Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This morning I will use only one slide to give you the big idea of the passage before us and six key milestones that will mark our journey through this story.

Here’s the Big Idea that I hope you see clearly emerge in this passage:

Doing God’s will in God’s way requires God’s heart in us.

You can see the milestones below this statement.

Let’s begin with . . .

The Place

The whole congregation arrived at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin on the southern border of the Promised Land.

It is probably in the 40thyear of their wanderings.

Israel had been here before.

This was the place where Moses had sent the spies into Canaan.

The spies affirmed that the land was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey.

Yet, they sowed division, discord, and fear within the congregation by saying Israel was not strong enough to take the land – despite God’s promise to give it to them.

It was this rebellion birthed in unbelief in God’s promise that led them to them to 40 years of wondering.

It’s the first month of the year.

The month of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Israel should be celebrating their great deliverance from Egypt by the mighty hand of the LORD.

Yet, we hear not the sound of celebration and praise among the people of God.

Rather, there is the sound and feeling of grief.

Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron, the prophetess of Israel is dead.

Miriam who watched over baby Moses floating in a basket in the Nile, Miriam who led Israel in the great song of triumph when the Lord “hurled both horse and rider into the sea” died at Kadesh.

Miriam was the first of the three children of Amram and Jochebed to fail a test of godly leadership.

Despite her earlier faithfulness and successes, she contested Moses’ leadership of Israel and was temporarily struck with leprosy by the Lord.

Some commentators note that despite her former importance, at her death, Miriam’s death is little more than a footnote.[1]

Doubtless, this first month of the year was a time of grieving for the whole of Israel and a deeply personal time of grief for Moses and Aaron.

Within their grief, the children of Israel had a real problem.

The Problem

First, there was no water in the wilderness to support 2 to 3 million persons.[2]This is no mere inconvenience.

This is a serious problem.

It is a life-threatening situation.

Israel knew the danger.

They knew the danger like the disciples in the boat with Jesus in the storm on the Sea of Galilee knew the danger of death was real.

Like those disciples in the boat, the children of Israel were scared to death.

Like the disciples, who did not realize that God himself was in the boat with them in the storm, the children of Israel seem to have forgotten that it was God himself who led them by cloud and fire into the wilderness and that the LORD was with them in their danger, grief, and need.

So, the people assemble to contend with Moses.

The word translated “contend” implies quarreling that involves intense struggle.[3]This is the second problem, when they gathered to contend with Moses, they were really contending with the Lord.

Verse 13 makes it clear that this was God’s perspective on the matter.

“Those were the waters of Meribah [quarreling), because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them.”

(Numbers 20:13, NASB95)

The people make their case against Moses and Aaron with four points, which show the Children of Israel were scared to death.

Fear shuts down our centers of rationality and puts us in fight or flight mode.

These points make no rational sense.

First the people say . . .

1.

We would be better off dead than being in this place.

“If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD.”

Here Israel refers to when God struck down Korah’s followers by fire when they opposed Moses.

God caused the ground to swallow Korah and his family and struck Israel with a plague that killed 14,700 persons.

It was only by the intercession and intervention of Moses and Aaron that the LORD did not kill them all.[4]Then the people said,

2. Since we would be better off killed by God’s judgement, why did you bring us into this wilderness, for us and our animals to die?

Of course, that was Moses’ plan all along, confront the world’s superpower of their day, lead Israel to Mount Sinai to meet with God to affirm their status as God’s people and receive God’s law so they know how to please God, intervene between the people and God’s judgment at least six different times, then bring them to the desert so every one of them and their animals will die of thirst.

Sounds like a plan!

It’s an irrational conspiracy theory born out of fear.

The people continue pressing their case saying,

3. “Why have you made us to come up from Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place?”

Not only would we be better of struck dead by the judgment of God; we would be better off as oppressed slaves in Egypt.

The word translated “wretched” here is also translated as bad, terrible, or evil.

The idea is we could not be in a more horrible situation than we are in today.

Here’s another irrational aspect of fear.

Fear can cause us to look at our present circumstance as unbearable, while looking back on our past worse experiences and thinking of them as “the good ole days.”

Finally, the people rightly point out that . . .

4. “It is not a place of grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates nor is their water.”

Grain, figs, vines, and pomegranates symbolize abundance, and water symbolizes the source of life.

Israel is saying this is a wretched place, we would be better off struck dead by God’s judgement or at least being slaves in Egypt than to be in this place where there is no abundance, no source of life.

We would be better off dead because this place will kill us.

This is what the wilderness looks like through the eyes of fear.

It’s a wretched place.

Here we must have some sympathy.

Most of us have had our own wilderness experience.

We were scared to death because there was no abundance, no source of life that we could see.

We felt like we were going to die either spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, or physically or some combination of these.

For those who have not been in this kind of wilderness, it is simply because you have not yet lived long enough.

It will come.

In our fear and confusion, our immediate response is to look to someone or something to blame for our sad situation.

The children of Israel appear to have forgotten that they are in this mess because of their decision 40 years ago not to follow the LORD into the Promised Land.

Israel blames Moses and Aaron for the outcomes of their sin, The people blame Moses and Aaron for the will and leadership of God who as now brought them a second time to this wilderness on the border of the Promised Land.

No human can bear being blamed for the will and actions of God!

The picture presented to us of Moses and Aaron is the image of two men totally devastated by the withering, unjustified, and irrational blame thrust upon them.

Moses and Aaron were in a wretched place.

Yet, their first impulse was magnificent.

The Presence

Moses and Aaron threw themselves down in the presence of the LORD.

It seems they barely made it to the Tent of Meeting.

They threw themselves down in the doorway, not entering completely.

In their grief, confusion, fear, and anger that had no words for God.

They could only get into the presence of God and wait for Him to attend to them.

“Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them.”

Here we see a beautiful picture of our God’s mercy, compassion, and love.

God in all his perfections, which is His glory, appeared to them . . .

and they saw the glory of the LORD.

Outside, Israel turned completely in on themselves, could only see their wretched place.

Yet, in the presence of the LORD, Moses and Aaron, in their wretched state, see the LORD’s glory with their own eyes.

Do you remember a time when God came to you in a moment of deep distress?

It is normal and natural for the children of God to experience the comfort of our Heavenly Father that He promises to us and provides for us through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

When Moses and Aaron had no words, The LORD spoke to them and told them exactly what to do.

The Lord’s guidance was clear.

· Take the rod (Moses’ or Aarons’.

Moses’ symbolizing the power of God; Aarons’ symbolizing the choice of the Lord – explain)

· Assemble the congregation

· Speak to the rock

· Bring forth water

· Let the congregation and their animals drink