Rebels and Revolters

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back.

If you will, start turning in your Bibles to .

Tonight, we are actually going to be looking at the text from last week’s Sunday School lesson.

All week long as I’ve been praying about and studying about what the Lord wanted me to say tonight, He keeps bringing me back to this passage.

And, as I’ve looked at it over and over this week, I believe it all boils down to to verse 12 and particularly God telling Moses and Aaron that their greatest sin was that they had failed to do two things.

#1, they had failed to Trust God.

#2, they had failed to sanctify or set God apart in their hearts.

They had failed to honor and respect God.

And we will get into that, but these are important points because our greatest problems in the 21st century church is the fact that we also fail to do those two basic things.

We fail to trust in God for all things.

We are a trust in God, when it’s convenient or it suits our needs type of people.

We are not a trust in God in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES type of people.

And that causes some big problems for us all.

God demands us to Trust in Him for all things and in all situations and circumstances.

Secondly, we fail to sanctify God in our churches, in our services, but most importantly in our own hearts.

And the problem with this is, in order for us to really sanctify God, we must be sanctified by God first.

We must be set apart by God for God’s own use.

And that only happens when we willingly give ourselves fully to God.

Which is where we fall short.

We are a people who will not give ourselves fully to God.

We are always holding on to something, that prevents this from happening.

And because of that, we set up what I call a “pseudo-God” experience.

This is where all the rules and regulations as well as all the church traditions come into play.

We cannot trust in God enough to give ourselves fully to God, so we substitute our own version of this to make us feel a little bit better about ourselves.

And the result is quite honestly a weak and fractured church.

A Church that consists of 1000 different denominations and and 1000 different variations of each denomination.

And even on a local level, a group of people who can’t get on the same page about anything.

And a group of people who are really out for themselves.

Out to consume everything they can and give nothing back to God.

A group of people who God has given everything to, but their heart is so far from Him, they can’t recognize it.

Which is exactly where we find the children of Isreal in this account of their history.

And is exactly why God put this in the Bible, so hopefully we would learn and not repeat the same mistakes.

So, let’s get right into it.

We will be covering verses 1-13, but the heart of this passage is found in verses 9-13.

So, if you have found in your Bibles, I’d invite you to stand with me if you are able.

Again, I will be reading verses 9-13.

Moses writes . . .

Scripture Focus

Numbers 20:

Numbers 20:9–13 NIV - Anglicised

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” 13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them.

Woe is Us—Again (vs 1-5)

So, here we find God once again rebuking the children of Israel because of their hard hearts and hard heads.

And really, there is nothing new going on here.

Same old, same old moaning and groaning and complaining.

And if we back up to verse 1 we find . . .

Numbers 20:1–2 NIV - Anglicised

1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. 2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.

Now, the Bible isn’t really super clear on how long after Miriam’s death had passed before the people started moaning and groaning again.

We do know that traditionally the people would mourn for 30 days, but we don’t know if the people waited until the time of mourning was over or if they started up during this time.

And keep in mind, this was Moses and Aaron’s sister, so they were mourning her death.

Their emotions were on edge anyway because of this death, in addition to the stress they have been under trying to lead these people around.

Pile all that up, and then here come these ungrateful people who can’t seem to do anything but complain.

Ever know anyone like that?

You bend over backwards trying to help them, trying to be nice, trying to love them and all they do is complain.

This was Moses and Aaron’s everyday life.

And their complaint this time . . .

Numbers 20:3–5 NIV - Anglicised

3 They quarrelled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

Numbers 20:3-

No grain

No figs

No grapevines

No pomegranates

No water

Whatever were they going to do?

Forget all about the fact that God has provided for these people for 40 years while they wandered in circles because they couldn’t trust God enough to even go home.

And also, they forgot the fact that God told them where they would be getting food and water from in this last leg of their journey home.

Let’s look at . In it Moses writes . . .

Deuteronomy 2:2–6 NIV - Anglicised

2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. 4 Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’ ”

God had given them a plan for food and provisions.

And, if the Israelites would have just done what God said to begin with, everything would have been okay.

However, they thought they knew better and thought they needed to do things their way.

So, they end up in a mess.

And instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they blame Moses and Aaron, and by extension, God for their problems.

Hearing from the Lord (vs 6-8)

And initially, Moses and Aaron react in the right way.

They don’t show any anger or frustration, even though I’m sure they were frustrated.

Instead . . .

Numbers 20:6 NIV - Anglicised

6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

Numbers 20:6

Which, coincidentally is how we should react in every situation.

Especially when we are angry or frustrated.

Our tendency though is to just immediately react and end up sticking our foot in our mouths.

But Moses and Aaron do not do this.

They take it to the Lord and they wait for the Lord to respond.

Which He does . . .

Numbers 20:7–8 NIV - Anglicised

7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink.”

Numbers 20:

Now, there was a very similar situation that had come up once before.

Same thing, people complaining about no food and no water.

Moses goes to the Lord and prays.

God tells Moses . . .

Exodus 17:4–6 NIV - Anglicised

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus

But, and this is a big but, in the first instance, Moses was told to “strike the rock.”

In this second instance, Moses was told to “speak to the rock.”

Which is what gets him into trouble later on.

Moses’ Sin (vs 9-11)

For now though, armed with God’s instructions . . .

Numbers 20:9–10 NIV - Anglicised

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”

Numbers 20:9-

Now we already see things going south here.

Moses and Aaron gather the people together and I am sure they are very frustrated at this point.

Because they have already been here once in this same situation.

And in Moses and Aaron’s mind, God told them the same thing to do.

So, Moses takes it upon himself to rebuke them a little. . . Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?

Make no mistake he is angry.

And He is 100% correct in calling them rebels, but he is doing so out of anger and not out of God telling him to do so.

And his first big mistake, the two words, “must we.”

He is taking credit for God’s work.

Making it seem like he is doing something here and not God.

And because he was taking it upon himself to deal with this and not relying on God, he steps out of God’s will and fails to follow God’s instructions.

Instead of speaking to the rock like he was told to do . . .

Numbers 20:11 NIV - Anglicised

11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

Numbers 20:11

He didn’t just hit it once, he hit the thing twice.

God’s Response (vs 12-13)

And God went ahead and provided the water for the people, but He was not pleased with the way things went down.

Moses was speaking on His behalf and did not do what he was told to do.

He responds . . .

Numbers 20:12 NIV - Anglicised

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Now, the NIV doesn’t capture the full gravity.

The KJV says it this way . . .

Numbers 20:12 KJV 1900

12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

You see their problem was:

They did not believe the Lord when He told Him that he would provide.

They did not trust God fully to provide for them.

They failed to sanctify God in their hearts.

They failed to be sanctified by God.

And as a result, Moses and Aaron were denied entry into the Promised Land.

Altar Call

They had been leading these people for over 40 years.

40 years in the desert and however long while they were in Egypt trying to get away from Pharoah.

Even before that, remember God had told Moses he would lead his people to freedom.

God had also been preparing Aaron as well.

This is what they had set their hearts on and dreamed about for years.

And now, God says they will not enter in.

All because of the way they handled this situation.

All because again . . . .

They did not believe the Lord when He told Him that he would provide.

They did not trust God fully to provide for them.

They failed to sanctify God in their hearts.

They failed to be sanctified by God.

And we have a lot of people in the 21st Century church who are in the same boat.

They are going to miss out on heaven because of these four things.

And tonight, we can’t do anything about those people out there, but what about us?

How many here tonight are in that exact same boat?

The fact is, God wouldn’t have given me this message unless there were those in this situation.

So, we need to examine ourselves to be sure we are where we need to be with God.

To be sure that we believe God.

To be sure we trust God.

To be sure that God is sanctified in our hearts.

To be sure we are sanctified by God.

Tonight we need to spend some time because we need to be sure when we leave here tonight.

Are you sure? Only you know.