*IP* Limiting God: Drawing Lines God Never Does Part 1 (Turned Back)
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Intro
Intro
Have you ever played a game where you draw a line in the sand and the enemy team cannot cross the line?
Or place barriers and say you can go anywhere in the circle, but you cannot go past this line?
Today we start a three-part trilogy to one verse in the book of Psalms:
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
We will be studying the great sin of Israel...
That is limiting God...
Part 1 - They turned back
Part 2 - They tempted God
Part 3 - They limited the Holy One of Israel
Did you ever think it was possible to limit God?
Disclaimer: God in his power and omniscience is not restricted in His sovereign will. However, we can limit how much God can use us by drawing lines God never does...
Do you know how God wanted to use Israel?
a.) That they would be a holy people set apart unto God as a clear example of God’s holiness
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
b.) A nation who God answers and cares for
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
c.) A Nation to be a national witness
6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness,
And will hold thine hand, and will keep thee,
And give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved of Israel:
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles,
That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
d.) A powerful nation to rule over all other nations
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.
**Kings throughout Israel’s history have tried to become the supreme nation in the world through methods such as money, violence or cheating. But all they had to do was obey God and He would have set them high above all other nations...
God wanted to use Israel as a spiritual light to the world and as an example of what a holy people looked like… And because of their holiness to Him, they would hold everything in the palm of their hands...
Here’s the problem… Israel was drawing lines in the sand that God never does...
CAN WE LIMIT GOD AND IF SO, HOW DO WE LIMIT GOD SO WE CAN AVOID DOING THAT?
I. They turned back
I. They turned back
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
1. The Process of Turning from God
1. The Process of Turning from God
a.) **It began in discontentment
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
What were they turning back to?
Provision they believed they deserved (fleshpots)
Provision they believed was enough (bread to the full)
They were discontent with their circumstances...
b.) It was accelerated by murmuring...
c.) It seeded in discouragement
They wished the Egyptians back in Egypt would have just killed them then...
Forget that you got to watch God part a sea...
Forget that you got to walk over on dry ground...
Forget that you go to watch God close the sea on a massive Egyptian army that was chasing you down to kill you...
Forget the waters at Marah that God turned from bitter to sweet so they could drink...
d.) It turned to blame
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
“YOU have brought us out here to die by hunger...”
*This is where the 10 spies bring back the report from the chapter prior:
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Discouragement
Complaint
Discontentment
Blame (to God)
The Turn
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
“God clearly can’t lead us where we want to go, how we want to get there, when we want to get there… so let’s put someone else in charge who will do things how and when we want to take us back to Egypt.”
All of this discouragement, discontentment, complaint and blame to both God and man is what led up to Israel limiting God so that He could not do with them what He wanted to do...
They drew proverbial lines in the sand and told God not to cross the line or else...
Thought:
Sometimes the old life of slavery and bondage to our sin is more appealing that the final destination God intends for us to be in His will because of a lack of faith and belief that God can get us there...
When they “heard” from others who had no faith in God’s plan, they rose up in outward expression of disbelief in God and wanted to unwind everything God did and return to “normal” life in bondage...
Think about Lot and his family who had to be ripped from their lives from that sinful city...
While God was in the process of raining fire and brimstone down from heaven on Sodom, Lot’s wife looked back on a sinful life of what was...
She, nor Lot, were interested in God’s plan for their lives.
They wanted what they wanted and because God’s plan deviated outside their circle, they wanted nothing to do with it...
To the point Lot’s wife was looking back on a horribly sinful life in desire for it...
CONCLUSION:
The Children of Israel said God’s plan went outside the bounds of their circle...
Because of that, they turned on God and ended up limiting what He wanted to do through them...
Lot and his family said God’s plan went outside the bounds of their circle...
Because of that, they turned on God and ended up limiting what He wanted to do through them...
**Just look how God used his uncle, Abraham, who did not venture into Sodom...
Notice the path is never further forward into God’s will...
They didn’t want to elect a new leader to take them over the sea and into the land of promise...
They wanted to go back to the Egypt...
A picture of the world...
A place of bondage and captivity and affliction...
Lot’s wife wanted to go back to a place that fire and brimstone was being rained from Heaven...
