Numbers 11:21-35

"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 11:29}  (NIV1984)

The people are hungry, there is no food anywhere around and a man named Moses tells the people that God will give them meat, enough meat to eat for a month!  This is the most common understanding of a prophet, a person who tells other people what will happen in the future, because God has revealed the future to them. 

Moses was a prophet. He spoke for God and told the Israelites and the Egyptians the plagues that would come, before they came. God would reveal the future things, and Moses would speak them to the people. Yet in this passage, a most wonderful thing happened; the elders of the community were given the Spirit and began to prophesy. This seems a little confusing. Did they speak of future things as well? What does it mean that they prophesied? Or is this a type of worship language (1 Sam 10:6)? 

What I would like to concentrate on, is the stated “wish” of Moses. He “wished” that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that they would have the LORD’s Spirit on them. Friend, we live in that glorious day! This is the Day, the Age of the Spirit. This is the time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
 Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy. …

And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts 2:17-21)

O friend, praise His Glorious Name for the gracious and powerful presence of His Spirit in each of us this day! An eternal deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance! Moses' "wish" came true; God's plan revealed.

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