The Torah Series - Numbers

You remember we are going to continue in our Torah series. Uh we have gone through uh Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. Last week was up and this week we are going to be on the book of Numbers. And I hope this has been a helpful series for everyone. I I've been getting some positive feedback and I appreciate that.

It's just one of those things I was explaining to Becca as we were driving up here today a reminder about why I really thought this would be a good way to do this series and that's because years ago I was studying the book of Ezekiel. And that book can be overwhelming uh if you just start at chapter 1 verse one and then just start reading it and then try to organize it your in your own mind like where are the breaks? How does this work? Where do I look for this and where's that? And then I happened to read a commentary that was very good and

it showed how the book was organized and you'll find this here and you're going to find this here and you're gonna find this here and it was like poof the whole book book just opened up for my mind. It was like oh it's not a big mystery. There's there's rhyme and there's reason to how God writes.

And that's what we have found going through this series on the Torah is that each of the books has rhyme and reason. It it makes sense. It's ordered. There are movements within the books. And of course, we're following the movements along this thing I call the ark of the plan of God, which begins in Genesis chapter 1 and it ends in Revelation chapter 22.

His plan to dwell with his creation. He's never wavered. This is his plan. That's why we were created. And so this plan is tremendously revealed to us uh through first through the first five books of the Bible which we call the Torah or the book of laws in the penetuk uh in the Greek which means first five scrolls.

And last week we ended in we wrapped up Leviticus. And I'm just going to pick this up here in Leviticus chap 27 verse 34. today. So, Leviticus 27:34, it says, "These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for all or for the children of Israel on Mount Si." And so, God had led Israel out of Egypt. He was going to be taking them and he is going to take them to the promised land.

That is the objective. That's where they're going. on route to there. He brings them to where he is first, which is at Mount Si. He doesn't just bring them there so that they can play as they end up doing. He brings them there to enter into a covenant, a relationship with them. And this, of course, moves us along this arc.

God wants, he promised Abraham when he established a covenant with him that he was going to establish a nation under him. That nation is Israel. And God enters into this relationship with a proposal in Exodus chapter 19. And the proposal is accompanied with the terms of the agreement, the marital contract, if you will.

And the people all with one voice say all that you have said we will do. This is their I do moment where they enter into this relationship. God brings Moses up to receive essentially the marriage certificate. two tables of stone on which are the terms of the contract, the ten commandments of God. We move from there now that God has established a tabernacle because you spend the rest of the book with God building his dwelling place which will be at the center of the camp.

We get to the before we can get to that God the people rise up to play. They build a idol, a golden calf. They bowed down to it immediately in the first 40 days of the relationship. They're already unfaithful to God. Which makes it clear that God is going to be dwelling amongst the people that unless he does something, he would have to destroy them because of sin.

You know, if we go back to Genesis and we look at what happened after Adam and Eve and the sin there, where were they allowed to be? no longer in the sanctuary, no longer directly in the presence of God. They were expelled from the garden where God had walked with them, talked directly with them, taught them, instructed them.

They were removed from that place because of sin. Before we even before God even has his dwelling place constructed, his wife is unfaithful to him and they sin. Something has to be done or he'll have to destroy them. That's the purpose of the book of Exodus. How do you reconcile so that God can continue to dwell with his people without destroying them because of their sins? That's what the book of Leviticus is all about.

It provides access. It establishes laws. It establishes a priesthood. It is the book of law within the books of the law. It is where we go when we want to know what God has to say in definitive legal language. I've mentioned before that the consulting company that I had before I came into the ministry, I dealt a lot in law, specifically in wastewater law.

And so I'm very familiar with what legal language looks like and how things are said and what the weight of those things are from an enforcement standpoint. words like shall, must, so forth. Those are important legal terms. And so you find those terms being used specifically in the book of Leviticus.

So that's the backdrop. God is now given the law. They know how access works with God. They know how reconciliation is to work with God when they sin. They know how purity works. They know how cleanliness works. They know how holiness is supposed to work. All of that's laid out for them. That's the backdrop for numbers because now we move from giving these instructions to living these instructions.

That's where numbers begins. They haven't been tested is the problem. Now, one of the things that comes becomes very clear is that God could give them all of these instructions. He lay the foundation for how the relationship is going to work, which is what he does. But what we learn in the book of numbers is that he could not do anything about the heart of the people with regard to whether they would want to do those things.

Whether they would actually do those things as required in the law. Well, that's what the test is all about. That's what numbers exposes for us to see and to learn about. Now, we begin. Now, there are five movements. I've been describing each of the books through a series of movements. Leviticus had five movements. Numbers also has five movements to it.

Five sections, if you will, of scripture. And I'll give each of those sections of scripture for those of you who take notes if you would like to to know how the book is divided. The first movement, which I will just call organizing the people, happens from chapters 1 through 10. There's a lot that goes on and as you know I don't have in a 50-minute message I don't have time to go through everything within the book of numbers that could be gone over so that I hope what happens is is that you get excited enough about it when you realize the

structure of the book that when you go home to read it that it makes more sense it's more alive to you it it's more meaningful for you to go through it on your own. That's what my hope is. So the beginning of numbers then as we move along this arc of God wanting to dwell with his people it begins with organization.

You see the camp has been together but it is hasn't been organized. Families would naturally have you know sort of grouped up but it's not organized. God has built a tabernacle and that tabernacle is intended to be in the middle of the camp. Well it can only be in the middle of the camp if the camp is arranged around it.

And so we begin with arranging the camp. And so chapter 1 verse one, it begins. Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Si in the tabernacle of meeting on the first day of the second month. Now I'd like you to pay attention uh to this because this helps us to have a framework for understanding the timing of all of the events.

So this says that this this count they have now been out of Egypt for a year and a month. It says on the first day of the second month, what happens in the first month, the days of unleven bread, Passover, right? And so now the second month begins and we're on our count towards Pentecost. That's also an interesting thing to note here.

But notice what it says. So we're on the first day of the second month. Now, we're also in the second year. So, it's a year and two months, right? We're in the second month of the second year. Okay. uh after they had come out of the land of Egypt saying now take so verse two take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families by their father's houses according to the number of names every male individually from 20 years old and above all who are able to go to war in Israel you and Aaron shall number

them by uh by their armies. So, we might see this and think the focus here must be on establishing the armies. God doesn't need the armies. It's just a way of helping us to understand organization. God is organizing the people. And by doing the census, he now knows who's in every single household, who's in which tribe.

That becomes important as they lay out the camp, who which tribe is going to be located where. And that's the point of this. Now, he's very specific though that there is a tribe that is not to be counted. Let's go down here to verses 47-49. Verse 47, we're still in chapter 1. It says verse in verse 47. But the Levites were not numbered among them by their father's tribe.

For the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying, "Only the tribe of Levi, you shall not number nor take a census of them among the children of Israel." Notice why. Verse 50, he says, "But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, over all its furnishings, over all the things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings.

they shall attend to it and camp around the tabernacle. So, as God is organizing Israel and he's placing the tabernacle at the center of the people, he surrounds the tabernacle first with the Levites. Now, that provides visually you can now see that the that standing between the tabernacle and the tribes as they will later be organized around the tabernacle, the Levites stand as a buffer.

And of course, they have this role that they're going to be given for tending and caring for all aspects of the tabernacle itself. Now, just to just to say it out loud, the priests are included. All Levites are all priests are Levites. If I want to say this correctly, all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests.

And so, God has lots of duties that are not priestly duties for the rest of the Levites. Now, I want you to see that God had laid the plan for this separation of the Levites all the way back in Exodus. Exodus chapter 13. You remember what happened? What was Passover about? If we step back and we look from 10,000 ft, what was Passover about at the time? The death angel passes through Egypt and destroys all of the firstborn of the Egyptians.

But all of the firstborn of the Israelites were spared through a process of the application of the blood of the lamb to the doorposts and the lentils of the houses. And because of that, the firstborn of the Israelites were not killed. God says something important about about that in Exodus chapter 13 here.

I'll start at verse one. And it says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both man and beast, it is mine. I understand in the broadest possible sense of the meaning that everything is God's. He owns all of the creation." Fair point.

In this particular uh case, he's taking specific ownership of the firstborn. He does that for a reason that isn't quite obvious upfront. You you see that it makes some sense. He redeemed their lives with the blood of the lamb. God provided that pathway himself. But why? That becomes clear only later. Numbers chapter 3, we'll see that God uses the firstborn to purchase the Levites for himself and their service.

Imagine that if God owns all of the firstborn of all 12 tribes, and he needs people organized in a way to take care of the tabernacle, which he has already assigned to the Levites, how would the people be able to do the function? He's going to make an exchange of those he already owns for those he wants to own for that role. Numbers chapter 3 twe here at verse 12.

He says, "Now be behold, I myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel." A direct quote from Exodus, which we just read. So instead of those firstborn, which we read he took for himself in Exodus, he now says that I will take the Levites instead.

Therefore, he finishes verse 12, therefore the Levites shall be mine because all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be mine. I am the Lord. So he owns them.

He's simply repeating what happened. And now we understand in context why he did what he did. So instead of taking the firstborn from every family into service, God now takes the entire tribe of Levi in exchange. Now you'll note just by just because as you read through it, you realize that there are more firstborn than there were Israelites.

So God says, "Well, you can purchase your freedoms with cash essentially." And so that wraps up the issue. God now owns the Levites. The firstborn are now free, quote unquote. So this explains why the Levites are not counted among the armies. They're not. Their job isn't the battlefield. Their job is the tabernacle. Now, I want to point something out here.

Let's notice something here. So God gives chapter 3. You see here, it begins with the sons of Aaron. Verse 10 says something interesting and I want you to see this. It says, "So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, Levites, and they shall attend to their priesthood, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.

" It's an interesting word here that's used. Outsider. What is Who is an outsider? What does that mean? If you have if you if you've got your iPad or your laptop or your computer or you can do it later and you look up through esort or through your your your Bible program or just go and grab your Strongs concordance and you just look up this word z is our English version of the Hebrew word zar.

It means not authorized one not authorized. But what's interesting is Strongs brings out an element that is a little surprising. Only if you don't know that God had entered into a marriage agreement with Israel would it be surprising. Strongs gives a couple of nuanced additional meanings to the word carrying the nuance meaning of adultery and harlotry.

Now in this specific context, God is not saying it is adultery. But by inference, he's revealing his mind, how he feels about the relationship he's going to have with his priesthood, with his tabernacle. It is sacred, like a marriage. Anyone, it says here, what is what's going to happen? Verse 10 says, "They shall attend to their priesthood.

" We have the context for the statement. "But the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. Anyone who would take that role for themsself." The implication is God views that the same way as someone would steal the spouse of another person, would take the privileges of the of the intimacy of a relationship they are not entitled to.

That is worthy of death. Now, we just went through Leviticus, and if you read Leviticus recently, you will remember that part of that covers what happens to an adulterous couple. They are put to death. It's hard to miss the connection that this reveals how God feels about his relationship with the priesthood and anyone who would usurp his anointed, who would take a role that is not theirs to take.

That's what he's trying to help us to see right here. That's the importance of this relationship that's been established and the access by which Israel has to God through that priesthood. These are very very important fundamentals. As you move forward and you realize in the New Testament, I don't have time to go through this today, but just think about the spiritual implications of what that means with Jesus Christ, our high priest, the intimate relationship that God has with him as a clue about what he's trying to show

here. So, the tabernacle represents the presence of God among the people. So, it has to be handled in a very specific way and he's very clear about how that must be done. The Levites stand between the tabernacle and the rest of Israel. They carry out the work and maintain that boundary. God was meticulous in handing out the duties of the Levites by family.

You'll see that as you go through that and we'll see that later as we go through one of the other movements, a later movement, how important this became. So movement one then shows God putting the nation in order, setting the tribes around. I again I don't have time to go through all that. Where is Reuben and where are the Levites? Well, it sufficient for you on your own to study if you really want to know how were they all organized and in what batting order and who was east and who was west and who was north and who was south. It's

it's great. It's in fact it's important when we get to the story of Kora to know that. But I want to encourage you to read that on your own and to see because you should be able to put the math together. There's a reason that Reuben is mentioned with Kora. You'll see it on your own when you study it.

So I that's just like what's that say? Don't spoil it. I spoiled it a little. Not a lot, just a little. All right. It's a little spoiler. All right. So, this is the way movement one, that is all what movement one is about then. Organization. Okay. Now, the movement ends. Let's go over here to chapter 10. This first movement ends with the camp of Israel leaving.

Finally leaving. Uh this is numbers 10:es 10 and or 11 and 12. Okay. So verse 11 it says of numbers 10 it says now it came to pass on the 20th day of the second month. Pause. What was the timing of numbers chapter 1 verse one it's we read right away that this was the beginning or the first of the second month.

So rough how long has gone by now? So God organized the camp in 20 days. This is the 20th day of the second month of the second year. So, it hasn't taken him a year to do this. It took 20 days. It's a tidbit. It's interesting. You might have assumed it took him 2 months or 5 months. No, took him 20 days.

God's much more efficient than human beings. All right. Anyway, it says that the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle of the testimony and the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Si on their journeys. Then the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Pan. So they started out for the first time according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

So they're leaving. Where are they going? Just it it might be a sidebar, but I don't think so. I think it's it's important to understand if you remember when they were coming out of Egypt, they crossed through the Red Sea that God did not take them directly to Si. He was worried about the Philistines. He was worried about the Amalachites.

He was worried about a people. And this is important thing to note. Israel was not a waring nation. They weren't a waring people. They were slaves in Egypt. Egypt was the greatest, most powerful nation on the planet at the time. Israel were slaves there and had been for decades as slaves who was teaching them war, how to fight, how to use weapons of war.

They were being taught how to make bricks and at the end without straw. So this was this was how they grew up. Generations of Israelites, this is how they lived. Now, that's an important I think it's just important to to remember that because God was worried I if I could use the word worried. Is God really worried about anything concerned, mindful of the Philistines and the Amalachites? Any of those itites that they might have come in contact with, God was worried that they might become fearful and go back. That's what

he that's what he was mindful of. Okay? So keep in mind that why would God be worried about that or thinking about that? Well, he's got a people who've never been in wars. They are not warrior people. That's why I wanted you to think about that. All right. So where are they going? They are not going to be diverted around.

So my point about this is that God led them a a wandering route to Sinai because of that issue. Now that we're done, we've done everything that we needed to do. We built a tabernacle. We have a covenant in place. We have a people that is ready to go. They've been taught. I have a priesthood. We're good. We're organized as a camp.

We're good to go. Time to leave. 11 through 14 is the second movement of the book of Numbers. Now, movement two shows what happens once the people begin moving forward towards the land that God said he was going to give them. Their heart is now going to be exposed. Where are they? Are they going to obey? Do they have the heart to obey? Do they want to? Let's note now that the people begin complaining almost instantly. Oh, wait.

Before we do that, let's look how long it's been. Let's go to the end of uh of Numbers 10:33. It says, "So they departed from the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days." The first leg is three days. Okay. Now 11:1 says, "Now when the people complained, we're 3 days in and the people start complaining and it displeased the Lord for the Lord heard it and his anger was aroused.

So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp." So now they're not just griping about, you know, how uncomfortable the journey is. They're actually reacting against the situation that they are in. Let's notice here verses 5 and 6 of chapter 11. It says, "We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leaks, the onions, and the garlic.

But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this mana." Mana before our eyes. You remember they started griping on the way to Si that they didn't have bread. And so God says,"I will give you mana." Now what are they saying here? It was better in Egypt. You notice how they don't reminisce about the beatings.

They don't reminisce about the work. Oh, they reminisce about the food. What's driving the bus here? It's the food. We wish we had the food we had back then. I remember somebody else selling a birthright for food. Like human beings, we can be short-sighted. Now, the grumbling escalates on the journey. God gets fed up with them.

He overwhelms them with what you remember. This whole food thing doesn't go away for a while. Quail. Lots of quail. I was looking up to see how much quail this would be. I don't know the number, but it's a big number because it's described the the quail came into the camp a day's journey out. Now, that's just not a few scattered here and there on your way walking a day's journey.

It's three feet thick a day's journey out of quail. Everybody got, you know, there's a term in here that's used which doesn't mean anything to me about the volume of quail, but I can imagine it's a lot per household of quail cuz it's a lot of quail. And yet God says, I'm not going to feed you just two days worth. I'm not going to feed you 5 days worth.

I'm going to give you 30 days worth and it's going to become loathsome to you. Allah Proverbs 27 again the good thing which they come to despise. Now the this attitude doesn't obviously just stay with the people because we see over in Numbers chapter 12 the dissension of Aaron Aaron and Miriam. Chapter 12, right at the beginning, it says, "Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

So they said, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the Lord heard it. Like, well, they didn't know the Lord heard it at the time, apparently, because this is written as an afterthought. like they don't know this, but God heard that. That's not going to be good.

And as we know from the story, as you read through it, you'll see that Miriam is given leprosy. And of course, it's not just, you know, as Moses when he displayed power of God, put his hand in his tunic, he pulls it out, it's leprosy, puts it back, and it comes out clean. No, God says to Miam, "Seven days.

" And remember from Leviticus, the person who is identified with the disease is outside the camp for seven days. So God is telling her, he's also telling us how important the laws are and speaking against his anointed. This is a big deal. And God makes sure that we get the point. Miriam got the point because she had to spend those seven days with leprosy.

Okay. So as we move on, they come to the edge of the land where it says this is the place that they had been traveling toward from the beginning. So what are we going to do next? Well, God says, "Okay, here's what you do. Send spies into Canaan." So, we go over here to Numbers chapter 13 and they send spies because look, you might be tempted to think that that the Israelites picked for themselves we should do this.

No, God says verse one, it says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan." So God told them to do this. Go get Now, I think God was hoping that they'd come back and give a good report of the promised land, which he had all along said was a land of milk and honey. So 12 men get sent out and they return and confirm that the land actually is very good. They have evidence.

They have fruit from the land. Except we get to the end of their testimony in chapter 13 31. It says, "But the men," verse 31, "but the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." Now, let's just meditate for just a second here and remember that the God who's leading them is the same God who got them out of Egypt, the most powerful nation on the planet.

He was able to deliver them after 10 plagues, assaulting those people, resulting in the death of all of their firstborn and the sparing of the lives of the firstborn of Israel. They have all that in their memory. That was just a year ago. It's not a hundred years ago. That's that's last year that happened. I mean, I'm getting old.

I get, you know, my memory is not great anymore, but I remember last year still. I'm just saying probably you do too what happened last year about this time. I can tell you I mean not every detail but if something big happened pretty much I know like if we had gone through 10 plagues in Egypt we would remember that do miracles create conversion clearly not here they come back and say we can't do this there which God did for us there.

That's impossible. This is not that is impossible. That's what God is hearing them say. That's what the people also hear. This is not possible. Yet the only people on planet earth who have the God as their God is these people. And if their God says, "I will deliver you into that land," you can bet that's what's going to happen.

And yet they doubted. So they wanted to pick a new leader and they wanted to go back. That's what they wanted to do. And so God's response is in chapter uh 14:1. The Lord says to Moses in verse 11 of chapter 14, he says, "How long will these people reject me? How long will they not believe me? And all with all the signs which I have performed among them.

That's the clue about conversion and miracles. They're just not connected in the psyche of a human being for some reason. So God makes a decision. We drop down to the bottom of chapter 14:es 29-31. where God says this is let's look at verse 28 sorry note takers start make a note it's 28 let's start in 28 say to them as I live well lives as I live says the Lord just as you have spoken in my hearing so I will do to you the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness all of you who were numbered according

to your entire number from 20 years old and above which we had just previously read in numbers vers 1:es 1 and 2. Those people that generation verse 30 says, "Except for Caleb the son of Jeffa and Joshua the son of Nun, the rest of you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would uh make you to dwell in.

" Notice verse 31. But your little ones, your babies and your children, whom you said would be victims, I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. You have 40 years added to your sentence of being in the wilderness. should have only been up to the 30th day or the first of the third month if we have the timing correct.

Should have been the first of the third month. They should have been taking possession. Now we have 40 days added for the spies to go in, which is why it's 40 years punishment when they came back. 40 days while you traversed the land and saw the beauty and came back and told a bad report a day for a year. It's one of the places we go prophetically to be reminded that this is a principle of God's in understanding prophetic events.

A day for a year principle. Verse 34 says, "According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land 40 days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely 40 years, and you shall know my rejection." So movement two shows the result of the choice of the people when they made the choice to not trust God.

Everything that happens to Israel is going to be from their own choices. God gave them the freedom to choose. He gave them the way to live. He nudges them to do it that right way. They still don't want to. This is the problem that we see revealed at the beginning. the heart of Israel. They don't have a heart.

Moses made the claim directly. But of course, we see it by the evidence. But their lack of faith was not finished yet because we have 40 days of a journey in front of them wandering through this wilderness now for them to be tested more and fail repeatedly. So movement three, God reinforces his order among the people. This is the third movement.

We stop. They were supposed to go in, they didn't go in. They tried to go in. You'll see that back in chapter 14 also. They tried to go in without God. They got chased out. You were not going in. God said, "You're not going in." They tried to go in. They didn't go in. That's going to come back to haunt them.

Well, it did come back to haunt them because now they have to wander for 40 years. So, Numbers 15 shows us that the God is trying to fix things right away. We see here laws of grain and drink offerings. Once again, he says here in verse two, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you.

" It's interesting to note that language right there. Who's he talking to? In in in your mind, you might be easy to say, "Well, he's talking to, you know, all of Israel." Because he is. He's talking to all of Israel. He's talking to the parents. But who's not going in? The parents. Anyone who was numbered in the first chapter is not going in.

And yet, he speaks as though they are all going in. He's talking to the kids. He's laying the foundation. But look, God is not going to say, "Okay, all you parents, I'm going to kill you now. I'm going to destroy you now and then we'll grow the kids up. It's no, you're going to dwell together and hopefully these people learn some things over the next 40 years. Maybe, maybe not.

They are Israelites. He's But he speaks to them in that anticipatory tone when you come into the land. He's going to fulfill his promise. He hasn't abandoned that. That's not changed at all. Neither have any of his laws or requirements. Neither has the means of access. All of that is still in place. All we have right now is a failure of the people to go into their new home.

The bride rejected the new home. We move from here to a direct challenge once again on God's order, meaning the the authority that he placed within the priesthood which he gave to Aaron and his sons. We get to chapter 16 and we have the revolt of Kora. It's an important account because it it reminds us that God was serious when he set up the priesthood.

This is his priesthood. They serve him for the people. Kora does not understand this and God's going to react to that. It says here verse one. It says, "Now Kora, the son of Isar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dayan and Abram, the sons of Eliabad and Anthe, sons of Reuben." Go home, see that connection.

Where were those Israelites? Where was the tribe of Reuben? Where were the where was Kora's tribe? And they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves.

For all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" That's some accusation. Takes a bit of hubris to come up with that. It takes grinding on an idea for quite a while to get to that place. Deep envy on full display. So God responds in a very visible way.

Get away from him. Get away from him. If you don't want to die, you get away from them. And the ground opens up and swallows all of them up. You can read the details and you should read the details of the story. It's fascinating. It's illustrative. It helps us to see how important this issue is to God.

Remember what we read in Numbers 3:10. The person who would take this duty, the outsider, that outsider is not talking about a gentile. It's talking about anyone who would try to take the duty for themsel that God had already given to the priesthood, to Aaron and his sons. Here you have it displayed. God was serious when he said that person will be put to death.

Every single one of those people died right then. God was true to his word. And yet the people still argued about this. And so God said, "Okay, I tell you what, every tribe in Israel, you need to bring a rod. Bring it right here to the tabernacle. Everybody, Aaron, you get a rod. Everybody gets a rod." Okay? verse 17 chap excuse me chapter 17 verse 5 where God says and it shall be verse 5 of chapter 17 and it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom thus I will rid myself of the complaints of the children of Israel

which they make against you so this is God's defense of Aaron only Aaron's rod budded blossomed as it says So God made it very clear. I am the one who chooses my priests, not you. So following this, the responsibilities of the priests and the Levites are restated. Not completely issues, significant issues are dealt with.

Their duties are once again defined. The people are reminded how the tabernacle is to be handled. This is repeated to make it clear. What God had already set in place is still in place. There's been no change in the program. Then the account turns to the issue of purification. So this if I didn't say this before, let's say it now.

So the movement number three which we're on is numbers chapter 15 through9. Okay. So this movement is chapters 15-9. So then in chapter 19, one of the issues that's dealt with once again, we see that God's view on what happens to defile the camp, and we see how he takes this personally. You'll see this in in uh chapter 19:13 where he says, "Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died," this is verse 13 of chapter 19.

"Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died and does not purify himself, that person defiles the tabernacle of the Lord." He doesn't say that the the person who's defiled goes up and touches the tabernacle and therefore it's defiled. He says, "Their presence in the camp, having not purified themselves, defiles my tabernacle.

" It's like a hang on a sec. That's woe. That should be a wo moment. This is how serious God takes this purification issue. Cleanliness. How are we supposed to be close to the God who wants to dwell with us if you're an Israelite? He gave you all of that and he meant it. Lest he destroy the people.

This was the whole purpose to provide that access and reconciliation without destroying the people who would sin. This just gives us a deeper understanding of his mind about this. God's presence among the people is still the central concern. Even in the wilderness, even after they failed to enter the promised land, he's still thinking about the same things.

I am dwelling with my people and they must not be defiled. So movement three shows that the failure in movement two did not change what God had established previously. Their failure to go into the promised land didn't reboot the whole program. It just pushed pause. Movement number four. There's only five, so we'll this one does these last two don't take all that long.

Movement number four, I would just say continued testing and consequences. Continued testing and consequences. This covers chapters 20 through 25. Okay, chap numbers chapters 20- 25. And all we're going to see in movement four is that the problems we saw earlier, they didn't really go away. Even after the judgment in movement two and the instructions that they get in movement three, the same pattern is going to appear again and again.

So this chapter we're going to begin in chapter 20. Now this chapter the people once again complain and once again they're talking about how great it was in Egypt. And this is the kind of complaint that makes God angry as it says. This is that chapter though where Moses fails. Verses 10 and 11 it says, "And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together.

" Now what had God given them as instruction? and you can go back and read it, but he said, "Speak to the rock." Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he, this is Moses, said to them, "Hear now, you rebels, must we, this isn't God, must we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod and water came out abundantly.

You suppose he did it a second time because the first time he struck it, no water came out and that's not how God told him to do it. You'd think maybe the math, but he hits it again. Okay, God, all right, God gives them water through the rock. But God says here in verse 12, then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron because you did not believe me to hollow me in the eyes of the children of Israel.

Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. This is the punishment that they get. Both of them are not allowed to go into the promised land. So the journey continues. The people face resistance from surrounding nations, but God delivers them. So the Canaanites now come down and he delivers the Canaanites into their hands at what place? Horma.

Go back to Numbers 14:es 44 and 45. I'm not going to do it just if if you're a notetaker. Numbers 14:44 and 45. This is when the Israelites try to go into the promised land on their own. And these same Canaanites chase them down to Hora. Just when you think about God being careful and meticulous and showing things like this is not a small thing to miss.

You shouldn't miss this. They failed there. God delivered them at the same place. Okay. Now, they're not allowed to pass through Edom, but they have to take a longer route. And of course, they're going to go through lots of trials and lots of tribulations. Chapter 21 verse 5. And the people spoke against God and against Moses.

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water, and our soul Oh, this is bad. And our soul loads this worthless bread. They're talking about mana. They don't have a good attitude about mana. Again, only this is way worse than what they said before. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died.

Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken out against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who's bitten when he looks at it shall live.

" This one's kind of interesting in terms of us learning some things in the story flow. God provides the means of cleansing of of healing. The people now have to do something in order to receive it. He places the pole. You can get bitten, but if you don't look at that pole, you don't get healed. So, you have to think and he's trying to connect them.

Guess where healing comes from. And yet later, this is why I just it's like a kind of a ironic smile inside of me. Later, what happens to that pole? Israel bows down to that. At some point, it isn't God anymore. It's the snake on the pole. It's like, really? Yes. This is the same thinking that keeps coming back over and over and over again.

Do they trust God? They grumble and they gripe and they grumble and they gripe. All right. So the the journey continues chapters 22- 24. But now we come to this place and a person. The place is Moab. The king is Bailac and the prophet is Balum. Now, you might think this is a real prophet of God. It doesn't really look like that. Balam was a greedy man.

He wanted all of the rewards he was offered. He wanted to curse Israel to get the rewards. He was happy to do it. That's what that whole story is about. Happy to do it for you. Except God says no. And every time that you open your mouth, a blessing for Israel is going to come out. And that's what happens multiple different times.

chapter 23:8 where he's he's being asked by Bailac about what what is up with this and and his answer he says how shall I curse whom God has not cursed and how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced he probably would have preferred to say how do I get paid to do this thing I can't do because that's really what he wanted but we see that he understands that he can't curse the people, but he knows how to get the people to curse themselves.

So, that's what the rest of that story is about. How do the people curse themselves? Well, he teaches them to go in and entice them with all of the lusts of the flesh and they will come up and they will play and party with you. And they absolutely did. Chapter 25 says uh let's begin in verse one. It says, "Now Israel remained in aac in aac grove and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. So God sends in a plague. Obviously this is angering to God. There is no other God. There is no other God. And yet Israel just can't seem to get that right.

So he sends a plague in among them. And it is Phineas. This is the part where we read about Phineas who understands the gravity of this situation and he takes action when this woman comes in with the prince of e of Israel and they go into his tent and Phineas is like this is an open sin in Israel and he's not going to allow it and he goes in and he disposes of the couple.

This causes God to stop the plague. He acts. Phineas by the way gets a legacy. God gives him a durable enduring priesthood because of his attitude. He was zealous for God. So movement four shows us the same problems continue over and over and over. It's like reading Judges, just a shorter period of time.

The problems keep go coming around. The same solutions keep appearing, the same complaints, the same gripes over and again. The problem is the heart. This is just the introduction. We're at the very front end of Israel and we can see from the very beginning that Israel's problem as a nation, as a people, is they have a heart problem.

God can't seem to fix that heart. And he of course tells us many times about that heart later. It's what really upsets him about the people. They never had the heart to truly love and obey him. This brings us to the fifth movement. There's no redemption. We're sitting here now. The 40 years have gone by. We are now at the threshold.

It's time to prepare the next generation. That's how the book ends. Preparing the next generation to go in chapter 26. So this movement covers numbers 26- 36. Numbers 26- 36. And we notice that chapter 26 begins where we began in chapter 1, a new people, a new census. And it came to pass after the plague that the Lord spoke to Moses and Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saying, "Take a census of of all the congregation of the children of Israel from 20 years old and above by their father's houses, all who are able to go

to war in Israel." So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. They're ready to go in. Their placement is they're where they should be to go in. So God is now going to begin where he began. We're going to reboot the whole program.

We don't change any of the rules. We still have the same priesthood. Everything is the same, but I have a new people. I have to get back up to speed. So we begin with a new census. Really, this is talking once again about organization. and making sure that they understand. Plus, there's going to be a leadership change.

Over in chapter 27, God lays the foundation for the change in leadership. Here, verse 18 of chapter 27. It says, "And the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua, the son of Nun, with you, a man in whom is the spirit." Some have questioned, I remember being asked this a few different times over the years, but some have questioned, did they really have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Yes, they did.

When God said so, baptism wasn't the process. It was God's individual action in every single person that got he gave his spirit to that was by his choice who got his spirit. So it clearly says that Joshua had his spirit. It says, "So take this man, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him.

set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation and inaugurate him in their sight and you shall give some of your authority to him that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. So here's where God sets up succession. It's going to be Joshua. There's no doubt about it.

No one can rise up and say, "How did you set yourself up Joshua to this role?" God didn't leave that to to any question. He did it himself and he did it publicly. So the following chapters then God goes back through you'll see here if you're looking at your Bible daily offerings Sabbath offerings monthly offerings offerings at Passover offerings of the feast of weeks offerings of the feast of trumpets the day of atonement the feast of tabernacles we have the law concerning vows in chapter 30 we have the vengeance on the Midianites which happens in 31 we have

them returning from war divi dividing the plunder. Then we have the tribes in chapter 32 settling east of the Jordan because Reuben and Gad saw this beautiful land they were already in on the east side of the Jordan River and they requested that land. And so this is where you have that story unfold and where they commit to going in with the children of Israel, not just with them, but to lead them in with their army, their men already counted in the census of chapter 26.

Now, as we move through this, you're also getting to the instructions for when they conquer Canaan, where he says here in chapter uh chapter 33 and:e 50, he says, "Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho." They haven't gone in yet. He says, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and

demolish all their high places, and you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it. For I have given you the land to possess." So, this is the promise. And then, of course, we go forward from here. It gets boundaries. The land is divided. It's aortioned to the various different families. And we close in here uh with the cities of refuge given in chapter 35.

Cities for the Levites are set aside and cities of refuge which is when where a person would go if you inadvertently you accidentally caused the death of another person. But it wasn't with malice or forethought. It wasn't deliberate. You had a choice. You could go to a city of refuge where you could be held in trial and if found innocent, you would have to live there because that was your place of safety.

And if you left, you could be killed. So you stayed until the death of the high priest. And at the death of the high priest, everyone who was there under that circumstance was freed. That's a very fast rundown of what that's all about. So this is the five movements. Movement number five shows that God did not abandon Israel after their rebell their rebellion. He fulfilled his promises.

He was doing everything he said he would do. Preparing a new generation to go in and take possession where their parents refused. So number serves as a great lesson for us. God had given them instructions. He had set them up as a people. He was ready to go. He had a tabernacle. He was ready to take them into the promised land and give them what he said he would give them.

This book is about what that looked like leading them to the promised land. Their attitude problems, their heart problems. We're not going to see that end. Well, we won't see that end until Christ returns. That's the sad reality of us as human beings. So, now that we have this full picture of what Israel looks like at the end of their 40 years of wandering, ready to go in, we we have a new book in front of us, the book of Deuteronomy, and that will be the subject of next week's message.