Proper 21, Year B, Track 2
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
Psalm 19:7-14
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
Today’s reading from Numbers might seem familiar to those participating in our book study of “Walk in Love” because it was one of several passages that we read in connection with our chapter on the sacrament of ordination. The scriptural connection between that passage and our sacrament of ordination can be seen when God instructs Moses to gather seventy elders. He takes some of the Spirit that was upon Moses and puts it upon the assembled elders, who begin to prophesy. Those who recall this reading from the book study might also remember that a chunk of scripture is missing here, verses 17-23, which give a bit more context about God’s response to Moses.
In Hebrew, the Book of Numbers is translated literally as “in the wilderness,” which appropriately sets the scene for Israel's experience during their migration from Egypt. Today’s passage occurs very early in that migration—perhaps less than two years. The hardship of nomadic life in the wilderness is reasonably fresh, and the people still have memories of their very different lives in Egypt. They’re beginning to wonder if they had it so bad after all, if this “promised land” was worth all this effort to reach, perhaps questioning if that promised land was even real. As most of us tend to do in an experience of hardship, they begin to complain.
Verses 4-6 are somewhat humorous and relatable as the specific complaint of the Israelites is given voice. “The camp followers with them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, but now our strength is dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” That last phrase is what makes me instinctually say, “come on, you guys,” and it makes God’s frustration at them pretty understandable.
Where did “all this manna” come from? It was God’s direct, divine provision for their sustenance, given in response to their complaints earlier in the story in Exodus 16: “Then the whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you.’” And that is exactly what God does. Every single day of their wandering, God provides divine bread—manna—to feed his people without fail. Fast forward to today’s story in Numbers, and the people are complaining yet again, this time about the free food that is miraculously provided to them every day with almost no effort on their part.
God is, understandably, pretty displeased. But I wonder what’s really at the root of that displeasure. Does it stem merely from the Israelites’ ingratitude, or is there something more? Perhaps God is also disappointed that they cannot see the “big picture” for them beyond their immediate needs and creature comforts. Even if the Israelites leisurely meandered the scenic route, there’s no practical reason why it should have taken them forty years to reach the promised land. They are in the wilderness this long for a reason. God is transforming them on a deep, collective, spiritual level. That transformation can’t be done in Egypt, where they can be kept complacent with the meat they now cry out for. It can’t be done in the promised land because it will be too late by then; there is no longer any impetus to change. That hard work has to be done in the wilderness, and it takes forty years because the Israelites make it take forty years.
But let’s get back to how God responds this time. Perhaps after their food complaints in Exodus were met with divine providence, the Israelites expected that their complaints for meat would be met with big ribeye steaks falling from the sky. Instead, God instructs Moses to gather these seventy elders and bring them to the tent of meeting. We don’t seem to have any context for this seemingly odd response, and Moses doesn’t seem to have any questions—also strange, considering we know Moses is seldom shy about questioning God’s actions. This is where those missing verses 17-23 come in. Here’s the whole passage: “So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their places with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself. And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.’ Therefore, the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month!’ Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.’”
That really changes the dynamic of this passage, doesn’t it? On the surface, these omitted verses might look like God's “be careful what you wish for” response. While we can see why God’s anger is justified, it also seems a little petty, a little too much like how we, as flawed humans, might react in that scenario. But really, this is a “be careful why you’re wishing” story. Yes, God will provide the meat, enough meat that the Israelites will get sick of it and stop complaining. But God recognizes that leaving it at that is a temporary solution to the problem of their complaining, and he further sees that the persistence of their complaining is a symptom of a greater need that they have not been able to articulate. In addition to the gift of meat, God gives a far greater gift—the gift of the Holy Spirit—to the seventy elders assembled by Moses. God recognizes that, even with the Holy Spirit upon him, Moses cannot effectively be the instrument of transformation for this congregation of over half a million people if he is working by himself.
What transpires almost feels like an old-fashioned tent revival. Everyone in the moment is pumped up, feeling that connection to the Holy Spirit. They boldly proclaim God’s love and power, perhaps they lay on hands or proclaim a powerful witness to God’s work in their lives. And then, when the music has gone down, the lights have gone up, and they find themselves stuck in traffic on the way home, that connection starts to feel a little less vivid, a little less real. Perhaps a powerful witness among the faithful in the zeitgeist feels much less intimating than that same witness in the grocery store aisle a couple of weeks later. “When the spirit rested on upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.”
Two of the seventy selected by Moses didn’t go up to the tent, as Moses had instructed. Strangely enough, though, they still receive this gift of the Spirit that had been placed upon the others, and they also prophesied. Moses’ second in command runs to tell him about it, to encourage them to stop, presumably because they had obeyed Moses’ instruction to go to the tent. Moses rebukes him, saying, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” Indeed, what if even the seventy elders had continued prophesying! What if more of the people of Israel had kept their ears and eyes and hearts open to God’s call for them? Would they still have spent forty years in the wilderness?
We read a similar story in the first part of our Mark passage, coming from Mark’s three-chapter arc of stories about the disciples being a little bit dense. John, often presented in the Gospels as Jesus’ second in command, tells him that people were casting out demons in Jesus’ name and that the disciples tried to stop them “because he was not following us.” But Jesus says, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” John’s capacity to work in supernatural ways did not come from being inherently unique. It didn’t come from being Jesus’ right-hand man. And it absolutely did not mean he was more qualified to do the work of God just because he could not see the power of God at work in another. John was focused on the meat—“Those people shouldn’t be doing that because they’re not part of our group!” instead of the manna—“Those people are actively doing God’s work in the world despite not being part of Jesus’ entourage.”
James reminds us today that “the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” As believers, it is our responsibility to consider closely what we’re praying for and why. Are we praying for meat rather than manna? Are we praying for meat because we cannot recognize or have taken for granted the presence of manna already in our midst? Last week’s lesson from James also cautions us against such things: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.” Now, this may evoke images of praying for a shiny new Lamborghini, but what if we look at the word “pleasures” more broadly to encompass any of our wants or desires that come from our own perceived interests or values rather than those of God?
I encourage each of us to remain steadfast in prayer, and also judicious in it. Before asking for something in prayer, let us consider whether God has already given us what we seek, and if so, let us pray for the best way to use it. If we feel that God has not given us what we seek, let us be mindful and honest with ourselves about the intent behind our asking. We should also be prepared to accept that God does not always answer our petitions in the way we want but rather in the way we need. Finally, let us hold fast in sincere belief to the words of the collect we will pray next week, that God is “always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve.” Amen.