Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110911.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XIII: Blessings Of Faithfulness To God Seen In Hobab's Lineage
(Numbers 10:29-33 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Today marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the day when Islamic extremists hijacked and flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, horrifically killing thousands of innocent people.

    We might think the world has since learned valuable lessons from that day. After all, Jeffrey Goldberg, in The Atlantic ("The Real Meaning of 9/11", 8/30/2011 in the national.journal.com) reported that shortly after 9/11, he visited Mohamed al-Amir Atta, the father of Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the hijackers, and in speaking of the attacks, this "angry," "aggressive," father "gripped by melancholy" said, "You can't be a human and do this thing. It's impossible." (Ibid.)

    Yet, key people argue the world has largely not improved:

    (1) The American University of Communication and Simpson's Contemporary Quotations Project (american.edu, "9/11 Then & Now") has taken quotes from key people involved in the September 11, 2001 events about its tenth anniversary. A widow of 9/11 cited there named Kristen Breitweiser, Co-Chair of the September 11th Advocates, on May 13, 2011, said: " . . . (H)ave we as a nation grown, learned valuable lessons, or been made stronger in the past 10 years? Sadly, I think the answer is no. Because over the last decade we have seen . . . (t)here seems to be little of worthy substance that we can grab on to, gather around, or find true American pride in."

    (2) Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Political Editor had her article, "9/11 brought us together, but was it unity?" posted on the San Francisco Examiner web site, and it likewise claimed America is still unsettled ten years after 9/11. Yet, though conceding our forefathers' motto, "e pluribus unum'" that translates "Out of many, one'", meant our nation's founders wanted us to be unified in diversity, Ms. Sidoti countered this idea of our forefathers, rhetorically asking, "As diverse as it is, is this country capable of being truly united? And if we were, would that really be a good thing?"



    In view of such relentless struggles of contrasting or futile or false ideologies in the world, in view of great spiritual darkness in our world, a believer in Christ may say, "I need encouragement to keep on being faithful to God's calling! Any ideas?"

    Need: "I know I must heed God's Word and will to be blessed, but today I need encouragement to keep on heeding it! Can you help?!"

  1. God promised to bless those that blessed Abraham and His seed in Genesis 12:3, and, in Exodus 20:6 NIV, to bless to the thousandth generation those who were faithful to Him and His Word.
  2. These promises were fulfilled over 800 years in Hobab's line amid Israel's extensive apostasy as we start to show at Numbers 10:29-33:
    1. When Moses in Numbers 10:29a, 31 asked his brother-in-law Hobab, a Gentile Kenite living in Midian (cf. Judges 1:16 with Numbers 10:29a) to go with Israel to help guide her in the wilderness of Paran, he promised to do good to Hobab in return, a goodness that would be the resulting blessing of God's goodness to Israel, Numbers 10:29b.
    2. Hobab initially refused the request (Num. 10:30), but Moses finally persuaded him to go with them (Num. 10:31-33a) as seen from Judges 1:16 where the descendants of Moses' father-in-law, includ ing Moses' brother-in-law Hobab, settled in the tribal land of Judah in Israel.
    3. God's blessing on Hobab's line for its faithfulness to Him was often given over 800 years of history even in an apostate environment:
      1. About 100 years after Israel entered Canaan (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Judges 4:2; p. 2023), God blessed Jael who was from Hobab's line for her support of Israel even when she sinned:
        1. Israel had failed to obey God's call to separate from Canaanite idols (Judges 4:1 with 2:1-3), so He let the Canaanites greatly oppress Israel until she cried to Him for deliverance, Jud. 4:2-3.
        2. With the lack of godly men, God had prophetess, Deborah urge the man Barak to deliver Israel from the Canaanites, Jud. 4:4-7.
        3. Barak agreed to go only if Deborah went with him, so for his unbelieving timidity, Deborah predicted that a woman would get the honor of slaying the enemy general, Judges 4:8-9.
        4. That woman was Jael, a Kenite of Hobab's line whose clan had left other Kenites in Judah to move up near the Sea of Galilee, Judges 4:11, 17-21; The Macmillan Bible Atlas , 1968, p. 46.
        5. Jael secretly supported Israel, so in fulfillment of Genesis 12:3, God gave her with the honor of slaying the Canaanite general!
      2. About 550 years after Jael, around 841 B. C. (Ibid., Ryrie, p. 2025), Jehonadab (alias Jonadab) son of Rechab in Hobab's line (1 Chron. 2:55b) stood opposed to the rise of Canaanite Baal worship in Israel, so he helped Israel's anointed king Jehu destroy it (2 Kings 9:1-3, 6; 10:13-16, 23-28; Ibid., ftn. to 2 Kings 10:15).
      3. Third, as Jonadab the son of Rechab then saw Jehu go apostate by worshiping Israel's past king Jeroboam's gold calf (2 Kings 10:31 with 1 Kings 12:25-30), he apparently separated his kin from even the Jews to keep his lineage blessed of God to live long in the land:
        1. Jonadab told his family not to drink wine, to build houses or to farm in Israel, but to live as nomads distinct from the Hebrews (Jeremiah 35:6-7) in an apparent effort to shield his family line from the Canaanite fertility cults that attracted Israel's farmers.
        2. He hoped this rule would keep his offspring living long in the land where they as Gentiles were aliens, Jeremiah 35:7b.
      4. Jonadab's command deeply impacted his offspring, the Rechabites, leading to God's great blessing upon them for the rest of history:
        1. About 600 B. C., 240 years after Jonadab when his Rechabite descendants had returned to Judah, God had Jeremiah take them into the temple and set wine before them to drink before onlooking Hebrew officials, Jeremiah 35:1-5; Ibid., p. 2026.
        2. These Rechabites refused to drink the wine, citing ancestor Jonadab's call that they and their descendants abstain from wine to be blessed in living long in the land, Jeremiah 35:6-10.
        3. They added the reason they were not still nomads as Jonadab directed, but had moved to Jerusalem, was due to the threat of Babylonian and Aramean armies in the country, Jer . 35:11 NIV.
        4. God then told Jeremiah that these Rechabites in their loyalty to their forefather Jonadab's command stood in stark contrast to Israel that had often refused to heed His Word, Jer. 35:12-16.
        5. Indeed, the Lord indicated the Rechabites' faithfulness to their ancestor Jonadab showed Israel to be inexcusably unfaithful to Him, so He would judge Israel accordingly, Jeremiah 35:16-17.
        6. Yet, in great contrast, God through Jeremiah promised that the Rechabites who had obeyed their forefather's command would never cease to be a people before Him for the duration of human history, a fulfillment of Exodus 20:6 NIV! (Jeremiah 35:18-19)
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be a child of God and be blessed in Messiah, Jesus, John 1:11-12; Galatians 3:13-14. (2) Then, may we rely on the Holy Spirit to heed God faithfully (Galatians 5:16-23) regardless of apostasy that we might be blessed.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The events surrounding this very sermon's formation worked to illustrate its lesson on the value of remaining faithful to the Lord's will.

With the cancellation of our August 28th Sunday services due to Hurricane Irene, my Sunday, August 28th messages were set to be delivered last Sunday, September 4th, so I did not have any Sunday messages I NEEDED to prepare in my study days of Tuesday, August 30th through Friday, September 2nd. The only lesson I was required to prepare that week was the August 31st Prayer Meeting message.

Yet, when I started to spend my spare time in the office the morning of August 31st doing a task I had for years wished I could have had the time to do, that of reorganizing sermon illustration files, I began to sense great inner unrest, and eventually stopped the effort! I then realized that if God had wanted me to do such a task, He would have led me to it years ago as it would have affected my ministry then!

Nevertheless, even then I knew God did not want me to waste what spare time I had: He had always before indicated His support of using spare time to prepare for future Bible messages.

Thus, as my wife dropped me off at the Church on September 1st while she took the car to run a day-long errand, I started to study for this sermon, wondering what I would possibly find in Numbers 10 that would occupy my time the hours that she was away!

What occurred next left me stunned! I had not planned to get absorbed in studying Hobab's line! In fact, as I almost by accident began to study this subject, this sermon's "story line" seemed to develop effortlessly on its own, clearly signaling God's involvement, and I was so stunned by the force of its focus on faithfulness to the Lord and His will, I actually said out loud, "Wow!"

After writing up these sermon notes, I saw its application to the very issue I had faced in coming to the office earlier that day! Though I had had all kinds of spare time to pursue other interests, I had known God's WILL for me was to stay busy using my spiritual gift to study for future messages! God had thus rewarded this effort to open His Word by revealing this lesson on Hobab's line! All day long my soul was edified as God led me through His Word to see in its pages the value of being faithful in performing His personal assignments for us!

May we like Hobab's line KEEP ON faithfully doing the will of God that we might also be RICHLY REWARDED of Him!