Failure to Follow (Num.10-25)

Num.10

Trumpets blown: 2 for everyone to assemble, 1 for leaders

With alarm: 1 for east side to move, 2 for south side to move

Also blown over offerings as reminder that “I am the Lord”

Logistical nightmare? How do you move this many people in an orderly fashion?

Are we ready, and capable, to move at the Lord’s prompting - as a body, in an orderly fashion. (we’re spread all over the world).

Num.11

Easier to get them out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of them

11:4 What did the rabble have? [greedy desires]

11:10-15 Complainers bring even great spirit-filled leaders to exasperation.

Two things happen.

1. The demands on Moses are to be shared by 70 men (11:16). They are given ‘of the Spirit’ (11:25)

2. The people’s complaints are met with provision - Quail, 2 cubits deep (11:31), and with judgement - severe plague (11:33)

11:23 “...The Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not..."

Even Moses needed to learn the limitless power of God.

Lessons from this story?

God’s power is limitless, but we should be careful what we ask for.

The “how” may be good science, but without the “why”, it totally misses reality. (wind from the sea 11:31)

Num.12

Miriam and Aaron murmur against Moses leadership.

What was God’s reaction in 12:9? [anger, departure]

Miriam becomes leprous.

Moses prays for healing.

Miriam must follow the prescribed, Levitical treatment (Lev.13:4)

Do you think God gets angry still (slow to anger)? About what?

Should knowing that God gets angry make a difference in our behavior? [Should we do right, regardless?]

Num.13

Spies sent into Canaan

God’s instructions to Moses: 13.2 “... spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers' tribes, every one a leader among them..."

Moses instructions to the spies: 13:18,19 “...See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many...land good or bad ... Open or fortified ...fat or lean...”

Do you see a difference in the instructions?

Did Moses have a role in creating the problem by not clearly telling them what God said?

Great leadership requires honesty and accuracy in relaying information (applies to teachers as well).

What did the spies and the people need to know?

God’s intentions

God’s expectations

God’s interaction

13:31 “...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..."

True or false? True that too strong. True that not able on their own. False conclusion that they shouldn’t go up.

13:33 may be a key verse: “...There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight..."

Gen.6:4-5 “...The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually...”

Why did God previously wipe out a people?

Why is God going to wipe out a people now?

In both cases, there is a strange breed, a mixture of the sons of God and the daughters of men. Debate will continue about who the Nephilim were. Is it fairly obvious what God’s intentions were?

God’s intentions weren’t just arbitrary displacement to make room for His special people. His expectations were that He would use a different system than a flood to cleanse a land that had perverted His purposes. He was about to interact in a different way.

Num.14

How do the people respond?

14:1-4 “...Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! "Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt..."

Is it absurd to prefer bondage? How can this even be considered an option?

People prefer being led into the familiar and the safe.

How about us?

What did Caleb and Joshua know that the other spies didn’t know? 14:7-9 “...and they spoke ...saying, "The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. "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...the Lord is with us...”

Num.14:11-19 “...The Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? "I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they." But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for You, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. "Now if You slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, 'Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.' "But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, '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.' "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now..."

What did Moses do? [intercessory prayer, based on God’s intentions and reputation]

What were the results? 14:20 “...So the Lord said, "I have pardoned them according to your word..”

Amazing power of intercessory prayer.

What if we approached God for America (and American Christians) in the same fashion?

Are Americans perceived as Christians? Is God getting a bad rap through America? Can He show the world that He is still able to deliver?

14:21 “...but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord...”

So is all well now for the grumblers and complainers, since God pardoned them?

14:22-24 “...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, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. "But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it...”

10 times - the completeness of 10 - plagues, commandments, and now testing the Lord.

1. Red Sea (Ex.14:11-12)

2. Bitter water of Marah (Ex.15:24)

3. Wilderness of Sin (Ex.16:3)

4. Overcollecting Manna (Ex.16:20)

5. Collecting Manna on the Sabbath (Ex.16:27-29)

6. Water complaints at Rephidim (Ex.17:2-3)

7. Idolatry with golden calf (Ex.32:7-10)

8. Complaining at Taberah (Num.11:1)

9. Complaining for meat (Num.11:4)

10. Failure to enter promised land (Num.14)

What were they testing? They were trying His patience, but questioning His Intentions, Expectations, and the Power and Purpose of His interaction.

What does complete testing lead to? 14:29 “...your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me...”

Failure to enter the purposes of God.

Is there an end to God’s tolerance?

Does grumbling as we live out the life He’s given us use up our testing quota?

14:34 - 40 days of spying, then underestimating God’s power, led to 40 years of futility.

14:36,37 - Instigators of grumbling receive immediate judgement.

Num.14:39-45 - trying to do the right thing, after the fact, without God, leads to defeat. Is our destiny tied up with the Body of Christ?

Num.15:22,24 ‘”..But when you unwittingly fail and do not observe all these commandments, which the Lord has spoken to Moses, ...a burnt offering, as a soothing aroma to the Lord...”

“Soothing aroma”

42 times in Entire Bible

37 times in Ex,Lev.Num,Deut

0 times in New Testament

“Aroma” 5 times in New Testament

Eph.5:1-2 “...Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma...”

Num.15:30-31 “...But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 'Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.' ..."

Is there a difference between unwitting and defiant sin? In the consequences?

What does it mean to be cut off? What happened to the Sabbath breaker in 15:32-36?

Num.16:1-3 “...Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action, and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?..."

What was the root cause of Korah’s rebellion?

Did they not like the stoning? Num.16:3 ”...you have gone far enough...”

Was this just pride? Did they not like the ruler? Num.16:13 "...you have brought us up ...to have us die in the wilderness, ...you would also lord it over us?...”

Dathan and Abiram, who were also a part of Korah’s rebellion, had this to say:

Num.16:14 “...Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards...”

They didn’t like the consequences they were facing.

Would you have endured without complaint?

What were the consequences of rebelling? Num.16:31-33 “...As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly...”

What can we learn from Korah’s rebellion?

1. Don’t rebel against God’s authority or God’s plan.

2. Don’t get too close to those who do.

Note: On the very next day an additional 14,700 perished because they continued to gripe.

There, but for the grace of God, go you and I.

Num.17

Why did Aaron’s rod bud? [Proof of God established authority].

Num.18

Levites get to retire at 50, but they get no land (v.20)

The get the tithe (v.21) from which they must tithe (v.26)

Num.20

Grumbling people

Num.20:7-8 “...and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink...”

What did Moses do? v.11 “...struck the rock twice...”

What was the result? Num.20:12 “...But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them..."

What just happened? [different command than Ex.17:6 “...strike the rock...”]

Lessons?

1. Be careful to do all that God says.

2. Don’t assume you know because you’ve done it before.

3. God always has something bigger going on.

4. Details, details, details.

The rock that gives (living water) was struck the first time (Calvary), but the second time He will not be struck, because He’s coming in all His glory.

Num.27:13-14 “...When you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was; for in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to treat Me as holy before their eyes at the water." (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)...”

Num.21:4 “...Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey...”

Makes me think of traveling with kids. No perspective on time and intent - they need to grow up.

God’s response? [21:6 fiery serpents]

How long was the journey? [40 years]

Num.22 Why does Balak send for Balaam?

He knew the Israelites had wiped out the Amorites (22:2).

He was experiencing great fear and dread (22:3) Panic attack!

He hoped Balaam could curse them (22:6)

NOTE: Remember that “...fees for divination...” (22:7) were not a part of God’s holiness (Lev.19:26)

22:12 God spoke to Balaam

22.18 Balaam seems to have his act together - recognizing the Lord as God.

22:20 God tells him to go - but to only speak as told.

22:22 God is angry that he’s going.

How do you reconcile verses 20 and 22? Read on.

Angel resists, donkey sees, Balaam doesn’t.

Num.22:28-29 “...And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" Then Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now..."

Anything comical about this verse? [Doesn’t appear shocked that the donkey is talking - too focused on his intentions]

Num.22:32 “...The angel of the Lord said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was contrary to me...”

Why did God resist Balaam, even after telling him to go?

2 Peter 2:15 “...forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;...”

If we’re about our own business, not God’s, we will be resisted.

Eventually Balaam makes the trip, and Balak takes him to see the Israelites. What did they see? 22:41 “...a portion of the people...” 23:9 “...a people who dwells apart...”

He ends up blessing them three times. So is Balaam a good guy after all? [NOPE]

Num. 25:1-3 “...While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel...”

Whose fault? Certainly Israel’s, but...

Num.31:15-16 “...And Moses said to them, "Have you spared all the women? "Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord...”

Revelation 2:14 “...But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality...”