people, they can do things when they really want it, right? Verse 33, but while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the
16:12: Lord was aroused against the people and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
16:20: So what's the spiritual takeaway? I think there's some symbolism going on.
16:25: So the Israelites, they're diligent to gather the quail, why? Why are they so excited about the quail?
16:32: Because they're despising the manna. They're starting to despise the bread from heaven.
16:37: And what does the bread from heaven represent? Jesus. Right, this is symbolic of their rejection of Jesus Christ, the true bread from heaven.
16:48: In John chapter six, after feeding the 5 ,000, what did Jesus tell the
16:53: Israelites who came back for more food? He said, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the son of man will give you because God the father has set his seal on him.
17:08: And then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? And Jesus said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent.
17:20: And that's the chapter, John chapter six, where Jesus says, I am the bread of life.
17:25: So again, their attitude and just, we are sick of the manna. They're starting to despise the manna.
17:32: That's their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, symbolically All right, let's go back to verse 24.
17:41: We'll move on to the second subject. Any comments or questions on what's happening here?
17:49: Okay. So the second topic, you have the 70 elders that were chosen.
17:56: Now what's different, we talked about this two weeks ago. Now what's different is they have the
18:03: Holy Spirit. Before they didn't have the spirit. They were chosen. They were going to aid and assist
18:09: Moses, but they weren't spiritual men because they didn't have the Holy Spirit. One prerequisite for being spiritual, you have to have the spirit.
18:19: People who don't have the spirit aren't spiritual. Look at verse 24, numbers 11, verse 24.
18:29: So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle.
18:39: Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took of the spirit that was upon him, that is upon Moses, this is the
18:48: Holy Spirit, and placed the same upon the 70 elders. And it happened when the spirit rested upon them.
18:56: And when I read that statement, the spirit came down and rested upon them.
19:01: That made me think of the day of Pentecost, right? Acts chapter two, something similar happens on the day of Pentecost, how the wind started blowing.
19:13: You have the divided tongues as a fire sat upon each of the disciples, remember that? And what did they do?
19:20: They started speaking. You say, well, they started speaking with other tongues. True, but in a sense, they were prophesying.
19:28: They were speaking the wonderful works of God so that people from other nations could understand them.
19:38: Was that praising and worshiping? Yeah, well, okay, what does it mean to prophesy?
19:47: What does it mean to prophesy? Speak forth the word. Okay, you speak forth the word.
19:53: There's prophecy of foretelling and forth telling, right?
19:59: For edification, yeah, but they're speaking of the wonderful works of God. That statement is specifically found in Acts chapter two.
20:09: So the 70 elders have the spirit, they prophesy, although it says they never did so again.
20:17: I found that interesting. Why would they only do it once? But what's the point of them doing that at all?
20:23: But it says once and never again. Testimony, we talked about it a lot after it happened.
20:31: Okay. Maybe because there isn't, they didn't have any knowledge of the
20:37: Holy Spirit at that point, but being filled by the Holy Spirit, then they would be able to take that along with them for as long as they were alive.
20:47: Okay, okay. I was just thinking similar. It was evidence of the
20:53: Holy Spirit's presence with them. Okay, so what are we to make of this that the men prophesied?
21:00: So Pastor John MacArthur writes this about verse 25. Here, the prophesying refers to the giving of praise in similar expressions of worship to the
21:11: Lord without prior training. That's what MacArthur adds.
21:16: And it's true. They really had, this is totally new to them. Typically before a man is allowed to get up and preach, say in church on a
21:27: Sunday morning, before you just throw anyone in the pulpit, usually that person has to be trained first or have some schooling or have something before you just throw someone up there.
21:38: Why? Because if you just throw anyone up there, they're gonna say all sorts of things that probably are off base.
21:46: So these men didn't have the Spirit, and then all of a sudden, now they're prophesying, declaring the works of God.
21:54: And if they're prophesying filled with the Spirit, they didn't get anything wrong. Yeah, you had a hand up.
22:01: Eventually what happened was they did actually, especially at the time of Elijah, they formed schools where these men would be able to go in and learn how to be a prophet.
22:15: That's how, if you look at what scripture says, they had several thousand prophets, and that's because they were part of the school.
22:27: But that doesn't mean that they were filled with the Spirit. It's just the lessons that they had probably acquired over centuries.
22:39: Okay, any thoughts on that, Marcus? Well, it does seem that the
22:44: Holy Spirit's, I don't know, modus operandi in the Old Testament was different prior to Pentecost, that the
22:55: Spirit sort of came and left, whereas when we invite Christ into our life,
23:01: He indwells us forever. Amen. Yep. So here's why
23:07: I think they did it once and never again, but they had to do it at least once as a sign.
23:14: So this was evidence that it's God showing everyone, or maybe showing them, but it's a way of authenticating their office.
23:25: The fact that they prophesied, it authenticated their office of the 70 elders.
23:30: So they only needed to do it once. Do you remember another man in scripture who, out of nowhere, it seemed, started to prophesy, but he never did it again?
23:42: There was another man. He was tall, that's a hint. Saul. Saul, right, yeah,
23:49: Saul. In 1 Samuel chapter 10, when Samuel anoints Saul king, he said to him, "'The
23:56: Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, "'and you will prophesy with them "'and be turned into another man.'"
24:03: So these 70 elders, I would draw the conclusion, having the Spirit turn them in to spiritual men.
24:11: They were turned into another man. So when Saul encountered the prophets coming down the hill, it says the
24:18: Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them. And it happened when all those who knew him formally saw that he had indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another, what is this that has come upon the son of Kish?
24:35: Is Saul also among the prophets? You don't really think of Saul as a prophet, but he did prophesy at least this one time.
24:46: Yes. I find it encouraging, personally, that the Lord even one time had a donkey do it.
24:55: Yep. And if a donkey can do it, he can use me too. Of course, in six chapters later in Samuel, the
25:07: Holy Spirit came upon Saul, right? But then six chapters later, what happens to the Spirit?
25:12: The Spirit departs. And as you alluded to, this is the big difference perhaps between the
25:19: Old Testament ministry of the Spirit and the New Testament ministry of the Spirit. Old Testament, the
25:25: Spirit would kind of come and go as he would. He would come upon certain men and certain men only to empower them for the work of the ministry.
25:35: And then he may depart. Who is another man? The Spirit came upon him and then the
25:41: Spirit departed and he didn't realize it. Samson. Samson, right. But in the
25:46: New Testament, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person, the Spirit comes to stay.
25:52: So that's the big difference. And the Spirit comes upon the believer to stay, to continually empower that person for ministry.
26:02: And they are now permanently, I mean, they should be, a spiritual person.
26:10: You probably know this, that there are some people who have never spoken a spiritual word in their life.
26:17: We don't need to name names if you're thinking of somebody, but there are some people who just don't have anything spiritual to say.
26:26: One possible reason, again, they might not have the Spirit. That's one possibility.
26:34: Here's my point. A true believer filled with the Spirit, certainly indwelt by the
26:40: Spirit, will want to talk about spiritual things. If you have the Holy Spirit, you're going to want to talk about Jesus and the wonderful works of God.
26:51: You know that probably most people out there, if you mention the name Jesus, they're like, whoa, look at the time.
26:58: I gotta go. They're not spiritual. They say, well, that's not true.
27:04: Some people, they have a spirituality. Well, it's another spirit if they have a spirit.
27:10: Look at verse 26. So you have the 70 elders, and now we're moving on to the third point, these two men.
27:18: This is something unique. Verse 26, but two men had remained in the camp.
27:27: And the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other, Medad. And the
27:33: 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.
27:44: And a young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
27:50: Like the implication is these men are doing something wrong. As the
27:55: King James says, Eldad and Medad do prophesy. So he's telling on them.
28:03: Verse 28, so Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men answered and said,
28:10: Moses, my Lord, forbid them. Stop them from doing this. Now let's turn to Joel chapter two, because as I said,
28:18: Moses' response, Moses' response is a spiritual response. He's not jealous, worrying about his own reputation.
28:26: I'm the only one allowed to do this. Moses has a spiritual response. And Moses' desire ends up becoming a prophecy.
28:36: I think of this, these men are doing, in a real sense, they're doing
28:41: God's work, they're prophesying. And because they weren't with the rest, they have to be shut down.
28:52: Remember in Mark chapter nine, something similar happens. The apostles are all upset because there are these men working wonders in the name of Jesus, but they don't follow us.
29:05: They're not part of our group. So Jesus, tell them to stop. You remember what Jesus said?
29:12: He said, don't forbid them. Anyone who is not against us is on our side.
29:20: We don't wanna fall into the idea that we're not Baptists, but hey, we're Baptists and everyone else is wrong.
29:26: They should just stop doing it because it's only the Baptists. Or hey, we're part of this denomination and everyone else is wrong.
29:32: It's just us, stop. Forbid them, Lord. It's just us and our little group here.
29:38: No, I mean, God's desire is that, is all people should prophesy. I mean, it is my desire that all churches, all denominations, now
29:49: I want some of these denominations to change some of their beliefs and teachings, but our desire should be that they all, they all prophesy, they all speak the word of God.
30:00: All right, look at chapter two of Joel. Joel 2, 28 and 29.
30:10: And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
30:16: Your sons and your daughters shall do what? Prophesy. And your old men shall dream dreams.
30:23: Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men servants and on my maid servants,
30:29: I will pour out my spirit in those days. And it was on the day of Pentecost that Peter stood up and he proclaimed that this is a fulfillment.
30:42: This is what the prophet Joel spoke of. Now, I do think there is yet a future fulfillment in the day of the
30:48: Lord, but at least Pentecost was a partial fulfillment of this prophecy from Joel.
30:55: Because instead of a select few people receiving the Holy Spirit and prophesying, what happened on the day of Pentecost?
31:05: God then started something new where his spirit would be poured out on all flesh.
31:12: Jew, Gentile, male, female, young, in the old.
31:19: So that in the new covenant today, it's not just a matter of the haves and the have nots.
31:26: Certain select men who have the spirit and nobody else. Now, all
31:31: God's people have the spirit. Therefore, all God's people are spiritual, should be spiritual.
31:38: And we should proclaim the wonderful works of God. It's not a matter of every person is a prophet in the same sense that Elijah was a prophet.
31:47: That's obviously not what he's referring to. But he wants the people, God wants us to prophesy in this sense.
31:59: So in conclusion, just as the Holy Spirit made Eldad and Medad, along with the 70 elder spiritual, we should be spiritual men and spiritual women.
32:10: We should be constantly speaking about the wonderful works of God, amen? Shouldn't we be doing that?
32:16: And I'll just close with reading the statement again. Moses says in Numbers 11, 29, oh, that all the
32:23: Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. And then verse 30, and Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.