We are blessed at Hillside to have three highly qualified, capable, and good men serving as elders. I don’t tell them how much I (and everyone else) appreciate them, but truthfully, anything less than every single service probably isn’t enough.
Good elders not only guide people through difficult times, but they also instruct the people on a regular, ongoing basis. As the spiritual leaders of a local congregation, elders should be the most studied and have the most experience of any individual in the church.
Was that the case in Israel?
If you’ve read the Pentateuch in order, you’ve probably grown tired of hearing about all the things that Moses has done. He ascended the mountain, received the law from God, divided the waters of the Red Sea, struck the rock (even when he should’ve hit the rock), and spoke to the people. He is, in a very respectful sense, the human star of the show.
But the elders seem to have been right there with him. Way back in Exodus 24:1, the Text mentions seventy elders ascending the mountain with Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. They pop up in various other places, such as Leviticus 9:1 and Exodus 19:7.
Where did they come from?
The most direct answer is Numbers 11:16-25, when God expressly tells Moses to gather seventy men in order to serve as elders. This is probably the formal body that would later be known as the Sanhedrin—the governing religious council for Israel for the next thousand years.
Conversely, one could argue that elders have been a part of Israelite life since even before Moses. In Exodus 3:16, God tells Moses to go to the elders of Israel before he meets with Pharaoh. Presumably, there was already a body of men that held that honor amongst the people, just as individual towns would later (Deuteronomy 5:23).
The elders that accompanied Moses in Deuteronomy 27:1 were not random men that seemed to hold this honor—on the contrary, they were most likely formerly appointed to that position by Moses. Since Numbers 11 happened almost forty years previously, though, it’s likely men were appointed as former ones passed away.
Regardless, it’s worth noting that right before the covenant curses were announced in Deuteronomy 27, it wasn’t just Moses standing before them, but the elders themselves who would handle the ongoing administration of Israel. Moses will soon pass away, but they’ll remain.
That’s why good elders matter. Not just because they are invaluable in times of crisis, but because they provide a steady hand at the wheel. They aren’t always as visible as others, but their regular teaching and guidance create a strong framework for the church to grow.