Book 4: Numbers

Morgan Wallen Concert = Sabbath

Imagine for me that you have a huge project coming up at school. The kind of thing that they told you about at the beginning of the semester, they’ve reminded you for the last couple of month, but you haven’t done it yet. And now the whole thing is due Friday. It’s currently 630 on Wednesday and you’ve got a massive school project due at 8am on Friday. Not a huge problem. You’ve got time. You’ve got all of Thursday to do it. This sounds a whole like like tomorrow’s problem. Except…you just remembered you’ve got something else going on Thursday after school and it’s gonna take the whole evening. And it’s something fun that you would otherwise enjoy.

When I originally wrote this, I said imagine you’ve got tickets to a Morgan Wallen concert tomorrow night in Birmingham but Morgan Wallen has since announced that he is on 6 week vocal rest and has canceled all his upcoming shows.

But imagine, its wednesday now, you’ve got Morgan Wallen tomorrow and project due friday, if you don’t turn it in you fail the class.

What do you do?

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So basically you’ve got 2 options, work extra hard in an inconvenient time and manner, or fail the project, but no one here is considering skipping Morgan Wallen. That’s not a route we’re willing to go. we’re not even considering it.

The Jewish people, from the time of Moses up to this very day, have held a practice called Shabbat, or Sabbath. It is a day of rest 1 day out of every week. A day of absolutely no work. and that sounds great a day that is truly a day off, no chores, no school, no work. Your mama can’t tell you to clean your room or do a load of laundry on Sabbath, it is a true and absolute day off. And that sounds great, unless you find yourself just scraping by, and really needing to get some stuff done.

So as a typical, good but very poor, Jew in the Old Testament you would always have a list of things that you need to get done. If you live on a farm, there’s always stuff that has to be done, if you’re a parent there’s always stuff that has to be done. If you just have other people relying on you in any way, there’s always stuff that has to get done…every single day…and then Sabbath comes. and you get stressed and frustrated because you want to be able to participate and enjoy your sabbath, but there’s a bunch of stuff that you have to get done and there just isn’t time to get it all in before the sabbath rolls around so you’re stressed and rushing and overworking yourself in some really inconvenient ways to get everything done, because missing the sabbath is not an option.

In every ancient jewish text we see someone talking about the day before sabbath it’s about how hurried everyone was trying to get everything done before sundown on Friday, or stuff that they had to leave half done until Sunday morning. So again to our Morgan Wallen concert, you can either rush to get everything done before the concert, or you can stay up all night working after the concert. but you’re not missing that concert and the project still has to be done. It is the same with the Sabbath, but it’s every week.

Sabbath isn’t like a normal day off. My day off is Friday, but I can’t remember the last time I took my Friday and did nothing but rest and do what I want to do. I always have a house to clean or errands to run or a trip to tuscaloosa or montgomery to make. Often, I even have work work to do and I’ll use my day off to catch up on stuff here, or do school work. But on the sabbath, that’s not an option. You just have to sit at home and way despite all the other things that you need to get done right now. There’s no time to rest, but you still have to do it.

So for this reason, especially in the new testament you see the sabbath talked about as kind of a burden a lot of the time. What should be a good gift from God has become a burden for His people and a cause of great stress. Why? What happened that caused that?

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Tonight we’re studying Psalm 92, and Psalm 92 like most psalms has a superscript at the top, describing what it is and what it is for.

Christian Standard Bible Psalm 92

A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.

and that’s going to be important as we read this and understand this is meant to be sung on saturdays as a regular part of the sabbath celebration.

and this does not sound like a song of “I’m stressed and there’s other thing I could be doing right now God.” in fact it says the exact opposite.

Let’s read just the first few verses

Psalm 92:1–4 CSB

1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to your name, Most High, 2 to declare your faithful love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 3 with a ten-stringed harp and the music of a lyre. 4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands.

So this psalm is about God’s faithfulness, His consistent love. The psalmist is rejoicing over the faithful of God displayed particularly by “the works of [His] hands.”

So wait, what does that have to do with sabbath? Sabbath is rest day right? what does that have to do with the works of God’s hand. Well, sabbath is a little more complicated than that. There was a point behind the sabbath that most people seemed to forget pretty quickly. See, while the sabbath is really important in the new testament and Jesus is always getting into trouble for healing people and doing things on the sabbath. Sabbath in the Old Testament isn’t seen as quite as important.

In fact usually, when we see the sabbath mentioned, it’s not in a sense of people actually preparing for the sabbath and observing this celebration every week. Usually it’s a prophet yelling at the people about how they have profaned the sabbath, desecrated the sabbath, and refused to follow 4th commandment.

Here’s the question, why is that such a big deal? If your understanding is that God instituted the sabbath as a labor law to make sure that you take a break and rest every now and again, why does it have to be so strict? and why do the prophets use such strong language? Right, me going to the store on my day off is not defiling, desecrating, or profaning my day off. Why is it that the Jews can’t just take a break for a few hours and then get back out there and do some of the small chores and the household work on the sabbath? and why is the 4th commandment phrased “remember the sabbath day and keep it holy” what is holy about sleeping in and hanging around the house and not doing any work or cleaning that day?

That’s the thought processes of most of the Jews in the Old Testament for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Why is taking a day off such a big deal to God?

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So I think we need to correct our understanding of the sabbath and why it is so important, and then and only then can we really appreciate this psalm.

and remember, the psalms are meant to be the musical backdrop behind the story of the first 5 books of the old testament, and this particular psalm coincides with the book of Numbers, which is a book that equally people seem to wonder “what’s the big deal about the book of numbers. Why is this in the bible and what am I supposed to learn about God from it?”

So let’s actually take a second to understand the big point of the book of Numbers.

Numbers is the 4th book of the bible. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to why it is called Numbers? because it’s not just an excel sheet. The book of numbers is full of letters. you can flip to it in your bible. What you’re gonna find is a lot of things that say “and there were 562 goats among the tribe of judah and 7,820 goats among all the people of Israel.” “There were 9,480 men among the tribe of Levi, not counting women and children.” It is a lot of numbers. It’s kinda boring to read. and it makes you want to just give up and say “ok, I get the point. There were people and goats and whatnot, can we get back to the story of Moses? Why did he include all these numbers for everything?”

See, the book of numbers is a pair of census’. Raise your hand if you know what a census is?

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Moses took a census right when they got out of Egypt, and then he took another census right before he died and the people were going to enter the promised land. So 2 census of the same group of people, 40 years apart.

What in the world is so important about that? Why would God preserve a census as a part of His holy scripture?

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There’s valuable things that you can learn from a census that you don’t quite understand in any other way. and I don’t mean raw information. Watch this.

Census charts

A census, when you put it in it’s context tells a story.

So, the fact that there was about 600,000 Israelites who made it out of Egypt. Then after 40 years of living in tents in the desert, 0 stability, no ability to farm or store up food for the winter. They brought no food or water with them into the desert. They went out there with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Constantly treking through somebody else’s land and having to fight for their lives, 40 years of unsafe, unstable, almost unlivable conditions…we take a second census and we see still 600,000 israelites. Any other group would have dwindled or died out in those kinds of circumstances, but God blessed the Israelites and their numbers held steady. His people did not dwindle. The nation did not fail under the pressure of 40 years in the arabian desert.

Listen to this, this is right as they’re about to enter the promised land, at the end of 40 years.

Deuteronomy 29:4–9 CSB

4 Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. 5 I led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out; 6 you did not eat food or drink wine or beer—so that you might know that I am the Lord your God. 7 When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and follow them, so that you will succeed in everything you do.

So for 40 years, God put them through deep and painful hardship, that they could do absolutely nothing about. So that they would learn to rely only on Him as their provider. No food other than what God gave them. No water other than what God gave them. They had a couple sets of clothes, some shoes, and tents that should have all worn out after 6 months, but no, they lasted 40 years without wearing out. We’re talking some leather flip flops, 40 years in the desert, walking every day, passed down from father to son. Never wore out. Tent poles never broke.

See, this is the real lesson of Numbers, God sustained the Israelites entirely by His own power because there was nothing to do to provide for themselves, and we saw no meaningful population decrease over an entire generation of hardship.

What does that have to do with the sabbath. Well, here’s the thing that the Israelites seemed to forget throughout the Old Testament.

The sabbath is not like labor laws requiring that everyone gets a day off every week. God did not make the sabbath number 4 on His top 10 list of things to do because He thinks it’s important for you to take a break every now and again. The sabbath is not about you relaxing and taking a load off.

The sabbath is about relying on God to provide. That’s why the psalmist says

Psalm 92:4–7 CSB

4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands. 5 How magnificent are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts! 6 A stupid person does not know, a fool does not understand this: 7 though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be eternally destroyed.

Every week, you have a list of things that you need to get done, and you need to do, and you need to make happen, and then the sabbath rolls around, not so that you will sit down and take a break; but to remind you that God is the one who provides for you. You cannot rise and grind your way through your problems. God provides for you, sustains you, protects you. So on the sabbath day, a good jew should not wake up and think “I’ve got so much to do today, God why can’t I just do this one quick thing and knock out a couple chores so I don’t fall further behind.” Instead a good jew should wake up on the sabbath day and think. “I have so much that needs to get done; but God has brought me this far and He will bring me further still. He will provide everything that I need.”

God will provide. I don’t need to grind my way through life. I don’t need to save up all the money I can. I don’t need to break my back overworking myself. God provides more than enough for me in the 6 working days that I can take a day off and trust Him in the 7th day.

And that’s hard when everyone around you has that rise and grind mentality, that overachiever mentality.

I have 2 older siblings. Both of whom were captains of various sports teams in high school. Graduated with honors. Got into the best colleges. Seth, the schmuck, took a semester off of college to join the army, and still managed to graduate on time, with a major newspaper publication and a job for the leader of the state senate on his resume. Overachievers. It’s embarrassing. It is hard to watch others succeed while you’re just barely getting by. It is hard to watch others thrive while you just survive.

and so for the people of God, they are constantly surrounded by other nations and other cultures who are not bound by the sabbath laws. They have more days in the week to get things done, so of course they will have more savings, more storage, more successes by their own merit.

But the psalmist knows that there is something that those people are missing. Ps92:6-11

Psalm 92:6–11 CSB

6 A stupid person does not know, a fool does not understand this: 7 though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be eternally destroyed. 8 But you, Lord, are exalted forever. 9 For indeed, Lord, your enemies— indeed, your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. 10 You have lifted up my horn like that of a wild ox; I have been anointed with the finest oil. 11 My eyes look at my enemies; when evildoers rise against me, my ears hear them.

Do you know how often I wish there were more hours in the day? More time to get stuff done? and the Psalmist has to sit there and watch all his surrounding enemy nations who literally have more days in the week to get things done, and be content with it.

and I know you’re thinking, is 1 day a week really that big a deal? eh. maybe, but the 1 day a week is not the hard part. watching other people work while you’re stuck at home 1 day a week isn’t that bad. but it also doesn’t do a very good job of teaching the lesson of reliance on God. 1 day out of 7 is not serious reliance on God. but the sabbath restrictions were much more than that.

it wasn’t just, take off 1 day out of every 7. It also required you to take of 1 year out of every 7. 1 entire calendar year out of every 7. No work. No planing crops. You have to trust that God will provide enough in the 6 years of work to feed you and your family through the whole 7th year. And that’s way way way harder. I cannot fathom that. I don’t think I have that kind of trust; to just know that my savings for 7 years are gonna carry me through year 7. That’s insane. but wait there’s more.

Not only do you have to take 1 year off every 7 and watch everyone else get ahead and grow their businesses, and invest in more land, more cattle, more assets, more property that will continue to help them year after year. You also have to free your slaves at the end of 7 years. So slaves that you purchased, have to be freed after 7 years. but wait there’s more.

The sabbath requires that ever 7 sets of 7 years; so you do this 1 year off every 7 for 49 straight years. and then on the 50th year…any land or permanent property that you bought has to return to it’s original owner or their family.

So if you have amassed great wealth, bought up a ton of property, planted vineyards, built farms, bought slaves, bred cattle… every 50 years, all that land that you bought and built up and improved, you have to give it all back to the guy you bought it from. So there’s no way to build up a huge fortune and just let it ride for the rest of your life. There’s no way to make millions and pass it down to your kids and grandkids and great grandkids. Your fortune is good for 50 years max and then it all goes away.

THAT teaches you to rely on God. There’s no saving for retirement. No generational wealth. There’s no kennedys, no rockafellers, no vanderbilts, and no carnegies among the jews.

and you can just hear the surrounding nations laughing, as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What’s the point in working so hard if it’s all gonna get taken away…and that’s the point that God is trying to teach. Total and utter reliance on Him to provide for you. You can’t provide for yourself in the ways that you want, no matter how hard you try, only God can provide for you; and all the rise and grind cats, all the surrounding nations, all the enemies of Israel, they just don’t get it and they never will. Because they think that they can work hard enough to take care of themselves. but the psalmist says Ps 92:10-15

Psalm 92:10–13 CSB

10 You have lifted up my horn like that of a wild ox; I have been anointed with the finest oil. 11 My eyes look at my enemies; when evildoers rise against me, my ears hear them. 12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God.

God is going to provide everything that His people need. God’s people are not alone, trying to take care of themselves. God’s people, who are planted firmly, rooted in Him, relying on Him. They have no worries. Ps 92:14-15

Psalm 92:14–15 CSB

14 They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, 15 to declare, “The Lord is just; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

Jesus says it this way in Matthew 6:25-33

Matthew 6:25–33 CSB

25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

So what do we do with this tonight?

Stop focusing on empire building and wealth management.

Unbusy yourself and get serious about your sabbath day.

Stop trying to work so hard that you don’t need God anymore.

Maybe you are the rise and grind guy. Your youtube and tiktok are nothing but self proclaimed financial gurus teaching you the BRRRR method and dropshipping and compound interest and tax shelters and the difference between assets and liabilities and how to leverage your debts. If that’s you, please stop. one those guys are usually idiots and if they had really mastered all of those things the way they say they have, they wouldn’t be full-time youtubers relying on as revenue…but also ask yourself why that is so deeply attractive to you? Why is it that your focus is so much on maximizing passive income and accruing wealth? Why do you feel like money and making money has to be at the center of everything? Here’s the real question, what are you afraid will happen if you don’t have the investments and the passive income and the asset/liability ratio? What are you afraid of that you think money will fix?

Maybe your focus isn’t money, but you still can’t fathom not having something to do. Whether you’re doing it or not, you know right now what you should be doing. You’ve got an assignment, some homework, something to clean, something to work on, something to practice. Even your hobbies stress you out because you feel like you’re behind on some project that you were doing that was supposed to be for fun, but you still have a half finished art project or model or whatever. Or you’ve got a videogame that’s at 60% and you keep telling yourself, I really need to get back to that game and finish it but you’ve moved on to 3 other games and your ADD brain won’t let your executive function kick in and start doing the thing that you want to do. You can’t really rest even when you rest because you have all the things you should be doing on your mind. If that’s you I’m so sorry. and we’re gonna figure that out together, because I’m still working on it. I’ve figured out a few tricks that I’d be happy to share, but here’s the thing that you’ve got to learn; you are useless without proper rest, actual rest, and no matter how still you are or how much fun you had, if your mind is focused on what else you should be doing and what needs to get done, you’re not resting. You’re also not trusting God that it’s gonna be ok long enough for you to rest.

Maybe your issue isn’t about the drive to do things and check off a list. Maybe you’re worried about how God sees you. Maybe you’re scared that there is an infinitely powerful God looking at every move you make, and you feel like you’ve got 1 lifetime to do enough good to make Him happy with you. You’re so scared every time you mess up that He’s gonna send some punishment. Every time you’re going through a hard time you blame yourself and your sin for this and you’re looking for the lesson that God is trying to teach you. and you’re trying to do enough good to fix it…my sweet sweet little screw up, please stop. You have the biggest trust issues with God of any of us. Listen. Jesus died for you. and He did it while you were as evil and sinful as you could possibly be. He has already seen you at your absolute worst and He still decided that He loved you and wanted to die for you. You can stop. Take a breath. The work is already finished. and nothing that you did had any effect on it.

So all 3 of these issues stem from the same problem. You don’t trust God enough to rest. Because He has already said that this is gonna be ok. and if you’re struggling to trust that He means it, the only thing we can do is ask for help; so let’s do that now.