A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 15 (Part 1)

Numbers 15:1-13—1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you, 3 and you make an offering by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or in your appointed feasts, to make a sweet aroma to the LORD, from the herd or the flock, 4 then he who presents his offering to the LORD shall bring a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil; 5 and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering you shall prepare with the burnt offering or the sacrifice, for each lamb. 6 Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil; 7 and as a drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hin of wine as a sweet aroma to the LORD. 8 And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or as a peace offering to the LORD, 9 then shall be offered with the young bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil; 10 and you shall bring as the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. 11 Thus it shall be done for each young bull, for each ram, or for each lamb or young goat. 12 According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do with everyone according to their number. 13 All who are native-born shall do these things in this manner, in presenting an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD.'" 

Here, God is retelling the requirements for sacrifices that were to be prepared when they came into the Promised Land. Let’s define some of the measures which are stated that we do not use today.

·         The ephah. An ephah was a dry measure, used to measure out flour or wheat or barley or similar things. It is equal to about 22 liters of liquid measure, or about 3/5 of a bushel dry measure. (One tenth of an ephah would be the omer, about 2 liters or 2 quarts.)

·         The hin. About 4 liters or one gallon. So a fourth of a hin of oil would be about a quart. 

With these measurements in mind, we can figure out the various measures described in the text. So first, when we see 4 then he who presents his offering to the LORD shall bring a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil; 5 and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering, he is to bring about 2 liters of flour with a quart of oil for the grain offering, with a quart of wine for a drink offering if they were bringing a sheep (or kid of the goats) or livestock. 6 Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil; 7 and as a drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hin of wine they were to mingle 4 quarts of flour with about 1-1/2 quarts of oil for the grain offering with about 1-1/2 quarts of wine for the drink offering. 8 And when you prepare a young bull (a calf) as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or as a peace offering to the LORD, 9 then shall be offered with the young bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil; 10 and you shall bring as the drink offering half a hin of wine, they were to bring 6 quarts of flour with 2 liters of oil for the grain offering, with 2 liters of wine for the drink offering. 

These were meant to show that they were still God’s people. God was not through with the people of Israel, He would still accept their sacrifices and they would still be His, even though they would not enter the Promised Land. Just as it is today. As Paul says in Romans 11:1—I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! Some today say that God is through with Israel, that because they crucified His Messiah, that God has cast them off. How absurd! God made a covenant with Abraham, and reminded the people of Israel that it was an everlasting covenant, and said through the prophet, in Jeremiah 31:35-37—35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name): 36 " If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever." 37 Thus says the LORD: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,” says the LORD. One may say “But what of the New Covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31:31, and again in Hebrews 8:13? Doesn’t this mean that God has done away with them?” What they are really saying is that God lied when He spoke the words of Jeremiah 31:35-37. Rather, He established a New Covenant, just as He said He would. A new and better covenant. One in which the people no longer had to appear with the blood of bulls and goats, but one where God appeared with the blood of His Son, that no longer were His laws written on stone tablets, but in the minds and on the hearts of the people (Jeremiah 31:33). 

“But look at Israel today. They do not follow Christ. In fact, they despise anyone who speaks and preaches in His name!” Do not confuse the physical nation of Israel with the people of Israel. If the New Covenant was with a physical nation, then why did He allow the Romans to destroy the temple in Jerusalem? Why did Jesus say "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36). And now His kingdom does not reside in one earthly place, but He has set His name on those who put their faith in Christ. And in all actuality, the New Covenant is an improvement on the Old Covenant. But why a New Covenant? One reason for this New Covenant is that the people of Israel, who at one time said “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1^st Samuel 8:5), later said “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). They had thrown off God as their king (1^st Samuel 8:7), and had bound themselves under an earthly king. This was the natural end of their desire for a king besides God. And it necessitated a New Covenant, since they had broken the Old Covenant time and time again. They thought that they could sin and chase Baal and Ashtaroth, then bring a sacrifice for their sins, and this would please God. But what does Hosea say? Hosea 6:6—“For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Hosea 8:13-14—13 “For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the LORD does not accept them…14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker.” 

And yes, the physical nation of Israel has forgotten the Lord who spilled His blood at Calvary. But that does not mean that God is done with them. Has God cast away His people? Certainly not! Paul was  Hebrew, and in the New Testament, he still calls them God’s people. Why? Because He is not through with them. Otherwise, why did he say in Romans 11:4-5—4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Why would God remember the people who broke covenant with Him? Why would He continue with a people who have sinned against Him and shed the blood of bulls and goats to try to please Him? Why would He not just cast them all aside and take to Himself a new people? Because there are some of the descendants of Abraham who do embrace Christ, who do see Him as their Messiah, no matter what their family says. In other words, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 

And that is the message God is conveying in our text in Numbers 15. There were those among the half-million or so people who did not complain, who kept God as the center of their worship, and who did not complain and murmur and grumble. Speaking to Moses, He said “I have pardoned, according to your word” (Numbers 14:20). But because these were included in the crowd of people, they were prohibited from entering Canaan. Except for Caleb the son of Jephuneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. (Numbers 14:30). The people said that their children would be prey in the wilderness (Numbers 14:3), when in fact they would be the ones to see the good land that God had promised. God is not one to forget His promises, like the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to bring His people into a good land. 

Numbers 15:14-16—“‘14 And if a stranger dwells with you, or whoever is among you throughout your generations, and would present an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD, just as you do, so shall he do. 15 One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. 16 One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.’” To show that those who came up out of Egypt with the people of Israel were not to be counted any differently, and to show that all His people are equal in His sight, He made it known to the people here (as He did in Exodus 12:49) that those who were circumcised in their flesh and were counted as the people of God were to follow the same commands as those who were born descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were what were called previously the “mixed multitude”, who were of unknown origin but were not of Israelite stock. In other words, they were Gentiles by birth. 

Today, how are those who are Gentiles by birth brought into the Kingdom of God? The same way as the one who is a Jew by birth. By the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:11-14—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. Do not think that Jews are saved one way and Gentiles another way. For One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you. There is only one way we will live in the presence of our Lord who bought us, whether we be Jew or Gentile. That is through the blood of Jesus, whose blood bought all whom God purposed to come into His Kingdom, no matter what their tribe, tongue, nation, or kindred. All who are His are one, and all who believe are counted as descendants of Abraham. Galatians 3:28-29—28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Do you doubt that? Put that doubt away, for John the Baptist even said the same thing in Matthew 3:9—“Do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” 

“So how is it that those who are Gentiles by birth should be counted as Abraham’s seed?” I’m glad you asked. Even though you didn’t. But you should have. Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews tells us in Romans 11:24-25—24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? 25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. The wild olive tree is the Gentiles, while the cultivated olive tree—the one which God chose and groomed for millennia—are the natural seed of Abraham. And by Christ we of the wild olive tree have been grafted in to the olive tree which God chose and groomed and fertilized from the time of Abraham. And if anyone thinks they are better than the Jews of God’s olive tree, let them think again. Romans 11:20-21—20 Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. As I have said before, and will most likely say again, let us never think better of ourselves than we ought. God did not spare those who were natural descendants of Abraham, for they sinned in slaying the Lord of Glory. Do you think we are any different? Are our sins better than theirs? No, our sins are not better than theirs. All sin is sin. Do not think that God will spare anyone who, although they did not crucify Christ, still hates that name and persecutes those who call on it. 

Numbers 15:17-31 is a reiteration of the sacrifices for the sins committed in ignorance which were covered in Leviticus 4:14-21, you can read more about them HERE.

 

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 14 (Part 2)

There are the eternal consequences of not believing God and rejecting Him. What were the temporal consequences for the people of Israel? “They certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” The people were led by the hand out of bondage. God showed them signs that He was with them and was doing great things for them. He gave them signs and wonders to show them that He is God and should be trusted and worshipped as God. Yet what did the people do? They complained. They murmured. They grumbled. They were not happy with the lot that God had cast for them, so they cried out that they wanted to go back to the taskmasters. So God said, “Fine. Those who have not trusted Me, those who have complained about being brought out from under the whips, those who want their old life as slaves, they shall not see what I have promised and will die before they see the Promised Land.” This is a foreshadowing of what will happen, eternally, to those who reject Christ. He came to Earth, clothed in human form, lived a perfect, spotless life, performed many miracles, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, died on the Cross and was raised from the dead, and was seen by over 500 witnesses. Yet many still do not believe. They reject Him, they mock Him, scoff at Him. They would rather live in their lost state than to bow the knee to the One who died for them. 

They don’t believe the words of Holy Writ, that the words testify of the God who became flesh to take away their sins. They would rather remain a slave to sin. See, in this life, every single person ever born is a slave. You are either a slave to Satan and sin, or you are a slave to Christ and righteousness. Romans 6:16—Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? This is one of those places where Paul quotes Jesus, although not verbatim. Jesus Himself says that while we are still in our sinful state, we are slaves to sin. John 8:34, 36—34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin…36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Paul says almost the exact same thing in Romans 6:17-18—17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Before we knew Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were slaves of Satan. We carried on however we liked, we ran around, cussed, swore, maybe drank or did drugs. Peter speaks of these things in 1st Peter 4:3—For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. But then the Holy Spirit gets ahold of someone, changes them on the inside, makes them love the things of God and hate the things of the flesh. We learn that the things we used to do when we were slaves of sin were displeasing to God. And we begin to embrace the things that please God. We are, as Paul wrote, a “new creation” (2nd Corinthians 5:17). We look back at our former self and think “why did I do those things?” Our goal now is not to please our flesh or to please others, but to please God. 

Caleb understood this. Numbers 14:24—“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” Just as there are few that find the narrow way today, there were even fewer of the people of Israel who saw the Promised Land. Why? Was he better and more intelligent than the others? No. He had a different spirit. What spirit was that? The Holy Spirit. It made of him a different man, just as it makes believers today different people. Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon on this text entitled “The Believer a New Creature”, said:

 

“The affections being changed, the whole man is on the way towards a great and radical renewal, for now the emotions find another ruler. The passions, once rabid as vultures at the sight of the carrion of sin, now turn with loathing from iniquity and are only stirred by holy principles. The convert grows vehement against evil, as vehement as he once was against the right. Now he longs and pines after communion with God as once he longed and pined after sin! The affections, like a rudder, have changed the direction of the emotions and meanwhile the will, that most stubborn thing of all, that iron sinew, is led in a blessed captivity, wearing silken fetters. The heart wills to do what God wills. Yes, it wills to be perfect, for to will is present with us though how to perform all that we would we find not.” 

But once we know the truth, we must be careful that we do not use our newfound position in Christ as a way to mock non-believers for their ignorance of God and Christ. In the same sermon, he said “A man may be changed from one sin to another—from reckless profanity to mocking formality—from daring sin to hypocritical pretension to virtue. But such a change is as very far from being saving and not at all like the work which is called a new creation.” When we see our salvation as something we did by reciting a prayer and going to church, we run the risk of looking down our noses at those who used to live just as we did. We can be like the Pharisee in Luke 8:11-12, when we should be more like the Publican in Luke 18:13. We should see our salvation as something that God wrought in us, that He, for whatever reason (I do not know, God knows, to quote Paul) He saw fit to place in us a new heart, to write His laws upon that new heart, and to make a new creation out of us. And although God turned away these people from the Promised Land for rejecting Him ten times, how often are we to forgive a brother who sins against us? Seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:22). In fact, I dare say God has forgiven each one of us seventy times seven times just this morning alone! 

Caleb understood who God is when those around him did not. And this is what spurred him on through the desert—across the blistering sands, in days of hunger and thirst, when everything in him may have been longing for bread and water, for melons and leeks and garlic and cucumbers. But he did not allow his flesh to be overcome by these longings. His eyes were on the promise God set out before him. Millennia later, Jesus would speak about not desiring to go back to the slavery of sin, and to keep moving forward to what God has in store for us. Luke 9:62—“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” He gave us a warning in another place about the consequences of forgetting the goodness of God in rescuing us from unrighteousness and instead looking back to the things that He rescued us from. Luke 17:32—“Remember Lot’s wife”. Let us never look back fondly of our days as slaves of Satan, but always remember we are slaves of God. Let us not be as the unbelievers, but, in lifting them up to God, let us look kindly upon them, praying for their salvation, and looking forward to the reward God has in store for us. 

Numbers 14:25, 40-45—25 “Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea”…40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!" 41 And Moses said, "Now why do you transgress the command of the LORD? For this will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the LORD is not among you. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the LORD, the LORD will not be with you." 44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah. (In verses 25-39, God restates the fate of those who rejected Him and complained against Him.) 

Here we see an example of what can happen to a new believer, when they think they can make up for their past sins by performing actions which are not sanctioned by God, and can ultimately lead to disastrous ends. Instead of going in the way the Holy Spirit leads, and just trusting in Christ for their salvation, thinking that God’s grace isn’t enough and they have to do something to “earn” their salvation, the person decides they know better and they plunge headlong into some endeavor that can, potentially, lead them away from God. Likewise, the people in Numbers were instructed by God to go by way of the Red Sea. He had a particular way He wanted them to go, because of their disobedience. He did not order them (and did not want them) fighting the Amalekites and Canaanites in the valley; He wanted them to just go their way by the Red Sea. Why? Perhaps as a reminder of the sea He parted and brought them through on dry land. 

Doesn’t He do that sometimes? When we are foolish and rebellious against Him, doesn’t He bring to our mind something great He has done for us, just so we can remember who He is? He doesn’t want us to fight a battle, He just wants us to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). But the people didn’t do that. They had battled the Amalekites before (Exodus 17), and they beat the Amalekites. Surely they can beat them again! Just one problem. In that battle, they had Moses and Joshua to go with them. And, most importantly, they had God fighting for them. This time, they did not. Neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed from the camp. This time they were on their own. And what happens to the people when they fight a battle alone, without God on their side? They get throttled. Just like anyone trying to fight a spiritual battle without God is going to get throttled. Why? Well, just as the Amalekites and Canaanites were experienced in battle and the people of Israel were not, Satan is experienced in spiritual battles, having lived for thousands of years and being of a stronger spirit than any human being who does not have the Holy Spirit going into that battle. Besides, Satan has an entire band of demons he can call and they will fight battles for him. How often do new believers—and mature believers sometimes—think they can beat Satan through their sheer willpower or smarts? They think Satan gives up more easily than he actually does. And things go about as well as expected. “Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.” 

 Luke 11:24-26—24 "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' 25 And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Why does the person fall? Often they forget to ask God’s help. Often, the reason can be summed up in one word: pride. Proverbs 16:18—Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Paul warns us to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. 1st Corinthians 10:12—Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And perhaps a lack of repentance. A lack of humility. A lack of the fundamental understanding of who God is, which they had displayed before them ten times that we know of. But they were determined they were gonna show God that they knew better, that they could defeat their enemies all by themselves, that they didn’t need God fighting for them, because they were enough. The truth is, they were not enough. We are not enough. Those we call “mighty men of God” are, as Paul Washer says, “only weak, pitiful, faithless men of a great and merciful God”. In the words of the Old Testament scholars Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch—

 

But instead of bending penitentially under the judgment of God, they resolved to atone for their error, by preparing the next morning to go to the top of the mountain and press forward into Canaan. And they would not even suffer themselves to be dissuaded from their enterprise by the entreaties of Moses, who denounced it as a transgression of the word of God which could not succeed, and predicted their overthrow before their enemies, but went presumptuously up without the ark of the covenant and without Moses, who did not depart out of the midst of the camp, and were smitten by the Amalekites and Canaanites, who drove them back as far as Hormah. Whereas at first they had refused to enter upon the conflict with the Canaanites, through their unbelief in the might of the promise of God, now, through unbelief in the severity of the judgment of God, they resolved to engage in this conflict by their own power, and without the help of God, and to cancel the old sin of unbelieving despair through the new sin of presumptuous self-confidence—an attempt which could never succeed, but was sure to plunge deeper and deeper into misery. 

Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed from the camp. Perhaps this is the reason the Israelites thought it would be a good idea to bring out the Ark of the Covenant when the Philistines were defeating them in battle in 1st Samuel 4:3-5—3 And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies." 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook. They thought of the Ark of the Covenant as a sort of good luck charm that would help them turn the tide and defeat the Philistines. But what they did not take into account was that Eli, who had judged Israel forty years (1st Samuel 4:18), had never corrected his sons from the evil they were perpetrating in taking away God’s portion from the sacrifices of the people. This was near the end of the period of the Judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). Eli was one of those, and allowed evil to continue, unlike those such as Gideon and Ehud and Othneil, who led the people to repentance and favor with God. Which is why the wife of Phinehas, son of Eli, said when the Ark was captured and her husband and his brother killed, that "The glory has departed from Israel!" (1st Samuel 4:21). Let us never see God as one who will simply grant our wishes, which would make us sovereign over Him, but rather let us follow the lead of YHVH and do what is right in HIS eyes, that we do not fall into the hands of the evil one. 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 14 (Part 1)

Numbers 14:10-19—10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.  11 Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed 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." 13 And Moses said to the LORD: "Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people; that You, LORD, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 16 'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.' 17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 'The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.' 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." 

Continuing from last time when we were talking about the people hearing the report of the land and the inhabitants that God promised He would lead them into. Twelve spies were sent and they brought back a cluster of grapes that they had to put it on a pole and carry it between two men because it was so big. But the sons of Anak were in the land, and the sons of Anak were so large (they were giants) that the spies seemed like grasshoppers in comparison. And ten of the spies convinced the entire camp that they would be better off going back to Egypt and being slaves again. But there were two—Joshua and Caleb—who knew that God is God and if He promises something, He will bring it to pass. Numbers 14:7-9—7 "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them." Yet what did the people do? Did they believe Joshua’s words? Did they believe that YHVH was strong and mighty and would deliver them into the land He had promised to them? Did they think on all the manifold works that God had done in them and for them to bring them out of Egypt and into the good land? 

No. What did they do? All the congregation said to stone them with stones. They did not want to do the hard thing. They did not want to perform the task that God had laid out for them. They had become like the wicked men of Sodom, pressing hard against Lot’s door, despite the fact that the Angel of the Lord had blinded them (Genesis 19:11) desiring the strange flesh which God would deliver out of their hands. “Well, that’s pretty harsh of you to say”, you might respond. But is it? In both cases, God had performed a mighty work and those witnessing it and being caught up in it still did not believe that God is God. They were caught up in the sin of unbelief. What’s that you ask? “Is unbelief really sin?” Yes, yes it is. Hebrews 3:12—Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Unbelief is the evidence of a wicked and sinful heart, one that does not believe in the True and Living God. Think of when Jesus had fed the multitude in John 6. Many believed in Him, but some did not. Those that did not merely thought of Him as a guy that could give them a free meal. Which is why they came back to Him the next day. John 6:26—“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” They didn’t want Jesus; they only wanted the stuff He could give them. And He tells them as much. And He cuts to their heart with a stinging rebuke in John 6:36—“But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.” Just like these people who had defeated the Amalekites when Moses lifted his hands and had seen manna fall from the sky and seen water burst out of a rock and had seen Him burn up the outskirts of the camp when they grumbled and had seen Hin bring out so many quail in a day. They saw these things but they did not believe that He could defeat their enemies and bring them into the Promised Land. 

But Joshua and Caleb believed. And what was their reward for believing God? All the congregation said to stone them with stones. Many times we see that when men of God stand up for our Almighty Lord, they are subject to mocking and ridicule. They did it to Joshua and Caleb. They did it to Nehemiah. They did it to our Lord Jesus. In the Book of Acts, they did it to Stephen. Acts 7:57-58—57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. They did not want to hear that they were sinful men and that Jesus could deliver them from their bondage to sin. So they plugged their ears and cried out so they wouldn’t have to hear Stephen’s indictment of them, and they could go on trying to establish their own righteousness. And they killed him. Much like what the people were trying to do here. They lifted up a cry to block out the words of the faithful men and purposed in their hearts to kill them so they could go back to Egypt and live under the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh and his taskmasters. But isn’t that the case so many times? The unrighteous unbelievers don’t want to hear about the goodness of God, for they think they are good people, and they will be just fine without God. They would rather live under their slavery to sin than under the slavery to Almighty God, who is the perfect Master. Of these people, John Wesley wrote many years ago:

 

When they reflected upon God, his glory appeared not, to silence their blasphemies: but when they threatened Caleb and Joshua, they touched the apple of his eye, and his glory appeared immediately. They who faithfully expose themselves for God are sure of his special provision.

 So what is God’s response? “I’m gonna wipe out all these sons of Abraham, and I’ll make of you, Moses, the progenitor of a new people” (Numbers 14:11-12). This is the second time He has told Moses He was going to do this. We saw last time that He said pretty much the same thing in Exodus 32. Would God have been righteous and just to wipe them all out without saying anything, without a warning? Of course. Would He have been righteous and just to wipe out all of humanity without saying anything, without a warning? Of course. We are all sinful creatures, born sinners as soon as we open the matrix. Job says this many times. Job 5:7—“Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Job 14:1—“Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Job 25:4—“How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” Many other times we read of this concept. Psalm 51:5—Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. In His promise to never flood the Earth again, God Himself acknowledges this. Genesis 8:21—Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.” Paul writes of the inherent sinfulness of man in Romans 3 and in Romans 5. There is no escaping it, there is no denying the fact that man is a sinful creature from birth, and deserves nothing but death. We do not deserve grace, we do not deserve mercy, and we certainly did not deserve Jesus. As I have said in the past, and will say for all the time I have on this Earth, you do not want God to be “fair”. 

And Moses understands this. He knows that this is a stiff-necked people, he knows that their hearts are going to go astray and they will forget the goodness of God. He knows that they will always drift away from God, never remembering the good He has done before, only thinking of the difficult tasks He has for them to do. He knows that rather than trusting God, they will be afraid of doing that which He has called them to do and always clamor to go back to the “safety” of their times as slaves in Egypt. And he “reminds” God of this. Moses tells God that if He wipes the people out, then the heathens will hear about it and mock Him. Numbers 14:15-16—“15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 16 'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.'” And don’t the enemies of God always look for something to blame Him for? They always look for some way to mock Him or blame Him for some evil that happens somewhere in the world. And the enemies of God in Egypt would have been beside themselves if God had wiped out the people, thinking that He could not deliver them to the land that He had promised to them. And this was Moses’ only thought: the glory of God. 

Then he says in Numbers 14:18-19—18 “'The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.' 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” God is indeed longsuffering and patient and is willing to forgive. But many people today think that God is so kind and He is all love, love, love, and that He would NEVER send ANYBODY to Hell. But He by no means clears the guilty. What is the purpose of Hell? Is it just God throwing a temper tantrum because somebody ate shrimp or wore a dress that was a cotton/polyester blend? No. The reason that someone is sent to Hell is because they were sinners who did not think that they were sinners and never asked for their sins to be forgiven. Or, that they did confess that they were sinners, asked forgiveness, and then continued on in their sins, never repenting. The reason people are sent to Hell is so God can show how much He hates sin, that He will send those who commit sin there to burn because He so despises sin. In other words, Hell exists to glorify God. Just as Heaven exists to glorify God by rewarding those who have called out to Jesus for forgiveness and have repented of their sin, and confess that they are not worthy of forgiveness, and that they fall short of the perfection God calls us to (Matthew 5:48). So how do we know we have attained to that perfection? If we have love for one another. John 13:35—“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” What does love look like? Is it the mushy, squishy, butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of love that a man has toward a woman he is in love with? No. Paul gives us an outline of what love is in 1^st Corinthians 13:4-7—4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love is putting the needs of another before your own. Love is being patient with the older person in the store that is blocking you from getting down the aisle, knowing that one day you too may be old and infirm and will need the same courtesy shown to you. Love is letting it go when someone cuts in front of you in traffic, knowing that tomorrow it will not matter one whit. Love is not getting steamed when the restaurant messes up your order, remembering that it is only by the grace of God that you are eating that day. “I asked for no tomato!” So you’re upset that you got more food to eat? Just take it off your burger. 

Love is the root of the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40—37 "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." If you love God, you will not worship other gods, you will not take His name in vain, and you will not bow down to idols. If you love your neighbor, you will not kill them, you will not steal from them, you will not lie to or about them, you will not covet their things. You will only want what is best for them. Like Paul. You can almost fell his heartache and anguish he feels toward his fellow Israelites that do not know Christ. Romans 9:2-4—2 I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites… Willing to be cast into the flames of torment if only his fellow countrymen would be renewed in Christ. You ask what love is? THAT is love! That is the same kind of love that Moses shows for these stiff-necked people, that God should not do away with them, but as he also pled with God before in Exodus 32:32, that if God would not forgive these people, that God should blot him out from the Book of Life. 

Numbers 14:20-23—20 Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; 21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—God is a God of patience. Any one of us would have struck these people down with a snap of our fingers and blotted out any memory of them forever. But we are not God. God’s patience is infinite, and if you exhaust it, well, you have done something severe. Ten times—ten times—the people put God’s patience to the test, and finally He says “ENOUGH! That is the last time you will try my patience! I have put up with you this long, but no longer.” Now, rather than spend a lot of time going over all the times the people tested God’s patience, I will simply list them here: 

1. Exodus 14:11-12 (at the Red Sea, fleeing from Pharaoh)
2. Exodus 15:23 (bitter water at Marah)
3. Exodus 16:2 (no food in the Wilderness of Sin)
4. Exodus 16:20 (keeping manna until the morning)
5. Exodus 16:27 (trying to gather manna on the Sabbath)
6. Exodus 17:1 (no water at Rephidim)
7. Exodus 32:4 (The Golden Calf)
8. Numbers 11:1 (murmuring at Taberah)
9. Numbers 11:4 (The Quail Incident)
10. Numbers 13-14 (The report of the ten spies) 

Time and time and time and time again, the people grumbled against God, time and time and time and time again they questioned God’s ability to provide for them, and time and time and time and time again they questioned God’s reasons for bringing them out of their bondage in Egypt. Yet sometimes we do the same thing. We have a perfectly content life, with a happy little spouse in a happy little neighborhood with happy little kids and we go to work at our happy little office, then we come home and put our happy little family in our happy little car, then go out to eat at a happy little restaurant and eat our happy little food. All the while ignoring God, never once thinking of Him and all the good He has done in our life, taking everything He has given us for granted. Day after day we may give Him some lip service, thankful that we are not like those disgusting poor people. “Thank God I’m not like them!” Like the Pharisee who said he was glad he was “not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). They may, at the very least, ignore Him. Or they may, at worst, sneer at Him and claim that they have gotten what they have gotten by the sweat of their own brow, and they have never needed any God to help them. So they go on with their happy little life. Then one day they come to the end and there they are, standing before the very God who gave them their happy little life, and they stand naked and exposed before the Ruler of all Creation, covered with the filth of their sins, and are sent away from His presence for all eternity. 

On the other hand, there are some who feel God tugging at their heart. They get a feeling that they may be called to more than just this happy little life. They know it is Jesus pulling them away from themselves, but at first they just don’t want to let go. They like their happy little life and they don’t want to give it up. Then one day they are overwhelmed, and they give in and cry out “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” A wave of relief like none they’ve ever known before comes over them, and they stand up a brand new person. Then they tell their spouse. And they get a reaction. “What, so you’ve found God? Well, good for you. But I like my life and I’m not going to give it up!” So the spouse puts up with this “new phase” the person is going through, but they will figure out a way to squash it. Just like the ten cowardly spies who tried to convince the people that they should just go back to Egypt. But sometimes, when the God denier starts out to quench the Holy Spirit, they actually come to find God as well. Lee Strobel is an illustration of this. He was an atheist, and one day his agnostic wife got saved. Well, he was an investigative journalist, and wasn’t going to put up with his wife being a Christian. So he set out to debunk her beliefs. Well, you’ll never guess what happened. In researching the claims of Christ and His resurrection, he found these claims were true. And he is now one of the foremost apologists for the Christian faith. All because his wife listened to the prompting of God and believed that He is who He says He is. And she had a husband who was trained to investigate things, and did some digging into God and His Son’s claims, and now he goes around debunking those who doubt God. Here is a quote from Lee Strobel:

 

“In short, I didn’t become a Christian because God promised I would have an even happier life than I had as an atheist. He never promised any such thing. Indeed, following Him would inevitably bring divine demotions in the eyes of the world. Rather, I became a Christian because the evidence was so compelling that Jesus really is the one-and-only Son of God who proved His divinity by rising from the dead. That meant following Him was the most rational and logical step I could possibly take.”

 Believing God and going where He calls us is the most rational and logical step we could possibly take. Do not test God another day. You know, even if you don’t want to believe, that He is real and wants you to be in His presence for all eternity. Do not put Him off one more day. Repent and believe the Gospel!

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.