The Lutheran Hour
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"God’s Help Dwells in Us"
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Text: Numbers 11:29
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Numbers 11:29 – 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!”
Have you ever asked someone for help? There are many things in life we can’t do on our own. When our car breaks down, we need mechanics to help us fix it. When we get sick, we go to a doctor who can help us feel better. When we are in danger, we need someone to keep us safe. We cannot go through life on our own. We need help.
Moses needed help, too. The great prophet had delivered God’s people from their bondage to Egypt, leading them through the Red Sea into the desert. God took care of them in their journey, giving them manna from heaven to sustain them along the way. But instead of being thankful to God for their deliverance and daily sustenance, the people complained against the Lord and His prophet.
God was so angry with the people that He sent fire from heaven on their camp. Moses prayed to the Lord to have mercy on the people and the fire died down. Despite this terrible experience of divine anger, the people of Israel wept again and cried out to Moses, “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.”
Not only is God angry with His ungrateful bunch, Moses is angry too. He is fed up with the people’s constant weeping, and cries out to God with a complaint of his own: “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?” Yes, Moses complains to God. But unlike Israel’s complaint, which comes from a lack of trust in God and thanksgiving for His provision, the prophet’s complaint is heard by God as a genuine cry for help. In his prayer, Moses recognizes that He is not God. He is not the Lord who conceived His child Israel by adopting him from among the nations. Moses knows he can neither carry nor nurse God’s child in his bosom. Only God is the Savior who delivered His people from Egypt. Only God is the caring Father of Israel, His firstborn son. Only God can help His child. And only God can help Moses lead this stubborn child at a difficult time along their journey to the land He promised to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Veit Dietrich, an associate of the Reformer Martin Luther, recorded many lessons from the Luther’s “Table Talk,” a time Luther used to talk theology informally at his home with visitors and students. In one of these table talks, Dietrich asked Luther if the prophet Jeremiah’s complaint to God should be considered a case of impatience. Suffering persecution for proclaiming God’s Word to an unrepentant people, Jeremiah cried out to God and said, “cursed be the day on which I was born!” Luther compared Jeremiah’s prayer to Christ’s words in the Gospel, “How long am I to be with you?”, which Christ spoke to those who had no faith in God’s power to heal a boy with an unclean spirit. Luther then puts Moses’ cry to God amid a complaining people in the same category of prayer. These are not moments of impatience, Luther says, but rather cases of bold prayer for the Lord to hear his prophets’ justified grievances and ultimately their cries for help in difficult times;—especially, times when their proclamation of the Word is met with neglect, indifference, and contempt for God.
How can God help us in difficult times of service? Prayer is key. For God has promised to hear and answer our prayers. In prayer we confess our need before God and request His help in our time of need. Moses acknowledges that on his own he is helpless to lead God’s people. In prayer, he confesses to God, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me.” And God heard him.
How then did God answer his prayer? How did God help His prophet to lead amid a faithless and ungrateful people? How did God empower him to bear the burden of service in his prophetic ministry? Martin Luther noted that only the Lord could uphold His servant in tough times. The Reformer said: “It is a great thing to set a true preacher in motion, and unless our Lord God Himself gets him going, nothing will come of it. It requires a mighty spirit to serve people in body and soul and yet suffer extreme peril and the basest ingratitude for so serving.”i
Let’s go back to those words of Luther again and dwell on them a bit more: “It requires a mighty spirit to serve people in body and soul.” Which mighty “spirit” is this? Luther cannot be speaking about the human spirit as the source of our power for service, because early in the same sentence he stressed that “unless our Lord God Himself gets [the preacher in motion] nothing will come of it.” What spirit then empowers and sustains the prophet? The Lord tells Moses that He is talking about the Spirit from above, the Spirit of God, “the Spirit that is on you.” This is the Holy Spirit. He is the mighty Helper God has given Moses to rest on him so that he can serve God’s people through his prophetic ministry. This is the Holy Spirit “who spoke by the prophets,” as we confess in the Nicene Creed.
The Spirit also spoke through Moses. But Moses needs even more help. So God temporarily appoints 70 elders of Israel to assist Moses in leading and prophesying, in governing and speaking God’s Word to the people of Israel. Even though Moses is the greatest of prophets, he is not a one-man show. He does not carry out his work as a long ranger. To assist His servant Moses, God promises to do something remarkable. He tells Moses, “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them [on the elders], and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.” No man is an island, a self-sufficient individual, not even Moses. So God puts some of the Spirit that is on Moses on the elders.
What strange language! Can the Spirit really be apportioned to others in this way, as if some of Him can be shared with others? This language only sounds weird if we think in terms of the Spirit’s being rather than His activity. In His own being, the Spirit is one and indivisible. He is not a substance or quantity made of parts that can be distributed. He is one Spirit. Yet in terms of His activity among us in the world, the one Spirit is the power of God, and He can come upon many people and endow them with many gifts for service. The one Spirit distributes His graces to us so that no one person must bear all the burden of service.
God’s promise to Moses is that the some of the Spirit who is in him will be passed on to others. The Spirit is handed over from one person to another. But can the Spirit really be passed on from one to another, say, as one passes a baton to another runner in a relay race, or as one passes on a family gift from one generation to another? Here it would help to think of the Spirit’s work among the elders as an extension of the Spirit’s work in Moses. The elders are appointed to assist Moses as His representatives among God’s people. In that sense, the elders are sharing in Moses’ Spirit, in his prophetic role as God’s spokesman to Israel. God shares, passes on, or hands over His Spirit that is in Moses to those who help him in his task. He who hears them hears Moses and the God who sent him.
After the 70 elders completed their task of prophesying, of speaking God’s Word to the people, there were two men who remained in the camp by the names of Eldad and Medad, upon whom the Spirit also rested and they too prophesied. But someone complained about their activities and, as a result, Joshua advised Moses to stop them in their tracks. But Moses instead cried out what can be interpreted as a prayer to God: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!” And guess what? God answered that prayer through another prophet, one who will be like Moses but also much greater than Moses. One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord will rest to speak God’s saving Word and through whom His Spirit will also rest on others to proclaim the same Word.
Indeed, there is no prophet like Moses. And yet there will be a greater Prophet like him whom God will raise in the future. In the last days, God will show His salvation not only to Israel but to all the nations through a Messiah. In the last days, God will show His salvation not only to Israel but to all the nations through a Messiah who will rule over the earth with righteousness. The prophet Isaiah teaches that the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon this Messiah and fill Him with gifts of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The Lord will put His Spirit upon His Messiah-Servant to bring justice to the nations. The Lord will anoint Him with His mighty Spirit “to bring good news to the poor … proclaim liberty to captives … the year of the Lord’s favor.” This Prophet will be greater than Moses and the rest of the Old Testament prophets, whose work pointed to this Messiah-Servant who was to come and came, and His Name is Jesus.
Jesus has the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes down and remains on Him. Unlike Moses and all prophets before Him, Jesus bears the Spirit in a unique way, without measure. But Jesus does not keep the Spirit to Himself. He is most generous. So Jesus gives the Spirit to others. Jesus is the bearer and the giver of the Spirit. Referring to Jesus’ Baptism, John the Baptist testifies to the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ life and mission. The Baptist declares: “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus bears the Spirit in His humanity to give humans the same Spirit. Jesus has the fullness of the Spirit to fill us with His Spirit. Jesus gives us a measure of His Spirit, so to speak. We receive from His abundance. Upon completion of His work, Jesus passes on, hands over His Spirit to the church, to all who believe in Him. Jesus promises His disciples that the same Spirit who remains on Him will remain in them.
Jesus calls the Spirit the Helper. But He does not only give the Spirit to one person. He gives the Helper to many. Not to one disciple, but to many disciples. Not to one member of the church, but to the whole church. In His mission, Jesus speaks the words of God because God the Father gave Him the Spirit without measure to deliver good news, to proclaim words of eternal life, the favor of the Lord. When Jesus completes His work, He breathes the Holy Spirit on His disciples so that they continue His prophetic mission, so that they speak words of forgiveness that deliver eternal life through belief in Him. On Pentecost, Jesus gives the Holy Spirit, the power from on high, to many disciples, empowering them to become His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the nations. Because of Jesus’ gift of the Spirit, His Word has been and continues to be spoken by His witnesses all around the world.
When Jesus the Messiah, who bears the fullness of the Spirit, hands over the Spirit to the church, He fulfills God’s promise to Moses that the Spirit who is on the prophet will also rest on others to become prophets, to be His witnesses and speak God’s Word of salvation in Christ not only to His people Israel but to the nations. When Jesus the Messiah hands over the Spirit to the church, God answers Moses’ old prayer, “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put His Spirit on them!” And so He has. And now the Holy Spirit, the Helper, has come to dwell, rest, and remain on you, a member of Christ’s body the church. For Christ the Head has poured down His Holy Spirit and gifts upon the members of His body to share in His mission of proclaiming good news to the whole world.
When we feel discouraged like Moses in the work Christ has given us to do on His behalf and as His representatives on earth, remember that God will help you. Indeed, God’s help is not only on the way! God’s help is already on you! God’s help is a Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the promised Helper, who keeps us in the faith by reminding us of Christ’s words and by giving us the strength to speak His words of life to others in need of His help, life, and salvation.
Take heart, friends. At times, like Moses, you will sense that your work is in vain. But remember: God’s help is not only on the way! God’s help dwells in and with us! The Spirit is not only on me but on us. For no one alone can bear witness to Christ-a difficult task that can be met with resistance, indifference, and marginalization. Rather, the Spirit, the Helper, rests and remains in one and many, in all the members of the church, so that we can support each other with mutual consolation and comfort as we bear witness to the Lord Jesus in our daily lives.
Let us pray: Thank You, Lord Jesus, for strengthening our faith in Your words by sending us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to dwell and remain in us. By the same mighty Spirit, empower us to speak Your words of eternal life and salvation together to a hurting church and world. Amen.
i Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 54: Table Talk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 54 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 31.
Reflections for October 19, 2025
Title: Hispanic HeritageMark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, our mobile app, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Joining us now, here’s Lutheran Hour Speaker Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I get to visit with my friend, Pastor German Novelli. He’s a co-worker here at Lutheran Hour Ministries, serving as the director of Hispanic Ministry. Thanks for joining us, Pastor German.
German Novelli: Thank you, Mike. It’s always an honor to be here.
Mike Zeigler: So we heard from our friend and teacher, Dr. Leo Sanchez, today on the program. He was preaching about how Moses needed help, and he longed for God’s Spirit to be put on all of God’s people so that all of God’s people could speak the Word. Also in the U.S. we’ve just finished celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and of course, secular society has its own reasons for celebrating a multicultural perspective. But what about Christians? Why should I, as a Christian who has no Hispanic ethnicity, why should I be interested in Hispanic heritage?
German Novelli: The first two words that come to my mind when I hear your question is number one, love. Okay? We as Christians are called to love one another, to love our neighbor, and of course, to love our God and Jesus above all things. So when you love somebody, it’s very important that you welcome that person into your life, into your heart. I was mentioning the example of when you invite someone to your house, you want that person to come to your place, but because you love that person, you will ask question like, is this time okay? Or do you have any diet restrictions that I should know? And you do that because you don’t want to harm your friend. You want to bring him and you want to treat him well. And that’s why it’s so important that we love our neighbor, that we love our people, and that we welcome them into our reality, into our context, into our world. And welcoming is also about knowledge and knowledge of the other, and knowledge, the contributions that the other will bring to your life and to your reality as well.
Mike Zeigler: And we have Jesus as our example with love and welcome. Of course, He is completely different than all of us. He’s the Creator and He’s holy and unique, and yet He becomes one of us to welcome us into His life. So like you said, we follow His lead. We welcome others who are different, to learn about them, and that’s part of our duty as Christians. But I like how you said it also contributes to our own. It enriches our own lives and our own perspectives. How would you communicate the importance of that multicultural perspective, especially for Christians?
German Novelli: I always like Dr. Ely Prieto. He’s a professor at the seminary, a wonderful preacher and also the director for the Center of Hispanic Studies these days. He likes to say, well, if you don’t like that diversity, maybe you should think about another religion. Because when the Bible describes heaven and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, talking about all nations coming together in the heaven, and we’ll spend eternity in that type of context. All nations around the Lamb of God.
Mike Zeigler: What would you say are the top two most important contributions of the Hispanic perspective to Christian teaching and thought?
German Novelli: First thing, for Latinos, God is important. And this is not me talking, this is a statistic. For them, they value God as part of their central lives. And that’s important because that’s something that we are lacking not just in our world or in our society, but also in Western culture. So for Latinos, God is always in the center. I believe that the other day I was sharing with you that in my country I have to, when I see my parents or my oldest relatives, I have to ask for a blessing. So I have to say “Bendicion,” which is me asking for a blessing, and they have to reply, “God bless you.” And this is simple. Might be silly for many, but it’s important. My mom will be very offended if I see her, and I did not ask for my blessing. And putting God in the center of our family life is so important for Hispanics. And the number two, of course, is the relevance of family. For we are people that grows into community. And our main community, of course, is our family, we are very close to our parents. Our grandparents are like sacred and same thing with other relatives. So those are the two contributions, having God and family in the center of our lives. And that’s a wonderful and beautiful contribution that Latinos are bringing, not just to the United States, but also whatever they are.
Mike Zeigler: Well, I suppose I need to call my mom and dad and ask for a blessing.
German Novelli: You should.
Mike Zeigler: Thanks so much for joining us.
German Novelli: Thank you, Mike. And thank you everybody. Know that you have a very important audience that are always looking forward to learn more about different cultures, and something that I keep saying is you have to love your origins, whatever they are. You have to love where you are coming from and honor your ancestors and your backgrounds because that has a lot to do with who you are right now.
Mike Zeigler: Amen.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“I Trust, O Lord, Your Holy Name” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.