Idolaters All - Father Love

[audio]

Various Scriptures

Preached 6/15/2014  (previous)

 

INTRODUCTION

Last week we asked the question “Who is God”, by which we meant “Who is God to you”?  On one hand, the question is irrelevant, since God Is Who He Is no matter what we should decide to think about it.  Also, like, say, the law of gravity, we can’t dismiss Him as irrelevant if we try hard enough.  If we jump off a cliff without a parachute, we will plummet and go splat, and if we sin we incur the real wrath of a real God, no matter what philosophy we impose over the universe in our minds.

In last week’s example of Balak and Balaam we explored just two of the many different images of God exist in the lives of the unsaved – the hired trump card (magic spells) and the source of personal prestige and profit.  Balak thought that he could get power from God by giving gifts and honor to a “god guy”, while Balaam was an especially sad case – one who knew what God wanted but who actively worked to achieve the opposite solely because he loved “the wages of unrighteousness”.  In the end, to these two men God was a means to their own ends.  What was missing?  They did not care what was in God’s heart.  “It’s all about me” was their creed in life.

 

It’s all about HIM

The reality is quite different:

Rev 4:11 [KJV] Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Isaiah 42:8  I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 

What about us?

Isaiah 43:7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." 

How shall we live?

1 Cor 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Phil 2:10-13 ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

SO, not only is God the self-existent infinite God who does not need us and who has nothing to learn from us and who is not lacking anything that we can supply to Him, he only created the universe and us for his sake!

 

God our Father

We often talk about how all people are “God’s children”.   In a sense that is true – even Paul quoted Greek writer’s statement in Athens and used it to underscore his message against idols:

Acts 17:28-29  ²⁸ for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' ²⁹ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

But when the religious leaders of Jesus’ day traded upon their familial relation with God (in their own minds), Jesus hit them with this:

John 8:42-44a  ⁴² Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. …

So while all people are his “offspring”, the fatherhood of God is something more limited – those whom He has adopted into his family:

Eph 1:3-5, 11 ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ... ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

It is a wonderful and mind-boggling privilege that we have as Christians to be part of the family of God.  In the past God described his familial relationship with people according to nations.  Israel was his child, not the individuals of the nation.  The leaders of Jesus’ day were horrified that Jesus referred to God as his Father.  To them (for good reason) it meant that he was claiming to be equal with God.  And yet, now that we are adopted into his family through Christ (we are his bride collectively as the church but his children by adoption individually) we think very lightly indeed of praying to our “heavenly Father” all the time. We sing “Heavenly Father we appreciate You” and start every innocuous and self-centered prayer with “Heavenly Father”.  Do we appreciate what that term means?  And what it doesn’t mean?  Is our newfound boldness before the throne and familiarity with our heavenly Father something that makes us lax and careless – or do we remember Whom we are dealing with?  Do we still work out our salvation with “fear and trembling”, or are we complacent in God’s presence? Remember our verses from Philippians 2 – look where they go:

Phil 2:9-13 ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We were created for his glory and saved for his glory.  We live for his glory and his pleasure.  But his joy is freely shared with us, his glory is shed on us, his love is given to us.  We were created to share in his joy.  But we somehow still forget this and come to the conclusion that everything is about us.

Perhaps this is because our modern evangelism often presents a man-centered gospel. We get the idea that God was sitting around lonely and made us for companionship.  We teach Rev 3:20 (I stand at the door and knock) as if a pitiful Jesus was standing outside, shivering in the rain, wanting to come in to our warm, comfortable hearts instead of condescending in amazing humility to suffer and die to save rebels who were not even seeking him. 

Let’s turn back to the book of Numbers to see a major event in the live of the greatest Old Testament prophet that can be a warning for believers who forget that it’s all about Him:

I – MOSES’ PRIVILEGE AND PREDICAMENT

We all know the story of Moses and the exodus – if not from the Bible, at least from Cecil B Demille’s great movie The Ten Commandments.  We know of the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt and the birth of Moses, how he was left in the Nile and found by Pharaoh’s daughter among the nobility of Egypt.  We know that after 40 years of education and privilege he lost it all and spent the next 40 years in the wilderness tending sheep until God called him from a burning bush and sent him back to Egypt to save his people.  We know of Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh and the ten plagues God sent on Egypt until Pharaoh finally agreed to let the people go.  We know how, when the people left, Pharaoh changed his mind and took his mighty army to kill the people in the wilderness, but that God intervened, splitting the Red Sea until the people got across and then closing it to wipe out the Egyptian army.  And we know how, in the wilderness God gave Moses the 10 commandments even while the people rebelled and made a golden idol, and that it was Moses’ intercession with God that kept Exodus from being a shorter book in the Bible than it is.

Thus began a period of many years that tested Moses to his limits and beyond. (Making it evident why God used 80 years of varying experiences to prepare him for the job).  Making a new nation from a few million people who had known nothing but slavery for hundreds of years was no easy task. Even though they had seen obvious miracles and tremendous displays of the power and glory of God, everyday things got them down. (Not like us, right?)  While there is a good lesson for us in this – how often do we drop from a seeming spiritual high at the first sign of health or money problems?  We make fun of the faithless Israelites, but many of their concerns were real-world issues.  It was hard for these people to trust in the God that Moses talked to in his tent when they were in the middle of a wilderness without water to drink!

The story we will be talking about is two chapters before last week’s story, and it about the day that Moses forgot, for just a moment, who it was “about”.  Before we get there, though, let’s look back a few chapters and see what had happened before that day:

CH11 – the people want meat.  Moses had been given the law, and the people had been given the manna to eat by God.  They were making their way to the promised land pretty directly and would soon be there.  By chapter 11 of Numbers, however, they started complaining about how ‘boring’ God’s provision was.  They were unhappy with the food.  A short time before they had been slaves, but now they were complaining that there was not enough variety in their diet.  There was only so much they could do with the manna that God provided.  With ba’manna’ bread, ‘manna’cotti, etc J they were getting sick of “the same old thing”.  They were so obnoxious in their complaints that God punished some of them with some fire from heaven and Moses was so discouraged that he asked God to just kill him!  God finally agreed to give them

Num 11:18-20  ¹⁸ And say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'"

God sent millions of quail into the camp and they were so greedy in their lust for meat that they sinned and were judged by a plague.

CH12 Inner circle rebellion: In the next chapter Moses’ brother and right hand man Aaron and Miriam, his wife, make a power play at Moses. (evidently at Miriam’s instigation).  God intervenes and confirms his special calling of Moses – Miriam is judged by God with temporary leprosy.

CH13-14 Wholesale lack of faith and rejection of God’s plan:  Having reached the promised land, Moses sends in 12 spies to reconnoiter and help planning the conquest of Canaan.  Unfortunately, 10 out of the 12 spies managed to convince the people that the job was impossible and the people weep, whine, and completely rebel against Moses, demanding to go back to Egypt.  If Moses had not prayed for the people and thrown in his lot with them, God would have killed them all and started over with Moses.  Moses appeals to God’s glory in his prayer and saves the people.  Nonetheless God decrees that that entire generation would wander for 40 years in the wilderness and NEVER enter the promised land.  Instead it would be their children who received the promises.  They “repent” and try to take the land when Moses tells them not to and are defeated.

CH16 The Rebellion of Korah: Now a group of Levites and leading men of the congregation challenge the authority of Moses and Aaron.

Num 16:3  They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?"

 God once again shows them that He has chosen Moses, and the rebels are swallowed up by the Earth and another plague spreads among the people, which is brought to a close by Aaron, showing his position before the Lord before the people.  In the next chapter God reiterates his choosing of Aaron.

Finally, we come to Chapter 20.

 

II – The Waters of Contention

I got one thing wrong last week and that was the chronology of the situation.  I made it appear that the events of chapter 22-24 were only a few months after they left Egypt.  Actually around 37 years happen between chapter 19 and 20.  At this time, almost the entire previous generation had now died in the wilderness and the new generation was being led by Moses back to the place where their parents had rebelled 40 years previously. This chapter marks the beginning of the final stages of the handover to the new generation.  It was here that Aaron’s wife died:

Num 20:1  And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

Now the people have a problem.  The location that they now occupy has one shortcoming, which produces a serious problem for the congregation:

Num 20:2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

This same thing had happened with their parents way back at the beginning when they were on the way to Mt Sinai to receive the law.  It is important to compare the two stories.  The previous story is in Exodus 17:

Ex 17:1-3 ¹ All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" ³ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"

Before we dump all over the Israelites for their lack of faith, consider that this was a serious need.  While people can live for days without food, the entire nation would die within days without water. When we went to the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago we saw MANY warning signs about not hiking in the canyon for even one day without adequate water, as there have been many deaths each year in the park of unprepared hikers with inadequate water.  Now imagine a population the size of all of San Diego, in a desert, with no water, and lots of livestock, and you get the picture.  This was a national emergency, and one of the first real tests of the people’s faith and dependence on God.

Ex 17:4-7  4 So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

So we see the story.  Moses cries to the LORD, God gives him instructions, and water is provided.  The people learn an important lesson, they learn that God provides their needs, and Moses’ leadership role is reinforced as the people see that God is working through him.  Imagine how much water is pouring out of the rock to provide a water supply for millions of people and their livestock!

So now God brings the next generation to the same test again.  The response of this new generation is very similar to that of their parents:

Num 20:3-5 ³ And the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! ⁴ Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? ⁵ And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink."

On the verge of receiving the promised land (filled with ‘milk and honey’), the people look around at this dry place they are moving through and accuse Moses of breaking his promises to them.  Strangely enough, only the oldest of this generation (from 40-60 years old) have any memory of living in Egypt at all, yet the poison of ungratefulness and envy has been passed down from parents to children intact.  The need was real, but the attitude of the people was all wrong.

Now Moses was closer to 120 years old than his earlier young and spritely 80, and the years had evidently taken their toll.  Having led and raised a new generation under the law, even with God’s constant leading and provision, has possibly left Moses more tired and bitter.  Still, he turns to God to see what God will do, and God gives him directions once again:

Num 20:6-8  ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, ⁷ and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ "Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle." 

Note that God has no revealed anger or recrimination against the people, even though their murmuring was rather awful.  He merely gives Moses similar instructions to those he had been given 40 years previously and promises to provide.  Instead of striking the rock, though, this time Moses is told to “tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water”.  Note the “before their eyes” part – God was concerned about the optics here – the people needed to know who provided the water.

Num 20:9  And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

So far, so good…

Num 20:10-11  ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

Something was different this time.  God still provided for his people, but Moses committed a terrible error.  It seems like nothing to us – hit the rock rather than talk to it? No problem – 40 years before God had told him to strike the rock, right?  But God was very concerned indeed:

Num 20:12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." 

WOW!  Just like that, Moses, the great prophet of God, 120 years old, after leading the people faithfully for 40 years, is out.  And his brother Aaron also.  Was God just concerned about a technical violation of a command?  Was this nit-picking?

Let’s look at the details of God’s indictment of Moses and Aaron:

• God says that they did not believe in Him!  Like the previous generation had (in this very place) not trusted God to bring them into the land, so M&A had not trusted God.  Also  they had not treated God as holy before the people.  HOW? 
• Note that Moses’ reply was all in first person: “shall I bring forth water from the rock?”  There is no mention of God at all.  Moses stole the message God had meant by this faith exercise (to direct the people’s trust to God as provider) and stole the spotlight for himself.
• Also Moses rebuked the people for their rebellion against himself rather than God.  He was personally angry at the people for his own sake.  This is a difficult thing for leaders to keep in mind - remember when the people later asked for a king God had to remind Samuel that “they have not rejected you, they have rejected Me from being king over them”  Moses took it personally. James reminds us

James 1:20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

 

• And Paul says in Romans

Romans 12:16-17, 19 ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ... ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

 

• Moses forgot this lesson.  It was, in this case, all about him.  And he lost his entry into the land.

In the end, this place got the same name as the other, and God finishes his lesson:

Num 20:13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.

 

III – It’s Not About Me

So in the end we see how easy it is to slip into our own little form of idolatry.  Whenever we reach the point of “it’s all about me” we set ourselves up as a idol instead of God.  Basically that is what all idolatry is in the long run, right?

It struck me when reading through Numbers this year what similarities exist between the two stories we have discussed in these two weeks.  Though last week we talked about the ungodly acts of unbelievers and this week we spoke of one stumble of the greatest OT prophet, down deep the same sin manifested itself.  I realized how foolish it was for me to look down on people like Balak and Balaam – even Moses could fail in the same way.

From all this, we can draw a few conclusions.  When it’s all about me:

• We fail to treat God as Holy

• We experience emotional stress that God did not intend for us to bear

• We get whiny when we don’t get what we want from God

• We attempt to manipulate things for our own benefit

• We spend a lot of time angry 

• Our relationship with God (and others) is diminished

• We break God’s heart by not caring about what He cares about. 

One chorus we often sing comes from Psalm 95, but we stop short before we hear the heart of God in a warning, where He connects with this story.  Let’s read to the end:

Psalm 95:6-11 ⁶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! ⁷ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, ⁹ when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. ¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways." ¹¹ Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."

Don’t let your heart become hardened.  Declare that “it’s all about YOU Lord” and mean it!  Let the running of the universe go and trust God to provide all that you need.  Believe that He is a loving father who “does not give a stone when his child asks for bread”.  He is our loving heavenly Father – this Father’s day love Him anew for his care!  Amen!