Numbers 20:1-13 • A First Repenter
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
I'm going to take you to Numbers, chapter 20 this morning, which may seem to be a strange place for an advent message, beginning of the Christmas season, Numbers 20, and we'll look at verses 1 through 13.
Maybe to get you ready, I'll ask you to fill in the blank.
All I want for Christmas is… Now a lot of you are saying, "My two front teeth."
Now, you have really dated yourselves.
That came out in 1944, and some of you still know it well. Now, there's another generation you must know that would fill in the blank another way. All right? So, Mariah Carey or Justin Bieber fans. All right, ready? All I want for Christmas is… Ah! See? I mean, there's a generational divide, you know, that just… And some of that's happening here in Numbers. Just as in Numbers 20 in the opening verses, you'll read this little phrase, it's almost a throwaway, "And Miriam died there." You know, what is that all about? Well, Miriam was the sister of whom?
Moses, sometimes faithful, sometimes not so faithful.
And she was part of that generation that came out of Egypt and were supposed to go into the Promised Land but didn't. Now they've been wandering for 40 years, and the generation that came out of Egypt and has been wandering, now that generation is pretty much off the scene. And we see that as this new generation is ready to go into the Promised Land. And they're wondering what's promised for them. I mean, you know, it's still like us, we're still wondering what we get for Christmas. I actually saw a survey recently that said 48% of all kids want an iPad for Christmas. So grandparents, if you're wondering, I mean, pretty good chance, you know. Of course, that survey was released by Apple, so… And I've read that 98% of all families, what they want for Christmas is to know what in the world dad wants for Christmas, you know. Nobody can figure that one out.
What do you as a church want for Christmas?
You want a pastor.
You want a shepherd who will be an under shepherd to the great shepherd.
And as you think of who that is, what would that person be like? We actually learn much in numbers of that Christmas gift. What would it be to have a shepherd who is an under shepherd to the great shepherd?
Remember that the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was a greater Moses.
So to learn what it would be to be a shepherd reflecting Him, we can learn a lot from what we see about Moses in terms of those leaders of God's people who become what God intends them to be so that His people would become what God intends them to be.
Let me read for you as we think about what did Moses display here about shepherd leadership in Numbers 20, verses 1 to 13. "And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zinn in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there.
Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and the people quarreled with Moses and said, Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord? Why have you brought this assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle?
And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?
It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there's no water to drink.
Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water, so that you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.
And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he had commanded him.
Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them,
Here now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?
And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock.
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me to uphold Me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
These are the waters of Miraba, which means quarreling, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
Father we ask your blessing upon an exposition of your word, asking that you would strip away what you do not intend for your people to hear, but would settle in their hearts what you intend for their growth in grace and Christlikeness. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
Okay it starts so well, they get the water.
But it ends poorly.
God says to Moses, You did not regard Me as holy, and therefore you shall not be the one to lead these people into the Promised Land. What did Moses do that was so wrong?
I mean after all it's easier to see what the people did that was so wrong, right? I mean if you just look at verse 2 and following, "There was no water so the people would send themselves together against Moses, and against Aaron," verse 3, "and the people quarreled with Moses, and they began to complain," right?
Why did you bring us to this place where we don't have food and we don't have water? It would have been better for us to stay back in Egypt.
Now what you should recognize is that these are the words of their parents and their grandparents. This is not the first time we've been to this place or heard these words. Leo Durocher, right? This is Deja Vu all over again.
This has happened before. The people of Israel went, sent the spies in the Promised Land under Moses, and 40 years ago the spies came back with a good word, right? So wonderful land is flowing with milk and honey, and you've seen all the Sunday School pictures, right? The grapes are like grapefruit, you know? Remember those from Sunday School class? This is great land. This is wonderful. Just one little problem. What's the one little problem?
Real big people over there. There are giants in the land, and we'll look like grasshoppers next to them.
And in their fear and rebellion, Miriam's generation turned away and turned back.
Now their children and grandchildren are again on the banks of the Jordan, but on the desert side and sang. Man, we can't go forward.
Moses has brought us to a bad place. They are repeating the errors and the sins of their parents. It's easy to see what the people do wrong.
And it's actually easy to see what Moses does right.
I mean, if you were saying, "How do we find a leader like this?" You're going to look at this as a template of a great biblical leader. I mean, what does Moses do? After all, if you just kind of run through the passage, you'll see in verse 6, "Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly," the people who had been complaining, "to the entrance of the tent of meeting," that would be the church of the time, right? "And they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them." The people are grumbling, and Moses and Aaron are humbling themselves before God and interceding for the people. Now, I know you read the story so quickly, but I want you to think of the impact of this. The people are saying, "God has abandoned us. We want to return to the place where we were slaves. We don't want to serve Him. We don't want to go forward. What has God done to us? How could He be so cruel to take us to this place where we don't even want to be? We sacrifice to be here, and God has walked away."
And for people who are complaining in that way, Moses, who could say, "I'm done with you," instead falls on his face and prays for those people.
Moses is a first intercessor.
He is not waiting for the people to straighten up before he goes to God himself, prone before God, saying, "God, help them."
You recognize how hard this is.
For a leader of God's people to recognize, "People disrespect me. They disrespect the work of God.
They've been brought into a wonderful place, into a wonderful land." And yet they're looking back and saying, "Those are the better days, and we don't want to go forward."
It would be so easy for him to walk away, but he prays, "Lord, help them.
Lord, help them."
Harder yet when you recognize what the grumbling is in specific. Verse 2 toward the end, "The people assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron." Verse 4, "Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness?" The people say, "That we should die here." Verse 5, "Why have we come up out of Egypt?" Excuse me, "Why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?" They're not just grumbling.
They're blaming.
One of my very good friends is a pastor in another city who led people through a major building program. They'd been in a part of town which was decaying and struggling, and they went to a place where they thought the Lord would bless, built a new building.
And they were about two-thirds into the construction when the contractor, the major contractor,
took town with the money and left all the subcontractors unpaid.
Builders, attorneys, who owes the money to the subcontractors?
The church still does.
In order to finish the church, they virtually had to pay for it twice.
Not the pastor's fault, but who did the people blame?
You brought us to this place. It was so good back there. We were doing okay over there. Look what you did.
And the hardest thing he ever said to me he had to do was to forgive a people who were blaming him.
Because a leader of God's people is not just a first intercessor. He is a first forgiver. I'm not waiting for you to stop blaming me. I'm not waiting for you to forgive me. I forgive you. Because my obligation before the Lord is for you.
And we all long for those people who when we have erred, when we may be angry at the way in which they are confronting us, we would see in a Christian leader one who is able to forgive and move forward even when others will not forgive him or may be blaming him.
Don't you long for such a leader?
And recognize the difficulty in your own heart to be such.
Think of it. It's not just the pastor.
What about you, the Sunday school teacher? And you've dealt with this little demonic child in your class for the last eight weeks.
And you have been patient and kind and forgiving and helpful and give an extra time.
And lo and behold, the parent of that child comes to you about the eighth wink and says, you know, "Johnny really used to like Sunday school until you were the teacher."
Now you don't want to strangle Johnny. You want to strangle the parent, right? Don't you recognize what I've given? Don't you recognize what I've sacrificed? Don't you recognize what I've done for your child? And you blame me for this?
But you cannot extend the gospel or lead God's people if you cannot forgive and move forward.
Or you get ready for the banquet and you prepare the food and you prepare all the dishes and you prepare the tables and everything is just and then it gets late or the food cools off and the people who've not participated in getting things ready begin to complain.
Can you forgive for their sake and move forward?
You cannot lead if you cannot forgive. And God calls leaders into His church who are first forgivers, not second, first forgivers for the sake of the gospel.
Moses is a first intercessor. He's a first forgiver. One more thing, maybe even harder for us to face. In verse 10 we read this, "Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them, "Here now you rebels."
Well, that's not very politic. I mean, you're talking a hundred thousand people out there, you know, hundreds of thousands of people and you're saying, "It's not my fault, you are the rebels."
What you understand here is a man who's willing to put himself at risk for the sake of truth.
You are rebelling against the purposes of God and you may not like to hear me say this but my obligation is not to tell you what you want to hear, it's to tell you what God says is true.
And that's hard but it's ultimately the kind of pastor you want, isn't it? One who will be true to the Word of God to say what he believes by the Scriptures must be said even when it's difficult for the people of God to believe that there is greater blessing in them hearing hard things than in believing kind things about himself.
Because the greater grace and the greater blessing is to be true to the Word of God even when hard things have to be said. I think of another friend of mine, a pastor in a large and influential and fairly wealthy church in another city and he came into that situation recognizing there were major challenges in the church and one of the early challenges was identifying who the leaders would be. There was a man very influential, very wealthy, very powerful who was seeking to be in the eldership of that particular church.
And my friend still knew in the church, told me what he had to do one day.
Took the man to lunch, had a good time talking together.
But on the way back to the man's office building, my friend said he is the pastor, knew what he had to do.
Pulled into parking space, turned off the engine, turned to the man and said, "I would love for you to be an elder in this church but until things are right between you and your wife, you should not be an elder of this church according to Scripture."
Put him at great risk. The man was influential and powerful much longer time in the church. Put him at great risk for the pastor to say those things but for the sake of the Scriptures.
Brother for the sake of himself, he said what was true.
Moses does all of these things. He's the first to intercede. He is the first to forgive. He is the first to risk wonderful examples of godly, biblical leadership that we all desire in the leaders that we want to be part of our own spiritual journey.
So what went so bad?
That the next things we begin to read are God saying to Moses, "Moses, because you did not believe in me or regard me as holy, you cannot take these people into the Promised Land." What did Moses do that was so wrong?
You have to look closely and you have to put yourself back in the ear of the Hebrews to understand what was going on. The instructions for God are actually pretty clear. They're in verse 8. You there? Numbers 20 and verse 8. God says to Moses, "Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron and your brother. Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water." All right, now I know this instruction sounds simple but just hear it. You take the staff, now what's that staff about? Remember where it came from? This is the staff that was given to Moses to exercise and demonstrate the authority and power of God.
Moses is to take the staff and speak to the rock to bring forth its water.
Now keep that in mind as you see what actually happens. Verse 10, "Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them, "That is the people. Here now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of the rock?" God said to speak to the rock.
Moses speaks to the people in his anger and hurt.
I know it goes by quickly but what Moses has just done is he has given substitute words for the words that God intended to be said.
God did not say to do that. In fact, God said to do something different. And Moses in his own hurt and anger becomes a prophet of himself and his own hurt rather than a prophet of God.
He says words that God did not intend to be said.
And as much as you and I kind of say, "Well, I kind of forgive him for that given all that he went through," nonetheless, we recognize that what we most desire for those who would lead us in the ways and the paths of God is somebody who will dare to say what God has said and that is the truth that I will proclaim.
It gets harder for us as you look at verse 11 and remember what happened. Remember God said, "You take the staff and speak to the rock." And in verse 11 we read this, "And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice."
Now your mind should be saying something at this point. If you're a good Bible student you're thinking, "Now wait a second, there's somewhere in the Bible where God did tell Moses to strike the rock." Remember that?
It's not this place. It's Exodus 17, okay? And I'll ask you to turn there if your Bibles are still open. It's Exodus 17 and we're going to zero in on verse 6 of Exodus 17 because here's what's happened in that previous generation, here are the parents and the grandparents, that previous generation they were also without water in the desert and they are complaining, why won't God take care of us? Why is it going so badly for us? And God tells Moses, "All right, for these complaining people who are sinning against me by not believing in my providence, Moses, you provide for them." And he tells him to strike the rock. But if you look at Exodus 17 and verse 6 you read these words from God, "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink."
Not as plain in your English versions but important to know is that little Hebrew word "stand." God says, "I will stand before the rock."
The word is actually the word for a servant, standing in humility before a master.
God says, "Moses, you strike the rock but before you do, I in my glory am going to descend upon the rock as a servant to my people and then Moses, you strike the rock."
Which means in order to strike the rock, what does Moses have to strike first?
God himself.
That is why Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 10, "Remember that the rock was whom was Christ,
that God would have himself struck in order to provide the grace that his people needed." Paul understood the message, Moses didn't. Because what you see happening now in Numbers the generation later is God has said to Moses, "Listen, I want you simply to speak to the rock. You remind the people the power is in my word." Instead, Moses lifts his hand and he strikes the rock with the staff as though the power is in him. But more than that, he does it with no mediator anymore. There's no one that is being struck in behalf of the people, it is just Moses standing up as though Moses is saying this, "You don't need God.
You don't need a deliverer. You don't need his mediation. You don't need him to save you. I'll do it."
And what Moses has done is not only made himself a prophet of his own words. He's made himself a priest of a new God. You don't need a mediator, you need me.
And he did it with the staff of God in his hand.
Remember, we even read in this passage in verse 9, "Moses took the staff from before the Lord."
This is the staff that was used to part the Red Sea. This was the staff to say to the king of Egypt, to Pharaoh, "My God is the greater king."
And now Moses takes that staff of the authority of the kingship of his God and he uses it for his own purposes. So that if you put it all together, what Moses has done is this, he has presented himself as a new prophet and a new priest and a new king who is the only prophet, priest, and king of God's people.
That's Jesus himself.
What Moses has done is precisely what God says, "You did not believe in me, nor represent me as holy, unique, the only wise, true, powerful, pure God. You did not present me as holy to these people. And therefore, Moses, because it would not be good for you to believe that you are the God taking these people into the Promised Land, nor would it be good for the people to believe that you are their God taking them into the Promised Land. They must know that there is another prophet, priest, and king, and so you cannot go."
Now it sounds hard and people of grace, you will say, "Where is the grace in that?"
Well, let's read more closely.
If you go to verse 11 again of Numbers 20, "Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice." Now recognize this, these are rebellious people and they have a rebellious leader.
"Moses lifted up his hand and he struck the rock twice, and what came out of the rock?"
Water. How much water came out? An abundance of water. Now I know what this looks like because I've seen the pictures.
I mean you have too, right? It's in all the Sunday School literature, right? You know there's this little hillside and a little rock and it's got a little crack in it and there's a little stream of water coming out, right? Right? And there's sheep on the hillsides and a few camels over there, you know, and the children are playing on the side. You know, you've seen it, right?
All right engineers in the crowd, math majors, do the math with me, all right?
Six hundred thousand fighting men were the number of the Israelites that came out of Egypt. Now some have died, some who lived, some who have been born. Let's just say roughly the population has been replaced. Six hundred thousand fighting men and they're married. So that's another six hundred thousand people. That's 1.2 million of childbearing ages and years.
And they're going to have a couple of kids.
After all, they're Hebrews, they're going to have more than a couple of kids, right? All right? So if you take the 1.2 million, you give them a couple of kids a piece, you know, you're somewhere over three million people. And by the way, we have a few grandma and grandpas, right? They're still going to be in the crew, all right? So now let's just say we're somewhere around four million plus people.
And our cattle. They keep saying it, right? And our cattle. All right, now livestock. All right, so let's just assume for every person there's at least one sheep or one goat or one camp. By the way, there would have been much more.
But let's just assume there's one.
Now we got eight million living beings that need to survive in the desert. Let's just presume that you need a gallon of water per being. You need more, okay, in the desert.
Now we need eight million gallons, just subsistence, but it's coming out abundantly, all right? Eight million gallons a day. Three hundred thousand gallons an hour. Five thousand gallons a minute. This is a tanker truck per minute coming out of this little, you know, this is gosh of water coming. They have sinned against God, and His grace is overwhelmingly abundant in their behalf. They sin against Him. They are faithless to Him. He is faithful to them.
It's the wonderful message of grace of which Moses, now writing this account, is himself the author. God has been gracious to His people despite their sin.
Okay, He's been gracious to the people. You're still worried about someone though. Who is it? Who are you still worried about? Who is God not apparently gracious to at all?
Moses.
I mean, after all, God says to Moses, "You cannot go into the Promised Land." And we understand Moses is difficult. He's been 40 years. He gave up, you know, the Pharaoh ship in waiting of Egypt for these people, and they're grumbling and fighting. He's tired, and he's frustrated, and he's angry.
When the psalmist records this event, he says, "Moses spoke rash words, and we understand."
So, was there any grace to Moses?
Let me ask you something.
You know all this bad stuff we read about Moses?
Who wrote all this bad stuff about Moses? I mean, who rats on Moses?
Moses.
Moses.
Moses wrote all this about himself.
Now, I'm like a lot of you. You know, this is the time of year that we start planning all the family Christmas get-togethers, right? So I, along with my four brothers and my sister, we will make the annual trek to my parents. And particularly when I was the guy on the screen with the darker hair, and we would go and we were all raising young kids. Some of you know how this goes. You know, the parents who are all gathering at the grandparents' house, we just can hardly wait until it's time to put the kids to bed so we can, as brothers and sisters, kind of, you know, talk again, you know. And the way that my brothers and my sister and I would talk again is we would, after the kids were in bed, we would play Monopoly far into, you know, the never-ending game, you know, far into the night, you know. And let me tell you, when the kids are down and you get tired enough playing Monopoly, you get a little giddy, you know.
And so what we would do is it got late enough, you know, is we would start talking about the misdeeds of our youth.
Now my parents, who are almost falling asleep sitting beside the table, are suddenly awake.
And my mother is saying, "You did what?"
But we're willing to talk about it because we know it's okay now.
If Moses will tell you all the misdeeds of his own leadership and write it down for all the world and all generations to see, what do you know?
He knows it's all right now.
For he was the very one who said, "A prophet must come greater than I, a leader better than I," so that ultimately he learned that the better Moses is Jesus himself.
And Moses, despite his sin, is the one that God chooses to tell us this, so that even we know he cannot enter the Promised Land as though he was the God.
He is still given the privilege to write of the God who makes things right.
You know how I know that's true?
There was a time centuries and centuries later when Jesus would walk this earth and even his disciples would wonder at times, "Who are you and why are you here?"
And toward the end of his earthly ministry, he would go to a mountaintop and a cloud would descend upon him. And in the cloud would come two other figures to be with Jesus. Who would they be?
Moses and Elijah, to say all the law of Moses and all the prophets of the Old Testament have been about the coming of this one named Jesus.
And do you know where that mount of transfiguration is?
It is in the Promised Land that God ultimately let Moses into by his great grace.
Moses is not just a first intercessor, nor even a first forgiver, nor even a first risker in behalf of the people.
Ultimately he is a first repenter. To say, "People, you need to know this.
Though I fail you, there is one who will not. Though I have been wrong, there is one who can make it right.
Though I have led you away from the grace of God, the grace of God will yet claim you."
If you would find that leader and you would be that leader, then the grace of God will be the greatest gift that the people of grace will know and give in this world. Father, will you so work in us that we who know what we need, your grace, would face it not only because we simply want your mercy, but because we know in our own repentance before friends and family and church people, ultimately led by the leader that you would bring, that we in repentance are led to grace, which is wondrous and eternal, full and free. Teach us this grace that we need every day for the sake of your people and the greatest gift of all. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.paste transcript here