Spiritual Growth in Today’s Biblical Camps

Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the Earth – Numbers 12:3

The introductory story and narrative in Numbers 11-12 reminds each theological seeking individual to reflect on the nature of the organic community (how the people function within any place or space as a commune). Additionally, these texts surmise the importance of prophetic leadership (within the phases of purely devoted discipleship) among the tension or uneasy relationship between tradition and social change. In Numbers 11:1-3, this most efficacious reminder and gleaning point to note is that “our identity as the people of God is determined by what we do, not by what we say or by our social location.” Definitively speaking, God as Sovereign and Almighty recognizes us – as not sovereign nor almighty – by our actions. Pruning takes place based on lifestyle. This urges the centripetal goal – as centering – in preaching and teaching, that these stories help everyone identify and determine what we crave within the contemporary age and lifestyle, as function, in church or rather as The Church. More distinctly, this form of preaching and teaching allows everyone, regardless of the age or timespan, to vividly relate to what has become a stumbling block, hindrance, and what puts us in conflict (tension) with God’s leading provisions for our lives. The objects of our craving(s) change; the meat desired – detrimentally within the text – can contemporarily be money, employment, or social prestige. God remains the same, in that if we leave the camp – as the community of penitent people of God – in pursuit of the thing we crave, then we forfeit our identify as God’s people. We essentially – and quite literally – die; perish, with the meat still in our teeth, unsatisfied and unsatisfactory within our actions and aspirations. 

In life, we make goals, yet we have the tendency to seek and discern God’s Will in our planning, thereby having the expectation for God to conform to our timetable (and our will within each age, space, and place). It has been said, “It is difficult to discern and hear the will of God for our lives, when we have already determined what we want Him to say” – Unknown Author. This is a very important lesson for [any] relationship because if one loses the ability to hear (as care) in substitution for speaking (as command) then the relationship is forever tainted and potentially destined to crumble and fracture. Maybe therefore, there are so many bodies and places of worship – as church – yet so little healing, as humanity. Within a medical reflection and sentiment, there are many hospitals and “doctors” within the church setting (academically speaking) – as a place of care and healing – yet it does not seem that people are becoming better, theologically (via pedagogy and penitence). This is medical malpractice – from a preaching propaganda.

Spiritual growth in God’s time always comes in conflict with the proverbial “rabble” of meat seekers; ones who desire divine grace on their own terms. Their desire for providence, again on their own terms, creates ambiguity in determining who makes up the people of God in the camp. Numbers 11-12 contains an important message for the contemporary church. 

Spiritual growth is NOT fast food. God often works on a different clock from that of our short-sighted, fast-paced culture. The rabble could not conform to God’s timetable and were purged from the community. Those who remained in the camp and ate manna continued to journey with God – through the wilderness and seemingly most difficult times of their {our} lives, especially when it seems that there is a scarcity of resources coupled with an abundance of enemies, plight(s), and adversarial antagonists. Sometimes God tests us by making us slow down.

It is vitally imperative to preserve a distinctly biblical understanding of charismatic leadership, especially for the contemporary church, namely because the contemporary culture is fixated on individual personalities. Celebrities attract our attention on television and within the varying levels of media (social in nature). They, as famous and more recognizable names, tend to determine many trends in our society through advertising. Naturally, our anthropological tendency is to worship. Unfortunately, though, we also tend to gravitate towards a worship that ultimately does not please The Divine because the focus has shifted from piety, care, and penitence toward greed, power structures, and pomp. In short, fame has infiltrated the church, where we all too often are attracted by the superficial personality of individual preachers. Definitively speaking, celebrity status in contemporary society and in the church is not the same as charismatic leadership. The word charisma, in Greek, means “gift.” The giftedness of an individual typically manifests itself within their personality or more pronouncedly within their gifted area of influence. Charismatic power – as the crux of all forms of leadership – is the quality of an individual’s personality. It describes a gifted person whose personal strength makes him or her stand out from others, but – again – charismatic persons are not necessarily famous, nor do they always find themselves in leadership position(s). According to Max Weber, who also considers a sociological element of leadership charismatically, “leaders are often agents of change during times of social crisis.” Numbers 11-12 provides a rich resource for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of this form of leadership. 

Of source and importance:

-Sentiments extracted from “Reflections” Numbers 11:1-12:16 Commentary, p. 111.

-This is also a great gleaning point for leadership in that the Spirit of God cannot be controlled by human structures; it is a force for change that blows where it will. This might be why there is such constancy and subversive (revolutionary, yet seemingly rebellious) quality to communities that are attuned to charismatic leadership. Change must come for all within community and within the greater expanse of community – as The Kingdom of penitent people. This notion of slowing down versus speeding up will be further addressed within the sentiment of “increase versus decrease” (what is for God and God’s purpose versus what is for me and my purposes).

-The Max Weber quotation was adapted from “Essays in Sociology” ed. Ad trans. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946).