Context No. 2348 of 4322 · Numbers
Context · Reflection
Numbers 11:21-27: in context
21Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’ 22Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?” 23The LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.” 24Moses went out, and told the people the LORD’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. 25The LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. 26But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested on them. They were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp. 27A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
In Numbers the people crave meat, and God promises a whole month of it. Moses, leading six hundred thousand on foot, does the math and balks: shall the flocks and herds, shall all the fish of the sea, be enough? The LORD answers with a question of his own: has the LORD's hand grown short? Then he takes the Spirit resting on Moses and spreads it onto seventy elders, who prophesy.
Moses's doubt is not wicked; it is the reflex of a tired man measuring an impossible task by the supplies on hand. God does not rebuke the fatigue. He reframes the arithmetic. The question is never whether Moses can stretch the resources, but whether the hand that split the sea has somehow shrunk. And to lighten the load, God distributes the Spirit, so the weight Moses carried alone is shared.
When a task dwarfs my resources, am I measuring it against my supply or against the reach of God's hand?
Sources
- Numbers 11:23: The LORD said to Moses, Has the LORD's hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.
- Numbers 11:25: The LORD came down in the cloud, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders.
- Ephesians 3:20: to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.