The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
It’s Pentecost Sunday, a uniquely New Testament event. But is it really? This morning’s Old Testament lesson begins with Numbers 11:28, which itself begins in this way: “So Moses went out.” Obviously the assigned reading begins in the middle of some kind of action that’s taking place. So Moses went out. The question is, from where? Well, at this point in Numbers 11, Moses is going out from the tent of meeting. Now, that’s a technical name; it’s also called the tabernacle of Moses. It’s a tent that Moses had set up outside the camp, to signify that they had broken fellowship with God. In the book of Exodus, where Moses goes up to receive the Ten Commandments and they make a golden calf to worship, well, that broke the fellowship; it broke the covenant that God had given to the people. So a tent would be set up outside the camp, away from the people, and that’s the place that Moses went when he wanted to pray and to receive instructions from the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. It was a temporary tent for a temporary camp. And as Moses went into the tent, a pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while God spoke with Moses.
So he came out of that tent. You see, prior to verse 24, a crowd had gathered. They were standing around and circling Moses’ private residence, his own personal tent, and they let Moses know in no uncertain terms that they were sick and tired of manna. They wanted meat. They were sick and tired of Moses, thinking somehow he stood in God’s stead and by God’s command would command people to do X, Y, and Z. They were sick of Moses, and they were sick of manna. But the feeling was mutual, at least in regard to the people. In response to the complaints, Moses goes to the tent of meeting outside the camp to complain to God that he’s had enough, he’s fed up. The Hebrews were not only sick of Moses; Moses was sick and tired of the Hebrew people as well. So sick and tired, he went to the tent of meeting and asked God to kill him: “Kill me now. Take this burden away from me, because these are a stiff-necked, complaining, and now openly hostile and threatening people.” God didn’t grant Moses his wish. Instead, the Lord gave Moses instructions in order to make governing the children of Israel a little easier on Moses. Moses was to appoint 70 elders to help bear the burden of leadership among God’s people.
So Moses went out and told the people all the words of the Lord, and he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent, that is, around the tent of meeting. This, by the way, is the first large-scale external call into the churchly office of ministry. Now, you noticed I used the term “external call.” See, this means the call is actually from God; it comes from outside a person’s own heart and mind, through the ear, in which God then places a person into an office with specified duties. 1 Timothy 3:1 says, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer,” some translations say “bishop”; in our tradition we like to go with the word “pastor.” But nonetheless, the call is through the congregation, or it’s through other pastors, or it’s authorized by an agent of the church like a bishop. That is, the call isn’t the desire to obtain the office; the call is the actual call into the office that comes from someone else, not someone’s imagination.
In this case, the office will now be called the office of elder in the Old Testament, and it’s populated by older men, men of age and maturity, who in this case will soon experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them. And that’s the first time, by the way, in Numbers 11, it’s the first time that the office of elder, or the word “elder,” appears in the Bible. It’s a newly instituted thing that God has done in Numbers 11. So whenever you see a reference in the Old or New Testament about elders, think here of the word “undershepherds,” more of a description of what these 70 men will be called and are called to do, that is, to speak the Word of God and tend to the flock entrusted to Moses.
After the elders had assembled at the tent of meeting, the Lord God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses, and took some of the Spirit that was on him, that is, Moses, and put it on the seventy. Having been instructed by the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, Moses went out to deliver what he had been given to deliver: not an impromptu sermon, not sort of just thoughts and opinions of himself, but rather the very words that God wanted spoken to the children of Israel. So also for those Yahweh had chosen to be His mouthpiece, the seventy: they have a portion of the very same Spirit, and they speak the very same words that God had given to them. And they all, speaking in Hebrew in this case, you see, Moses was no longer alone. No one could say that it was just Moses’ opinion, or Moses’ interpretation, or ask who Moses thought he was and who put Moses in charge. There were no competing doctrines regarding Yahweh Elohim, or the law and the gospel, or the office of elder, for that matter. And that’s of course how it’s supposed to be.
There was a time in the LCMS and the old ALC, the American Lutheran Church, and the old Lutheran Church in America, in fact it was a time within Lutheranism in general, where a person could go to Sunday service in Peoria, Illinois, on one Sunday, then one week later go to church in California, and have the exact same liturgy, the exact same Bible readings, and a pretty good chance of having a sermon on the Gospel lesson for that morning. That is, there wasn’t competition and competing views of service and liturgy. The historic Bible and the historic liturgy was the foundation for the service. That’s how it was in Numbers 11. Moses no longer stood alone before the people, speaking God’s Word. It was Moses now and 70 elders of the church of Israel, all in unison, speaking the same thing to the same population, and tending to them as good undershepherds under the direction of Moses and the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. They now stood alongside Moses. In the same Spirit, they prophesied. Prophesying means they were simply talking and speaking the words of God. They were preaching the law and gospel. They were telling them about their sins and about the promised Messiah to come. They were speaking and teaching the same Word and doctrine that Moses had been preaching and teaching all along.
Moses continued to be Yahweh Elohim’s primary and permanent chosen instrument, but now, standing among the seventy, all could see that Moses’ prophetic office and message was not about Moses. It wasn’t about the person. It’s never about the messenger; it’s never about the preacher. The faithful preacher comes, and the people rebel; it’s always because they’re rebelling against the message of the faithful preacher, not the person necessarily. The messenger, you see, is simply the vessel of communication, and it’s always about the message and the one who sent the message in the first place. The messenger carries with them the authority of the message and of the one who sent the message, the author of it. Just as the words of absolution spoken by the pastor in the church service is not about the pastor; it’s about the absolution from Christ Himself that the pastor preaches and applies to the Hebrews who have thus confessed their sins.
Thus he says, verse 26 of the Old Testament: “Now 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,” that is, they were written down as one of the seventy. They were officially called and ordained members of the clergy, of the religious leaders. They stayed behind in the camp. We’re not told why they stayed behind in the camp; we’re just told they did. They didn’t show up to the tent. The Lord fulfills His promise and pours out a portion of the Spirit on them as well. Eldad and Medad, and their names are kind of interesting and likely come from the Hebrew word “to love.” So Eldad could be translated as “beloved of God,” or “God loves him,” and Medad could be translated as “beloved.” So the two beloveds prophesied, spoke the Word of God, in the midst of the camp.
But a young man ran and told Moses about it. The young man was Joshua. Whether it is Moses, the seventy elders, Eldad, Medad, or all the people of Yahweh, the prophetic Word goes forth to the people of God, for the building up of the people, not for the building up of the reputation and status and prominence of the preacher, the prophet, but for the well-being of the sheep, for the people who hear God’s Word of law and gospel, who confess their sin and receive the forgiveness of all of their sins, and in the process that glorifies Yahweh Elohim.
There’s no real debate, by the way, among Old Testament scholars, Bible-believing scholars across the board see Moses as a type of Christ, a forerunner. Yahweh works deliverance from slavery and gave a system in order to atone for the sins of the people. Moses was also the instrument through which the Lord God gave the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, and the Torah means the law and the gospel. But in this text, Moses is much more like John the Baptist than he is Jesus. Moses decreases by taking his place as one among the seventy. In that sense, God demoted him. He’s no longer just the one. In this way, Yahweh and His words increase, and Moses decreases. It’s not only just Moses speaking; it’s 70 of them, prophets and theologians, pastors, all together confessing the same doctrine and the same words.
In the New Testament, Jesus never becomes the lesson; He’s always the sum and focus of the New Testament’s preaching and teaching. In the Old Testament text, the Spirit proclaimed Yahweh, not Moses, to the people of Israel. On Pentecost, the Spirit proclaims Jesus, not the apostles. Peter preaches Christ the Lord. Peter, as did Moses, understood it was the Word of God, it was the fundamental message of salvation, of deliverance, that was ultimately important in the constituting work of the church. While men may rule over the church, they are servants to God’s Word and God’s people.
Joshua forgot that fundamental truth. Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant to Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” Joshua was worried that all these other shepherds, especially those two that were prophesying in the middle of the camp, he was worried that somehow they would diminish the importance of his beloved leader Moses. He thought they were stealing his thunder. In his mind, Moses was becoming weaker. Moses replies with a rhetorical question: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” If only the members of the church knew and spoke the words of God to each other and to their family and to their neighbors in our day, why, we might actually see a reversal of the decline of the church. People actually could answer questions, as Peter says, for the hope that is within them.
Eldad and Medad had taken nothing from Moses. Instead, Eldad and Medad were given to speak God’s Word, and they did it right there in the midst of where people live every day. In the case of the 70 and the giving of the Spirit, there’s a difference, see, because it was a temporary situation in the Old Testament. It was a much-needed reinforcement. Think of it as a prophetic cavalry riding to rescue Moses and the children of Israel from rebellion, their weapon God’s Word. The 70, a show of hope, grace, and force at the same time, that they too had been given the weapon to speak the words of God. But verse 25: they did not continue doing it. That is, the Spirit dwelt on them for only a moment, for a time, and then departed. And Moses expressed his desire that the day would come when all believing Christians, those who believed in the Torah, the law and gospel of the Lord, Yahweh Elohim, would all believe and speak and possess the Holy Spirit. “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” And that’s what happened on Pentecost.
Peter preached: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” There are parallels, you see, between Numbers 11 and Acts 2: chiefly in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the elders of the congregation standing before the congregation and preaching the law and gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the same Spirit in both Testaments, the Holy Spirit. It’s the same Spirit doing the same work, working faith in the hearts of the believer. There’s no difference in that regard. But there are some differences between the old and the new.
First is the means of grace used in the Old Testament versus the means of grace in the new. They’re different. In the Old Testament, we had circumcision and a sacrificial system of animal sacrifice for the payment of sins. Blood must be spilled for the forgiveness of sins. Death is the appropriate verdict and sentence for the sinner. In the New Testament, the means of grace is the Word and sacrament: Baptism, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Holy Communion, “This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” They are the means of grace that the Holy Spirit employs for your spiritual sake, for the forgiveness of all your sins.
The 70 began to preach when a portion of the Spirit came upon them. So also in Acts 2:4, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues,” that means other languages, “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” And the people were amazed that even though they were all Galileans, they could hear them speaking the same words, but each in his own language. Second, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is not a temporary manifestation in the life of the Christian and the life of the church. It is the Spirit who empowers the church and Christians to live by faith and love. In the Old Testament, the Spirit comes and goes, as we see in Numbers 11, but it also comes and goes to particular people. Take Samson, who does great feats of strength when the Holy Spirit descends on him. This all changes when Jesus sends the Comforter, which He promised to do in the Gospel. The Holy Spirit comes upon His church and upon each and every one of you. He does it in the gift of faith in the preached Word. He does it in the Lord’s Supper. He does it in Holy Baptism. He sends His Spirit and creates a new creature called a Christian.
Pentecost could have been seen as Peter’s greatest day in the sun. And I imagine in the contemporary big-church movement of the last 30 years, that is a greater temptation than ever. But we’re all still tempted by it, right? “Oh, he’s such a great preacher. Oh, you gotta come hear him preach. Isn’t that wonderful?” That’s not the Holy Spirit, not by a long shot. Peter understood it wasn’t about Peter. It wasn’t about oratory. Oratory was a big thing in the ancient world, in Greece and in Rome. Lawyers didn’t win on whether the facts of the case merited guilt or innocence; they won the case because the jury would be impressed with their oratory skills. Our celebration of Pentecost, though, is not about Peter. It’s not about the apostles. They were faithful messengers. They were unified in their message and in their doctrine and their practice. But it is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who sends the message that we celebrate today. And it’s always a great temptation to focus on the messenger. Loyalty and fidelity are virtues, but they always have their limit. The church, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are supreme. They get the ultimate fidelity and loyalty, not the messenger who brings the message. The man in the office and the robes is nothing; the message is everything.
People get confused on that in our tradition. The confusion shows up when an old pastor retires and the new one comes, and it’s soon divides between the old and the new, because the people are focused on the messenger, not on the message, not on the Word and Sacrament ministry. That causes all kinds of church fights. Talk about that fight in 1 Corinthians 3:4-5: “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” The message and the Lord’s will is supreme. We’re just the broken vessels.
Pentecost Sunday and the season of Pentecost is all about the message of Christ. As for the Spirit that’s coming, it’s a permanent gift to the Christian. Why was it given now? Because Jesus tells us in John 7:39, the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet been crucified, resurrected, and ascended. And the whole message of the church is dependent on those things. When Peter preached his Pentecost sermon, he preached Christ: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death.”
When the message is magnified, when Christ is magnified rather than the human vessels, we are not something less; we are something infinitely more. We’re in Christ. In Him, in Christ, we receive the fullness of what it means to be called a believer. No person, apostle, pastor like me, or ordinary person like you, can ever eclipse Christ, and should never try. What He has accomplished for us and for our salvation, by His cross, His resurrection, His ascension, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, is the very thing of salvation. The Spirit focuses on Christ. As the theologian David Scaer says, all theology is Christology. As Jesus told His disciples, all that’s written in the Scripture is about Me; it’s not about you.
The Christian’s life is the life of forgiveness of sin, first their own, and then their neighbor’s. It is a life lived in Christ, and we only know that through His message called the gospel. Your sins are forgiven on this Pentecost day. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.