Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110918.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XIV: Comprehensive Blessings From Handling Sin At The Cross
(Numbers 10:33-36)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    (1) When the nationwide newspaper, USA TODAY asked its readers to respond to the question, "How do you think the nation has changed since the September 11 attacks?", Margaret Sagarese of Riverhead, N. Y. in the September 12, 2011 issue, p. 10A, wrote: "Ever since [9/11], we've been trying to put the pieces of our national confidence and honor back together.

    So far, not so good . . . Too many of us feel overwhelmed by financial woes, frustrated with underemployment and trapped because of the housing market. We hate the politics of bickering, but our despair fuels anger that fans partisan flames. Foreign policy looks like a thankless quagmire. We've become an insecure and ineffectual nation. Even getting Osama bin Ladin didn't help.

    We feel less secure. We hear about the national debt, incessant national disasters, diminishing natural resources . . ." (brackets ours)

    (2) Diana Pawelski of Bullhead City, Arizona replied to the USA TODAY question, writing: "No, I do not feel safe . . . We have less privacy, for example full-body scans at airports . . . I worry about people sneaking in through the desert. Our border patrol can do only so much."

    (3) This same theme of insecurity and troubled unrest is often reflected at the local level as we can document as follows:

    (a) Last Wednesday morning, local radio talk show host, Brad Davis, on am radio 610 out of Torrington, Connecticut mentioned a news report of a drug bust involving government officials. They were alleged to have trafficked in Florida, New York and Connecticut! One official was even a state trooper! Brad said, "It's really scary -- you want to trust such officials, but then something like this happens!"

    (b) Even a lot of local homes are infected with dangerous leaders: the Susan B. Anthony Project sent out a flyer about a candlelight vigil to be held in Coe Park in Torrington on October 6th at 6:30 p.m. to remember "victims of domestic violence and celebrating those who have survived."



    Thus, we may ask, "What can one in today's post-9/11 world with its vast needs for military security, jobs, housing, productive government leadership, etc., do to find peace?"

    Need: "What can one do in TODAY'S post-9/11 world of great, variegated, human NEED to find solutions that produce peace?!"

  1. God signaled He would meet Israel's needs in the wilderness by His symbolic use of His "ARK OF THE COVENANT" (as follows):
    1. Though God had led Israel out of Egypt unto Mount Sinai only by use of His supernatural cloud (Exodus 13:21-22; Numbers 9:15-17), after His Law had been given to Israel and the tabernacle was built and dedicated, the Lord led her to future campsites using the "ark of the covenant of the Lord" along with the cloud, Numbers 10:33-34.
    2. This fact reveals a culturally typical "suzerain treaty" was formed at Sinai between God, a "Great King," and Israel, His "vassal", where God offered great blessings for Israel providing she heeded Him:
      1. The first time the expression "ark of the covenant of the Lord" appears in Scripture is in Numbers 10:33 where Israel began to leave Mount Sinai. ( Strong's Ex. Conc. of the Bible, p. 76, 223.)
      2. It testified that a culturally typical Ancient Near Eastern "suzerain treaty" was formed at Mount Sinai between the "Great King," God, and His "vassal," Israel where Israel agreed to submit to God's rule to receive His blessings, Zon. Pic. Enc. of the Bib., v. Five, p. 810.
      3. In this pact, God linked His presence to the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38), making its ark the "ark of the covenant of the Lord," or culturally , the "ark of the suzerain treaty of the Great King, God," (Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King, 1963, p. 13-16).
      4. So, Numbers 10:33 shows the Lord used the ark of His presence as Israel's new "Great King" to GUIDE her to restful campsites.
      5. Numbers 10:35-36 then indicates God's association with His ark as symbol of His "Great King" relation supplied military blessings:
        1. When the ark set out ahead of the people, Moses would call for God to scatter His enemies in coming battles to reach and then conquer the Promised Land, Numbers 10:35; cf. Joshua 6:1-5.
        2. Then, as the ark would stop at each campsite, Moses would call for God to return to the people of Israel, implying a call for His protection of Israel during the night from attack, Num. 10:36.
      6. Exodus 16:33-34 with Hebrews 9:4 reveals a pot of manna was put in the ark of God's presence, signifying the "Great King's" daily food provisions for Israel in her 40 years in the wilderness!
      7. Numbers 17:1-8 with Hebrews 9:4 reveals Aaron's rod that budded was put in the ark to show Israel's "Great King, God" wanted Aaron's line to be priests , giving stable leadership to Israel.
      8. 1 Chronicles 28:18 NIV claims God as Israel's "Great King" rode on the cherubim that sat atop the ark's lid, the Mercy Seat, using them as a "chariot" to signal His comforting royal presence.
      9. Exodus 25:21-22 claims God spoke with Moses in the space above the Mercy Seat, giving welcome royal communication to Israel!
  2. However, the BASIS of God's blessing Israel these ways associated with the ark is seen in that furniture's most important symbolic USE, that of ATONEMENT, typifying CHRIST'S ATONEMENT:
    1. Hebrews 9:4 with Deuteronomy 31:24-28 reveal that with the pot of manna and Aaron's rod, the tables of the law were put in the ark of the covenant as a witness against Israel's SIN in breaking God's commands and in failing to trust in His provisions.
    2. Indeed, Israel's sin of unbelief that preceded God's provision of the manna (Exodus 16:1-4) and her unbelief in God's choice of Aaron's line to be priests (Numbers 17:1-10) worked with these tables of the law to fan into flame God's wrath against Israel for such sins!
    3. Yet, on the Day of Atonement as the High Priest put the sacrificial blood on the ark's lid, the Mercy Seat, God's wrath was appeased, the blood coming between the Lord Who dwelt above the Mercy Seat and the items below it that recalled Israel's sins, Leviticus 16:15-16.
    4. This pictures how Christ, the "Lamb of God," absorbed God's wrath as our "Propitiation" in dying for our sins, John 1:29; Rom. 3:21-28.
    5. Consequently, God's rich blessings signified in the blessings of God through His use of the Old Testament ark are available to believers based on the handling of his sin through the atonement of Christ.
    6. For the lost, this calls for them to trust in Christ for salvation from sin to be saved from God's wrath in hell and gain eternal life, John 3:16.
    7. For believers in Christ, this includes confession to God of acts of sin done since salvation (1 John 1:9) and reliance on the Holy Spirit to live righteously for God's blessings in this life, Galatians 5:16-23.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to be a child of God and be forgiven, John 1:11-12; Col. 1:14. (2) Then, may we (a) submit to God, heeding His Word to (b) CONFESS our post-salvation sins to Him for cleansing (1 John 1:9) and (c) RELY on the Holy Spirit for godly living (Gal. 5:16-23) (d) for DIVINE BLESSING.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Two of the greatest leaders our nation has known were on opposite sides of America's great Civil War. Yet, both men exhibited a sense of deep subordination to God, a submission that led to their desire for national confession of sin and seeking God for blessing:

(1) Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, on April 30, 1863 exhibited these characteristics in his Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, saying: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own . . . It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." (The Rebirth of America, Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986, p. 151)

(2) The great leader on the other side, General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army, revealed his submission to God when he asserted: "Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray . . . Let there be prayer at sunup, at sundown, at midnight -- all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word concern' out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice." (Ibid., p. 183)



May we see that the SOLUTION to man's many, varied needs is SUBMISSION TO and GETTING RIGHT with GOD.



May we trust in His Son, Jesus Christ for salvation, and, as believers, SUBMIT to God's rule, CONFESSING our sins to Him and looking unto Him versus OTHER sources for BLESSING!