Spiritual Jealousy

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 upon them all!”. (Numbers 11:29 NLT)

Joshua jealous for Moses' sake

I don’t know if you have noticed, but we can often get offended by how God does things and who God uses to do them.  Spiritual jealous is the worst of all kinds of jealousy.

The circumstance here is that Moses is directed to choose seventy elders to help him lead Israel.  The elders were to come to the Tabernacle, and God would place the Spirit that rested upon Moses on them (vs. 24-25).  Eldad and Medad were two of the seventy.  For some reason, they did not come out to Tabernacle like the other sixty-eight, yet the same Spirit that Moses had put on the others at the Tabernacle rested on Eldad and Medad in the camp. 

There two implications from this story.  First, the special grace for ministry came from God and not Moses. It is very easy for followers to put their trust in their leaders who they can see, rather than God who they cannot see.  God was giving the elders an object lesson that their calling and sufficiency came from him.  The second implication is that God often uses people and methods that we might consider improper.  When Joshua heard that these two were prophesizing in the camp he said, “Moses, my master, make then stop” (v.28)!  Moses’ response in (v.29) was “Are you jealous for my sake?” 

Have you ever labeled people rebels who were just exercising their freedom and spiritual initiative?  If you have, you may have unwittingly been resisting God’s purposes.  Have you been offended that God has used people from a church that may have been critical of your theology? At the bottom of your offense may have been some spiritual jealousy.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

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