Dear Friends in Christ:
The Lord endows his people with many and varied gifts for their work in his kingdom. The Lord endows his Holy Spirit as he determines. We have witnessed the Lord’s varied distribution of those gifts in called workers. We see those gifts in the servant leaders congregations choose to represent them. We see the gift of the Spirit in the gracious gift of faith to us. The Lord was generous to Moses’ assistants, and to Jesus’ disciples as we heard in our gospel.
Do God’s people always appreciate God’s generosity to one another? Did Joshua appreciate that God had given his Holy Spirit to Eldad and Medad though they had not been at the Tabernacle? Were Jesus’ disciples thankful for the man who was working in Jesus’ name but was not “one of them?” We might begin to resent that some are more gifted or have different gifts than we do. We might even resent that God has called certain people to faith and others continue to reject the gospel. Jealousy and self-importance can rear their ugly heads.
There needs to be A Proper Perspective of One’s Self-Importance in the Kingdom. A proper perspective sees the Spirit and rejects self-importance. A proper perspective seeks God’s honor and the kingdom’s good.
Moses asked for and received help in his leadership. God’s chosen prophet was growing weary of God’s people in their constant lack of thankfulness for God’s blessings. They complained almost constantly about how much worse off they were now than when they were slaves in Egypt. We have talked before about that selective memory of the pleasures sin offers.
The Spirit came upon 70 leaders God chose to assist Moses. They prophesied as evidence of God’s call. They already had the Holy Spirit as all believers do in faith. God chooses in grace to give his Holy Spirit through the gospel to whom he desires. This endowment of the Spirit was a special gift. It indicated that God had chosen them for the work of helping Moses. We read, “They prophesied, although they never did so again.” They did not prophesy in its meaning of ongoing sharing of God’s revelation to them in his Word. This was a singular unique ecstatic speaking as the sign they were God’s choice.
Two of them, Eldad and Medad, also received the Spirit although they were absent from the Tent of Meeting. This is similar to our gospel lesson and the disciple who was preaching apart from the apostles. Jesus pointed out to his disciples that this man was on their side though not part of their band.
This incident in Jesus’ ministry followed after the disciples had a big discussion about who among them would be counted the greatest in the kingdom. Their sense of self-importance was causing them to be jealous of another doing the same work. In both circumstances, the Spirit is the One who does the work. The point of Jesus discussion with them was humility in service in the kingdom of God.
Joshua here seemed to take Eldad’s and Medad’s call as an affront to Moses. Jesus’ disciples took the work of the other prophets as an affront to their call and authority from Christ. Joshua showed a decided lack of understanding that the Lord pours out his Spirit on a variety of people to do the work in the kingdom. Both instances show a lack of humility.
The Lord has been most gracious to us to have poured out his Holy Spirit on us through the gospel to bring us to faith. He also endows the gifts of the Spirit to do his work. Those gifts are many and varied. Those gifts occur both in our church and in other churches.
We do not apologize for preaching the truth God has so graciously given us. At the same time, we appreciate and recognize that there are heterodox churches that preach the gospel of Christ. They exercise genuine Christian charity, as do we. When the offer a cup of water to drink in Jesus name as we do, they are on Christ’s side..
At the same time, Jesus condemns false doctrine that causes others to sin. It would be better if a man had not been born than to lead others into sin. It would be better to lose an offending member of the body than to lose the soul in hell.
A proper perspective of one’s importance in the kingdom seeks God’s honor and the kingdom’s good. It does not become proud in one’s own gifts. It does not become jealous or envious of the Spirit God has given to us. Moses and Jesus address the wrong understanding of kingdom work in their co-workers.
God is jealous of his honor and does not want men arguing about honor in kingdom work. The Lord gives the Spirit and gives the gifts. He gets the entire honor for the results. We are not to question God about how he distributes the talents and abilities and unique contributions others besides ourselves contribute to the furthering of the kingdom of God.
Moses wished that all of God’s people would have the gift of the Spirit since that would mean that the kingdom would benefit. His question to Joshua indicates that maybe Joshua was not so much worried about Moses as he was about himself as Moses helper. Joshua needed to be zealous not for himself or for Moses but for the saving name of the Lord.
This is our wish as well. Rather than have a sense of self-importance, we are to have a humble appreciation for what the Spirit works through people who may not be “one of us.”
There is no “I” in team, and there is to be no sin of self-importance in the kingdom. Amen. <SDG>