WEBVTT 00:00:01.703 --> 00:00:02.765 Well, good evening everyone. 00:00:02.765 --> 00:00:04.408 It's great to see you. 00:00:04.408 --> 00:00:06.913 Let's take a Bible and go over to the book of Numbers. 00:00:06.913 --> 00:00:07.913 The book of Numbers. 00:00:07.913 --> 00:00:16.193 We're making steady progress to the beginning part of our series, route 66. 00:00:16.193 --> 00:00:22.868 And Micah's encouragement was an interesting one for us to sort of follow with that. 00:00:22.868 --> 00:00:34.622 So if you're able to kind of read these books in preparation or subsequent to the lessons, I think it'd be a good way to sort of increase your understanding of God's word. 00:00:36.347 --> 00:00:39.701 I got a question for you how many of you have heard a sermon in the book of Numbers? 00:00:39.701 --> 00:00:46.814 A few, just a few of you. 00:00:46.814 --> 00:00:49.628 How many of you heard five sermons on the book of Numbers? 00:00:49.628 --> 00:00:53.460 You have, I think so. 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:55.725 Okay, seminary class doesn't count. 00:00:55.725 --> 00:00:59.146 I went to a Christian college, at chapel every day. 00:00:59.146 --> 00:01:01.646 Oh yeah, that doesn't count either. 00:01:01.646 --> 00:01:03.978 I don't think I've ever heard a whole series through Numbers. 00:01:03.978 --> 00:01:05.947 Aha, that was going to be my next question. 00:01:05.947 --> 00:01:11.150 So none of us, I think, have heard a whole series through the book of Numbers. 00:01:11.150 --> 00:01:15.328 Yeah, I have been thinking about what to do after Matthew. 00:01:15.328 --> 00:01:22.712 You'll tell me after this one time through whether or not that's a good idea. 00:01:24.721 --> 00:01:31.787 The book of Numbers doesn't come immediately to mind when someone says to someone in their family or friends, hey, let's do a Bible study together. 00:01:31.787 --> 00:01:35.287 Not many people are like numbers. 00:01:35.287 --> 00:01:36.992 That's exactly the one we're going to do. 00:01:36.992 --> 00:01:43.769 However, it's no less the Word of God than the ones that we might pick more quickly. 00:01:43.769 --> 00:01:50.299 Right, ask the word of God than the ones that we might pick more quickly, right? 00:01:50.299 --> 00:01:55.709 And you know, many of you, when you heard that numbers was going to be the focus tonight, might have went okay, numbers, I'll be there because I usually come. 00:01:55.709 --> 00:01:58.881 But numbers, what has that got for us? 00:01:58.881 --> 00:01:59.683 Right? 00:01:59.683 --> 00:02:11.193 And people might, you know, just wonder if there is any connection to our life, because it has a lot of details that seem very far afield from where we're at today. 00:02:11.193 --> 00:02:16.491 And I understand why it's hard to get through the book of Numbers. 00:02:16.491 --> 00:02:18.765 I think Mary Noel mentioned that. 00:02:18.786 --> 00:02:36.295 You get through that sort of Bible reading plan and you come to a sticking spot, right, and sometimes that sticking spot is just you get overwhelmed with things that have to be done and you look back and you go that's about three weeks since I read through this and you kind of lose. 00:02:36.295 --> 00:02:40.366 You lose your momentum or you bog down. 00:02:40.366 --> 00:02:46.848 You get into a section of scripture and you're like I don't know if I can slog through 20 more chapters of this right. 00:02:46.848 --> 00:02:49.913 Be honest, we've all been there. 00:02:49.913 --> 00:03:06.860 So you know, you read Exodus and you're excited about all the great movement, the plagues in the first chapters, the deliverance of the people, the first Passover, the Ten Commandments you've got Charleston Heston running in your head. 00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:08.323 You know all of that. 00:03:08.502 --> 00:03:14.072 And then the tabernacle. 00:03:14.072 --> 00:03:23.687 How much do I have to know about all the curtains and all the rings and all the posts and all the dimensions? 00:03:23.687 --> 00:03:40.774 Then you get to the book of Leviticus and then you start to realize this whole chapter is about the priest and all the purity rituals and the sacrifices and where each part goes. 00:03:40.774 --> 00:03:47.189 And then you get to the book of Numbers and you realize they're still on the tabernacle. 00:03:47.189 --> 00:03:49.526 We started this in Exodus. 00:03:49.526 --> 00:03:55.270 We went through all of Leviticus and now we're through the first several chapters of Numbers and it's still about the tabernacle. 00:03:55.270 --> 00:04:00.247 And you wonder is there anything beyond that? 00:04:00.247 --> 00:04:04.022 You find out, if you've persevered, that there certainly is. 00:04:04.022 --> 00:04:07.362 Numbers picks up speed again and it begins to move. 00:04:07.362 --> 00:04:09.008 The people physically move again. 00:04:09.008 --> 00:04:21.043 But I have to say it's good to keep going through there, but it's good to keep a perspective as you go through the book of numbers to understand that it truly does have applicability to us. 00:04:22.146 --> 00:04:32.848 Now we call it the book of numbers because there are two numberings in the book of numbers, in chapter 1 and chapter 26,. 00:04:32.848 --> 00:04:34.911 Just seeing if any of you might know that. 00:04:34.911 --> 00:04:39.723 But really is that the focus of the book, those two numbers? 00:04:39.723 --> 00:04:43.807 Not really right. 00:04:43.807 --> 00:04:52.096 Someone took the Greek title and called it arithmoi, where we get our word arithmetic from right. 00:04:52.096 --> 00:04:55.069 Arithmoi the numbers. 00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:11.276 However, if you were to look at the Bible in Hebrew, you would see that it actually takes I think it's the fourth word in the text in the wilderness, in the wilderness. 00:05:11.276 --> 00:05:32.632 It's called In the Wilderness and I think In the Wilderness is probably a much better title for the book than Numbers, because the emphasis of the book is definitely on the wilderness rather than the numbering in chapter 1 and the numbering in chapter 26 of the people. 00:05:32.632 --> 00:05:46.132 Because when you read the book of Numbers you realize that the wilderness is that sort of bridge between Egypt and Canaan. 00:05:46.132 --> 00:05:51.531 It's the bridge between the past and the future of the people. 00:05:51.531 --> 00:05:55.810 It's the bridge between slavery and freedom. 00:05:55.810 --> 00:06:00.951 It's the bridge between promise and fulfillment. 00:06:00.951 --> 00:06:06.911 So I think In the Wilderness really stands to be a better title for the book. 00:06:06.911 --> 00:06:12.485 But I say promise and fulfillment. 00:06:12.545 --> 00:06:14.891 But even what was fulfillment to them? 00:06:14.891 --> 00:06:53.954 The coming into the land, was really just promissory, as it anticipated a greater promise that is to come, because the people of Israel, in their form of worship and their priesthood, worship and their priesthood and their sacrifices and their presence in the land are all preparatory to the fulfillment of something else, because it is part of God's progressive unfolding of his revelation to bring all things together in Christ, because Paul said that Jesus is the teleos, or the focal point, or the fulfillment, or the end of the law. 00:06:53.954 --> 00:07:00.653 And so when we read the book of Numbers, we're reading something that's moving us, a direction. 00:07:00.653 --> 00:07:17.764 It's moving us toward Jesus Christ, to his life, to his teaching, to his death and burial and resurrection, to the outflow of the gospel, the promises that give us eternal hope in a new heaven and a new earth. 00:07:17.764 --> 00:07:25.422 That goes beyond just the parameters of the land of Canaan, the parameters of the land of Canaan. 00:07:25.442 --> 00:07:40.331 We also, when we read the book of Numbers, along with Leviticus, as it gives that broad focus of the tabernacle, we read about its laws, about the sacrifice, about the cleansing rituals, about the priesthood and the tabernacle. 00:07:40.331 --> 00:07:49.377 We're receiving instruction that is foundational to our understanding of sin and sacrifice and forgiveness. 00:07:49.377 --> 00:08:00.266 It brings us directly into the life of Jesus Christ, of sin and His sacrifice and our forgiveness. 00:08:00.266 --> 00:08:02.850 We wouldn't understand the Lord's death without these books. 00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:13.646 This is why the book of Hebrews goes so often back to the book of Leviticus and often brings out as I'll talk about in a moment things out of the book of Numbers. 00:08:15.841 --> 00:08:21.148 Jesus himself said that the book of Numbers applied to him and was directly about him. 00:08:21.148 --> 00:08:26.540 Luke 24, after he rose from the dead and spent time with his disciples. 00:08:26.540 --> 00:08:35.583 It says that he took time with them to speak to them about all the different parts of the Old Testament and how they related to him. 00:08:35.583 --> 00:08:38.325 And then in Luke 24, verse 44. 00:08:38.325 --> 00:09:00.219 This is what I told you while I was still with you. 00:09:00.219 --> 00:09:05.520 Everything must be fulfilled which is written about me in the law of Moses. 00:09:05.520 --> 00:09:06.644 And he goes on again. 00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:21.043 And so the book of Numbers, along with other books in the Old Testament, direct us to Jesus Christ, direct us to his person, his life, his death, his resurrection, the ministry of the gospel. 00:09:21.043 --> 00:09:25.519 We saw that very clearly, I think even this morning, didn't we? 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:40.043 When you see even little nuances of information that are pulled together by the gospel writers out of the Old Testament to give us an understanding of the identity of Jesus and the character of the king and the kingdom. 00:09:40.043 --> 00:09:44.799 So the Bible has a unity as we read it together. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:52.841 But it's important to read it not just from the back to the front but to remember, as it comes to fulfillment in Christ. 00:09:52.841 --> 00:10:05.813 You can't not read it in the realization of the fulfillment of Christ, as you see those things beginning to move that direction and you can start to say, aha, I've got it, I'm getting it. 00:10:05.813 --> 00:10:09.720 So don't read the book of Numbers in isolation. 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:25.101 Don't read it simply as regulations about the tabernacle or remarks about the disobediences of the people or some sense of preparation for the land of Canaan for the second generation. 00:10:25.101 --> 00:10:32.083 Spend more time more broadly thinking about where it's heading thematically. 00:10:33.890 --> 00:10:35.958 Let's get a structure of the book of Numbers. 00:10:35.958 --> 00:10:44.822 I think since we're in the book of Numbers, let's talk about Numbers so you can break it down into thirds, right into three sections. 00:10:44.822 --> 00:10:48.618 I think it's easy to split it into three. 00:10:48.618 --> 00:10:56.679 The first section would be obviously chapter 1 and verse 1, all the way into chapter 10 and say verse 10. 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:06.142 And that gives us the events at Mount Sinai before the people actually pull up tent stakes and begin to move. 00:11:06.142 --> 00:11:24.825 They're still sat there, as they have been since near the end of the book of Exodus and all through the book of Leviticus, sitting there getting instruction about the construction, the worship of, and then the packing up and moving of, the tabernacle itself. 00:11:24.825 --> 00:11:28.475 Inside of those ten chapters. 00:11:28.534 --> 00:11:37.003 In this first third, you have the numbering of the people, you have the outlining of their positions around the tabernacle as it sits in the middle of the people. 00:11:37.003 --> 00:11:41.440 You've got a discussion about the duties of the priests. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:54.947 You've got a discussion about the duties of the priests, the regulations that pertain to their service and the worship in the tabernacle. 00:11:54.947 --> 00:11:55.470 That's the first third. 00:11:55.470 --> 00:12:16.076 The second third records a journey, a journey from Mount Sinai through to the plains of Moab, and this is the section of Scripture that gives us the most information about the wilderness wanderings, and it lasts about 38 years. 00:12:16.076 --> 00:12:22.285 Most of the time is spent in the neighborhood of Kadesh Barnea, which is in the southern part of the nation of Israel. 00:12:22.285 --> 00:12:23.427 Now I've been there. 00:12:23.427 --> 00:12:26.157 It's a desolate place. 00:12:26.157 --> 00:12:31.662 You can look around and wonder is there any living thing out there? 00:12:31.662 --> 00:12:40.032 It's that stark For those of you that have perhaps been to the Mojave Desert and been there in the middle of the summer. 00:12:40.032 --> 00:12:42.918 Imagine what that would be like to live in for 38 years. 00:12:42.918 --> 00:12:44.663 Wouldn't be easy. 00:12:47.510 --> 00:12:50.461 The final, third beginning in chapter. 00:12:50.461 --> 00:12:52.134 Did I give you the chapters for that? 00:12:52.134 --> 00:12:53.058 For the second one I didn't. 00:12:53.058 --> 00:12:58.182 So chapter 10 and verse 11, all the way to chapter 22 and verse 1. 00:12:58.182 --> 00:13:08.784 So 1 to 10.11, or 10.10, 10.11 to 22.1, and then from 22.1 to the end. 00:13:08.784 --> 00:13:16.863 36, gives us an understanding of the people's activity while they're encamped in the plains of Moab. 00:13:16.863 --> 00:13:22.076 So that's one way to look at it. 00:13:22.739 --> 00:13:31.395 In those thirds, another person decides to look at it in a different way, but to break it down, and one of these will catch with you. 00:13:31.395 --> 00:13:42.022 I think he said the book of Numbers can be looked at geographically, it can be looked at thematically or it can be looked at theologically. 00:13:42.022 --> 00:13:45.700 So let's take each of those three and see if this is helpful for us. 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:49.177 So geographically, 1 to 10,. 00:13:49.177 --> 00:13:50.441 What happens at Sinai? 00:13:50.441 --> 00:13:58.341 10 to 20, what happens around Kadesh, barnea, 20 to 36, what culminates in Moab. 00:13:58.341 --> 00:14:01.149 So three locations right. 00:14:01.149 --> 00:14:14.663 So three locations right, and in each of those phases you've got an interspersed of law giving promises, offered, rebellion of people, divine discipline. 00:14:14.663 --> 00:14:22.075 They all intermingle in each of those areas they have some sort of common threads. 00:14:22.075 --> 00:14:39.660 Thematically, the same guy takes the same structure that we started with the third section and he says the community formed, the community in a journey and the community preparing for national settlement. 00:14:39.660 --> 00:14:43.238 I think that's a helpful way to look at it too. 00:14:45.929 --> 00:14:49.441 And then theologically he breaks it up into two ways. 00:14:49.441 --> 00:14:59.102 You've got the death of the Exodus generation and you've got the shifting to the conquest generation. 00:14:59.102 --> 00:15:12.296 Two generations the people that came out of Egypt who die in the wilderness, the second generation who is about to be the conquest generation, into the land of Canaan. 00:15:12.296 --> 00:15:26.769 So 1 to 25 would be the death of the Exodus generation and 26 to 36 would be the shift toward the conquest generation and 26 to 36 would be the shift toward the conquest generation. 00:15:26.769 --> 00:15:29.437 This is what Warren Wiersbe does. 00:15:29.437 --> 00:15:36.038 If you want to look for easy alliterated outlines, warren Wiersbe is your guy, even more than me. 00:15:36.038 --> 00:15:52.826 He does alliteration like a champ and what he does is he breaks it down into 1 to 20, the old generation set aside, and then 21 to 36, the new generation set apart. 00:15:52.826 --> 00:15:58.495 Right, the old generation set aside, the new generation set apart. 00:16:07.750 --> 00:16:12.255 As you read the book of Exodus, even though it spends a lot of time or the book of Numbers sorry, I didn't mean to say Exodus. 00:16:12.255 --> 00:16:13.437 You read the book of Numbers. 00:16:13.437 --> 00:16:17.764 It spends a lot of time talking about the Exodus generation. 00:16:17.764 --> 00:16:33.937 The focus is really moving toward that conquest generation, instructions given to them about actually entering the promised land and around all those structures. 00:16:33.937 --> 00:16:44.072 Any way you want to divide it are those two things that give the book its name the numbers of the people in chapter 1, the numbering of the people in chapter 26,. 00:16:44.072 --> 00:16:46.921 And each has a purpose. 00:16:50.150 --> 00:16:56.197 When you enter into the book of Numbers, you might think it's a little strange that it starts off by numbering the people. 00:16:56.197 --> 00:16:59.017 Why would that be strange? 00:16:59.017 --> 00:17:04.140 The people had just come out of Egypt, right? 00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:07.878 Did they have to fight the Egyptians to get out? 00:17:07.878 --> 00:17:09.875 They did not. 00:17:09.875 --> 00:17:17.720 When God told them that they were going to the land of Canaan, did he tell them to sharpen their swords because they were about to fight? 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:19.894 He did not. 00:17:19.894 --> 00:17:24.540 He told them watch and I'll take care of it. 00:17:24.540 --> 00:17:40.632 So it does seem a little odd that the first thing that happens in the book of Numbers is a numbering of the warriors Numbers. 00:17:40.632 --> 00:17:45.436 Chapter 10 tells him that a battle is going to happen, and it does happen, the Amalekites. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:49.025 You read deeper into the word of God. 00:17:49.025 --> 00:17:52.930 In 2 Samuel 24, you find David gets in trouble for numbering his people. 00:17:52.930 --> 00:18:02.153 But the difference is God calls for the numbering In chapter 1 and chapter 26, not Moses. 00:18:02.153 --> 00:18:24.994 This first census is a census of the warriors, and all the tribes are counted not by the number of people there are not even all the men that there are but how many warriors of certain age there are. 00:18:24.994 --> 00:18:31.744 And so it's to tell them that, look, the numbers are sufficient, but you shouldn't be trusting them. 00:18:31.744 --> 00:18:34.828 You should be trusting the Lord who's carrying you through. 00:18:34.828 --> 00:18:40.863 The last census is a pledge of hope to the people. 00:18:42.971 --> 00:18:56.943 This second generation, this conquest generation, is getting numbered, and in Numbers, chapter 26, in verse 64, we read the conclusion of this numbering. 00:18:56.943 --> 00:19:03.673 It says this conclusion of this numbering. 00:19:03.673 --> 00:19:05.923 It says this among them there was not one of those who had been registered by Moses and the priest Aaron. 00:19:05.923 --> 00:19:17.786 When they registered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai, they were all dead, for the Lord had said to them that they would all die in the wilderness. 00:19:17.786 --> 00:19:24.392 They would all die in the wilderness. 00:19:24.392 --> 00:19:32.305 None of them was left except Caleb, son of Jehudah, and Joshua, son of Nun, two people out of all of those people that had left Egypt. 00:19:32.305 --> 00:19:36.232 What was the numbering for? 00:19:36.232 --> 00:19:48.480 To let them know, just as God had told them that this generation would go but a new generation would arise in which he would carry them into the new land. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:20:00.838 The 38 years of wandering was going to end and in the numbering of the people in Numbers chapter 26, they were able to go. 00:20:00.838 --> 00:20:04.025 We're actually going to go home. 00:20:04.025 --> 00:20:06.537 We're actually going to go home. 00:20:11.390 --> 00:20:16.473 I want to back up and go to that thematic movement a little bit and sort of go back in again. 00:20:16.473 --> 00:20:17.575 Let's go back in again. 00:20:17.575 --> 00:20:25.681 Chapters 1 to 10, with the focus on the tabernacle, the focus on the priestly activities of worship. 00:20:25.681 --> 00:20:46.223 We have a discussion about the ideal Israel as God has informed them of how to meet with Him, how to deal with their sin, how to live a life in the assurance of forgiveness, how holy he is and yet he can be approached, as they do so in the right and proper way. 00:20:46.223 --> 00:21:10.700 However, chapters 11 to 21, we see Israel's rebellion against God, their unbelief in rejecting his plan and then, like I said, chapters 22 to 36, the renewal of God's purposes as he takes up the conquest generation and brings them into the inheritance of the land. 00:21:10.700 --> 00:21:17.202 So these divisions move from positive to negative to positive again. 00:21:17.750 --> 00:21:38.078 As you go from the first section into the second and into the third, and as you do so, there are two big themes that show themselves in the book of Numbers Israel's sin and God's faithfulness Shows the interaction between those two themes. 00:21:38.078 --> 00:21:45.104 God is faithful to his promises even despite Israel's unfaithfulness. 00:21:45.104 --> 00:21:49.878 I want to take those two themes up for just a minute. 00:21:49.878 --> 00:21:52.498 Think about the unfaithfulness of the people. 00:21:52.498 --> 00:21:58.682 When you come into the book of Numbers, you come into the book of Numbers with a sense of anticipation. 00:22:01.030 --> 00:22:09.679 Hundreds of years have passed from the giving of the Abrahamic promises, 2000 BC to 1400 BC. 00:22:09.679 --> 00:22:12.257 Hundreds of years have passed. 00:22:12.257 --> 00:22:24.902 We're now at the point where the people at long last are at the very, very edges of the fulfillment of some of the promises that Abraham was given. 00:22:24.902 --> 00:22:29.097 He was given a promise of an heir. 00:22:29.097 --> 00:22:31.502 He was given the promise of land. 00:22:31.502 --> 00:22:50.900 He was given the promise of a blessing to the nations and here Israel was for the very first time under strong leadership, given God's code of life for them to live by very clear understanding of how to conduct themselves. 00:22:50.900 --> 00:22:55.701 They were given a new sense of national identity and purpose. 00:22:55.701 --> 00:23:00.359 They had God's promises at their back. 00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:03.257 They had God's promises at their back. 00:23:03.257 --> 00:23:12.820 They were beginning to know the very character of God as he revealed himself in Egypt in the plagues and as he explained himself in Sinai. 00:23:12.820 --> 00:23:18.750 They were understanding that God was holy. 00:23:18.750 --> 00:23:27.962 And yet God gave them a way of approach and that their sins, though daily, could be forgiven and they could commune with this God. 00:23:27.962 --> 00:23:50.115 All these hopeful possibilities are there as we come into the book of Numbers and it seems like in a moment, they're obliterated by their refusal to enter into the land that God had called them to and their lack of faith. 00:23:50.856 --> 00:23:55.434 Rebellion, I would call it cost that whole. 00:23:55.434 --> 00:23:59.650 Exodus generation the opportunity to enter into the physical land of Israel. 00:23:59.650 --> 00:24:03.777 Exodus generation the opportunity to enter into the physical land of Israel. 00:24:03.777 --> 00:24:18.869 They spend the rest of their lives, 38 years, journeying among hostile people in a barren, barren place. 00:24:18.869 --> 00:24:27.307 However, god's promises remain intact. 00:24:27.307 --> 00:24:32.492 Despite that, these 40 years are marked by sin after sin after sin. 00:24:32.492 --> 00:24:35.820 In Numbers 11, they grumble about the food that they're given from God. 00:24:35.820 --> 00:24:50.785 Chapter 14, they rebel by refusing to enter into the land, even in the face of the promises of God Chapter 14, they rebel by refusing to enter into the land, even in the face of the promises of God, caleb and Joshua saying we can do it, we can do this. 00:24:50.785 --> 00:24:54.575 They defy Moses' leadership and Aaron's in chapter 16. 00:24:54.575 --> 00:24:57.944 They grumble about the water in chapter 20. 00:24:57.944 --> 00:25:01.316 They've already grumbled about the water and or about the manna in chapter 11, but they do it water in chapter 20. 00:25:01.316 --> 00:25:03.761 They've already grumbled about the water or about the manna in chapter 11, but they do it again in chapter 21. 00:25:03.761 --> 00:25:11.223 And in chapter 25, they're seen to be just going headlong into sexual immorality and idolatry. 00:25:11.223 --> 00:25:15.857 They're a faithless generation. 00:25:18.951 --> 00:25:26.080 Yet the second part is even more clear God's faithfulness to his promises. 00:25:26.080 --> 00:25:34.862 In the first section, god gives them a lot of provisions. 00:25:34.862 --> 00:25:42.202 He provides them with an order and a structure of life and worship. 00:25:42.202 --> 00:25:52.265 He gives them order and arrangement around the tabernacle where His presence is seen and experienced. 00:25:52.265 --> 00:26:01.662 He prescribes for them ways of movement that provide order and structure, even for their journey. 00:26:01.662 --> 00:26:11.270 He takes care of their every need as they travel through a land that wasn't resource rich and able to sustain them. 00:26:11.270 --> 00:26:16.817 The first 10 chapters we see God's provision. 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:20.962 The next section, chapters 11 to 21,. 00:26:20.962 --> 00:26:23.486 We see God's patience with them. 00:26:23.486 --> 00:26:28.859 The Israelites fail to obey, but he doesn't desert them. 00:26:28.859 --> 00:26:30.715 He's still there. 00:26:30.715 --> 00:26:32.817 He hasn't crushed them totally. 00:26:32.817 --> 00:26:42.919 He patiently deals with them, not because he can't, not because he's weak, but because he is patient. 00:26:42.919 --> 00:26:53.942 And he manifests his care for 38 years among a generation that refused him. 00:26:53.942 --> 00:27:23.708 At every turn, as he prepares the next generation for their arrival in the land of Canaan, he directs these people as they watch their fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts die for a movement into a land that those people had refused to receive, to a land that those people had refused to receive. 00:27:23.708 --> 00:27:30.113 And God patiently disciplines and instructs them along the way. 00:27:30.113 --> 00:27:49.654 And then, when we get to the last section in chapters 22 to 36, we see not just God's provision and God's patience, but his persistence to be a faithful God to his promises as he leads the people to the threshold of the land of promise. 00:27:49.654 --> 00:27:59.571 He's been faithful to them despite their obedience, even though the first generation rejected him. 00:27:59.571 --> 00:28:13.765 The new generation is now prepared to go in and, as we read in Numbers in this last section, we see God's promises superseding and colliding with the unbelief of the first generation. 00:28:13.765 --> 00:28:17.115 They had refused to believe. 00:28:17.115 --> 00:28:18.259 But God is still there. 00:28:18.259 --> 00:28:20.115 He's still directing their steps. 00:28:20.115 --> 00:28:22.877 He's still supplying all that they need. 00:28:22.877 --> 00:28:26.619 He's renewing his promises and revealing his laws. 00:28:27.851 --> 00:28:43.416 As early as chapter 15, let me read this to you the Lord instructs Moses Speak to the Israelites and tell them, when you enter the land I'm giving you to settle in. 00:28:43.416 --> 00:28:55.234 As early as that, he's taking up the words of promise to the new generation and telling them you're going to go in, you're going to go in. 00:28:55.234 --> 00:29:12.839 And when you get to Numbers chapter 34 and 35, moses is instructed to etch out the boundaries of land for people that haven't yet even entered into it. 00:29:12.839 --> 00:29:15.438 This is going to be your turf. 00:29:15.438 --> 00:29:17.037 This is going to be your plot. 00:29:17.037 --> 00:29:18.502 This is going to be your area, tribe by tribe. 00:29:18.502 --> 00:29:19.190 This is going to be your plot. 00:29:19.190 --> 00:29:33.849 This is going to be your area, tribe by tribe, to section it off before they even breach the borders of the area. 00:29:33.849 --> 00:29:44.375 And when the book ends, israel's punishment ends and Moses prepares them for what's about to happen. 00:29:44.394 --> 00:29:53.672 And this is what brings us to an application in our day as we think about all of these things, god being faithful to his promises. 00:29:53.672 --> 00:29:55.472 You see, god has given us a new covenant. 00:29:55.472 --> 00:29:58.316 He's given a new heart to his people. 00:29:58.316 --> 00:30:02.039 He's given us a leading by his spirit. 00:30:02.039 --> 00:30:08.006 He's given us a malleability to his word and a desire to obey. 00:30:08.006 --> 00:30:16.531 And he's also given the provision for us, in our daily sins, the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:30:16.531 --> 00:30:25.722 And we look to him as the one and only one who could be truly obedient to all of God's laws, that he alone is the one who deserves to enter into heaven. 00:30:25.722 --> 00:30:28.766 And if we're in him we can go in. 00:30:28.766 --> 00:30:33.353 But if we're trusting ourselves we will not. 00:30:33.353 --> 00:30:50.460 And so through his entrance into heaven, by the blood that he shed, he goes ahead of us and he prepares a place for us, as he said, and he cleanses us by his blood in the new covenant so that we might inherit the promises with our sins forgiven and our hearts cleansed. 00:30:53.352 --> 00:31:11.981 But we're still on a journey, just like they were on a journey, and the writer of Hebrews, in chapters 3 and 4, picks up all the themes out of the book of Numbers and talks about that first generation and uses them as an example. 00:31:11.981 --> 00:31:28.400 It says they were on a way to a land of promise, but they refused to believe God, they refused to submit themselves to God, they refused to listen to God and they died in the wilderness. 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:32.990 He said you're on your way to a promised inheritance. 00:31:32.990 --> 00:31:38.076 You're on your way to a place that God has for you. 00:31:38.076 --> 00:31:42.863 Don't refuse him like the Israelites refused him. 00:31:42.863 --> 00:31:49.336 Don't reject Jesus, his plan, like they rejected his plan. 00:31:49.336 --> 00:31:58.777 Don't seem to be entering the land of promise and yet fail to do so like they did. 00:32:10.653 --> 00:32:26.454 And so, when our pilgrimages to heaven were warned about disobedience and neglect and lack of faith, and then Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 1 to 10, picks up a number of these incidents in the book of Numbers, or in Romans, or in Corinthians rather, and brings the book of Numbers, romans, or in Corinthians, rather, brings the book of numbers, into our lives and tells us don't be like that. 00:32:26.454 --> 00:32:44.339 We should be encouraged that God is faithful, that his promises are true, that he means to fulfill what he's given us, and so we simply trust and we obey. 00:32:44.339 --> 00:32:46.223 It's that simple. 00:32:46.223 --> 00:32:48.374 And so we sing that song, don't? 00:32:48.374 --> 00:32:51.962 We Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. 00:32:51.962 --> 00:32:57.554 But we also sing another hymn, which we're going to sing in just a moment, and I appreciate your flexibility. 00:32:59.137 --> 00:33:08.560 A song that kind of picks up themes of Exodus, themes out of numbers, brings us a little bit past Deuteronomy into Joshua. 00:33:08.560 --> 00:33:14.297 Guide me, o thou great Jehovah Pilgrim, through this barren land. 00:33:14.297 --> 00:33:18.912 I am weak, but thou art mighty, hold me with your powerful hand. 00:33:18.912 --> 00:33:22.241 Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. 00:33:22.241 --> 00:33:26.740 Open now the crystal fountain whence the living waters flow. 00:33:26.740 --> 00:33:30.859 Let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. 00:33:30.859 --> 00:33:35.461 Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield. 00:33:35.461 --> 00:33:44.595 And when I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside Death of death and hell's destruction. 00:33:44.595 --> 00:33:47.561 Land me safe on Canaan's side. 00:33:47.561 --> 00:33:50.215 Songs of praises, songs of praises. 00:33:50.215 --> 00:33:51.640 I will never give to thee. 00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:53.315 I will never give to thee. 00:33:53.315 --> 00:33:59.423 So let's sing as pilgrims headed to a better land than the land of Canaan.