“Adonai said to Moshe, “Bring me seventy of the leaders of Israel, people you recognize as leaders of the people and officers of theirs. Bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit which rests on you and put it on them. Then they will carry the burden of the people along with you, so that you won’t carry it yourself alone.”-Numbers 11:16-17
So where are we at?
That’s right.
When we last met, Moses completely lost his temper begging God to kill him if He didn’t do something about the people complaining for the lack of “meat” they ate in Egypt.
We can learn a lot by carefully studying God’s response to Moses’ outburst.
First, He didn’t chastise Moses for unloading all of his anger on Him.
Second, notice how God calmly proceeds to take action to solve the problem.
No hemming or hawing.
No hot emotional battles.
Just calm, cool, and FOCUSED action on the solution.
He calls for Moses to bring the 70 elders of Israel to the front of the Tabernacle.
Remember the 70 elders were the lay leaders of Israel.
Recall a while back in the Book of Genesis that God called for these same 70 elders to present themselves part way up the side of Mount Sinai.
However, this time around, this wasn’t going to be a council for the purpose of having a brainstorming session or to give Moses advice.
No, this time something special was going to happen.
After the 70 elders gathered around, here’s what we’re told happened next.
“Adonai came down in the cloud, spoke to him, took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied — then but not afterwards.”-Numbers 11:25
Whoah!!!
These weren’t going to be ordinary assistants.
These were going to be spirit-empowered helpers filled with the same Spirit that was now upon Moses.
Actually, if we go to the original Hebrew, we’re told that HASHEM was going to “share” or “withdraw” some of the Spirit that was now upon Moses.
The original Hebrew is VE-‘ATSALTI MIN.
This Hebrew phrase literally means “to draw from” or “to withdraw“.
Now there’s another important point here that I don’t want you to overlook.
I hope you realize that this event is perfect evidence that the Feast of Shavuot (or Pentecost in Greek) as depicted in the Book of Acts was NOT the first time the Holy Spirit came upon men.
I used to believe (and I believed this way because this is what the gentile church incorrectly taught me) that the Upper Room Holy Spirit event in the Book of Acts with tongues of fire and all was the first time in human history that the Holy Spirit came to indwell in men.
Now I know that’s a bunch of hogwash.
The truth is every gift of the Holy Spirit as found in the New Testament can also be found in the Torah and the Tanach.
For more proof and interesting info about this topic, check out this other article I wrote a while back by clicking here.
Before closing, there’s one other final takeaway I want to share that strongly impressed itself upon me when typing up this post and it is this:
Any work of God can only be accomplished when we are filled with the Spirit of God.
I know it seems like an obvious point but sometimes amidst the busyness and stress of our daily lives, I think we sometimes have a tendency to forget this point.
I look around me and I see so much fleshly striving and as a result so much stress and frustration as people try to rely on their own strength to accomplish things that are going to be impossible to accomplish minus the empowering Spirit of Hashem.
Sometimes we’ve just got to let go and let God.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”
-Acts 2:4
“And the disciples were continually
filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
-Acts 13:52
“And do not get drunk with wine,
for that is dissipation,
but be filled with the Spirit“
-Ephesians 5:18
What’s special about the Pentecost of 30 AD is first that it wasn’t just a select group, it was ALL Believes.
Thanks for your comment Jared but I’ve got some news for you. Every “believer” as you put it who was in the upper room was a Jew. There was NOT one gentile in the bunch. I mean that’s why they were there. They were Jews who had travelled all the way from the countries they were living in to celebrate Shavuot (or Pentecost in Greek). Shalom!
In the Church there is neither Jew or Gentile.
The same verse also says “no males or females”! But there are still males and females after salvation. The text has to be understood in its context.
Referring to “men” to mean “all mankind”. (Sorry ladies!)
The point is not Biology. The social differences enforced by Patriarchy was supposed to be rejected by The Church, but the mainstream organized Church has refused to do that.