Transcription
Hello everyone. This is Mike Howard and I am here with Howard. We're going to do a Bible study. Yahoo.
We're in the book of Numbers, Deuteronomy, the fourth and the fifth books of the Bible. It deals with a period during Israel's history of about 40 years. And it's interesting that 40 years for Israel and our lifetime are kind of they kind of line up. And so these lessons should give us things that are very applicable to our lives today. They were going through the wilderness. We're going through the wilderness of a life in a fallen world. So let's see if we can put those two together.
It's our first lesson. We're going to start in Numbers chapter 9. And the title of the lesson is the journey. Now we're going to differentiate here between God with us or in our case God in us and then God leading us because that's how this lesson displays God's presence.
So, how did Israel organize themselves during this 40-year period of time from their time at Mount Sinai when they received the covenant of the law until they crossed the Jordan River into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua? They camped out in this configuration with the 12 tribes surrounding the tabernacle, which had the ark of the covenant, which was where God's presence was displayed in the middle. And you see Moses and the other priests were living here on the east side. But you also see that the tribe that was appointed to lead them out from their camp was the tribe of Judah, which of course we know David, King David descended from the tribe of Judah or was part of the tribe of Judah. And also that Christ was part of the tribe of Judah. So, they always Judah always led the camp out from wherever they were camping, followed closely by Moses and the priests, and then the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle. So, interesting. So that's how they were organized during every time they camped. Of course, the presence of God was right in the middle of their camp.
So where are we in the Bible? Well, we're in the fourth and the fifth books of the Pentateuch, which are the five books attributed to Moses as the author. It's called the Torah. And the first part, the first book, Genesis, is divided pretty easily into two sections. Section one, chapters 1 through 11, which talks about the creation story and the flood. Section two introduces us to Abraham. And then from that point all the way through, it's all about Israel, which is the descendants, which they are the descendants of Abraham and therefore the participants in the covenant that God made with Abraham.
So, Exodus, they find themselves in Egypt in slavery or bondage. Moses is sent to set them free. God uses 10 plagues. The 10th, of course, is the Passover plague, the plague of the firstborn or the death of the firstborn. They go from Egypt to Mount Sinai where they camped for an entire year while God prepared them for the journey into the promised land, which is Leviticus. God preparing them with the law and the tabernacle. And then we'll talk, we're going to study over the next 12 weeks Numbers and Deuteronomy. Numbers is going to be about their wilderness journey. Deuteronomy is where Moses, at the end of his life, on the east side of the Jordan, is preparing, reminding Israel and preparing Israel for their entry into the promised land.
So, it's a great journey. It's a journey of 40 years, and it's a journey of Israel abandoning the principles that they learned in Egypt, or in our case, the world, and turning to new principles, that is God's ways. So, from the world's ways to God's ways, from living a lie, which is what this world is all about. It's Satan's kingdom. Okay? He's the prince of this world. It's going from living a lie. And those of us who live in the United States are finding out about the deception in the media and the deception of all kinds of things around us. Well, that's nothing new. We are living in a world that's built upon deception. It's built upon Satan's lies. And we're going to move from that to living in God's truth. From a heavy burden, remember the Israelites were under the burden of slavery, to a light burden. Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you a light burden. My burden is not heavy." And then from rebellion, and Israel struggles with this through the 40 years, from being rebellious against God and wanting to do their own thing, to being obedient and having an obedient faith, from relying on themselves and what they could do, to relying on God to provide for all their needs.
So, it's a journey not just from one area called Egypt to another area called the promised land. This is an internal journey for Israel. And quite frankly, it's an internal journey for those of us who are Christians as well.
Well, Exodus and Numbers, the last part of Exodus and the book of Numbers talks to us about how God prepares Israel for this journey. First, the first thing that happens in chapter 9, verses 1-14, is Moses tells Israel to observe the Passover feast. So, this is one year after the death angel passed over those who had the blood of the lamb on their doorposts but took the life of every other firstborn. So, the reason for their journey is to go from being in bondage to being with God's presence, the house of God's presence. God has them build a tabernacle and later on a temple. And for us, that's our bodies. The priests are appointed. They are the keepers of the firstborn. This is pretty interesting. The priests, by laying on of hands from the leaders of all 12 tribes, they take the responsibility of the firstborn of every person in every tribe. There are about the same number of priests as there are firstborn children in all the 12 tribes at this point in time. And so they put that responsibility over on the priests. And then the supplies for the journey. You remember the manna and the water from the rock. The organization for the journey. That's all where how the 12 tribes are organized and how they're to carry the tabernacle through the wilderness. And then there's the guidance of the journey. And that's what we're going to focus on today is how God guided his children through the wilderness. He didn't avoid all of the obstacles and all of the trouble that was located in the wilderness. And therefore, we can better understand as Christians how sometimes our life, God guides our life into and through trouble here as well.
So, it begins with Passover and verse, like I said, with verses 9, chapter 9, verses 1-14, the Passover is instituted and told their people are told to remember what God has done by passing the death angel passing over those who had the blood of the lamb on their doorpost, and that is to be remembered every year. And matter of fact, they set their calendars till that the first day of the Jewish year was the day of Passover, the 14th day, I think, of Passover. Well, for us, we set our whole calendars based on when Jesus was our Passover lamb. So, it was to commemorate the death of the firstborn. Now, the firstborn was a shadow or an illustration of your life after death. So, this is your forever life or your eternal life. That's when you think about your firstborn, that's who the one who lives your life after you die. Well, that's eternal life. And it was the blood of the lamb. We talked about in John 1:29. John the Baptist said, "Look, there goes Jesus. He's the lamb of God who's going to take away the sin of the world."
Well, we find out in these few verses in John chapter 9 that there are some, there are three things that that I saw for the actually for the first time here when I was reading this, and that is, number one, you can't observe Passover if you've been in contact with death, because Passover is all about being passed over from death. So if you've somehow or other gotten in contact with the dead person, you have to be purified before you can take the Passover meal. That's the first thing I found out. So it's the Passover is all about life, not about death. It's about being passed over as far as death is concerned.
The second part, which was really cool, is in verse 14. God says that if a foreigner, a non-Jewish person, is in your camp and wants to take part in Passover, the observance of Passover, they are welcome to do that. How cool is that? This is the first observance, the first sign that the Gentiles are going to be included in this.
And then another thing I found out in verse 13 is that if you were a Jew and you refused to observe the Passover, then you were kicked out of the country, the Jewish faith, and you had to bear your own sin. How cool is that? So, it's like us placing our faith in Christ. If we refuse to take the sacrifice that God made on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin, then God says, "Okay, fine. Then you're responsible for your own sin." I thought that was really cool.
So, let's get into the lesson. Now that God has reminded everybody why this journey is actually possible because of the blood of the lamb, let's talk about the journey itself. So, God's glory is over his presence. Well, that's pretty cool. So, we're going to separate God's presence in the tabernacle from God's glory, which is going to be in a cloud or fire.
So, in verse 15, on the day that the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant of the law, was set up, the cloud covered it. In other words, was over it and on top of it. We found out in Exodus 40:34 that once the tabernacle was dedicated, the presence of the Lord in a very heavy cloud came and occupied the tabernacle. Well, this is different. So God's presence is in the tabernacle already. So since they dedicated it, but this is a different presence. This is the glory of the Lord that's going to be over the tabernacle. There's a reason that it's slightly different here, and we'll get into that.
From evening till morning, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning, the cloud above the tabernacle looked like a fire. So during the day, it was a cloud, but at night, it looked like a fire inside the cloud. So, 24 hours a day, the presence of the Lord was over the tabernacle and over the camp of Israel. Verse 16, it was cloud by day, fire by night. This is how it continued for the entire 40 years. The presence of God was in this cloud and in this fire to lead Israel from their slavery into the promised land. The cloud covered it, that'd be the tabernacle. And at night it looked like fire.
Verse 17, the cloud, the purpose of the cloud, the purpose of God's presence in this particular cloud was to guide their journey. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen a cloud. And I'll get into that in a second, but whenever the cloud lifted from the tent, so it was the cloud was a column right there at the tent, and but whenever that cloud lifted up, then Israel knew it was time to move to a new place. So whenever the cloud lifted from the tent, the Israelites set out. Wherever the cloud then settled, the Israelites set their camp back up.
It's not the first time we've seen the cloud pre-tabernacle. In other words, the tabernacle hadn't been built yet. They're just leaving Egypt in Exodus 13:21. "By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel either by day or by night." So, God's leadership in this cloud/fire started as soon as they left Egypt. Now it's reappeared now that the tabernacle has been built. So God's presence is in the tabernacle, but God's presence for leadership purposes, to lead them from place to place, is in this cloud and fire.
So, at verse 18, now we're going to get into some of this. This kind of sounds redundant, but it's there, I believe, for emphasis. At God's command, the Lord's command, at the Lord's command, the Israelites set out. At his command, they set up camp again. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained at that location. Verse 19. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord's order and they did not move. So, as long as the cloud was there, they were like, "We're going to be here till it moves. We're just going to stay in the same location." Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle for only a few days. The Lord's command, at the Lord's command, they would encamp and then at his command, they would set out. It sounds redundant, but it's there for emphasis. Sometimes the clouds stayed only from one evening till morning. You got to believe that these folks were tired when that happened. They've been walking all day and now we're going to stay here for a while. But the very next morning, the cloud says, "It's time to move again." So off they went. It stayed only from evening to morning. And when it lifted in the morning, they set out, whether by day or by night. Whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Remember, sometimes they were marching at night. So, that had to be difficult.
Whether the clouds stayed over the tabernacle for one day, excuse me, for two days, or for a month, or for a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and they would not set out. But when it lifted, they would set out. You have to believe that this is early training and obedience. They didn't know where they were going. They didn't know how they would get there. So they basically were going to follow the leadership of God's presence in this cloud. At the Lord's command, they encamped. At the Lord's command, they set out. They obeyed the Lord's order in accordance with his command through Moses. For a nation that was as rebellious as Israel proved to be through this journey, this was a great method for God to build their faith and their obedience as he led them through. So, as we as Christians look at this example, we must consider in our own lives, is God leading us with the same principle that he led his nation Israel?
So, the cloud and the fire, God's glory face to face, God's presence in the cloud. Exodus 19:9, "The Lord said to Moses, 'I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.'" Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said. The people had said that they would agree to the covenant of the law. So, why is God's presence in a dense cloud? Well, the answer is because if those people, if Israelites could see God's face, they would die. Early on in their time at Mount Sinai, God warned Moses to keep the people away from the mountain because if they got too close to the mountain, even the animals, if they got too close, they would die. So, we're told that if anyone saw God face to face, they would perish. They would evaporate. They would be turned into vapor. Well, that's how God was able to protect the people by appearing to them in a cloud.
For us in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, we don't have that restriction about God's presence. God's presence in a fire. Well, you remember this. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it with fire. Verse 18 of Exodus 19. "The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently." It was violent. The mountain shook. There was fire. Lightning was everywhere. It was a fearful display of God's presence and his power. The writer of Hebrews explains to us that as Christians, we have a very different experience with God's presence.
In 2 Chronicles chapter 5, the temple of the Lord was filled with this same cloud, and the priests could not even perform their service because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the temple. So, in this cloud was, in fact, the presence of God. And this is the temple later built by Solomon.
Exodus 33:20. God said, "This is the reason that I'm appearing to you in a cloud. God said, 'You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. But eventually, there will be no more cloud.'"
In Numbers chapter 6, Aaron is appointed as the first high priest. And one of the things that he's instructed to do on a regular basis over the nation Israel is to give them this blessing. But understand, this is not a blessing that Israel will ever be able to physically receive. It is a blessing that only you and I, under the covenant of grace, are actually able to receive. So let's look at this blessing, this high priestly blessing that Aaron, the first high priest, gives. And our high priest, who is Jesus, made this real.
"The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. Not his cloud, but his face. And the Lord be gracious unto you. The Lord, May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." That's a high priestly blessing given by the first high priest, but made real by our high priest, and that would be Jesus. That's a beautiful, beautiful blessing.
The glory of the Lord in the New Testament. Remember when the disciples, when Jesus was about ready to be crucified, the disciples said, "Look, um, actually Philip said, 'Look, just show us the Father.'" And Jesus' response was this: "Don't you know me, Philip? Even after I've been among you for such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say to me, 'Show us the Father'?" If you want to see God's face, it was the face of Jesus.
How do we apply this cloud that led the Israelites from Egypt into the promised land? How can we apply that as Christians? How does that apply to our lives today? Does God lead us in a similar way that he led Israel? Well, the writer of Hebrews makes it extremely clear throughout the entire book of Hebrews that our covenant is a better covenant than the covenant of the law. Makes the point that our high priest is a better high priest. Our sacrifice for sin. Theirs was a one-year-old, blemish-free lamb that had to be sacrificed every single year for the forgiveness of their sin. Our sacrifice was the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed on the cross once, for all, forever. Our covenant is a better covenant. Our high priest isn't Aaron, who had to have blood sprinkled for his own forgiveness. Our high priest is Jesus, who was sinless, who sprinkled his blood on us for the forgiveness of our sin. A better high priest, a better sacrifice, a better covenant.
Because our covenant doesn't have us approaching a mountain that's covered in smoke and fire and death. Our covenant has us approaching a city on a hill with God's presence, with people in joyful celebration because of what God has done for us. Our covenant versus their covenant. God appeared to them in a cloud and led them through the wilderness. But our covenant is a better covenant. Our guidance is a better guidance. We don't have a cloud leading us. We have something better. His direction in our lives is better than a cloud leading us through the wilderness. God's presence in us is better than God's presence in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was placed at the center of God's people. God's Spirit, however, lives in the center of our lives. They were surrounded. Their presence surrounded in the camp, the tabernacle. Our life is surrounded by God's presence in us. God's desires and his commands is that we would be, that he would be at the center of everything that we do, the same way that he was at the center of their camp.
But this lesson really is about God's leadership, God's GPS. This isn't the GPS that we all use to get from place to place. This is not that kind of positioning system. This is God's positioning system. What is it in our lives? God's direction for our journey. The cloud and the fire of God's presence guided Israel through the wilderness into reliance, faith, and obedience to God. But in our case, under the new covenant, it's God's Spirit living in us that leads us through our difficulties in life to grow our reliance, our faith, and our obedience to him.
John 16:13 is God's or Jesus's priestly prayer. "But when he, the Spirit of truth, this is what Jesus says, when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you, that's you and me, into all truth. So now instead of a cloud, we've got God living in us, the Spirit of God guiding us. He will speak only what he hears. He will tell you what is yet to come." For those who are led by the Spirit of God, in Romans chapter 8, they are the children of God. The cloud for 40 years led the children of God, the nation Israel, through the wilderness into the promised land. That was a picture. That was a shadow of the Spirit of God who leads us, who are children not by birth but by faith, into the promised land, which is eternal life. But those who place their faith in Christ have eternal life. But for the next 40 years, that's about the period of a life. We're going to be guided as long as we're here in this wilderness world. The Spirit of God will lead us into obedience, reliance, and faith in God, and rejecting the lies that are told in this world. For those who are led by the Spirit of God, not the cloud, but the Spirit, those who are led by the Spirit of God, us, we are the children of God.
Pray with me. Father, I understood that you filled the tabernacle with your presence and there was a cloud, but then later you also were over the tabernacle as a cloud. But that part of your glory was to lead the children from place to place. Your Spirit then, your Son lives in us. You live in us. Your Spirit lives in us. It is your Spirit that guides us through the word of God into truth, from trouble to trouble. But basically, it's not about where we live in this world. It's about building our faith, our reliance, our obedience to you. So, it's not a geographical journey for us. It's a spiritual journey. And that journey will lead us into the image of your Son, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Well, this study is going to be a lot of fun. We're going to see a lot of shadows of how Christ works in our lives today. So, get ready. Saddle up your horses. It's going to be a great adventure. Until trail. Got a trail to blaze. Until then, we'll see you next week. Take care. Bye bye. Bye.