From Egypt to Canaan

… Having these meetings, this series, and to say the date on this chart is that it was made in 1941. And I remember working some 40 hours on this chart that covers 40 years of Israel's journey in the wilderness. And I think we had a series of meetings at that time on this chart in the old meeting hall down on 5th Avenue. I trust there are some who remember the meeting. Well, I don't remember having taken it up since. And I was reminded of this recently, and I felt that it would be good to go into it. It's a wonderful study of types that illustrate New Testament truths. And by way of introduction, I would just like to refer to several scriptures in the New Testament that indicate how we should be, well, occupied with the Old Testament as well. Now 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle refers to some of these things that we will be seeing on this chart. And so for any who may not be accustomed to looking at types for fundamental truths, this will help us by way of introduction. 1 Corinthians 10, and verse 1, and he says, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. That's the cloud that followed them, and the sea is the Red Sea, where we will begin, or rather get to this morning. And all passed through the sea, all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, and so on he follows here. Now verse 6, this is the important verse, now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. So here we see that these things in the Old Testament which he refers to here in 1 Corinthians 10 are examples for us, and written for our admonition. Now in Romans 15 also, Romans 15, verse 4, very clear verse, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So that takes in the whole Old Testament, things that were written aforetime, written for our learning. And then in Hebrews chapter 9, where he's referring to the tabernacle especially, Hebrews 9, verse 23, it says, it was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices. And so here we find that things he talked about in the tabernacle, and we won't be going into that of course, that's a subject in itself that takes several weeks to look into, but he says these were patterns of the things in the heavens. And so these are scriptures that certainly warrant us to take up Old Testament pictures and find illustrations of New Testament truths. You know it's been well said that the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the New Testament, or rather the Old Testament, is revealed in the New Testament. Get a hold of that. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is revealed in the teachings of the New Testament, and as often Genesis has been called the seed plot of the whole Bible. And so in Hebrews 10, verse 1, we also have the law having a shadow of good things to come. So there are types and shadows. A shadow tells you that somebody is coming. And so the shadows of Christ coming are in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, he has come. And so that gives us a little introduction here as to Egypt to Canaan. Now there are the three places, as we've indicated on our chart here, around this way. It starts here with the children of Israel in bondage. And that's the first word. I've put on a card here, slavery. I have to apologize for the poorness of the writing here. I found out that my hand isn't as steady as it used to be. AIDS cops up. But in a way, slavery. And these are four words we're going to get in this twelfth chapter where we begin. Slavery of bondage. Slavery in Egypt. Those will be the four S's. I tried to get a number of S's in these two chapters, 12 and 13. That gives us the high points. Now, Egypt then is the place where the children of Israel were in bondage. And that covers the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Bondage. And that's a picture of every sinner in slavery and bondage. Slavery to Satan. We have here the, I've got to get this thing to know how to turn around, Israel in bondage. That's the beginning. And Pharaoh, it's Pharaoh's kingdom. Pharaoh is a type of Satan, holds us in bondage. And there were nine plagues given and Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go. He doesn't want to let a sinner go out of his grasp. And we find how they were set free. That's the subject we come to this morning. Set free. The redemption by the Lamb. Now subject stated on the circular is redemption by blood. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. And the payment is made. And that's the great subject we get there. Now, is there anyone here that's still in Egyptian bondage? In bondage to sin and Satan? Satan is the great one who holds us, takes us captive. We read in Timothy, the epistle to Timothy, he takes us captive at his will. And there's the sinner in slavery to drink and drugs and AIDS and all these terrible things that are increasing more and more. What can set the sinner free? Well, God had the provision. God has his remedy. And he has his deliverer, Moses, who was raised up from God. That's a subject in itself to Moses. And we have an outline study that we've used, seven phases, I believe, of Moses. Moses a prince. First of all, in Egypt, and then a shepherd in Midian. And he's a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it was Moses that led the people from here on the blood on the lintel through the Red Sea and on way on around almost to Jordan. He was the wonderful leader where Joshua took over. And Moses the type in that way of God, his divine authority. Well, it's been said there are four phases. I'm still giving introductions to the whole subject here. And there are four phases of this whole history. The first is from here, Ramesses, Passover, on down through Sinai. They came to Mount Sinai. And this was all of wonderful grace. Then the next phase, the second phase, was right on up here to Kadesh Barnea, the borderline of Canaan. The journey was from Egypt, place of bondage, to the promised land of Canaan, the inheritance that God had promised Abraham and his people on through. So this is the second phase. But here is the sad thing. We find spies went up here to view the land, and in unbelief, they would not go. So then the third phase comes here and is circulated here, 38 years of wandering. They said you brought us up here to die in the wilderness. And God said every one of that generation except Joshua and Caleb would perish in the wilderness, would not go in. And so they wandered here. That's the third phase. And then we have them going around in the fourth phase, crossing the Jordan River. That's the fourth phase. Now there's very, very much in this subject. And in the short while we have, I can only touch some high points. So if I pass over many things, details, you will understand it would take weeks to go into all the wonderful lessons. But I trust that this oversight of this subject will whet your appetite to study this subject in detail if you have never done so before. And I'm thinking especially of young people. It might be established in the faith. There are four types of the death of Christ and all that's involved that are covered from the beginning to the end. I have spoken sometimes on that subject by itself. The first type of death is here in the 12th chapter where they were slaves in Egypt and God is as the judge and he said he would pass through the land at midnight and execute judgment upon every firstborn from the firstborn of Pharaoh's son, Pharaoh, down through the prisoner in the dungeon. And so God is here as the judge and the children of Israel came under that judgment as well. Even though they were born of promised seed, each and every one was responsible before God and they needed a provision. And God said you take a land, beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and keep it up and slay it. That's what we read in the 14th chapter. Time is so short so we have to just move along. We're well familiar, most of us, with that 12th chapter. And there we find the lamb was slain on the 14th day in the evening and then the blood had to be sprinkled on the doorposts, the lintel and the side posts, the house. And then God said when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's the starting point. In the beginning of this 12th chapter of Exodus, he says this is the beginning of months. The whole calendar was changed and this of redemption's night by blood was the beginning of a new year for Israel. So we ask the question, have you had that beginning? And that beginning with God is under the shed blood, the sprinkled blood. Now in some way important, maybe everyone here knows that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. His death is God's provision for salvation. But important lesson here is they had to take a bunch of hyssop, a common thing that could be obtained anywhere and dip it in that blood and apply it to their own house, the doorpost. Now that's an important point. You may know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed from all sin. But have you applied that blood to the portals of your heart, the sprinkled blood? And we read in Hebrews 11 that Moses kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. Now one has well said the shed blood of Christ is a witness that he died for sinners. That blood in a basin in Egypt's night was a witness that there was a provision for the sinner. But the sprinkled blood says, I believe that Jesus died for me. It's appropriation, you see, and that's what's so important. The blood had to be sprinkled, applied, the hand of faith reached out to lay hold of God's provision. And that's the beginning. Now I said there are four types of the death of Christ, I better get on to that. There's the second one, through the Red Sea. We will find this evening, we'll get to that, that God led them down here behind the sea. And Pharaoh came after them. And the sea was before, there was certain death. So it's a pointer to man wants to die and after this the judgment, death and judgment. And there is a second type. Each one of these types have an addition. I better not spend too much time on these, we'll get to them as we go along. Here we have resurrection. They went through this sea and it was redemption by power. And by the way, what does the word redemption mean? Redemption means to purchase and to set free. A price had to be paid, a purchase, and then there's freedom, set free. And that's where they were really free, when they passed through the Red Sea. There's resurrection, but I'll save that for this evening. First Corinthians 15 speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ as being the gospel. Then the third type is way over there in Edom, when the serpent was lifted up. And the Lord Jesus referred to that in John 3, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So shall the Son of Man be lifted up, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. There's an added truth, Christ dying not only for our sins, but for sin within us. And we'll take that type when we come to it as a separate meeting. The fourth type, before they could get through to Canaan, the inheritance, they had to cross the river Jordan, another picture of death. And there are other features there that indicate it is our death with Christ. At the Red Sea, we have Christ's death for us, that makes a way of escape, deliverance from the enemy. All right, so much by introduction, except I must get, I said there are three places. Egypt, the place of bondage, where the sinner is, he's never come under the shed blood of Christ. Then when they left Egypt, they got into the wilderness, and it's a vast, howling wilderness. It was not God's purpose that they should spend 40 years in the wilderness. 38 years was because of their own sin and rebellion, discipline, God would bring them in. But the wilderness is what the world is to the Christian now. We will see in our next meeting Wednesday night how there were provisions that were needed. We sang about it in the hymn, the manna, the food. Food doesn't really grow in the wilderness. There was no water. And that's what the world is to the Christian now. Nothing here to feed the new nature, except what comes from heaven in the manna. And the trials and testings and all the various things, that's the wilderness. And that's what this world ought to be to us, who are saved. Then Canaan was the inheritance. The promised land, God wanted to bring them into a land that flowed with milk and honey. A wonderful expression, you know. If there's milk and there's honey, then there's an abundance of food and an enjoyable, and it's the inheritance. And for us, that is the book of Ephesians. Some of that was read this morning in our remembrance meeting of the inheritance that we have. Canaan is not a type of heaven. They had to fight to possess the land. There'll be no fighting in heaven. But Canaan is the inheritance that we as Christians should be enjoying down here. And especially it's the book of Ephesians that answers to that. Well, so that gives us an overlay of this general picture here of this whole subject that's before us. Now then, in the 12th chapter, as I've said already, it was the beginning of months. And they must take a lamb for a house. And God speaks of households. This is a special subject you can take up, where children should learn about the Lord Jesus as the lamb. The lamb of God had taken away the sin of the world. But now God was going to pass through the land in judgment. Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go. He said sometimes when these plagues came, he would let them go, and then he hardened his heart and he wouldn't let them go. And finally now, this is the 10th plague of judgment on the land. Pharaoh worshipped idols, their own gods. And he made compromises before and all these various things. But now God says you must take a lamb. It's a lamb. When we come to John's gospel, chapter 129, it's the lamb. Behold, the lamb that taken away the sin of the world. So it's one of the great types here of the Lord Jesus. Well, imagine how they would enjoy that lamb. A lamb is something very lovely, and for children especially. But now they hear it must die. Kept four days and there's no imperfections developed. That answers to the 30 years of the Lord Jesus here, tried and tested. Not 30 years, but really the last three years. He tried and tested in every way and he's without sin, but he must die. His perfect holy life would never save a soul. It was for the glory of God and showed the worthiness of one who could die as our substitute. That would be another S we could have here, the substitute. The land, the pretty land must die. It hadn't done any wrong, but the truth of substitution. I like that little chorus we sometimes sing. Substitution, God's own way of saving me. I the sinner, Christ the lamb. Substitution, God's own way of saving me. And now he says now, the blood, verse 13 here, will be to you for a token upon the houses. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This is a very important verse and many one has found peace in these words. That God says, when I see the blood, where, in the basin? No, the blood on the doorpost, the blood that has been applied. When God sees that we have reached out the hand of faith and laid hold of the death of the Lord Jesus for our salvation. He says, I'll pass over you and perhaps that's where the word Passover comes from. He passed over them as a judge and that's the beginning. And I hope that everyone here has come to that place. Personal application of the death of Christ by faith. And God says now, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's not when you see it. God alone can give the great value to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so glorified him that it will take away the sin of the whole world in the coming day. Not sins now, but sin itself. And so, there is the word of assurance. The shelter from judgment. And God is the judge passed through the land that night and every house that didn't have the blood on the door, the firstborn was smitten. And so we read, there was a great cry. Verse 29, came to pass that at midnight, the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, and the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat in his throne, and the firstborn of the captive was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. And the 30th verse, there was a great cry in Egypt, where there was not a house, where there was not one dead. Egyptian houses didn't have any shelter. And so, that's the wonderful word we put here then, a shelter. Shelter from judgment. Then I've added the word safe. It might seem to be the same, but they were safe from the wrath of God. They were safe in that house. Now, I especially want to use that word safe. Because it does not say they were saved. I don't want to rock the boat, but those of you who know, we've spoken on this different times, because it shook me years ago. When I read something of J.N. Darby, a great teacher among us, he said, Blood on the lintel, safe. Through the Red Sea, saved. And I thought, what in the world is he talking about? I just didn't understand that at all. And maybe as you listen here this morning, you say the same. What's the difference between being safe and saved? Well, there's some difference. And the word saved is only used for the first time, I believe, of the children of Israel in the 14th chapter. Why is that? Because blood on the lintel speaks of shelter and safe from judgment and the wrath of God. But saved means brought out of and brought into. You'll find, I think, in the third chapter of Exodus, when God spoke to Moses first, he spoke about, he seen their groaning in Egypt as slaves. Pharaoh was a hard taskmaster. You read that and you know the details there. But there was bondage. And God said he's going to bring them out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey, into the inheritance. So salvation means being brought out of bondage and into salvation, deliverance, fullness. So the second type, we will see, brings us at the Red Sea to resurrection. And that's when you have a song. The song of redemption cannot be sung in Egypt. Here we find, and we'll get into that this evening more, Pharaoh came after them in the 14th chapter. The devil doesn't want to let you go. And he bothers you with doubts and all kinds of things and there's misery. And death was before them and Satan, the type of Satan after them. And they were groaning and sighing. No song there. But now God made a way through the Red Sea. His power. So we put on the subject for this evening, redemption by power. The two things are a beautiful type of the death and resurrection of Christ. And here we have resurrection, the other side of the sea. So, that's why I put the word safe here. They were safe. And many a soul has come to this place to trust in Christ as the Savior. But then they find Satan come after them with doubts and he points to themselves and they look at themselves. In Egypt, it was when I see the blood and you feast on the lamb. But now then, Satan wants to get us occupied with ourselves. And we find many things wrong here. And we need deliverance. Deliverance, really. Set free from the power of Satan and the fear of death. We'll develop that more later. That's what it means to be saved. And in experience with souls, I found this through. See that they're born again, perhaps new life, but do not have assurance. And they're doubting. They need to see where the resurrection of Christ brings us. Now that's for the future here. So now, the Lord brought them out of Egypt. They went out. Pharaoh came to them. And he said, we'll all be dead men. Get out of here. He had that in verse 31, 32. And take your flocks and herds. He didn't want them to do that before. But now he says, get out. And so they left Egypt. And the Lord gave him favor. They borrowed and so on. And a mixed multitude went in and instructions are given here about the Passover. But now we must get to the 13th chapter. Delivered from Egypt. Not yet. Not fully. But God says, chapter 13, verse 2. Sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Whosoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine. So we get the great truth now here of sanctification. That's in chapter 13. First words. Another S. Sanctification. And that means set apart. Sanctification doesn't mean that you come to a place where you have no more sin in you. And you don't sin anymore. Some holiness people teach. That's not the truth of sanctification. The word means set apart. And the firstborn were his. He says, it is mine. There's ownership. You see. Ownership. Those who were spared by the blood of the lamb being upon the doorpost. And the judge passed over. Now that applies to every one of us then that have trusted Christ. We're set apart in the value of that blood that we trusted in. Oh, we must get a hold of this, beloved. We never can make too much of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is his death. Blood means death. God says in Leviticus 17, the life of the flesh is in the blood. I've given it to you upon the altar. And so that is the groundwork of everything. The beginning of all blessings. And we can't add to the value of that blood. We stand before God in all the value of the death of Christ. That's what Hebrews 10 teaches and so on. Now God says the firstborn is mine. So a truth that we need to learn then as believers that we belong to him. Paul says in Corinthians, you're not your own. You're bought with a price. The blood of Christ. And God says we should be sanctified, set apart for him. And then it follows, no leavened bread was to be eaten for seven days. The feast of the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. Now to bring this into New Testament language, we have in 1 Corinthians 5. He says Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice for us. So for the believer, the true sacrifice or Passover is Christ. Then follows, he says, let us keep the feast of unleavened bread with sincerity and truth. And leaven in Scripture is always a type of evil. And so the next word is here. Well, they're set free from Egypt and then separation. Separation. There's positional and practical sanctification. Hebrews 10 says forth, and I think it was read this morning as a scripture. We're sanctified by the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're set apart before God in all the value of the sacrifice of Christ. That's positional. Can't improve it. Everyone has it that's a true believer. But then practical sanctification is the other side of it. And they were not to eat leavened bread. Leaven is like yeast. It puffs up to rise. But there's one thing, you know. You ladies know about this. You bake bread or anything with yeast. It rises up, puffs up. And if you leave it out there, it just gets so big and baked. But you say it's time to put it in the oven now. And you put it in the oven and the heat stops the leavening process. It speaks of judgment. We have leaven in us. But it's been judged in the cross of Christ. Our old man is crucified with him. And so the practical side, then, as he says in John 17, thy word separates, sanctifies. Practical sanctification setting apart by reading the word of God. Enjoying the word. And so that's where the feasts come in. The second feast, you might say, too. And there's a great subject in itself that's set forth in Leviticus 23. That was given there around the time of the tabernacle set up in this place here at Sinai, where they spent 11 months. The book of Leviticus was spoken and the offerings are given there. And in the 23rd chapter, seven feasts are mentioned. And the whole calendar year of Israel, there were these seven feasts. And these two were the first. Begin with the Passover, death of Christ, and then seven days of eating unleavened bread. And for us, you know, that takes us from one Lord's day to another. We remember the Lord and his death in heaven before us, and we're to live the week not having unleavened bread in our houses or eating of it. My oh my, I tell you, we live in a day when Satan blows leaven into our houses. And he's made it so convenient that all you have to do is turn on a button. It used to be the radio, and there was an advertisement in the early days of radio, bring the world into your home. But that's nothing today with that little fellow they call TV, where you can see everything and all this junk and stuff, leaven coming into the home, blowing in the windows and all over. And then what we read, the magazines. I say, sometimes I try to be careful, but I got too many magazines coming into my house. Can't keep up with them all. I try to see that there's not leaven in it, but there's always some creeping in. And we're to keep the feast of unleavened bread. Well, then I must go on in this chapter. That's separation. Set apart, verse 12 says, set apart to the Lord. And now about God's leading in verse 17 of the 13th chapter. Came to pass when Pharaoh had led the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they shall see war, and they return to Egypt. For God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up harnessed, or it really means by fives, out of the land of Egypt. And then we could just read on with this whole subject, the Lord, verse 21. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. God led them. And so I tried to get a word with S covering this subject. So I came up with the word here, Shekinah cloud. It was a cloud. Now you won't find the word Shekinah in the Bible here, but it's commonly referred to. In the Schofield Bible you have the note, I think, the Shekinah cloud. It simply means the presence. It was known, and you look it up in the Webster's Dictionary, and it says it's a Hebrew theological term. And it was that, the Shekinah cloud of glory was there all the time in the day, in a pillar of cloud to lead them, and a pillar of fire by night. It indicated his presence when that tabernacle was set up. And everything was according to God. It was dedicated. It says the cloud filled the glory, filled the tabernacle. It was the glory of his presence. And that's a wonderful thing here. They had the provision of God's guidance. And so we as believers too. The Holy Spirit dwells in our heart. And he says he would lead us. Just quickly, it says here that he led them not by the way of the Philistines. The Philistines would go from Egypt right into Canaan across this way, and they didn't have to bother about the Red Sea. But God doesn't lead them that way. The Philistines are wanderers, wallowers. They're professors. And they're those who claim to get to heaven in the easy way by doing good and so on like that. God doesn't lead that way. And we find that he led them down this way through Succoth and Etham. And as I studied the map and made this chart, I could see he led them behind the Red Sea. What an easier way to go that way. But no, they had to learn the lesson of the sea, which speaks of death. And they had to experience redemption by power. The power of God that would stop that water and make a way on dry land through sea, the sea, the depth. And so that's what we'll come to in the meeting this evening, redemption by power. That was God's leading. And you can see he led them that way. Now, God doesn't lead us an easy way. You know, when you accept the Lord as your Savior, that's not the end of your troubles. As someone has often said, that's when trouble begins. But you have the presence of the Lord with you, his assurance. There was the cloud, you see. And there's wonderful details. My time is up anyway. But we'll get into that tonight, how God intervened for them. He led them, and so we have guidance. It's a wonderful provision, the cloud of glory. Let us just close with prayer. We thank thee for these wonderful lessons that set forth in a typical way the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings that he has brought us into. We pray that everyone here may be under the shelter of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can say as the hymn says, there to my heart was the blood applied. And to have faith in thee. Help us now to go on in the way of unleavened bread and keeping the feast and enjoying thy presence. We give thee thanks and ask all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. …

… Previously, if we didn't speak about it, but it's a divine comment on what we will have somewhat tonight. 1st Corinthians 10 verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Now, at previous meetings, we saw people of Israel under the blood in Egypt, when the destroying angel passed through. They were under the blood. Now, we have this statement we just read, that they were under the cloud, and that's what was true of them, especially in having crossed the Red Sea, and been delivered from Egypt in the power of Pharaoh, representative of Satan, really, and come into the wilderness side here. Here's where we are, and we had the song of redemption, and remember we said as the two parts of a great type, or types, in Egypt, blood on the lintel, sheltered from judgment. They were under the blood, and of course, we all still are under the value of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if by faith we have laid hold of that sacrifice. Then, they were led by the cloud of God over here, back of the Red Sea, and there was death, and Pharaoh and his host came after them. Satan doesn't want to let God's people go, and this is so true in experience. Many who've trusted Christ, and needed to be brought into deliverance, and that's what we get here, the Red Sea is deliverance from death. There's the sea ahead of them, it's death, and Pharaoh, the old enemy, coming after them behind, and Satan would trouble. But God undertook for them, and the word was in the 14th chapter, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The salvation in picture, in type, was not complete in Egypt. They were safe, and as we said, the word saved is brought in. So here we have God making a way through the sea, so that they went through that sea of death on dry land, dry ground, and they came here on the other side now, which is a type of resurrection, and we said it's salvation by the power of God. The redemption by blood, the price paid, there in Egypt, but that type isn't complete, and so we have the two here, resurrection. And so we've had that the gospel is, the death of Christ, his burial, and his resurrection. And in Romans 4, we have that we're justified by his resurrection, cleared all charges of sin. And so they knew they were saved, and it says God saved them. It's a little bit more than just being safe, but brought into the place of deliverance, and they sang that wonderful song that we closed with. And so we need to realize now, there's much implied here, the Apostle says they were baptized unto Moses. So this is a picture here also of baptism, and that's what we read in Romans 6, that Christ died for us, and we are identified with him in the likeness of his death, and also in the likeness of his resurrection. And this is the truth that's really confessed here in baptism unto the Lord Jesus, identified by type, that is going down in the water, with that which speaks of his death. And death is the great subject that really follows. The wages of sin is death, and we have to learn more in the wilderness about death, death to self, death to Egypt. And so now here's the important thing is, they left Egypt, and God overthrew all the hosts of Pharaoh, Pharaoh himself, the horse and his rider. And so we said Satan is defeated at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his resurrection. Satan does not have the power of resurrection. He can cause death, and we had some of that in Hebrews 2, who through fear of death were all a lifetime subject to bondage. God has annulled his power. And so here the picture is, Satan is defeated, and they're free. But now begins the wilderness journey, and they left Egypt. And as a practical question for us, have we left Egypt? This world, Egypt is the type of this world, its system, where the will of man is dominating. And that's what's professed in baptism, you see. To walk in newness of life, and surely for Israel it was a new life over here in this side. They were used to Egypt, they remembered. We will read tonight how they thought about the leeks, and the melons, and the onions, and all those things in the flesh pots in Egypt. That was their life there. Oh, they didn't say anything about the bondage. They had hard bondage. Our first point was they were slaves in Egypt, and now we're set free, free to do the will of God. That's what it means to the wilderness. Now then, too, we have a fairly good idea, I think, of what the wilderness really is. I mean literally. It's a wild place. Somebody asked me about some of these things here, if that was just a mistake or so. Well, this is all to indicate wild country, wilderness. No cities in there, and so on. And that's what the world is to the Christian now. We're still in the world, but we're not of the world, as the Lord said in John 17. And we're delivered from Satan's rule to come now under the rulership, and the lordship, and leadership of the risen Christ. Here on this side here, it's Christ risen, having died to sin, and risen and victorious. And when we come over to Canaan, it's really the thought of the risen Lord. Tonight we're going to have something about the manna, and that speaks of Christ here on this earth, the humble Christ. Well, I better not say more about that food of the Canaan. It was the old corn. But anyway, we really be in this place of delivered from this present evil world. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. And that's what really the spiritual lesson here is. If we're in the wilderness, we should be in this place where this present evil world, we're not talking about the physical world, you know, the creation that God made. It has fallen too. But however, the world is this world system, which Satan is the god and prince of. And we've been delivered from that. And the cross stands between us and this world. So Paul says, I'm crucified unto the world. Or the world is crucified unto me first, and I unto the world. There's a song I saw some years ago. It expressed the good truth. It says, when the world lost me, and I lost the world. And that's what it should be in our experience. And so we see tonight, there are trials. We said, troubles begin when we really take our side on the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's rejected. And we have Satan as our real enemy, though he's defeated. He doesn't give up. He comes as an angel of light, and as a roaring lion, and so on. And I want to say that what we come to some of the things tonight, we'll be reminded really of the epistle to Peter. The epistle to Peter speaks much of sufferings, and he writes to the scattered people of Israel. And it's the wilderness character. He brings out 16 times, he talks about sufferings. And that's what we learn in the wilderness, that we are on the side of a rejected Christ. And we have the world, and Satan, and even the flesh within us, as our enemies. All right. Now, we find here, as I've said, it must have been a real strange experience to them. And when we think of it, probably we don't realize how many people there were, when it comes to food and drink. If we have the chronologies of the tribes, and the men of war, and so on in the book of Numbers, where they were numbered, we get some idea. C. H. Macintosh, I think it is, gives an estimate of thought, that there were probably three and a half million people in the company of Israel. After a while, when the tabernacle was set up, there was the order there as to where they were to encamp, around about this camp, and so on, or this tabernacle, rather, and so on. So, you think of the women, and the children, and the men of war, it must have been somewhere around three and a half million. What a company! But they were God's people, and it was a path of faith, and that's what it is for us. Now, we're going to see that they were amazed as they went on. Let's read here now, in Numbers 15, after the psalm, we find here in verse 20, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. That's the first thing. There are not generally wells and rivers in the wilderness. There was no water. And when they came to Marah, verse 23, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statue and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. And they came to Elam, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. This is a new experience for them. And as we are converted, turned to Christ, we find the Christian life is a new experience. There's joy, we had that joy of the song, wonderful rejoicing on the ground of known redemption, but here we have something else. The song has died down. Many a one has had the joy of salvation, and God gives this, but then soon there's distress. And you know, you go to your friends, and some of them thought, well, I'm gonna tell them about being saved, and how you can know you're saved, and your sins are forgiven, and they'll accept it right off. And you'll find that they don't. And you lose your friends, and there's troubles in relationships, and in our relatives, and so on. And you think you've gone off your base, gone off the rocker, as they say. Got religion, got religious crazy, because you're devoted. And all these things come, and there's no water here. The wilderness is a dry and thirsty land, as the psalmist writes, where no water is. And many trials. And that's what it is, it's a place of testing. And one has summed it up of all the various lessons. We'll have, we have a lot of murmuring we'll find here tonight. And the various lessons to be learned in the wilderness. God was leading them, they were under the cloud. I should say a little bit more about that. What did that cloud mean? Well, we had that as the word on the chart. The Shekinah glory. It meant the presence of the Lord, and it was glory. It protected them as they went through this Red Sea here. As Pharaoh came after them, the cloud went between the children of Israel and Pharaoh's hosts, as they were going through that sea. And that sea opened up step by step. And God didn't open up the whole way, God opens up one step, and we take that by faith, he shows us the next path. And so, going through that sea, the cloud was darkness to Pharaoh's hosts, and light to God's people. So there the cloud was protection to them. And they were under this cloud. One writer remarked about this, and it was a new thought to me to link it together, but think of under the blood and under the cloud, under the presence of the Lord. In the 14th chapter Moses said, the Lord will fight for you. And that's what we have to realize and enjoy, his presence. And we're under the cloud of his presence. And that's the guiding cloud. He went before them. It was the Lord who directed them to all these places. They had to go through that wilderness. And we mustn't think that if we're Christian, and that we're guided by the Lord, everything is going to go just smooth and nice. Not exactly so. The Lord leads us in rough places, times, and wherever he leads us, he has a lesson for us to learn. And I started to say, the two great things in the wilderness is that we learn what we are, even as Christians now. What we are in ourselves, what the flesh is. So that we come to the 7th of Romans, he says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death? We discover sin within us. That comes out in the provision later on of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. But that's an experience. But also, we learn what God is. And that's the wonderful thing. The two things are great. You can sum up all the lessons learned in the wilderness. And we have to learn what we are, to find out what we are in ourselves. They were murmurs, complainers, thinking about, in heart, they were going back to Egypt. And how many times we see a Christian taken up then with the world and going back into things that they once give up. Now, it's not a matter of their eternal salvation there, but the practical life. And these lessons are very practical. But we find God in wonderful grace meets their murmurings and complaints with his wonderful grace, his provision. So we come, there's no water. And we find that in this world, there's nothing to refresh us. Water is very important. Water is really more important than food. Our very bloodstream is composed in great measure of blood. And you'll die sooner from thirst than from hunger. But there's nothing here to refresh the new man. See, no water. That's what's true of this wilderness. But God gives the water. And we read in 1 Corinthians 10, they drank of that rock, that spiritual rock, which was Christ. Now, just here, he doesn't give the supply of water here. But they went on, and they came to Marah, and there there was water, but it was bitter. It was close to the Red Sea, and it was brackish. And so we find that which would give refreshment is bitter. The bitterness, life. Now, you say, I thought when you got saved, everything was just happy and joy and so on. Well, that's just the beginning of it. We have to learn rejection with Christ. He wasn't popular, though he did things for mankind. Common people heard him gladly, but he's rejected. And we've taken side with a rejected Christ, but who's going to reign? We're going to reign with him. And that's what comes out in the epistles of Peter. And also, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. And I was meditating these things. I was thinking of that verse. I had to look around where it was. I was sure it was in Peter, and I found it. I think it's the fourth chapter, where Peter says, think it not strange for the fiery trials that have come upon you. And he goes on to speak of that. And so he speaks of sufferings much, and of glory. You know, if you search this out in Peter, there's suffering for righteousness sake. We can't—Christ suffered for our sins, but he suffered as one who stood for God. And we are privileged to suffer with him in that way. Learn what it is. You belong to a rejected Christ. So there's bitterness. But what we find is here how the Lord can turn bitter waters to sweetness. There's sweetness in these trials as well. As one writer said, some of these things cuts right across the grain of our natural desires. You know, when we became a Christian, while we were born again, we have new nature and new desires, but we still have the old desires. Sin that dwells within us. And we are natural people. We have to learn how to walk by faith, and to be spiritual, and to trust, to be dependent upon God. That's what he—he brought him into this place, just like in the Red Sea, they couldn't do anything else. Then, depend upon the Lord. And so Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. That's a wonderful verse that applies in many ways to our Christian life, too. And the Lord puts us in places where we just can't do anything else but look up. Trust and dependence upon him, and we'll always see how he comes in for us. And so, though there's the bitterness, now death comes, there's sorrows and trials of the Christian. That's the wilderness character. But we have one who can turn bitter water sweet. And they murmured. That's the easiest thing to do, is complain and blame someone else. We have to die to Egypt, to the world, have to die to sin, and die to our own desires, and be surrendered to the Lord. What about that song they were singing so brightly in the earlier part? Oh, we forget about that. And they're thinking about what they had in Egypt, as we said, but they didn't say about the bondage. Well, we must move on. So, Moses cried to the Lord. That's what they should have done. You know, Moses comes out here as a wonderful character. He's probably the greatest man, aside from the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Bible, and the greatest man of history. That's a big study in itself. We have worked out, and we have on the table here, a booklet, outline form, Moses, the man of God. I think he's spoken of six times as the man of God, God's man. He failed too, but there's only one that has never failed, and that's the man Christ Jesus. But Moses is a wonderful character, and if you like to study that for yourself, there's outlines here available, booklets we've worked up for Bible studies elsewhere in years gone by. And so Moses is a wonderful example. He cries to God. That's what we should do, not murmur and complain, and want to put the blame on somebody else, and so on, and say why, and wherefore. And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he proved, God proved. That's what the wilderness trials are, to prove us whether we would walk in his way or not. And if we learn anything, we should learn nothingness of ourselves, and that Christ is everything. What's the tree? Well, Peter tells us in his epistle, and as I say, I think we should link the epistles of Peter up with this wilderness character. He says, who his own self bear our sins on the tree. He speaks of the tree, so as to be the cross of Christ. And if we bring the cross of Christ in, the basis of all our blessings for time and eternity, it sweetens. Better come. I was thinking of it too in the book of Acts. The disciples, they witnessed for the Lord. You know, they landed in prison. And then they came out, and it says, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And no matter how bitter things may come, you know, people say all kinds of things about you. The devil is a liar, and he's the father of lies. And he's got a lot of people to propagate his lies, and say all kinds of things. And many of God's people are in the forefront, in the lines of battle, have suffered of Satan's lies. But then they can rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. There's the crown. If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. I think that's the tree that makes the waters sweet. Bitter waters can turn into sweetness. And we'll always find the blessings of the Lord there. And so that's what we get in this thing. Now, in the 16th chapter, well, no, we haven't come yet. I haven't passed over verse Elam. They had tough places. The wilderness of Shur, no water, three days without water. And then Mara, and it's bitter, but the Lord sweetens it. Well, they come on to Elam. And that was such a lovely place. There were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees. It was a real oasis in the desert. And I'm sure the children of Israel just thought, my, this is wonderful. Let's stay here. Let's settle down. But no, they had to move on and have another test. Well, now what does Elam speak of? There are 12, it's a governmental number, 12 tribes of Israel and 70, they were, the Lord sent out disciples by the 70. And so it speaks of a time of refreshment. We can see the picture there, wells of water, 12 of them, lots of them. And they weren't bitter. And then there's palm trees to shade them from the sun, and they could rest there. There's refreshment. So the Lord gives us times of refreshment too. And I like to think of conferences that we as the Lord's people are privileged to have, and God's people have, well, they came together in feasts. As I referred to the other night in Leviticus 23, there were many feasts, seven, and they were all called holy convocations. And so we come together and have a day or two of occupation with the Lord and his presence and the Lord's people, and it's a real Elam. But then the next morning, on Monday morning, and then on Lord's days ought to be real times of refreshment too. Comes Monday morning, it's the routine, we got to go to work and school and face the world again and so on, to go on. Well, I have to move on here too now. In chapter 16, they took their journey from Elam, all the congregation of Israel, in the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai in the 15th day of the second month. So they're just in a month now. Now you don't want to think of this chart as showing distances. It's not so. I pointed out before that they came to Sinai in a short time, and they spent 11 months there, building the tabernacle and so on, and went in a short while up to Cadiz, Barnea. So here they are now at Rephidim, and yes, here the manna is given. Then they needed something to eat, and the congregation came, and they murmured again against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. You'd think that they'd learn a lesson and stop this murmuring and start praising. Someone has said, you know, something, well praise the Lord anyway. Things do go against us. Praise the Lord. It's like one, they had a bad accident, and he said it was the Lord's hand on them, dealing with them, but they were preserved, and he said it was the Lord's hand over us. It was always something to praise the Lord for, and that's what they should have done here. So now, verse 3, the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and we did eat bread to the full. He brought us out in the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. What doubting, what faithless. Someone has said, what unbelieving believers we often are. Forget about the Lord, and it says here in Deuteronomy 8, he suffered them to hunger, to prove them, and to teach them that man does not live by bread only, but by every word which proceeded out of the mouth of God. It's more important to have spiritual food, than to have things for our natural life that we go to for so naturally. What the Lord said to Moses, verse 4, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove you whether you will walk in my law or not. Now, this is the great manna chapter, and there's so much here, but we can't spend a lot of time on this chapter. But just to say that John 6 is the great manna chapter, where the Lord, they said, our fathers ate of the manna, and the Lord spoke about the true bread from heaven. So he supplied food for them, and they had to learn to be dependent upon God. As I say, think of three and a half million people in the wilderness, and you know when they went to bed at night, there was no bread in the kitchen. You can think of it, they didn't have even refrigerators, there was nothing for the next day. But they could look up in their tents and see the cloud, the pillar of fire there, that told them that God was with them. And the next morning there was manna from heaven. They didn't know what it was, but God said he would give them bread from heaven. And so, it's the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only food for our souls in this wilderness is the Lord Jesus, and we find him in the word, it's the word of God. There's the water, and then we'll get hopefully soon to the 17th chapter, where we get the Spirit of God, the living water. So I'll just have to say a few little things. Verse 14, it was a small round thing, round, as the thought of no beginning or end. And so this manna spoke of Christ, the Eternal One, real bread for our souls. And they said in the end of the 15th verse, this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. And they could give it to those in their tents. The second thing was, they gathered according to their eating. One had a good appetite, he'd gather much. If the other was something only able to gather a little, he had enough, whether little or much. And they were to share it with those in the tents, speaks of it, and there was no lack. And then if they kept it till the next morning, it would breed worms and stink. It teaches us the lesson that we live day by day, and we need fresh manna. What you and I enjoyed yesterday, or even today, is not going to carry us over for tomorrow. We need fresh manna every day. And then we find, too, that the taste of the manna, we may not get it here, was as fresh oil. And it's probably in the 11th chapter of Numbers, in a way, fresh oil. And the other thing, it was sweet. And so that's what the Word of God is. Sweeter than honey, as we read in the Psalms. Thy words were found and I did eat them. They were unto me the joy and rejoicing of the soul. I just want to say, interruption here, that we have a 45-minute tape aside, so I'm trying to keep the message down to one side of the tape. So we have to hurry along. We'll get some of this the next time, perhaps. Now, the 17th chapter, well, I just read there, in verse 35 of the 16th chapter, the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, till they came a land that inhabited. They did eat manna, till they came to the borders of Canaan. God never failed. That's the wonderful thing. Even when they were under his discipline and they had to wander there in the wilderness, 38 years, God always sent the manna. He is faithful amidst our unfaithfulness. But the great point here is that we need the manna. Now, in the 17th chapter, they came to refuge them, and there was no water for the people to drink. And here again, they chide with Moses, forgetting what he had done for them and the blessings that he had given. And Moses cried unto the Lord, he said, they're ready to stone me. So now, verse 5 of the 17th chapter, the Lord said unto Moses, go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I'll stand before thee upon the rock in horror, and thou shalt smite the rock. There shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So here now, we have another type of the rock that was smitten with the rod of Moses. Moses used that rod at the Red Sea, spoke of death. And now he is told to smite the rock, and God sent water. One of the Psalms speaks of it. One of Psalm 105, verse 41, waters gushed out. They ran in the dry places like a river. God gave water in abundance. And we read in 1 Corinthians 10, they drank of that rock which followed them, which is Christ. He sent a river. And this is the type now of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Christ was the rock, but he was smitten at the cross, had to die and rise again and ascend up into heaven. And he sent the Holy Spirit. And he referred to that in John 4, there should be in him a well of water bubbling up for worship. Then in John 7, probably verse 38, he that believeth on me, as the scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Rivers. Water flowing out. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. So here we have the type of the Holy Spirit given. We'll learn later on that Moses made a mistake, and another time he smoked the rock, and that was the wrong thing. Christ can only be smitten once. And so we have water from the rock. These are God's provisions for the wilderness needs. We must close this point here, at least, and see some of the lessons in the wilderness, the provisions that God gives. I thought we could sing a hymn. Mr. Darby has written, This World is a Wilderness. Why? It's in the spiritual songs, and it's in the Echoes of Grace hymn book. 269. This world is a wilderness wide. We have nothing to seek or to choose. We've no thought in the waste to abide. We have not to regret nor to lose. The Lord is himself gone before. He has marked out the path that we tread. It's as sure as the love we adore. We have nothing to fear nor to dread. A wonderful hymn about the wilderness. …

… We looked at the beginning of this chapter, closed the meeting the other evening, and we seen Moses directed to strike the rock, and with the rod and the waters poured out, a river flowed out, a blessing in the wilderness. And now following that, we read here in this 17th chapter, that verse 8 says, Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. It came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and sat there on. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. There is the first conflict with an enemy in the wilderness. He had the conflict with Pharaoh who came after him, and the Lord overthrew him. And we read, too, that the Lord did not lead them by the way of the Philistines, that they would see war and they would be discouraged. But they met wilderness conditions. There was no water, and there was bitter water, and there was nothing to eat. The Lord sent manna, and at every turn of the way, God met their murmurings with grace, mercies, and blessings. But now, according to the type, too, the rock was smitten and the waters flowed, and we said that was the type of the Holy Spirit for the believer. And we refer to what the Lord spoke in John 4, the woman at the well, she would have, he that believes in me would have a well of water springing up into eternal life. That's God's word. And then the seventh chapter, he says, he that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And it says this, he spake of the Holy Spirit. And so this is the type here, the believer is given the Holy Spirit, the rock has been smitten, that's the cross of Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 10 that Christ is that rock, and he was smitten there on the cross, and then the Holy Spirit was sent down. And it says in John 7 that the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And so this fits the order of things, it had to be the cross of Christ, and then as we have seen crossing the Red Sea is speaking of resurrection, and then the Spirit given. And just as soon as that type is here, we read about Amalek came to smite them. And he's a type of Satan using the flesh. Amalek was a grandson of Esau. Esau, a man of fleshly appetites, and a profane man. He was the brother of Jacob, but he didn't regard his birthright. And so he speaks of the natural man and the fleshly man of sin that Satan uses. And so that is the enemy that he says you will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And this is according to the New Testament Scriptures as well, and the type and the reality that as believers we never get rid of the sin in the flesh until we leave this scene. There are those who are perfectionists and holiness and so on, labor to get rid of indwelling sin. But the Scripture never holds that out in the New Testament, but it gives us the way of victory. And so that's what we see here, we often refer this chapter, should be well known to most of us, how Joshua had to take the sword and he would to fight. In verse 9, he chose out men and to go to fight with him. And we read in verse 13, Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. But that was only the earthly side, there was as it were a heavenly side. And this we see here that Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the mountain. And Moses held up his hand, speaks of intercession in prayer. And then we see that when he held up his hand, Israel prevailed, Israel got the victory. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. And so it shows how we need prayer and prayer always speaks of dependence upon God. And we need prayer for the victory against this enemy, Amalek, the flesh that Satan would use to trouble us and he attacks. There are some interesting scriptures given elsewhere about how he came. In 1st Samuel 15 and verse 2, it says that he lay in wait, he was waiting for them. And this shows the treachery of Satan to use the flesh. And you know, Jeremiah says, the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You cannot trust yourself. There's the religious self and the, well, we would say down in the gutter, immorality self. And no matter the way it is, it is self that wants to be the center of things. And then we read in Deuteronomy 25, verses 17 and 18, that Amalek came and he smote all those that were feeble. He smote the hinder most and those that were feeble. He comes up on the rear and that is the way he works. He comes as a challenger to the people of God to hold them back in their journey. And so Moses interceded and he's the type of the Lord Jesus who ever lives to make intercession for us. You know, if the victory depended upon us, we would never get there. We would never make it. And so people think, well, you can be lost again. Yes, if it depends upon us, it's hopeless. But we saw all this way that the Lord fought for Israel and he's still doing that for us. So Hebrews 7 says, he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Wherefore he's able to save them to the uttermost because he ever lives to make intercession. And that's the picture of Moses with his hands lifted up. Well, in the human side, you can't do that all day long, but our high priest never wearies. But then there's another little feature here that Aaron and her were there with him and they held up Moses's hands. Now Aaron was the high priest, as we get it in the priestly order that follows afterwards. He was the high priest. And so that represents the Lord Jesus in his priestly intercessory care for us. As an intercessor is the priest, he ministers that we might not fall. But then the other character, and that's her here, whose name means white or righteous, this presents the Lord Jesus as we have in the epistle of John, advocate. We have an advocate with the righteous, with God, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the righteous one. And so there's the twofold service of the Lord on high as the priest intercede for us that we might not fall. And then John says, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And that's represented by her. And so they prevailed. And this is in type here to show us what we have. We are not to sin and to yield to the flesh. We have in Romans 8 that we're not indebted to the flesh at all. We will have further lessons about this as we go along. But here is just this much that is given. And so they got the victory. But Moses then now builds an altar, calls the name of Jehovah Nissi. Jehovah our banner. And we can get the victory. Paul says, thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now we must move on. We have much ground to cover tonight. We must get on to the 33rd chapter of Exodus. The 18th chapter, we find that Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, verse 2, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons, of which the name of the one was Gershom, and then the other was Eliezer. And he comes to meet Moses there when he had encamped at the Mount of Gol. This is an interesting little notation here, not much said, but you know that when Moses had to flee, or did flee Egypt because of the wrath of the king, he was 40 years there at Midian as a shepherd. He was 40 years in Egypt as a prince, but he threw his lot in with God's people Israel. And in his haste, too, he slew an Egyptian that was oppressing and he fled. But there he worked for Jethro, and Jethro gave him his daughter Zipporah as a wife. And that's a type there, too, of Christ in rejection, having a Gentile bride. And sons who were born to him, Eliezer, he says, I was a stranger in a strange land. And then the other son was, just had it, oh yes, Gershom was the stranger. Eliezer, the god of my father, had helped me. Well, then God called him, you remember, the burning bush in the third chapter of Exodus, that he would send him to Israel in Egypt as a deliverer. And he finally went, and he took his wife and children along. But this verse here would indicate that he sent her back as he was negotiating with Pharaoh and all these things and things went, he must have sent her back. And now Jethro comes and brings her there and the sons and meets him and he rejoiced. It's a millennial picture. It's a dispensational picture here of the glory that would come with the Gentile and the Zipporah being the bride of Christ. And Jethro, he recognizes the hand of God. And they ate bread together. Verse 12. I just like to repeat this little thought of eating bread. Many years ago, I visited up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. There was a brother there from England and his wife with us at the time. And he mentioned this, that one had said the customs of the eastern lands, that when the chief, a visitor came or someone would come, and if the chief ate bread with that person, then they all knew that he was accepted. And it's just that little thing you see now when it comes in about the Lord's Supper, eating bread. This was something very much according to the culture of the land, its fellowship. And we still look at it in that way. We ask someone over for a meal or someone and we eat together. Well, it indicates fellowship. And so the Lord used that symbol to the breaking of bread. It expresses fellowship. It's a divine symbol, you might say, the fellowship. So they ate bread together. It's mentioned here that way. Well, we pass on to the 19th chapter now. And here we have the third month. When the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they unto the wilderness of Sinai. They departed from Rephidim. They came to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount. Now this is an important phase in the journey of the children of Israel, as we have indicated here in the chart, at Mount Horeb, Sinai. We are going to see that a great change takes place here. The law is given. And God did this to prove the children of Israel. Hitherto, as we've said, God met all their murmuring and their complaining with wonderful provisions of grace. But from now on, when they took a position, and there are many details here, but it comes out, we'll read a little bit more. Verse 3, Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thou shalt I'll say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I have bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shall speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words, which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Now there's the key. The Lord said, You see how I dealt with the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. This is something that's spoken of in Deuteronomy 32, I believe. Now the eagle carries the little eaglets on his wings. It stirs up the nest, so that they will learn to fly. But the big eagle with her big wings flies underneath them, and when they can't fly, she carries them. And this is the figure here, how the Lord had dealt with Israel. He had been carrying them on eagles' wings, as it were. Swift and powerful and strengthening, he was for them. Now he proposes a test, and he says, Now if you will obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, but all the people. And what was their response? It says here now, as we read there, verse 8, All the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. If you look at their history up until this point, the past two months, does that bear out this statement? They should have learned something of themselves. And it's what we said in the beginning, that there are two great lessons to learn in the wilderness journeys of Israel and ourselves. God was teaching them what they were in themselves, and we have to find out what we are in ourselves. Most Christians, taught from their youth at least of the things of God, come to the Lord and been spared from much of the world and evil. And we have to learn and find out what we are after we're saved. Someone that just gone out in the world and wickedness, and he's tried everything and so on, he knows something more of the depths of evil and of his own heart. And that's what we have in Romans 7. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death? We get more of that and the provisions in a later types, but there it is. Now they should have been finding something about what they were. If they did, they wouldn't say, you know, they said it three times. As we go on here, they said it over and over, and all the people said it. All that the Lord has said, we will do. They didn't even say, by thy help we will. They hadn't learned their nothingness. And what is the purpose of the law? The law is given here now in the 20th chapter. We have what we call the Ten Commandments, and then in the 21st chapter is the judgments, the regulations, interpretations of the law. In chapter 22 and chapter 23, it's all about the law, and that's where you'll find in that 24th chapter, verse 3, they say again, all the words which the Lord has said, will we do. And in verse 7, they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do, and be obedient. They hadn't learned something of themselves. Now what does the scripture say in the New Testament? In Romans 3, it is, I believe, we read, by the law is the knowledge of sin. And in the 7th chapter, Paul said, I had not known sin, except the law said, thou shall not covet. The law stirs up a sinful nature, and it's been, as has been well said, the law is like a looking-glass. It shows you where you are, what we are in ourselves. You know, a simple illustration, we often say, as children, young people, and perhaps even still as older ones, if you see a sign that says no trespassing, or if you see a sign, keep off the grass, the natural result or natural response is, I would just like to do it. If you don't say anything, will you go along? Well, when you say, I can't do it, you shouldn't do it, then the natural tendency of the evil heart is, I want to do it. And so that's the effect of the law. Now, in verse 5, he says, thou will keep my covenant. We had a series of lessons in Bible studies some years ago about the covenants, and we found that the covenants of grace and promise to Abraham and all, the rules or the regulations, you might say, were all on God's part. God promised them. He didn't ask for something. Now, we get the covenant of the law, the covenant of Sinai, and the blessings are, if you do this, if you obey, then I will give you the blessings. Well, we'll see what happens. We have to hurry, let go along. And we read here in the 24th chapter, that verse 7, well, verse 4, Moses wrote all the words of the law. And then in the 7th verse, he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people. And that's when they said, oh, we'll do all that. One who thinks he can keep the Ten Commandments hasn't found out something of his evil heart. And they change here from the covenant of grace to the covenant of we will do. And how many people there are today who think that's the way to get to heaven? Well, the book of Galatians and the book of Romans deals with this subject. And I think it's in Galatians, it says, if there was a law that could give life, it would be given. What the sinner needs is new life, to be born again, new desires. And then the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer's heart is the power for the Christian life. So that's the lesson here as to the law. And what happened? Well, we find now in chapter, Moses went up in the mount and the end of verse chapter 24 says he was in the mount 40 days and 40 nights. And that was a miraculous thing. I think in one place it says he neither drank water or ate, but he was preserved there. And all these chapters that follow from chapter 25 through 31, I think it's through 31, are instructions about this tabernacle that they were going to build that little picture of it there. It was not built at this time, but God was occupied and showing him the pattern of things. And so he's up there enjoying the presence of the Lord. And what happens? We pass over to chapter 32. Chapter 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said, up, make gods which shall go before us. For this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. It's almost unbelievable, isn't it? To read such words as these from a people that had seen all the wonders of the Lord there in Egypt, setting them free when all the firstborn were killed, that didn't have or weren't in a house where blood was on the door. And then brought them through the Red Sea in that marvelous way and overthrew Pharaoh and all his hosts. And they sang that song of redemption in chapter 15. And as they went through this wilderness, how God turned the bitter water into sweet water for them. And they came down to Elam, where there was that wonderful oasis and how manna was given. And there was also quails. I didn't just get that, but you notice in that 16th chapter of Genesis, there were quails that came up at night. He gave them flesh to eat and there was manna in the morning. Now it doesn't say that the quails continued on, but the manna did. And it says especially the manna never ceased until they came to Cana. For 40 years, he faithfully was giving them the manna from heaven. And then that water out of the rock here and gave him victory over Amalek. And now when they come to Sinai and God tests them, 40 days is always a time of testing. And they say, now this man, Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, did he bring them up? It was God. He just told them, you see how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself and dealt with the enemy. Now this man, Moses, we don't know what happened to him. He disappeared. And they were ready to make gods. And when they made this golden calf, and Aaron is the man, you know, Aaron was a weak man. It was not God's intention in the first place that Aaron should be a leader. He chose Moses and Moses made excuses. He says, I'm slow of speech. And yet it says he is a weak man. And yet it says he was mighty in word and deeds when he was in Egypt. But, and finally God says, well, here's Aaron. He can talk. You say the words and he'll speak them. And now here Aaron comes and the people come to him and they say, make us gods. So he's ready to please these people. But I say it's, it's, it's, it's shocking that after they've seen all this, and after they had said three times, all that the Lord has said, we will do. Now they're ready. Though they hadn't got the, yes, they, they, they, they knew the commandments. Moses told them that. And they were breaking the first commandment. Before they ever had the tables in their hands. What a revelation it is. What a, what a looking glass we have here of what man is. And the more we find that out, we can't trust ourselves, but we can trust the Lord. Then there's blessing. Now we find here the development of an idolatrous camp. And this is a great scripture. It's, it's in Hebrews also. Let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. There's a camp of idolatry today in Christendom that we're told to go outside of. And here we see the first formation from that which was of God, this camp of Israel. They set up a golden camp. Where'd they get the idea of a golden camp? Well, it was in Egypt. And their hearts have been turning back to Egypt, to this world. And we've seen that we're supposed to be outside. They, they were outside of the Egyptian territory. But the world of Egypt and the Pharaoh was still in their hearts. And so there's, there are a number of steps here. Notice, the first one is they, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron. They should have been gathered unto the Lord. He's the divine center. He was the one that was in their midst and had carried them on. But they gather together unto Aaron, to a man. And they say, this man, Moses, he was God's representative. We don't know what happened to him. And they have to have a man they can see. They're not walking by faith. And that's what happens in Christendom. They set up what we call a system, a clergy, and not just one, but a whole system of bishops and the Pope on the, all these, these things. And then, so the people, Aaron says, you break off your golden earrings. And so they, they give something that looks like a sacrifice. And Aaron received them. And verse four, he fashioned them with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf. Man gets his graving tool to shape and make things. This is the formation of a system that is not according to the pattern of scripture. And we have this thing developing. You know, after a while, when Moses talked about the You know, after a while, when Moses talked with him, why'd you do this? Oh, he said, the people brought their earrings and I put them in the fire and out came this calf. It was a big lopping lie. He fashioned them with his graving tool. But Aaron was a weak man and ready to do what the people want, please him. And then, you find here, he built an altar onto it. Verse five, and he made a proclamation, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And so in the systems of men, they have set up all kinds of things. Idolatry is at the very core of the systems of Christendom, where they worship angels, statues, the Mary, and all these various things patterned after the world. And idolatry is at the core of it. A real camp of Romanism. Now, you may say, yes, you may say yes, but then Protestantism protested and moved off from it. Yes, but how far did they get away? We'll get onto that in a bit. And so they made feast days. And in the Roman calendar and system, they have all kinds of feast days, connected with this golden calf of idolatry. As much as one could say, but we have to move on to other things. And so we find next, that yes, verse six, they offered up their burnt offerings, brought their peace offerings. It's a mixture. The burnt offerings and the peace offerings were of God. But this golden calf was real idolatry, representing the gods, the pagan gods in Egypt. But with that, they associate some of the feasts of Jehovah. And then what? They sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Doesn't that characterize systems roundabout? You find here just some of these principles. And for the first time, we're going to come to see, and we must get that lesson, that Moses pitched a tent of meeting outside of this idolatrous camp. God was angry and he said he would destroy them and make of Moses a great nation. We must pass on. Moses comes down and he saw the calf and the dancing. And now he came down with those tables of stone where the 10 commandments were written on. There were two tables and it says it was written on with the finger of God. Now Moses takes those tables and he breaks them. This was the right thing to do. If God would have brought, if he would have brought those tables of stone into that camp and act on that ground, it would have been all over with them. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all the things of the law to do them. They were under the curse. And in that condition, Moses breaks those tables. But he did more. Verse 20, he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder, straddled upon water, made the children of Israel drink of it. And then he speaks to Aaron and he has his story. But now he acted in judgment. And God had said before to Moses when he was up on the mount, he says, I'll destroy this people. But God didn't tell Moses to do certain things here in that situation. This is a crisis. This is one of the great crises that Moses had to face. And he acted wonderfully. He had spiritual sensibility to know what needed to be done. He must act in judgment by destroying this idol, this idolatry. And furthermore, verse 26, Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. When there's great evil like that, the principle throughout the Bible and the New Testament especially too, teaches there must be separation from evil. God was displaced. He was the one who brought them up. But now that calf displaces him. And whatever displaces Christ really is the gathering center, is an idolatrous system. And so there must be a stand. Who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And the sons of Levi gathered themselves together. You remember in the 19th chapter, God said he would make a kingdom of priests to Israel. But now they forfeited that as a kingdom. And so the sons of Levi came out, and they're the ones from whom the priesthood followed later on. Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said, put your sword up. And they had to go out and slay. And there were 3,000 slain that day. It's striking. When the law was given, 3,000 are slain. When the gospel of the grace of God is preached on the day of Pentecost, what happened? 3,000 were saved. That's the difference between the law and the grace. The law is as cold as the stones upon which it's written. And a sinful people cannot be saved and be helped by the law. But then Moses said, concentrate or consecrate yourselves this day, that he may bestow upon you a blessing. In spite of all this, God wants to bless his people. But there's only one way for blessings to be in separation. Well, this isn't all of it. We find in the 33rd chapter now, and I repeat, I do not see any commandment given to Moses what he should do. But he had spiritual sensibilities to know what was becoming to the Lord and for the people. And he acts and gets God's commendation. So here now in the 33rd chapter, God speaks and he says, depart. And so verse 7, Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, this is not a correct translation here when it says the tabernacle, because the tabernacle was not built yet. Mr. Darby uses the word tent of meeting, and that's what it is properly. So it should read here, Moses took the tent of meeting and pitched it without the camp, outside of this idolatrous camp, and afar off, not just outside, but afar off. And he came to pass, and everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tent of meeting, which was without the camp. And this is a great principle that's followed through scripture, that the place of blessing when there's evil is separation, outside. We don't hear much about this in our days in the assemblies now. We should. But as I said in Hebrews 3, Hebrews 13, it refers to this and it says, the Lord was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, outside the camp. And it's often pointed out, there are three times in the Bible where God was outside. Here, in the tabernacle, we haven't come to the end of this, he met with Moses outside of that idolatrous camp. In Ezekiel, when the temple was built, they were worshiping pagan gods, and God departed from that temple where the glory was. He was outside of Israel in the days of Ezekiel in the temple. You can trace that out in the scripture. And then at Calvary's cross is the third time that God was outside of religion. Outside of Jerusalem, outside the gate. So what does he say, the conclusion? He said, let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. And that's one of the things that has held my feet through the years, having opportunities to proclaim the gospel amongst many people in places and cities. And so on, where there were open doors. …

… The first verse of this first chapter of Numbers says, And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month and the second year, after they were come out of the land of Egypt. Now this places the time of this book of Numbers that we are going to be looking into, given many of the incidents of the journeys of the children of Israel. We were in our last meeting last evening, tracing where they came to Sinai. And much took place at Sinai. We trace out in the various scriptures, we find that they spent 11 months at Sinai. They came in the third month of the first year. And here we are still in the second month, in the second year. Now we stopped at Exodus chapter 34, I believe, and the rest of the book of Exodus has to do with the building of the tabernacle. And Moses got instructions as to the tabernacle when he was on the mount. So we're not taking up the subject of the tabernacle, that's a subject in itself. As we have on the chart and we listed, we're occupied with the journeys of the children of Israel. They went from place to place. So we pass over that. And then Leviticus is also given at Sinai. The Lord spoke out of the tabernacle when it was set up. And so that covers the whole book of Leviticus. And that brings us now to Numbers, where we get instructions further for their encampment around the tabernacle and the journeys and various incidents that took place. Now the book of Leviticus has to do with the offerings, especially. And we have charts on the tabernacle as a subject, it takes us several weeks to just get a little outline of it with a good many meetings. We have a chart also on Leviticus, the five main offerings of Leviticus. And those are subjects that come in this book. Now we come to the book of Numbers, and that is truly the wilderness book. And this wonderful Pentateuch of Moses, the five books, Genesis, the book of beginnings, Exodus is true to his name, the going out of Egypt, exit. And the redemption book, as it were. And Leviticus is the sanctuary book, coming into the presence of God, learning how to worship. Then Numbers is the journeys, especially the wilderness. We've had some in Exodus, of course. And so here, mainly as we've indicated on the sheet of the schedule of meetings, there are three great points. C.H. McIntosh points them out, and I've always appreciated it. As to these, probably the first three chapters, at least. First of all, in this chapter one, we're not going to read all this chapter, it has to do with all 11 tribes. I say 11 because the Levites were a special company and were not numbered. And so it's called the book of numberings, and it's the numbering of the people. Verse two says, take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the numbers of their names, every male by their poles, from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel. Now, that's a phrase that occurs throughout this chapter, those that are able to go forth to war. So the first thing we have here, there are three W's. I always like these words with alliteration that you can join together. And here we have a nation of warriors, that's the first W, a nation of warriors. And then, in the second chapter we have their encampment, the order where they were to place themselves around the tabernacle. Then in the third chapter, verse three, these are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests, which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office. And they are mentioned. So we have the second point, is a family of worshipers, that's the second W, a family of worshipers. And we'll make those applications for ourselves. Then thirdly, we have the nation of Levites, verse 41, not the nation, the tribe. And thou shalt take the Levites for me, I am the Lord. And the Levites, verse 45, it says, were instead of the firstborn. And they were consecrated for the service of the Lord, they waited on the priests so they were workers. Now put all these three together. We have a nation of warriors, a family of worshipers, a tribe of workers. Now you get all three of those words are applicable for the Christian. Those who can be warriors, able to go forth to war, they had to be 20 years old, some maturity physically and so on. And then God wants worshipers, those who represented the people who went in. God said before the covenant of Sinai, he would make them a kingdom of priests. And that's what God has in mind. Now in the New Testament, the Apostle Peter, and he's especially, as we said, a wilderness book, he speaks of every believer is a priest. Every born-again believer is a priest, a royal priest, and a holy priest. Now what is the function of a priest? He was to go into God. He could draw near. Now Israel under the law, and for those of you who weren't here last night, we saw that Israel took themselves off of the ground of grace, the covenant of promises, and put themselves on the covenant of law. God proposed it to them, to test them, to prove them. And he says, if you obey, you do all these things, then the blessings would come. And we saw the disaster before they ever got the tables of law in their hands, or came into the camp, they had broken the very first commandment, thou shall have no other gods before thee. And there was idolatry, and we went, I won't go through that again, but that's what took place there at Sinai. But God gave the law the second time on the ground of grace and law. He says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, to God's sovereignty and of grace. So they were in a place of distance. That's why it's a family of worshipers. But in the New Testament, it represents what each of us should be, a worshiper, a priest. When drawn near to God, give thanks and praise. That's why in our Lord's Day morning meeting, for remembrance and worship, we don't have one man in charge, as systems do. The Holy Spirit is in charge, and there's a freedom to use whomsoever he will. The women are not given the place of public representation, though they are priests also, but not given that place to publicly lead the praises and the activities of the assembly. And we all should be workers. So we get those three things, that's the lessons, in brief, of these early chapters of Numbers. We would start, of course, with priests or worshipers. God seeks worshipers, they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And he's looking for workers. The Levites, they assisted the priests. They were given to the priestly family. And so there are many little things to do. Levitical service. They all ought to be interested. Now every Christian should be active in these three spheres. Well, I better modify that a little bit, to say every Christian, because the warriors had to be able. You wouldn't expect a babe to be a warrior, a babe in Christ. And that brings us to, just to illustrate in the Epistles to the Thessalonians, it's often been said, in the first chapter the baby is born, his new birth. And in the second chapter he speaks about standing, and the baby learns to stand. That's growth. It doesn't happen all at once, as we know. And the third chapter, the baby learns to walk. And then we get the next thought, I missed one, I knew it didn't just fit right. The second chapter the baby is nursed, well you know how that is. The baby don't grow right up to standing, it's born, new birth in the first chapter. It's nursed, and there were nursing fathers and mothers in the second chapter. Then the third chapter, the baby learns to stand, if you stand fast. Stand on your own feet. And then fourthly learns to walk, in the fourth chapter he speaks of walking. And then in the fifth chapter, put on the armor. And so the baby has grown up to be a soldier. So that's what it means by able, able to go forth to war. And so in that sense, there's that, those features for every Christian, for in the Epistle to Timothy, a young man, Paul writes, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And we're called to be soldiers, to stand up for the truth. And you know a soldier has to stand on guard. And so it's not always a fighting, but vigilance and on guard. So that would cover these first chapters here. And I like to stress these things, and it's putting it very simply and concisely. Then in the fourth chapter, the Levites were given, well, before we come to that, we find in the second chapter that all these tribes were assigned their place around the tabernacle. Now the tabernacle indicated here was set up and on every side, roundabout, there were people occupied. It was a great company. We said something like three and a half million, it's estimated, there must have been there. And they were not given their rights as people talk about. We have no rights, you know, but there's so much talk about rights, I got a right to this and right to that and so on. They were assigned their place. And so in the body of Christ, we don't choose, we want to be an arm or a mouth or a ear or a tongue or what. We're given a place by the Spirit of God and it's for us to find our place. So they were assigned their place to pitch their tents. That's in the second chapter. And by their standard, the tribe of Dan, they were together. The tribe of Joseph or Judah, they were together. And the Levites were the first ones around this tabernacle to keep the charge of the Lord. And they were assigned their service. You know, it's beautiful just to read all this and one thought comes out as you read these early chapters of Numbers, that God is a God of order. There's no sixes and sevens, as we say, things in disorder. And we had that in 1 Corinthians 14, don't we? God is a God of order. There's order in God's universe and there should be order in the assembly and it's wonderful when things function. And they were placed even as to their order in the march. This tabernacle was for the wilderness where they were journeying. The temple is for the land where it's permanent. And so they had to take this tabernacle down oftentimes and so there was appointed service. Well Moses and Aaron were there to oversee all and Moses the representative of God and Aaron was the high priest and his sons, his family, were the priests. Well now then, what's the lesson for us? Who is to tell us or appoint our service or our place in the assembly? Well it's the Holy Spirit. We had that in 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit divided to every man severally as he will. And when it comes to moving and all that, we're going to see again what we saw before already in the 13th chapter of Exodus, the cloud of God's presence led the way and the ark went. So if everything is under the order of God, not self-will, you know there's no such thing in Christianity, in the body of Christ, for one to really say, I want to be this, I want to be that. No. It is the Holy Spirit who appoints, who gifts and fits and orders our place and we're to find out our use, what our place is. Now the Lord even said in Mark 13, I think it is, he says, watch and pray and to every man his work. So there's a work for each of us to do and when we function in this place under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there's beautiful order. Think of three and a half million people, we're going to see either this afternoon or today in a way, that some died. And then I was thinking, if some died, there surely must have been some born too. There were families, life went on and there were those who were born in the wilderness journeys and those who passed on. But God was over all and there was that guidance. So in the fourth chapter, their work is assigned. The Levites, there was the Kohathites and the Morawites, some, and the Gershonites. In the tabernacle, when the cloud would move, there was the signal and God gave that, he's the one that ordered that. Then they had to go and everybody had their work to do. And I think I've mentioned this before here, it's a little incident that sticks in my mind. Years ago, when our brethren at St. Louis had a little store building where they met and I came there one morning, on the Lord's day I was there, and the Sunday school hour was first and there was numbers came and everybody, there was not a whole lot of people, but those who came earlier, they busied themselves. And one sister says, we all have our work to do. And there was order here. One would dust this and place the books here and do this and so on, get the meeting hall ready for a meeting. I thought it was lovely. Each one did something and worked together. Well, that's what you get here. And when God is working, there is that wonderful order. To help one another, Joshua grew up under Moses. And when Moses' time was up, Joshua was ready to take the lead. And we have in scripture there, Elisha. It says, he washed Elijah's hands, Elijah, the experienced prophet, and the young working together with him and learning as it is in life, apprenticeship as it were. And so all that was ordered. The fifth chapter speaks about leprosy, there could not be any uncleanness and instructions are given there as to that. And we should say, but the Levites, it mentions in the fourth chapter, in the third verse, that the Levites were numbered and to serve from 30 years old to 50. There was a time of preparation. A youngster wasn't fitted to be a Levite. Now, when we speak of age, spiritually, it's not physical years. But it shows there was some maturity needed. And when he got to be 50 years old, he couldn't go forth in the act of service. But he ministered with his brethren in the tabernacle. So it comes the time, you know, naturally of life, when you cannot do what you used to do. But there's a service of communion and prayer. And so that was regulated. And so it says in the eighth chapter of Numbers, verse 25, that the Levites, they ceased their warfare of the service and ministered in the tabernacle to keep the charge. There's work for older folk to do, oversight. There's work for younger ones. When you can run, I often refer to the football games. For those who run with the ball, and they've got to be active and able, comes a time when you can't run with the ball anymore, even in the things of the Lord. So there's the work of coaching and so on like that, work to be done. Now let's come to the ninth chapter, a very important point here. I just have to pass over many of these things, touching the high points. In the ninth chapter, we have something spoken in verse 16. Well, verse 15 says, and the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, mainly the tent of testimony. This is what we get in the last chapter of Exodus. And in verse 16, it says, so it was always. The cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. Verse 17, when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that, the children of Israel journeyed. And in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord, the children of Israel journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord, they pitched. As long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle, many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle, according to the commandment of the Lord, they abode in their tents. And according to the commandment of the Lord, they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from evening until the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed. Whether it was by day or by night, that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days or a month or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents and journeyed not. But when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord, they rested in the tents. And at the commandment of the Lord, they journeyed. They kept the charge of the Lord at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. I read all these verses because I think this is a very important point, to move by the guidance of the Lord. Now, when we travel, it's good to sort of work out something according to your time and your purpose. But there was no schedule for the movements of the children of Israel. As I mean to say, they didn't know how long they were going to stay here or there or when they would move. As it says here, whether by night or by day. God had the schedule. And as I said already, you'll find that he kept them there at Sinai 11 months. Now they might have said, we've been here long enough, let's get going. I'm tired of this place, I'm going to move. And so in the movements of the Lord's people, we should desire the Lord's guidance, where we should pitch our tent. There comes a time sometimes when it's indicated we need to move. And as we made this experience, our family grew up and we didn't need a big house, needed a smaller house and so on. I came across a verse, I think it's in Deuteronomy, the Lord went before them to search out a place for them to pitch their tents in. Now that's pretty personal. And we look to the Lord and he's shown us an unexpected place. And we've been happy there for a number of years. Well, time may come we have to make another move. Of course, we're all waiting for the move up. And we don't know when that is either. But how we should be dependent upon the Lord. He has the directions. So as you read here, you see, when the cloud moved, the pillar of fire, whether it was by night or by day, they journeyed. So in Psalm 32, the Lord says, I will guide thee with mine eye. And we have in the book of Acts, the movements of God's servant. And sometimes we read there in the book of Acts, they wanted to go a certain place, but Satan hindered. So we have to do with Satan as well, who seeks to break up God's plan. And the great thing is, we often say, we shouldn't run ahead or lag behind. Now we're going to see, perhaps this afternoon, that when they got here to Cadiz, Barnia, the very border of the promised land, they didn't want to go on up. Spies were sent to spy out the land, and they said, no, we don't want to go. That happens. But our movements are not to be according to our desires, but according to the Lord's will. So I think we have enough of that. Now in the 10th chapter, there were silver trumpets. They were to make trumpets of silver. Silver speaks of redemption. And the priests were to blow. Verse 8, the sons of Aaron, the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And you find here in verse 4, I have to go over this quickly, it said, if they blow with one trumpet, then the heads of the thousands of Israel would gather. Verse 1. Then verse 5, if it was to be an alarm, the enemy is coming, then they, certain camps would blow. And when they blowed it a second time, it was an alarm for their journeys. And verse 7 is another occasion when the congregation is to be gathered together. He shall blow, not sound an alarm. And they would come together for their, verse 10 says, the days of their gladness, their solemn days, the beginnings of the years, blow with the trumpets of the burnt offerings and so on. And so a trumpet, you know, is something loud. And for a vast camp like that, it had to be something that was heard. But it was the priest that would see the first movement of the cloud, whether it was by day or night. And they say, God is going to move us, we've got to move. And the trumpet would be blown. But you wouldn't blow an alarm if it was a false alarm, if the people all set up and the enemy is here. No, there were times when it was their glad days, their feast days. And so for us too, there are announcements of conferences, we're being invited here or there or we have one, and their glad days, days of our feasts. And we ought to respond. This is the Lord leading. So that's the subject there. Now chapter 10, verse 11 through 12, they left the wilderness. Chapter 10 here now, verse 11, it came to pass in the 20th day of the second month and the second year that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. And it tells you how they moved. It was order and everybody grabbing their tent and running in here and see who can get first in line. No, none of that. It was all directed. Here it says, the sons of Morava, verse 14, in the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah. Now Judah means praise. I well remember, I was quite a young fellow living in a city of Milwaukee, a brother from Canada by the name of George Foggin came and he was exercised of the Lord to go as a missionary to China. And he did. He married a daughter of one of our missionaries that we knew, Brother Rock, who worked in China. And I met her years afterwards. I don't want to tell too much about George Foggin. But he spoke, and I'll never forget what he said. He brought out how that Judah was to lead the way. When they were journeying, Judah went first. And Judah means praise. And he got a hold of that truth and he preached on it, he said, in an assembly when he was. Lead the way was singing, praising the Lord. And then he told about how came Monday morning and he was going to work and a brother met him and said, well, George, how are you? Judah to the front? And he said, he wasn't rejoicing in the Lord. Judah wasn't to the front. He made a really practical point of it and that's what it is. Lead the way with singing. Judah was first and then the others followed. And so we have in verse 33, they departed from the Mount of the Lord three days journey and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days journey to search out a resting place for them. The Ark went first. And this is brought in, I'm just passing it over, that Moses had asked his father-in-law to go along with him. He said, you're acquainted with this wilderness and you can be eyes for us. And Moses had a tendency to lean on some human help. But here it says, it was the Lord moved the cloud and he went before them. The Ark to search out a place. The Ark represents Christ. It was the most important piece of furniture in the tabernacle. And so they went on. Well, they moved on. Now chapter 11, and when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. And the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses. When Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched and he called the name of the place Taberah, because of the fire of the Lord burnt among them. Here we hear that old, I was going to say song, but it's not the song, that we have been hearing with the children of Israel in their journeys along here. You remember what that was, grumbling. Grum, grum, grum, grum. Four times we have mentioned in the book of Exodus there that they grumbled, they complained. And here, it's not the song of the Lord, but complaining. And it displeased the Lord. What have we got to complain about? Some of you knew Brother G.A. Cashel. Well I knew his uncle, a dear old brother, and whenever you asked him, how are you, and you know sometimes he looked like he could topple over. He was not a specimen of strength in his old age in a way. And whenever you asked him, how are you, he would say, much to be thankful for. That's one thing I'll remember about that dear old brother. And you know, I think I was there in New York City one time and he was in the hospital, placed in the hospital. And the brethren knew in the little gathering that he was in the hospital. And lo and behold, the door opens and in comes Brother Shalinski, that was his name. Well they thought he was in the hospital. Yes he was. But it came Lord's Day morning and it was his practice to go to meeting. So if he's in a hospital or not, he was able to be up and around, and so he just gets dressed and goes off and he comes to the meeting. That was his life, praise the Lord, and much to be thankful for. That's what Brother Cashel would tell himself. How are you? Well his uncle would say, much to be thankful for. And old Brother Cashel, he says, I didn't ask you that, I asked you how you are. Well that was his answer. But so easily we complain and it displeased the Lord and the anger of the Lord was kindled. Now we remarked when we came to Sinai that up until that point, when they were on the ground of grace, God bore with all their complainings and their sinnings and he provided wonderful provisions. But now when they put themselves on the ground of law at Sinai where we read three times they said, all that the Lord has said we will do. God took them at their word and he didn't deal with them in grace now, he dealt with them in justice and he sent a fire and it consumed the uttermost parts of the camp. Why the uttermost parts? That's the back seats. Now don't take offense if you're sitting in the back seat this morning, but you know there are those who habitually, habitually like to take the father's seat and get out the first before the preacher or somebody can talk with him and ask him. And so this suggests they were in the outermost, as far away as they could be from the center of the tabernacle and that's where they were, that's where the complainers were. And Moses cried to the Lord and he prayed and the fire was stopped. Now we come into, in these chapters here, another phase of Moses' life. I mentioned previously there are seven spheres of Moses' life of 120 years. Quickly the first 40 years were spent in Egypt, he was a prince in Egypt. Second the next 40 years were spent in Midian where he was a shepherd. And then the last 40 years were spent in the service of the Lord and they're divided, we find he was the deliverer from bondage, he led them out of the bondage of Egypt. And then he was the leader in the wilderness, he's the one that interceded with God and so on. And then he was the lawgiver at Mount Sinai, he's spoken of as the mediator of this covenant of law, so he was the lawgiver, the fifth period. Now we come into a sixth phase of his life in trials and testings. Moses had a hard time and we see here, I think it's on in this chapter, he says, it's too much for me. Wonderful man as he was, yet his strength was only in God. So the next thing is now, what we find here, if we put it on the map, they came to Tabareth. Do I have that on here? It's round over here where the manna was despised, we're getting this far in the journey. Now verse 4, the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? God was giving them the manna to eat every day, every morning, but they wanted flesh to eat. And it's the mixed multitude that started. Now who were they? Well we didn't refer to it, but you'll find that when they left Egypt, a mixed multitude went along with them. There were those who were not really trusting in the Lord, for the wilderness demands a walk of faith. And it was this mixture of people that started the trouble. Now verse 5, they said, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. How'd you like to make a meal of that kind of food? It's all right in some condiments and so on, some flavors, but they were thinking about Egypt's food. That's a picture of the world. We lust and hunger after some of the things in the world that we used to do, that are like cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions. Somebody said when you eat that, everybody else knows what you ate. The smell of the world. And there they were in Egypt going to the promised land, and they're thinking about the world, turning back. And they said, now verse 6, now our soul is dried away, and there's nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. What a word. Nothing but this manna. And you know, manna was called angels' food. Food for angels. Angels are strong. And they were getting tired of the manna, despising the manna. But God says, it was as corander seed, colors, bdellium, and the people went about and gathered it, and they beat it in a mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like fresh oil. God never said anything in the 16th of Exodus about the manna, that they should bake it in pans and cakes and so on. This might suggest trying to dress up the Word of God, make it appealing to people. And we hear all kinds of sermons today, supposed to be based on the Word of God. I remember one old brother up north here at Irma, he told the story of a young preacher, and he said, I've got my sermon already, now I have to find a text for it. He had a sermon all made with his own talking, now he wanted to find a text in the Bible that we could tie onto it, and so on. Well, that might give the picture here, trying to dress up the manna, change the flavor, getting tired of it. There's nothing like the pure Word of God, beloved. By the grace of God, I've been privileged to study the Scriptures for over 60 years. And I tell you, it was just as fresh and wonderful this morning as I read it, as it was when I first ever read it. Nothing like the pure freshness of the Word of God, if our souls are right. But if we're tired of the manna, then we're in trouble. While my time is up here, this is a bad state of soul, when the manna is despised. Then we're backslidden, and we need to get back and enjoy the freshness of the Word of God. I'll just close in prayer. Our blessed God and our Father, we thank Thee for these lessons Thou hast recorded for our learning, the journeys of the children of Israel, Thy ways with them, Thy instructions as to order and all. And we pray Thee to make them good and practical to us in our lives, as we journey in the wilderness way. Will Thou help us, and that we may not despise the manna. We may hunger after the precious Word of God as Thou didst give, and to enjoy Thy presence, and to be dependent upon Thy leading and guiding. So we commend each one to Thee, and ourselves for the rest of this day, and bring us back again to study more Thy Word. We ask it as we give Thee our thanks, in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. This meeting be four o'clock, Lord willing. …

… We are now looking at Numbers, Chapter 12. We are not trying to cover the subjects in any detail, but to touch on the general outline and get the high points in the short time that we have together. We have been tracing out something of the journeys of the children of Israel, and we are considering them at Mount Sinai, we got this far here and moved on up this morning when they despised the manna. So now here in Chapter 12, we read verse 1, Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out, ye three, to the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out, and the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were he not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not this sin upon us. Wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned, let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed, when he cometh out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days, let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people removed from Haziroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran. Just a little notice of this, for it brings out some of the solemn lessons that come out in the wilderness. The wilderness is our Christian life. Everywhere we've come to the Lord and delivered from Egypt, it has to do especially with trials and testings in the wilderness. It is what the world is to us now since we have turned to the Lord. We shouldn't be living all the time in that wilderness character of things. God's purpose, we'll be seeing this evening or this afternoon especially, was not that they should spend 40 years in the wilderness. Going to see that they were brought right up here to Kadesh Barnea, were right on the way, and here's the promised land. And God said they should go in. And it was just, well, a little over a year. And some, we said they spent 11 months at Mount Sinai here. Many lessons were there. One of the great things we've been saying is that the wilderness brings out, should teach us what we are in ourselves, what our hearts are. We found the children of Israel murmuring and complaining all the time. And up until Sinai, when they were under the covenant of promises, God met all the failures with wonderful grace. But when they put themselves under the ground of the law, all that the Lord has said we will do, he said, the covenant of Sinai, then God dealt with them in judgment in times. But here, this is a touch, the wilderness brings out sad failures. It has been proven so in our own history, even as a company of brethren, I mean, as a fellowship, and so on, many things happen. Strange. Now here we have the incident of Miriam. And you will remember how in the early part of Exodus, when the children of Israel were over here in Egypt before the Passover and the Red Sea, when Moses was born, this bright little sister of his, Miriam, she came. She was watching there. And she was the one that said to Pharaoh's daughter who found the babe in those bulrushes, she said, shall I call a nurse? Yes. Well she knew the best nurse there could be for that little babe. And that was his mother. And so she suggested that she was there. And then we saw when they crossed the Red Sea, when God made this wonderful deliverance by power from Egypt and from the enemy, Pharaoh, it was Miriam that led the women in singing. A bright testimony. But here now, after years come by, some sad things develop. We've seen with Aaron, and he's involved here too, that when Moses was up on the mount forty days, forty nights, getting instructions from the Lord, the people came and said, we don't know what happened to Moses. Make us a god. And Aaron, a weak man, listens to the people and gets involved in this terrible idolatry. Now here again, it's Miriam and Aaron. And God's word is always very exact. When one is mentioned first, he's first, or she's first. When the name is second, they're second. So it's Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman which he had married. It really comes out here sadly now that Miriam is jealous. And jealousy is an awful thing. And it comes out in our hearts, it's there. And we either have to learn to judge it or we're going to suffer the consequences of it. Now there can be a brother and sister relationship. And there ought to be these good relationships in the family. But a man's wife is closer to him than his sister. And Miriam no doubt felt that. Man and wife are one flesh. And so jealousy being at the bottom of it, it's Miriam and Aaron, not Aaron and Miriam. Aaron shows his weakness again to listen to this sister-in-law, as it were, complaining against Moses. And it was a serious thing. For God said to them, were you not afraid to speak evil or to speak against my servant Moses? Practical lessons here, you see. Now this Ethiopian woman was black. The Ethiopians were dark. And she had a closer place than Miriam. So and not only that she is the instigator of this, because she's the one that's smitten with leprosy, very sad. But now it comes out in another time. I was thinking about whether he said, hath God only spoken by Moses. Here he's speaking against him. Yes, it's in verse 2. He said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? We have quoted before a verse in Jeremiah that the heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Our human heart, and that's mine and yours, is desperately wicked. Very clever. We can deceive ourselves. He that trusteth in his heart is a fool, scripture says. And we can come up with some fabulous things to justify, and yet it's not right. So first you see, you say, speak against that he married a black woman, Ethiopian woman. And then you say, has he only spoken by Moses? See how the jealousy comes in, wanting to have a place, and jealous of someone else. God gives us a place. And it's a false humility to not take the place that God gives to us as responsibility. It's not seeking a place. But when God puts one in a place, we must fulfill our obligations. Now it comes out here, God says, the man Moses was very meek above all the men which are upon the earth. Another place we have another time, he fell on his face. He was a meek man. He had learned in the school of God in Egypt for 40 years, had to learn to be nobody. And we mentioned too this morning, we're coming into this series of things, time of things, where Moses is tried and tested. He was tried and tested all along by the rebellion. And what God said, they're a stiff neck people. He was tried by that. And yet he came along very wonderfully. And so here too. And so God spoke. You know, we don't have to answer charges. And if we're going to be used to lead God's people and to help them, we must expect some of these things. The Lord did. And all his servants have gone through this, but we don't need to defend ourselves. The Lord took up the cause and the Lord spake suddenly and says, Aaron and Miriam, you come out. Now I can't spend much time, we've got much ground to cover this afternoon. And so he speaks, he says, verse seven, my servant Moses is not so, who's faithful in all mine house. The point here is you see that God takes up the cause. And various things are at the bottom of it. And then he says, weren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses? He was God's servant. And it's a very serious thing. And sometimes we may think we are spiritual, that we are extra able to look into things and find faults. We find with David, in his connection with Saul, he said, it's not to speak or to deal against the Lord's anointed. Saul was very guilty, but we know how David regarded him as God's anointed one. And he would not kill him when he had the chance to, in spite of all that Saul had been doing against him. And so there's the lessons, and Miriam is stricken, not Aaron, Miriam is stricken with leprosy. Now servants, sisters have a wonderful place and can do a wonderful work, but they also can be used of Satan. And we see this oftentimes too, the lessons for all of us to learn practically here. Well, they move now from Hazarath and they pitch up here in the wilderness of Paran. I put the word down here, but it covers all of that. Now we come to chapter 14. And now chapter 13 first, we were in 12. Now the Lord spake unto Moses saying, verse 1, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall he send a man, every one a ruler among them, to search out the land of Canaan. So they were up here really to the borderline of Kadesh, Baniya, ready to enter in. And two years had not elapsed yet, close to two years. They journeyed down and God meant for them to go into the land. Now we don't get the whole truth here. Here we get that it says Moses said, send men. But if we turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1, which supplements many of these things as Moses rehearses these matters just before they went into the land, Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 22, well, verse 19. And he says there in the last part of verse 19 of Deuteronomy 1, we came to Kadesh, Baniya, which we've marked on the chart here. And I said unto you, ye are coming to the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give to us. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee. Fear not, neither be discouraged. And now notice this, verse 22. And ye came near unto me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again, by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well, and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe. Now the thought here, you see, according to this information in Deuteronomy, is that the people said, Moses says, here's the land, go up and possess it. But they came near, and said, We will send men, and search out the land, and bring us a word, by what way we must go. Now what does this show? God had said that he was going to bring them into a good land, a land that flowed with milk and honey. And in Deuteronomy 8, let's just see there what God said about it, of the land of Canaan. Verse 7, Deuteronomy 8, For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil, olive, and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron, out of whose hills thou mayest bring big brass. Such was this description that God gave of the land. Why not go up then, believe God, and possess it? But instead, they said, we're going to send spies and look out the land and see what kind of a land it is, whether it's good or bad, or lean or fat. That's what comes out here in verse 20 of Numbers 13, what the land is, whether it be fat or lean. Now God said it was good. These would believe God, but unbelief of their hearts says we want to find out for ourselves. All right, so Moses gives in to this and spies are sent out. Now there was no need for this. It was a thing of unbelief to begin with, lack of trust in God. All right, so they go. And you know, we can't read all these verses here for the time limited. Verse 23 of chapter 13 of Numbers, they came unto the brook of Eshcol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bared upon two upon a staff, and they brought her the pomegranates and the figs. They brought this evidence of the fruit of the land, a cluster of grapes that was so big that two men had to carry it on a pole. That was evidence of the good land. But what do we find? They said, yeah, it flows with milk and honey, all right, this is the fruit of it. Verse 28, nevertheless, the people be strong and dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. And we saw the children of Anak there, and they dwelt there, and so on. They speak about it. And in verse 33, they said, there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. We were in their sightless grasshoppers. So they brought an evil report. You know, we can twist things to suit whatever we want. And when there's lack of faith, and the path of God is faith, we have in Habakkuk that great principle that just shall live by faith. That's repeated three times in the New Testament. It's a path of faith. And if we don't have faith and exercise faith, there's the unbelief of the natural man. And you're going to find some excuse not to do what we don't want to do in the first place. So they brought an evil report. It says that in verse 32. They brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched. But Joshua, or Caleb, first of all here in verse 30, still the people, before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. And the men that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And so the gist of it is, as we have in the 14th chapter, Joshua joins in. Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which then they searched the lands, rent their clothes. And they said in verse 7 again, the land which we passed through the search, it is an exceeding good land. And if the Lord delight in us, he will bring us into this land and give it unto us. A land with flows with milk and honey. Only rebel you not against the Lord. They are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them. And the Lord is with us, fear not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. Very sad thing. God intended in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, not to let them die in the way of the wilderness as they so often said, but to bring them into this good land to enjoy our inheritance. And that's what Canaan stands for. The Ephesian truths. But such terrible unbelief. And is it any better among us as children of God today? Where are we in our soul's experience? Do we see our picture in some of these things of Israel? They were a choice people. And such was their history. And as we read in the beginning of these lectures, God said, well, in the New Testament, these things were written for our admonition, for our learning to be helped thereby. Joshua and Caleb had faith, believed in God. The people said they're giants in the land. Well, Joshua says, they're bread for us. And a brother used to say, well, if they were giants and the giants are bread for us, then the bigger the giants, the more bread they'd have to eat. That's the way faith looks at things. Giants are difficulties. But there are opportunities for God to show himself what faith can do, what God can do, what faith in God can bring about. All right, so we must pass on here. And we find that God says, all right, you're not going to go into that land. Verse 31, well, verse 30 of the 14th chapter, he shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell there and save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which he said should be a prey, then will I bring in. And they shall know the land which ye have despised. Serious thing, to despise our inheritance in Christ, the things that are brought out in Ephesians. That's the great book of our inheritance in the New Testament. And he says, your little ones, as you said, would die in the wilderness. Those are the ones I'm going to bring in. And verse 32, as for you, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years, and bear your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness, and so on. So the next part or chapter says how they wanted to go up then. First they don't want to go. And then when God says now in judgment, you're going to wander here in the wilderness. I put here 38 years. It says 40, but I think that takes the whole total. We generally speak of 40 years from Egypt to Canaan when they were finally brought in. And if it was some over a year that they were already on the way, and then there's more time before they got up around, I think it works out to about 38. You can challenge that. God says 40, but I think he has the whole time in mind. And so there they were. They just wandered around. As I say, then the end of this chapter, they wanted to go up like naughty children. First they say, no, we won't. And then discipline comes. And then they say, well, we're going to do it. And they say, no, you can't, but we're going to do it anyway. And that's the way we act, like children, having grown up sometimes. And so verse 42, 14th chapter, God says, go not up, for the Lord is not among you. They presumed to go, verse 44. And the Amlekites came and discomfited them. Well, that brings us around here. And nothing is said here in Numbers about these 38 years of wandering. That's another phase. Except we do have, I think, in the 33rd chapter of Numbers, if I'm not mistaken, a list of all the places that they went to. Yes, I think it's in the 33rd chapter. A list is given of all the journeys. And there's one interesting thing I found in making this chart years ago, working with the maps. God said they would wander by the way of the Red Sea. Now you may wonder about this, but if you look at the map, you'll find that the Red Sea had two arms. It was like this. And we saw the one arm over here, where God made the way for them to go through. And this is the other arm now of the Red Sea. And you find Eson Geber as listed. And some charts, and I made this first, like this, only this Red Sea coming up to here. But really, they had to come to the very tip of the Red Sea. And to me, it shows a lesson. When we get away from the Lord and wander and in our own self-will, we've got to come back to the sea, the place of death. In other words, it's this lesson here again, that God made a way through the sea of death. And it speaks of the resurrection of Christ, especially. You've got to come back to the pit from which we've been dug, as it says in Isaiah. So that's an interesting thing, to touch the sea again, to face it, and learn the lesson. Well, we move on, and we have to pass over things here. There's the rebellion of Korah in chapter 16. They gathered themselves against Moses, and this is more serious. It was Korah, one of the chief of the Levites, and they gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron, and said, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation holy, and every one of them, lift up yourselves. So there's further rebellion against God's leadership. This is the way Satan would seek to work, and he has successfully done this in Christendom, or I should say the history of the church, the true believers. And we as brethren have experienced that. When I say brethren, I mean those who have gathered out to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from over a revival of truths, over 150 years, and the sad history that we have experienced. But God says he would show, and we pass over that, and come on to chapter 20, where we see a failure of Moses. Moses, who had done so wonderfully through all these trials and testings, and I've mentioned this before, and we have an outline study of Moses that you can get here for a few cents if you wish to study it for yourself. He's one of the greatest men in history, sacred history, biblical history, and profane history, or secular history. And some 700 times in the Bible, six times spoken of as the man of God. He was a man for God's crisis. But when we come to men, it's so true what has often been said, that the best of men are but men at best. It's a good phrase. It's not my own, but I'd like to pass it on. And so only one man is completely perfect without failure, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. So here in the 20th chapter, we find Miriam dies, and there's no water again for the congregation. They speak against Moses and Aaron. It's an old song, as they would call it today, old hat, always blaming someone else instead of themselves. And the easiest thing is to blame those whom God is using. And he said they wished they had have died. And so, verse 7 of the 20th chapter, the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of the rock? And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, and he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. Moses acts here and supplies water for the people, and God gave it abundantly. But, verse 12, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. Now God said, Speak to the rock, and there will be water. And that's what God told him to do once before. Over here, Marah, the rock was smitten, and that was over here. Water from the rock at Massah. This time, God said, You speak to the rock. You speak, and take your rod, not smiting the rock. And Moses called the people rebels. And we've got to be careful what we say about the people of God. In Malachi, it says they are his jewels. They may be rascals, or act like rascals, oftentimes. But we can't call them rascals. And it says in one of the Psalms, forget just what number it is, that they provoked Moses. The people provoked him so that he spake unadvisably with his lips. God can call them rebels, but Moses had no right to. And then he says, Must we fetch you water? It was God that brought water. And so here's the sad failure of Moses. Well, I think if we were in Moses' place to go through all that he went through, we would have broke up a long time before he did. You know what I mean? Moses did marvelous in standing up against all this and meeting all this unbelief all this while. But here he failed because there's only one man that is perfect to follow. And the thing is, why was so serious? God says, Now you and Aaron, you're not going to bring these people in. And we find, we read in Deuteronomy that Moses, this bothered him. And he spoke to the Lord about it, that he couldn't go into the land. And in one place it says, God said, That's enough. Don't talk to me anymore about it. In God's government, because he spoiled a type. That's a serious thing of it. The rock, which is Christ, can only be smitten once. There's no need for him to be smitten and suffer again. And that's one of the sins of Romanism, creating Christ over again in the mass. That was a serious thing for him to smite. The rock must not be smitten twice. And he gives this water and so on. There's the failure of Moses. And Aaron dies here in this chapter. Now, I want to come to the section we want to get to. You find that the children of Israel, after wandering around in these years, God was ready to bring them down. And Miriam dies there. And they came down over this way, the land of Edom. And you see what a long journey they had to make, going way around. And so it comes out here in this 20th chapter. They said to Edom, verse 17 of the 20th chapter, Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, and we won't touch anything. And Edom said, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee. And if you drink any of your cattle, drink of... Well, they said, if our cattle drinks of your water, we'll pay for it. Verse 19. And Edom said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with a strong hand. Verse 21, Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border. Therefore, Israel turned away from him. And they journeyed from Kaddish and came on to Mount Hor. It's over here. This was a circumstance that was difficult. Edom would not give them passageway through their land, so that they wouldn't have to go way around. They had to compass around the land of Edom. And this was allowed of God because we come to an important change in chapter 21. You know, there are things happen beyond our control. And it bothers us and gives us difficulties. But God is over all and he's allowing all things. So we come to chapter 21 now. There's the Canaanite in the way of the spies. And verse 4. They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loatheth this light bread. All these circumstances here that Edom refused to give them passageway. And by the way, you know, God never forgot that. That comes up later. Edom would come into judgment, it says in scripture, because they did not give passageway to the children of Israel. But in a way, God is over all and he allowed it. And they had to go way down over here, that it might bring out what was in their heart. And it gets worse. You know, if we don't judge this wrong spirit of things, complaining and various things that we've seen in the children of Israel, it's just going to get worse. Until we come to the bottom and really judge this. And even like in the pictures on the map, that was the low spot. Way down here. And then God sent us fiery serpents. And from there, they made good progress. We get into this. They were discouraged because of the way. It was like a detour. And I often say in speaking of this, when I travel, that's a word I never like to see. Detour. It means you have to go out of the way, and it takes up time and so on like that. And there are detours allowed of God in our spiritual life. But we must take it from the Lord. And he will give grace. So they were discouraged because of the way. And then they spoke against God. God first here now, blaming God. Does this happen to Christians? Yes, I well remember one experience. A whole many years ago, I was visiting. There was a mother. The husband was the leading brother in the meeting, a little small meeting. And she had a large family. And she was speaking, and she says, you get one pushed down after another. You just get pushed down. And it certainly was not a language of faith or accepting of the Lord, blaming God. He's above all circumstances. And nothing happens but what he allows. You know, the world has an expression, bad luck or good luck. There's no such thing like that with the children of God. Anyway, so then more than that, that they're discouraged by the way. We have to watch out for discouragement. You know that story in a tract that someone dreamt that the Lord was, or the devil was going out of business and he was selling his tools. And there was one tool that he had a high price on. And that was the tool of discouragement. He said, if I can't get in any other way, I can often get in with that tool of discouragement. That's why he put a high price on it. Well, it's just a little story, but it's true. And now they say there's no bread. And they contradicted themselves. They said, there's no bread. And our soul loathed this light bread. That was the truth. God was sending the manna. In spite of the failures of the children of Israel, their wanderings in the wilderness, he never withheld the manna. It came for 40 years. God is faithful to us in all our unfaithfulness. And so they were loathing the light bread. They were tired of the manna. So now God deals. And we're in the school of God. We're in God's school. And he has discipline. So verse 6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. And they bit the people. And much people of Israel died. And so they came to Moses. And they said, we have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord. Take away the serpents. Now, this is a very important event. You know, the Lord referred to it in John 3. And he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. One of our dear brothers of times past and his written ministry has pointed out four great types in the journeys of the children of Israel of the death of Christ. And I very much appreciate this. And I've tried to speak about this, maybe in times past. We've already had two of these great types of the death of the Lord Jesus. And this now of the brazen serpent lifted up is a third type of the death of Christ and its meaning. And every time, there's no repetition in this. There's always new points brought out. And you can see that it's at the end, almost, of the wilderness journey where they're where they're to learn this great truth of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. The first type was the lamb in Egypt, blood on the lintel, the death of Christ. Then as we've been seeing, the second here is the Red Sea, the death. …

… ...to the first chapter of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, chapter 1. I start here to just link up with, that was mentioned that the children of Israel here, in their unbelief, wandered thirty-eight years. And I said that the Scriptures spoke of forty years. And we talked some about it after the meeting, and I was looking in Scriptures here now, and we get this straight from the book of Deuteronomy. Now we're told in the first chapter, in the first verse, these are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel, on this side Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophi, and Hazaroth, and so on. And he says, their eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kaddish Barnea. Now verse 3, it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, on the first that Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, and according to all that the Lord hath given him in commandment unto them. And so on, he gives details. I just refer to this, that the book of Deuteronomy was written in the fortieth year. And it's really Moses over here about to enter in, the people of Israel about to enter into the promised land, the Amorites and the Moabites going up in this way. It confirms what you've said, that the whole journey was forty years, including the years of wandering. And if you look at the second chapter of Deuteronomy, in verse 14, Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 14, the space in which we came from Kaddish Barnea until we were come over the Brook Zered was thirty and eight years, until all the generation of the men of war that wasted out from among the host as the Lord swear unto them. So there it is definitely stated, it was thirty-eight years from this time, Kaddish Barnea, that was with their wanderings. And then when they came, well he says that all the generation of the men of war died. Now that statement in numbers must then include, when it says forty there, it must include all the time from when they started in Egypt and wandered thirty-eight years. So I just refer to this, I think that that settles that question. Now let's turn on to the end of Deuteronomy, just to notice in the thirty-third chapter, this whole book is a review, and it is Moses as the prophet speaking here. We said there are seven phases in the life of Moses, and we have them covered in a little booklet here, some are available, a study of Moses, the man of God, that's a separate study again. But since we've had a great deal about Moses, we refer to these seven phases. We mentioned he was a prince in Egypt first, and this has taken up an outline form in this little booklet for any who want to study it further. And the second then, he was a shepherd in Midian for forty years. Forty years in Egypt learning to be somebody, learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Then as someone has said, he was forty years in the backside of the desert learning to be nobody. Who cares about somebody, a shepherd in the backside of the desert? And he grew to be very meek. As we read this afternoon, he was the meekest man, very meek. Well then the third phase, God called him, and he was the deliverer of the people from bondage in Egypt. And that's his time there in the book of Exodus, and laboring and finally bringing the children of Israel across the Red Sea. Then he was the leader in the wilderness, leading the people, God's man, through the wilderness. And then we came to Sinai, where the law was given, and he was the lawgiver. He was the mediator, and it speaks of that in Hebrews, of the covenants and the mediator. And he's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the mediator of the new covenant that is made in his blood. And then we referred to what we were having this afternoon and so on, Moses in trials and testings. And he had to endure all these various things. And now the seventh phase is the prophet in closing days. And this is his ministry, really, that is given in the book of Deuteronomy. He's looking back, reviewing, and in view of going into the land and exhorting them. And it's just wonderful. Now, we come to his closing days, and the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy, just to refer to it, verse 1 says, this is the blessing, where with Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. It's wonderful. We saw this afternoon how they provoked him to speak unadvisably with his lips. And they were constantly complaining against him and complaining against God. Instead of looking in faith, he called them rebels. And they really were rebels. God called them stiff-necked, as we often are too. You know, you have a stiff neck, that's stubborn, it won't bend one way or the other. But here, after enduring all these things, and he's 120 years old, as we find in the next chapter, I think, he blesses the people before he dies. It's something that shows that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if he was a representative of God, he shows this wonderful character. He could bless the people, and he has the blessing for the tribes. This is a wonderful study in itself, these chapters here, and in a prophetic character. And then he closes, and in verse 27, he says, the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And I think the chapter before, there was a song that he taught, and it brings before the Lord. Now here he says, the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Words we often like to use, and give to people in comfort. That underneath us are his everlasting arms. And then he says, Israel, verse 28, shall dwell safely. And then verse 29, now, happy art thou, O Israel, who is likened to thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency. There are several words here, beginning with S. One is salvation. He says, happy art thou, O people saved, who is likened to thee, O people saved by the Lord, and he's the shield of our help, and the sword of excellency. This we can all take for ourselves, and thus he closes this wonderful blessing with pointing the people to the Lord Jesus, or to God. Now on the 34th, we have the closing days of Moses. We have seen the death of Miriam, as referred to, and the death of Aaron was mentioned, and various other ones that came under the discipline of God. And now we have this great man, Moses, who we said this afternoon is spoken of six times in scripture as the man of God. He was God's man for crises. Now verse one says in the 34th chapter, Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountains of Nebo to the top of Pisgah. And we had Pisgah mentioned in the 21st of Numbers, which is way up around, as we said, they reached the low point here, but had that figure of the death of Christ as the brazen serpent lifted up on the cross, and we might have eternal life. And we said this figures the third phase of the death of Christ, where he died for sin that dwells in us. And I've always been so thankful, well, I went through some experiences, that Christ not only died for my sins, but he died for that sinful nature, or sin in the flesh is the scriptural term, the root of all our troubles. He died for that too, and is condemned. And with that is associated eternal life. And as they went on up, there's the water from the well, beer. They sang, and water sprang up, figure of the Holy Spirit. Life and the power of the Spirit of God, the third wonderful type. So they went to Pisgah, way up on the top of the mountains. And we saw the failure of Moses, that he smote the rock when he should only have spoken to it the second time, spoiled the type of salvation in Christ, and God said he would not enter into the land. There's another reason too, why he does not enter into the land. But here, in wonderful grace, the Lord took him up to the top of Pisgah, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, and Dadan, and Naphtala, and the valley of Jericho, and the palm trees. You know, we often say, he didn't get into the land. But God, in grace, gave him a view of all the land. He probably saw more of the land of Canaan than any of the Israelites that went in. They had to possess the land, they had to drive out the enemy. But God, in wonderful grace, gave him a beautiful view of all the land. God has his government with us, but it's like we sing in a hymn, with mercy and with judgment, my web of time he wove. God is ever merciful to his people, though he has to deal with us in discipline, and has his government and his ways. So the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, and Naphtala, and Ephraim, and to the uttermost sea, the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees. And he says, this is the land, it's a wonderful thing. Now he says, I've caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shall not go over thither. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor. No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. God buried Moses. And from the epistle of Jude, it would seem that Michael, the prince, I believe he's the archangel, he was associated with it, because the devil contended with him for that body. And it says there, Michael didn't bring against him a railing accusation. So it would indicate that Michael, the archangel, was used in the burial of Moses, a signal honor indeed. And now it says in verse 70, he was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim or his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for him. The other reason why Moses could not bring the children of Israel into this promised land, it's not heaven, it's Canaan, it's the portion that we should enjoy now as Christians. Canaan is often used in the sense of crossing the Jordan, the river of death, and Canaan being heaven. But we find when we come to the book of Joshua that they had to fight in Canaan. They had to possess the land. It was their inheritance. And the picture is we too have to make the promises of God our own. We have to possess the land and there's conflict with Satan. So we need the whole armor as Ephesians tells us. But now he was the law giver. He was associated with the law and the thought is often given that the law could not bring us into inheritance, the law of Sinai. And if Moses was associated as the mediator, as the law giver, it would not fit in with the type. And so now we find in verse 9, Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. God had said to Moses before, you will not go over, I think you'll find in the earlier chapters of Deuteronomy, and he said, encourage Joshua. It's nice if there's young men in the school of God, as we said before, under the training of Moses, associated with him, proven and experienced, and who can take over. And we like to encourage younger ones to go on. And God said, you encourage Joshua to come. We all realize the time comes when, in the earlier chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses said, I'm this day 120 years old, I can't go in and out like I used to. And we come to that experience too. And we're happy to see others coming along and coming up, and to be faithful to carry on because our times are limited. So there was Joshua, and he was full of the spirit of wisdom. And verse 9, Moses had laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him. Now, God gives this wonderful epithet, we might say, of Moses, in verse 10 of the 34th chapter. There arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, and all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt. The Pharaoh and all his servants, and all his land, and his mighty hand, and the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. And so that brings us to the first chapter of Joshua now, where Joshua is the leader to bring them into the land. And Joshua is the type of Christ risen, as the captain of our salvation. The risen, glorified Christ. So now, the first chapter of Joshua, verse 1 says, Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, and every place of the sole of your foot that shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even into the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites, and of the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Now this is very up to date. The world is occupied with the eastern lands. And every day, practically in the news, you're reading about what's going on, and right now in Palestine, the conflict with Israel and the Arabs. In Leviticus, God says, the land shall not be sold forever, it is mine. That is a special land, the land of Palestine, that God claims as his own, and he gave it to his people Israel. And here's something of the borders. Now we know they lost it, and they crucified Christ, and God allowed the enemies, others to come in, and they were driven out. And it's only some 45 or so years that they're a nation in the land of Palestine again. And God, in his sovereign purposes, is going to accomplish his promises to Israel in spite of their failure. And there's the conflict God never gave the land of Palestine to the Arabs, to the Ishmaelites. That's what they are. He gave an inheritance to them. You can read that in the Old Testament. But people are fighting, and so all this goes on. Now God said here to Joshua, you go in, and you'll be strong and of good courage and to possess this land. Well we don't follow that further. We want to go on to see now the fourth type of the death of Christ. I've been saying there are four types in the history of Israel here of the death of Christ. We have mentioned the Passover, first the death of Christ, shelter under the blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Then the second was the Red Sea, where we have an added truth, resurrection. And the defeat of the enemy, Pharaoh coming after them and overthrown. And so we have this double picture giving us the full picture, the death and resurrection of Christ. So it's broken up in parts, and crossing the Red Sea is especially the death of Christ and his resurrection. And there on the other side, the enemies are defeated, Christ is victorious. Then we had this afternoon the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, and we've just spoke about that as a further type of Christ not only dying for our sins, but for sin, what we are. And we're seen now in him, a new man. God's not looking at us according to what we see in us, but he's looking at us in Christ, accepted in the beloved. Now, the Jordan, going through Jordan, it's a picture of death again. We have a fourth type. And every time there's something more added. The last time I spoke on this somewhere, I was impressed with the thought of what we have in Hebrews 2, so great salvation. He says, how shall we escape if we neglect? So great salvation. God's salvation is very great. And we never can make too much of the death and resurrection of Christ. That's our only hope, our rock. But we want to see how much is involved in it. There's much more involved in it than we think of him just dying for our sins. So that's what we've come to here now. They had to cross the Jordan. Or they could get into the promised land. The lesson of death again. It's not only that Christ died. What we're going to see here, it's a picture of we died with him. As Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Alright. So in this third chapter, they come into Jordan. Verse 1 says, they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. And they lodged there. And the Ark of the Covenant is mentioned. The Ark was the most important piece of furniture in the tabernacle. And it spoke especially of Christ. It was gold, Shittim wood, speak of his humanity, but covered with gold, his deity. And upon that Ark was the mercy seat where blood was sprinkled upon. And so it's Christ as the one who's made atonement, represented by the Ark. And that goes first here, verse 3, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. And then he says in verse 4, that you may know the way by which you must go. For if you have not passed this way hitherto, though they had crossed the Red Sea, they had not crossed the Jordan, a new land, an entrance into Canaan. And remember, Canaan represents our inheritance in Christ, that we're to enter in to enjoy. But before we can enter in, we have to have this experience, experimentally, of what the death of Christ is, and ourselves, all right. So verse 8 says, when you are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan. And verse 11, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you, and take you 12 men, verse 12, out of the tribes of Israel, out of every man a tribe. As soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon a heap. Shall come to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, as they that bear the Ark were come into Jordan. And the feet of the priests that bear the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water, for Jordan overflowed all his banks at the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up a heap very far from the city Adam. It's interesting that Adam is mentioned, the originator of the race, as it were, the first man Adam, and sin came in through Adam, and death by sin. And so these waters stopped back way up to the city of Adam. And the salt sea failed, and they were cut off, and the people passed over right against Jericho. Verse 17, the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant to the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. All the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were clean over Jordan. Now you may say, as far as I've read, well, what's the difference between that and the Red Sea? It's just the same thing. Ah, but we're not through. In the fourth chapter, he goes on with further directions, and that's where there are additions to each of these types. Verse 2, in the fourth chapter, he says, take twelve men out of the people, and take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night. And so they did that. Verse 5 speaks about it. Verse 6, this may be a sign among you when your children ask your fathers, time to come, what mean by these stones? Now here's the feature in connection with Jordan, that they took twelve stones out of Jordan. There were twelve tribes of Israel, so there's one stone for every tribe. And they took it out and put it up over there as a memorial on the Canaan side. And it says here in verse 7, these shall be a memorial. Now verse 8, the children have did so, but there's to do something else. The second thing, verse 9, Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the ark of the covenant stood. They are there this day. So here in the type of Jordan, we get a way made through the sea, the death of Christ, and if you will, resurrection on the other side. But also, twelve stones are taken out of that Jordan and put up over there as a memorial. And twelve stones are taken and put in the Jordan and the waters flow over it. Now in Colossians and in Ephesians, we get terms spoken of that are, well in Romans 6 anyway, our old man is crucified with Christ. And in the Colossians, we get, we better turn to it, get the exact words, in the epistle to the Colossians, I think it's the third chapter. The words are, really, that we're buried with Christ. Yes, and risen with him. Thank you. Yes, there it was, we're buried with him in baptism and risen with him. But there's another expression, yes, it's in the third chapter. Now that's one where you're dead and your life is hid with Christ. But verse 9, don't lie, saying you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man. That's the expression I wanted. We have put off the old man, standing for what we were in Adam, our sinful self, as it were, that has been buried in the Jordan River, according to the type. We put off. And we put on the new man. And that is the 12 stones taken out of the death, I mean, out of the river Jordan, the picture of death, and is a memorial. So he says you don't do these various things, you're to put off lying because you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man. Mr. Darby has stated, he said, I've always held that the Red Sea is Christ dead and risen for us, and Jordan, we, dead and risen with Christ. Now that's an added truth, to see not only that Christ died, but I died there too. And that's what Paul says in Galatians, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. What we are as a natural man, a sinful man, represented by the old man, has been buried in Jordan, the 12 stones there, and the death of Christ includes our death. But also then the 12 stones that were taken out of that Jordan, picture of Christ's death, are there as a memorial. We put on the new man, which is Christ. And this is the truth we need to get a hold of practically, you see, before we're ready to enjoy the inheritance. Now we don't touch on it for lack of time, but you'd find in numbers that as they got on over this way, the children of Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh, I believe, they saw that there was wonderful land, they had a lot of cattle, and they said, we want to stay here, give us our inheritance on this side of Jordan, the wilderness side. It's a good lie, we'll stay here. And Moses allowed it, he said, you have to go and fight with your brethren, and they said, we'll do that. But they represent earthly Christians. One writer has pointed out, there are worldly Christians, like Egypt wanted to, I mean, the children of Israel, thinking of the flesh parts of Egypt and wanting to stay in the wilderness and all this various thing, worldly Christians, running after this present evil world. Well, the children of Reuben, they were not like that. They wanted to take care of cattle, and they represent earthly, they were earthly minded. And then those who would really go across the Jordan and die with Christ, really, and enjoy the heavenly things, is a picture of heavenly Christians. So that's what the lesson gives us here. And so they passed over into the plains of Jericho, and Joshua is magnified. I hope you get a hold of that. One has spoken about that, the Jordan, it's, we are dead and risen with Christ, and to know this consciously, that we are dead and risen and associated with Christ, risen. But now begins the life in Canaan. And they got into the land now, but that's just the beginning. We find here in the 4th chapter, what we were looking at, we didn't finish that. Verse 19, "...the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal." And so it speaks on, and then in the 5th chapter, we find that they were circumcised. Verse 2, "...at that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make these sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins." This is Colossians 2 when? 2.11, he just referred to, you're buried with Christ and risen with him. But circumcision, the sharp knife applied to the flesh, and that's spoken of in Colossians, we're circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. But then self-judgment has to come in, and that's what Gilgal stands for. We need to practice self-judgment. It's no use saying, you know, well, I'm crucified with Christ, and then go on doing things that are associated with the old life and the old man. But when we do so, the scriptures tell us if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. And so you find that throughout the book of Joshua, where there was victory, they defeated the enemies. They could write one word over the whole book of Joshua, and that's victory. When you come to judges, you can write one word, too, and that's defeat, or they change their position. But throughout the book of Joshua, their camp was always at Gilgal. They encamped at Gilgal. They'd go out in the morning from Gilgal, the place of strength, of self-judgment, where the sharp knives that have been plied of self-judgment, and accepting the judgment of ourselves in the cross of Christ, as Paul says, whereby I am crucified unto the world. And he gloried in that. And here's an expression in verse 6 again, the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the men of war that came out of Egypt were consumed. So it's definitely established in a number of places that the whole time in Israel was forty years, the time of testing. And so now, verse 10 says, well, in verse 9 we should note, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. The name of the place is called Gilgal. Every activity of the flesh is of the reproach of Egypt, and that was judged at Gilgal. And so, verse 10, the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, and even in the plains of Jericho, a place of self-judgment. And now we're getting into the land, I'm not going farther than this, but this is where Joshua brings us here, delivered from Egypt now, and realizing we have died with Christ, and we're risen with him, and his death brings us into this place. And then there's circumcision at Gilgal, and keeping the Passover, the remembrance of the first deliverance there in Egypt. Now then, notice, verse 11, they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn in the selfsame day, and the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. There's a change of food. The manna was the food in the wilderness, and it's the picture of Christ come down here on earth like we find him in the Gospels, and it's a wonderful food to feed on Christ here in this scene, the perfect man, the learn of him. But Christ is not here now, and that isn't the end. He's glorified in heaven, the risen, glorified Christ, and that's the one that the apostle Paul wanted to know, says that I may know him, and that's pictured here by the old corn of the land, the glorified Christ. That's the food in the land of Canaan, the manna ceased, and now they ate of the old corn, and that's what we get in the epistles. Mr. Darby has well written, he can put things concisely, and he says the book of Romans puts you in the Jordan River, you're crucified with Christ, and he says the book of Colossians puts you on the bank of Canaan, places you in the promised land, or rather on the bank rather, the other side of Jordan. Then he says the book of Ephesians puts you in the land. I like that, showing the special features of these epistles. They're not just repetition, they bring added things, and so Ephesians, as we've been saying, is the book of the inheritance, risen with Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, accepted in the beloved, and so on are the wonderful truths, but there we have to fight. We have many enemies. We had only mention of Amalek, although there were others here, the Amorites and so on as he got on up to Canaan, but in the land you find Philistines and the Perizzites, there's some seven nations, I believe, that are mentioned here in Joshua, and they had to get victory over them. Well, God was with them and would give them the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't want to go on further. We have gotten from Egypt to Canaan, and that's the subject of these lessons here. We've had to go on hastily, but I've tried to strike some of the high points and trust that we have seen them and desire to move on and live in the heavenlies. And as I mentioned, this booklet here, if you want any further study about Moses, there's some available here for 75 cents. I'll cover the cost of printing and all, it's 20 pages, a real series of lessons, if you'd like to take them up in young people's meetings or in any assembly meetings or special classes or for your own private study, you'll find the blessings there. Shall we close in prayer? Our blessed God and our Father, we give Thee thanks for this time we have had together to consider what Thou has written in Thy Word and recorded for our learning of the journeys of the children of Israel. We thank Thee for these wonderful things, we thank Thee for the wonderful example of Moses and of Joshua too, all pointing to Thyself, Lord Jesus, as the perfect man. And Thy death and resurrection and victories we have in Thyself make these things good to us. We are feeble in understanding and laying hold, but we pray Thy blessing upon each and every one and of all that each one here may be under the shelter of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, having accepted Thee as their Savior and to go on learning of Thyself more and more. We commend ourselves to Thee now with thanksgiving and Thy help and Thy precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. …