Lessons from Moses: seeking our ‘70’ and yielding to God’s Spirit
By Dean Collins
If God has placed you in a leadership position anywhere, then you have experienced some version of the dilemma and the frustration Moses expressed in Numbers 11. The summary of the dilemma is this:
1) There were lots of complaints about working and living conditions among the 12 tribes. The current hot button was they were tired of the manna diet and wanted a menu change that included meat.
2) Moses was exhausted by the noise of the complaints and the assumption that he was the provider even though he could not deliver on the demands of his followers.
Whether your leadership is in a business, a church, a nonprofit, or a family, you have heard your share of complaints:
• The cost of living has gone up and we need a raise.
• I can’t get my job accomplished by myself. I need to hire additional staff.
• There isn’t enough budget to do my job.
• Other departments got XYZ, but my department didn't.
• It’s not my fault sales are down.
Of course, as the leader, you are expected to wave your magic wand and instantly fix it. But you have looked in every drawer and under the desk, and you can’t find the magic wand! So before you come out from under the desk and while you’re on your knees, you do exactly what Moses did. You let God know all about it.
God, why are you treating me this way?
Why have you not treated me with favor?
Why have you placed this burden on me when you know I can’t fix it?
I didn’t ask for this job.
I can’t do this alone.
If you are going to treat me like this, then just end my life. I am ready for eternity.
God’s answer appeared to be immediate for Moses. And we all wish his answer for us was immediately seen and heard as well. But I imagine you, too, are not always hearing and seeing God’s immediate replies. So what can we learn from this story that will help us manage our leadership challenges?
Here are a few obvious yet frequently forgotten truths we find in this story.
1. Even though we are living in relationship with Jesus, we still live in a fallen world. This means we will still often default to human understanding as will the people we serve and lead. God’s covenants in the Old Testament and in the New Testament are only perfect as God abides by them. Until his work in us is made complete when Jesus returns, we humans will still have attitudes and behavior that will need to be corrected. This applies to leaders and followers.
2. We need to find our 70. In the case of Moses, God instructed him to identify 70 others who could help carry the burden. I don’t know that it will always be 70 for you and me. Our situation may require 7, 70, or 700. The number isn’t as important as remembering that we actually can’t and are not asked to carry the burdens of responsibility alone. God has called us to and placed us in community. As a community of faith, we are instructed to carry each other’s burdens and fulfill the law of love. And all of us must walk and work led by the Spirit and not in our own understanding to achieve God’s intended plan.
3. We must surrender ourselves and our situation to God. As Moses faced those tired of the same old menu, God instructed him to have the people consecrate themselves in order to receive their requests, which in this case seemed more like demands. Sometimes our requests likely seem more like demands if we are entirely honest. The process of surrender is not a new thing in our spiritual formation. It has always been a part of the process, yet we often think of it more as a once-and-done duty instead of a daily offering to God.
4. We can question God, but we must stand ready to answer his questions of us. In the case of Moses, he questioned whether God would actually be able to handle feeding 600,000 or more of his children. God’s reply was a question back to Moses: “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you will see.”
The Spirit of God came down on the 70 leaders. There seemed to be a debate about who should receive God’s Spirit and whether they even had the authority to act after they had received the Spirit of God. Moses quickly cleared up the situation by stating that he wished all of God’s children were prophets and that the Lord had or would pour out his Spirit more broadly, even to everyone.
We who have received the good news are now filled with God’s Spirit and called to speak his message far and wide. We are called to be someone’s “70” so that more of the goodness, mercy, and love of God would be experienced.
Maybe the lesson of this text is that when we surrender to God and he places a burden of leadership in our hands, our first and our next step is always to offer it back to God. We can trust that he is still God, he still has a plan, and he will still provide for us as we surrender our lives and our needs to him.
Your time with God’s Word
Numbers 11:10-30 ESV
Photo by Mizuno K at www.pexels.com
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