Moses, No. 2

RV125-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)

We are studying the fifth seal in Revelation 6:9-11. This is segment number 8.

Discouragements to Christian Service

One of the great discouragements to Christian service and personal witnessing is the negative response and the reversionism of those we teach.

Paul

The apostle Paul had his John Mark, as we find in Acts 13:13 and Acts 15:37-39, who deserted him in the midst of Christian service. The apostle Paul had his Demas, in 2 Timothy 4:10, who fell in love with the glamor of the world, and so stepped aside to the world system. He had his Alexander the coppersmith, in 2 Timothy 4:14-15, who did him a great deal of personal damage, and who undermined what the apostle Paul was doing to the extent that Paul warned other believers about him. He also had his competitors in Christian service. Philippians 1:15-16 tell us about people who were simply trying to serve the Lord so as to provide misery to the apostle Paul. He also had his summertime friends, as we find in 2 Timothy 4:16, where the first time Paul said that he stood for trial before Nero, not a single believer stood by him. They all scooted, and he found himself standing alone. The summertime friends, in the heat of battle, were ready to desert.

So, the apostle Paul knows well the things that all of us sooner or later will experience in Christian service that people disappoint us. Satan can use these disappointments, of course, to discourage our further effort in the angelic conflict. For this reason, we must always remember to keep our eyes on the Lord whom we serve; whose we are; and, whose directions we are following, and not on people. We are to trust ourselves only to the Lord. If your ministry is going to be structured on how people will respond and how consistent they will be, you will be shot down.

Jesus Christ

We can take our example from the Lord Himself, for in John 2:23, we have this said about the Lord Jesus and His ministry: "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in His Name when they saw the miracles which he did." Here was a ministry confirmed by the miraculous. But Jesus did not commit (did not trust Himself) unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man."

So, the Lord Jesus, while receiving the accolades and the praise and the enthusiasm of the crowd whom he had wowed and impressed with His miracles, did not translate that into firm support and faithfulness in any way. He knew that that same crowd down the line was going to turn on Him, and call for his crucifixion. So, His eyes were on the Lord in heaven. His eyes were on His Father, and they were not on people. He did not trust His ministry to what people were going to do or not d, or to how faithful people would be to the enlightenment which they received. If you're in the Lord's service very long, you will find out very quickly that there is nothing more benighted than the mind of a believer who gets into carnality, and who then goes on the reversionism downward road in spite of all the enlightenment he has. Then the tragedy is to have all of those years spent out in the desert – all of those wasted, wasted years which can never be recouped for storing treasures in heaven.

It is a serious matter when people get sidetracked from what God's thinking would direct them to, and they pay a very serious consequence. We are to stand by. We are to be faithful, the Bible says, "in season," which means when it's convenient; and, "out of season," when it doesn't feel very convenient.

This is what John, who in the vision in heaven, himself now having entered through the open door into heaven, stands there watching as the Lord Jesus breaks the seals on this seven-sealed scroll. When the fifth seal was broken, John discovers many martyrs in heaven who had received evil at the hands of those they served, and who are now in heaven awaiting the execution of God's justice upon their tormentors and upon their abusers. These were God's true and faithful servants who were treated like dogs and killed like rats. These martyrs have a right indeed to expect justice to be executed by God upon those who have rejected the divine viewpoint testimony that they sought to bring them. The question is only when that justice will be executed by an angry and holy God. It will be executed.

There is no doubt about the certainty of the justice at the hand of God upon unbelievers in hell, and there is equally no doubt upon the justice at the hand of God at the Judgment Seat of Christ when reward-time comes along upon the believers who did not remain faithful to the enlightenment they had; who got off into the world's thinking; who got off into carnality; and, who got offered into human viewpoint. It is very important that you consider who your advisers are; who it is that you speak to; and, who it is that you are consulting with. I have discovered that Christians who are determined to do that which is out of step with God's thinking, are very careful to talk with people who will confirm their out-of-step desires, rather than those that they know will confront them with the realities of what they're doing.

Moses

A classic, typical example of serving in the face of abuse and spiritual ignorance is Moses and the Exodus generation of Jews. Moses was reticent, as we found, to assume the role of leading these Jews out of their 400 years of slavery in Egypt. But God said, "Do it," and Moses proceeded to do it. However, the Jews persistently complained about the leadership of Moses and the natural problems which resulted from this mass migration to the Promised Land, which included at least something like two million people. Two million people of all ages were moving out across a desert territory. It was inevitable that there were problems that they were going to come across – just the logistics that are involved in something like that, and not the least of which was the food and water supply. But every time a problem came up, they proceeded to berate and abuse Moses, asking him whether he had planned to bring them out into the desert so they could have more graves, as if there weren't enough in Egypt. They insulted him; they berated him; and, they even threatened him with bodily harm. This was an ungrateful lot of spiritually benighted slaves so that Moses went to the Lord and said, "These people are so crazy they're about to stone me. What am I going to do?"

Well, God faithfully broke the hold of Pharaoh on the Jews, and He provided for the physical needs of the people in the wilderness on every occasion. He never failed them. But no matter how often the Jews saw God's miraculous solutions for their needs, they always complained in the pouting, self-pity style at the next crisis. The murmuring of the Jews against their leader Moses was compounded in its seriousness because it was, in fact, an attack upon God Himself, whom Moses represented, and for whom Moses faithfully spoke. It was a serious sin to resist that leadership.

"Radical Right"

Today, that's the thing we face in our society everywhere. Biblical principles are frowned upon and are sneered at. I want to alert you to a word that you're going to hear a great deal of as we move into this political campaign. It's the word "radical." Do you know what the word "radical" means? The word "radical" means "extreme." I have discovered that the word "radical" is being applied to principles of government that are laid out in the Scriptures; to principles of economics that are laid out in Scriptures; and, to principles of morality which are spelled out in the Word of God. These are being called "radical right." That means "the extreme right." People who are influential and powerful in the political realm have now come on the scene in this current convention in the city of Dallas, and they have declared that positions are being taken which are "radical right" positions.

Well, when I looked at those one-by-one, that they were specifically referring to, I discovered indeed that these are things that the Bible says. These are principles that the Bible lays out. The positions that are taken are happily those that the Bible calls upon us to hold. These are described as being "radically right." I will restrain myself from saying that I would rather be radically right than radically wrong. But nevertheless, that is true. Christians should be aware of the fact that those who are using these pejorative terms are trying to intimidate the people who are indeed radically right. That means that you're not just a little right. Because you know the Word of God, you are way-out, extreme right. Don't be ashamed of it, and don't be intimidated by it. When somebody comes and says, "That's a radical right position," you just remind them that if it is a biblical position, that God also shares it with you, and you're very comfortable about being that extremely right. It's a position that you welcome.

So, Moses dealt with a group of people who treated him as being a radical and an extremist, and who abused him at every turn of the road. Finally, they came to the point of preparation to move into the Promised Land. It was not all that great a distance, and it was not going to be all that great a time before they were at the borders to reenter the land that Jacob and his family had left 400 years previously. Before they came to the land again, however, God had to establish for them the basis upon which they would retain the freedom which He had given them. So, they came to Mount Sinai, and Moses was called up to the mountain to receive the principles of morality upon which all societies must be based if they are to survive in freedom, and upon which every individual human being must function if he is not to become a slave of a variety of evils that come up as appeals from his sin nature.

Spiritual Blindness

However, while Moses was up on Mount Sinai, the Jews once more resorted to their spiritual blindness, and decided that they had to have a more substantial God. They did not like the idea of a God that they could not see – a God that communicated to them through Moses. They had watched the Egyptians with all of their animal gods, so that if you went to pray, you could actually get down before a bull and you could pray before him. At least, if you wanted to worship the dung beetle in Egypt, you could. And you know what dung is. That's the old Elizabethan English for manure. You could get that beetle that lives in manure, and you could bow down before him – one of the main gods of the Egyptian pantheon.

So, they said, "We need a God that's more substantive – a God that we can really worship. Oh, we're going to call in Jehovah, because He has told us that's what His name is." So, while Moses is up on Mount Sinai, they get Aaron (of all people) to collect the gold that they have taken from the Egyptians, and to create the golden calf whom they then called their God "Jehovah," and proceeded to worship him.

Idol Worship

Well, of course, when you worship idols, you do that in the way that idols, from time immemorial, have been worshiped, and that is with a lot of sex and immorality in the process. You don't just worship idols by burning incense and candles. If you're going to worship in front of an idol, it is inevitably a physical expression. So, sex would come into the picture.

Exodus 32:4: "And he received them at their hand (that is, the metals – the gold, Aaron did) and fashioned it with an engraving tool. After he made it a melted calf, and they said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'" What could be more humiliating and debasing? While Moses is up on the mountain communicating with God, and getting the finest, clearest declaration of what God expects of a human being that will make a human being successful and prosperous physically and spiritually, in every way, enabling him to have a maximum lifestyle of blessing, they're down here, groveling before this idol creature, an animal like they worshipped back in Egypt, and they're saying, "This is the God who brought you miraculously across the Red Sea, and has provided for you this food in the wilderness, and has safely brought you to this point."

Exodus 32:6: "And they rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offering, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." Need I explain to you in any detail what they meant by "playing?" Yep, that's what it meant. They established sex orgies all over the backyard lot. And they were doing this in the tradition of the phallic cults to honor this Jehovah God who had led them out.

Boy, I would have hated to be in Moses' shoes as that teacher! After all the instruction he had given them, here was a man that could talk directly to God. I must confess, there are many times when I wish I could just dial heaven, and say, "Lord, I have a few questions I want to discuss with you," and get that kind of direct communication. Boy, that would be great. Moses had it. Wouldn't you like somebody who could talk directly to God?

Now, if you go to a charismatic church, those dudes are all the time saying, "God just told me to do this. God spoke to me this afternoon. I was just riding along in my car, and suddenly the Lord says, 'Hey, Sam, I want to tell you something. This is what I want you to do.'" These people sit there, and their eyes get big and wide. They begin to get sweaty under their armpits, and all excited because here's a message directly from God. That is exciting. They did have that in Moses. The con artists today do not have that. But these people were absolutely so spiritually dull that they could descend to this kind of debasing immorality.

Well, a God of righteousness also seems to have a limit. It seems He does. You can count on it. A God of holy righteousness has a limit. Exodus 32:9-10: "And the LORD." You notice that in your translation, it is all capitals: "LORD," in order to indicate to you that this is (in the original text) the Hebrew word "Yahweh," generally pronounced as "Jehovah," which is the highest name by which God has revealed himself to Israel. That is the name that represents all of His Holiness and all of His morality. It is the name that represents the God who gives you the rules by which to function. That's inherent in this name "Yahweh" – the word "LORD:"

"And the Lord said unto Moses, 'I've seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let Me alone that My wrath may burn against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.'" Finally, God says, "OK, Moses, this is it. These people have absolutely gone too far, and I'm going to rub out every single one of them. I'm going to preserve you, Moses, and out of you, I'm going to raise up a new nation through whom I will fulfill My promises to Abraham and to all the world.

Moses Pleads for Israel

Well, Moses, the godly man that he was, and the good soldier of the living God that he was, immediately leaped into the breach to plead on behalf of the people – to plead with God, that he should not destroy them, but that he should discipline their evil. And that's what's behind this sentence in verse 10. God is saying to Moses, "Now, therefore, let Me alone;" that is, "Moses, just step out of here. Don't plead with Me, because when you talk to me, I have to listen. Don't appeal on behalf of these people. But you're my godly man. You're on track. You're in temporal fellowship. When you speak, I have to listen to you. Just don't even appeal to Me." But Moses says, "No, I can't do that, Lord. I have to appeal in behalf of this people. They're the people I'm leading. Like Daniel of old, when the people sinned, Daniel said, "I have to join them in the consequences, but I stand by them."

So, God, in grace, made a covenant in response to Moses' appeal. He made a covenant with Israel to prosper her. In Exodus 34:10, we read, "And he said, 'Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not done in all the earth nor in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awe-inspiring thing that I will do with you.'" So, God agrees not to destroy the nation. He, furthermore, declares that He will make an agreement to make of this people a great nation, and before them to demonstrate the power of God in ways that will clearly confirm that they're not just "Whistling Dixie" – that these are realities that Moses has brought to them.

In Leviticus 26:44, we have this further confirmation of what God is going to do with these people who have had such a terrible record up to this time: "And yet, for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away. Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God." He has just described what they're going to do when they do get into the land. But the Lord says, "In spite of all that, I want to go on record that I have made a covenant, and I'm going to keep My Word.

Leviticus 26:45: "But I will, for their sakes, remember the covenant of our ancestors whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the site of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord." So, he says, "While I will discipline, I won't destroy the nation."

Well, the happy day finally arrived. It was probably about a year since they crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt. They arrived at the port of entry into the Promised Land at a place called Kadeshbarnea. The Jews, at that point, now are on another kick of complaints. This time it has to do with what God has been giving them in the way of food.

In Numbers 11:4-6, we have this account: "And the mixed multitude that was among them fell to lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, 'Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers; the melons; the leeks; the onions; and, the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes.' The matter was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium," and so on, describing manna.

The People Complain about having no Meat

So, they have now come to the point where they have been enjoying every morning this manna food that they just had to go and collect, and which tasted like honey when you bit into it. And every day God would give them a new supply. Now they're complaining about the menu: "We're sick and tired of this manna every day. We want some meat to eat. We are meat-and-potato people – not just manna people." So, here they begin thinking, "Boy, do you remember how it was back in Egypt? We had those cucumbers, and we had those melons. Do you remember those big melons, and the garlic, and the leeks (the onions)? Do you remember that? Once they had eaten that, I'm sure everybody would remember it when you got around them. But they were all remembering how great it was in the days when they were pepper-bellies back in Egypt. And now they're complaining.

Well, Moses has had a year of this. He's now facing going into a land that has, since their departure 400 years previously, been taken over by a series of pagan nations who are very violent, and who are very militant. Now they're going to go back in and say, "You guys move out of here. This place belongs to us. You don't have squatters' rights. Beat it." Moses has got his hands full just thinking that over. How in the world are they going to pull that one off? But here, they're complaining about how God is feeding them.

Again, Moses bursts out with a variation of the phrase of the saints in heaven, "How long, O, Lord?" Numbers 11:11: And Moses said unto the Lord, 'Wherefore have you afflicted Your servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in Your site, that You lay burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all these people? Have I begotten them that You should say unto me, 'Carry them in you bosom as a nursing father,' bearing the nursing child unto the land which You did swear to give unto their fathers?'" This almost gets amusing, because Moses is here saying, "These are not my kids. You know, if they were my children, that would be one thing, but now I'm stuck with these dudes, and they're not my children." Moses was saying, "They're Your kids. Why are you making me suffer the consequences of what they are doing?"

Verse 13: "From where should I have flesh to give unto all this people; for they weep unto me, saying, 'Give us flesh that we may eat?' I am not able to bear all this people alone because it is too heavy for me." This is the voice of the discouraged prophet: "And if You deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in Your sight, and let me not see my wretchedness." Moses is really low. He says, "God, just take me to heaven. Execute me. Get rid of me. I don't want the job anymore. I told you I didn't want it in the first place, and now I'm sure I don't want it. I am sick of this game." So, he is ready to cut out and run.

God Provides the Quail

However, God says that He has another solution. In Numbers 11:31, God provides the quail: "And there went forth the wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were, two cubits high upon the face of the earth." A cubit is 18 inches, so this is a three-feet-high pile of birds. And this round the camp, a day's journey in every direction. Now, that's an awful lot of meat. God says, "Do you want meat? I'll give you meat." He gives them a pile of meat three-feet-high as far as you could travel on foot in one day's walking, which was probably 25 miles. We don't know for sure.

Verse 32: "And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. He that gathered least gathered 10 homers, and they spread them all around for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was up between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." God gave them their meat, and then He struck them with a disease, and they died by the hundreds.

The People Complain about the Leadership

So, God knows how to give justice – how to give ironic justice. What do they deserve more than, while the meat was still between their teeth, to die as they gorged themselves? At this point in time, the problem becomes even more burdensome for Moses, because now his own family begins to be a problem to him. His sister Miriam and his brother Aaron, believe it or not, decide to challenge Moses concerning his role as God's sole channel of communication to the Jews. Every time the people had to find out something from God, they had to go through Moses. So, Miriam and Aaron say, "We don't like that." Miriam says, "I knew this guy when I had to change his diapers. I knew him when he couldn't blow his own nose without my help. As a matter of fact, he wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for my cleverness in hiding him in those bulrushes. And now this dude walks around here as the great communicator from God." Aaron says, "You know, I think you're right, Miriam. He is getting a little too big for his kimono there. I think we ought to do something about him." So, pretty soon they're complaining to Moses.

We have this in Numbers 12:2: "And they said, 'Has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has He not spoken also by us?' And the Lord heard it." It was bad enough that Moses heard it, but the Scriptures make clear that the Lord heard it also. And God's wrath came down immediately upon Miriam and struck her with leprosy. When Aaron saw that white deadly disease spread in the flesh of Miriam, he decided it was time to confess, and he did in a hurry.

Numbers 12:10-11: "And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous: white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, 'Alas, my lord, I beseech you. Do not lay the sin upon us wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.'" Well, I'll grant to Aaron that he had a lot of good sense. He knew when to back off. And before he got struck with the same deadly disease, he made his confession. Moses then went and interceded for Miriam, and secured healing and forgiveness for both of them from God.

The 12 Spies

Well, at the border, they had to send out a reconnaissance party to get an idea of what they were in for in the land. So, as you know, they sent out 12 spies. When they returned, those 12 spies had a majority report and a minority report. The majority report said, "Don't go into the land. Don't you try it. Those people in there are like giants. We're like grasshoppers in comparison to them. There's no way we can take it. They'll slaughter us."

However, two of the men, Joshua and Taylor, said, "That's not true. It is true that they are like giants. It is true that they are a terribly tall group of men, but God is on our side, and God is leading us, and we'll take care of them. They will fall."

So, in Numbers 13:30, we read, "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, 'Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.' But the men that went up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we.' And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel saying, 'The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants, the son of Anak, who come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.'" In other words: "When they see us, they're just going to crush us like you step on a grasshopper."

So, the result was that in Numbers 14:1-4, the Jews respond in their typical way. After all the miracles and the gracious care of God, they again bemoan their situation: "And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, 'Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we have died in this wilderness! And wherefore has the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, and our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return unto Egypt?' And they said one to another, 'Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.'"

When Moses heard that, you can again hear his plaintive cry, "O Lord, how long?" At this point, they're again saying that God has brought them out to die. Instead, he's bringing them out to freedom and prosperity. They say, "Let us make a new captain. Let's get rid of Moses, and let's go back to Egypt." Can you imagine what they're saying? They're saying, "Let's go back to Pharaoh and say, 'We want to be slaves again. We'll help you put the chains back on us.'" These people were spiritually benighted beyond belief. No matter how much divine viewpoint enlightenment Moses brought them, and how God demonstrated, they just could not grasp it. So, when you minister to people, don't be shocked on how dull and backward and impossible they are sometimes that you cannot get through to them.

They responded with anger to the appeal to invade from Joshua and Caleb. They instead proceeded to want to kill them. Numbers 14:6-10 describe to us how they wanted to kill Joshua and Caleb for calling upon them to come through with the invasion. So, Moses in Numbers 14:11, says, "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'How long will this people provoke both Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, for all the signs which I've shown unto them?'" So, now God is saying, "How long, O Lord?" to himself. Even God has gotten fed up with this, and He says, "How long? How long is this going to go on?"

However, I want you to be sure that you remember that these people talked to each other. They didn't just come upon these ideas on their own. They were talking to each other. Instead of going and talking to Moses, and asking him to communicate what God thought, they were talking to each other, and feeding each other this line of evil that they were contemplating. That's why you have to be very careful who your advisors are, and to whom you speak when you are going to take a course of action. You are an unmitigated fool if you talk to the wrong people. These people were talking to each other. They were talking to people who were as spiritually disoriented as they were themselves.

Consequently, there was nobody to say, "Wait a minute." There was nobody to stand in the breach and say, "This is what God really thinks. This is what you should take into consideration. Have you thought about this?" Instead, they egged each other on to what is going to be finally a terrible divine judgment upon them. They egged each other on. They didn't just come up on it on their own.

So, God is ready again to destroy the whole lot of them. In Numbers 14:12 and Numbers 14:19, you have the same scene repeated, and Moses running in there and pleading with God not to do it, saying, "You have forgiven these people from Egypt until now. Don't wipe them out."

Those 20 Years old and up will not Enter the Promised Land

Well, God again responds to Moses, his man. He forgives, but at this point, He says, "They have gone too far. I hold everybody who is 20 years of age accountable for his actions." So, God says, "Everybody who's 20 years old and up will never enter the Promised Land." In Numbers 14:29, when Moses delivers this speech to them, he finally got through this rebel group. This really hit them. It just did not occur to them with all of this badmouthing of Moses and of what God was doing, that it could result in the land flowing with milk and honey (the objective that they had all their eyes on) being snatched away from them. They did not count on the fact that they could lose it all.

That's what Romans chapter 1 tells us: You go ahead and be an ingrate with what God has given. You go ahead and badmouth, and hold in contempt God's standards, and what God calls you to do, and what God has provided you with, that He has not provided with others, and he'll jerk it away from you. Do you know how it will happen? In the very process of it being removed from you, you'll think that you're deciding to remove it yourself. That's how benighted these people were. You will think that you are making the decision to reject something that God is done, not realizing that God has now permitted you to abandon yourself to that destructive position.

So, in Numbers 14:29, Moses says, "Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all who are numbered of you, according to your whole number, from 20 years old and upward, who have murmured against me, doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. But your little ones, whom you said should be a prey: them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised."

Now that was a blow to them that they didn't expect. And God turned the knife in them, saying, "All of this complaining about your children dying in the wilderness:" God says, "I'm going to tell you what. They're the ones that are going to enjoy that land. I prepared. I prepared it for you, but you're never going to see it. You're never going to enjoy it. Do you see that desert? Your carcasses are going to scatter the sands out there, as one-by-one you fall in death." Then God, who is so dramatic, and knows how to put the finishing touch to a deal, says, "And it's going to take 40 years to do it, so that you can think it over: one year for every day that those spies searched out the land, and you refused to listen to the two divine viewpoint men on the team. You should have listened to them. You should have grasped them to your bosom, and turned your back against the ten. Instead, you talked among yourselves, and you talked with the ten, and you have lost it all."

So, the picture is now clear. The ten spies which brought the negative report were then dealt with by God. You can't bring negative influence into the thinking of the people of God and get away with it either. You want to remember that that's true in every way. You cannot bring negative concepts into the minds of people on morality and get away with it. You cannot do it politically and get away with it. You cannot do it economically and get away with it. You can't do it in social relationships and get away with it. You can't do it in the field of education and get away with it. You can't do it in fields of compassion (human needs) and get away with it. There's no area where you can bring negative thinking where God does not bring consequences upon you for it.

You would be well advised to remember that, because in Numbers 14:36, God executes the ten spies: "And the men who Moses sent to search the land who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men who did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were of the men who went to search the land, lived still." Of course, those two men had the joy of entering the land.

This really got to the Jews. This really finally hit them. So, in Numbers 14:39, they make a "radical" decision. But it was a radical wrong decision: "And Moses told these sayings until all the children of Israel, and the people mourn greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, and went up into the top of the mountain saying, 'Lo, we are here. We will go up into the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.'" They knew about making confession for evil (for sins). So, they say, "We admit it. We confess that we were sinful. Now we're here. This is the gate of entry. We're going in." They made the mistake of thinking that just because you confess your sins, that the consequences are removed as well. Many times that is true, but it is not always true. You may confess, and you are restored to fellowship, but the consequence of the evil may continue. If that happens, that consequence is no longer a discipline, but it is then transformed into a blessing. It is then transformed into a means by which God ennobles and develops you spiritually.

The People Decide to Enter the Promised Land

So, these people said, "We're going in." Moses rushed before them and said, "Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not smitten before your enemies." Moses said, "Don't do it. It won't work. God has rejected you. You're going to die out in the wilderness the way He said. I don't care how emotional you get or how sincere you are: don't try to go in. But would they listen? No. They hadn't listen before, and they won't listen now.

Numbers 14:44: "But they presumed to go up into the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not depart out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and routed them even unto Hormah." The slaughter was terrible. It was a complete and total disaster.

Korah's Rebellion

So, the result was that those who were left turned back toward the wilderness for 40 wasted years of wandering in the desert. In Numbers 16:3, you have the record of Korah and his associates who again challenge the spiritual leadership of Moses. On this occasion, Moses suggests a meeting before the Lord to settle the issue. But the challengers refuse to come. You read about that in Numbers 16:5 and Numbers 16:12. What they are doing is accusing Moses of lording it over the people; keeping them from entering the Promised Land; and, intending to take vengeance on his challengers. Moses is portrayed as a little person who is using his position of authority to take vengeance upon the people that disagree with him.

Numbers 16:13: "Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land that flows with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, except you make yourself altogether a prince over us?" They're blaming him for not being able to go into the land. They said, "If that's not bad enough, now you want to make yourself a prince over us to lord it over us.

Numbers 16:14: "Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up." So, they said, "We won't even come up to discuss this with you, Moses. We know what you're trying to do." Again, Moses breaks out with the plaintiff cry, "Oh Lord, how long?"

Numbers 16:15: "And Moses was very angry, and said unto the Lord, "Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them." Moses says, "I haven't become rich on them. I have taken nothing from them. I've done nothing but deliver to them spiritual well-being. And this is how they treat me."

Well, in Numbers 16:31-35, you can read the story about how God destroyed Korah and all those who joined in the rebellion against Him. The earth opened up; took all of their families down; and, then it closed on them. The Jews, you would think at this point, would have been impressed by such a divine demonstration of judgment. What did they do?

Number 16:41: "But on the next day, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, 'You have killed the people of the Lord.'" Can you believe that? God opens up with an earthquake; drops these dudes down into it; closes it up; smooths the ground on top; and, they blame Moses for it. Now that is a real miracle worker. If Moses could do that, he's better than Oral Roberts – really. And they're saying, "You're the one that did this. That's why our people are dead – because of your leadership." I mean, talk about crazies: these people are classics.

Well, God in anger was about ready to destroy them again, and again Moses rushes in to plead for them and to preserve them. You can read about that in Numbers 16:44-50.

God confirms the line of priesthood through Aaron with a budding staff to stop the grumbling of the people (Numbers 17:8-10). So, he settles the issue.

The People Need Water

The time comes again when the Jews are in need of water, and as usual, they struck out at Moses. We have this recorded in Numbers 20:2-5. This is going to be a serious occasion now. They're at Kadesh, and they're out of water. There is no water. They're murmuring against Moses again, and they're attacking him, and again saying, in Numbers 20:3, "Would to God we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? Wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink."

All of this thing that they're attacking Moses for was what they had brought upon themselves. Verse 6: "Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly into the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared onto them." God directs Moses, this time, for securing the water, to speak to the rock, and water would flow out.

Numbers 20:8: "Take the rod, and gather the assembly before you, and Aaron, your brother, and speak unto the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth its water, and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock so that you shall give the congregation and their beasts drink."

It did not surprise Moses that God had a solution again. But this time Moses is really burning. He is hopping mad about this, and that was bad. He has lost his cool this time. He has had enough of this. He's had a bellyful of this complaining and personal abuse, and this time, he responds with anger. And it's going to cost him.

Moses Strikes the Rock Twice

Numbers 20:10-11: "And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, 'Here now you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?' And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod, he smote the rock twice." God had said, "Speak to the rock. Don't hit it." And Moses, in anger, grabs his rod, and he slams against that rock twice.

Sacrificing Christ Again

Well, God honors his efforts: "Water came out abundantly. The congregation drank, and their beasts also." However, a very serious typological conflict had been established here. That is because the rock represented Jesus Christ. Earlier, he had struck it, representing the death of Christ, and out of that death of Christ flowed the rivers of eternal life. Christ cannot be struck again. Christ cannot die again. He cannot again be put unto that sacrifice. So, the second time, Moses was not to strike because that violated the picture (the type). He was to speak, and that water would come. And for this, Moses discovered that he was to pay a very serious price. He had become part of the problem. That's what you have to guard against as a servant of the Lord – that you don't become part of the problem. He himself, in effect, became one of the rebels.

The Lord spoke to him in Numbers 20:12: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron saying, 'Because you believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I given them unto them." The result was that Moses lost the privilege of leading them into the Promised Land. He lost the privilege of being able to enter that land himself.

Roman Catholics

The sacrificing of Christ again, such as is done in Roman Catholicism, is a very serious evil. I spoke to a man recently, and in the course of our discussion, I indicated that I did not think that Roman Catholics could be called Christians. He is a teacher in a Christian school. He said, "You don't think Catholics are Christians?" And I said, "Well, what is a Christian? A Christian is a person who stands for the gospel. And the gospel is Christ dying for our sins on that cross as our substitute; paying the price in full; totally a work of God; and, apart from any human being. It cannot be repeated." I said, "The analogy of the new birth is to indicate that it is something that cannot be reversed, because birth cannot be reversed." He was very puzzled. Here he is teaching in a Christian school, and he is shocked that I should say Roman Catholics are not Christians. Christians go to heaven, Roman Catholics do not. Why? They have the same problem that Moses had. He violated the type by striking the rock again, and thereby suggesting, as Roman Catholics do every time they perform the Mass, that Christ must be sacrificed again and again in order that they may be saved.

The grumbling continued. They moved back out into the desert. They had to go a long journey around Edom. Numbers 21:1-5 tell us this. They grumbled about having to make that bypass. It was this occasion, in Numbers 21:6, that tells us about the attack of the deadly serpents. The people got the message. They confessed the sin – the sin of attacking God's leaders (Numbers 21:7). And Moses interceded for the people, and the plague was stopped (Numbers 21:9).

Moses Does not Enter the Promised Land

Finally, the pilgrimage ended. God tells Moses, who is now 120 years of age, to get ready to die (Numbers 27:12-14). I'm sure that God was sad that it all had to end this way. But the striking of that rock was a very serious violation of the truth.

Numbers 27:12-14: "The Lord said into Moses, 'Get up into Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. When you have seen it, you shall be gathered unto your people, as Aaron, your brother, was gathered. For you rebelled against My commandments in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify Me at the water before their eyes. That is the water of Meribah in Kadesh the wilderness of Zin." God reminds him again tenderly, "I'm doing this, Moses, because of the terrible thing you did. Instead of sanctifying (honoring) Me and setting me apart in the eyes of these people as the Savior God, you violated that picture, and you struck the rock.

So, Moses turns over the leadership to Joshua. Numbers 27:22-23 tell us about that. And Moses gives them a final direction. In Numbers 33:50-56, Moses tells them, "When you get into the land, destroy everybody there." Now, all the peaceniks today would really hate a statement like this. Numbers 33:50: "And the Lord spoken unto Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho, saying, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 'When you are passed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their stone idols, and destroy all their melted images, and demolish all their high places. And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein. For I have given you the land to possess. You shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families; and to the more, you shall give the more inheritance; and, to the fewer, you shall give the less inheritance. Every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falls. According to the tribes of your fathers, you shall inherit.

"''But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass that those whom you let remain of them shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side, and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. Moreover, it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them.''"

Now, this was very clear instruction. God says, "The only way to win a battle (to secure peace and victory) in this land is to destroy the enemy." That is a principle of warfare. God says, "Go in there; you kill every man, woman and child; and, you destroy everything they possess. It is a filthy, contaminated society, and everything they touch is contaminated in God site. It's rampant with spiritual debauchery. Destroy it all. If you don't, it's going to rise up to haunt you. Later generations will not be as resistant to the evil as those of you who have come out of the wilderness experience, and your children will succumb to this evil."

Well, the sad thing about it is that, while Deuteronomy 34:4:3:7 tells us about how Moses was taken home to be with the Lord, the Jews (we know subsequently) failed to do what he said. They did not clean out the land, and indeed those inhabitants later rose up to destroy them.

Moses himself, however, was vindicated. Many times he had to say, "O, Lord, how long?" Deuteronomy 34:10-12: "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face-to-face. And all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel."

The book of Deuteronomy ends with a paean of praise to Moses as a man such as there never was in the history of the world, and in the history of Israel. He was a man after God's own heart; a man who stood in the breach; a man who knew what it was to say, "O, Lord, how long?;" and, a man indeed who became part of the problem when he got out of fellowship, and who paid a price himself. But God says, "His weaknesses are nothing compared to the faithfulness of this man. He is a man who knows how to look to God for ultimate justice. This man was vindicated, as you and I will be, no matter the abuse we take now; no matter the suffering we take now; and, no matter the sacrifices we take now. The time is coming. We shall be vindicated, and we shall be rewarded.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

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