Sermon Tone Analysis

Continued wanderings through: The Book of Numbers.

Let’s pray:

We will be picking up our study of the Book of Numbers this evening in Chapter 16.

You may remember last week we began with Moses’ sister and brother coming to him and asking, does the Lord only speak through you Big Guy?

I’m sure we don’t have to remind you Moses, but God has also spoken through us!

Moses didn’t really have to defend himself, because the Lord did, and confirmed the anointing that He had placed on Moses as the leader of the people.

His sister was instantly stuck with leprosy.

If you weren’t with us, you can go back and read about it.

Tonight, we are starting from a similar place.

With a guy named Korah and a few others, Dathan, Abiram, and a guy named On who was a little off in his thinking.

These guys started an uprising among the people against Moses and his family.

And that was basically the position of Korah.

Moses, what’s with the nepotism around this place?

I see that ministry is the family business.

Look at chapter 16 with me…starting in verse 2...

Moses then instructs them to take censors, and to put fire in them and to come to him the following morning to see what the Lord would do.

He says you guys are of the family of Levi and have been chosen from among all of the people to serve and to be close to God, and that’s not enough for you.

You need to be in the priesthood as well.

And they basically say, Moses, you’re not the boss of us, we’re not coming…verse 12..

Moses, who was the humblest man in all of the earth, gets angry and asks the Lord to not receive their offering…look at verse 15...

The uprising continued to complain and murmur against Moses.

Saying it is not small thing that you led us out of Egypt, but you haven’t taken us into the promised land, you’ve gotten us stuck in this wilderness where we’re going to die.

God heard Moses and He tells Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the 250 men leading this rebellion so He can instantly consume them.

Moses appeals to God…verse 22

Moses instructs the people to get away from the rebellion.

These guys are wicked and are leading you astray.

By this you’ll know whether or not God has called me to lead, and this isn’t just something I came up with in my head.

If they live to be a ripe old age and die of natural causes, you’ll know I’m a fraud, but vs. 30...

Themselves, their wives, and all of their children that stood in the doors of their tents and mocked what God was doing, they all perished.

The people that witnessed it begin to freak out a bit…verse 34...

God then speaks to Moses and tells him in verse 37...

God says the censers are holy because they have been set apart for service to me.

So crawl through the mess, and redeem what is holy, pound the censors out flat and put it as a covering over the alter as a reminder to all those that would ever see it or hear of it, that the Priesthood was not a place of self promotion.

God didn’t want men to be able to elevate themselves into positions of ministry, particularly the priesthood, where they could consider themselves a priest over others, the spiritual one that stood between them and God.

Now in the New Testament, Jesus wiped out the necessity of a priesthood, when He became our great High Priest, dying so that nothing would ever again separate you and you and you, and me from being able to talk to God directly through Jesus who has given us all free access to the Father.

SO today, you and I have the same access to the Father.

He hears your prayer, or your cry, just as he does mine.

There’s no special privilege or backstage pass for pastors that’s not freely given to you in Jesus.

I’m not to be your priest, or Shepard over you in the sense that if you want to do something major in life, you need to come run it buy me.

Pastor Brian I think I want to sell my house, or change jobs, what should I do?

This is a practice that’s done in a bunch of churches, but your pastor isn’t suppose to be your Priest, I’m to be your servant.

A messenger from God to remind you of how much He loves you and to teach you the Word and to Disciple you in your faith, but you should be seeking God yourself to lead you in those other things.

Now these three families and the rebels fall into the earth and then are consumed by fire…and you would think the people would have taken a second and thought, now how did that happen, and how can I avoid that happening to me?

Is this perhaps a great opportunity to learn a lesson through someone else?

Let see how they did, verse 41

Wait, what!?!

It even angered God and He tells Moses and Aaron to step back so He can finish the job and consume the people.

But Moses tells Aaron to grab a sensor, to put fire and incense in it and to make atonement for the people because the wrath of God was being poured out....verse 47...

What an incredible picture of an intercessory ministry, or intercessory prayer for the lost or for a prodigal child.

Part of the reason the Lord still has us here, as He is slow to anger and full of mercy, and doesn’t just consume the world or come back today and say, it’s too late guys it’s over.

Our ministry in the world today is this to stand between the living and the dead, praying for mercy and interceding on their behalf.

Write the name of the Father of the tribe on the rod and write Aaron’s name on the rod for the tribe of Levi...

So every man did as he was instructed…look at verse 8

So this was a testimony that the Lord had chosen the family of Aaron to serve as the priesthood and the rod was taken and put into the Ark of the Covenant as a testimony to all.

In chapter 18 we see an important principle...

All of these people in the tribes were desiring to be the head, to assume the role of leadership and priesthood to the people.

God points something out here that they, and many today have no concept of.

People that chose ministry as a career when it’s not really their calling.

The iniquity related to the sanctuary, and bearing the iniquity associated with your priesthood.

God never gives authority without accountability and responsibility.

Yes, Aaron and his family had authority and with that there came a cost.

Look down to verse 6...

The rest of the chapter if you go through each of the verses speaks of the offerings that are to be made by the people.

From those offerings, Aaron, and the priests are to be paid.

Each of the families are to give a tenth of what they have, and from the amount that is collected a 10th of that is to be given to Aaron and his family for their support a tenth of the meat and so on.

In verse 19 God calls this a salt offering which back then, salt was considered pure, it preserved, it had value and was used as wages… it was considered unchangeable and incorruptible… let’s look at verse 19...

So they were instructed to give a tithe of 10% here under the law, we are no longer under the law and can give lots more today, if that’s how the Lord directs you…which well talk about more when we get to 2 Corinthians as Paul talks about New Testament giving.

We’re still to do it, but as the Lord directs.

When we get to chapter 19, we read about this ordinance that they are to do involving a red heifer, I’m thankful our worship today isn’t this complicated.

But there are many that teach that there are pictures here for us of the cleansing that is available to us through the blood of Jesus, and how the water washes us.

Being symbolic of both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Let’s begin reading in verse 2...

Eleazar the Priest was the one to burn it, but then one that was declared ceremonially clean would gather up the ashes and mix them with water to make this water used to anoint and make things clean and purified like we need to be now through Christ.

Chapter 20 begins with the death of Miriam, the sister of Moses while they were back in Kadesh.

This was a great reminder to them and to us that God is no respecter of persons or that He doesn’t show partiality.

God said that with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, all those who were age 20 and above when they departed Egypt were not going to make it into the promised land.

Moses and his family didn’t get a special pass on that.

It’s important to us today, because the Bible tell us that there is only one way to Heaven.

No exceptions, no special passes.

Moses, we’re thirsty!

We wish we were dead, sucked up into the earth and consumed with fire like our brothers, that would be way better than being thirsty!

The verse isn’t up here so you’re going to have to look at your Bibles, what did God tell Moses to do with the rod (take it) and what did God tell Moses to do to the rock?

(Speak to it) Let’s see how he did...

vs. 10 - God told Moses to speak to the rock, not to the nation!

He would have been so far better off keeping his mouth shut and only doing what God instructed him to do.

Look what else he does in verse 10, look what he says…Must we? WE! Who’s he talking about?

Moses and Aaron?

No, Moses and God! Think the humblest man on the face of the earth has over stepped his boundaries a bit?

I also, no longer see that description of him in this passage.

Moses gets personally offended by the people’s complaints against God and steps way out of bounds.

God has bigger shoulders than you, and can defend Himself.

The one and only time I met Pastor Chuck Smith, was at a conference and he was speaking to a group of us pastors and he said if someone speaks against God, He has big shoulders, let it go.

If someone speaks against you, your life is no longer your own, let the Lord defend you and like Jesus, as a lamb before the slaughter keep your mouth shut.

Only when the sheep are being attacked should you as an under-Shepard step in.

God wanted Moses’s obedience not his defense.

If you remember a few weeks ago on Sunday morning, we learned why this was such a big deal.

In 1 Corinthians 10:4

That rock that Moses struck was a picture of the life giving Jesus.

Who was once smitten for our salvation, and Moses hit the rock twice, and misrepresented God and the sacrifice of Jesus.

In the Gospel of John Jesus says of Himself...