Lesson 20                                OUTLINE                    Numbers 20-26

 

1)      2 + 2 = 4. Getting down the Basic

a)      We seem to have to learn spiritual lessons over and over again.

 

i)        The second section of each lesson, “Building on the Basics.”

 

ii)       What exactly is a “Basic” and why can we build on them?

 

iii)     Complex math problems can not be done unless you know that 2+2=4

 

b)      This principle of learning the basics holds true in our spiritual life as well.

 

i)        There are some 2 + 2 = 4 parts of the Christian life we must keep remembering  in order to work our way through the more complicated problems of life we face every day.

 

2)      Journey to Freedom. The 2 + 2=4 parts of our study are the aspects of the Christian life that lead to this freedom we are discovering in the Scriptures.

 

a)       “Freedom” is a very complicated concept. But we have been studying week by week the more simple components that make up what we call “Freedom in Christ.”

 

3)      Carmell Deemings list

 

4)      Numbers 20-26.

o       Death of Miriam

o       Trouble with water

o       Moses’ disobedience.

o       Fiery Serpents (Medical Symbol)

o       Balaam and his talking donkey

o       Sex sin/idolatrous behavior with the women of Moab.

 

5)      Moses’ disobedience. Does Moses get a raw deal?

 

a)      Numbers 20 skips almost everything that happens during the 38 years of wandering as unworthy of mention. “These were just dull decades of death in the desert.” Roy Gane NIV pg. 672).

 

b)      Meribah: There is no water and the Israelites are angry and blame Moses and Aaron

 

i)        In response, Moses completely looses his cool…and who can blame him?

 

ii)       So why should God make such a big deal out of Moses’ behavior? It seems so unfair for Moses to be punished after all he has been through.

 

6)      God’s punishment. Charles Swindoll: Moses: A Man of Selfless Dedication, helps us understand this situation and God’s punishment by recalling some other stories from Moses’ life.

 

a)      Exodus 2: 11-12 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

 

b)      Exodus 11:4-8. So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

 

c)      Exodus 32:19-20. When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

 

d)      Do you notice a pattern? Moses has an anger problem

 

i)        Moses was human, and he had human issues.

 

ii)        “Besetting sins.” Particular sins that flare up in our lives over and over again. They are so insidious and subtle and they seem to creep into our lives disguised as something else when we lose track of the basics of our need for Christ and his redemptive work for us.

 

iii)     We can find hope, in that God still chose to use Moses in spite of his character flaws.

 

iv)    God says, “"Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."

 

7)      What is the issue? The issue for God is not the anger. It is Moses’ lack of trust.

 

a)      An act of disobedience stems from unbelief.

 

i)        “When you know God’s will and you willfully move in another direction, that is unbelief, plain and simple. You are saying to the Lord, ‘I do not believe Your plan is the best.” Swindoll

 

ii)       F.B. Meyer (a well know commentator) wrote, “It is a repeated burden of those sad chapter, which tell the story of the wilderness wanderings – the cemetery chapters - that the Israelites could not [at first] enter in [to the Promised Land] because of unbelief. But we could read this as they could not enter because of ‘disobedience;” because you see, disobedience and unbelief are two sides of the same coin – a coin of the devil’s mintage. They who disobey do not believe, and they who do not believe, disobey.”

 

b)       A public act of disobedience diminishes God’s glory.

 

i)        “All God’s servant-leaders live in a divine gold fishbowl, as it were. We are on display. If you serve as an officer in your church, if you are known for some leadership position in a Christian institution, or in the Christian community, you are a public letter displayed before the world. Your act of willful disobedience publicly casts a shadow upon the glory of God and God does not want that to happen.” Swindoll

 

ii)       “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers and sisters; because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly”. James 1:3

 

c)      Any such act of disobedience, though forgiven, bears painful consequences.

 

i)        “Didn’t God forgive Moses of the sinful act he committed? Yes, indeed. More to the point, you may be asking, “Won’t God forgive me if I disobey Him?” Yes, He will. But let’s suppose you have committed this sin frequently (as in Moses’ case) and your unbroken habit has brought reproach upon the name and glory of Christ. He forgives that sin each time it is honestly confessed, but repeated sins can have earthly consequences that are terribly painful.” Swindoll

 

ii)       “By punishing Moses, the Lord shows that no amount of human merit amassed through past obedience can atone for even one sin.” Roy Gane NIV,

 

(1)   Romans 3:20, “For human being will not be justified in his sight by deeds prescribed by the law…” Roy Gane NIV

 

 

 

8)      Bible Heroes. The Bible does not try to hide the flaws of its heroes.

 

a)      We also say and do things that we would give anything to be able to undo. And yet we can not.

 

i)        And so we have three choices.

 

(1)   We can live in despair, hating ourselves, feeling unloved and unlovable...but that is a dead end road.

 

(2)   We can try just forgetting about it and moving on, let the past be the past and try to live a better life from now on. And this seems to work most of the time…but we tend to still have to deal with the midnight demons of regret and self pity.

 

(3)   Or we can move forward with the Lord into Lent, our eyes wide open to the most basic of all basics: that on the cross, our gracious, loving and forgiving Lord covered our past sin with his own blood which was given for us on the cross. This is Bible Basic # 1.