11/23/25 When God Leaves His Throne

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to share this morning.

Have you ever been really busy and someone needed your help for something important?

Almost all of us have. Many of us have had children and had the tug MOM MOM MOM or DAD DAD DAD.

And our stern reply, “I’m Busy,” followed by a pouty kid. It happens.

But then there are times when no mater how busy we are, or how stressful our lives are going, we sit down and read that book or play that game or roll in that mud. Sometimes we step out of our lives and into theirs. And I don’t think there is a single one of us here that regrets those times when we joined our kids where they were at and just let go and have fun.

Right?

Since the beginning of time we have had one who is always busy, always doing something, but then, when we need him most, he steps down to our level, joins us in what we are doing and we have his full attention.

Now, the neat contrast between human beings and God is that if I step away from something to spend time with someone else, then there is something not getting done. On God’s side. He can step down from his throne, interact with us and still be on his throne.

God never stops being God, but what he does do, is he enters in with us and part of our journey.

Our passage today is a culmination of the first five books of the Bible.

And while my ultimate goal is to show Jesus in all of the Old Testament we are hitting a major turn with the end of Deuteronomy.

Here we finish the Books of Moses. We finish a History that set a stage for the rest of the Old Testament and into the New Testaments. After today we launch into a long history where everything we learn from the first five books goes into practice and sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails.

Now, we are going to look at the last chapter of Deuteronomy, chapter 34. And these are called the books of Moses, but this chapter and a few other phrases in these books are attributed to Joshua or another elder of Israel and you’ll see why when we read it

Deuteronomy 34:1–8 ESV

1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

You can see why this text is attributed to someone else, also another verse that says Moses was the most humble human on earth.

But here we have the death of Moses. 120 years old and didn’t look like he was going to die. He had a commission from God that began in Exodus 3 and lasted until this moment right here.

You see Moses wasn’t allowed to go into the land of Israel. He was forbidden from going to the promised land. And there are two VERY important events that led to Moses dying in Moab instead of Israel.

Rebellion of the People

It’s not a secret that Israel has been full of complainers since Moses showed back up in Egypt.

If it wasn’t the water, it was the food, if it wasn’t the food it was the leadership, if it wasn’t the leadership it was God, even though it wasn’t.

Turn over to Numbers 13 and see what happened to ruin the promised land for Israel and put a nail in the coffin for Moses.

Now, this didn’t start in Numbers 13. If you back track through Numbers all the way back to Exodus 3 all you will see is complaining from Israel.

The interesting thing about complainers. is that often times, people like to join in the complaining, they listen to the complainers. They join them on their side of the line. But complainers are consistent and soon less people join them on their side of the line and soon, the complainer stands alone.

SO, the complaining had been happening for sometime and we are at a pendulum moment here. Lot’s of people have joined the complainers and there are consequences for complaining.

Let’s get the context of what is happening here.

Since leaving Egypt the nation has complained almost constantly. Now, some of their complaints were taken as concerns and were dealt with. Right after the Red Sea parting they came across some water that was bitter, complained, God fixed the water, then the whole nation turned a corner and found the best water ever.

They would complain about the food, God gave them bread from heaven. Still complain about the food, God gave them meat.

When their complaints were about how they would survive, they were provided for. Almost as if God’s grace and mercy was communicating to the people that they didn’t have to complain, but instead trust in him. But then they started to complain about God. They turned from complaining to rebellion.

They started saying, “God we don’t trust you to take care of us.” That’s when God started giving consequences to those complaining. And many times the consequence was death.

If that seems extreme to you we can take it down a notch.

If you manage an office building and you have one employee that cause more trouble than help. They instigate walk outs, or strikes, or back talk. People follow them, what do you do to that one employee?

You terminate … their employment. Because when you cut off the head, the less likely it is to keep moving.

Israel had instigators. Maybe they are people who were once considers leaders before Moses, or maybe they just thought themselves better than Moses. Either way, they did not respect the chain of leadership and now they are pushing.

We hit Numbers 13 and God calls Israel to scout the land he is giving them. On the one hand Israel has been complaining and has already shown a ton of rebellion. So we get the very good question, knowing the result here, why would God send scouts in if he knew they were going to rebel?

The answer, since he knew they were going to rebel, he chose this time to use natural process to thin the herd of the rebellion.

12 people are sent in and 12 come back with a report.

Numbers 13:27–28 ESV

27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Okay, honest report. The land is great and there are people that look tough there. Nothing wrong with the words of this report.

But when one of the 12, Caleb, says “Let’s go!” they rebel.

Numbers 13:31–33 ESV

31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

This is what complainers do. They make a small matter seem big. The land is great and God has given it to the people of Israel, no brainer.

But the complainers don’t trust God and his timing. They instigate the nation to rebel against God.

We can still get like this today. We can hear something that’s really good, but because it’s different we are against it, we speak against it. We cause division. And the masses may even listen for a while. But soon, the masses stop listening and follow the one in charge.

Moses is in the thick of here and God even issues him a test. Check out God’s response to the peoples rebellion in chapter 14

Numbers 14:11–12 ESV

11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses is given an out. Imagine that company again. You’ve got that employee that causes trouble and you are given the solution to terminate everyone’s employment and hire all the people you want. That’s ever manager’s dream. Not Moses.

He knows the people are being pushed one way and they can learn and be taught. Moses asks God to forgive instead of wiping them out.

This is Moses acting like Jesus. He asks God to not wipe out the nation, instead,

Numbers 14:19 ESV

19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

So God meets Moses where he is at. Remember we learned that was back on the mountain, God says one thing, the people ask for another and God meets them where they are. God said, Everyone Listen to me on the mountain. The people said no, we’re too scared and God said, Okay, I’ll just talk to Moses, but you better listen.

They didn’t.

So instead of wiping the nation out and starting over with Moses, God does this

Numbers 14:20–23 ESV

20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

This mirrors what happened in the garden of Eden. Remember God said if you eat of the fruit you will die. But Adam and Eve didn’t fall dead. They eventually died, which wasn’t the original plan, but they got a stay of execution.

Same here with the Israelites. They got a stay of execution. They don’t die today, but they will die without being able to go to the promised land. Except, at this point, Moses, Caleb, and Joshua.

And Moses communicates this to the people and they do the dumb thing and try to take the land anyway.

Which I think is very odd. A people said the enemy was too strong to defeat with God, and now God is very much NOT with them and BOOM they think they will succeed, not likely.

So, once all the people over 20 die, then they can go in. This will take some time.

In the mean time, we have Moses big fault

Rebellion of Moses

This one is tough, because Moses and God get along so well. If we took the Books of Moses and told them true to form in a movie, we would see a guy who every opportunity he had to see God, he would jump and it like a kid in a candy store.

So to say Moses rebels against his friend is worse than anything anyone else has done to this point. But what did Moses do?

Numbers 20:2–3 ESV

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!

The people are complaining about water again. But not to worry, God’s got their back.

Numbers 20:8–9 ESV

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.

Pretty easy right God said speak to the rock and it will give water. But what does Moses do.

Numbers 20:10–11 ESV

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.

Two things here. The first: you ever have someone else act like a parent to your kid? Sometimes it’s good, but sometimes they overstep. Moses is all out insulting God’s chosen people. Do they deserve it? Sure. But God didn’t tell Moses to do it, so it should have been done.

Second. What did God tell Moses to do with the rock?

What did Moses do?

This might seem like a small thing. But I still got water from the rock. It doesn’t matter that the one in charge said to do it differently, it still got done, right? Wrong.

We have this happen today. Someone tells us to do something. They are not only specific, they are the ones in charge. But we decide to do it a different way, or perhaps, the way it’s always been done. Up to this point Moses has gotten water from the rock by hitting it. Speaking to it was something new.

But we do that. We take the person in charge and dismiss them, might even ignore them and just do it our own way.

Moses sinned. He didn’t do what God said.

So,

Numbers 20:12 ESV

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.”

Complaining and rebellion get us no where. Except, eventually, standing alone in rebellion.

There are many instances in our lives where people actively rebel against those in charge. And I’m not talking about when they are right. There are times when rebellion is right. America rebelled against Britain, they were right. Israel rebelled against Egypt, they were right.

But if you are rebelling against God, you are wrong.

I know a pastor who had someone in their church that was causing problems. It had gotten well past the point of anyone following them anymore, they stood alone, but they were still loud. Why keep them around?

Because, asking them to leave will stop them from hearing the gospel. He and I have the same hope. We speak the truth and everyone is welcome to the truth. But, unless an extreme incident happens, no one will be asked to leave. I leave that to God and his judgement. I will pray for them and share the gospel.

Which is what Moses was supposed to do. He was supposed to listen.

And there are consequences when we don’t listen. The Israelites had to wait until an entire generation died before getting into the promised land.

But what about Moses. What happened to him?

He died. He got to see the promised land, but not enter it.

He disobeyed and tried to go at it with out God’s word.

We cannot go anywhere great without God at our side.

I titled this message, when God leaves his throne and so far that title hasn’t matched this message.

I could have titled it, Rebellion Breeds Consequences or If you Don’t know who the Problem Person is, then It’s you.

But what happens in this grand narrative is much more than those in rebellion with God. It is about God’s response to it.

Back in Genesis 1 God spoke light into being, spoke the trees and the stars to life. But with man, he came down and formed us out of the dirt and breathed his life into us. He left his throne and came to us.

Similarly, Moses was God’s friend. So, when it was Moses time, God left his throne buried Moses himself and brought him to a better promised land. And if tat was the end, it would be enough.

But we have to learn the lesson about entering the Promised land. The Israelites couldn’t get into the promised land without God, and we can’t get into heaven without him either. We can’t get in by our good works, we can’t buy our way in, and we certainly can’t complain our way in.

Only Jesus.

Check this out

Mark 9:2–4 ESV

2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

Now we don’t get the name of this mountain, but as the vast majority of Jesus’ ministry is in the land of Israel we can assume that is where the Transfiguration takes place. And who is talking with Jesus here in the Promised Land??

Moses, that’s right. All those years later and Moses finally got there. Not because he had earned it, not because he paid a debt.

He got to the promised land, because Jesus took him there.

That is the only way any of get to heaven, because Jesus takes us there.

We are heading into the Christmas season. Gd left his throne to bury Moses. But then, GOd left his throne to save those who rebelled. We didn’t deserve, we haven’t earned it. But we are invited anyway.

Jesus has left his throne many times, for many reasons. But as we enter this time of Christmas, you can know and celebrate the time Jesus left his throne to save you.

Let’s pray.