"Are you being zealous for my sake? Would that the entire people of God could be prophets, if God would but place his spirit upon them" Numbers 11:29
June 23, 2016 13:02ByRebbetzen Dr Lynndy Levin, Dr Lynndy Levin
Beha'lotecha marks the transition between two critical phases of the desert journey. The first phase is the glorious dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle; the second, the dramatic fracture of the Jewish people's faith in Moses's leadership.
Devastated by their catastrophic fall from the pinnacle of holiness on receiving God's Torah, to repudiating the manna, begging for meat and hankering for the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic they had in Egypt (11:4-6), Moses tells God he can no longer carry the Jewish people. This crisis signals the need for a paradigm shift in the leadership mode. God Himself initiates this process by instructing Moses to select 70 elders to ease the burden of leadership. God extends the spirit of prophesy to them, thereby disseminating the ownership of Torah.
Moses further democratises the ownership of Torah in his response to Joshua's consternation concerning the "unlicensed" prophecy of Eldad and Meldad in the camp (11:27).
He explains this is not a threat but a support to Jewish leadership because it creates a strong infrastructure. Every Jew is able to personally receive the Torah from God - by making the effort to engage with it.
Thus the entire people of God should be prophets, not just 70! Shattering the status quo in regard to the fact that there are always ignorant Jews, Moses insists that Torah is something which each of us has the capacity to earn.
Moses's profoundly resonating messianic vision for Israel is not to remain small and spiritually impoverished, but to become a great nation of prophets - people filled with the knowledge of God expressed wisely through lived practice.