Preparing to Enter the Land Pt 1

Good evening. You guys want to go ahead and stand with me? We'll pray and we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, God, thank you, Lord, for the day that you provided. Lord, I just thank you for how good you are to us. Thank you for your goodness and your grace and your mercy, Lord. God, tonight I just pray that we would set everything aside. God, I just focus on you tonight, Lord, and just help us to praise you and lift a joyful noise to you, God. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

It never fails me, in all my days, I've been held in your hand. Moment that I wake up, until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God.

Oh, my life, you have been faithful. My life, you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am. I am able to sing of the goodness of God.

In darkest night, you are close like no other. I know you as a father, as a friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God. In faith, been so, so good. With every breath that I am. I will sing of the goodness. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.

With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. All my life, you have been faithful. All my life, you have been so, so good. good with every breath that I am made I will sing of the goodness of God all my life you have been faithful all my life you have been so so good with every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness and God will sing of the

goodness and God you guys you wouldn't have a seat if you'd like oh the joy the joy to know it's when I decrease you fill up my soul what a joy to see Oh the joyины you won't a thing more I my heart oh that I color nothing more white in my eyes wash me in glorious light and oh for all the joy to be the joy to know it's when I decrease you fill up my soul what a joy to see joy the joy to know it's when you want and so this worship this holy rain would me towards you to grace you you want nothing more right oh my tongue focus my heart to hear purge me upright again and again you provide oh the joy joy to know it's when i decrease you fill up my soul what a joy to see

joy to hold it's when you want nothing more oh the joy joy to know it's when i decrease you fill up my soul what a joy to see joy to hold it's when you increase i want nothing more the joy to be joy it's when you i see it now i'm laying it down and i know that run to the father i fall into grace i'm done with the hiding no reason to wait my heart needs a surgeon my soul needs a friend so i'll run to the father again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again again and again you saw my condition from the start your son for redemption rise from my heart i don't have a contest for that kind of love i don't understand i can't comprehend all i know is i need run to the father i fall into grace

i'm done with the hiding no reason to wait my heart needs a surgeon my soul needs a friend so i'll run to the father again and again and again and again your sights long before my first breath running into into life from death and i feel this rush deep in my chest your mercy is cold just as i am you pull me in and i know i run to the father i'm falling i'm done with the hiding no reason to wait my heart needs a surgeon my soul needs a friend so i'll run to the father again and again and again and again run to the father i fall into grace no reason to wait my heart found a surgeon my soul found a friend so i'll run through the father again and again and again heavenly father

god i just pray that god not only in those moments of life lord where god we just feel so out of control and life is absolutely nuts lord i just pray that not only in those moments but in those moments where we even feel like we're in control that we would run to you constantly lord

lord forgive us if we've ever gotten to the point where we think we can handle things on our own lord forgive me god i just pray that we come to the realization tonight of how much we truly need you god each and every day god on those days where things are going great and on those days where things just seem to fall apart left and right, God. Help us just to run to you every day. Lord, God, tonight I pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you would speak mightily through him, God, and just speak mightily to our hearts. We love you, Lord.

We praise you, God, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good evening. If you could, open up in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 26. Numbers 26.

Well, tonight we kind of move into really the last section, if you will, of the book of Numbers because we're about to be moving into the promised land. All of the major trials, if you will, of the wilderness are done. And so as we come to tonight, all of those major battles that they faced, the ups and the downs and the failures, those are kind of at an end now, at least as far as their wilderness wanderings are concerned. The last section, the last major issue they faced was there with Balaam and the Midianites.

And so tonight, what we'll look at is really preparing to enter the new land because that's sort of the direction that we're going. And so there'll be two things that we talk about tonight in chapters 26 and 27. We're going to look at the census and then we're going to look at the leaders. Now, as we move into chapter 26, we see that this will be the second census that's taken of the children of Israel, thus giving it its name.

So we pick up in chapter 26, verse one, and this is what it says. Then it came about after the plague that the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, saying, take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel from 20 years old and upward by their father's households, whoever is able to go to war in Israel. So Moses and Eliezer, the priest, spoke with him on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, take a census of the people from 20 years old and upward as the Lord has commanded Moses. Now, interestingly, we are given, again, a little bit of a timestamp here to pay attention to.

And the timestamp that we're given is that this has taken place after the plague. That tells us that this takes place shortly after the events of the last chapter. Not a great deal of time has elapsed because if you remember, at the end of the last chapter, it said that not only was the Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Simeon, plunged through with a spear with the lady that he was with, but we learned that 24,000 people of the nation of Israel, and we're going to find mainly of the tribe of Simeon, died at that particular point in time. There was a plague that had come about because of the sin that had taken place.

And we actually learned that from that, the last of the unbelieving generation passed away. Remember, God had said, when the children of Israel, were in the wilderness and refused to go into the land, he said, everyone from the age of 20 years old and upward will not see the land, will not enter the promised land. They will all die in the wanderings in the wilderness. And all of those kids that you were so concerned about, they're the ones that will go in and take the land.

They're only going to be two people. And we'll talk about them at the end of the chapter. Only two people from that generation would survive to see the land. And that would be Joshua and Caleb. And so at the end of this very last plague, which sort of finished off God's judgment, of those 40 years of the people, God said, now that it's about time to move into the land,

let's try this again. It's sort of one of those, let's take it from the top and see how many men of war are left, because this was good, not only for the warfare, but also for the welfare of the nation so that they would understand what they were dealing with. And so once again, we see it happened exactly the way it did the first time. They were to take a census of all the congregation meant 20 years old and upward by their father's household, whoever is able to go to war.

Now we're not going to read through this entire chapter, but I will point out the verses of the different individuals, because I do think it's important to pay attention to the numbers here. In verse seven, it says, these are the families of the Reubenites. Those who were numbered of them were 43,730. And then we jumped down to verse 12. Actually, I want to read something here about the Reubenites.

Go on to verse eight. It says, the son of Paul, who Eliab, the sons of Eliab were Nimuel. This is all of the tribe of Reuben and Dathan and Abiram. Perhaps those names are familiar to you. These are the Dathan and Abiram who were called by the congregation who contended against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah when they contended against the Lord and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up

along with Korah. When that company died, when the fire devoured 250 men so that they became, a warning. However, the sons of Korah did not die. That's the part I want you to pay attention to because we'll come back to that at the end. Jump down to verse 14. It says, these are the sons of the families or the families of the Simeonites, 22,200. Jump down to verse 18.

These are the families of the sons of Gad, according to those who were numbered 40,500. Over to verse 22. These are the families of Judah, according to those who were numbered 40,500. To those who were numbered of them 76,500. Jump down to verse 25. These are the families of Issachar, according to those who were numbered of them 64,300. Down to verse 27. These are the families of the Zebulonites,

according to those who were numbered of them 60,500. Jump down to verse 34. These are the families of Manasseh and those who were numbered of them were 52,700. Down to verse 37. And these are the families of Ephraim, according to those who were numbered of them 32,500. Jump over to verse 41. These are the sons of Benjamin, according to their families and according to those who were numbered 45,600.

Verses 42 and 43 give us the numbers of the sons of Dan. It says in verse 43, all the families of the Shuhamites, which is the major family within Dan, according to those who were numbered of them, were 64,400. Jump down to verse 47. These are the families of the sons of Asher who were numbered among them 53,400. And last and maybe the least, these are the families of Naphtali,

according to their families, those who were numbered of them were 45,400. These are those who were numbered of the sons of Israel 601,730. Now, that overall number, is not too far off of the original number. The original number had about 1,800 more people. So really a pretty steady number across the board. But it's interesting to pay attention to the differences in the numbers.

For instance, the tribe of Reuben had a little bit of a drop. They lost some people, but the tribe of Simeon had a major loss. Matter of fact, one of the commentators said it was a 64% loss in people in the wilderness. Many of which believe that they were the ones that took the biggest hit in the last chapter that we looked at, because it seemed as though they were leading in this particular issue of sin that took place with the Midianites there.

And then with also the tribe of Naphtali, there was a little bit of a drop. But what's also interesting is that the tribe of Manasseh saw massive growth in the fact that the Simeonites lost about 64% of the people. Those of the tribe of Manasseh grew by about 30%. That's about 65%. So some tribes grew, some tribes shrunk. But overall, the number stayed pretty close to the same.

They were going to take about the same amount of people into the Promised Land as they left the Promised Land with. So we'll point out why that's kind of interesting in just a minute. As we carry on from verse 52, it says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Among these, the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. To the larger group, you shall increase their inheritance.

And to the smaller group, you shall diminish their inheritance. Each shall be given their inheritance according to those who were numbered of them. But the land shall be divided by lot. They shall receive their inheritance according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. According to the selection by lot, their inheritance shall be divided between them,

the larger and the smaller groups. Essentially, if you had a bigger tribe, you got a bigger inheritance. If you had a smaller tribe, you got a smaller inheritance. And essentially, they would draw straws to see of those larger and smaller who was going to get what area. That portion of them divvying out the land will take place in the book of Joshua. It's absolutely fascinating reading.

But that's when it's taken care of is at the end of the book of Joshua. We'll move on from there. Verse 57, These are those who were numbered of the Levites according to their families. Of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites, of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites, of Merari, the family of the Merarites. These are the families of Levi, the family of the Libnites,

the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Maalites, the family of the Mushites, which is a great name, the family of the Korathites. Kohath became the father of Amram. The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. And she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses their sister Merari. To Aaron were born Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,

and Ithamar. Of course, Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord. Those who were numbered of them were 23,000, that's of the Levites, every male from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the sons of Israel, since no inheritance was given to them among the sons of Israel. These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan at Jericho.

But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said to them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And not a man was left of them except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. Interesting way to end that chapter, isn't it?

He said we've numbered all the people, but you need to pay attention to the fact that everybody that we just numbered in this census, none of them, none of the ones from the previous census were listed. Because none of the ones from the previous census survived the wilderness. We'll talk about why that's important in just a minute. Now if I'm going to be completely honest with you, I had fully planned on just skipping past this chapter.

Really not even commenting on it all and just saying, Hey, by the way, chapter 26 is the census. Let's move on to something more interesting. But like God does, He takes the most mundane things and if you're willing to spend a little bit of time studying it, if you're willing to spend a little bit of time digging for treasure, He's always faithful to give that to you. And so I decided, okay, I'll do my due diligence and I'll do some studying on this chapter to make sure that there's nothing that I've missed.

And of course, there were things that I missed. What lessons do we learn from this chapter on the census? Well, I think that there's three of them. Number one, God is greater than your family tree. God is greater than your family tree. I want you to look back at a verse that I sort of pointed out to you that I think is really important. I want you to look back at verse 11.

It says this, The sons of Korah, however, did not die. Now remember, Korah was known for something. As a matter of fact, as you go further on into the New Testament, you'll find that it's referred to as Korah's rebellion. As a matter of fact, if you were to look at the chapter that he's discussed in the book of Numbers, most of your study Bibles will title that as Korah's rebellion.

Because you know what happened during Korah's rebellion? Korah rebelled. Decided that he was just as good as Moses and Aaron, and after all, who put them in charge anyway? He had the Holy Spirit working through him. He knew how to do all the right things. He was a Levite. He'd been given an amazing job. Couldn't he also, or he was given an important job, couldn't he speak just as much as anybody else?

And so, of course, the ground opened up. And swallowed him and Dathan and Abiram. But it says that the sons of Korah survived. And it's kind of an interesting thing to pay attention to, because you know the next time that you pay attention to seeing the sons of Korah mentioned? The next time that you see the sons of Korah mentioned, it's actually in the book of Psalms.

And do you know what the sons of Korah are doing in the book of Psalms? They're writing Psalms. I think that this is kind of interesting. Now, I didn't glean this myself. I read this in John course, and I thought it was a pretty interesting thing to pay attention to. Actually, one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 40, is written by the sons of Korah. And I thought that that was fascinating.

Because when you look at it, you go, that's just amazing that God took kids from a family who had, if you will, a questionable family tree, because their father led one of the greatest rebellions that we are warned against in the New Testament. Read about it in the Old Testament. Their father led this great rebellion against the two original leaders of the nation of Israel. And it would be easy for all of the descendants to say, but that's just who I am.

I'm rebellious by nature. I can't help it. That's a part of my family tree. I will always have a natural bent towards rebellion. I can't help it. And yet God proved himself to be greater than their family tree because these young men and their offspring ended up becoming the worship leaders of the nation of Israel. I got to thinking about that, and I thought, you know,

there are so many people in the world that we live in, today, that have what I would call questionable family trees. Perhaps some of you are those people that when you look back in your family tree, it's a little sketchy at best, right? And sometimes when we look at that, we can think, but I'm probably destined to be just like them. I have the same addictive tendencies.

I have the same angry personality. I have the same foul mouth. I have the same dirty thoughts. I have all of these things. I'm destined to be just like them. I'm destined to be just like my family. And while I do completely believe that there is something to our family tree and understanding the struggles that we have, it is not an excuse to say, but that's who I'm always going to be

because that's how my family was. Because God is greater than our family tree. God is greater than the sins of our fathers. God is greater than the generational sin that sometimes plagues families. And I think as long as we use the excuse of, but that's just how my family is. Anger's always been a problem in my family. Alcohol's always been a problem in my family.

Pornography's always been a problem in my family. Addiction's always been a problem in my family. As long as we always use that as the excuse, then we'll never see the freedom that God intended. Because you are not your family tree. You, if you've been born again, are a brand new creation in Christ. The old has passed away. And all things have become brand new.

And I love this testimony of the fact that God not only preserved the lives of these kids, but that they end up becoming the men that they were. Those who were the worship leaders of the nation of Israel because it gives hope to the rest of us that have questionable family trees. Number two. Unbelief stunts our growth. Unbelief stunts our growth. I wanted to somehow use the word stagnation in there,

but I didn't know if I was spelling it correctly, and I didn't know if I was contextually using it correctly. But the idea is the same. Unbelief will cause us to be stagnant in our walk with the Lord. I want you to take note of what it says here. It says in verse 51, these are those who were numbered of the sons of Israel, 601,730. About 1,820 less than what they left the land of Israel with,

which is the exact opposite of what you would have thought would have happened. Because remember, they had grown from a family of 70 to a family that was massively huge in the time that they were in the nation of Egypt. And yet, in a period of 40 years, not only did they not grow, they actually lost a little bit of ground. Why? Because the entire time that they were wandering

in the wilderness, what were they wandering in? They were wandering in unbelief. They were wallowing in the sins of their flesh. It's interesting to me, as I was studying this today, that this thought of unbelief has been coming up so much in the studies that I haven't intended for them to come up in. For instance, the one on Sunday, the one tonight, the one we did a few weeks ago,

when they initially couldn't enter the land because of unbelief, it sort of made me think, maybe it's something we're supposed to be paying attention to as 21st century believers. To have the faith that God wants to continue to grow us. To have the faith to continue to take the stands that we need to take, even though, listen close, it may cost us. Because I do believe that as things continue to progress the way that they are right now, and we continue to take a stand for righteousness, it will continue to cost us.

Because I don't know if you realize this or not, but those who are opposed to the truth of the word of God don't like you. And they don't like the truth. And the more that you tell them the truth, the angrier that they're going to get. And listen, we'll have a choice as believers in Jesus Christ, because understand that the promised land that they could have dwelt in, in faith, meant victory in this world.

Right? That's not heaven. That's not an Old Testament picture of heaven. Because if the promised land were heaven, why would there be battles? Right? No. The promised land that they could have dwelt in through faith was a promised land where they would win battles because they trusted God to win the victory. And brothers and sisters, we face challenges every day

that we will have the choice to make. Will I walk in freedom and victory of Christ? Will I walk in his ability to win the victory, even though on topside of planet Earth, it may look like I've lost? It may look like I have suffered the consequences of my faith? Or will I continue to live in unbelief? God wants to see us walk in victory. And brothers and sisters,

on this side of eternity, it's going to cost us sometimes. And we're going to have to decide, will I live in faith and take those bold steps of faith that mean I'm going to step out and make stands, I'm going to step out and show love, I'm going to step out and live out what God's word has to say, or will I shrink back and say, as long as nobody knows how I feel, everything's going to be okay. I'll just be a closet Christian about the way that I feel. Well, for the children of Israel, their walking in unbelief for these 40 years yielded them absolutely no growth.

And it does the exact same thing in our life. When we live in that place of unbelief, it absolutely stunts our growth. Number three, God keeps his promises. I think this is one of the coolest things about this chapter, especially those last two verses of the chapter. Because in those last two verses of the chapter, we see God keep his promises in two different ways.

Did you take note of it? Let's read those verses again, 64 and 65. But among these, meaning the ones that were numbered, there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said to them, they shall surely die in the wilderness. And not a man of them was left

except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. You see, in those two verses, I see that God kept his promise in two different ways. Did you take note of it? Number one, God kept his promise in the aspect of judgment. Nobody likes those promises, right? We don't hang promises of judgment on our doors. But you know what? I bet if I started hanging promises of judgment

on my wall, it would keep me from sin sometimes, right? Like nobody hangs on their wall, the righteous will suffer persecution. It's just not one that makes a good doily. But that's still a promise of God. But this promise of judgment's really, really true. Because God says, none of you are gonna survive over the age of 20 the entire time you're in the wilderness.

You know what God was sure to point out? No one over the age of 20 that was numbered in the first census survived the wilderness. Why? Because when God says he's gonna judge, he's gonna judge. Unfortunately, most of the world, and even more unfortunately, most of the church is living just like Peter said they would. Willfully forgetting that God at one point in time judged the world

through a flood, and that he will judge the world again. Because God always keeps his promises. And may I say as believers in Jesus Christ, when we see people of the world continuing to put forth their unrighteous dialogue leading others astray, we can rest in the fact that they will face the judgment necessary in their lives. But not only does God keep his promises when it comes to judgment, but God also keeps his promises when it comes to blessing.

Because do you remember the promise that was made when the children of Israel failed to enter into the promised land the first time, and Caleb and Joshua, I believe, jumping up and down, pulling hair out, and yanking on their beards were yelling, we can go into the promised land because God promised it. He's gonna give it to us. Come on, let's go. There may be giants, but God is bigger than the giants.

And God said, everybody else is gonna die except those two. You know why? Because they have a different kind of heart. They have a heart to follow me completely. Therefore, they will see the promised land. You know what it says right here? Not a man of them was left except Caleb and Joshua. Why? Because God also keeps his promises in blessing. Can you imagine?

I think about this quite a bit. Can you imagine being Caleb and Joshua the entire time of roaming through the wilderness? I discount how long 40 years is. When you think about living in the wilderness that long, knowing that 40 years ago, you could have been there, right? You ever missed your exit on the interstate and you're like, oh, that's an hour, right?

Like, I know that's what just happened. And that one hour is enough to about drive me nuts because I'm like, oh, I could be there by now. When we were coming back from vacation, we drove through, we didn't even drive through Atlanta. We drove like Atlanta Annex, right? Like the outskirts of Atlanta. And it took us over an hour and a half just to get through that little region.

And all we could think was we could be there by now, right? How many times do you think Caleb and Joshua were like, we could have been there by now? Every time that the people were like, we're going to die in the wilderness. Yeah, you are going to die in the wilderness. You know, you're going to die in the wilderness. God said you were. I could be in the promised land right now.

But I'm in this stupid wilderness, right? I visited the wilderness and all I got was these stupid funeral flyers. So anyway, the entire time they're going, oh my gosh, when are we going to get there? And yet God was always planning on keeping his promise and blessing. And I know for some of us that have been walking with the Lord for a very long time, waiting for the promise of his coming.

It at times can feel like, Lord, couldn't we have been there by now? Couldn't we have done this by now? And we can rest in the fact that God will keep his promise when it comes to blessing. Because Peter said the exact same thing. Many people are saying, where's the promise of his coming? Shouldn't it have happened by now? And Peter said we must remember that with God,

the day is as a thousand years. In a thousand years, in a thousand years is as a day. In other words, time's really not a thing to God. He has his own timetable and he'll do things the way that he sees fit. So, interesting lessons from chapter 26 that again, I was reminded, if you'll take time to dig, if you will take time to mine the truth of God's word, even though it doesn't seem very interesting,

God is always faithful to give you something pretty cool out of every part of what scripture has to say. So now we move into chapter 27 and we see the leader. So we pick up in chapter 27 verse one and it says this, the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, not sure how you say that, don't want to offend anyone, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph came near. And these are the names of his daughters, Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terza.

Now I heard about three different commentators say the exact same thing. Throw your baby name books away because we've already found the names for your next several daughters. So I don't know who did that. I mean, I think whoever wanted boys did this to their daughters. But anyway, these girls have an issue. They stood before Moses and before Eliezer the priest

and before the leaders and all the congregation at the doorway of the tent of meeting saying, our father died in the morning in the wilderness. Yet he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be withdrawn from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers.

So Moses brought their case to the Lord. Clearly we've got a little situation we have to deal with before we get to the leader, but it's all a part of the same chapter. These girls have an issue. Their issue is this. According to the custom of that point in time, land was handed down, inheritance was handed down through the male line, through the sons. Well, this man died in his own sin.

And I love how honest his daughters were, right? Have you ever noticed that when someone dies, they've never done anything wrong in their life? Right? Listen, I do enough funerals that I tell my wife a lot of times how I want my funeral to be. And she's always like, stop doing that because you're not gonna die first. We're dying on the exact same day at the exact same time.

I'm like, well then write it down and send it on to somebody else. Anyway, so I'm always thinking about what I want my funeral to be like. I actually was talking to the guy that runs Rent Erdman the other day and I said, okay, so here's the thing. I'm constantly, every funeral I do, coming up with how I want my funeral to be. Do you plan your funeral about once a week?

And he goes, 100%. You just do it enough and you pay attention to it. Well anyway, when my funeral is planned, I don't want people to get up and say a bunch of nice things about me, okay? Unless they're true. If they're true, that's great. But I'm an idiot, right? I say dumb things. I do dumb things. I'm not all that smart half the time. Go ahead and tell the truth about me

because that's what I want to have happen. That's exactly what these girls do with their dad. They're like, listen, dad was a great guy, but he died in a sin, right? He wasn't like Cora Rebellion type dad, but he still died in his own sin. I just love the honesty of these girls. They said, but here's the problem. He died with a sin. He died without a son. Therefore, his inheritance will completely end.

We don't think that's right. Do you think his inheritance could be given to us? Now, because of the culture that we live in today, we don't understand how big of a request this was because we don't always understand just how poorly women were treated at that point in time. Women in most cultures at that point in time, meaning all the cultures except the biblical one, were treated like this.

They were treated as property. And they were treated as property. And so for them to approach Moses and say, we think we should have our father's inheritance, was an incredibly bold statement and an incredibly bold question. But Moses did exactly what anyone is supposed to do when they are asked a question where they are not sure how to handle things and they want to handle things in a proper way.

He brought their case before the Lord. It says so right there in verse five. And brothers and sisters, anytime we are faced with something controversial, something that maybe the rest of the culture doesn't do, and we're not sure what truly the biblically right thing to do is, the best thing we can do is take our case before the Lord. I think sometimes as believers, we are too quick to say this is the right thing to do, especially with hot button cultural issues instead of saying, but let's make sure that's what the Lord says.

I think that that's an important thing for us to do because sometimes we too can have bias based on the way that we were raised or based on past historical things. We can have bias about things that aren't necessarily right and not necessarily biblical. And so it's important that he does this the right way. And so he goes and he approaches the Lord. He takes their case before the Lord.

And so notice what happens. Verse six. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, the daughters of Zelophehad are right in their statements. You shall surely give them a hereditary possession among their father's brothers. And you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them. Further, you shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, if a man dies and has no son,

then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. If his father has no brothers, then you shall give the inheritance to his nearest relative in his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be a statutory ordinance

to the sons of Israel Israel just as the Lord commanded Moses. Can you, listen, I'm going to try as hard as I can not to step in the poo here, but can you imagine how shocked Moses was when God was like, these ladies are right. Again, this is the culture we're living in. I'm not saying that's how I feel. I'm just saying that's probably how he felt at that point in time. He was like, son of a gun. Okay. God's

like, they're absolutely right. They deserve the portion of their father's inheritance. That's exactly what should happen. And God goes on to give what the statutory law would be like throughout the generations for the laws of inheritance in the death of a father. And in doing so, an amazing thing takes place. God just elevated the position of women to being equal with men. God just showed

that there is no such thing as superior and inferior beings in his creation. Different roles, yes. Different value, no. And I think that that's an important distinction that has to be made in our culture right now. Because oftentimes, and again, this statement's going to get me in trouble, but what the heck? I've been at it for so long. Because oftentimes people are not looking for equal rights.

People are looking for control. Whichever side of the aisle you're on, whichever side of an issue that you're on, men, women, you name it. Everybody's looking to be in control. And God said, no, inferior, superior. There's equal. But that doesn't mean that your roles are the same. Different roles are given within those two genders because God made us very different. And there's

something very beautiful about the fact that God made us very different. I am so happy that women smell so much better than men do. I don't know why women like men sometimes. Wait, that's going to get me in trouble too. Scratch that last part. But those things are really important. God does something pretty amazing here in what he does. God showed that women are valued and intended to be valued in culture. And in any culture where the

Bible is held in high esteem, you will see that women are valued in the way that God intends for them to be. And in cultures where the Bible is not held in high esteem, neither are women. Because only with the distinct understanding that in Christ, we are valued. And in any culture where the Bible is held in high esteem, there is neither male nor female because we are simply one in him. Do we have the true understanding

of how God intends to value us? But there's something else really interesting. And again, I didn't come up with this on my own. Preacher's commentary said this, but I thought it was really important, especially in the world that we live in today. There's an important lesson that's learned from this. And that's that God cares about those that the world would trample upon.

God truly cares about all those that the world would look at as less than. Because the world at this point in time, at the point in time in which Moses is living, the world at that point in time trampled upon women and held women in very low esteem. But God cared about that. And you know what? In today's culture, there are still people who are being held in very low esteem. Unfortunately, sometimes women.

Unfortunately, sometimes children. And we have learned that the unborn are oftentimes held in very, very low esteem. But God cares about those that the world would look at as less than. cares about those that the world would trample upon. And he always takes up their case. And he always makes sure that they are valued the way that they are intended to be valued.

And so after we've moved past this issue, the leadership roles are beginning to change. And so God is sort of moving and transitioning Moses out of his role. And the first thing that he does is he has a little word for Moses. And that's what this next section is, is God's word to Moses. Verse 12, the Lord said to Moses, go up to this mountain of Abiram and see the land

which I have given to the sons of Israel. When you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people as Aaron your brother was. For in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my command to treat me as holy before you. For their eyes at the water. These are the waters of Meribah, of Kadesh, and the wilderness of Zin. God has this really interesting word for Moses. Essentially, he's telling Moses,

Moses, the transition is about to be coming. Now, it's going to take a little while because we've still got the entire book of Deuteronomy, which doesn't take up as much time as you think that it would. But Moses is going to rehearse the wilderness wanderings and the law for the people. So we've got a few more weeks, at least in Moses's lifetime, before this transition takes place. But

he's preparing Moses's heart. He's preparing Moses's heart for the fact that this transition is going to be taking place. And he tells Moses something, I think, that's incredibly gracious on the part of God. He says, you see this mountain right here? I want you to go up on top of this mountain. Because when you get to go up on top of that mountain, you're going to get to see the promised

land. You won't get to enter it, at least not right now. We'll talk about that in just one second. You're not going to get to enter it, but at least your eyes will see what you have been pursuing these last 40 years. Your eyes will get to see what Joshua was going to lead the people into. And then once you've been able to see that land, you'll be gathered to your father's. In other words,

you'll die, just like Aaron did. But unfortunately, I can't let you go into the land because of the sin that took place there in the wilderness of Kadesh. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? I don't remember who I heard say this, but I thought it was a really interesting quote. He said, And while Moses was very much forgiven and loved by God, there were still consequences that he had

to face. And the consequence was that on the top side of planet earth, he wouldn't get to be in the promised land. But you know what's amazingly gracious about who God is? We just talked about this on Sunday with the transfiguration. We said that Jesus was on the mountain. While Jesus was on the mountain, he was transfigured. He was transformed. His glory shone through. And when

his glory shone through, he was transformed. And when his glory shone through, he was transformed. His glory shone through. There were two individuals that were there with him. One was Elijah, and the other one was Moses. Isn't that amazingly gracious of God to do that? He said, as long as you're alive in this body, you can't go into the promised land. But that says nothing about eternity. So he tells Moses, this is what you're going to need to do.

This is my word to you. Because of your mistake, you can't go in, but I'm at least going to let you see it. I want you to notice how Moses responds, because now we actually see this new leader. And then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him, and have him stand before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight.

Now, before we move on to the rest of what Moses is supposed to do, and the fact that he does this, I want to point a couple of things out to you. First of all, I want to point out what Moses does not say. God had just told him, there's one thing you're going to get to do. You're going to get to look out over the land, but you can't go in because of the sin that you did there in the wilderness of Kadesh. What Moses does not say really sticks out to me, because what Moses did not say was,

can I please go in? Can I please go in? Because he understood. He knew that that was the punishment, the consequence for his sin. But the second thing that really stuck out to me is what he did say. Because what he did say revealed as much about the heart of Moses as anything he's done throughout this entire time. Because notice what he said. He said,

You see, Moses has spent 40 years in the wilderness taking care of sheep before he spent this 40 years in the wilderness taking care of sheep. And he knew that sheep always faced one problem in the wilderness. If they had no shepherd, they didn't know what to do. They would just wander around. Some would walk off of cliffs. Some would find themselves dehydrated because they wouldn't find

the right source of water because shepherds, they wouldn't find the right source of water. Some of them would never find the right pasture because you're in the wilderness and it's not like those are just everywhere. They wouldn't know what to do. They wouldn't know where to go and they wouldn't know how to act. So he said, will you please appoint a man over them who will leave

them as they go in? Because I don't want to see them be sheep without a shepherd. This to me is such an amazing statement on the part of Moses. Because these people hadn't exactly been, shall we say, easy on Moses. And yet, in spite of the fact that they had caused him all the issues that they'd caused him over the last 40 years, including the fact that the last 40 years even took place, he still loved

the people so much that all he wanted to do was see them have a shepherd. So God said, that's a great idea. Why don't you take Joshua, the son of Nun, and I want you to take him and lay hands on him. You and Eliezer, the priest, and I want you to commission him. We go on from there. And verse 3, verse 20, and it says this, And you shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons

of Israel may obey him. Moreover, he shall stand before Eliezer, the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his command they shall go out, and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation. And Moses did just as the Lord commanded him. And he took Joshua, set him before Eliezer, the priest, and before all the congregation. And then he laid his hands

on him and commissioned him just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. Now there's something theologically kind of interesting to pay attention to about this. Moses, of course, as we talked about Sunday, represents the law. And the law could never lead the people into rest. It could take them to the edge of the promised land, but it could never lead them into the promised land.

And in order to be led into the promised land, they needed a new leader. They needed Joshua. The name Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. In Hebrew, it's Yahshua. And of course, we know that the English translation of the Greek word is Jesus. You see, to be led into the promised land, they couldn't have the law. They needed Jesus. Just like you and I can't be led into the promised land with the works of the law,

we can only be led into the promised land with the works of the law. We can only be led in by the salvation of Jesus. So there's, again, I think three very interesting lessons that we learned. And we'll wrap up with these three lessons. And these lessons are lessons about leadership that I think are really, really important. Interesting things to pay attention to because what's going to happen

here is that they need a leader who is going to be that shepherd for them. And so there's three things about the shepherd that I think are really important. And then I'll kind of bring them to the down to us in just a moment. Number one, a leader must care about his people. A leader must care about his people. And we saw that in the heart of Moses, right? We saw that he cared about the

people. How many times did God tell Moses, Moses, just step aside. I'll wipe them out. And I'll start all over again with you. Or Moses, I can't go with these people because they're too sinful. Moses, this is what I'm going to do. And what happened every single time with Moses? Moses got down on his knees and he began to intercede for the people. Why? Because Moses as

a leader cared about his people. But do you know who was with him that entire time watching the love, care, and concern that Moses had for the people? Joshua. You don't always read his name every now and then it's mentioned, but you knew that Joshua was with him the entire time. And he had taught Joshua what it was to care about his people. And it's going to be interesting

because as we move into the book of Joshua, a lot later, we'll see just how much Joshua cares for his people because he had that same kind of heart. But if we are to be leaders, then we have to care about people. Now, again, I'm going to try to bring this home to us at the very end. But if we also want to be leaders, leaders in our homes, leaders in our jobs, leaders in the church, leaders among your peers, then the first thing that you must do is you must care about people.

Because it's a cliched statement, but I think it's incredibly important to be made. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And if people know that you love them, they'll follow you. And they'll listen to you a lot more than if they see no care or concern for them in the way that you speak, in the way that you act. A leader must care about his people. Number two, a leader must learn to be led.

It's kind of interesting. How long has Joshua spent being led by Moses? Joshua has just spent the last 40 years being led by Moses. You see, he had to learn that his place was not to be the one in charge. His place was to support the person in charge. And the best thing that he could do is follow his leader and support his leader in everything that he did. Because until you can learn to do that, you can never move into a position of leadership.

I'm concerned that too many people in jobs are tearing down their bosses. And they expect to be put into a place of leadership. Too many people are tearing down those who are in charge and then hoping that they can be put in charge. And unfortunately, that can be the case. We can say, man, if I was in his position, this is how I would do it. Unfortunately, that probably isn't the case.

Because you maybe don't know all the information. The best thing to do. To support the one who is in charge. Because you can't be a leader until you first learn to be led. And may I say, all of us as human beings, that's a hard thing to do. It's hard for us to submit to authority. As a matter of fact, it's very much ingrained in who we are as sinners. To rebel against authority.

But Joshua had spent those 40 years learning what it was. To be someone who was willing to be under the authority of Moses. So that when he was on the throne. Only under the authority of God. He would follow wholeheartedly. A leader must learn to be led. And then number three. A leader must be faithful. A leader must be faithful. He had faithfully taken the second place all that time.

Isn't that amazing? I think it's easy for us to despise the day of small things. Well, all I've got is this in front of me right now. This small little thing. Well, then do that with every fiber of your being. Because if I will do the small thing in front of me with every fiber of my being. Then maybe God will entrust me with more. Be faithful in every little aspect of our lives.

Because faithfulness is something, first of all, that we don't see a whole lot of right now. And faithfulness speaks volumes to the world around us. But it also speaks volumes to what God can trust us with. Next. A leader must be faithful. Now, these are qualities of a shepherd. Obviously, Jesus is our good shepherd. Any of us that are put in positions of leadership could be considered under shepherds.

Now, there are different positions of that within different things. Some of you are shepherds within your home. You fellas, you're shepherds of your home. You're leaders of your home under the authority of Jesus. But you're the leader of your home. And as you are the leader of your home. Are you somebody who? Are you somebody who cares about people? Are you somebody who is willing to be led?

And are you somebody who is faithful? Some of us are leaders within our workplaces. Or you want to be a leader within your workplace. And I have a question for you. Do you care about people? And are you willing to be led? And are you faithful? Some of us are leaders within churches. Within this church. And we all, every single one of us, should ask the question continually.

Am I caring? Am I caring about people? Am I willing to be led? And am I being faithful? Because these were the qualities that were true of Moses. And these were the qualities that have become true of Joshua. And they were what made him fit to be that kind of leader. And that's who we as believers in Jesus Christ. Should be seeking to be. Amen. So, good things as we see the children of Israel continue to prepare for the next stage that God has for them.

And so, the next time we'll be together, which by the way, will not be next Wednesday because next Wednesday is VBS here. And a lot of us that are here right now will be wrangling small children, which is going to be amazingly fun. So please be in prayer for all the tiny people that will be in here next Wednesday, running around and hopefully hearing the truth of Jesus. So we won't be together next Wednesday. It'll be in two weeks. But in a couple of weeks,

we'll start looking at God preparing the people for the land by reminding them of the laws. So let's bow in prayer. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we have had here in your word this evening. Lord, I thank you that you are so faithful to teach us in places of Scripture that sometimes look like there's just not that much to get out of it. Lord,

you're always good because every portion of your word speaks volumes to us if we're willing to listen. And so Lord, give us ears to hear. Give us eyes to see. And Lord, give us a heart that can take in everything that your word has to say. And Lord, may we be drawn near in our relationship with you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.