"Following the Lord (Numbers 9-10)", Will DuVal | 3/2/25
Numbers 9-10 | 3/2/25 | Will DuVal
Children love playing “follow the leader”, don’t they… as long as they get to be the leader. And we adults aren’t all that different; deep down, we ALL have this innate desire to be the captain of our own ship. But God desires that we follow Him.
The WORLD tells us, “Follow your heart!”; GOD tells us “It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere” (Dt 13:4).
And what a gracious GIFT it is, that God OFFERS to lovingly LEAD us.
“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake”, David rejoiced (Ps 23:4).
“I will instruct you… in the way you should go”, God promises in Psalm 32:8; “I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
Proverbs 3:6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding…
he will make your paths straight.”
God wants to LEAD us. The question is: “Will we FOLLOW?” Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
But what does it LOOK like, PRACTICALLY, for us to follow the Lord? It was a bit EASIER for ISRAEL to know whether or not they were “following the Lord” out in the wilderness of Sinai, because he led THEM as a cloud by day, and a pillar of FIRE by NIGHT! If the cloud’s headin’ THAT way, but YOU’RE goin’ THIS way… you’re not following. It’s perhaps a little less straightforward for us today. … Or IS it?
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Let’s open God’s word together and find out. I invite you to stand…(SCRIPTURE: Num 9-10)
“And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.” 4 So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the Passover. 5 And they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did.
6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. 7 And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” 8 And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”
9 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. 14 And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.”
verse15: On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. 17 And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. 18 At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out. 21 And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. 23 At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out. They kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.
Now ch10, v1: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. 3 And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 4 But if they blow only one, then the chiefs, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. 5 When you blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. 6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out. An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out. 7 But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow a long blast, but you shall not sound an alarm. 8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 9 And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. 10 On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
verse11: In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, 12 and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. 13 They set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses. 14 The standard of the camp of the people of Judah set out first by their companies, and over their company was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 15 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Issachar was Nethanel the son of Zuar. 16 And over the company of the tribe of the people of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.
17 And when the tabernacle was taken down, the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who carried the tabernacle, set out. 18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out by their companies… [and for sake of time, I’m just gonna refer you back to chapter TWO, where God gave them the exact instructions for their marching order, because the summary here is: they DID it; they OBEYED. After Reuben fourth came Simeon fifth, then GAD, then the KOHATHITES, “carrying the HOLY things”, the ark of the COVENANT… then Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, followed by Dan, Asher, and Naphtali “acting as the rear guard”. All led by their respective tribal LEADERS, who we met back in ch1, and who get renamed here. So let’s skip down to v29]
29 And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to Israel.” 30 But he said to him, “I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my kindred.” 31 And [Moses] said, “Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. 32 And if you do go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you.”
33 So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days' journey. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting place for them. 34 And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.
35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” 36 And when it rested, he said, “Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.””
[This is the word of God…]
The OVERARCHING theme of these 2 chapters is our calling to “follow the Lord”. But within that, we find SIX distinct principles here, 6 exhortations, really 6 WAYS of following the Lord; if you wanna flesh out the metaphor here of “following” God, you could think about these as 6 different LANES, all part of the same ROAD, leading us after the Lord, as we follow HIM.
And it STARTS - #1) Following the Lord BEGINS with - REMEMBERING his rescue. (9:1-5)
That’s the whole PURPOSE of the PASSOVER meal, in vv1-5. As God explained back in Exodus 12 when he first INSTITUTED the Passover 1 year ago to the day: “This day shall be for you a memorial day” (12:14). To REMEMBER, to commemorate… WHAT?
“On this very day I brought you out of the land of Egypt… When your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service [cuz it wasn’t just a MEAL; Passover was a whole WORSHIP service]?’ 27 you shall tell them, ‘It is the… Lord's Passover, for he passed over… the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’”” (12:17, 26-27)
Remember that story? God said, “Let my people GO!”; Pharaoh said, “NO!”. So God sent 10 plagues on Egypt. And the 10th and severest of all was the “death of the firstborn”. Every firstborn male in every household throughout all the land of Egypt was gonna be KILLED, by the Angel of Death. And remember who still LIVED in the land of Egypt at that time? ISRAEL! God’s own people!
So they’re freaking out, and rightfully so! Because ISRAEL deserved death TOO. The Bible says the wages of SIN… is DEATH. ALL sin… leads to death.
But what did God, in his mercy, do - what did he PROVIDE - in order to RESCUE his people from their RIGHTFUL fate?
“Tell all the congregation of Israel that… every [household] shall take a…?” LAMB. And KILL it at twilight. And “take some of its blood and put it on the two doorposts… of your houses… And when I see the blood, I will pass over you [GOD is the “angel”; GOD is the JUDGE of SIN; but he promised here: “when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you…], and no plague will befall you” (12:3, 6, 13).
You remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus approaching him, in John 1:29? “Behold, the… Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ” Not just “passes over”; in the OT, God provided these sacrifices so he could “pass over” sins; but Hebrews 10:4 makes it clear that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
But 1 John 3:5 declares that JESUS came “to take away sins”.
Hebrews 10:14 “For by a single offering [HIMSELF!] he has perfected [us] for all time”. THAT is how thoroughly JESUS dealt with our sins - “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.” (Ps 103:12)
HOW? 1 Corinthians 5:7 - Because “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor5:7). “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter… he was cut off from the land of the living… yet he bore the sin of many… he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:7-8, 12, 5).
So we PRAISE him! “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”” (Rev 5:12)
And following the Lord begins by REMEMBERING it REGULARLY. God instituted this Passover meal for Israel ANNUALLY. But CHRIST has now instituted a WEEKLY meal for us, the CHURCH, called the Lord’s Supper. Where we remember his RESCUE: “As often as you EAT this bread and drink this cup… you do this in remembrance of me,” Jesus said, “you proclaim the Lord's death” (1 Cor 11:25-26), Christ’s sacrificial DEATH in our place was the means BY which he has now RESCUED us from sin.
But we don’t HAVE to wait for the Lord’s Supper on Sundays to remember Christ’s sacrifice, do we? We SHOULDN’T. What’s gonna MOTIVATE you to “follow the Lord” tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off and you realize you’ve got FIVE DAYS ahead of you at a job you HATE; what COMPELS you to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col 3:23)? It is the recognition - REMEMBERING the work that CHRIST did for YOU, to RESCUE you.
What’s gonna motivate you to “follow the Lord” when you go home this afternoon and your 2-year old finds the marker drawer and decides to do some “interior decorating” on the living room walls and furniture? What’s gonna keep you from going full-blown “Angel of DEATH” on him?!
Remembering that YOU were once a sinner deserving of YOUR father’s RIGHTEOUS WRATH, but He loved you so much that he sent his own son, JESUS, to be your Passover Lamb, and RESCUE you.
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”... to be FOLLOWED. We follow the Lord because he laid down his LIFE for us.
#2- We follow the Lord by COMPLYING WITH his commands. (9:6-14)
Passover was COMMANDED by the Lord; v3: “you shall keep it… according to all its statutes and rules you shall keep it.”
But there’s a PROBLEM in v6: “there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day”; remember: if you touched a corpse, you were unclean for SEVEN DAYS (Num 19:11). And Passover was a “holy convocation” (Lev 23:4); you had to be CLEAN.
So we got two seemingly conflicting commands here. So they come to Moses & Aaron.
And what’s Moses’ RESPONSE? ““Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command” (v8).
Don’t you just LOVE the HUMILITY in that? “I’m not SURE; let’s ask GOD.” James 1:5 promises “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God… and it will be given him.”
And Moses DID lack and ASK, and God did GIVE; v9: “The Lord spoke to Moses… “If any one… is unclean… or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover… In the second month”; just WAIT a month. And then God RECAPS HOW they are to observe it: “at twilight… eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs… leave none of it until the morning…”; in other words, abide by all the regular rules for the Passover, lest they think they can CUT CORNERS with this “makeup” service. And THEN God specifies, v13, that the backup Passover is ONLY for those who were absolutely prohibited from observing it in the FIRST month; “anyone who is clean and is not on a journey and fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people”; that’s how SERIOUS, how IMPORTANT it was to God, that his people “remember God’s rescue”.
Now JESUS, TODAY, doesn’t say, “You better eat the Lord’s Supper every SUNDAY, or ELSE…” But he DOES say, “Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). And Jesus did actually COMMAND his followers to eat and drink it in Matthew 26: “Jesus… said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup… saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (vv26-28).
So we follow the Lord by COMPLYING with his COMMANDS. Often the Bible just uses that phrase - “and they followed the Lord…” - as a SYNONYM for OBEDIENCE. OBEDIENCE is the Lord’s LOVE language. Jesus said, ““If you love me, you will [WHAT??] keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
613 of them in the OT. Anyone know how many commandments in the NEW Testament? Remember, it is 3 ½ times SHORTER than the Old…
1,050! 1,050 commands - they’re not SUGGESTIONS, just because we’re no longer UNDER the Law; even in the NEW covenant of GRACE, God STILL gives us COMMANDS. In fact, he ESPECIALLY gives us commands now, almost twice as MANY, because FIRST of all, we’ve got the POWER now, to actually KEEP his commands; the Holy Spirit empowering us for obedience, and… Second, because we’ve got even more MOTIVATION now to keep them! If ISRAEL was motivated for obedience by their rescue from PHYSICAL bondage in Egypt, how much MORE ought WE to be motivated TODAY having been set free from our SPIRITUAL slavery to SIN, and having been given ETERNAL life in CHRIST?!
But here’s the thing: you can’t COMPLY with commands you don’t KNOW. Maybe you will occasionally, accidentally. But in order to consistently COMPLY, we must first comprehend.
God lamented in Hosea 4: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… [So he said:] “Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel” (vv6,1).
Likewise, Joshua exhorted them: “This Book… shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” (1:8)
That was DAVID’S deepest prayer, in Psalm 119: “With my whole heart I seek you,” God. I wanna FOLLOW you, Lord. But what does David say NEXT? How do we ENSURE we are following Him?
“let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.” (vv10-11)
“Your word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path.” (v105)
THIS [Bible] is our spiritual FLASHLIGHT, without which it is IMPOSSIBLE to follow God in this dark world, as we traverse through the wilderness. We must be “acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make [us] wise” (2 Tim 3:15).
In Deuteronomy 29:29, Moses says ““The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (v29)
In other words, there are gonna be some decisions in your life where following God’s will may remain somewhat of a MYSTERY to you, a “SECRET”. But as for all the stuff that’s NOT a secret, that is SO important that God REVEALED it to us here, He DID so “that we may DO all the WORDS of his LAW”; comply with his commands.
And “his commandments are NOT burdensome” by the way! (1 Jn 5:3) God GIVES them to us for our GOOD. Is it “burdensome” for a FISH to stay in water? My sister had pet fish growing up; one day she decided it was too OPPRESSIVE to keep “Mr. Bubbles” confined to his little aquarium, so she SET HIM FREE! (Not long after that, she decided that ANOTHER fish looked “DIRTY”, so she decided to give him a BATH, and poured SOAP in his tank. I think my parents stopped buying her FISH after THAT…)
But here’s the point: when we operate within God’s good DESIGN for us, the BOUNDARIES our Creator has lovingly GIVEN us, for our FLOURISHING… we THRIVE. But we REJECT them to our PERIL.
#3- We follow the Lord by LOOKING & LISTENING FOR his leading. (9:15-23)
Now we come to the most LITERAL living out of Israel’s calling to “FOLLOW” the Lord, in vv15-23; in what FORM, or “appearance”, was God’s presence WITH them? V16: as a “cloud by day and [as] fire by night.”
So how’d they FOLLOW Him? V17: “Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent [of meeting]... the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped.”
Wouldn’t that be NICE? Don’t you ever wish it was still that EASY? “God, do you want me to CONFRONT this person, or just DROP it and let it GO?” Imagine praying that and the CLOUD of God’s PRESENCE “lifted up”, from over our sanctuary, and led you out to your car, and then down highway 40, all the way to that person’s HOUSE.
V18 says, “At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out”; over 150x in the book of Numbers, we hear the phrase, “And the Lord SAID to Moses…” - wouldn’t THAT be nice? “God, am I supposed to break UP with this girl, this guy?” [*“YES”*] - “Oh! Well, okay. Thanks, Lord.”
But that’s not really how we “look” and “listen” for the Lord’s leading TODAY, is it? What does it look like for us TODAY, to watch and listen for God’s direction? I’ll offer you THREE ways we can do that, in descending order of TRUSTWORTHINESS.
First, and MOST trustworthy, is God’s WORD, as we’ve already noted: “Thy WORD is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”. And I’m gonna say - conservatively - that over HALF of all the big decisions that you and I make in life - I’m not talking about what to eat for lunch; I’m talking who to MARRY, where to WORK, how to PARENT, which CHURCH to join - I think you can get at least HALFWAY to a decision, to clarity, just from God’s word ALONE. You can rule out HALF the dating pool (maybe 90%?!) simply on the basis of what God explicitly says here about a godly woman, a godly man. You can rule out half the CHURCHES out there (90%?!) simply on that basis. You want a BIBLICAL church; God’s already REVEALED to us what “church” is SUPPOSED to look like; it is NOT one of those “secret things”! Just look in his WORD, BEFORE you even start praying, “God, do you want me at West Hills?” (**YES** 🙂)
Second, and the NEXT most trustworthy source for getting God’s guidance, is through the COMMUNITY of faith.
Proverbs 15:22 “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”
Proverbs 11:14 “Where there is no guidance, people fall, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”
I put this one ABOVE even personal PRAYER and listening for the HOLY SPIRIT individually, because what’s better than YOU seeking God’s will privately? Y’ALL - your community of FAITH - seeking it collectively! What’s better than having the Holy Spirit in YOU, guiding YOU “into all truth”. Having him in Y’ALL, guiding Y’ALL, which is what Jesus SAYS there in John 16:13, by the way - “the Spirit of truth will guide Y’ALL into all the truth”, it’s PLURAL, in the SBT, the SOUTHERN Bible Translation.
But here’s the point: you need to know yourself enough, know your HEART enough - the WORLD says, “Follow your HEART!”; the Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick”; don’t TRUST it! (Jer 17:9) - and just as present as the Holy SPIRIT is within your heart, you better believe that indwelling SIN is still every BIT as present there too, so you better be REAL careful trusting YOUR discernment of whether it’s truly GOD’S voice that’s leading you in a particular direction, and make sure it’s not your OWN voice, your OWN “deceitful, sick” HEART that you’re following… or WORSE: the voice of the ENEMY - SATAN - cuz HE loves to whisper to us TOO.
And God GIVES us the community of faith as a wonderful GIFT - as a “check & balance” of sorts, on our own discernment of God’s voice; 1 John 4 charges us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (v1). And guess what - that charge is PLURAL, once again: “By this Y’ALL will know the Spirit of God…”.
I’ve got TWO couples I’m counseling right now who aren’t sure they still wanna be married, aren’t sure GOD wants them to be - Do you know how SERIOUSLY God takes DIVORCE? That is NOT a decision you can TRUST yourself to make SOLO - “follow YOUR heart”, after all the DAMAGE that’s been DONE to it over the years? I don’t THINK so! But “there is WISDOM in an ABUNDANCE of counselors”. That’s why I’M not just counseling them, actually; WE are: the ELDER council.
And I will just add in quickly here under “the community of faith”: TRADITION too. Sometimes, unfortunately, we Protestants get wary about tradition because the Catholics OVER-emphasize it, and put it on the same par authoritatively as SCRIPTURE; it’s NOT. But that doesn’t mean it has NO authority. “If you don’t learn from the past, you’re doomed to repeat it”. And there is a veritable TREASURE trove of WISDOM waiting for us to be discovered in our church history and tradition.
God warned Israel in Jeremiah 6:16 to ““Stand by the roads, and look… for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it”. You wanna follow the Lord? Follow those who’ve gone BEFORE you, who were clearly walking with Him; look for the “ancient paths”. If we need to be “WARY” of ANYTHING, it is NOVELTY in our worship. In a world where we’re always looking for what’s NEW and FRESH, God says, “You’re gonna find ME in the ANCIENT paths”. Gimme that OLD time religion.
But Third - so we got 1) God’s WORD, and 2) God’s PEOPLE (community & tradition) - but third now, we DO still need to look and listen for God’s SPIRIT at work in our own hearts. And that means we PRAY, and then we WAIT - QUIETLY, patiently - and we LISTEN, for that “still small voice” (1 Kgs 19:12).
It may be harder to DETECT and FOLLOW than a literal CLOUD or FIRE, but consider this, Church: what’s even BETTER than having God’s presence ABOVE us or IN FRONT of us, leading us?
Having him WITHIN us! God declares of all those who belong to him, by faith in his Son Jesus: “you are God's temple and [my] Spirit dwells within you” (1 Cor 3:16).
We have God’s SPIRIT within us, God’s WORD before us, and God’s PEOPLE around us, so LET us, therefore, look and listen for God’s LEADING in our lives.
Think we can make it though ch10 in under 10 minutes? Let’s see!
#4- We follow the Lord by PRACTICING his processes. (10:1-8, 11-28)
What are the TRUMPETS all about, in vv1-8? God’s just giving them a really PRACTICAL way of getting themselves ORGANIZED: “you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp.” You got 2 or 3 million PEOPLE out here in the wilderness, before microphones or megaphones or group texting; how you gonna COMMUNICATE with them all?
TRUMPETS! When you blow ‘em BOTH [***] everyone gathers round.
Blow only ONE [***] the CHIEFS gather.
“When you blow an alarm [don’t think “WARNING”, think “alarm clock” - an ALERT… short, staccato blasts: ****] then the camps on the east set out”.
Blow an alarm the SECOND time… and so forth.
It’s just a good SYSTEM, a helpful PROCESS God gave them, for organizing. Speaking of which, flip ahead to vv11-28 as well - we’re not gonna REREAD it all, because I already GAVE you the SUMMARY: remember back to our first two weeks together in Numbers, in chapters 1 & 2, the “Getting Organized” sermons, parts 1 & 2? Where God gave Israel instructions for CAMPING and for MARCHING - which tribes went WHERE? And who was called to LEAD them? In vv11-28 here, now they DO it. For the very first time now, “In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day… the cloud lifted… so the people of Israel set out by stages”, in the nice, orderly fashion God had outlined for them.
We’re 10 chapters IN now, and so far, so good. God INSTRUCTS, Israel OBEYS; God LEADS, they FOLLOW. Now, we’re gonna see the WHEELS fall off NEXT week, in ch11. But for NOW, for the first 10 chapters anyway, Israel’s example here shows us that life just seems to work BETTER - doesn’t it? - when we follow God’s prescribed PROCESSES for us, for organizing our LIVES.
This is related to “complying with his commands”, but let’s think specifically about the instructions God gives us, the PROCESSES he prescribes, for ORGANIZING our LIVES.
PRAYER. You say, “Well, PRAYER’s not a “process”, pastor; it has to come from the HEART; you can’t SYSTEMATIZE it.”
Well, in Luke 11, Jesus’ disciples asked him: ““Lord, teach us to pray, just like John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.” Other rabbis are systematizing, catechizing THEIR disciples in how to pray. And guess what - Jesus DIDN’T reply, “But it shall not be so among YOU”; what’d he SAY? “Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say: “Our Father, hallowed be your name...”
He gave them a process, a TEMPLATE, a MODEL prayer.
1 Cor 14:33 - “God is not a God of [CHAOS] but of [ORDER]”, and he has graciously outlined for us certain processes for BRINGING order to our lives: Worship with the Body, the Church, every Sunday. Read your Bible daily - “meditate on [this Book] day and night”. Give 10%. Practice his processes.
#5- We follow the Lord by APPEALING FOR his aid. (10:9-10, 35-36)
V9: “when you go to war… against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets [this one IS a WARNING blast! WHY??], that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.”
Because God LOVES to help his people, when we cry OUT to him:
Psalm 120: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.” (v1)
And God’s FAVORITE prayer to answer, friends, is a humble, desperate PLEA for RESCUE. Some of you need to grab your TRUMPET this morning, and “sound an ALARM”. Because you are at “WAR” with an “adversary” who is “prowling around like a roaring lion” (1 Pet 5:8), and he is “OPPRESSING” you, and you need to be “SAVED from your enemy”, but it’s not a battle that you can WIN on your own; you need to “remembered before the LORD YOUR GOD”; you need HIS salvation, HIS rescue!
Maybe it’s ADDICTION. Depression/Anxiety. Maybe it’s a GRUDGE you just haven’t been able to let GO of, or maybe it’s GUILT you’re holding onto. What do YOU need RESCUE from this morning?
Getting help STARTS by ASKING for it. “Lord, I NEED you!” Friends, that’s a prayer God PROMISES to answer. He doesn’t always promise to FREE you from that addiction, to CURE that illness; but he DOES promise to be WITH us in it, and SUSTAIN us: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
But MOST importantly, God has ALREADY saved us from our GREATEST enemy: SIN… and it’s natural consequence: DEATH. “The sting of death is sin… But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Cor 15:56-57) And if you have not yet pulled out your trumpet, and sounded the alarm of FAITH: “Lord Jesus, have MERCY on me, a SINNER!”, don’t wait a second longer; “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” (Rom 10:13)
And LASTLY, #6 - We follow the Lord by ISSUING his invitation to OTHERS. (10:29-34)
V29: “Then Moses said to Hobab [his BROTHER-in-law], “We’re heading out for the Promised Land… Come WITH us, and things’ll go good for you, for the Lord has promised good to us.”
I wonder if our EVANGELISM was LESS about “I’m right and you’re wrong” and MORE about “I’m on a journey… and I know YOU are TOO… and I think we can BOTH be HONEST enough to admit that sometimes it gets really HARD, out here in the wilderness. But here’s the thing: I’ve got a DESTINATION I’m heading for. I’m not just wandering, killing TIME; GOD is leading me on MY journey, and He has PROMISED that WHERE he’s leading me… is really, really GOOD. That the destination is gonna make this whole long journey through the wilderness all WORTH it… Wanna come WITH me?” I wonder if we’d win more souls to Christ that way.
Interestingly, that didn’t PERSUADE Hobab though. V30, he says, “Nahhh, I’m just gonna head back HOME”.
But watch how MOSES responds: “Please don’t leave us, for you know where we should camp… and you’ll serve as eyes for us.” Have you ever tried THAT in your evangelism? 1) DIRECTNESS and 2) PRAISE.
1) Directness: “Don’t go BACK to your OLD way of life, that leads to destruction. Come with US instead, follow the LORD!”
And 2) PRAISE! “You know where to camp… You would be SUCH a gift, such an asset, to God’s family. You are brilliant, winsome, hospitable, RICH; we could really USE a guy like you, a gal like you, at our CHURCH; wanna come JOIN us?”
And then Moses circles BACK, and REMINDS him, “Oh and by the way, if you do go with us, whatever good the Lord does to us, the same will [be done] to you.”
Don’t you want HOPE, that all this wilderness is actually LEADING somewhere, somewhere worth GOING?! Come with ME; follow ME, as I follow the LORD. HE will show us the way, together.
To whom does God want YOU to “issue his invitation” this week? TODAY! Pull out your phone NOW, if God’s PROMPTING you to, and send ‘em a TEXT, while we’re PRAYING.
Life’s too short, the wilderness is too rough, and the Promised Land is too GOOD, not to SHARE the news.
Amen? Let’s pray…