Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20111002.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XVI: God's Solution For Strong Errant Peer Pressure
(Numbers 11:4-35 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Though we adults often talk about the godless peer pressure our children and teens face, we encounter our own brands of equally potent, errant peer pressure, a fact we can easily document (as follows):

    (1) The "Notable and Quotable" section of the September 26, 2011 issue of The Wall Street Journal, p. A17, cited Scott Adams' August 30, 2011 blog at dilbert.com as saying that though his personal political views did not closely match liberal or conservative ideologies, he felt the mainstream media wrongly condemned Texas Governor Rick Perry's claim that Social Security is "a Ponzi scheme.'" Adams commented: "Literally no one on earth disagrees with the central point of Perry's analogy", an analogy Adams held was just a "colorful way of saying the math doesn't work well when the population of retired people greatly increases and the number of workers funding Social Security does not." Regardless, Adams observed: "I keep seeing Perry's Ponzi scheme quote reported as if it were some sort of idiot misunderstanding or conspiracy theory or foreshadowing of evil . . ."

    (2) The peer pressure can be as breathtakingly errant as it is powerful: Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine, wrote in "The Economy Needs a Regulation Time-Out", p. A15 of that paper that "(l)ast year, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to a company that sells packaged walnuts . . . (I)t . . . claimed the walnuts were being marketed as a drug. So Washington ordered the company to stop telling customers about the health benefits of walnuts."

    (3) We face errant, strong peer pressure even on basic Biblical beliefs: Anthony Di Gia of Edgewater Park, New Jersey, in a letter to the editor in the same day's nationwide paper, USA TODAY , p. 8A claimed that "the right-wing denial of evolution and global warming is a disastrous embrace of ignorance and superstition in the face of fact-based science." His view is the politically correct one, a view widely touted in the mainstream media and acadamia. However, as we have noted in past sermons, scholarly works by Christian and secular scientists, not to mention the Bible itself, claim the opposite is true!

    Yet, the peer pressure to accept evolution and catastrophic global warming leads professing Christians in droves to yield to such errant views, a fact we have also previously noted in former messages.

    So, we ask, "What can we do about strong, errant peer pressure we face at all ages, and in all sorts of realms of life?"

    Need: "How may we handle strong, errant peer pressure we all face?"

  1. Numbers 11:1-3, 4-15 revealed the GREAT POWER that ERRANT PEER PRESSURE had on Israel's OUTLOOK and BEHAVIOR:
    1. In Numbers 11:1-3, God slew some in Israel by fire for complaining.
    2. However, the people returned to "wail" about the plain-tasting manna that contrasted with the tastier past Egyptian diet because the "rabble" of other folk who left Egypt with Israel began to complain about it, Num. 11:1-9 NIV; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 12:38.
    3. Their complaint so upset Moses, he complained to God about the complainers to where he wished he might die, Numbers 11:4, 10-15!
    4. So, their errant peers impacted Israel and Moses to overlook God's recent severe discipline, showing the huge impact of a bad peer group!
  2. God COUNTERED this strong errant peer pressure by exhibiting His GREATER POWER and GRACE, Numbers 11:16-35:
    1. First, God exhibited His greater will and ability to provide for Israel to build her faith in Him regardless of the peer pressure, Num. 11:16-32:
      1. Re: Moses' concern, God had him gather 70 of the elders together to disperse His Spirit on them to help Moses lead, Num. 11:16-17.
      2. Re: Israel's concern, God pledged to give Israel's 2 million people, 600,000 men and their families, meat for a month, Num. 11:18-20.
      3. Moses wondered how God could provide so much meat for so many, but the Lord replied He was able to do so, Num. 11:21-23.
      4. God's provision of meat was abundant and rich, Num. 11:24-32:
        1. First, God placed His Spirit not only on the men who gathered unto Moses, but also on two men still abiding in the camp to show that He Himself, not Moses, had authored this provision, that He was very gracious and powerful, Numbers 11:24-30.
        2. Second, God miraculously provided an abundance of a delicacy: (1) Quail "were considered a delicacy," Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Ex. 16:13. (2) To this day, they fly northeast out of Africa across the Sinai Peninsula, but God sent a wind from the Gulf of Aqaba to blow a huge flock northwest across the Wilderness of Paran, Num. 11:31a; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 227. (3) The Lord kept the quail within 3 feet of the ground so Israel's people could be easily catch them, and the flock was huge -- quail for a days' journey in every direction around the camp, Num. 11:31b. (4) Thus, the miraculous, abundant supply of a delicacy in such a barren land as the Wilderness of Paran, a land comparable to Death Valley, California (our last message), evidenced the great ability and willingness of God to give Israel quality food!
    2. Second, God judged the strong, errant peer group by His great power as a lesson to His people to reject their peer's thinking, Num. 11:33f:
      1. The greed of the sinners was evident in how many quail they took: each gatherer collected 10 homers (Num. 11:32), or 60 bushels -- about 480 dry gallons of quail! (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 228)
      2. When the greedy in Israel began to eat it, God slew them while the meat was still in their mouths, teaching the survivors to avoid such lust as was evident in the fact that the survivors called th e name of that place the "graves of craving," Numbers 11:33-34 NIV ftn.
      3. [Some quail as they migrate are toxic, making one ill if he ingests their flesh. (Susan Lumpkin, "Quailing from Quail," Smithsonian National Zoological Park, March-Apr il 2001, nationalzoo.si.edu) However, God slew the greedy as the meat was still in their mouths before they could swallow and thus ingest it to show that they died by divine judgment, not by ingested toxicity! (Numbers 11:33)]
    3. Third, God had given Israel precedents that, if recalled, would have countered the errant peer group influence, Num. 11:1-3; Ex. 16:12-13:
      1. In Numbers 11:1-3, God's recent severe judgment of destruction by fire for complaining, if recalled, should have led Israel to avoid joining the "rabble's" complaint about the plain-tasting manna!
      2. Then, when God gave Israel her first meal of manna, He preceded it by giving her a meal of the delicacy of quail, showing He was willing and able to meet Israel's quality food desire, Ex. 16:12-13; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Ex. 16:13. God had thus shown His supply of plain manna was a teaching tool designed to get Israel to learn to trust His Word about future material blessings in Canaan, Dt. 8:3!
Application: In facing strong, errant peer pressure, may we (1) trust in Christ to be saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, (2) and rely on the Spirit for upright thinking and action, Gal. 2:16-23. (3) Then, may we (a) recall God's precedents to offset the errant peer group's pressure, (b) may we heed the evidences of God's power and truth He provides as we FACE errant peers and (c) view His discipline of such errant peers as His lesson to us that we not yield to their pressure!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 My wife and I saw God apply this message when we last visited the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

In touring the pavilion, we heard a park official tell the crowd there that the dinosaur footprints on the floor exhibit were 200 million years old. Then, responding to this statement, a mother next to us bent down to her son, pointed to a nearby dinosaur footprint fossil and said, "Honey, the animal that left this track lived millions of years ago!"

However, in the midst of this potent, errant peer pressure, I saw an exhibit on the other side this woman of fossilized raindrop marks.

I recalled reading in John C. Whitcomb's and Henry M. Morris' work, The Genesis Flood (1978), p. 166-168 that fossilized raindrop and ripple marks are found in "great numbers and in such perfection", they are a "truly remarkable phenomenon and one for which there is little if any modern parallel." (Ibid., p. 166, 168) Raindrop impressions are quickly erased by the fluid dynamics of rainwater itself, so for such impressions to be fossilized, "(s)ome sudden and catastrophic action" must have buried them right after they were formed. (Ibid., p. 168)

Only the worldwide Noahic Flood a few thousand years ago can adequately explain so many raindrop fossils in the world, for then there was worldwide geological upheaval with a lot of rain, Genesis 7:11!

Whitcomb and Morris also reported that no fossils of hailstone impressions are found in contrast to the many raindrop and rain ripple marks! (Ibid.) Well, Genesis 2:5-6 claims there was no rain before the Flood, but a mist watered the whole land surface, meaning a worldwide temperate climate was created by a vapor canopy that circled the earth, preventing the rise of atmospheric temperature differentials needed to create hail-producing thunderstorms. The precipitation of that water canopy in the Genesis Flood could then yield only rain! The many raindrop and ripple mark fossils along with the notable absence of hailstone impression fossils evidence the Genesis Flood and a literal reading of Genesis 1-11! That in turn counters evolutionary theory!

This encouraged us: God arranged for that raindrop mark fossil to be put there so that, in recalling Whitcomb and Morris' words on the matter, we could counter the strong, errant peer pressure we faced!

May we deal with potent, errant peer pressure by recalling God's precedents, by noting the signals He offers as we face the peer pressure and by learning from God's judging errant peers!