Readings for Pentecost 17

Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29

James 5: 13-20

Mark 9:38-50

Passage for Meditation: A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."  ²⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"  ²⁹ But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" Numbers 11:27-29  

Devotion:  A little girl was with her mom at the coffee shop. Mom had taken the afternoon off and the two of them went out to take a break from the routine.  They sat down, mom with her big mug of much needed coffee and daughter with her juice.  They sat for a while drinking and talking.  Then, when mom was just about finished, she stood up and went over to pick up a napkin.  In the mean time, one of the employees walked by the table where the little girl was sitting, and reaching out his hand, he went to pick up the mom’s nearly empty mug, when the little girl piped up loud enough for the whole shop to hear, “You can’t have that!  That’s my mommies cup!” 

When mom came back to the table, she sat down and said to the little girl with a smile and a deep sigh, “If only I had someone who would come and clean up after all the messes around our house…”

Mom and Moses have something in common- someone who is jealous for them and desire for someone else to be sharing in the work!

Moses was tired out from all the grumbling of the people.  He was tired out from being the “go to guy”.  He was tired of picking up their messes.  He probably felt like many mom’s feel- only these weren’t his children, as he was so eager to point out to God.

Yet in his response to Joshua spoken perhaps out of tiredness and frustration comes an element of prophetic foresight.  Little did he know that God in fact would make His people prophets- ones entrusted with God’s very Word.  Little did he know that God would indeed put His Spirit on his people!  Little did Moses know that God would be accomplishing these things through the person and the work of Jesus.  Jesus, our “go to” guy, the one who picks up the mess of our sin, is the very one who gives us His Spirit and His Word.  He gives it to all His people connected to Him in Baptism to share in the work of making him known to the world around us.