What is it about us as human beings that we are so easily inclined to hog the good stuff for ourselves? Why are we jealous and resentful of the generosity of God who so willingly gives gifts to all who come along.
Like the disciples in the gospel, Joshua in the first reading feels compelled to stop two men from prophesying. They are not with the 70 elders when God distributes the spirit, which allows men and women to proclaim both the judgment and the compassion of God to God’s people.
Moses retorts that he wishes God would have blessed all the people with this gift. From his perspective, Israel can never have enough prophets.
Perhaps today our global world helps us recognize that the same Spirit speaks inside the tent and outside in the camp. In our world God’s Spirit has worked generously in the history of every religion and culture, inside our own Jewish Christian history and outside our boundaries. God’s Spirit speaks to us today also in the cry of the Earth that sustains us and the cry of the poor who don’t benefit from its abundance.
Eldad and Medad
Then the Holy One came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses (who was at the meeting tent) and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.
Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Joshua, son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord, Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all God’s people were prophets. Would that the Holy One would put the spirit upon them all!”
Numbers 11.25-29
- Who speaks prophetically from outside the tent, according to where you stand?
- Who speaks prophetically within the tent?
- To what kind of prophetic ministry is your parish or small Christian community called?
- How might you widen your ministry to link more globally with the Church?