Have you been called to be a leader?
19 Sivan 5776
In this last week’s reading in the Torah in Numbers 11, Moses was complaining that the burden of leading the people was too great for him. How was he supposed to carry all these complaining people on his shoulders; how could he be expected to supply them with all the meat that they were craving? Our Creator then tells Moses to bring 70 of the leaders of Israel to the Tent of Meeting and He would come down, take some of the spirit that He had given to him and would place it on them. Then we read that there were two other men who had not come to the Tent of Meeting with the rest, they too began to prophesy in the camp.
What does this mean for us today? Let’s look first at the verb “to prophesy”. It has nothing to do with the accepted idea today that someone is able to tell you your future. The prophet chosen by God would be the person who would remind us of our disobedience to His Word. He would always tell the truth no matter the consequences. The prophet Samuel told King Shaul that his reign was terminated. The prophet Nathan told King David the truth in the story of Bathsheba. We have heard that Yochanan ha Matbil (John the Baptist) lost his head because he told King Herod the truth. Unlike Herod, David was a righteous king and he heeded Nathan’s words. It is not easy to be a prophet today since the only thing that people seem to want to hear comes from the mouths of politicians whose words have little to do with the truth.
Another aspect to this story lays in the Gematria of 70 plus 2. Seventy (10×7) signifies all the nations of the world. Number 7 is completeness and 10 is totality or eternity. Number 2 is added to 70 bringing it to 72 (12x 6). 12 stands for the tribes of Israel and 6 is the number of man. Here we get a picture of the people of Israel and the rest of the world. Our Creator loves to paint pictures for us and when we take a step back and search through these pictures, we see beautiful principles emerge applicable for our own lives. He doesn’t spell things out for us; He wants us to search for His truths with all our hearts and when we find them we will have found a pearl of great price.
So what do we see here? We see two men, Eldad and Medad who have made Joshua upset because they are prophesying on their own. He wants to get rid of them and complains to Moses, whose reply is very significant: “I wish that all of God’s people were prophets! I wish that our Creator would place His spirit upon all of them” Moshe being the most humble of all men was not afraid that they would take anything from him but that what he had been given freely would be given to all. That means you and me, Gentile and Jew. Whether we are called to be a leader in the congregation or in the community, wherever we are, if the Almighty One has chosen us, we have all been given by Him what it takes to be a leader. Moses, the greatest man beside Yeshua who ever lived was a reluctant leader. Have you been called to be a leader? That is a question only you can answer.