When the Spirit comes on everyone
Why Eldad and Medad still matter for the Pentecost church
I was praying with two of my Pentecostal pastor friends this week when we learned that in the native community we are all lumped together as “Pentecostals.” They jokingly welcomed me into the Pentecostal family, but the deeper truth was clear to all of us. Pentecost ties the church together. We all share the same Spirit (see Ephesians 4:1-6!).
The wonder of Pentecost is not found in the ecstasy of the experience but in the universality of the experience. Moses found this out when the Spirit fell on the seventy elders in Numbers 11. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, prophesied in the middle of the camp, in Moses’ place:
A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Joshua, son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my Lord, stop them.”
But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were my prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
(Numbers 11:29)
Well, Moses, that day is here. Rather, it’s been here for almost two-thousand years. Since Pentecost the Spirit has been putting God’s people to work, empowering and emboldening us to take the gospel where it hasn’t been before. Moses knew that seventy prophets were better than one. And seventy ministers are better than one still today. I’m as excited as Moses about this!
In the next few weeks there are several wonderful opportunities to put our Pentecost power to work. First Baptist Church is in need of team leaders for VBS, June 27 – July 1, and our Swinomish neighbors are looking for literally hundreds of volunteers for their July canoe voyage celebration. I’m praying for so many ministers at work that, yes, it makes us pastors “jealous” for ministry. That is the Pentecost church at work.
With you in on the mission, Pastor Doug Fakkema, Anacortes CRC