The Rock, the Serpent & Small Victories

Good evening. Would you all stand with me?

I want to welcome you this evening to Calvary Chapel. And those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you. And would you join me in prayer? Father, we ask that you would bless our service this evening, Lord, that you would be glorified as we worship you in song. And as Pastor Ryan teaches your word tonight, we pray that you would anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit

to bring it forth with your power, Lord, your direction. We want to lift up the youth group, the children's church class, and the nursery also, Lord, that you would bless that time too as the youngsters are being taught. And we just thank you for the opportunity we have to come together as believers to grow and to fellowship one with another and to look to you, Lord. We've been downcast.

Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. Lift our souls to a nation that seeks your faith. Let us not lift our souls to a nation that seeks your faith. We do come just as we are tonight, Lord, that you're faithful. We can trust you in everything.

Sometimes look toward the sky and start to sing.

Just let the sound unrestrained. Let's take this feeling. That we're filled with your grace, your mercy, and your sovereignty. God, who is in control in a world that seems upside down and going all kinds of directions, Lord. We look to you and we praise you. And again, Lord, I ask that you anoint Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Lord bless you all.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 20.

Numbers, chapter 20. For the chapters we're covering tonight, I gave it a little bit of a title because it seems to be those are the things that it covers. The rock, the serpent, and some small victories. So, as we enter chapter 20, we have the distinct understanding that we are at about year 40 since the children of Israel have left the land of Egypt. We know that because later in the book of Numbers,

we're going to find out that the two deaths that are spoken of here in chapter 20, happened in the 40th year after the children of Israel left. So, a lot of time has elapsed between chapter 19 and chapter 20. They're getting very close to the promised land. They're getting very close to their time when they can enter the promised land. So, really, this is sort of the end of their wilderness wanderings.

And it's very much marked by the fact that the children of Israel are going to lose some of their heroes of faith, if you will, in the next couple of chapters. So, we pick up in chapter 20, verse 1. And it says, This first chapter that we cover, I've given it the entire title of The Rock because that's going to be the main story that takes place in chapter 20. But the first story that we see happen here is the death of Miriam.

Now, it's kind of interesting to think about the life of Miriam because it's a very interesting story. Because, really, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, those three names have kind of gone together from really the beginning of the book of Exodus, right? It's kind of interesting to think back on Miriam's life because she started off with such faith. If you remember when Moses was born and he had to be hidden, and then they put him in the little ark in the bulrushes, and Pharaoh's daughter found Moses, Miriam was the one who came and said, Hey, would you like for me to find someone to take care of this baby for you?

And she said, That'd be great. And she went and found Moses' mother and said, Hey, guess what? You have a job. And so there was a great deal of faith in the heart of Miriam. But we know that Miriam's life, while filled with faith, also had one really great failure. We talked about it a few weeks ago when Miriam decided that Moses perhaps wasn't the one that should be in charge.

After all, God had spoken through her, too. And so while her life had a great deal of faith, it was also marked by one failure, and that was that rebellion that took place with her and Aaron against Moses. But really, from faith to failure and then coming back around again, because now we see that she's kind of come back to that place of being brought back in with the children of Israel and a member of the people there. And sometimes when I look at the life of Miriam, I think, Man, that really mirrors the lives of some of us as believers in Jesus Christ, does it not?

Oftentimes we start off in our walk full of faith, and we believe even for the smallest things, because we have this strong faith when we start off. But after we've walked with Jesus for a long time, sometimes we find that there's failures that creep in. There's areas of rebellion that creep into our lives, and we fear at times that sometimes the only thing we'll be known for is not our faith, but instead our failure. But the beautiful thing that God does by His grace is, though sometimes we start with faith and can oftentimes be marked by failure, God always brings it back around again to a life of faith as we find ourselves repenting of the rebellion.

God brings us back to, to a place where we're brought back into His good graces, just like it was with Miriam. And so we see the loss of Miriam here in this chapter, and it was in the first month of this 40th year that this takes place. But now we come to what I would call the story that is the heart of this chapter, and really a little bit of a disheartening story for the life of Moses. We pick up in verse 2, it says, There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron.

The people thus contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Why then have you brought the Lord's assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt to bring us into this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.

Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly, of the doorway of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Man, if there was ever a scene for, I feel like we've seen this tree before, it would be this story. Don't worry, it's not going to be the last time that we even talk about the Israelites complaining tonight. It's going to come up in the next chapter too.

As a matter of fact, J. Vernon McGee in his commentary numbers them, and according to him, this is the seventh murmuring of the people. And so, for the seventh time now, they are complaining against Moses. And again, it's because there's no water. Now, I'll always point out to you the fact that oftentimes when the children of Israel complain the most, the need is real.

And I think that's important for us to remember. Sometimes again, I think we can be a little bit hard on the children of Israel and just think they're complaining for no good reason, kind of like we do. But they really are in a wilderness, in a desert, where there's not just a 7-Eleven where they can stop and get a Slurpee, too bad, right? They're actually stuck out there with no water.

The need is very real. But remember, the God they serve is very real, too. And up to this point in time, has God ever let them down? No. God's always taken care of them and made sure that they have something to drink, made sure that they have water. But again, it says that they contended with Moses. That word contended can also be translated strife or striving.

In other words, there was tension between them and Moses over this. Now, we are in the 40th year. They are getting old. They're getting very close to the Promised Land. As a matter of fact, they're within a year or so of entering the Promised Land. And so, you would think by this point in time, they would have learned. They would have learned God's ability.

But remember, when we talk about Sunday, our memories are short. His patience is not, right? And so, as they begin to complain about these things, this is not only the older generation that refused to go into the land the first time around, but this is the newer generation as well. And the newer generation is going to have to see God's provision just like the older generation did.

And so, as the children of Israel are complaining again, Moses starts off in the right way. Everything Moses does up to this point in time is correct. Because as these guys are complaining against Moses, Moses and Aaron come into the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting, and they fall on their faces. In other words, all they need to do is take this to God.

And so, they fall on their faces before the Lord. And God does what He always does. The Lord appears in His glory to them, and He's going to give Moses a plan of how He's to handle things. And so, in verse 7, it says this,

Now, this sounds very familiar because we've seen this rock before. And I really do mean that. We really have seen this rock before. I believe it's chapter 17 of the book of Exodus. The children of Israel were, wait for it, complaining about the fact that they had no water. Moses fell on his face before the Lord, and God told him, take the rod. Now, this rod is important because this rod speaks of authority,

the authority that God had given to Moses. And the first time that he takes the rod, he said, I want you to take this rod, and I want you to, remember, strike the rock. That was what he was supposed to do 40 years ago in Exodus chapter 17. But this time, the command that God gives is a little bit different. God says, I want you to take Aaron with you. No problem.

We've done this before. I want you to gather the assembly of the people. We've done this before. Take the rod. So far, so good. This time, I want you to speak to the rock. I appreciated the new, or not the new American standard, the Amplified Bible on this. Because the Amplified Bible, I believe, gives kind of an interesting translation when it says, tell the rock to bring forth water.

I thought, man, that's kind of a cool way to put it. I hadn't thought of it that way, that he's actually going to look at the rock, and he's going to say, bring forth water. And God, of course, was going to bring forth the water. So this is a little bit different. But remember, how long has Moses dealt with these people now? 40 years. 40 years of hearing the exact same complaint.

You notice they don't even get original with how they complain. They're like, I wish we'd have died in the wilderness with all the rest of our brethren. And Moses is probably going, me too. I wish we'd have died back there with all the rest of our brethren. Why do we even leave Egypt? We're not in some sort of a land of plenty. We don't even have any water to drink.

They don't even get original with their complaining. They just complain and complain and complain. So Moses, verse 9. Took the rod from before the Lord, that symbol of authority, just as he had commanded him. So far, so good. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. So far, so good. Moses is batting 1,000 so far. And he said to them, meaning the assembly of people,

listen now, you rebels. Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? Moses lifted up his hand, and he struck the rock. Twice with his rod. Water came forth abundantly in the congregation, and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you have not believed me, to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land

which I have given them. Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and he proved himself holy among them. They started off well. Gathered the people, took the rod, had Aaron with him. So far, he's checking everything off the list. So you can imagine this situation, right? You can imagine how the anger started welling up within him.

Man, he'd had enough. He'd had enough of dealing with this. Dude, Moses is not a young guy by this point in time, right? 120 years old. He had had enough of dealing with these people and what they had to say. Why should God have to continue to put up with these people? How many times has Moses interceded when God was like, Moses, just to the right, and I'll just wipe the whole thing out,

start over with you. How many times was Moses like, no, you can't do that. You've got to remain holy and true to your name and intercede it for the people. But this time Moses had had enough. He was at the end of his rope. And so as he stands there with the rod in his hand, he does the most familiar thing possible to him and he lashes out at the people. And he says,

how long will we help you run? You rebels out. Really kind of lambast the people for who they are in their rebellion. And then he says something really interesting. I think this is the part where we really run into an issue with Moses. He says, middle of verse 10 there, listen now you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? If you're somebody that likes to make little marks

in your Bible, I'd bracket the word we there because that's an important little word that's used because what did Moses just do here? I want you to think about this. What did Moses just do in his anger? He just took partial credit for the miracle that's about to take place. He just took partial credit for some of the past miracles that had taken place. Now, I don't know that Moses intended to do this,

but we all know that sometimes there are things in our heart that we don't even know are there until we really get upset and it comes out or in a fit of emotion, something comes out of our mouth and we're like, whoa, I didn't even know that existed in there. I didn't even know that's how I felt in there, but that's what's in there. I think that's kind of what happened to Moses. And then after Moses says, shall we bring forth water to you?

What does he do? He takes the rod and what does he do? He strikes it. How many times does he strike it? Twice. Why do you think he had to strike it twice? Because the first time he struck it, what happened? Apparently nothing. You know what that tells me? God showed so much grace that it's almost like the first time he struck the rock, God was like, just wait.

No water came out. I think God was giving him a second chance. And of course, Moses, too much rage, too much fury, too much flesh, strikes it a second time. But God in his grace, because God loves his people, still brought forth the water. Interesting point to be made here. Just because it works doesn't mean it was right. And I think we need to pay attention to that

because a lot of right things are done the wrong way and God blesses because he cares about his people, but the leader still did it the wrong way. Just because it works doesn't mean it was right. So water flows forth out of the rock. And I wonder, before we get to this verse where God kind of lays out some judgment to Moses, I wonder if Moses is like, oh, dude, I did not mean for that to happen.

I'm so glad God brought forth water because I didn't do that the right way. One of those moments maybe where he and Aaron both went, kind of looked at each other because they were like, oh, whoops, and Aaron's going, I'm glad it's you this time, right? Because Aaron's usually the one who screws up in these situations. Aaron's like, and then God kind of calls them aside and says, because you, verse 12, did not believe me to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

I can't believe nothing else is said after that. That's it. This is Meribah. Bad things happened there. But God still proved himself holy. Moses didn't say another word. You know why Moses didn't say another word? Because he didn't need to say another word. He knew that that one statement just revealed everything bad about what just happened. Because Moses had done so good,

for so long, his anger had not been a problem forever. But right here at the end, it got ahold of him again. He probably thought to himself, I haven't dealt with anger like that since I killed the Egyptian 80 years ago. That's the last time I dealt with anger like that. Where did that even come from? He had to pay the consequences for it. So what happened with Moses?

What caused this issue in Moses' life? Well, as I kind of thought and prayed through this this week, I came up with three things. I think there's three issues that took place in Moses' life. Number one, he took the criticism personally. He took the criticism personally. You see, as Moses was dealing with the criticism and continued to deal with it from the people all of these years,

he was able to deflect it for a really long time and realize that all of this was just a lie. He realized that ultimately they were upset with God. God was the one that they were actually upset with, but this time he took it personally. This time he felt like it was an attack against him, not just against God, but against his leadership, against his ability, against the things he had been doing for all of this time with the children of Israel in the wilderness.

And so rather than continuing to take that criticism and saying, Lord, I know they're talking to me, but I know ultimately they're talking to you, and so I'm not going to take it personally. I'm going to continue to represent you the way that I'm supposed to. He allowed his own heart to be affected by the criticism. But I think the reason why he did that is because of, number two, he took the credit personally.

God had used Moses to do incredibly powerful things over the last 40 years. He had used Moses very powerfully in the life of Pharaoh with all of the plagues that had taken place. He used Moses and that exact same rod to part the Red Sea. He used Moses and that exact same rod to part the Red Sea. He used Moses to bring forth the manna into the wilderness. He used Moses to strike the rock and bring forth the water.

He used Moses in all of these powerful ways. And unfortunately, over the years, Moses had started taking some of the credit for the things that had taken place. Now, I think I'm safe in saying that because of what Moses said right there when he said, shall we bring forth water for you? You know, God was like, ain't no we going on here. There's a me and there's a you obeying me,

but I'm the one doing the work. You can talk to that rock all day long. No water's coming out. You can hit that rock all day long. No water's coming out. That's all that there is to it. But how many times are we the exact same way? Something good happens and we go, look at what we've done. And God's going, what we're we talking about here? I'm the one that did all that.

You didn't do anything. I could have. I could have done that with a donkey, right? We'll get to talk about that in a couple of chapters. I could have done that with anybody that I wanted to. I just chose you. He took the credit too personally. A wise man once said, if you can be affected by the criticism, then you can be puffed up by the success. You can't let either one sway you.

You can't allow the criticism to sway you one way, and you can't allow success to sway you the other way. You have to keep your eyes focused on Jesus. But then there's the third issue that Moses had. And the third issue that Moses had is he did not believe God. You know how I know that? Because God said, why didn't you believe me? Why didn't you believe that I could do that?

I'm going to speak a word in Moses' defense. I've spoken to a lot of rocks in my day, and they've never done what I've told them to do. Okay? Ever. And so I can appreciate the failure to believe to an extent here. But the fact of the matter is, God had told him to do something. And if God gives us the command, then he will give us everything we need to fulfill the command.

But Moses did not believe that God was able to do what he said he was able to do. Even though God, listen, had never proven himself unfaithful at any point in time in any of the commands that he gave to Moses. Brothers and sisters, we don't enter into the promised land because we don't believe. It is so hard to rest in God's ability. It is so hard to just simply believe what God has to say.

I was just reading in John yesterday, and it's the part where Jesus says, Whom the Son has set free is free indeed. Do you know how many of us have a hard time believing that and continue to live in the cycle of sin? How easy it is for us to live in that same cycle of sin because we don't believe what Jesus said, that if I've set you free, you are truly free indeed. And yet that's exactly what Jesus means.

There's so many other things. Jesus tells us, You're 100% forgiven. There's nothing you have to do to earn my love or my salvation. I've given it to you as a free gift. And how many of us are trying to earn the free gift of salvation by trying to make ourselves good enough for God? Moses did not believe. And so, of course, God had to say, You won't enter the promised land.

Now, as I think about God's punishment of Moses, I go, This is one time. He made one mistake, and that negated his ability to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. I don't know about you, but in my mind, I kind of go, Why? Why did that one mistake keep him from being able to go into the promised land? Well, again, I don't remember if I put these up here or not,

but again, I think there's three reasons. The number one is the same way we just ended. He didn't believe. What kept the children of Israel from going into the promised land 40 years ago? They didn't believe. They didn't believe that God was able to give victory. And because Moses did not believe, God said, I can't have somebody unbelieving leading my children into the promised land.

But the second reason why is because he did not obey. There's a word that we don't like very much as Christians because we live in the free grace world, and the word that we don't like as Christians is the word obedience. We like it when we're talking to our kids, but we don't like it when we think about us. But I'm reminded of what God told Samuel to tell to Saul when Saul did not obey completely, when he said, Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. That's what God's looking for all of us as his children, is to simply obey his commands. As a matter of fact, what did Jesus say? How did he say, This is how I know that you'll love me if you obey my commands. And so why could Moses not lead the children of Israel into the promised land? Because he could not obey. And God said,

If I'm going to have you leading the people, you have to obey me 100%, even if it doesn't make sense. Even if your emotions are going against you, you have to obey everything that I have to tell you. Moses couldn't lead the children of Israel in because he didn't obey. But then there's a third reason. And the third reason is that Moses... Oh, I did put him up there.

Or she's just that good. Is that Moses violated the symbolism. You go, Big whoop. No, it's important. Do you remember in the book of 1 Corinthians... It might have been 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Nope, first. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, when God said that all... Or when Paul said, all these things were written for your admonition. All these things were written for your instruction

because there was a rock that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness. And that rock was Christ. How many times was Christ crucified? How many times was he struck? Just the one time. Does he have to continue to be crucified every time I sin, every time there's failure in my life, every time I need more of his living water to flow into me? Does he have to be crucified?

No. That's the problem with the mass in the Catholic church is that every week they re-crucify the Son of God in their minds. I'm not making that up. That's what really takes place. That's how they feel. You don't have to re-crucify Jesus Christ every single time. He just had to be struck the one time. Now, when I need an overflow of living water, what do I do?

I ask. I speak to the rock and it pours forth water. It pours forth water into my life. Moses violated that symbolism. Moses violated everything that God was giving as a picture of the Savior that was to come who would be struck once for all and from that point on, ever live to make intercession. And because Moses violated that symbolism, he said, you cannot enter the promised land.

And of course, the story closes out with this verse. Those, verse 13, were the waters of Meribah. By the way, that word means striving. Those were the waters of Meribah because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord. Man, I just love this. Again, this is a really good spot to underline. And he proved himself holy among them. How did God prove himself holy

among the children of Israel? He proved himself holy because he was true to his word even though Moses did not obey. Because he still brought forth water from the rock even though he didn't have to. And he showed himself holy because he dealt with the sin in Moses' life. He said he still proved himself holy. Well, as we move on from there, we see the children of Israel

seeking passage from the Edomites. Verse 14, it says, From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom. Thus your brother Israel has said, You know all the hardship that has befallen us, that our fathers went down to Egypt and we stayed in Egypt a long time and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. But we cried out to the Lord. He heard our voice and sent an angel

and brought us out from Egypt. Now behold, we're at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. Please let us pass through your land. We won't pass through field or through vineyard. We won't even drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway, not turning to the right or to the left until we pass through your territory. Edom, however, said to him,

You shall not pass through us for I will come out with a sword against you. Again the sons of Israel said, We will go up by the highway and if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, we'll pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, nothing else. He said, You shall not pass through. And Edom came out against him with a heavy force and with a strong hand.

Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Israel turned away from him. And they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, to Mount Hor. Now, if you don't know who the descendants of the Edomites are, I'll remind you who their forefather is. His name was Esau. You perhaps remember Esau. He was the brother of Jacob.

So if you will, this is sibling rivalry that has lasted for a really long time. This is the Hatfields and the McCoys, Israel version. So they say, Hey, can we just pass through your land? It saves an incredible amount of time because basically they're right there at the edge of the Promised Land. And it's going to save them an incredible amount of time to just cut through the land of Edom.

And Edom's like, That's a terrible idea. You won't come in here. They say, Please. They say, No. So they're going to make the journey longer for the children of Israel. We'll point out in the next chapter why that's important. Now, as we come to verse 23, it says this, The Lord spoke to Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron will be gathered to his people,

for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people and will die there. So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountaintop. When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days. Again, we have a very complex character in Aaron. A guy who was capable of the lowest of lows but also capable of the highest of highs and a man who served God faithfully.

Unfortunately, that last mistake at the end kept him from going into the Promised Land but I want you to take note of the way it's mentioned as to how he died as opposed to how some of the others in rebellion died. When the others living in rebellion died it says that they were swept away in their rebellion or they were killed amongst the people. Moses was gathered to his people. Aaron was gathered to his people.

As a matter of fact, you know what I find myself wondering? What did Moses do with the body of Aaron? You ever ask yourself that at this point in time? Aaron just died up there and God was like, I'll take him with me? I don't know. He was the very first high priest of the children of Israel. Perhaps Moses buried him but he was not given that indication in Scripture.

We'll never know because it's not written here but it's a question that I have. And of course, the high priesthood needed to continue even though Aaron did not and so Eliezer, his son, was given all of the garments of the high priest and so the children of Israel mourned for 30 days. The last thing I'll point out to you about the death of Aaron is this. Aaron represented the priesthood of the high priest.

Jesus is our ultimate high priest. The greatest difference in what makes Jesus a superior high priest is that death did not stop the high priesthood of Jesus because he lives forever to make intercession for us. Now, as we move to chapter 21 we see the serpent and some small victories. When the Canaanite king of Arad who lived in the Negev heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

The serpent made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand then I will utterly destroy their cities. The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites then they utterly destroyed them and their city. Thus the name of the place was called Hormah. Now, these little victories and I'll point it out when we get to the last two at the end of the chapter as well are important for the nation of Israel because they were moving into this younger generation.

The older generation that had seen some small battles along the way to the promised land they were all dying off. This younger generation had not seen war at all. In order for God to prepare them for what they were going to have to do in the promised land God allowed some of these smaller victories to take place on their way to an even greater campaign that would be waged in the promised land. Isn't it amazing that when God moves us into something He prepares us in smaller areas.

And that's exactly what God does with the nation of Israel here. So this king of the Canaanites this king of Arad came out against the children of Israel and even took some of them captive. And so as this happened they began to have this nationalistic spirit this who is he to do this to us and so they say Lord if you will deliver them into our hands we will utterly destroy all of the cities of the people of Arad. Now the idea of utter destruction here is they were completely dedicating them to the Lord.

Ah, the children of Israel are starting to have the right kind of heart that all of their work needed to be completely dedicated to the Lord. And God says alright well let's do this thing. The Lord heard the voice of the people and they were given absolute victory over this smaller nation that they were able to win against. And so they destroy the place dedicate it to the Lord and everything is looking really great.

Man we're moving in the right direction. Until verse 4 Then they set out from Mount Hore by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the people became impatient because of the journey. Remember what I said in the last chapter? Them having to go around the land of Edom was going to be important because it meant that the journey was going to take a lot longer than they thought.

Have you ever thought oh man I'm almost done I'm almost finished with this project I'm almost there and then there's a roadblock or your tool breaks or you name it and all of a sudden now it's going to take you way longer and it's like sure it's only going to take you an hour longer even though the whole project took you 22 hours it's only going to take you one hour longer but that one extra hour was enough to make you go forget it I'm never going to get done right this is kind of what happens with the children of Israel and so it says as they're on this journey going around the land of Edom they become impatient because of the journey the word impatient can either be translated also as depressed or discouraged I got to tell you

when I first read this I read it in the New King James because I have a little scripture journal that I take my initial notes in in the New King James scripture journal and when I read that little part about the children of Israel became discouraged because of the journey you know all I could think of was I get it children of Israel I get it it is so easy to get discouraged because of the journey it's so easy to get our eyes only focused on the journey that's right in front of us forgetting how close we are to the end all we can see is that it's going to take longer than we thought forgetting that we're still so close to finishing that if we can just make it a little bit longer if we can just press on a little bit farther that we're going to be okay

it's sort of that same story we're walking on the water and all of a sudden the wind and the waves he becomes aware of them and because of it he begins to sink same kind of a thing only this time it's the discouragement of the journey it's the discouragement of the fact that I'm seeing all of the same roads I'm seeing all of the same problems I'm eating all of the same food because we're going to see that they complain about that in just a minute I'm seeing all of the same issues that I've been seeing for years and years and years and years now again let's not be too hard on the children of Israel I'm hearing that this is 40 years of seeing the exact same things 40 years of doing the exact same thing and now it's taking a little bit longer

it's amazing what discouragement does to us but do you know what's at the root of discouragement? failing to keep our eyes on God because usually if my eyes are on all of the things around me I get really really discouraged but if I've got my eyes on my savior it's a whole lot easier for me to go it's going to be okay because he's still in control well unfortunately the children of Israel got discouraged notice what it says the people spoke against God and Moses why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness all I can think of is that song here I go again on my own going down the only road I've ever known I'm a drifter they were certainly born to walk alone they're just wasting their time anyway that's what's

going on here for there is no food and there is no water and we loathe this miserable food wait you just said there was no food there's no food and there's no water bro you got water coming out of rocks of course there's water and of course you've got food it's just not the food that you want it's just not what you think you want right now so they complain and of course the complaints don't get that original but this one got a little bit different perhaps you noticed it as well look at the very first line of verse 5 again the people spoke against again if you like to bracket things or put parentheses around things I would take note of the fact that it says the people spoke against God and Moses as far as I know I didn't look every single

murmuring up but in this eighth one is one of the first times that I've noticed that God is being spoken against here not just Moses usually when the children of Israel murmur it's against Moses or Aaron or both of them but this time they began to speak against God isn't it interesting that you would think by this point in time they would be getting better and yet somehow they seem to be getting worse you know what that tells me the longer that we go in life our flesh doesn't get any better we don't all of a sudden when we get older stop complaining unless the Holy Spirit is at work inside of us as a matter of fact the older that we get the better we get at sinning that's why I always say time does not heal wounds time brings bitterness

time and the Lord heal wounds well they're getting a little bit better and a lot of this is being blamed on the new generation I do think that the new generation are finding themselves somewhat affected by the older generation but what we find is that there's still a handful of the older generation left that is causing most of the complaining the older generation that did not want to go into the land we will find that in the next few chapters after this is when the last of that unbelieving generation gets wiped out and the younger generation is going to be ready to move in but they're all being affected by what's going on and so they're complaining and you'll notice that the complaining must affect God deeper

this time because notice what happens in verse 6 the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many of the children of Israel died of all of the judgment I can imagine God bringing against me I can't imagine anything worse than fiery serpents right I wouldn't have to get bitten to die because I would just have a heart attack once they started being all around me right I mean the moment that everywhere I looked there's snakes I don't survive that situation many of you have heard the story of the snake on the door I'm surprised I survived that one because I'm quite confident that I was very near a heart attack at that point in time and so God sends these fiery serpents among them and one commentary that I read said some

people try to explain that what made the serpents fiery is that they were red in color but if that's the case then how did the people die really probably what happened was that these serpents were called fiery serpents because when they bit the people there was a fiery feeling that went through their bodies the venom somehow caused a burning in their bodies that ultimately killed them you know I'm reminded of something though discouragement when not presented to God in faith ultimately brings about bitterness and bitterness burns us from within and ultimately destroys us and that's kind of what's going on here with the children of Israel they didn't take their discouragement to God they complained against God and as they complained against God

it ultimately began to eat them alive and so these serpents are destroying the people but notice what happens they have the right heart here in the end so the people came to Moses and said we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us and Moses interceded from the people do you know what I find to be true repentance in what they have to say here is they don't just want the consequences to be dealt with they admit that they're a reason for the consequences they admit that what they had done was wrong and they called it exactly what it was they said we have sinned and we've sinned because we complained against the Lord and against you will

you please intercede for us you see one of the most important things in a heart of true repentance is being able to own up to the fact that what I've done is not just a mistake it's not just a misstep it's sin and that sin has brought about consequences and when we come to that place true repentance begins to take place in our heart and so they come to Moses and again Moses intercedes for the people and the Lord said to Moses make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard or on a pole and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it he will live Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard and it came about that if a serpent bit any man when he looked to the bronze serpent he lived in my flesh the only thing

that bothers me about this is couldn't God have just taken away the snakes right he doesn't do you notice that it's not like Moses puts this serpent up there on the thing and then the serpents are all gone no it's if somebody is bitten by the serpent they can look to that and live and so God tells him here's what I want you to do fashion a fiery serpent and put it on a pole if you've ever seen the sign of that's usually on like the side of an ambulance or something like that that has a pole with a serpent wrapped around it same idea this is where they got that idea from and so he says when you put that up on the pole anybody that looks at that and I love the way the Amplified Bible again translate that translates this it

says when you look attentively at that when you look at that serpent on that pole all of the consequences of that judgment will be removed from your body and you will not die the fire that's burning inside of you because of the bite of the serpent will not destroy you it will be taken away and you will be healed and so what does Moses do Moses takes and makes a bronze serpent why bronze you remember what the burnt altar was covered in it was covered in bronze why because bronze as a metal represents judgment and what was placed up on the pole was judgment for sin so he says anybody that's willing to look at that can live if you're not willing to look at it attentively at it then you'll die in your sin you can imagine it right like

the intellectual people of the nation of Israel are like that's stupid there's no way medically speaking that looking at a bronze serpent on a pole can heal me that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard now I'm assuming that this serpent was probably placed in the middle of the camp somewhere near the tabernacle I don't know that for sure but that's my guess is it was probably placed somewhere near the place of worship so you would have had to make a journey to get there perhaps to the inside of the camp however it was you had to look upon that serpent in order to be healed you know that there were some people who were like no no surely there's some sort of work that I have to do in order to be set free from this fiery serpent

looking at a serpent that's no kind of work that's not what a noble man does I can't look at that and then there were some people who say I've only got one hope and that's to look at the serpent then I'm going to look at that crazy bronze pole because that's my only hope that's what I'm going to do so anybody that looked at it would live does this sound familiar to you to anybody go with me over to the gospel of John why don't you go to John chapter 3 I would venture to say that John 3 16 is the most well known verse in the bible but a lot of people don't know the verses before most of you probably do but let's look at it John chapter 3 and let's start I think I wrote it there verse 14 but I really do think we need to start

in verse 10 this is Nicodemus coming to start coming to talk to Jesus he says are you the teacher of Israel and don't understand these things Jesus had just told him in order to see the kingdom of God you must be born again and Nicodemus says how can a man be born again that's crazy Jesus said truly truly I say to you verse 11 we speak of what we know and we testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony if I've told you earthly things and you don't believe how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things no one's ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven that's the son of man Jesus and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes

will in him have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life isn't that great God just laid out the gospel of exactly what Jesus was going to do in the process of the judgment of these children of Israel you see what did that serpent represent it represented the consequences of their sin the consequences of their sin was put up on the pole so that anyone who would see the consequences of sin sacrificed on the pole would be set free from the consequences of their sin what are we told that happened to Jesus in the New Testament it says he who knew no sin became sin for us that God laid in him all of the sins of humanity on the tree

so that you and I could be set free so what Jesus says there is if you want to be born again then as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that anyone who looked at it could be saved even so must the son of man be lifted up and how was the son of man lifted up he was lifted up on the cross so that anyone who would believe in him anyone who would look to him could be saved you know it says in Isaiah 45 verse 22 look unto me all the ends of the earth and be saved God in this Old Testament passage in this Old Testament story of a real thing that took place laid out a gospel message for the people that would last for generations to come you can imagine Nicodemus a teacher of the law that when Jesus said as Moses lifted up

the serpent in the wilderness even so the son of man must be lifted up he would have gone whoa and can you imagine the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross Nicodemus saw the son of man lifted up he who knew no sin who would become sin for us God turning his back on Jesus because he had laid in him and his own body on the tree all the sins of humanity Nicodemus probably went there it is that's exactly what Moses was telling us about in the Old Testament that is the gospel brothers and sisters that gospel message is the same most powerful message in our lives today that anyone who looks unto Jesus can be saved you know what I love about this is that God took an incredibly bad situation and he painted the most beautiful picture with it

God took death and from it he brought life well as we move on from there we see the journeying through the wilderness as a matter of fact we are going to skip the next set of verses jump down to verse 21 he continues to journey through the wilderness things are going great God is providing the nation of Israel is praising go back and read it later verse 21 two more victories then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites I bet that's like Sihon or something anyway Sihon king of the Amorites saying let me pass through your land we will not turn off into the field of the vineyard we will not drink water from wells we will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your border but Sihon would not permit

Israel to pass through his border so he gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the sons of Ammon for the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer and Israel took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon and in all their villages for Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites who had fought against his former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand as far as the Arnon therefore those who use Proverbs say come to Heshbon let it be built so let the city of Sihon be established for a fire went forth from Heshbon

a flame from the town of Sihon it devoured all of Moab the dominant heights of the Arnon woe to you oh Moab you are ruined oh people of Chemosh he has given you given his sons as fugitives and his daughters into captivity to an Amorite king but we have cast them down Heshbon is ruined as far as Heshbon then we have laid waste even to Nofa which reaches to Mediba thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites Moses sent to spy out Jaser and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there so Israel once again tries the exact same thing that they did against Edom they say hey we just want to travel through your land we don't want to harm you we don't want to take anything from you we're just looking to get through

to the land that God has given us and Sihon not only says no not only shows the force against them but he goes out to battle against them now it's interesting if we were to jump into the book of Deuteronomy when Moses is recounting this for the children of Israel he tells us something very interesting he says God hardened the heart of Sihon king of the Amorites to bring him to battle against you so that you would destroy them and it would give you the confidence for moving into the promised land what we see here is that God was at work he of course didn't force this man to do something he didn't want to do he hardened his heart in the direction he was already going and sent him to war against the children of Israel because

at that point in time they needed another victory under their belts to get them to the next place but you know what else is kind of interesting if you remember all the way back to the book of Genesis when God was making a promise to Abraham God said I am going to bring you back to this land your descendants will dwell in a foreign land for four hundred years but at the end of that four hundred years I will bring them back and they will take over this land because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete who is this man Sihon he was the king of the Amorites you see God was now bringing judgment against a people who he had stayed judgment against for four hundred and now forty years but now their iniquity was complete and God brought judgment

and gave a victory to the children of Israel to prepare them for what came next but that's not the last victory that they'll have verse thirty three they turned and went up by the way of Bashan and Og the king of Bashan went out with all his people for battle at Edre but the Lord said to Moses do not fear him for I have given him into your hand and all his people in his land and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon so they killed him and his sons and all his people and there was no remnant left and they possessed his land you know what's kind of fascinating about these three victories that God gives to the children of Israel each victory prepared them for the next

each victory was what they were ready for at the time at the beginning of chapter twenty or the beginning of chapter twenty one what they were ready for was the king of the Arad to come out against them that's the battle that they were ready for at the end of chapter twenty one the battle that they were ready for next was king Sihon the king of the Amorites the next battle that they were ready for was Og king of Bashan because did you notice what God told them when Og king of Bashan attacked he said don't be afraid you notice he didn't say that in the first two did he now this time he said don't be afraid why because Og king of Bashan was probably a more powerful nation than the first two they weren't ready for

him yet until the end of the chapter because each victory prepared them for the next you ever find yourself going why am I not farther in this why is God not giving me more responsibility preparing me for more things sending me into greater areas because you're not ready for it yet you see God moves us into the next area that we're ready for and he knows exactly what you're ready for he knows what is next for you and what you are the most prepared for for what he's given you for the next thing so we just follow the line and whatever's coming next that's what God has you prepared for so that's what he does with the children of Israel and it's very cool to see that God only gives us the things that he has already prepared us for

because as Chuck Smith always said where God guides God always provides amen let's pray Father we come before you and I thank you for the stories that you've given to us here in the Old Testament Lord stories of victory to remind us that our victory comes from you and Lord unfortunately stories of defeat because we're reminded that when our hearts are set on the flesh defeat is surely to follow soon and so Lord as we're told these were written down for our instruction and so Lord may we allow the instruction that you want to bring into our lives to have its good work in us that these lessons that we learn from Moses and the children of Israel in the book of Numbers would not just be stories that we enjoy reading and listening to

but Lord may they be lessons for us to guide our lives by help us to follow you with all of our hearts in Jesus name amen be blessed