We Are All Prophets!”

( Lectionary for June 4, 2017)

It is well nigh inconceivable that a preacher would not address Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, since that day is based squarely on the story that Acts 2 enshrines. What would possess any preacher to turn to Numbers, that eclectic book of the Hebrew Bible, to announce the good news of the day? I, for one, can think of several reasons, some perhaps more serious than others. I, Hebrew scholar that I am, am heartily sick (too strong a phrase—perhaps “sullenly weary”) of the book of the Acts after these many weeks on lectionary sabbatical from the Hebrew Bible. Good indeed to see the lovely First Testament hove into view once again! A second reason is that I do not think I have ever written on this Numbers text; Eldad and Medad are for me Bible trivia names only— at least until now. But a third reason, and surely the best, is that the Hebrew Bible text fleshes out with some fresh insight what Pentecost might mean for us 21st century types. You may decide which reason is the most serious one.

The larger context for our pericope today is quite strange. The narrative of Num.11 is engendered by a familiar trope: the wandering, escaping Israelites “complain” in the hearing of YHWH “about their misfortunes” (NRSV, though the Hebrew is the simple “bad”). As a result, “YHWH’s nose is heated” (a very literal reading of the ancient Hebrew way of describing fury), and “the fire of YHWH burned against them and devoured the camp’s perimeter” (Num.11:1). Rather like the fire-breathing dragon YHWH of the very old Ps. 18, YHWH here appears to direct a fiery breath at the whining people, apparently having had a divine fill of their complaining. Yet, the fire only consumes outlying areas of their camp, implying that the fire was a kind of warning for them that they need to get their acts together and become at last the people that YHWH chose them to be. This is not to say that YHWH’s fire abates so easily! The terrified people rush to Moses and demand that he pray to call off the fiery outburst against them. Moses does pray with the result that YHWH cools off—at least for now. Still, the place is called “burning,” and is so remembered even now at the time of the writing.

Unfortunately, the people fail to learn anything from the hot fires of their God. A certain group among them, known as a “rabble” (the wonderful Hebrew ‘asaphsuph) develop “a powerful craving” for meat, because they fondly remember “the fish we used to eat in Egpyt for free, not to mention the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic…”(Num.11:4-5). All we have for our sustenance, they whine, is “manna to look at” (Num.11:6). Num.11:7-9 now proceeds to reacquaint us with the magical manna of YHWH, that lovely dew that coats the trees each night and provides food for YHWH’s people. But, alas, the people are up to their eyeballs in manna, and though they “ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boil it in pots to make cakes” (Num.11:8), a steady diet of the stuff is boring, bringing on nothing less than the “weeping” of the people (Num.11:10). And YHWH is again furious beyond telling.

But this time the fury of YHWH is matched by the anger of Moses who proceeds to let his God have it for abandoning him to carry the pain of the recalcitrant people alone. His argument is an amazing one. Just have a listen to this! “Why have you treated your servant so terribly? Why have I not found favor in your eyes so that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Hold them at your breast, as a nurse carries a suckling child to the ground (land) that you promised them by oath to their ancestors’” (Num. 11:11-12)? Listen to those overtly feminine images that Moses employs to convince YHWH that Moses cannot do what YHWH does, namely, conceive, bear, and carry the child Israel, precisely as a mother does. After reading this text, it becomes far more plausible and far more necessary to envision God as much more than male: Father and Mother God are equally helpful and equally biblical images.

But Moses continues his demands for YHWH, asking his God just how he is “to get meat to give to all this people. I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If you are going to treat me like this, then why not kill me; do not allow me to continue to see my misery” (Num. 11:13-15)!

In the face of the people’s whining and Moses’s complaining, YHWH issues a promise and also acts in a very vindictive way. The promise is that YHWH will take part of Moses’s special gift of the spirit and will place it on the people “so that Moses will not bear it all by himself” (Num.11:17). But that promise will not be fulfilled until YHWH has given the people what they demanded: namely, meat. You want meat, do you, says YHWH, with curling lip and sneering tone? All right, here it comes! Meat enough for a whole month! Meat until it pours out of your nose and becomes foul and disgusting! “Because you have rejected YHWH who is among you, and have wailed in God’s presence, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt’” (Num.11:20)? This is nothing less than a portrait of YHWH as ugly parent, forcing the people to gorge themselves with the consequences of their demands. I have no defense for the YHWH of this text. Indeed, after the chosen text of this day, YHWH does bring hordes of quail to the camp, quail beyond measure and far beyond their needs. And then adds to the loathsome piles of quail a plague to boot (Num.11:31-35)! Appalling divine picture, is it not?

But in the midst of all that, we find Num.11:24-30, where YHWH’s promise to Moses to give some of YHWH’s spirit to the people in order to lighten Moses’ burdens as prophet comes to pass. Seventy elders are chosen to receive this spirit. And as the spirit settles on them, they do indeed prophesy, but immediately we are told “they did not do so again” (Num. 11:25). Meanwhile, two men, Eldad and Medad, did not go to the tent of meeting with the elders, but nevertheless, “the spirit rested on them” anyway. That spirit appears to have a mind of its own, and will not be confined to the designated few!

While they are prophesying in the camp, no less a person than Joshua, Moses’s right-hand man, demands that Moses stop them from prophesying. They are not one of us, the elected and chosen, he implies, and thus have no right to do what they are doing. But Moses retorts sharply, “Are you zealous on my account?” What that appears to mean is: are you saying such things to protect my uniqueness or are you speaking out of your own fears of losing your own uniqueness as insider? “If only all YHWH’s people were prophets and that YHWH might put his spirit on all” (Num. 11:29)! Indeed! If only all God’s people were prophets. And that is at least part of the power and importance of Pentecost. It is not merely the “birthday of the church,” as is often said. It is in addition the call to each and all who claim God’s spirit to become prophets, to be nothing less than spokespersons for the God of justice and righteousness, the God who creates and loves all the creation, the God who came in Jesus to reinforce that eternal and unbreakable love for the cosmos. A happy Pentecost to you, prophet!