Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110925.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XV: Recalling God's Past Aid For Victory Over Complaining
(Numbers 11:1-3 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    We conservative Christians can be easily tempted to complain about what hardships we unfairly face in our era (as follows):

    (1) In The Wall Street Journal on September 9, 2011, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who wants to build a mosque near the former World Trade Center, wrote an op-ed piece titled, "A Call To All Religious Moderates" urging tolerance for his building effort. In the article he claimed the "mass killings by Norway's Abders Behring Breivik" that Breivik said were made in the name of Christianity were akin to the Muslim 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Letter to the Editor by Pawel Kalinski of Pittsburgh in The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2011, p. A16)

    Yet, as Mr. Kalinski noted in his letter of response, "Brevik's sickening acts have never been praised by any Christian church but were unequivocally condemned. In contrast, the 9/11 terrorists were repetitively hailed as martyrs' by multiple Muslim groups." (Ibid.)

    We Christians are tempted to complain over being errantly painted as holding to a religion that fuels terrorism like Islam!

    (2) The article, "The truth about evangelicals . . . that you won't hear in left-wing quarters" in the September 19, 2011 USA TODAY, p. 9A by Mark I. Pinsky, who claims "I'm as left wing Democrat as they come," intrigued me as I first glanced at the article's title and thought: "At last, a leftist who understands us conservative Christians!"

    However, to my dismay, the article supported how far left the ideology of many evangelicals is moving, asserting: "Yes, they tend to vote Republican and oppose gay marriage -- although there is a growing generation gap on these issues among younger evangelicals," as if that was a good thing! Mr. Pinsky added: "Most evangelicals accept some form of evolution," and "may be more likely to accept women in the pulpit of large congregations than those in mainline denominations," both unbiblical stances the left would readily support.

    I reacted by thinking: "Evangelicals who compromise God's Biblical standards before the onlooking world are making it more difficult for us who hold to God's Biblical stands to keep standing AGAINST gay marriage, evolution and violating God's role for men." It left me tempted to complain about the hardships such evangelicals are creating through their compromises!

    Accordingly, we ask, "How do we face the relentless lure to complain about our difficulties in life?!"

    Need: "The hardships I face tempt me to complain! What now?!"

  1. Three days after leaving Sinai, Israel complained of the hardships she faced in the Wilderness of Paran, Numbers 11:1a; 10:12, 33:
    1. The word ra meaning "adversity" (B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 948) appears in the Hebrew text in Numbers 11:1a (Kittel, Bib. Heb. , p. 210) to explain what led the people of Israel to murmur.
    2. The cause was Israel's setting, the Wilderness of Paran (Num. 10:12):
      1. This wilderness has 2-4 inches of rain a year (holylandphotos.org), roughly equal to that of Death Valley, California (suite101.com).
      2. "The Paran plateau contains a lot of gravel" since the "lack of rain" produces "no soil formation. If any soil is formed, the wind blows it off." (bibleplaces.com, "The Wilderness of Paran")
      3. Paran has over "23,000 square miles" of "wild desert conditions of both [topographical] relief and climate" (Z. P. E. B., v. Four, p. 600), so it was humanly a big hardship for Israel's people to cross!
  2. Yet, God did NOT TOLERATE Israel's complaining, Num. 11:1-3:
    1. God's anger was figuratively "ignited" (harah, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 354) so that His literal fire "burned" (ba'ar , Ibid., p. 128-129) among the people, consuming some in the outskirts of the camp, Numbers 11:1b.
    2. The people cried unto Moses for deliverance, and he prayed to the Lord, and God quenched His consuming fire, Numbers 11:2.
    3. This judgment recalled what God did to Nadab and Abihu when they had offered an errant sacrifice (Lev. 10:1-2), and the place was called Taberah, or "burning", Ryrie St. Bib., KJV , 1978, ftn. to Num. 11:3.
  3. God's intolerance is explained in the Hebrew Bible and its context:
    1. Numbers 11:1 in the Hebrew text literally translates: " . . . the people complained of adversity in the hearing of Yahweh, and Yahweh heard it, . . ." (Ibid., Kittel), a repeat emphasis on "Yahweh".
    2. This was the Name God first introduced when He appeared to Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, Ex. 3:9-15; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Ex. 3:14.
    3. Also, when Yahweh had Moses tell Israel of His plan to deliver her in that passage, at Exodus 3:12, Yahweh made the sign of His identity as Israel's God the fact that she would worship Him on Mount Sinai, the God with whom Israel would come into treaty union as her "Great King" in line with suzerain treaty format (see our previous message).
    4. Now, the deliverance of "Yahweh" for Israel was astounding: it involved ten huge plagues on the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:14-12:36) that convinced Pharaoh finally to let Israel leave Egypt capped off by a great, miraculous deliverance of the nation at the Red Sea from the greatest chariot army in that part of the world, Exodus 14:1-31!
    5. Hence, Jahweh would not let Israel forget His great work to deliver her from Egypt, nor let her forget that she was to trust Him as her Great King Who had displayed His awesome presence at Mount Sinai and with Whom she there entered into treaty union so she would not be anxious at human hardships faced even in the Wilderness of Paran!
  4. Indeed, Deuteronomy 8:2-3 reveals God had intentionally led Israel into the humbling hardships of the wilderness, letting her suffer hunger before feeding her manna (Deuteronomy 8:3) to TRAIN her to trust His Word, including His Exodus 3:16-17 generations old (Gen esis 15:18-21) promise to give her the Promised Land!
  5. The REASON for this TRAINING is given in Exodus 13:17-18:
    1. Since Israel fresh out of Egyptian slavery was weak in faith in God, He knew she was not ready to trust him to help her conquer humanly superior foes in the Promised Land of Canaan, Exodus 13:17b.
    2. Thus, God chose not to lead Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land quickly by way of the Mediterranean coast, a shorter way, Ex. 13:17a.
    3. Rather, He led her across the Red Sea and into the Sinai Peninsula (Ex. 13:18) so that Israel might see His help there in wilderness trials, and so learn to trust in Him, enabling her to defeat her foes in Canaan.
  6. When Israel then faithlessly COMPLAINED of ADVERSITY in the Wilderness of Paran, God was understandably INTOLERANT: He punished Israel for complaining there to get her to revere, obey and to trust Him so she could LATER CONQUER CANAAN!
Application: If facing hardships that tempt us to complain, may we (1) trust in Christ to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) May we then (a) rely on the Holy Spirit for God's power (Gal. 5:16) to live righteously, and (b) recall God's past helps as cause to trust Him to help with present trials! (c) May we treat these trials as training ground for victories for future trials God sees we will face!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Applying this message to the unjust issues we noted in our introduction that we Christians face leads me to believe that God is letting us face them to strengthen our Biblical stands on them!

Here, then, are Scripture passages to support those stands:

(1) Contrary to the implication by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf that Christianity helps promote terrorism as does Islam, we must heed Philippians 4:5 NIV that calls us Christians to "(l)et your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." In view of the coming of Christ, the Christian condones the opposite of terrorist activity -- gentleness!

(2) Contrary to the move by some evangelicals to tolerate or support gay marriage as Mr. Pinsky reported (Ibid., Pinsky), we heed 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV that says: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

(3) Contrary to Mr. Pinsky's support that "most evangelicals accept some form of evolution" (Ibid.), we hold to Exodus 20:11 NIV that claims: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Israel observed the seventh solar day as the Sabbath, for God finished His creation in six consecutive solar days, which time period could not have possibly seen evolutionary processes form the universe. Thus, the universe came into existence by special creation, not by evolution!

(4) Contrary to evangelicals who are "more likely to accept women in the pulpit of large congregations" as Pinsky reported (Ibid.), we apply 1 Timothy 2:12-14 NIV where Paul wrote: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."

Thus, may we respond to the hardships God lets us face now by not complaining about them, but by TRUSTING HIM and HIS WORD. We will GROW in faith to be better equipped for victories in FUTURE trials that God knows we will one day face.