The Backstory

We are in Numbers 16. Thus far God’s people have been rescued from slavery to Egypt, brought to Sinai, where they received God’s instructions, entered into a covenant relationship with God, broke that covenant, Moses prayed, God forgave, and they built the tent where God would dwell among them and be their God. They were organized around his central tent, 603,550 fighting men were numbered (Nu.1:46), and they set out across the wilderness to possess the promised land following the leading of the Lord’s pillar of cloud and fire. They grumbled along the way, but the Lord led them safely to the borders of the land. They sent 12 men to spy out the land, but only Caleb and Joshua encouraged the people to go up in obedience and possess the land; the other 10 said “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are” (Nu.13:31). The congregation attempted to kill Joshua and Caleb and choose another leader to lead them back to slavery. The glory of the Lord appeared in wrath and he threatened to wipe out all the people and start over with Moses, but Moses interceded, and God extended both mercy and justice; the 10 died in a plague, the congregation who rebelled were sentenced to fall over the next 40 years, but God promised to bring their children in to the land. The next day they again disobeyed, attempting to conquer the land in their own strength, and were defeated before their enemies.

In chapter 15, the Lord affirmed his promises by giving instructions for that next generation when they had come into the land ‘which I am giving you’ (Nu.15:2). He reminds them that there is sacrifice for unintentional sins, but for willful rebellion, there is no forgiveness. This law is applied to a man openly and willfully disobeying by gathering firewood on the Sabbath, who is killed by the congregation. The Lord instructs them to wear tassels with a blue cord to remind them of his laws, to remind them who they are and to whom they belong.

Numbers 16:1 Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. 2 And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron…

Korah is a cousin of Moses and Aaron; his father Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi was brother to Amram son of Kohath son of Levi, father of Aaron and Miriam and Moses (Ex.6:18-23). Korah was a Kohathite Levite, entrusted with the holy responsibility of transporting God’s holy furniture of the Tabernacle, and stationed to the south of the Tabernacle (Nu.3:29-32).

Dathan and Abiram and On are of the tribe of Reuben, firstborn of Jacob and Leah, however Reuben forfeited his place of priority in the family by his sexual sin, sleeping with his father’s concubine (Gen. 35:22; 49:3-4). The tribe of Reuben was also camped south of the Tabernacle (Nu.2:10), although the Levites were camped closer, to serve as protection between the dangerous presence of YHWH and the rest of the tribes.

This chapter recounts two parallel rebellions, one political and one religious, rising up against the Lord’s appointed leaders.

Korah; Equal Religious Access

Numbers 16:3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

As often is the case, there was some truth mixed in to give a foundation of credibility to their accusations. The last chapter instructed all the people to wear tassels with a cord of blue to remind them that they were all to be holy to the Lord; identifying them visibly with the color of the tabernacle and the priests.

Numbers 15:39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”

Back in Exodus 19, the Lord said:

Exodus 19:4 You yourselves have seen …how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

It was true that all in the congregation were to be holy, set apart to the Lord. It was true that YHWH had his tent in the midst of their camp. But it did not follow that all had equal access to the holy places. Those who were unclean were to be put outside the camp. The priests, exclusively descendants of Aaron, were set apart by specific outfits and by the proscribed rituals of cleansing, sacrifices and anointing. If you’ve followed the story thus far, it should be blatantly obvious that Moses and Aaron did not exalt themselves above the assembly; Moses specifically was reluctant to answer God’s call to leadership, and burdened by the weight of leadership, was more than happy to share some of that responsibility with those the Lord brought alongside him.

Moses’ Intercession and Plea; Korah and the 250

Numbers 16:4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, 5 and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the LORD will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him. 6 Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; 7 put fire in them and put incense on them before the LORD tomorrow, and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!”

Moses falls on his face in a posture of humility and intercession before the Lord; how do you argue with a leader who is on his face? There was no point in arguing his case or reasoning with these rebels. Moses would leave it to the Lord to make clear his own choice. And God has every right to choose for himself who he will bring near. It is never a popularity contest; never a matter of taking the office to oneself out of personal ambition or a jealous desire for power. Moses turns their words back on them; ‘you have gone too far, sons of Levi!’

Numbers 16:8 And Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: 9 is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the LORD and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, 10 and that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? 11 Therefore it is against the LORD that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him?”

Korah was of the division of the Kohathites, entrusted with the care of God’s holy furniture, the ark of the covenant, the altar of incense, the table of the bread of the presence, the lampstand, the bronze altar and washbasin. They were given a high and holy calling, but they were not satisfied with that; they wanted more. Their responsibilities on the journey should have reminded them of the danger of drawing near to God unbidden; the priests were to prepare all these holy articles by wrapping them in the curtains and coverings and inserting the carrying poles so that the Kohathites would not inadvertently look at them and die (Nu.4:4-20). Like Eve in the garden, they failed to view God’s boundaries as gracious protection to keep them safe, but rather as undue restrictions to keep from them something they desired.

Leadership Complaint; Dathan and Abiram

Attention now turns to the complaint directed primarily against Moses and his authority.

Numbers 16:12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and they said, “We will not come up. 13 Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us? 14 Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.”

This is the height of arrogance! Moses and Aaron, dealing with the 250 Kohathites at the entrance to the east of the Tabernacle, now sends for Dathan and Abiram to come, and they refuse even to appear. They send back a rebuttal that calls evil good and good evil. They label the land of slavery with the Lord’s description of his promised land; ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’. They dredge up the tired accusation ‘you have brought us up’ (no, it was the Lord who brought you up) ‘to kill us in the wilderness.’ The reason they were not now enjoying their inheritance, experiencing the Lord’s promised land, flowing with milk and honey, (which even the evil spies affirmed that it was) is because they had refused to obey the word of the Lord through Moses. And the absurd accusation that Moses had made himself a prince over them! They accuse Moses of lying, in our terms trying to pull the wool over their eyes. They flatly reject Moses’ authority.

Numbers 16:15 And Moses was very angry and said to the LORD, “Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them.”

This is one of the things Samuel will later warn Israel of in their desire for a king to rule over them (1Sam.8:11-18). Moses is free of any motive of greed or self-promotion.

Korah’s Attempt to Usurp the Office of Priest

Numbers 16:16 And Moses said to Korah, “Be present, you and all your company, before the LORD, you and they, and Aaron, tomorrow. 17 And let every one of you take his censer and put incense on it, and every one of you bring before the LORD his censer, 250 censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” 18 So every man took his censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron.

The flagrant arrogance of this act; had they forgotten Nadab and Abihu (Lev.10:1-3; Nu.3:4), the first two sons of Aaron, legitimately descendants of Aaron, fully authorized to serve as priests who offered incense with strange fire and were consumed by the fire of the Lord? But in this there is an opportunity to reflect, to remember, to turn, to repent. Tomorrow.

Numbers 16:19 Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. 20 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 21 “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”

The Lord comes to the defense of those who are unjustly attacked.

Moses and Aaron’s Intercession in YHWH’s Courts

Numbers 16:22 And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” 23 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

Moses and Aaron again prostrate themselves on the ground in prayer for God’s mercy. This is reminiscent of Abraham’s prayer ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? … Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen.18:23,25). Not that any in the congregation were truly righteous, but the Lord again extends mercy; tell the congregation to get away from their dwellings!

Judgment and Mercy; Dathan and Abiram’s Tents (where’s On?)

Numbers 16:25 Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 And he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.” 27 So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.

This is a tragic display of the consequences of a hard heart. They had opportunity to come before Moses but they refused. Now God’s judgment would extend to their whole household. They were united in their willful rebellion. They all came out and stood defiantly at their doors. The call to ‘depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men’ would have been a final call to even those with them in their tents. At the beginning of the chapter, On the son of Peleth, also a son of Reuben is mentioned alongside Dathan and Abiram, but he is not mentioned again in the narrative. What happened to him? Was he included with them? Did he wake up to the folly of rebellion, turn and distance himself from them and escape their judgment? We aren’t told.

Numbers 16:28 And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. 29 If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD.” 31 And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. 32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 34 And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”

Moses discerned that their disrespect of him as leader was at its root despising the authority of the Lord. It was more than a rejection of their human leaders; it was a rejection of the God who appointed them. And the Lord defended his own honor. The earth swallowed them up; they went down alive to the grave.

Wrath on Religious Rebels at the Tabernacle

Moses, along with the elders of Israel had gone to the south side of the camp, where Dathan and Abiram’s tents were pitched. Meanwhile, back at the entrance to the tabernacle, with Aaron;

Numbers 16:35 And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.

Just like Nadab and Abihu, fire came out from the Lord and consumed the rebels.

Grace

Numbers 26, reflecting on these events, warning not to contend against the Lord and against his anointed leaders, tells us

Numbers 26:11 But the sons of Korah did not die.

Even in God’s wrath, there is grace. Apparently some of Korah’s own children distanced themselves from the sin of their father and his rebellion. 1 Chronicles 9 lists among the returned exiles after the Babylonian captivity, descendants of Korah who again served at the temple. 11 Psalms, most of Psalms 42-49 and 84-88 are prefaced with ‘A Psalm of the sons of Korah’

Jesus

It’s interesting that this rebellion was a coalition of two different complaints; one political, one religious. Mark records

Mark 3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (cf.Mk.12:13)

Religious and political factions united in their rebellion against the one who humbled himself to become man.

Acts 4:25 …“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Moses and Aaron’s prayer was “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” In John 11,

John 11:49 …Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Korah, Dathan, Abiram each died for his own sins; Jesus died for the sins of the nation, and more, for you, for me!

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, presenting himself as King of the Jews to the acclaim of the crowds. The next day he drove those who bought and sold out of the temple courts, claiming it as his Father’s house. Tuesday and Wednesday, he taught in the temple, and the religious leaders tried but failed to entrap him in his words.

Thursday, he sent Peter and John to prepare for the Passover meal in an upper room in Jerusalem. Jesus dismissed Judas, who went out to betray him. After the meal, they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. On the way Jesus warns them that they will all desert him, Peter will even deny him three times. Jesus wrestles in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane late into the night, while his disciples struggle unsuccessfully to stay awake and pray. During the night,

Judas arrives with the temple guard, betraying Jesus with a kiss, and the disciples, after a brief skirmish attempting to defend him, flee for their lives. Jesus is brought before Annas, the former high priest, father-in-law of Caiaphas, where Peter, secretly seeking to see what would happen, is confronted and denies three times he even knows Jesus.

After sunrise Friday morning, the Sanhedrin is convened, accuses Jesus of blasphemy, and sends him to Pilate. Pilate declares three times that he finds no guilt in him, yet has him scourged, washes his hands of the matter and sends him to be crucified. Jesus stumbles under the weight of the cross, and Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry his cross.

Jesus, nailed to the cross, prays ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do’ (Lk.23:34). When one of the criminals crucified with him confesses his sins and turns to Jesus in hope, Jesus responds with the promise ‘today you will be with me in paradise’ (Lk.23:43). Jesus’ mother, two other Marys and John were there at Golgotha watching this all unfold, and Jesus entrusted his mother into John’s care. From noon to 3pm darkness covered the land, and then Jesus cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt.27:46). Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ‘I thirst’ (Jn.19:28), and was given vinegar to drink. He cried out ‘It is finished! Father into your hands I commit my spirit’ (Jn.19:30; Lk.23:46), and he died. The veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. His side was pierced to verify that he was truly dead, and he was taken down, buried in a borrowed tomb before sunset. On the Sabbath, the chief priests and Pharisees have the tomb sealed and guarded.

To say this was a roller-coaster of emotions for Jesus’ followers would be a gross understatement. Dismayed, bewildered, terrified, hopes crushed, filled with grief, loss, despair; these were just some of the emotions they would be experiencing. Their Rabbi, their Messiah, their friend, dead and buried. Would they be next?

The Women and Mary [John 20:1-18]

Let’s follow a few of their stories. First was the women. They are first to the tomb, early Sunday morning. They come with spices to honor the corpse. The burial was rushed to beat sunset Friday evening, when the Sabbath began. They were there watching when Joseph and Nicodemus placed his body in the tomb; they wonder how they will move the massive stone from the entrance. When they arrive, they are dismayed to see the grave already opened. Mary Magdalene runs to tell the disciples. The other women come back with stories of an angel and start a rumor that Jesus is not there; the disciples don’t believe them, but Peter and John run to see the empty tomb, and then go home.

Mary Magdalene stricken with grief, returns and stands weeping outside the open tomb. She stoops to look in and sees two messengers who ask her why she is weeping. Her answer? “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him’ (Jn.20:13). The body has clearly been stolen. After the horrific torture and shame of the crucifixion, why further dishonor the body? Who would do such a thing? Why? She turns away, and sees another man standing, who also asks her why she is weeping, and he asks “Whom are you seeking?” (Jn.20:15). She assumes he is the one responsible for tending the garden, and asks “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away” (Jn.20:15). She is there to honor the body of her fallen Lord, and she is willing to do whatever she must to treat him with dignity. Eyes swollen with weeping, vision clouded with tears, or simply looking past this ‘gardener’ to find the discarded body of her Lord, she fails to recognize him, until he calls her by name. One word. “Mary.” With a wave of recognition she instantly melts in worship and clings to the feet she (possibly) had previously anointed with her life savings. At Jesus’ word, Mary is emboldened to go to the disciples and declare to them what she had seen and heard.

Cleopas and his Friend on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)

Luke 24 records two travelers leaving Jerusalem toward Emmaus, when another traveler joins them.

Luke 24:17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. …

These followers were also reeling from grief. His question stopped them in their tracks. They had hoped Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel, but their hopes had been dashed by the recent events. Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified by their own religious leaders. Their hopes crushed, they were going home.

Luke 24:21 …Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

There were rumors started by some of the women, and the body had gone missing. This strange traveler rebukes them for their unbelief:

Luke 24:25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 ​Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

He led them in a Bible study surveying how the entire Old Testament points to a Messiah who would necessarily suffer for the sins of his people, and then be glorified. He rebukes them for being slow of heart to believe what the prophets had written. They convince this stranger to stay with them, and

Luke 24:30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

The risen Jesus had given them an incognito Bible study showing them how Moses and all the prophets were pointing to him. That it was necessary that he suffer, and then enter his glory. Their hopes had been dashed by the recent events, and yet those very events fulfilled the prophecies; prophecies like Isaiah 53. They were lost, confused, they had given up hope. But some of their expectations were unfounded.

With new insight into the purpose and necessity of the crucifixion, with hope re-ignited and hearts aflame, although the hour was late, they immediately got up and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

Luke 24:32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Doubting Thomas [John 20:24-31]

Unfortunate for him, but such a blessed providence for us, Thomas wasn’t there that day.

John 20:24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Thomas was resolute in unbelief. He would not believe the testimony of others. He demanded irrefutable proof. He must see for himself. He, like the others had hoped that Jesus was the one; earlier he had been ready to go to Jerusalem and die with Jesus (Jn.11:16). But now that his hopes had been demolished, he was settled in his unbelief; ‘I will never believe.’ Oh, Thomas! If only you had enough faith, faith to believe in spite of the evidence, enough faith to disregard the evidence. Blind faith, a leap in the dark. But faith is not hoping against hope that something most unlikely and contrary to the evidence is true. That’s more akin to stupidity than faith. Jesus doesn’t require Thomas (or us) to take a leap into the dark.

John 20:26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Jesus offered Thomas real tangible verifiable evidence. By the way, Thomas was not the only one. None of the disciples believed until they were confronted by Jesus himself. Each of the eyewitnesses was an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus. The law refused to establish anything on the basis of one eye witness testimony alone (Deut.19:15; Mt.18:16,20). Jesus didn’t demand blind faith, he invited reasonable, substantial, substantiated faith. He offered evidence. And to a resolute skeptic, he offered more, he offered patience and grace. He didn’t rebuke Thomas, he invited Thomas to examine the evidence and believe. And he had a gracious purpose in all of this that went far beyond Thomas himself.

John 20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This happened for you! Yes, you, right here, right now, today! Thomas was given abundant evidence, more tangible evidence than any of the other disciples demanded, so that we right here today, you and I, reading Thomas’s testimony thousands of years later, would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in Jesus as ‘my Lord and my God,’ we would experience life, eternal life, real living relationship with him. John invites you, today, through the eye witness account of a resolute unbeliever, to enter in to the story.

Peter [John 21:1-25]

Some time later, Peter is with Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two others back in Galilee,

John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” …

I don’t know what was going through Peter’s heart and mind. I do know that Simon Peter was back where he started.

Mark 1:14 …Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Now Simon Peter is back in Galilee, and he goes back to fishing for fish. Jesus had already appeared to him. He was the first one to go in to the empty tomb that first resurrection Sunday. The Lord had appeared specifically to him (Lk.24:34). He was with the others that first Sunday night when Jesus appeared in the upper room where they were hiding in fear. Peter was there the next Sunday when Jesus presented himself specifically to Thomas. The angels at the tomb had even named Peter specifically; ‘go, tell his disciples and Peter’ (Mk.16:7). It wasn’t that Peter didn’t know that Jesus was alive. But it seems Peter was still struggling.

Remember, Peter had been the one to say ‘Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!’ (Mt.26:33-35). And after Peter denied his Lord the third time with cursing and oaths,

Luke 22:60 …And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter had been self-confident, arrogant, boastful. But now he was humbled, broken, a failure. He proved himself in the time of testing not to be a man of his word. Peter probably felt despair; useless, worthless, so he went back to what he knew; he went fishing. And he even failed at that. ‘They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing’ (Jn.21:3).

A man showed up on the shore, asked them how it was going, and told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat.

John 21:7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.

Jesus cooked them all breakfast.

John 21:14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. 15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

After Peter’s three denials, Jesus asked him three times to affirm his love for him; ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ And three times Jesus recommissioned him; ‘Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.’ Now that Peter is humbled, broken, at the end of himself, he is useful. Later, Peter writes:

1 Peter 5:1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 …Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything! And even after his resurrection, Jesus is pursuing the lost. He pursues those blinded by grief, those whose hopes have been dashed, those in despair, skeptics, doubters, resolute unbelievers, even those who have denied him, who feel broken and useless. Jesus is alive, and he is pursuing you today!

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Palm Sunday Prophecies

This is Palm Sunday. Old Testament prophecies spoke of the promise of the coming King. Psalm 118 says:

Psalm 118:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 ​The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.

The stone that the builders rejected; the leadership of Israel had rejected Jesus. But he would become the cornerstone. He is foundational to everything. He sets the shape and trajectory of the entire building. This, this is the day! This is the day that we have been waiting for! This is the day that YHWH has made! The long anticipated day has arrived. This is a day of gladness and rejoicing! Hosanna; save us, we pray! Hosanna; save now! Blessed is he who comes in the name of YHWH! YHWH has become my salvation. Open the gates to the King of Righteousness!

Isaiah 62 speaks of Jerusalem established as a praise in the earth; the Lord will delight in her;

Isaiah 62:8 The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored; 9 but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.” 10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up a signal over the peoples. 11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.” 12 ​And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

Daughter of Zion, behold your salvation comes!

In Zechariah 9 the Lord says:

Zechariah 9:8 Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that none shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again march over them, for now I see with my own eyes. 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

John 12; Prophecies Fulfilled

John gives this account of Palm Sunday

John 12:12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus orchestrated this whole thing. He sent two of his disciples into the village to retrieve the donkey’s colt he was to ride on. Old Testament prophecies were being realized before their very eyes. Matthew specifically highlights the intentional fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Jesus is consciously presenting himself to Jerusalem as their coming King and their salvation, the King of righteousness, humble and mounted on a donkey.

The religious leaders respond in frustration:

John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

What a day! Fulfillment of prophecies! Jesus publicly presented to Jerusalem as King. Religious leaders losing influence; Jesus receiving the acclaim of the people; momentum is huge; Jerusalem is packed for Passover. ‘Look, the world has gone after him!’ Rejoice! Shout aloud! Behold your King is coming to you!

Anticlimactic Day

Palm Sunday has to be the most anti-climactic day in the history of the world. Mark records it this way in his gospel:

Mark 11:7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Jesus entered the gates to the acclaim of all the people. He entered Jerusalem, went into the temple courts, looked around at everything, and left. He returned to Bethany to spend the night with his disciples. Wait, that’s it? He just looks around and then he walks away? The world has gone after him; finally they acknowledge who he is. This is the day! Ride the wave! Seize the moment!

Instead Jesus walks away. What did the crowds think? The next day he comes back and cleans house. He (again) drives the money changers out of the temple courts. He makes enemies. In a few short days the crowds who were crying out ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ are stirred up to cry out ‘Away with him, crucify him’. This could have, this should have gone so differently! Why?

The Hour Has Come!

Here’s what John records next:

John 12:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The hour has come! Starting with his first miracle at Cana (Jn.2:4) , Jesus has consistently said ‘my hour has not yet come’. When his enemies sought to seize him, they could not because ‘his hour had not yet come’ (Jn.7:30; 8:20). Now he says ‘the hour has come’. It’s finally here, the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified!

But how does this answer the Greeks seeking to see Jesus? Here’s what Daniel prophesied about he Son of Man being glorified:

Daniel 7:13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 ​And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

The divine, cloud riding Son of Man given dominion and glory and an eternal kingdom, a global kingdom by the Ancient of Days, a kingdom that includes all peoples, nations and languages. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!

Glorified Like A Seed

But look at what Jesus says next:

John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 ​Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified! But not how you might think. Glorified like a seed, a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies. Glorified by losing his life. Jesus would be glorified by dying, by falling into the earth, being buried. But life would spring up out of that grave! Eternal life, unstoppable life, abundantly fruitful life. Good news to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles!

The crucifixion of Jesus was not a nasty turn of events that if played differently could have been avoided. The crucifixion was precisely how Jesus would be glorified!

Jesus goes on to say:

John 12:27 ​“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.

Jesus’ hour had come, the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified. Glorified like a seed, through death; a painful hour. Should he seek to escape this hour? This is the reason for the season; this is the reason for Christmas. This is why Jesus came. He came to be glorified like a seed that must fall into the ground and die in order to bear much fruit, ultimately to bring glory to his Father.

John 12:31 ​Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

The crowds on Palm Sunday anticipated a conquering King, but their expectations were way too low. They wanted a king to judge their enemies; Jesus came to be Judge of the world. They wanted their oppressors to be judged; Jesus came to pass judgment on the whole world; every sinner stands condemned before a holy God. They wanted a powerful king to overthrow Rome. Jesus came to overthrow the power behind Rome and behind every other nation on the planet. They wanted a king who would strip Rome of its power and control over their lives; Jesus came to strip Satan of his power over our lives, to break the power of sin and death and hell, to save sinners from what we deserve. Jesus was not what they expected, so they rejected him.

Drawing All People To Himself

John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Jesus was about to be lifted up. Exalted. Glorified. But again, not in the way they expected. They expected a throne from which to rule and reign. He was lifted up on a cross, to die. He was lifted up in such a way as to draw all kinds of people to himself. A convicted criminal, being executed along side of him (Lk.23:40-43) looked to Jesus as his only hope beyond the immanent grave, and he was given the promise of eternal life. A hardened military commander, a Roman centurion bowed the knee and confessed ‘surely this was the Son of God’ (Mt.27:54). A rich man, a respected member of the council, Joseph, and Nicodemus, religious leaders, both secret believers because of fear now went public with their faith (Jn.19:38-40). A passionate hater, a persecutor of the church (Ac.9:4-5, 20), Saul confronted by the crucified and risen Jesus, turned and ‘proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God”’. A skeptic, a disillusioned doubter, someone who wanted hard evidence:

John 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus glorified like a seed, lifted up to draw all kinds of people to himself. A convicted criminal, a hardened military man, the rich and influential, religious people, fearful people, passionate haters, even persecutors, skeptics, doubters. All sinners. All in need of a savior. And he came to seek and to save, to save now. What about you?

John 3:18 ​Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 5:25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Friend, what about you, today?

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Rejecting God and His Promises

We’re looking at the end of Numbers 14 and chapter 15. In 13, ten of the spies sent out to assess the land returned an evil report; they said:

Numbers 13:31 …“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 …“The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Numbers 14:1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 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! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

They even attempted to execute Joshua and Caleb, who brought a good report and encouraged the people to courageous obedience. The Lord was angry.

Numbers 14:11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done 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.”

Moses interceded for the people, asking the Lord to forgive their iniquity, and the Lord answered his prayers. He has pardoned, but there are consequences for rebellion. That generation who preferred to die in the wilderness rather than enter the land would get their request. Their children, who they feared would be taken captive, would live to capture the land. The ten who brought the evil report and caused the whole congregation to grumble, died immediately before the Lord.

The consequences for the rest? “But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness” (Nu.14:32) over the next 40 years.

Godly Sorrow or Worldly Grief?

How did the people respond?

Numbers 14:39 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.”

This is great, right? Finally the people are grieved and confess their sins. Finally they choose to obey. Moses doesn’t seem to think so.

What is going on here? Isn’t their mourning, their acknowledgment of sin good? Not always. The people were practiced at crying, wailing to get their way.

In Genesis 25, Esau despised his birthright; he traded it for a single meal because he was hungry. Hebrews comments:

Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; … 16 that no one is …unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Esau sought the blessing; he treasured the gift more than the Giver. Tears can indicate true repentance, true turning back to God, or tears can be tears of regret, selfish tears because of a loss of something desired.

Paul makes a distinction in 2 Corinthians 7 between godly grief that brings repentance and leads to salvation without regret, and worldly grief that produces death.

It was clear to Moses that this was of the worldly variety.

Numbers 14:41 But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, when that will not succeed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”

After you refused to follow God into battle, do you think he will follow you? The Lord had already said:

Numbers 14:25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

They were not turning back to God, back to his guidance and leadership. They were grasping at the promise they had forfeited through their unbelief in God, but they were seeking to take hold of it in their own strength. They didn’t return to God; they attempted to gain God’s promises without God, through their own efforts. This is not courage, it is foolhardy pride, and further transgression. Delayed obedience is disobedience. When the Lord says go, they refuse; when the Lord says do not go, they say ‘now we will go up.’

Presumptuous Sin

Numbers 14:44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.

Hormah means destruction; it may have got its name from this event. Because of their arrogant rebellion they became as something devoted to destruction.

Moses Established, Covenant Confirmed

After all this, chapter 15 comes as a complete shock.

Numbers 15:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, 3 and you offer to the LORD from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the LORD, 4 then he who brings his offering shall offer to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil; 5 and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb.

Leviticus and Numbers are punctuated with this phrase “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying”. Here, after blatant rebellion, the Lord gives instructions for offering grain, oil and wine along with their sacrifices, sacrifices for unintentional sins, and tassels on garments. What is going on here? This seems so abrupt and disconnected that some conjecture a later editor haphazard assembling scraps of texts.

But listen carefully to what God says here:

Numbers 15:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you,

The people rejected the land, rebelled against God, rejected Moses and chose to go back to Egypt. God wanted to wipe them all out and start over. Moses prayed and God forgave, but said those who rebelled would fall in the wilderness but to their children he would give the land. Now he speaks again through Moses, establishing him as leader, and gives instructions for ‘when you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you’, affirming that he will make good on his promises to this next generation. This is grace, this is not what they deserve.

What he says is not for the next 40 years of wandering in the wilderness; it is contingent on being in the promised land,

Deuteronomy 6:10 “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant— …

They were pasturing their flocks and herds in the wilderness, and the Lord was providing them with bread from heaven to eat. But now he is commanding fine flour mixed with olive oil, and wine to accompany their offerings in proportion to the meat they offer. This will require fields and olive groves and vineyards. This would have been a rare commodity in the wilderness, but seeing the cluster of grapes carried by two men, God’s promised land could easily sustain it.

Invitation to Fellowship

But this is even bigger than that. Some of the offerings listed were whole burnt offerings where the animal was entirely consumed in fire and went up in smoke to the Lord. But some of these offerings were meant to be a shared meal in the presence of the Lord, where some of the animal went up in smoke to the Lord, some was consumed by the priests, and some by the worshiper. God is inviting the children of this wayward people into fellowship with him, inviting them to enter his courtyards and feast with him on the good things he gives them, with bread and oil and wine.

Verses 3-5 specify 1.5 liters of flour, 0.5 liter of oil and 0.5 liter of wine to accompany every lamb. Verses 6-7 increase the quantities to 3 liters of flour, 0.8 liters of oil and 0.8 liters of wine for a ram. For a bull verses 8-10 require 4.5 liters of flour, 1 liter of oil and 1 liter of wine.

Numbers 15:11 “Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. 12 As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. 13 Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 14 And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he shall do as you do. 15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. 16 One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

Verses 13-16 make clear that this applies not only to the native Israelite now living in the land, but equally to the stranger who is sojourning with you who wishes to offer offerings to YHWH. God welcomes all from every ethnicity, from every background to join his people in worship and fellowship in his courts. The Lord is welcoming the nations!

Firstfruits; Remember Who Gave It To You

Numbers 15:17 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you 19 and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. 20 Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. 21 Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations.

Here it is again; ‘when you come into the land to which I bring you’. The Lord is giving them the land, and of the produce of the land, he asks them to give back to him a portion, not because he needs it, but because they need to remember where it came from and to whom it all belongs.

Forgiveness for Unintentional Sins

Numbers 15:22 “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses, 23 all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the LORD gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations,

There is such a thing as unintentional sins; did you know that? Sins of ignorance; I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that; or neglect; I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. Mistakes; I didn’t mean to do that, but I did, are all still sins. They violate God’s holy standards, and appropriate sacrifices are proscribed, whether it is a sin of the entire congregation (v.24-26) or an individual (v.27-29). When they come to realize their sin, and they make the appropriate sacrifices, ‘they shall be forgiven’ (v.25,26,28)

Death for High Handed Sins

Numbers 15:30 But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

There is a sin for which there was no sacrifice. It is a high-handed sin, committed in full knowledge of God’s law. It insults the Lord, despises his word, and willfully violates his commands. This is a sin of knowing rebellion, and it deserves death.

A Covenant Breaker Executed

Numbers 15:32 While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. 35 And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Wow, this shocks our modern sensibilities. Public execution for picking up sticks? In Exodus 31, God gave to Israel the Sabbath rest as a sign between God and his people, and stated there the death penalty for violators. Remember, God set his people free from hard slavery. He was not saying, I demand this much work or you will die; ‘but I just can’t get it all done!’ No, he was inviting them into his rest. And a double portion of manna came from heaven every Friday, to remind them that they were abundantly supplied, so they could really rest on the Sabbath. This was an example, not of an unintentional sin, but a flagrant, public, shaking the fist at God overt violation of his command, insulting the Lord and despising his word.

There was no sacrifice a sinner could make that would cover this kind of rebellious, willful sin. And that’s where we all live. All we like sheep have gone astray (Is.53:6). We have rejected his way and gone our own way. And there’s nothing we can offer that will cover it. The wages of our sin is death (Rom.6:23). God himself had to make a way. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus took my place, paid my price, so even my rebellion could be taken away.

Tassels with Blue; Remember Whose You Are

Numbers 15:37 The LORD said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

Make tassels with a cord of blue. Blue dye was extraordinarily expensive, and pointed to royalty and divinity. The veil of the tabernacle and its gate were woven of blue and purple and scarlet. The robe of the high priest was made all of blue, and a cord of blue fastened the gold plate engraved with ‘Holy to YHWH’ to his head (Ex.28:31,37). This was to be a visible reminder that every Israelite was set apart to belong the Lord as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex.19:5-6). Remember whose you are!

This chapter closes with an affirmation to this next generation:

Numbers 15:41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”

More than just ‘to give you the land’; but ‘to be your God’, the I AM.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

The Lord brought his people out of oppressive slavery, out of Egypt, through the sea, through the wilderness to the mountain where he revealed himself to them, forgave their rebellion, entered into a covenant relationship with them. He came to pitch his tent and dwell in the middle of their camp, organized them for war, to march on the promised land. He led them through the wilderness to the border of the land, poised to enter in. They sent spies to seek out the best routes, to understand the occupants of the land, and to bring back evidence of the fruitfulness of the promised land.

Twelve spies traveled the land, visited the place of the patriarchs, where God made promises to Abraham, where Abraham bought a plot of land, a foothold in the land of promise, where Sarah and Abraham, Rebekah and Isaac, Leah and Jacob were buried.

The report the ten brought back was that the land was indeed fruitful with flocks and produce, flowing with milk and honey. But there were fearsome occupants, even giants in the land; this report ignited fear in the people.

Numbers 13:30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The Choice

The people have a choice. The same choice we all have. Believe God, trust what he says, take hold of his promises; or listen to other voices, distrust God, his character, what he has said. This was the choice of Adam and Eve in the garden; take God at his word and listen to him; or entertain other voices that questioned his goodness, doubted his truthfulness, undermined his authority. This is the most important choice we have to make, and this choice has clearly communicated consequences. As Jesus summarized it,

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

We have the advantage of looking back on those who have gone before, we have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and avoid them, or follow in their footsteps and inherit the same kinds of consequences. What voice will you listen to?

The People’s Rebellion

Numbers 14:1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 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! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Unimaginable! Unbelievable! Unthinkable! God had freed them from slavery, carried them, protected them, provided for them, and made precious and very great promises to them, but because of their present circumstances, because of their fears, they would rather have died slaves in Egypt. They would rather have died in the wilderness. The excuse they use is concern for their wives and children, but is this really the kind of example these men want to set for their families? Do they really want them to follow in their footsteps?

We are amazed at their unbelief, but how often do we do the same? In Jesus we have been set free, free from the power and consequences of our sins. But do we reminisce about the good old days of slavery to sin? Jesus sets us free from bondage to lusts, addictions, pride, greed, holding on to bitterness and unforgiveness. How often do we willfully go back to wallow in our own filth?

Let’s choose another leader who will take us back to slavery, back to death. Have they forgotten Miriam’s challenge to Moses’ authority in chapter 12, and God’s unmistakable affirmation of Moses as the one leader the Lord had established? That cost them a seven day delay waiting for Miriam to be cleansed and brought back into the camp.

They know Moses is following God’s direction, so he won’t take them back to slavery. In their rejection of Moses’ leadership, they are really rejecting God as their leader and admitting that they are going opposite to what God has commanded.

Godly Leaders Care for the Flock

Numbers 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”

These leaders genuinely care for the people. They are not offended; they don’t take it personally. They fall on their faces, they tear their clothes; signs of broken-hearted humility. They understand that the people are operating out of fear and rebelling against the Lord. They understand that there are severe consequences for this kind of rebellion, and they want to do anything they can to prevent the people from going in that direction. In chapter 11, when the people complained, the fire of YHWH burned among them. When they craved other food, the Lord struck down those with the craving with a very great plague, and they buried them there. But this is more than complaint; they are rebelling, rejecting God as leader, rejecting his plan, his purposes, his promises. They are rejecting him and choosing to go back to slavery without him.

God’s Glory Revealed in Judgment

Their response to this kind of leadership?

Numbers 14:10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done 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.”

They want to execute their humble, godly leaders, but God rescues them by his glorious presence. God’s glory is revealed in his just judgment of sin. God does take it personally, because sin is personal against God. They are despising him. They are refusing to believe in him. Everything God says here is right and just. They deserve to be disinherited. They deserve to be destroyed. God threatens to wipe them out and start over with Moses. This is not the first time God has made this threat. If we look back to Exodus 32; when the people turn to false gods and worship the golden calf,

Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Moses Intercedes

There we see Moses interceding for the people, arguing with God about his threats, ‘and the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people’ (Ex.32:14).

Here in Numbers 14,

Numbers 14:13 But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, 14 and they will tell 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 face to face, and 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. 15 Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, 16 ‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ 17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, 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 generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

Moses, like a good lawyer, argues the case of the people before God. He doesn’t attempt to justify the actions of the people; they are unjustifiable. Instead he argues for the reputation of God. God is powerful, and has committed to be with this people. If he kills them all now, his name will be slandered among the nations; they will believe that he is not as powerful as they thought he was.

Understand, Moses is not puffing God’s ego; people thinking less of God, disbelieving in God does not injure God’s pride; it injures the people that refuse to believe in him. And God has a heart not only for his own people, but for the nations. God has already commanded his people to welcome the foreigner who desires to follow God and belong to his people. If they come to view him as unable to save, they are less likely to follow him, to turn and trust in him.

Moses also argues from God’s own revealed character. He prays scripture back to God. God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 34;

Exodus 34:6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Here Moses calls on God to put his great power on display by keeping the promise of his character; this is a perfect opportunity to show that you are slow to anger, that you abound in steadfast love, that you indeed are able to forgive iniquity and transgression, and that you all the while retain your integrity and justice, by no means clearing the guilty. Moses calls on the immensity of God’s steadfast love, his covenant faithfulness, and his history of forgiving this persistently wayward people.

These are powerful lessons for prayer; a deep concern for God’s people, a passion for God’s glory, praying his words back to him, calling on him to be who he has revealed himself to be.

The Glory of God in Forgiveness and Justice

YHWH heard and answered this prayer.

Numbers 14:20 Then the LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

‘I have pardoned, according to your word’. God grants forgiveness, but forgiveness does not imply escape from all of sin’s consequences. God threatened to wipe them out and start over. That’s what they deserved, but he does not give them all that they deserve.

Moses argued for God to defend the honor of his name among the nations; God answers ‘ all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD’. I will fill the earth with the weightiness of my character. God’s character is revealed both in justice and in mercy, in wrath and in forgiveness. He will not wipe all his rebellious people out immediately as they deserve, but those who saw his glory, saw his miraculous works, who persistently challenged God, disobeyed God, despised God, will not enter the land. Because God’s character is weighty, because he is just and will not let the guilty go unpunished, there will be consequences for their blatant rebellion.

Giving Them What They Desired

Numbers 14:26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

Again, God gives them what they asked for. They would rather die in the wilderness than enter the land; so be it. They rejected the land, so God will not force them to enter in. Their children will suffer for the unbelief of their parents. Sin has consequences not only on the one who sins, but on everyone around them. The children are not being punished for the sins of their fathers, but the sins of the fathers affect the lives of their children. The ones they claimed to be protecting will now suffer as a consequence of their rebellion.

But even in God’s just judgment, there is promise and hope. Their children will enter in. God says ‘I will bring them in, and they will know the land.’

Leaders Held Accountable

Numbers 14:36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— 37 the men who brought up a bad report of the land— died by plague before the LORD. 38 Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

The whole nation deserved to die; only that generation would fall in the wilderness. The whole nation deserved to die immediately; only the ten leaders who influenced the people to rebel against God die immediately.

Written for Our Instruction

1 Corinthians 10 tells us ‘these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction’. Hebrews 3 warns us;

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 ​As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

God set his people free from their slavery to Egypt. He brought them through the sea and destroyed their enemies. He met their needs and brought them to Mount Sinai, where he entered into a covenant relationship with them, gave them the covenant contract, which they broke before it was even delivered, yet he forgave their sins and promised to dwell with them, to be their God and take them to be his own people. They built him a sanctuary to dwell in the middle of their camp. He had the fighting men numbered, arrayed around his tent, organized for the march to the promised land. Along the way they grumbled about their hardships, complained about his miraculous provision of food, even Moses’ own siblings spoke against his leadership.

But here they are in Hazeroth, in the wilderness of Paran, on the southern border of the promised land, poised to enter in and realize all the promises of God to them.

Numbers 13:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

God’s Promise of Land

Go, spy out the land which I am giving to you. This was the Lord’s purpose all the way back to Abraham. In Genesis 12, God called Abram to leave his homeland and go ‘to the land that I will show you’. Abraham journeyed to Canaan, to Shechem,

Genesis 12:7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Then again in Genesis 13, east of Bethel,

Genesis 13:14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

Here we are over 600 years later, the offspring of Abraham are numerous as the dust of the earth, camped at the border of the land the Lord promised to give to them. Like Abraham they are to go walk through and inspect the land the Lord is giving to them.

God Grants Their Request for Spies

In Deuteronomy 1, Moses writes of this in retrospect, and fills in some details he doesn’t give us here.

Deuteronomy 1:19 “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. 21 See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe.

In Deuteronomy Moses recalls that he charged the people to go up and take possession of the land that YHWH God is giving to us; but it was the peoples’ request to first send spies ahead to discover the best ways of approach. This seemed good to Moses, and the Lord granted this request and commanded them to send men to spy out the land.

Could this be another instance of the people postponing obedience and asking for something that was not good for them, and the Lord granting their request?

Here we have another list of names, this one different from the lists of the chiefs of the tribes in the earlier chapters; probably younger men were chosen for the rigorous task of a 40 day 500 mile journey to take inventory of the land.

Numbers 13:4 And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

‘Hoshea’ meant salvation; ‘Yehoshua’ (Joshua) meant YHWH saves; this Hebrew name translated into the Greek came across as Iesoun or Iesous (Neh.8:17); Jesus in English.

Walk the Land and Take Inventory

Moses gives this group of 12 men clear instructions on what they are to accomplish;

Numbers 13:17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

It is now late July; about 2 months after leaving Sinai; according to Deuteronomy 1, that’s an 11 day journey for a smaller group without delays. The Lord said in Exodus 3,

Exodus 3:8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

God promised a land flowing with milk and honey; fruit of the flocks and of fields; does the land measure up to God’s promise? God promised to drive out the inhabitants before them; are those inhabitants strong or weak, few or many, dwelling in fortresses or camps?

Hebron, Mamre, Macphela

Numbers 13:21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

They walked the land from South to North. Hebron is specifically highlighted. As we just read from Genesis 13, after God’s promise to give the land to the descendants of Abraham, the Lord said:

Genesis 13:17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

This picture is Abraham’s camping spot by the oaks of Mamre outside the city of Hebron, where he built an altar to YHWH. Hebron is where in Genesis 23, Abraham purchased a plot of land from Ephron the Hittitie to bury his wife Sarah in the cave of Macphela. This is where according to Genesis 49 Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Leah and Jacob were buried. Here is a picture of the monument built over this spot today.

Hebron is a foothold for Israel in the promised land. Hebron is legal Israelite property in the middle of Canaan. Hebron is a reminder of the faithfulness of God to the patriarchs who are buried there. But that’s not what is highlighted in this account. We would expect the narrative to read ‘we came to Hebron, to the plot of land where our forefathers are buried’. But instead three of the current inhabitants are named, sons of Anak; and the antiquity of the city, built before Zoan in Egypt is the focus of their attention. More on this in a bit.

Clusters of Eschol

Numbers 13:23 And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

Like the poles that carried the ark of the covenant, or the carrying frames constructed for carrying the golden lampstand, two of the men carried a single cluster (Eschol means cluster) of grapes on a carrying frame.

Numbers 13:25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

Imagine having been slaves in Egypt 400 years eating leeks and garlic and fish; imagine a year in the wilderness where bread from heaven had to be supplied to meet their nutritional needs. Imagine after all this seeing luscious fruit, ripe figs, pomegranates, a cluster of grapes bound to a pole, carried by two men. But…

A Bad ‘But’

The Bible is full of good buts. Ephesians 2 paints our hopeless condition;

Ephesians 2:3 …we… were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—

But… what comes next in this text is a bad but, a strong adversative; the land is indeed exceedingly good, flowing with milk and honey; it is all it was promised to be, but…

Numbers 13:28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

None of this should have come as a surprise. This should not be a ‘but’; it should be an ‘and’. We read in Genesis 12 and 13 where God promised Abraham the land. In Genesis 15,

Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Exodus 3 also describes the promised land as the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. The Lord never suggested that he was giving them a vacant land, a land they wouldn’t have to fight to possess. Numbers begins with numbering the military aged men and organizing their marching and camping formations. In fact, he had told Abraham that it would not be until the fourth generation that his descendants would ‘come back here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’ (Gen.15:16). God would dispossess these nations because of their abhorrent sins, and he warned his own people not to adopt those wicked practices, or they would fall under his condemnation as well.

Apparently this report created quite a stir.

Caleb’s Confidence

Numbers 13:30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Caleb was one of the twelve men sent to spy out the land. All twelve of them saw the same things. They had the same data. Caleb didn’t dispute any of the information presented. But the way it was presented was intended to lead to a conclusion. The Lord commanded them to spy out the land ‘which I am giving to the people of Israel’, but when they returned, they said ‘We came to the land to which you sent us’; no mention of God’s promise to give it to them. Moses’ instructions started with the occupants; strong or weak, few or many, in camps or fortified cities, and ended with the land, rich or poor, trees and fruit. In their report they presented the evidence of the fruitfulness of the land first, but concluded with the strength, fortifications, and size of its inhabitants. The majority perspective was pessimistic. But Caleb was full of faith. “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

So far the ten had only framed the facts in a negative light. Now they come right out and say what they believe.

Numbers 13:31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Many commentators think everything the spies said here was exaggeration. I’m not so sure. According to Deuteronomy 2:10 the Anakim were also called Rephaim as listed in Genesis 15, and described as ‘a people great and many, tall’. Deuteronomy 3 mentions Og king of Bashan, who was of the remnant of the Rephaim, whose bed was 9 cubits (or 13.5 feet long). David killed Goliath who was over 9 feet tall (1Sam.17:4-7) and 2 Samuel 21:16-22 and 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 record David’s mighty men killing the four other giants of Gath (does that explain why David originally took five stones onto the battlefield?).

The difference was not in the facts; the difference was factoring God into the equation. Would they be driven by their own fear or by faith in God and his promises? Humanly speaking, it was an impossible task. They felt like grasshoppers, the smallest creature on the Israelite diet. They thought they would be swallowed whole by the giants. They described the land as a land that devours its inhabitants; The Lord said that the land would vomit out its wicked inhabitants because of their abhorrent sins (Lev.18:24-28; 20:22-24; cf. Deut.18:14). Caleb was not looking at military might alone; he was looking at God and his promises. David’s words sum it up well;

1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

What voices will you listen to? God has made even greater promises to us in Jesus; gospel promises. Forgiveness of sins to all who believe in Jesus’ name (Ac.10:43); ‘there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom.8:1); we are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col.1:14); made alive with Christ (Col.2:13); sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Eph.1:13); ‘more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Rom.8:37).

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

By Numbers 10, the Lord’s army is numbered, purified, organized, and sets out on march to occupy the promised land. But already in Numbers 11, the people begin to grumble. They complain about their hardships. They complain about the Lord’s provision of food; even Moses is overwhelmed and complains that the leadership the Lord has entrusted to him is too much for him to bear. The Lord sent his Spirit out on seventy of the elders of Israel to share the burden of spiritual leadership alongside Moses. The Lord gave them meat until it came out at their nostrils, and sent a plague among them. The Lord sent a burning into the outlying parts of the camp.

Personal Attack; The Cushite Woman

In chapter 12 we see another complaint arise:

Numbers 12:1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.

This is personal. This is painful. When someone who is supposed to have your back sticks a knife in it, that cuts deep. The people who are closest to us have the ability to injure us most deeply. Miriam is Moses’ older sister (Nu.26:59), who cared for him as a baby (Ex.2:3-7). She objects to Moses’ wife, it seems because of her ethnicity. Could it be that she is seizing this opportunity after chapter 11, where it was the rabble, the mixed multitude that came with the Israelites out of Egypt, who initiated the complaint about the lack of meat and vegetables in the Lord’s provision of food? Cush is traditionally identified with Ethiopia, although there is some evidence that the Midianites may have been known as Cushites as well.

We know nothing about Moses’ marriage to a Cushite woman. All we know is that Moses married Zipporah, one of the daughters of Reuel or Jethro, the priest of Midian, after he fled Egypt, and he had two sons by her. At some point, likely during the confrontations with Pharaoh, he had sent her back to her father, who then brought her and her sons back to Moses at Mount Sinai. It could be that Moses took a second wife at some point, either after Zipporah died, or while she was still alive, or it could be that this is a derogatory reference to Zipporah herself. The text simply doesn’t answer all our questions. What is clear, is that this was not the main objection, because this is not brought up again or addressed by the Lord in the narrative. It seems this was a smokescreen, an ad hominem argument, a personal attack, attempting to undermine or discredit Moses’ character.

Perspectives on Power; The Lord Speaks Through Us Too!

The real issue was the unique office and authority of Moses.

Numbers 12:2 And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.

In the last chapter, Moses had complained to the Lord ‘that you lay the burden of all this people on me …I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me’ (11:11,14). The difference in perspectives is instructive; the ones who don’t have the primary position of authority are jealous and jockey for more power, and the one who has been entrusted with that position of authority feels overwhelmed and inadequate and is glad to share it with others.

This may also have been a reaction to what happened just before; the Lord poured out his Spirit on 70 of the elders of Israel, and they prophesied. This may have felt like a threat to their positions, as Miriam was called a prophetess in Exodus 15:20, and leads the women of Israel in a song of worship. Aaron was the high priest of Israel, responsible to oversee the entire tabernacle and everything related to it. The later prophet Micah refers to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as the ones who led Israel out of Egypt (Mic.6:4).

Why did Moses feel overwhelmed if he had Aaron and Miriam by his side? Did their jealousy prevent them from doing what they could to help Moses bear the burden of the people, because they didn’t have the primary role? Did they feel threatened in their own positions when God poured out his Spirit on the 70 elders and enabled those men to prophesy? Or were they leveraging this opportunity to give credibility to their allegation that Moses is not unique and should not be given exclusive authority?

Moses’ Humility

We are not told who they spoke to; only that they spoke against Moses, spreading rumors to anyone who would listen. We are not told if they ever spoke to Moses or if he had even caught wind of what they were doing. If Moses did hear of it, he did nothing to defend himself,

Numbers 12:3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.

Moses was very meek. This word can mean ‘humble, lowly, meek, poor; depressed in mind or circumstances; even afflicted or miserable’ We see this word in the Psalms and Proverbs and the prophets of those who look to the Lord alone because they cannot defend themselves. Those who are weak and destitute must depend on another.

The Lord Spoke

Moses did not defend himself. But YHWH heard. And he came quickly to Moses’ defense.

Numbers 12:4 And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.

Miriam and Aaron said: ‘Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?’ Now the Lord called them out, spoke to them directly, gave them a talking to.

Numbers 12:6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

Prophets Prophesied Beyond Themselves

YHWH defends the uniqueness of Moses. He is not like any other prophet. The Lord speaks to Moses directly, mouth to mouth, clearly, he beholds the form of YHWH. Prophets are given visions, dreams, sometimes riddles; it is not direct, and it is not always clear. This helps us understand the prophets. Sometimes they see things, they describe what they see, but they may not even fully understand what it all means. Peter says, talking about the salvation in Jesus we now enjoy:

1 Peter 1:10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Prophets prophesied beyond what they understood. They had to study. They asked for understanding. Sometimes they were told ‘this is not for you or your time’ (Dan.9:2; 12:8-9).

Miriam’s Leprosy; Aaron’s Confession

Not so my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

Numbers 12:9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed. 10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.” 14 But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” 15 So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. 16 After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

The Lord withdrew his presence. Sin has consequences. Sin causes separation. But why single out Miriam? Wasn’t Aaron equally guilty? In the first verse, Miriam is named before Aaron, and the verb in that sentence is feminine, so we could translate it awkwardly ‘Miriam and Aaron, she spoke against Moses’. It seems that Miriam initiated the complaint and persuaded her brother (who it seems was easily persuaded; remember the golden calf incident?) to go along with her. But Aaron owns his own sin in it all; he is quick to confess. ‘We have done foolishly and have sinned’. Remember, God is always just, and the punishment fits the crime. When we feel like a punishment God gives is too severe, we would do well to look back at what we have done in light of how God sees it. If her Cushite comment was an ethnic slur, her own skin became white and flaky like snow, flesh half eaten away. She was seeking glory, claiming equal access to God, and the Lord withdrew, and she would be put outside the camp, far away from the place where God revealed his presence. Later (2Chr.26) a good king of Judah presumed to offer incense in the temple and the LORD struck him with leprosy for his pride.

Both Miriam and Aaron are humbled. Aaron now addresses the one they sought to undermine as ‘my lord’, and he pleads with him to intercede for Miriam. Aaron is the high priest of Israel, and as priest he is authorized to examine and diagnose leprosy, to isolate the one with a skin disease, and to pronounce them clean if it goes away, but he is powerless to heal (Lev.13:4, 45-46).

Moses doesn’t hold a grudge; he isn’t glad she is getting what she deserves. He immediately cries out to the Lord for healing. And we assume she was immediately healed, but still required to follow the seven day cleansing period for one who came in contact with the dead (Num.19) as her own flesh was ‘as one dead’. We are not told if she was required to go through the elaborate cleansing procedure for one healed of leprosy as outlined in Leviticus 14.

Miriam was still a respected leader, and the camp didn’t move until she was restored to them.

My Faithful Servant/ The Faithful Son

Hebrews 3 quotes Numbers 12:7 twice; “Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.” Hebrews is comparing and contrasting Moses and Jesus.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Moses was a faithful servant entrusted with overseeing all God’s house; but Jesus has greater glory; he is the Son over God’s house.

Moses is unique among the prophets, as one to whom the Lord spoke mouth to mouth, who beheld the form of the Lord. But even that had limits; when Moses asked to see God’s glory, he was allowed to see his form, his back, ‘But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live”’ (Ex.33:20).

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus is:

Hebrews 1:3 …the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power….

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

YHWH spoke clearly to Moses, but Jesus is the very Word of God made flesh;

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, …

Moses was not only a prophet, but the sole mediator of the old covenant, who stood between God and man. Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 18 that ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me.’ Jesus is ‘the mediator of a new covenant (Heb.12:24).

Hebrews 8:6 …Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Moses was very humble, lowly; ‘more than all people who were on the face of the earth’; Jesus said:

Matthew 11:28 ​Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Moses did not speak in his own defense. Jesus:

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

1 Peter 2:23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

We see Moses regularly interceding for sinners; here he prays for his sister Miriam. Jesus

Isaiah 53:12 … bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus

Hebrews 7:25 …is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Moses consistently points us beyond himself to the one who was to come, to Jesus.

If speaking against Moses brought serious consequences, how much greater if we speak against the Son of God.

Cults and false teachers speak against Jesus; they dishonor him, bring him down. Some say he is a created being, a mere angel. Some say he is just like us, merely human, an exalted man, our brother. They may use his name and say they honor him, but they redefine him in such a way that they speak against him.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Last week we looked at the people’s grumbling over God’s provision of food, and God’s response of ‘giving them the thing they craved, but sending a leanness into their souls’ (Ps.106:14). Interwoven with that is Moses’ own complaint and God’s gracious gift to him.

Anger of YHWH; Displeasure of Moses

The people set out from Sinai in formation, in obedience to the Lord’s direction, but after a three-day march, grumbling spread through the camp like a wildfire. They became discontent with the consistent repetitive nature of God’s faithful provision of bread from heaven; a longing for the good old days of slavery in Egypt. Moses heard, and YHWH heard.

Numbers 11:10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.

Both Moses and YHWH were angry. Rightly angry. Ingratitude for God’s salvation, God’s faithful provision, is wicked. Unbelief, even attempting to manipulate God to satisfy their desires, is sin. The Lord’s nostrils blazed with hot vehemence. And Moses’ eye was evil.

Numbers 11:11 Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14 I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

Human Inability

Moses is rightly frustrated. He acknowledges his own weakness, his own inability. This is reminiscent of when the Lord told Moses that he was sending him to speak to Pharaoh and to set his people free.

Exodus 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you…

Exodus 4:10 But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Moses is acutely aware of his own shortcomings, his own inability for the task God is calling him to. Moses is humble, but this can border on unbelief in God’s sufficiency, as in Exodus 4 where the Lord became angry with Moses because he asked God to please just send someone else.

Moses speaks much truth, but it is flavored with strong emotion, even accusation against the Lord. Moses is overwhelmed, he is out of resources, at the end of himself, and that’s not a bad place to be. He brings his human inability, his discouragement, his despair, even his depression to the Lord, and that’s exactly the right place to bring it.

And the Lord is incredibly merciful with his servant Moses. There is no rebuke, no reprimand, no word of correction toward Moses.

The LORD Supplies Spiritual Help

Moses asks for death, but God gives him help.

Numbers 11:16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 17 And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.

Already in Exodus 18 there were chiefs appointed at Jethro’s suggestion; Moses appointed able men over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens to help bear the burden of settling legal disputes between the people. Already in Exodus 24, 70 of the elders of Israel came up with Moses and Aaron to meet with God on the mountain. Already in Numbers 1, twelve men, heads of each tribe were named to assist in taking a census of the people, in representing each tribe before the Lord, and in organizing and leading the tribes on the march.

But this is different. These seventy were to stand with Moses before the tent of YHWH, and YHWH would put on them a portion of the Spirit to equip them to bear the burden of the people alongside Moses. This was to be spiritual help to share the load, so that Moses would not have to bear it alone. Moses was feeling isolated and out of his depth, so God promised to provide Moses with a Spirit-filled fellowship of leaders.

Is the Lord’s Hand Shortened?

In verses 18-20, the Lord gives Moses a message for the people; he would cure them of their craving by giving them meat for a month until it came out at their nostrils and became loathsome to them.

Moses is incredulous; meat for a month? how is that even possible?

Numbers 11:23 And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

Moses is beyond himself, stuck in unbelief. He can’t possibly imagine how this could happen. YHWH invites him to look beyond himself to who God is. He reminds him of his own proven character, demonstrated in the Exodus.

Exodus 7:5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Egypt knows the power of my hand. Have I changed? Has my power diminished? Moses, do you remember who I AM?

Initial Manifestation of the Spirit

Numbers 11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel anointed Saul king of Israel and said that he would prophesy as supernatural evidence of his calling (cf. 1Sam.19).

1 Samuel 10:10 When they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them.

We see a similar kind of observable evidence of the Holy Spirit happen to believers in the book of Acts:

Acts 19:6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

This seems to be what is happening here in Numbers 11; an initial observable manifestation as evidence that the Spirit of God has come upon these men.

Numbers 11:26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.

We aren’t told why these two didn’t appear in the tabernacle courts, but the Spirit of God is not limited by location, and he evidenced his presence by their prophesying in the camp.

John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The names of these two, by the way, mean ‘God has loved’ and ‘Affectionate’

Ministry Multiplied

Numbers 11:27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Joshua desires to defend the unique leadership role of Moses, (we will see that challenged in the very next chapter), but Moses is not defensive of his own leadership. He understands that all authority belongs to the Lord, and he entrusts it to whomever he chooses. He views leadership as less a position of power and authority to be held on to, and more a weight of responsibility to lead and to provide for those under his care, and is happy to share that responsibility with others.

This is in line with what Jesus taught on leadership:

Mark 10:42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus himself gave us the ultimate example:

Philippians 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So Peter exhorts the elders:

1 Peter 5:2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Joshua desires to defend Moses’ leadership. He was afraid that the Spirit being poured out on others in the camp would diminish Moses’ authority.

One Bible teacher observed “Even as a flame of fire increases as it reaches out and embraces further objects, so the Holy Spirit is not diminished by his extension to others’ lives, but rather is made more effective.” [Jensen EBC, p.54].

Leadership is not diminished; rather ministry is multiplied.

Pour Out Your Spirit on All Flesh!

Moses’ prayer is prophetic; ‘Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!’

Much later Joel prophesied:

Joel 2:28 ​“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 ​Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

In John 7,

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus promised his disciples that the Holy Spirit, who had been with them, would soon live in them (Jn.14:17). On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, Peter quotes the prophecy of Joel as being fulfilled. Because of the finished work of Jesus, the Lord has now poured out his Spirit on all his people, on every believer.

All The LORD’s People Prophets

‘Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!’ In 1 Corinthians 14, teaching about the gifts of the Spirit, Paul tells all the believers in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

And then he tells them why prophecy is superior to tongues;

1 Corinthians 14:2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

Prophecy is meant to build up the church; it is speaking that builds up and encourages and consoles people. It also brings the conviction of the Spirit and can lead to the salvation of unbelievers.

1 Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

‘Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!’ Has God given you a word to build up, to encourage, to console? To bring the conviction of the Spirit that leads to salvation? Moses’ prayer is being realized in us, in the church today!

Spirit Judges; Spirit Empowers

Numbers 11:30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. 31 Then a wind [Ruach] from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail…

The Hebrew word for wind is ‘Ruach’, and it can be translated ‘wind, breath or spirit’. The same word is translated ‘Spirit’ in verses 17, 25, 26, and 29. God’s wind or breath or Spirit brought quail from the sea to judge the craving of the people, and also empowered burden-bearers to come alongside Moses in his time of need.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

According to the Command of YHWH so they did

Thus far in Numbers, the account is punctuated by ‘as the LORD commanded Moses, according to the commandment of the LORD, so the people of Israel did. They numbered the people, numbered the Levites, paid the redemption money, assigned tasks to the Levites, purified the camp, set up and dedicated the tabernacle, consecrated the Levites, celebrated the Passover, and set out on the march ‘according to the command of the LORD’.

In chapter 10, as they set out on their journey, Moses invited his brother-in-law Hobab to join them;

Numbers 10:29 … “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the LORD has promised good to Israel.” … 32 And if you do go with us, whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you.”

At the end of chapter 10,

Numbers 10:35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” 36 And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

The people were walking in obedience, following the manifest presence of God among them, doing everything ‘according to the command of the LORD’, expectant of the blessing of the Lord and all his good promises. In this context, chapter 11 shocks us:

Numbers 11:1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, …

Complaint-Judgment-Prayer-Grace-Memorial

The word ‘misfortunes’ is literally the term ‘evil’. God had set them free from slavery, brought them through the sea on dry land, defeated their enemies, fed them bread from heaven, gave them water in the desert, revealed himself from the mountain and entered into a covenant relationship with them, promised to go with them and do good to them, and they complain about all the bad that happened to them.

Unbelievable! If we experienced all that, we would never grumble, never complain, be only ever overwhelmed by gratitude and joy in his presence – right? We, who have experienced so much more of his grace, we who have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus, who have been forgiven of all our sins and welcomed in to relationship with a God who loves us that much; we would never grumble or complain about our circumstances, would we?

The Hebrew title for Numbers is Bamidbar; ‘In The Wilderness’; they were literally in the wilderness, but their circumstances were also exposing the dry and barren condition of their hearts. They had experienced so much of God’s faithfulness, his character, his blessing, and yet they grumbled. They complained. Instead of looking at all the good the Lord had done, was doing and promised to do, they found things to complain about. They were characterized by ingratitude, unbelief.

Numbers 11:1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.

This is a pattern in the wilderness; the people complain; the Lord responds in judgment, the people cry out, Moses prays to the Lord, the Lord gives grace, and they name the place as a memorial. And then they do it all over again. They don’t remember. They don’t change.

This is not new. The short journey from Egypt to Sinai was also characterized by complaining. Complaining that their work became harder and God saved them by mighty acts of power (Ex.5-6. Complaining that they were trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea, and God parted the sea and destroyed the Egyptian army (Ex.14). Complaining that the water was bitter, and God made the water sweet (Ex.15); complaining of no food to eat, and God sent bread from heaven (Ex.16). Complaining of no water to drink, and God brought water from the rock (Ex.17), complaining about Moses’ delay on the mountain and they made idols to worship, and even this God forgave and promised to go with them (Ex.32-33).

Here they were, having made a covenant with God, having promised

Exodus 24:7 …“All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Setting out from Sinai in obedience to the Lord, and yet their hearts were unchanged.

Craving Wages; Despising Grace

Numbers 11:4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Back in Exodus 16, although their grumbling was no less grievous, at least it was rooted in a real need;

Exodus 16:2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

There, a month away from Egypt, they were hungry and didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. God rained bread from heaven. The next verses describe it:

Numbers 11:7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.

Bread from heaven, daily bread, as much as they needed. And it tasted good, like pastries baked with the cream of the oil. Wouldn’t you love to taste manna? But God had provided their daily bread for a year now, and they were discontent. They wanted something different. They began to reminisce about the good ole’ days as slaves in Egypt with cruel taskmasters, whose wages were enough fish and vegetables to sustain them for another day’s hard labor. God gave them a free gift, his grace, and they craved their wages, what they earned by their suffering and sweat. They wanted to feed the flesh. How sadly our sinful hearts twist the truth and long for that which costs us more than we know!

Contagious Complaining

Notice, complaining is contagious. The rabble that was among them had the strong craving; this is likely the diverse ethnic group that left Egypt with the Israelites (Ex.12:38). But the grumbling spread like a wildfire out of control through the people of Israel. It even spread to their leader, Moses;

Numbers 11:10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. 11 Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14 I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

Even Moses has a complaint. The people complain about their misfortunes, the evil that they experienced; now Moses accuses the Lord of dealing in an evil way with him.

We are going to come back to this part of the story next week to see how God answers Moses’ complaint, to give that the time it deserves.

God instructs Moses:

Numbers 11:18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”

God promises to give the people what they crave, and even Moses is incredulous;

Numbers 11:21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?”

Moses too is infected with unbelief. He is not looking at God, at his character, at his nature, at his past proven faithfulness. He is overwhelmed by the noise of the now. He is frustrated, overwhelmed, looking around at the impossibility of the situation, not at the nature of the wonder working God who has faithfully walked with them this far.

God has a simple word for him:

Numbers 11:23 And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” 24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. …

Is YHWH’s hand shortened? You are forgetting who I AM, who is with you. It’s not you, it’s not on you. It’s on me. Look up. Look at me. I am your provider, your everything. You are not enough; I am more than enough. Jump ahead to verse 31

God Gave What They Craved

Numbers 11:31 Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. 32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

God’s provision of quail is not new; in Exodus 16:12-13 the Lord provided quail along with the manna for the people to eat.

By the way, a homer is not a cartoon character; the footnote in my Bible says that a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; it’s the biggest measure of volume; 10 homers was a gluttonous 60 bushels or 2,200 liters of bird meat. I wanted to understand a little better what we are talking about, so I found out a bushel is about 2,150 cubic inches. If I did the math right, if you imagine a crate that’s a little over 4 foot square, that would hold about 60 bushels or ten homers. Or if you fill up almost nine 55 gallon drums with dead quail, that’s the low end of what each one; maybe each family gathered? It does say they gathered quail ‘all that day and all night and all the next day’. When you think a camp of 600,000 men, that’s a lot of dead birds. God said it would be enough to eat for a whole month. How long does the leftover thanksgiving turkey last in your family? Turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey hash, cold turkey…

Numbers 11:33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. 34 Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.

What’s going on here? The people grumble, longing for meat, for the foods of slavery. God hears and he is angry, he promises to give them a month’s worth of meat, he makes good on his promise, and then his anger strikes down the people with a very great plague.

Psalm 78 is a commentary on this; Asaph rehearses the dark history of Israel, lamenting their unbelief, their forgetfulness, their stubborn rebellion as a warning to the coming generations not to be like their fathers. Verse 17 picks up at this point in the story:

Psalm 78:17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 18 They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? 20 ​He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” 21 Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, 22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. 23 Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, 24 and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. 25 Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance. 26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind; 27 he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; 28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. 29 And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved. 30 But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, 31 the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.

This was rebellion, testing God, making demands of God, even slandering God. It was rooted in unbelief and ingratitude. They were treating God as if he exists simply to fulfill all their desires.

Numbers 11:18 …the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. …20 …a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”

[KJV] Psalm 106:14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. 15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

Sometimes getting what we crave is the punishment we deserve.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

God’s people have been delivered from slavery, brought to Mount Sinai, where they entered into a covenant relationship with YHWH God, constructed the tabernacle where the Lord manifested his presence among them, they celebrated the Passover on the first anniversary of their exodus from Egypt, and now, a month later, they are organized and ready to set out to the promised land.

In Numbers 9, the Lord promises to be with them, to lead and guide them through the wilderness in cloud and fire, and they walk in obedience to God’s guiding cloud. In 10:1-10, God instructs them to use two silver trumpets, a tool to summon the leaders, assemble the camp, to signal the tribes to set out in sequence.

God’s People on the March

In Numbers 10:11 after about 11 months at the foot of Mount Sinai, the cloud of YHWH lifts, signaling them to break camp and set out from Sinai to the promised land. This is a momentous day.

Numbers 10:11 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, 12 and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. 13 They set out for the first time at the command of the LORD by Moses.

God’s glory cloud lifted, the signal was given; the million plus camp sprang into action. Each family packed up and got ready to move at the signal; Aaron and his sons carefully prepared God’s holy furniture for transport according to Numbers 4, and entrusted these items to be carried on the shoulders of the Kohathites. The Gershonites took down the layers of curtains of God’s tent and loaded them on their two ox carts, and the Merarites disassembled the structure, the frames and bases and loaded them on their four carts to be transported (Nu.7:7-8).

The trumpets sounded the alarm, and the tribes under the standard of Judah, camped to the east, at the entrance to the tabernacle set out.

Numbers 10:14 The standard of the camp of the people of Judah set out first by their companies, and over their company was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 15 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Issachar was Nethanel the son of Zuar. 16 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.

In chapter 2 the camps of the tribes were arranged facing the tabernacle, on each of the four points of the compass. The tribes on the east and south were to set out first, and the tent of meeting was to set out, carried by the Levites, in the midst of the camps, each in its position (Nu.2:17). Here we see that the tent itself was to be transported on the carts from chapter 7 in between the standard of Judah and the standard of Reuben.

Numbers 10:17 And when the tabernacle was taken down, the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who carried the tabernacle, set out. 18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out by their companies, and over their company was Elizur the son of Shedeur. 19 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 20 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

Now we are told why the Gershonites and Merarites carried God’s tent ahead of the tribes under Reuben.

Numbers 10:21 Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things, and the tabernacle was set up before their arrival. 22 And the standard of the camp of the people of Ephraim set out by their companies, and over their company was Elishama the son of Ammihud. 23 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 24 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni. 25 Then the standard of the camp of the people of Dan, acting as the rear guard of all the camps, set out by their companies, and over their company was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 26 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ochran. 27 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 28 This was the order of march of the people of Israel by their companies, when they set out.

Lists of Leaders; Heads of Houses, Chiefs of Tribes

This is the fourth and final listing of the names of the chiefs, the heads of the tribes. Back in chapter 1, where God instructed Moses to take a census of the tribes, he said:

Numbers 1:4 And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers. 5 And these are the names of the men who shall assist you.

At the end of the list of each tribe with its head,

Numbers 1:16 These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the chiefs of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel.

In chapter 2, where the tribes are grouped under four standards and assigned their camping spots around the tabernacle, the chief of each tribe was listed. In chapter 7, at the dedication of the newly erected tabernacle, each of the tribes on twelve successive days presented offerings to God;

Numbers 7:2 the chiefs of Israel, heads of their fathers’ houses, who were the chiefs of the tribes, who were over those who were listed, approached 3 and brought their offerings before the LORD, … 10 And the chiefs offered offerings for the dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed; and the chiefs offered their offering before the altar. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, “They shall offer their offerings, one chief each day, for the dedication of the altar.”

Leaders and Fathers, Authority, Responsibility, Accountability

In each of these four passages, the name of the tribe, with the name of the chief and the name of his father is rehearsed. That’s three names for each of the twelve tribes in each of these four lists. That’s a lot of repetition, a lot of names (144), a lot of wasted ink on vellum or parchment or paper. A lot of us, when we’re reading our Bibles, and we get to a list of names, our eyes glaze over, our minds tune out and its blah blah blah until we get back into the story. But we believe ‘all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable’ (2Tim.3:16). So why the repetition? Why the lists of names?

First, it’s a reminder that these are real people. These lists provide a great resource for unique baby names, but remember, these are real people who lived real lives, who had relationships, who raised families, who faced struggles, who worked hard. We see their father’s names because back then they didn’t have last names and social security numbers to distinguish which ‘John Johnson’ we’re talking about. Johnson by the way is means John’s son or son of John. So that’s simply a way to distinguish two different people with the same name. But it’s bigger than that. There’s a legacy. The way parents raise their children matters, and the conduct and character of the kids reflect on their parents. That’s not a guarantee, but it is a general rule;

Proverbs 22:6 ​Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 29:17 ​Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Sometimes good parents have rebellious rotten kids, and sometimes that is only for a time. And some kids with rotten parents turn out great. Fathers, it matters how you invest in the lives of your children. And moms, you aren’t off the hook either; several times in the lists of the heroes or villains of the Bible, the mom is also listed, to give credit (or blame) where credit is due.

But these repeated lists are lists of the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. Leaders are listed by name because leaders are important. Leaders lead, for good or for ill. They are responsible for people, and they will be held accountable for how they lead. This is the last time these twelve are listed, but it’s not the last time they show up in the story. In Exodus 13, we see a list of twelve different representatives of the tribes chosen to spy out the land. But back in Exodus,

Exodus 18:25 Moses chose capable men from all Israel, and he made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

So there were a lot of leaders to choose from. In Numbers 16, Korah, a Kohathite Levite, led a rebellion of 250 leaders of the community against Moses, and the Lord destroyed them. In chapter 17, the community continued grumbling against Moses and Aaron, so the Lord instructed them to take the staff of each of the 12 tribal leaders, write their names on their staffs and place them before the Lord. By the next day Aaron’s staff had blossomed and bore fruit!

In Numbers 25, in response to the immorality and idolatry of the people in the matter of Baal Peor,

Numbers 25:4 And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

Leaders are called to lead, to represent the people before God, and with that great responsibility comes great accountability. These lists of names are men who were chosen by God to lead, who started well, who gave generously to the Lord, who had a lot of people who were looking up to them for leadership, who led those people out toward God’s promised land in obedience to God’s command, but whose promising start didn’t persevere; instead they led God’s people in disobedience and rebellion, and fell in the wilderness, and their names are now remembered as those who led in unbelief. Be careful how you lead, and be careful who you follow. Follow God, and submit to your leaders insofar as they are submitting to Christ. Remember, Jesus is the head of his church.

Evangelizing the In-Laws

Numbers 10:29 And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the LORD has promised good to Israel.” 30 But he said to him, “I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my kindred.” 31 And he said, “Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. 32 And if you do go with us, whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you.”

Back in Exodus 2 we seek Moses fleeing from Egypt, coming to the land of Midian, meeting the daughters of Reuel, priest of Midian, who in Exodus 3 is called Jethro, who became Moses’ father-in-law. In Exodus 18, after Moses had led the people out of Egypt, Jethro brought Moses’ wife and sons to him, and it appears he became a believer in YHWH;

Exodus 18:8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”

Jethro also gave him wise advice about delegating leadership, which Moses followed.

Here in Numbers 10, Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, son of Reuel, is with Moses, and Moses invites him to join them on the journey to the promised land. To be connected with God’s people is to enjoy God’s blessing. But Hobab declines. The draw of land and family is strong. But Moses persists; we need your wisdom in the wilderness; God would lead his people, and trumpets were a practical way to communicate to the people. God would guide his people, and a guide who knew how to shepherd flocks in that wilderness, how to find the resources they needed wherever God led, would be a blessing, and in return he would be blessed by God. Numbers doesn’t record his answer, but in Judges we do see the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the descendants of Hobab in the land (Jud.1:16; 4:11,17; cf. 1Sam.15:6), so apparently Hobab was persuaded to join them. Moses was leading God’s people, but he also had family relationships; he was evangelizing his in-laws, inviting non-Jews to believe in and follow YHWH. He was sharing his own testimony; how he had experienced God’s deliverance, how God had been good to him even through hardships, and how God had promised good to them. He was sharing the blessings of YHWH with outsiders, inviting them in, including them in the promises. Remember, the exodus was pointing us to Jesus. Have you experienced all the good promises of God in the gospel, in Jesus? How has Jesus set you free? Invite others to come with you as you experience his goodness.

Moses’ Blessing

Numbers 10:33 So they set out from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey. And the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. 34 And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp. 35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” 36 And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

God’s people were on the move to the promised land, following the Lord’s leading, enjoying God’s sheltering covering. God was leading them toward their rest. We learn here that although the Kohathites were arranged in the middle of the tribes on the march carrying the holy furniture of God’s tent, the ark itself was out front, the container of their covenant relationship with God, the meeting place of God with man, and he was visibly with them, leading them.

Moses’ blessing, Moses prayer whenever the ark set out, was a verbal reminder of God’s presence and protection: ‘Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.’ The sovereign warrior King was leading his troops into battle, advancing into enemy territory, and when God is on the move, his enemies have no chance. When the ark came to rest and the people encamped, he prayed ‘Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.’ You are our Shepherd, our protector; we are your army, but we are needy sheep. As you promised to Abraham, we have become a countless multitude, but we are nothing without you, without your defining presence with us. We need you. Return, encamp in our midst, cover us, dwell with us and be our God and we will be your people.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org