Let Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the assembly,
God has just told Moses that he will not enter the land. Moses does not complain. He prays instead — for the people he must leave behind. Two things in that prayer stand out: the name he gives God, and the leader he asks for.
God had just refused Moses the one thing he most wanted. Notice where his mind goes next.
Moses bows to the fixed purpose of the Lord, which denies him entrance into the land. He says no more about it. But concern for the flock of Israel wakes up in his heart very strongly. He had brought them out of Egypt, and now he must leave them in the wilderness. He turns from his own sorrow to the need of the people. It is always beautiful when we can think of the distress of others on the day of our own trouble.
Moses prays to the God who knows every human spirit. The name fits what he asks for.
Moses was not discouraged that he was no longer to be the leader of Israel. He was still concerned for the welfare of the nation. So he appealed to "the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh" to set a man over the congregation. He realised that God knew well the spirits of all mankind. So he wanted God to choose one whose spirit was willing and able to meet the challenge of this great work.
The title appears once before this, in Numbers 16:22. Its force is that God does not lose interest in people who have proved stubborn.
There is great force and beauty in this title. Faith addressed God by it at a time when nothing but faith could have counted on His interest in these men, or His care for them. They had made their stubbornness and self-will only too plain. And we do well to remember that He is "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (see Numbers 16:22). He is never indifferent to what His power has formed.
Moses did not name his own successor. He left the choice to God — and writers contrast him with Samuel, who later looked to his own family.
But he did not venture to appoint anyone, and he did not suggest his own sons for the service. Indeed, he willingly accepted the Lord's choice of Joshua. Why did the thought of family succession enter Samuel's mind? Had not God shown His own sovereign choice clearly in Samuel's case, when a priesthood handed down from father to son had completely failed?
Moses asks for two things. He wants a leader with power to act for the people, and one the people will know as present among them.
In making his request, he asked God to raise up a man who would both lead them out and bring them in. He looked for power to be used on their behalf to this end. But he asked for more. He also asked God that His people would know the personal presence of their leader, as he went out before them and went in before them.
God's answer names Joshua. The one qualification given is the Spirit.
Moses accepted this discipline. He asked God to appoint the man who would lead the people in, and God pointed to Joshua. His qualification was that he was "a man in whom is the Spirit." Yet verse 21 shows that he was to differ from Moses. He would depend more on Eleazar the priest, who had the Urim and the Thummim. Through them God would give counsel and judgment.
God answered more than Moses asked.
God showed His regard for His servant's desire. He raised up Joshua to take Moses' place and to go before His people. But He did more. He also sent One whose interest in the sheep is equal to His own. His love for them went far beyond that of any under-shepherd, however devoted.
- Loss — God told Moses he would not enter the land. He said no more about it, and turned his grief outward, toward the people he had to leave.
- Name — He appealed to the God who knows the spirits of all mankind. Only such a God could choose a man whose spirit was fit for the work.
- Restraint — He named no successor and did not put forward his own sons. He left the choice to God — unlike Samuel later on.
- Request — He asked for a leader with power to lead them out and bring them in. The people were to know that leader's presence among them.
- Answer — God gave Joshua, "a man in whom is the Spirit," and beyond him One whose love for the sheep goes past any servant's.
who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the assembly of Jehovah be not as sheep that have no shepherd.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.