First Scripture Reading: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

First Scripture Reading: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
Sunday September 30th, 2012

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also
wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt
that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But
now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his
tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to
the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in
your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this
people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a
nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? Where am I
to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat,
that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for
me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may
not see my wretchedness.”

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered
seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord
came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him
and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they
prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named
Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had
not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and
told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun,
the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said
to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets,
that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

P: This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.

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