In The Wilderness (Part 5)

Greeting:

Good morning everyone

As always its good to see everyone.

Make plans to be back with us tonight Lord willing, as well as Wednesday night.

I want to say thank you for yesterday

I apologize for not making it up there yesterday in time.

Someone had me home slaving away yesterday and as I was leaving to go up there they all were pulling back in.

Lesson Text:

Numbers 17-20

Opening:

We have been studying our way through the book of Numbers for the last little bit.

Today we are going to continue on with our fifth lesson of the series.

As we continue to look at this series we have titled “In The Wilderness” we are seeking out valuable lessons we can learn from Israel.

We are looking at their story and the wandering of 40 years in the wilderness.

We are keeping in line with our main idea of focusing our lives in the direction of God.

As we continue to study I hope we all see the continual importance of placing our focus and direction of our lives towards God...

In hopes that we don't find ourselves wandering as well.

Last week we ended by looking at chapter 16 primarily and the lessons we learned from Korah’s rebellion.

We looked at again the disobedience, rebellion, and complaining of Israel before God.

We left Israel as they complained again before God and God struck almost 15,000 of them dead with his plague before Aaron was able to intercede...

Again we see the contrast here of our main lesson of keeping our lives focused and pointed towards God.

This morning we are going to pick up there in Chapter 17 where we left off last week and continue to study through the book.

I hope we are able to find these lessons valuable and I hope we are taking God’s word and applying it to our lives.

Lesson:

If you remember last week in our sermon we noted how the people of Israel felt during the rebellion about Moses and Aaron.

They questioned their leadership and complained about them, saying how they led them out just to die.

So in Chapter 17 God seeks to put an end to this grumbling and complaining.

God plans to do this by giving them a sign in Chapter 17.

Numbers 17 ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff, and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers’ house. Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.” Moses spoke to the people of Israel. And all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. And the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. And Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. And they looked, and each man took his staff. And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.” Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did. And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

So God essentially tells Moses to get a rod from each of their faither’s house and write the name on it of each man.

And for the tribe of Levi they were to write Aaron’s name on it.

They take all of the rods and place them in the tabernacle and the rod that God chooses shall blossom.

And by this sign God will rid the complaints of Israel.

As we read, we can see that Aarons rod is the one that was chosen by God and blossomed

The poeple are then struck with ferar and say how they will die if they come close to the tabarnacle.

If you remember back ealy on in our series we made this point already. The people knew this.

They knew God had instructed the LEvites to be a protective ring around the temple and due to Gods holiness man couldnt come before God.

We talked about this again already when we looked at the holiness of God.

Going on through Chapters 18-19 we can see this idea with the Levites elaborate further.

Scripture goes on to tell us and instruct them about the duties of the preiests and Levites and the role they played.

Aaron and the other preists are seen as the ones carrrying the sins of the people of Israel.

And the Levites are a gift given from God to do service in the tabernacle.

They had a specific work to do and role to play so that the rest of Israel didnt.

We have touched on this briefly in other lessons as well about the jobs or rolls we have been assigned by God and how we should be content and understand those.

You can read the entirity of 18 and 19 sometime, it will go on to elaborate on different speciifc duties and instructiuons given to the Levites and priests.

Now we get into Chapter 20.

This is where we will focus most of our time this morning.

Chapter 20 kind of brings us back to reality there in the wildneress where we see Israel continuing to wonder.

And it SHOULD bring the people of Israel back to reality as well...

It picks up with them in the Wilderness of Zin in Kadesh.

We read that there continued to be those who died off, just as God commanded would happen due to their disobedience.

Interestingly enough we find them back in Kadesh.

This is where Moses sent in the spies the first time to scope out the land.

So they are back in a familiar place being reminded of their disobedience by both the location as well as the deaths around them.

We will see that Miriam and Aaron both pass away and we can infer that they are reaching the end of this generation all passing away...

The time of the 40 years of wandering was coming close to the end...

Yet what do we find?

In Chapter 20 we come to a maybe more famous story of Numbers.

We find the people wandering as we mentioned, but they had a big problem.

Numbers 20:1–5 ESV

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. Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 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.”

The people had no water.

They wandered around, again coninually complaining to Moses and Aaron.

Again reminding them they brought them out to die.

They say how oh how we wish we had just died with our brothers referring to back with Korahs rebellion, but here we are being brought out by you just to thirst to death...

Had the poeple learned anything?

They were led from Egypt, for nearly 40 years they wandered, the rod of Aaron, the food God gave, none of this kept them from having the same reaction to difficulties.

They still complained...

The sign of Aarons rod that we just read about meant nothing to them, how quickly it is to forget…

Yet what did God stil do?

Provided water for them...

I think there’s a couple lessons we can learn just from that idea alone.

How quickly are we to forget?

From both times when we are supposed to learn a lesson and when we are blessed from God.

How quickly do we forget what God has done and shown?

Psalm 103:1–5 ESV

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

We should make sure we heed to the words we read and make sure we aren’t quick to forget what God has done for us…

As we continue on with Numbers 20 though we can see some more valuable lessons as well.

Numbers 20:10–13 ESV

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?” 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. 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.” These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

God still provided for the people of Israel, but as we read this we may be shocked by something.

More punishment…

How could Moses and Aaron be excluded from the promised land?

Moses who was so faithful and endured so much from the people and interceded for them, how could he miss out the promised land?

Mybe we missed it when we read it, but our main lesson we want to focus on this morning is the details matter.

We can note what the Psalmist said regarding this event…

Psalm 106:32–33 ESV

They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.

The Lord became angry with Moses and Aaron and ultimately left them out of the promise land all over two small details.

We can go back to our text to see what was commanded of Moses.

Moses was told by God in verse 8 to speak to the rock for water to come out.

But what did Moses do in verse 10?

Scripture said that he took the rod and struck the rock twice, and not only that but did we catch what he said before he did this?

He said, “Must we bring water for you out of this rock”?

Uh oh....

Let me tell you what I did.

Let me tell you what we can do...

We wouldnt ever say those things today would we?

We might look at this and think Daniel thats silly...

Moses was faithful his whole life but you're telling me he was left out of the promised land because he disobeyed God by striking the rock and not speaking to it?

And because he said “we” and not God?

First, I am not saying that, God said it.

And secondly, thats exactly right.

We need to know and understand today that details matter.

Sin has consequences.

Sin can cause us to miss out on heaven.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we elect to disobey God we are playing a dangerous game, especially when we replace what God has done with what we do.

This account with Moses also fits right back into our main idea with the book of Numbers.

When we take our lives away from God bad things happen.

When we shift our focus from God onto ourselves bad things happen.

But just as we have seen with Israel when the opposite of this occurs good things happen.

When Israel obeyed God and followed his command they were blessed for their efforts.

Jeremiah 17:7 ESV

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

Do we place our trust in the Lord or in ourselves?

When times are hard or maybe we are upset do we result back to placing our trust in ourselves just like Moses did?

Just as Moses had done do we shift the glory from the Lord to ourselves?

That is another main theme we have looked at as well throughout the book.

It’s important we remember these things.

And finally this morning the last main message I think we can get from this is that everyone needs God.

Without God every single person is lost.

Even Moses, who of all people we would look at and say is deserving of the promised land, never received it.

Even Moses who we may look at as the epitome of what a faithful Christian should be, sinned.

He messed up, and he needed God.

Even Moses couldn’t rely on his own righteousness.

We are the same way today.

This morning I want all of us to know, we need God.

We need him every day, in every single way.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

I want us to actively seek God out every day in every way.

Our faith, an active faith earnestly seeking God is required of us as Christian’s.

We have to make a conscious decision to seek him out and follow him because we need him.

Conclusion:

So what is the message of these four chapters in Numbers and what do they mean for our lives as we journey in the wilderness to the promised land?

In Numbers 17 we saw the Lord confirm to the people yet again his holiness.

No one can come near him. He is a holy God.

God has given priests and Levites as a gift so that their sins could be forgiven, as seen in Numbers 18-19.

Each person brought a red heifer and it was burnt up to the Lord.

Its ashes were put in water so that the people could be cleansed.

This cleansing is so important because no one is righteous, not even Moses.

And finally, all will perish on this journey if we are left to our own strength and our own works.

These chapters paint for us our need and what God has done for us.

Turn to Hebrews 9:13-14.

Hebrews 9:13–14 ESV

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Just as the lord of the bulls and goats and sprinkling of ashes purified he people of Israel we have a far greater sacrifice today…

Today we have the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sins.

We have the sacrifice and the blood of Christ that purifies us and makes us whole.

We have the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sins.

This morning if you are not a Christian this is something we need to understand.

IF we have never contacted the blood of Christ we have never had our sins forgiven.

Romans 6 tells us we are joined into his death through baptism, ting to that old man and arising new.

Make that decision this morning to become a Christian and have your sins forgiven.

This morning if you are a Christian do you have sin in your life?

Have we turned away from God, have we turned our attention to ourselves and taken away from the holiness and glory of God?

If we have sin in our life this morning let’s get rid of it so that we can have a home in heaven.

Let’s not make the same mistakes we are studying and miss out on our promised land.

A land and home with God in heaven for all of eternity.

If you have a need please come this morning!