Sermon - July 13, 2014 - The Story Week 6 - Wanderings

Last week we took a look at the New Commands and a New Covenant that God gave to the nation He created, Israel. We saw how God provided the Ten Commandments out of love, like a parent gives rules to their children. They were to guide the Nation of Israel on the right path so they could live the life God wanted them to have. God wanted to live among His people, that is why He had them build Him a home . We also learned that it was necessary for the Nation of Israel to cleanse themselves of their sins so that God could be with them. Animal sacrifice was put in place to shed blood to atone for where they fell short of God’s standards.

Today, if Jesus is your Savior, you are covered in His blood, your sins are forgiven, and the Lord dwells in you. The question we ended with last week was ‘Will you do everything the Lord has commanded?’

The Nation of Israel said they would do all that God had commanded, but we also find that they were not always the most consistent in following His commands. We saw a bit of this in chapter 6.

Leading Israel must have been like herding cats. Moses had over 3 million kids on a road trip who were complaining and asking ‘Are we there yet?’

Does anyone remember the movie titled ‘Are we there yet?’ It was pretty entertaining, but I felt sorry for the main male character, Nick. See he was interested in this single Mom and offered to help her out and bring her kids to her from Portland to Vancouver. The kids not liking many of the guys their Mom has dated, decide to make life difficult for the ‘nice’ guy who loves his car. This poor guy not only had to deal with the dreaded question of ‘are we there yet?’ but he also seemed to have everything else go wrong. A girl who kept changing the radio station, a juice box getting squirted on the ceiling, vomit, many many bathroom breaks, and much more. Nick had a rough trip.

The hard thing about road trips with kids is their fussing, fighting, and endless questioning. Another hard thing about road trips is making a wrong turn, getting lost, and adding more road time to the trip. Every road trip includes a destination as well as the trip itself. Thankfully we have GPS today to help us as we travel. In The Story we come to the wanderings of Israel as Moses leads them toward the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.

I wonder if Moses felt like Nick at times. The complaints, the problems, and unhappy ‘children’. Leading Israel around for 40 years was not a pleasure cruise.

Complain, Complain, Complain… The Israelites complained a lot!

Numbers 11:1-2

“11 Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. ² Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down.”

The complaining Israelites were literally grumbling evil in the ears of God, in other words they talking against God and questioning His goodness. They were blaming God for all that they had to do. With all of this complaining, you would never have thought they were just freed from slavery. With this complaint about the hardships, we see the pattern that is to come. The people turn against God then they are punished.

They complained about hardships, then they were punished. The lesson was not learned. They started complaining about eating manna.

If you don’t know, God was providing them manna to eat. All they had to do was go out each morning and collect manna for the days food. No slaving away in the fields growing food, no animals to watch after, no real work except to go out and gather the manna. God was providing them food; to some it was not good enough.

Numbers 11:4-6

“⁴ Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? ⁵ We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. ⁶ But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

Like a fit being thrown by a child, manna, manna, manna, I don’t want this manna. I want a cheese burger! Moses had his hands full with the Israelites. God was angry, but He provided meat with a catch.

Numbers 11:31-33

“³¹ A wind sent by the Lord came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them at the camp all around, three feet off the ground, about a day’s journey in every direction. ³² The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail—the one who took the least gathered 50 bushels—and they spread them out all around the camp. ³³ While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague.”

Again we see the people complain and turn against God and He punishes them. Moses had his hands full; these people were not satisfied with anything.

As if that was not enough Moses has his brother, the high priest, and his sister turn on him.

Numbers 12:2

“They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it.”

Aaron and Miriam turned their backs on Moses and God heard them and He was not very happy about it. God summoned the three of them to the tent of meeting and said.

Numbers 12:6-8

“⁶ He said: “Listen to what I say: If there is a prophet among you from the Lord, I 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 household. ⁸ I speak with him directly, openly, and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

They questioned God’s messenger and God called them out. When the cloud moved away Miriam was left with leprosy and had to stay outside the camp for 7 days.

The Nation of Israel complained a lot, but they also made a wrong turn. They were on the edge of the Promised Land and some bad choices led them in the wrong direction.

At this point in their journey God wants them to send some people into the Promised Land to survey the area. They are supposed to go out and look if it is truly the land of milk and honey and they are to look at the people in the area and asses their military might.

Twelve spies were sent out to survey the Promised Land, but not all of them trust in God. All twelve are in agreement, the land is full of abundance and they even brought back some of the fruit to prove it. The problem was that not all of them believed they would succeed in taking the land, ten to be precise feared going up against what they said were giants. Two had faith in God, Joshua and Caleb.

Numbers 13:30

“³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

Caleb and Joshua had faith in God and His power to accomplish what He promised. They believed that God is with them, and they can take the land.

The other ten men did not feel the same way.

Numbers 13:31

“But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!”

The ten spies were comparing themselves to the inhabitants of the Promised Land and left God out of the picture. After all God had done for them over the last couple of years, they did not take Him into consideration. They gave negative reports and did all they could to convince people to not go into this new land.

The wrong turn is made. The Nation of Israel refuses to listen to Moses and to trust in God. They refuse to take the land and rebel. They even considered going back to Egypt to be slaves. The Israelites turned on God, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb.

Numbers 14:10

“While the whole community threatened to stone them, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.”

Needless to say, God was not happy. He wanted to wipe them out and start over with Moses and make him into a ‘greater and mightier nation’. Moses pleads with the Lord and then judgment is passed for their lack of faith in God.

Numbers 14:28-34

“²⁸ Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more—because you have complained about Me. ³⁰ I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. ³² But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. ³⁴ You will bear the consequences of your sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. You will know My displeasure.”

Again the people do not trust God and rebel. You would think by now they would have witnessed His power enough, or dwelled with Him long enough to trust Him. They did not and the wrong turn was made. All this took place in Kadesh-Barnea and for 40 years the nation wandered around the wilderness until all those who rebelled had passed. Their rebellion against God kept them and their children from the Promised Land. If they had only listened their children would have grown up in the land of milk and honey, instead they were stuck in the wilderness. After 40 years of wandering they ended right back where they began, Kadesh-Barnea.

Making that wrong turn on a road trip can be frustrating, this one cost the Israelites 40 years of living in the land of abundance.

While Moses was a faithful leader and he often interceded for the Israelites asking God to spare them, he also disobeyed God. By striking the rock instead of speaking to it, he lost the privilege of entering the Promised Land.

As the 40 years wind down we find Moses imploring the nation of Israel to choose life. He encourages them to ‘Remember who you are and to Whom you belong.’

When given the Ten Commandments the Nation of Israel said ‘We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.’ Moses was reminding them that they have been given a new chance, a fresh opportunity to trust and obey God.

The Nation of Israel was on a road trip.

Nick from ‘Are we there yet?’ was on a road trip.
We are on a road trip.

While we are on our road trip, God is asking us to trust Him. He wants to hear that we will do everything that He has commanded us to do. We need to remember that God will never lead us to make a wrong turn. He knows our path, He knows what we need, and He will guide  us accordingly. Our God Loves Us! His whole reason for creating us was so that He can be with us. His whole reason for creating the Nation of Israel was so He can be with us. His whole reason for sending His Son Jesus Christ was so He can be with us.

God Loves You and God wants to live life with you. Let Him guide your life!

If you don't know Jesus this morning and are ready to make a commitment to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins, please come forward during our final song.

Thanks for reading and God Bless,

 

Robert