Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110529.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Causalities And Conquerors
Part I: Lessons On Human Institution Blessing In Israel's March Order
(Numbers 1:1-2:34)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    This last week, my wife and I were contacted on four unrelated occasions by people in our Church who told us of area family crises, one of which involved calling the police and two others that could well have involved the authorities! It became vividly clear that the spiritual challenges facing our families are great, and since the welfare of the family affects the welfare of all of the rest of our human institutions that are built upon it, all of our human institutions at all levels stand in great need of God's help.

    Thus, it is imperative that we get a comprehensive idea of how to obtain God's blessing and help in our marriages and families, blessing that eventually affects all of society.



    Thus, we ask: "What general guidance would God offer on gaining His blessing in our marriages and families so all our other human institutions that are built on these units can be edified?!"

    Need: "What comprehensive guidance would God give for family life that also affects all other human institutions that are built on it?!"

  1. The ORDER of MARCH God had for Israel in traveling to the Promised Land in VIEW of HISTORY gives COMPREHENSIVE LESSONS on HIS BLESSINGS for HUMAN INSTITUTIONS:
    1. After counting the people in order of their camping groupings around the tabernacle in Numbers 1, God put Israel into an order of march in going to the Promised Land in Numbers 2, B. K. C., O. T., p. 216.
    2. Yet, that order of march does not match the tribal patriarchal birth order: the tribe of Jacob's 4th son, Judah is first followed by Issachar, his 9th, Zebulun his 10th, Reuben his 1st, Simeon his 2nd, Gad his 7th, Levi his 3rd, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Jacob's 11th son, Joseph, then Benjamin, Jacob's 12th son, Dan his 5th, Asher his 8th and Naphtali his 6th! (Gen. 29:32-30:24, 35:16-18; Ibid., p. 219)
    3. Well, noting how this order of march differs from the birth order offers both to observers in ancient Israel and to us many centuries later general lessons on gaining God's blessing in marital, family and larger human institutions, especially once Israel reached Canaan!
  2. We sum up these general lessons on God's institutional blessings:
    1. Lesson One: We must love our spouses above all other people:
      1. The first seven tribes in Israel's order of march came from either Jacob's unloved wife, Leah or from her handmaid, Zilpah, and all of the tribes of Rachel, Jacob's loved wife, or of her handmaid, Bilhah, came in the latter part of the order, Num. 2:1-3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14 & 33-34 with 2:18, 20 & 22; Gen. 29:32-30:24; Ibid.
      2. The history of these women shows God signaled by this order that we must love our spouses above all other earthly people:
        1. Jacob had loved and wanted to wed only Rachel, Gen. 29:15-22.
        2. Yet, Laban tricked him to take Leah before her, Gen. 29:23-29.
        3. Jacob in marriage then loved Rachel over Leah, threatening the unity and welfare of his family and Israel, Gen. 29:30-31a.
        4. God then gave Leah children before Rachel to enhance Leah's value to Jacob in order to foster family unity, Genesis 29:31a,b.
        5. Even then, the wives were constant rivals (Gen. 30:1-16), and as polygamy is never God's ideal, only monogamy (Genesis 2), this reveals God wants us to love our spouses above all others!
    2. Lesson Two: Parents must balance their love for all their children:
      1. Jacob favored Joseph, nearly splitting his family apart, Gen. 37-45.
      2. Thus, GOD put Joseph's sons, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh at the head of the LATTER HALF of the order of march to teach the need for parents to balance their love for all their children!
    3. Lesson Three: We must not abuse, but help other people:
      1. Of the tribes from the sons of Leah or her handmaid in the front part of Israel's order, the 1st, 2nd & 3rd (Reuben, Simeon, & Levi) TRAIL the 4th, 9th & 10th (Judah, Issachar & Zebulun, Ibid.), for each of the patriarchs of the older, trailing tribes were demoted by their father, Jacob for sins of abusing other people:
        1. Reuben was intimate with his father's concubine (Gen. 35:22), a vile breach of his father's property in that era, Genesis 49:3-4.
        2. Simeon and Levi slew all the men of Shechem over one man's wrong, and Jacob censured this revenge, Gen. 34:25-27; 49:5-7.
      2. However, Jacob rewarded Leah's fourth son, Judah the right to rule Israel (Gen. 49:8-12), for he helped others: (a) he kept Joseph from being slain (Gen. 37:26-27), (b) he tried to protect Benjamin (Gen. 43:8-11) and (c) go into slavery for him, Gen. 44:1-34. (d) Also, Judah admitted he wronged Tamar in not giving her his son for a husband, thus sparing her life after she seduced him, Gen. 38:1-26.
      3. So, the tribe of the younger son Judah was given the lead in Israel's order of march while the tribes of the older sons Reuben, Simeon and Levi were put back, teaching us not to abuse, but to aid others.
    4. Lesson Four: We must trust God and part company with evil people:
      1. Though the sons of Rachel or her handmaid, Bilhah are in the last half of the march order, Asher, son of Leah's maid, Zilpah, seems out-of-place as he is placed next to the last tribe, Naphtali, Ibid.
      2. Well, once they reached the Promised Land, "Asher . . . never overcame Phoenician dominance (Judg. 1:31, 32)," (Z. P. E. B., vol. One, p. 354) by failing to trust God to defeat the Canaanites and to avoid sinfully compromising with pagan idolatry, Jud. 2:1-2.
      3. Thus, God wants us to learn from Israel's order of march our need to trust Him and thus to part with evil and evil people.
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation, John 3:16. (2) May we learn from Israel's order of march that for general blessing in human institutions, we must (a) love our spouses above all others, (b) love all our children equally, (b) not abuse, but help others (c) and trust in God to part from evil beliefs and evil people.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 To illustrate this message, I refer to a cartoon by Nate Beeler of The Washington Examiner that appeared on the editorial page of the May 23, 2011 issue of the nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 10A. In the first frame, a man with his wife and two small children responds to the headlines of the newspaper his wife holds, the headlines reading, "May 21, 2011: End of Days?". In the first caption, the husband and father says, "We stopped paying bills, lost the house, sold our possessions, squandered the kids' college funds, and didn't ascend to heaven in the rapture."

The man then looks up to God to ask, "So, we're in hell, huh?"

As a sad follow-up, one believer reports Camping now says his calculations were in error, that the rapture is on October 21st later this year! He apparently hopes to retain his followers in making this correction, his third since 1993 according to the secular press!

Applying the message we had today to this situation, we note solutions to this difficult affairs for the followers of Harold Camping:

(1) First, there needs to be a separation from the errant teacher and teaching of Harold Camping: as the tribe of Asher was to have taken a strict stand against destructive Canaanite idolatry around them, trusting the Lord and His Word to do so, people today must part company with Camping's destructive teachings, trusting God's Biblical leading firmly to take such a stand.

(2) Second, as Jacob needed to love Leah like he loved Rachel for the family's and eventually Israel's unity and welfare, the husband represented in the cartoon must put his love for his wife above love for all other humans and choose never again to sell all his material goods and follow the lead of some false teacher outside the family. He must heed God's Word at 1 Timothy 5:8 and provide for the livelihood of his wife and children as his first priority as a husband and a father.

(3) Third, as parents must love all their children equally, the husband and wife in the cartoon must seek to compensate for squandering their children's educational funds or show their love for them both by committing themselves to help them attain their goals above the lure of false teachers who will take their children's money!

May we believe on Christ for salvation and then heed God's lessons for us in Israel's order of march to relate to one another in our human institutions for blessing.