Have you ever had to move a lot? I only moved 3 times in my life and two of those times have been since I have been married. I know some people that have moved more than 5 times, some even 8, and one person has moved 10 times. That is so much work to move. It takes so much time and energy to go from one place with all your possessions and then move to another.  I will be honest, I hate moving. Each time we move, my wife and I think back about some our memories at each place. We remember the good times as well as the bad. In this chapter Moses is remembering Israel’s steps from the time they left Egypt to the place where they are now. Israel has had to move several times and in each place there are significant events. Some were good as God showed his provision some were not so good as Israel rebelled against God. 

Reflection: 

Reflection is a good thing for us as Christians to do.  Moses did this just to reflect on where their journey had taken them. Maybe there was some in the congregation that remembered some of those events. Some heard from their fathers about God taking them out of the land of Egypt. We should reflect not to dwell on the past but to show where God has taken us. How we have fallen and how God has redeemed. We should reflect to grow closer to God and cling to Him even more. 

Now Israel is Getting Ready to Move into the Land:

God has them ready and has given them a command to drive out the inhabitants of the land. There is a couple of reasons for this. One, this was the land that God had promised them and Abraham occupied it before. Second, God did not want the idols of the people to influence and be a stumbling block for the people. In verses 55 and 56 he explains that if they do not drive out the inhabitants in the land, they will be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in different ways. 

We may not have to go into a land and drive people out but we should have the same motive with sin in our life. We should drive it out like Hebrews 12:1 says. We should get rid of it. If not then sin will become a problem and certain areas that we have not killed sin will become barbs to our eyes and thorns to our sides. We should drive sin out and live in the Promise we have in Jesus Christ.  Not throwing off sin that we have in our life will be our downfall. As we see Israel now with this warning keep it in the back of your mind because we will see how true this will be for them. 

 In our study of Numbers we see that the tribes of Reuben and Gad were asking Moses and the leaders if they could not cross the Jordan but stay in Gilead because the land was good for its flocks. Moses asked if they stay there will they still help in the conquest of the land.  If these two tribes did not help in war, their numbers for battle would be affected. Moses asked what their true motives were which they explained that they would help when called for war. They would still be part of the people. 

The warning

In verse 23 we see the warning from God. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. These were the words of Moses to the leaders of the tribes. They needed to make sure that they did not abandon the whole community for their own efforts. They could be separate but needed to be connected to the community.We as Christians sometimes get settled where we are in the world. We may think we found the right place and become comfortable. We may think were we are spiritually is the best place and not want to cross the river and do more work. What these tribes did was not necessarily bad but we will see future events taking place which does not help them. When you separate yourself from the family of God you will shortly fall. It is so important for us to be in fellowship with other believers because we should be building each other and keeping each other accountable. The goal was for Israel to fight for the promise land together and we are to fight in this race together for the Promise that we have in Christ Jesus. 

Have you ever had something that you were looking forward to? Like right now, I am looking forward to our surfing and camping trip coming up this weekend. I love this trip because we have a chance to be right there and enjoy God’s creation, the ocean and the beach. It is something that I always look forward to every year. In this chapter God told Moses to take another census but this time it would be the new generation. This was the group of young people that were too young to be part of the generation that could not enter into the promise land. Remember, the old generation were the ones that did not have faith in God to enter into the promise land. In Numbers 13 we read about  the spies reporting back the news about the land and that the people of Israel were full of fear and that they could not fight and win against the enemy. This generation was a new generation. The only people from the older generation that are allowed in the promise land are Caleb and Joshua. The new generation will be allowed in the promise land and we see that the census is being taken for that. We may not have an old generation not allowed into a promise land but we are responsible for a new generation to be raised up.  May we be a generation seeking after God as he is our promise which is His Son, Jesus Christ. We do live in a different type of people than our parents grew up in. We have many great technological advances as well as many great freedoms, but with that comes the easiness for sin to come into our lives. Philippians 2:15 tells us that we need to be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. May we stand strong in this crooked generation. May we learn from the mistakes of our parents and our selves and hold to the great promise which is our salvation

Did you ever had a friend that you knew was bringing you down? They were definitely not a good influence on you? Some how you still liked them and the things they did, it was different and they challenged authority. In this particular passage we see Israel giving into stuff that really was against what God commanded them to do. It all started because of Balaam who was a sorcerer wanted to bring bad stuff upon Israel and could not curse them because God told him not to decided to bring Israel down another way, tempt them with idol worship. In Numbers 31:16 it was Balaam that encouraged the people of Midian to tempt the people of Israel. The people sent the women of Midian to tempt the men and get them involved in Baal worship. The sad thing is, Israel did. It says in verse 5 that they yoked themselves with these women and their false god, Baal. They would offer sacrifices to Baal and even bow down before him which means they were breaking the 1st Commandment, they shall have no other gods. Because of this sin there was a plague that broke out among the people in their sin.

 Kill sin in your life

Moses was commanded by God to get rid of those who allowed this sin to take place and corrupt the camp. He hung the chiefs of the tribes because they were the ones responsible in allowing this idol worship. Not only were the chiefs of each family held responsible but the judges of Israel were commanded to kill the men who have yoked themselves with Baal and the Midian women. They were commanded to not have relations with the surrounding nations and the men of Israel were sinning against God.In order for us to conquer sin in our life it must be killed. Now we can not take a knife and start killing sin that way but we must eliminate it in ours. We need to constantly evaluate our lives and see what areas are weak and what areas there are sin so we can move on and not be weighed down by it.

Blatant sin

As Israel was being repentant of their sin a man blatantly took a Midian woman and brought her to his family as if he was trying to encourage his family into pagan worship. He took the woman in site all of Israel and most importantly in the eyes of God and disobeyed him. This is called blatant sin, when you know something is bad and you do it anyway. I think we all are guilty of this one time or another because temptation wins in our lives and that is why we need to fight temptation the right way, God’s way! Eleazar, Aaron’s son was so mad about this blatant sin in the camp that he took a spear and went to this man’s tent and killed him and this woman as they were in the act of sin. The plague that was happening upon Israel stopped because the sin stopped. The death toll for Israel was 24,000. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27–30 what we need to do with temptation and the answer is to get rid of it. We are faced with multiple types of temptation and we need to be able to stand against it (1st Corinthians 10:13). Sin is a plague in our lives and if we do not stand up against it, it will kill us. We need to not just let it be in our lives but we need to kill it and actually fight against sin. How do you value what this world says is ok? Do you view sin as sin or maybe do you view it as not that bad? The closer we are to sin the more it seems ok, and good. May we be able to fight it in our lives as well as encourage those around us to stay away from the snares that the Devil has for us to fall.

Balaam and Balak are our theme characters and we last read about Balaam being commissioned to curse Israel because the king of Moab was afraid that Israel would conquer them. In this chapter Balaam realizes that he is only allowed to speak what God tells him to speak.Here is King Balak on top of a mountain with Balaam overlooking and seeing a part of Israel and Balak is getting ready to hear the curse of Balaam. He was getting excited because once the curse fell upon Israel then he would come in with his army and finish the job. Instead of hearing a curse being brought about upon these two million people we see the opposite taking place. Balaam starts to bless Israel. As Balaam tells the king that he has been commanded by God to bless Israel because Israel is blessed by God, the king does not understand. Balaam tells him that he can not say anything that did not tell him to say.Despite all that is going on with Israel and their lack of respect to God and his provision and even with Moses and his downfall we see God still standing on the side of Israel.  And God stands for his children as even Paul said in Romans that should we keep on sinning so Grace can abound, no but we see how great God’s grace is. God loves his children and takes care of them. We are considered his children because we have the family trait, Jesus’ blood that has washed us clean of our sin and dirtiness. I am also reminded of how certain people will try to come against the Christian and in a way curse them. God has our back, he will allow trials of various kinds to come (James 1:2) but he also is on our side. He blesses us every single day and again and again even when we mess up and do not deserve it. 

We take a short break from Israel being the center of the narrative to now someone else, Balak and Balaam. Balak was king of Moab and the Moabites were afraid of the Israelites because they did not want to be dead. Because of the fear, King Balak sent word to get a sorcerer, Balaam, to curse the people of Israel so he could defeat them in battle.

God speaks to Balaam and asked “what do these men want with you?” Balaam told God that the Moabites wanted him to curse the people of Israel and God told Balaam that he could not do that. A second time King Balak asked and Balaam said no, but this time God said go.

As Balaam was going an angel of the Lord was standing in the way and only his donkey saw it. The donkey moved one way to another to try to avoid the angel. Balaam thought his donkey was going nuts and he hit the donkey. Then all of sudden the donkey starts to talk. The thing that is more interesting than this is that Balaam responded as this was a normal conversation. This was not Mr. Ed the talking horse this was the talking donkey. God opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord. In this Balaam realized that he needed to submit to God in his request. Balak and Balaam go up on the mount and they were able to see a fraction of the people.

God’s speaks

In this chapter we can see this false prophet Balaam being used for a reason. We will see more of Balaam in the next few chapters. What would your reaction be if your animal started to talk? I am not talking about the donkey in Shrek or anything but like your dog just said something and you responded.  Now, if God communicated to you would you listen? God first showed himself to Balaam and Balaam somewhat listened but he also had false motives. He was going to go to curse the people of Israel still. God had to stop him in his tracks and God sometimes has to stop us in our tracks to get our attention. God desries for us to listen to him completely, not just partially. Do you let God speak to you through his word?

Does it ever seem to you but when bad things happen like someone you know got really sick or a loved one passed away that they come in waves? Like nothing wrong can happen for a little while and then everything comes at once or at least it feels like that. In this particular chapter we deal with death and disappointment but there is light in spite of it all.  

Death of Moses’ brother and sister

The chapter starts Miriam, Moses sister passing away. Not much is said about her after the little incident a few chapter back about her and the leprosy. The chapter ends with Aaron about to die and his son takes on the role as high priest. He dies and the whole congregation mourns for 30 days.

The Hard Lesson

Right after the death of Miriam, the people come against Moses and Aaron again about lack of water and Moses starts out by doing what is right. He goes before the Lord and asked what he shall do and God told him to talk to the rock and it will bring forth water. Instead we see Moses striking the rock twice and saying that the people are rebels. The result of this lack of faith was he will not be allowed to enter into the promise land. At first that can seem kind of harsh, you may ask, “What was the big deal?” He just struck a little rock but there is more to it. Moses was turning the power of God onto himself as he made it seem like he did it. It also shows his lack of faith at that moment as he struck it instead of speaking to it and struck again. Moses knew what he did was wrong and the result was not entering into the promise land. This was probably one of the hardest points in his life as he not only lost his family but lost his privilege of entering into the place he was leading everyone to. May we be reminded that temptation will come, problems will come, people will complain about you, but how do we respond as God’s people and light to this world?  

Have you ever known someone at your school that was the rebel? They would be the one that would never listen to the authority and would always come against it. I remember this one guy who would disagree with the teachers and try to have the whole class come on his side. It was like a class rebellion against science or something. It really did not go anywhere and I think the guy was sent to the principles office and I never saw him again (I still think they ate him). 

In this chapter a man named Korah starts a rebellion with 250 chiefs of the congregation of Israel.  He was wondering why God would only speak to Moses and not let any of them lead. He felt that Moses brought them out of Egypt and the Promise Land is right there but now they cannot go into it. He was going to do his own thing. Moses is described as being meek. He handled himself well but this time it says in verse 15 that he was very angry with them. He did nothing against them and took nothing from these people and look how they are treating him. God was going to show them who he and that he allowed Moses to be in charge. God appeared as the cloud descended on the tabernacle.

Can you imagine what this must have been like for Moses. Being surprised with 250 plus men would be very scary. These men were not encouraging Moses with his leadership; they were telling him how he was in the wrong. Korah thought he could do a better job. 

The Result of Rebellion from God

Moses told everyone to seperate themselves from Korah and from the other men and their families. He said if God is not with me then you will die a natural death but if God is with me then the earth will swallow you up and your family and your possessions. Guess what? The earth opened up and swallowed them and their families. Then fire came and consumed the 250 chiefs of the congregation.

 After this tragedy you think the congregation would realize that God is in control but instead the rebellion of Korah had spread into the congregation. The people now came up against Moses and Aaron and blamed them for killing these 250 men. Man, I don’t know about you, but I would want to throw in the towel of being their leader. Picture this angry mob coming against these two men and being backed up to the Tabernacle and then God descends and tells Moses to get away from these people because he was going to teach them something. All of a sudden a plague breaks out among the people. Moses told Aaron to grab a censer and put incense in it so you can make atonement for the people. Despite these people coming against him, Moses still wants to help them understand who God is and that He is in control. In verse 48 it shows that Aaron was between the living and the dead and the plague had claimed 14,700 lives that day.  

The Living and the Dead

Just as Aaron stood between the living and the dead because of the plague which was the result of their sinful hearts Jesus stands as the mediator between the living God and the us the sinful dead humans. He came and made atonement for us (Romans 3:15). Jesus stands between the gap of us and God and you know even when we can become the angry mob against God he works on our behalf. We can be so quick and look the people of Israel and shake our heads in shame but we need to first look at ourselves. When we do we realize that we are no better than them and we should be so thankful that Jesus stands in the gap for us. Jesus had died and conquered death and sin for us. May we get the rebellion out of our hearts and start realizing that God is our leader and we must follow after him. 

There was this one time that I remember getting into trouble the day before because I did something I was told not to do. I woke up and my mom wanted to change the pace of the day by telling me she loves me even when I blow it. It was a radical thing to hear because I remember going to bed miserable and expected everything to carry on to the next day but instead my mom was willing to work past it.

In this chapter God shows his love by repeating the rules about the sacrifices. This was God saying, even though you blew it and rebelled, I still love you and want to have fellowship with you. In verses 1 through 21 were about restoring a relationship with God. This shows God’s grace and how he works in spite of our rebellion.

Unintentional and Intentional

God breaks down two different types of sin, the unintentional sin, like high I messed up but I did not plan on this happening, it just did and the intentional, which is, I am doing this even though I know it is wrong and I don’t care. The fact about this is that everyone sins, there are those that sin and don’t even know when they are in sin and those who know exactly what is sin and choose to rebel against God on purpose.

A story is given on how someone who sins unintentional can go back into fellowship and how those who sin intentionally need to be broken of their rebellion to come back into fellowship. In the story a man is gathering sticks on the Sabbath in which he then was put to death by the whole congregation. In verses 32 through 36 we can read this and realize how harsh for just gathering a few sticks. In reality this man was defying what was commanded by God. Not only was he in sin for gathering sticks which was considered work but he also was going to start a fire with that wood which was another no no. This story serves as the example of someone who intentionally wanted to sin.

Garments for the Lord

In verses 37 through 41 we read about God giving the people of Israel a command with their clothes. They were to add tassels to their garments and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner of the garment.                                                   The reason God wanted them to do this was so they could be reminded of the commands of the Lord and not follow after their own thoughts. This command was Israel would remember God’s faithfulness. The tassel in the ancient world was considered and extension of that person. This now would be Israel’s identity, who they are, God’s people. The blue dye would be expensive to do but also this color was the most sacred color in the tabernacle (4:6-7). This single thread would symbolize the identity of Israel as the royal priesthood. The tassels served two purposes. One, that they would know that they were God’s by his grace. Two, they were redeemed from Egypt to be a holy nation to all the surrounding nations.

Our tassels

I went to a private school that decided to have us wear uniforms. The uniforms served to keep the students from wearing anything inappropriate but also that we represented what school we went to. We had to wear the uniforms and I know for me, there was not really any pride in wearing them, it turned to be more of an obligation.

We as followers of Christ are not held to the same things Jews are held to. We do not have to wear tassels on our garments. We though do have an identity and that is an invisible and visible image. The invisible mark that we have is that Christ came and made us a new creation (2nd Corinthians 5:17). The visible mark that we have is by our lives. We should constantly be showing this world that we are followers of Christ. That means making a stand against what is evil. Walking out from things that this world says is ok, but we know it is against what Christ did for us. Is there a visible showing of the inward change? I challenge you not to be fake and act one way that is not true of the heart but act accordingly to what Christ has done for you. You are a new creation! Some people look at being a Christian as a “Now the fun stops” kind of thing. How sad, I have had more fun in being a Christian than when I wasn’t.

Remember yesterday we ready chapter 13. That was about the report the 12 spies brought back. Everyone except Caleb and Joshua said a negative report and said how there was giants that occupied the land. There was not hope for them to enter in and the whole things was lost. In this chapter we see the peoples reaction to the spies. They start crying and complaining against Moses and Aaron. They were even questioning the Lord and wondering why he would bring them to this land so they could fall by the sword. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua tried to plead with the people and said that the land was good and that the Lord delights in his people and he would not allow them to fall by the hands of these people. The whole congregation almost started a rebellion because they even were thinking about stoning these four men with stones. God intervened and asked Moses, “How much longer will these people despise me?” God has been very patient with Israel. Of course Moses intercedes for these people and God does not forsake them but there are consequences for their lack of faith.

The consequences

God tells Moses that he will not abandon the people but all those that saw what he did in Egypt will not be able to enter in the Promise Land. Man, all that work and yet they blow it just like that. It is true though that they were not ready for the Promise Land because they were not willing to have faith and fight for what God had promised. Because of this, they were told to return back to the way of the wilderness and they will wonder around for over 38 years. What a huge price they will pay for their sin. The sad thing is that the people did not listen to the Lord and they decided to go into the land and try to take it now. Moses warned them and said, “It is too late now.” God is not going to be with you because you are now realizing your fault.

So often we can place our feet in the Israelites shoes as we are faithless to a faithful God. He fights for us and directs our paths and instead of following him, we run in fear and when the plan may get revealed after the fact it can be too late and we must learn our lesson. Are you like Israel? Is there a giant in your life and your are afraid of? Did you know God is on your side? Have you not had faith and you have learned the hard way? Maybe it is time in the wilderness again because you are not ready for the Promise of God? All I know is that I am like these people all too much. I need to be able to make a stand like Caleb or Joshua and stand for the Lord. If he is for me, who can be against me. Sometimes we learn from our mistakes and it becomes a hard lesson, why can’t we just follow the commands of the Lord? Welcome to being human and wretched. In order to follow after the Lord we must follow after Christ everyday and admit that we are sinners and we are in need of a Savior.