Daily Reading: Numbers 10, 11 & 12 (KJV)
Numbers 10: Trumpets blow, camp moves out orderly—silver trumpets for signals, God’s cloud leading. Chapter 12 wraps with Miriam and Aaron’s rebellion over Moses’ wife, leprosy judgment, then healing after Moses prays. But the meat is Numbers 11: the people whine for flesh, Moses hits his limit.
Moses unloads on God: “Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them… I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me” (Numbers 11:11-14 KJV). He’s done—ready to die if it keeps going.
God doesn’t zap him or ignore him. He says gather seventy elders, bring them to the tabernacle. “And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit that is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone” (Numbers 11:17 KJV).
Then it happens: God comes down in the cloud, takes of the spirit on Moses, puts it on the seventy—they prophesy (vv. 25-26 KJV). Burden shared. Leadership distributed. No more solo act.
Scofield nails it in his footnote here (p. 182): this “spirit” is not the indwelling Holy Ghost as we know Him today. In the OT dispensation of Law, the Spirit came upon select individuals for specific tasks—prophets, judges, kings, craftsmen—temporarily, for enablement, often withdrawn (like from Saul). It was never universal indwelling for every believer. Moses had a unique measure for his calling; God redistributed some of that enablement so the seventy could help govern and judge. No permanent seal, no regeneration tied to it—just divine power for the job.
Fast-forward to the church age: praise God, everything changes at Pentecost. No more selective, temporary “upon” experiences. Every saved believer is permanently indwelt by the Holy Ghost—“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13 KJV). Sealed till the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30 KJV). Not a portion taken from someone else and given to you—full, personal, eternal presence. He convicts, teaches, guides, empowers for service, equips with gifts as He wills (1 Corinthians 12 KJV). No need to beg for helpers because the burden’s too heavy; the Helper lives in you.
Moses needed seventy stand-ins. You’ve got the third Person of the Trinity inside—permanently. Don’t grieve Him with complaining or rebellion like the camp did. Yield to Him, walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16 KJV), and the burdens that crush in the flesh get carried in power.
The OT saint got occasional enablement from outside. The NT saint has constant indwelling from within. That’s not “more machinery”—that’s God Himself dwelling in you.
Keep reading, the Spirit who helped Moses now lives in you—don’t act like you’re still carrying it alone.
Until tomorrow, stay in the Book. 📖
Brother Tony