The burden of oversight and leadership of the people became
too great for Moses to bear alone and the Lord graciously gave of His Spirit to
seventy of the elders of the people. Are
these the same elders who went up the mountain with him in Exodus 19? The elders were given some of the Spirit and
there was immediate confirmation that this was true in their prophesying but
they did not continue to prophesy. We
don't know exactly what it meant that they prophesied, we have only had one so
far who is called a prophet, Miriam, so neither the office nor duties are clear
in the books of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy).
Even Miriam's role as prophet is somewhat unclear. The Lord also showed that no matter what He
was still sovereign, as the prophetic gift was given to two in the camp not
chosen by Moses, Eldad and Medad. Moses'
prayer, that all God's people be prophets, is the promise of Joel in the
outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, fulfilled at Pentecost.
Jesus teaches with a power and authority that is greater
than the scribes. That authority is the
authority of the Law giver Himself, no one knew and understood the original
intent of the Law better than Jesus. We,
by the power of the Spirit, have an authority in understanding that surpasses
all that came before Pentecost. We can
access the depths of the wisdom of God through the Spirit but that does not
mean that we can understand anything contrary to Jesus. All our understanding is subject to His
teachings. As He comes down the mountain, a leper presents himself in humility. Today I hear people teaching that we
shouldn't pray as this man does, "If it is your will…" We should always approach God in our prayers
with exactly this humility, we don't fully have the mind of the Lord, we remain
in the flesh with regards to good and evil in these situations.
It is by the Spirit that we all have access to the Father
but that Spirit comes via Jesus. If we
make no confession of Him that is at one with the confession of heaven itself,
from Revelation 5, that He alone is worthy to receive glory and honor, power
and blessing, unique in the history not only of earth but of all creation, in
heaven, on earth or under the earth, we do not have the Spirit of God. We may have a spirit but it isn't holy unless
it leads to a confession of Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, all
definite articles. In that Spirit and
confession we are made one with Him and one with one another. There should be a unity among the church that
is indivisible because it is a unity of
Spirit. When we have disunity in the
body there is a spiritual problem that should be addressed. We are submitted to one head, pastor and
people alike, or we are in the flesh.
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