Numbers 02

  Numbers

The Tragic Transition (Numbers 10:11 – 25:18)
● The Failure of Israel on the way to Kadesh (Numbers 10:11 – 12:16)
 The Israelites had waited on whole year waiting for God to move while staying in the desert. 
■ This is quite an amazing feat when you think about it. We complain when we have to wait a week for an answer, a month can seem like a lifetime. However the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, patiently waited for the Lord to move and then followed.
■ This is a powerful example to us as we live our lives. We can either wait on the Lord or go and try to make it all happen ourselves. One will leave us fighting the wilderness of life on our own, the other will keep us in step with the Lord, and in the place of His provision and guidance. 
 By Chapter 11, however, we find that the Israelites were already complaining. 
■ Complaining is one of the main shortcomings of the Israelites. Already we saw the Israelites whining in Exodus, and throughout their wilderness journey. 
● Complaining is essentially a lack of faith in God. Even though these people had themselves seen the plagues that God sent upon Egypt, the Red Sea parting, water coming from a rock and the manna from heaven.
● Complaining is an insult to God's promise of provision, it is the opposite of faith. God's peace comes from trusting Him with all of our troubles. Not just when everything looks like it is going to be fine and easy. That is when we can have peace in spite of any situation: when we are trusting him!
■ This time they began complaining about the manna that the Lord had given them. They complained that they used to get to eat meat and fruit, but now they only get this manna. 
● Can you believe that? God had met their every need, and brought them out of slavery and bondage in Egypt and their only thing was, “The food was so much better before!” 
 It's amazing how short sighted we are as people. We are willing to forget everything that the Lord has given us and everything that the Lord has done for us because we don't have exactly what we want right here and now! 
 The call of the believer is to be is to be constantly thankful for everything that we have been given. We have been given a salvation that is so great that nothing in this world or this life compares. There is nothing left for us but to be incredibly thankful to the Lord for all that He has done for us and given us.
■ Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
■ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57
■ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph. 5:19-20
■ It got so bad that even Moses got frustrated with his large burden with the Israelites and cried out to the Lord.
● The Lord brought the elders of Israel in and anointed them with His Spirit in order to help lead the people. 
■ The Lord then gave the people meat. But because they complained and whined to get it, and did not ask in faith, God also sent a plague which claimed many lives. 
● We may often find that the thing that we think we want so badly may be the worst thing for us. Sometimes our desire for a relationship, or a job, or a place in life may consume us altogether, and if we don't go to the Lord in faith and patience we may find that Lord letting us have it only to find out why He wasn't giving it to us!
 Miriam and Aaron's failure (Numbers 12)
■ Here we find Moses' brother and sister (Miriam and Aaron) turning on him. The Bible tells us that they started to get proud and became irritated with the fact that Moses was getting all of the credit. As a result they chose to try to rebel against Moses.
■ At this point we learn something very amazing about Moses. Numbers 12:3 tells us:
● Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3
● The word that the King James Version uses is “meek.” We also see the concept of meekness brought up in Matthew 5:5:
 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
● It is amazing to think that Moses was still humble. He had been the tool of God to bring the Nation of Israel out of slavery. Moses had also been the tool that God used to part the Red Sea. Moses was the tool that God used to provide food and water for the Israelites on a number of occasions, but Moses never got full of himself.
 We find that Moses never lost sight of how unable to do these amazing things he was, and that God was doing everything. Moses never seemed to get a big head about anything.
 The reason for this may have been in Numbers 12:6-8 of this chapter:
■ He (The Lord) said, “Listen to my words: When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
■ This is how the Lord responded to Miriam and Aaron, but it shows us the source of Moses' humility. He was constantly standing before God face to face! He didn't have time to become obsessed with himself, rather he was obsessed with God and how great HE is! He knew that God was the one doing everything and that he (Moses) was just humbly taking orders.
■ This also shows us something else that is amazing: Moses doesn't defend himself. He lets God defend him. Moses could have gotten angry with his siblings for trying to take over and given a big long speech about the differences between them and all that the Lord had done through Him. But he didn't he just waited for the Lord to speak up and defend him. 
■ Why didn't Moses defend himself? 
● He was secure in the fact that he was the Lord's choice, he knew God and didn't need anyone else's approval.
● Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10
● The Exploration of Canaan
 The Israelites finally come to a place where they can send spies in to see the land that they are going to take. The Lord had promised them this land, and they wanted to peek at it before going up to take it.
 The Lord told the Israelites to send representatives from each of the tribes, so that every tribe got to take part in seeing the land that God gave them. 
 They saw that the land that the Lord had promised them was good and very fruitful, but were discouraged because the inhabitants there seemed so big and so powerful. Only Caleb and Joshua believed that the Lord could still deliver the land to them. 
 All of the other Israelites rebelled against God and refused to go up and take the land. 
■ It seems like many of our problems in life are too big, too bad, too difficult for God to handle. He still asks us to trust him with those problems. We are still expected to have faith in his ability to provide for us and handle our difficult situations. 
● And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:28-32
 It is in this section that we see another powerful example of prayer. In Numbers 14:10-12 we find that the Lord threatens to destroy all of Israel and start over, making a nation out of Moses. 
■ Moses intercedes for the people. But not on his own behalf, and not on the behalf of the people. Moses shows his true focus here. Moses asks God to change his mind because he wants to see God glorified above all things. 
■ Moses doesn't want the people in Egypt and the surrounding nations thinking that God was unable to do what he said and bring all of those people through. Moses cared about God's glory above all other things. Moses was humble and honest and his sole dedication was to the glory of God. Just as ours should be. 
● When we look at our lives and evaluate the situations in the world we should not be obsessed with men and women, but we should be considering only God's glory. The only purpose is God's glory. Humans are created to glorify God. The fall temporarily disrupted that plan for us, however, for anyone who believes, they will have eternity to spend in the proper place before God, glorifying Him. Finally doing what we were really and literally made to do!
■ God was never going to destroy his people. God cannot change his mind the way we can. God wanted to further develop Moses and the people, drawing them closer to Him.
 We find that God forgives the people here but does not take away the consequences. For these people it is that he promises that no one except Joshua and Caleb (who believed that God could bring them into the land) would live to see the promised land.
■ This means that a whole generation of Israelites (almost everyone who would have any strong memories of Egypt) would die in the desert and not enter the promised land. 
■ Really things are much the same with us. We are fully forgiven for our sins that we have committed, those that we may be committing and those that we will commit before we are brought into glory. 
■ However, while the Lord has forgiven us he does allow the consequences of those sinful actions to be played out. So we find that if we make foolish and sinful choices we will not lose our salvation, or our relationship with Him, however we will find that we are still required to deal with the consequences of the people that we hurt, the relationships that have broken, and we will find our fellowship with God broken until we agree that what we did was sinful and wrong and he will restore us to fellowship with Him (1 John 1:9)
 In response to God's judgment the people decide that they will go ahead and try to take the land after all. However, the Lord's judgment is already laid out. It was already too late for them to take it, they now had to spend the rest of their lives in the desert.
 Moses warns them that they should not go up, but they do anyway, and they are slaughtered and beaten all the way down the hill.
● The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram(Numbers 16)
 These three men thought that they could do a better job of leading the people than Moses and Aaron. So they came and challenged them, almost threatening to take power by force. 
 Moses again, does not defend himself, but rather goes to the Lord and suggests a sort of spiritual showdown in which each of them will bring an offering of incense to the Lord and the Lord can judge who is His chosen servant.
 They do this and the Lord shows who is his chosen servant by opening up the ground and consuming those who were trying to rebel. The Lord does not seem to appreciate those who would try to usurp authority in the spiritual realm. It would seem that the real fruit of that type of action reaps destruction.
 When the Israelites hear this they begin to grumble against Moses and Aaron, as a result the Lord sends a plague to the Israelites to show that He was defending His chosen servants, and Moses and Aaron had nothing to do with the deaths of those men, they were not challenging Moses' authority they were challenging God's authority.
■ It is never appropriate to attack the Lord's chosen leaders in order to usurp their authority. It is appropriate if they have left the Word of God as their primary authority to rebuke them, or leave the sphere of their leadership, it is also appropriate for an elder to be removed from duty if he is caught in a sin and refuses to confess and repent. However, all is to be done in love, and never out of selfish desire of someone to take over.
● As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:1-2
● Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:15
● Moses Fails
 The people began complaining about a lack of water yet again. We find them complaining and gathering against Moses yet again. 
 The Lord is patient with the people and tells Moses to get his staff and go and command water to come out of the rock and God will provide water for them once again.
 Moses however has an out of control moment and rather than simply speaking to the rock he cracks the staff over it twice. 
 Moses lost his temper and did not show God respect and as a result never entered Canaan.
■ Moses did not get to enter the promised land with the people and died outside of the promised land while those who he led entered in. However, years later at the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus brought Moses, in spirit form, into the promised land. You can read about this in Luke 9:28-36.
● The Bronze Snake
 In Numbers 21:4-9 we see an important picture of Jesus in the Old Testament. 
■ The Israelites began to complain again. This time they complained about the lack of food and water. 
■ This time the Lord judged the complaining by sending snakes through the camp, biting many and many died. 
■ The people confessed and asked Moses to intercede for them.
■ Moses is told by God to make a Bronze snake and put it up on a pole and anyone who will look on the snake as it is raised up will live. 
● Jesus talked about this incident being a foreshadowing of his own ministry:
● Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. John 3:14-15
■ This snake was kept until the time of King Hezekiah (about 700 years). However Hezekiah destroyed it because people were burning incense to it and treating it like an idol. (2 Kings 18:4)
● Balaam (Numbers 22-24)
 Balaam is a large Old Testament figure for a false prophet. 
 God had been blessing the Israelites and had given them some powerful military victories. One king named Balak saw that this was happening and summoned Balaam to curse the Israelites. 
 Balaam could not curse the Israelites because they were protected by God. So every time he tried to curse them the curse was unsuccessful. 
 We see Balaam come up in two major New Testament references:
■ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 2 Peter 2:15
■ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Revelation 2:15

Take Home
We see that this is a great book for difficult times. The Israelites were struggling, they were having a difficult time, however, the things that they did that were faithless only put them further from God, and further from their goal. Every time someone stepped away from faith in God they moved further away from Him, and all of the good things that He had for them. However, we do the same thing in our difficult times. Very often moving further away from faith in God and his plan and moving towards the things that we think we want instead. Faith is the only way that we can lay hold of the promises that the Lord has given us, and we must trust Him, even in our very darkest hour, if we are going to take hold of the blessings that He has given us.

Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.