Complaining
Notes
Transcript
Continuing our Faith Foundation series, we are in Number 10, and will do a survey of the next few chapters of the book of Numbers.
The goal of this study is that we will know the foundations of the faith:
Who is God?
Who is mankind?
Where do we find hope?
These three foundations of our faith are under attack, and we need to be grounded in the truth.
People today want to make God in our image, as a loving, doting god that would never cross our desires, or give consequences for sin.
Today, mankind is viewed as good, and only does evil things because of cultural pressures, and being oppressed. And, violent acts are excusable when they are in response to oppression, like calling what I believe I am entitled to be and do wrong.
Hope is placed in becoming all I want to be, and in the government providing for our needs and desires.
That is why we need to get back to the scriptures and be grounded in the truth—grounded in the faith.
We need to know the truth about God, about mankind, and about hope.
Also, we need to be able to share this with others. That is the challenge of this study. Each one teach one. Ask the Lord to show you one person with whom you can read the scriptures to find the truth about God, mankind and hope.
We are picking up this study in Numbers 10 today.
Last week we saw God giving consequences to the Israelites for their lack of faith, and rebellion against him when they came to the promised land.
This rebellion was just over a year from God showing his might and power over Egypt to bring them out of slavery.
They left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and settled at Mount Sinai for about a year. After the tabernacle was built, they set out.
So they set out from the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days. The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them during those three days to find them a place to rest. The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
Whenever the ark set out, Moses said,
“Rise up, Lord!
May your enemies be scattered;
may your foes flee before you.”
Whenever it came to rest, he said,
“Return, Lord,
to the countless thousands of Israel.”
How many days were they travelling?
Let’s continue.
Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the Lord had burned among them.
Complain about their hardships?
packing up camp. walking. setting up camp. packing up camp. walking. Setting up camp.
packing up camp. walking. setting up camp.
Anyone think they might complain?
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
Complaining is contagious.
But this was more than complaining. They were wailing.
He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
Is this Moses complaining?
Complaining is talking around to others and spreading discontentment.
Moses went to the Lord.
This is Lament.
Moses Lamented
Turn to God
Complaint
Ask
Trust
God was not going to make Moses do this alone, in Numbers 11.16-17
“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ”
God was going to give meat—enough for a month!
But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”
Moses questioned the Lord.
The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.
God did not explain how he was going to do it. He simply asked if he could.
Moses believed God could, and went out.
Moses turned to God, gave his complaint, asked, and trusted the Lord. He lamented.
Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.
God gave consequences to teach them to not complain, turn on Moses, and defame the Lord by making light of his provision for them.
Did they learn their lesson?
Numbers 12.1-2
Numbers 12.1-2
Numbers 12.1-2 Miriam and Aaron
Number 13-14
Number 13-14
Numbers 13-14 Complain about entering the land
Number 15
Number 15
Numbers 15 More offering instructions
Unintentional sins - offering
Defiant sins - cut off
e.g. Sabbath-breaker
tassles - keep the commands before you
This was showing them that God is just. He knows the difference between unintentional sins, and intentional sins. There are different consequences.
God was warning them to not continue in their defiance.
The remaining chapters cover the next 40 years. We do not have a specific timeline of when the following took place.
Numbers 16
Numbers 16
Numbers 16 - Korah (Levite), Dathan and Abiram (Reubenites)
Plus 250 leaders (community leaders, not spiritual leaders on whom the Spirit came)
They were to come out before the Lord to see who the Lord wanted to lead the next day.
Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, “We will not come! Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves? No, we will not come!”
Wait… why didn’t they go into the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey? Because of Moses? Or because of their choice?
When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”
But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”
Korah, Dothan and Abiram and families went alive into the realm of the dead
The rest of the 250 men who were rebelling along with them were burned
Numbers 16.41-49 the people blame Moses and Aaron for the deaths of the men the previous day, and God punishes them with a plague. Moses and Aaron intercede
Numbers 17
Numbers 17
Numbers 17 - Who is the Priest? Aaron’s Rod buds
The Israelites said to Moses, “We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all going to die?”
Would they die if they approached the tabernacle? Weren’t they supposed to come to the tabernacle to offer their sacrifices and worship the Lord?
The problem was their constant grumbling and not wanting to do things the way God said to do them. They constantly grumbled against the leaders God put in place because they couldn’t just do things the way they wanted to do it. They couldn’t redefine the leadership. They couldn’t redefine who could burn incense or do the sacrifices. They couldn’t redefine what is right and wrong as God set it in place.
Numbers 18
Numbers 18
Numbers 18 - instructions for Aaron, the priests, and Levites
Numbers 19
Numbers 19
Numbers 19 - purification
Numbers 20
Numbers 20
Numbers 20 - complain because there was no water, Moses acts in anger, and does not honor the Lord, so he has the consequence of not entering the promised land.
Edom opposes them
Aaron dies
Numbers 21
Numbers 21
Numbers 21 - Caananite king of Arad attacks and they defeat him.
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
What do we see about mankind?
What do we see about mankind?
++We want our comfort & desires more than we want God
++We want to redefine what God has already set in place
++We complain, and get sucked into complaining (it comes naturally)
++We blame others for the consequences of our sin
++We dishonor the Lord and his provision
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
What do we see about God?
What do we see about God?
Patience
Faithfulness
Mercy and Grace
Justice
Punishment - designed to instruct and end sin
Where is hope?
Where is hope?
++God’s faithfulness
++God’s instruction
++God’s salvation for those who respond in faith - trust & obey
Their receiving all they wanted?
Their new definitions?
Their ability to change?
