STAY FEARLESS IN YOUR OBEDIENCE

  

12/18/2011

1. SETTING OUT FOR CANAAN (NUMBERS 10:11-36)

• They have been at Sinai for about a year, getting the Law from God. 
• The instructions for the silver trumpets have been given, and the trumpets have been made. 
• Now they are blown and they begin their wilderness march.
• Christ leads His church through the wilderness of this world. 
• The ark is a picture of Jesus Christ.

Numbers 10:29

29 Then Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out to the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you'; come with us and we will do you good, for the LORD has promised good concerning Israel."

NASB

• This invitation could be applied to the church.
• We are strangers and pilgrims going through this world today.
• We are in a wilderness here, but we are on the way to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Our invitation is the same invitation that Moses gave.  "Come with us."
• This is not protest march; it is a salvation march, a redemption march.
• It is the march that is going to Zion, not the earthly Zion, but the heavenly one, the city of New Jerusalem which will come down from God out of heaven, adorned like a bride for the bridegroom.

2. COMPLAINING ABOUT HARDSHIP (NUMBERS 11:1-35)

The children of Israel now have left Mount Sinai, and chapters 11 and 12 tell of the march from Sinai to Kadesh.

We will find that when problems arose, the people fell to murmuring. 

This was a very serious thing, and it carries important lessons for us.

Numbers 11:14-15

14 "I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. 15 So if Thou art going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Thy sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness."

NASB

• Moses made a mistake in complaining like this to God. 
• Moses said that he was the one who was bearing all these people. 
• Well, he wasn't. 
• God never asked him to.
• God was bearing them and also bearing Moses, but Moses was not fully casting himself upon God.
• Moses wasn't a perfect man, by any means. 
• He was just plain a human being who was mightily used of God.
• Moses said he would rather be dead than go through what he was going through with that crowd!
• God was very patient, very gracious.

3. CRITICIZING GOD’S CHOSEN LEADER (NUMBERS 12:1-16)

• The Bible tells us very little about the home life of Moses. 
• The incident recorded in this chapter is a family matter which occurred during the march from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea.
• Zipporah is not in view here. 
• Zipporah was the daughter of a priest of Midian -- she would be a Midianite.
• Who is referred to here?  this Ethiopian or Cushite wife? 
• Scripture is silent. 
• All we can say is that this appears to be a second wife.
• The point here is that Miriam used this marriage as a pretext to protest the authority of Moses.
• God did not deal with any other prophet as He dealt with Moses.
• God appeared in dreams to Abraham.
• He appeared in dreams to Joseph.
• But God dealt with Moses face to face. 
• Moses is different from all the others.
• They had been very foolish in what they had said. 
• Miriam became leprous which was God's severe judgment on her. 
• Moses prayed to the Lord for her and although God healed her, she had to be shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people could not journey while she was shut out of the camp. 
• She held up the march for a whole week.
• Why wasn't Aaron struck with the leprosy? 
• Because Aaron was God's high priest. 
• If he were a leper he could not serve in that capacity.  Israel would have had no intercessor to stand between them and God.

4. DISOBEYING BECAUSE OF FEAR (NUMBERS 13:1-14:45)

4A. WHAT’S KEEPING YOU FROM OBEYING? (NUMBERS 13:26-28, 31)

Numbers 13:26-28

26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Thus they told him, and said, "We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

NASB

·         This all was true. 

·         There were giants in the land. 

·         The cities were walled and very great. 

·         They were right in their facts, but they misinterpreted the facts

·         When you are afraid and you have lost your faith, difficulties and problems are magnified.  They become greater than they really are.

Numbers 13:31

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us."

NASB

·         They forgot to include God! 

·         If only they had put Him in, what a difference it would have been.

4B. WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT OBEYING? (NUMBERS 14:6-9)

Numbers 14:6-9

 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD is pleased with 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; and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

NASB

·         They included God! 

·         They came to an entirely different conclusion.

4C. HOW DOES GOD HANDLE DISOBEDIENCE? (NUMBERS 14:17-23)

Numbers 14:17-23

 17 "But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as Thou hast declared, 18'The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.' 19 "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

20 So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word; 21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.

NASB

·         The generation that murmured will not enter the Promised Land.

5. LEARNING ABOUT OBEDIENCE (NUMBERS 15:1-41)

• From chapters 15 to 25 we have the "silent years." 
• There is no record of them -- only a few incidents with no connected history.  
• These years are wasted years for the children of Israel
• When we get to Joshua 5, we will learn that they did not circumcise their children which shows that they were not fulfilling the will of God relative to the covenant which God had made to Abraham.
• The theme of this chapter is "they can delay God's blessing but they cannot destroy God's purpose."
• God says they will enter the land and as far as God is concerned, it is good as done.