An Unfaithful Prophet
Notes
Transcript
An Unfaithful Prophet
An Unfaithful Prophet
We are coming about a pivot point in the history of Israel. From the departure from Exodus, Israel has been led by two leaders, which are who?
Moses and Aaron have been leading them and today we are going to see the beginning of the transition from one generation to the next.
What are qualities of a good leader?
Faithful, dependable, teachable, humble, kind, wise, etc.
What are qualities of a bad leader?
Selfish, quick-tempered, money or fame focused, unorganized.
As we get into our passage today we are going to see a side of Moses that is not good. Moses has been the central character of the story for a number of weeks now and what have we see from Moses so far?
He was saved from death via the basket, raise in Pharaohs house, kills a man in Egypt and has to flee to wilderness. He is called at burning bush to go save God’s people. He Led them out of Egypt and through Red Sea. He obeyed God and directed the people, gave them the commandments, etc.
Turn to Numbers 20.
Unfaithfulness leads to a pattern of sin.
1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. 2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.”
Miriam is the sister of Moses and Aaron. She was also a prophetess
In Exodus 2 she watches the basket travel down the river. After crossing the Red Sea she leads them in song.
20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
She also at times was very critical of Moses and complained.
She was the ranking women, the clear leader amongst the women of Israel and she passes away and is buried in Kadesh. This is a foreshadowing of what is to come and she does not get to enter the promised land.
But this is just the beginning.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Those who don’t remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.”
At this point Israel has been wondering for 40 years. You would think they would have learned something by now, right? (Num 33:38)
Sadly they have not. Don’t cast judgement either, we are not much different.
There is a pattern for Israel:
Face battles with enemies (sometimes within)
Complain about lack of food and water
Subsequent miraculous provision of resources
We see this time and time again and yet somehow the Israelites are so surprised when it happens.
And so in many ways the beginning of our story is not that surprising or even unique. The nation of Israel was thirsty and tired of not having water.
2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
This story is almost a complete duplication of what happened in Exodus
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
There is no water, they complain to Moses and in this passage today Aaron also, and air their grievances.
And once again they have the same complaints. Isn’t it interesting how often the complaints build up and just pour out and have little to do withe actual problem?
I used to work in college athletics and I was the budget control guy for all the sports. I always got uneasy when someone would ask to meet about an upcoming purchase they wanted to make. Especially with a couple of coaches. I knew they wanted to talk about the purchase for about 3 minutes and then spend 27 minutes complaining about everything else.
We wouldn’t have to purchase this if we had this or that. Other schools don’t have to deal with this. DId you know that we have to practice at 5:15 in the morning. The basketball players get their own lockers and our kids all share 5 of them. Baseball went to Arizona for spring break and we had to play at a frozen golf course. And on and on and on.
So thats for all those thoughts, yes, you can purchase a new iPad or office chair or whatever it was. It happens in the church and it happens in our homes.
The complaints department is open for business and everyone wants to come participate.
The people were blaming Moses and Aaron because the wilderness was not like the Promised Land that the people themselves refused to enter! They got the report and listen to the bad spies and refused to enter the land—and then complained about no good food. Joshua & Caleb were probably like hello—what about what I told you! They wanted to go back to Egypt because it had everything they wanted and they were not tired and thirsty.
You know what happens when we sin and complain is we often do one of two things: catastrophizing or blame-shifting. Catastrophizing means we paint our situation in a far darker colors than it really is. We all know people that do this really well. It seems every time you talk to them the sky is falling and everything has fallen apart and there is no hope. They seem to have been wronged by anyone and everyone. I think we all do this at times.
The other thing we do is blame-shifting. This is what Israel is doing right here. Yes we disobeyed, and yes we refused to enter and yes we did all those things. But you Moses and you Aaron you took us out of the land of Milk and Honey to the desert for us to die. Let’s not talk about what we did lets talk about what you haven’t done. I was talking with a couple young men this week and we were talking about general revelation and one of the things God has given us is a conscience. We know right and wrong. And when we get caught we don’t have to be taught to defend ourselves. And one of the things we often do is point the finger elsewhere. They did this or they said this or this happened and that is why I did this or that.
This isn’t new. What happened in the garden? The woman blamed the serpent, the man blamed the women and God for giving him the women.
As we move on we see Unfaithfulness Results From a Failure to Trust God
6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.
We see again very similar to Exodus, God instructs Moses what to do and it appears he is going to listen.
And in bad leadership Moses goes rogue.
10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”
God didn’t tell him to do that? He is going off script.
And the problem here isn’t just that Moses and Aaron go off script, but its also in what they are doing.
What do we notice about what Moses says?
They are judging the people. “You rebels”. Pot, meet kettle. Moses is calling the people out for rebeling against God while rebelling against God. He is actively going against what God said to do while calling them out for going against what God said to do.
Moses is setting himself up as their judge and he is not.
2. Moses and Aaron are setting themselves up as their delivers. “Shall we bring water for you”. In doing so Moses disobeys what God said to do. He is focused on self-exaltation—look what we have done for you. Look at the water we gave to you. And he is directly assaulting God and his power. God you wanted me to do this but I don’t need you, I can do it without you.
There is no doubt that Moses was frustrated with the people. You guys never listen, all you do is complain about everything, why can’t you just follow the plan. And yet Moses just can’t listen, he just can’t follow the plan. And the same attitude he judges with is the one that condemns him.
But don’t we do these things as well. Don’t we want to judge others? Don’t we even judge ourselves? Maybe we get down on ourselves and loathe in self-pity about how we are not enough and we don’t live up to the standard.
And we also attempt to make ourselves the heroes. Look at what I have done. Look at what I am doing and what I haven’t done. Just listen to popular christian music (which I enjoy and listen to) but I, I, I. I do this and that and we wrap it with good fancy language so it sounds better but really we are just trying to be the hero of the story. God alone saves and delivers us. And like Moses and Aaron all we can do is mess it up. And we do—really good, were good at messing it up.
Lets move on.
Unfaithfulness Brings the Judgement of a Holy God
12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
God warned them not to rebel against him.
Joshua reminded them of this in chapter 14
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”
And because of their rebellion, Moses and Aaron would not get to enter the promised land.
Unfaithfulness brings the judgement of a holy God. And yet in this passage ther is still grace which we will end with today.
But what ultimately happens to Moses and Aaron?
For Aaron it happens very quickly.
22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as the Lord commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
Very quickly not only does Aaron die, but he is stripped of his authority and position. It is removed from him and given to his son. There are consequences for sin, sometimes big time. Aaron would never get to see the land he was promised. He would never get to serve as High Priest again. In someways he feels like he was marched up the mountain for an execution. Before Moses and Eleazar he is stripped of his robes and authority and dies.
What interesting in this passage is that unbelief and rebellion were the threats to the Israelites not lack of water. God would provide for the food and water and they would live. But failure to trust and attempting to do it on their own led to death.
How often do we do this in our lives? The lack of things is not the issue. Our lack of trust that God will provide and sustain us is where we fall short. Instead of seeing how God can work in our lives we try to do it ourselves and we mess it all up.
Oftentimes failure to trust God actually leads to a pattern of sin and rebellion. We are stubborn and we want to so desperately solve it on our own and so we press on even when it doesn't make sense. And in doing so we dig our feet in, in our sin and rebellion and just make it worse.
And yet God is a God of grace. We see in this passage despite Moses’ disobedience, he still provided the people with water. He still met that need.
And while he removed Aaron as high priest he provided Eleazar and so the people could still commune with God.
And he is going to remove Moses and yet he will provide Joshua.
That generation did not get to enter the promised land and yet Israel will be given the land that they were promised. God keeps his promises to us despite our rebellion.
The Lord is not only far more gracious than we believe him to be—he is far more gracious than we deserve and for that we can be so thankful.
I close with a quote from a book I was reading this week that I hope is encouraging to you. I don’t want us to be discouraged from these passage but perhaps convicted of sin and the results of a pattern of sin. But hopefully this is encouraging to us:
“How long, then, will you and I refuse to believe in this God who has so wonderfully demonstrated his love for us in so many ways? How long will we trust in ourselves and judge others? How long will we become angry and frustrated over our own lack of sanctification and the failures of others? We must look to the lord and submit our hearts to him, trusting in his goodness and mercy, believing that his timing is perfect, being filled with thankfulness for his death and resurrection. We must ask God to teach us wisdom and patience, grace and gentleness, and above all, love. The day will come when our earthly struggles and rebellions will be over, and the Lord will welcome us into his presence; then all our frustrations will finally be over. Until then, the good news of his gospel of grace will faithfully sustain our thirsty souls step by step along the way.”