Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120304.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XXXI: The Huge Destiny Contrast In Loving God Or The World
(Numbers 21:10-35 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    There is much frustration in today's world over not only unmet goals, but even unmet basic livelihood needs, a fact we can illustrate:

    (1) Laura Vanderkam's article, "Does income gap matter?" in "The Forum" section of the February 21, 2012 USA TODAY sought to encourage American readers to be content with their financial lot in life in the current difficult economic recession.

    However, letters to the editor in the paper's February 27th issue that responded to the article mirrored great frustration with this topic:

    (a) John Huxhold of Manchester, Missouri reacted to the article, writing: "(S)he thinks that living paycheck to paycheck and being one major illness away from bankruptcy are causing me unnecessary worry because I lack the proper reference group' . . . In fact, she . . . . lacks a proper reference group: the real world."

    (b) Reba Shimansky of New York City added: "At one time . . . most Americans had dreams of upward mobility. But those dreams have been dashed because . . . (w)ith stagnant wages and persistently high unemployment, Americans now know that the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy . . ."

    (c) However, even gaining wealth does not produce the desired happiness in various cases as Brent Muirhead of Alpharetta, Georgia noted: "(R)esearch has found that lottery winners experienced only a temporary increase in their happiness with the extra money."

    (2) Anna Williams, an editorial page intern at USA TODAY wrote the article, "Fighting poverty until it hurts" for the February 27, 2012 issue, p. 9A, claiming the nation is stuck in a quagmire of a debate over the issue of income disparity as she noted: "Liberals want the government to help the poor by taxing the rich; conservatives want the poor to help themselves, with private charities assisting when necessary . . ." She added that "religious leaders . . . carried a golden calf (symbolizing the idolatry of wealth) . . . as part of the Occupy' movement . . . Others, such as First Things Web editor, Joe Carter, argue that concern about income inequality is itself a form of greed."



    So, we ask, "With many being frustrated over unmet goals and even unmet livelihood needs, why is this so, and what is the answer?!"

    Need: "Many are frustrated in seeing their life's goals or even basic living needs go unmet! Why does this occur, and what is the answer?"

  1. In Numbers 21:10-25 and 32-35, Israel experienced God's great blessing for having learned patiently to trust Him to meet her needs instead of impatiently complaining as she had in Numbers 21:4-9:
    1. Back in Numbers 21:4-5, Israel became arrogantly impatient in facing the hardship of traveling around Edom in the desert, so she grumbled about Moses and God, and even mocked God's provision of manna.
    2. Thus, God had sent poisonous serpents with a painful, lethal bite to discipline Israel, and provided the solution in having those bitten look upon a bronze serpent Moses placed high on a pole so she might learn to keep humbly trusting in GOD for her needs, Numbers 21:6-9.
    3. Israel learned this lesson, too, a fact that is seen in her trusting and obeying God for blessing in Numbers 21:10-25 and 32-35 as follows:
      1. First, though still in the wilderness, instead of complaining about the lack of water, Israel WAITED on GOD to lead Moses to give her water, Numbers 21:10-15, 16: (a) instead of murmuring, she sang in praise to God at His water provision; (b) instead of pride, Israel's leaders, using their staves and scepters, showed humility in themselves digging the well for the water, Numbers 21:17-18 NIV!
      2. When Israel thus came to the border of Sihon, the Amorite king, and asked for passage through his land, offering to stay on the main caravan route and not partake of its water or crops, Sihon hardened his heart and attacked Israel, so she heeded God's call then to defeat Sihon and take his land. (Num. 21:19-25; Deut. 2:30-35)
      3. Then, when Israel traveled toward the land of Og, king of Bashan, he attacked her, so God encouraged Israel to fight and to seize his property as they had Sihon's land, Num. 21:32-34. Israel ended up possessing the territories of both Sihon and Og as a result of God's blessing due to her humble obedience to Him, Numbers 21:31, 35.
  2. However, Numbers 21:26-31 in the long-term historical context adds far greater FORCE to this same lesson on the value of loving and heeding God over yielding to worldly lusts (as follows):
    1. The Amorite war song in the context shows the Amorites had seized their land from the Moabites who had first possessed it, Num. 21:26.
    2. Indeed, in line with the culture of war in the Ancient Near East, Sihon's Amorite people had authored a taunting war song recorded in Numbers 21:27-29 NIV that mocked their defeated Moabite foes, Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, p. 240:
      1. Sihon's Amorite people poetically sang about destroying Moabite towns and rebuilding them for themselves (Numbers 21:27-28).
      2. They also sang of taking Moab's children captive, Num. 21:29b.
    3. However, when Israel defeated the Amorites, Israel in turn sang this same Amorite song, but added another verse to show she had seized the land the Amorites in turn took from Moab, Numbers 21:30; Ibid.!
    4. Remarkably, this song in view of long-term Bible history has a huge lesson on the great destiny contrast in loving either God or the world:
      1. The Moabites had descended from Lot, the nephew of Israel's patriarch Abraham, Genesis 11:31 with 19:36-38.
      2. Now, Lot had long before parted from Abraham to live in the lush lowlands amid the evil Sodomites in a lust for the world! (Genesis 13:10-12; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Genesis 13:10)
      3. However, Lot's life in Sodom influenced his daughters to do evil: they made their father drunk so he would commit incest with them, producing Lot's sons, Moab and Ammon, Genesis 19:31-38.
      4. After God destroyed Sodom, He graciously gave Moab and Ammon lands east of the Jordan for their peoples, Deut. 2:9, 19.
      5. Nevertheless, the Moabites' exposure to the pagan world led them to worship Chemosh, "a savage war god" according to "the inscription on the Moabite Stone" (Zond. Pict. Ency. of the Bible, vol. One, p. 786) that was set up by Mesha, king of Moab around 830 B. C. (2 Kings 3:4) and was discovered in 1868. (Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the Old Testament , 1973, p. 24)
      6. For idolatry with Chemosh as even noted in the Amorite taunting song (Num. 21:29), Moab lost land to the Amorites in judgment.
      7. Thus, in a great long-term twist of fate, Abraham and his seed, Israel who loved and heeded God versus the world (Genesis 13:9; Numbers 21:16-18) gained the land God had first set aside for Moab, Lot's son, and Lot and his seed, Moab, lost that God-given land to Israel for loving the world (Genesis 13:10-13) and so going off into full-blown pagan idolatry (Numbers 21:29)!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) Then, may we (a) NOT love and heed the world and its lusts, but (b) love and heed God for great long-term blessing!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 To illustrate this message, we note the lead story in the February 28, 2012 issue of The Wall Street Journal titled, "Insider Targets Expanding," by Jenny Strasburg and Reed Albergotti. It told of a remarkable new television ad by actor Michael Douglas who starred as the inside trader, Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street."

The article explains that Mr. Douglas in his film role had said: "Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.'" (Ibid., p. A1) As a consequence of the movie, he told FBI agent, David Chaves "he often gets stopped on the street by Wall Street professionals who admire the conniving Mr. Gekko." (Ibid., p. A2) Mr. Douglas is dismayed at this, and has reportedly told agent Chaves, "(W)here are the values? What are people thinking when I'm hailed as a hero in that role?'" (Ibid.)

Thus, Michael Douglas has produced an ad to counter his film role's influence where he says: " . . . in the movie Wall Street' I play Gordon Gekko . . . The movie was fiction, but the problem is real . . . To report insider trading, contact your local FBI office.'" (Ibid., p. A1)

Since this ad contradicts the bad influence of the actor's film role, the fact that it was even made testifies to the harm of worldliness in the hands of the film industry: Hollywood has long touted evil for money without taking responsibility for its effects on public morals!

What is especially harmful is the film's exaltation of the words: "Greed is right . . . [it] captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit." Many Americans by way of public education are made to think that evolution is true, and even many evangelicals have compromised on the idea, asserting God used evolution to create the universe, so this statement potently persuades the public that greed in trading is good. After all, evolution's "survival of the fittest" idea upholds gain for the "fittest" at the loss of the weak, an idea that naturally fuels greedy, lawless, insider trading at the cost of other "weak" unwary investors in a public that has been taught to believe that evolution is a fact!

If leaders in the film industry, public education or evangelical circles that adopt theistic evolution were to uphold only truth and righteousness, there would be no need to try to fix the long-term morally harmful effects of the worldly film by the Michael Douglas ad!

In view of the vast long-term blessing or its lack from loving either God or the world respectively, may we love and serve God!