Death in the Wilderness
ID
dwp009
Idioma
EN
Duração total
00:21:46
Quantidade
1
Passagens bíblicas
Numb. 21:4-9
Descrição
Numb. 21:4-9
Transcrição automática:
…
The Susan Numbers
Chapter 21
Verse 4
And they journeyed from Mount Hoar
By the 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
Therefore has he brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness
For there is no bread, neither is there any water
For we must all live this life
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people
And they bit the people and much people of Israel died
Therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned
For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee
Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us
And Moses prayed for the people
And the Lord said unto Moses make thee a fiery serpent
And set it upon a pole
And it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live
And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole
And it came to pass that if any man
If a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived
And the children of Israel said forward the next verse
Toward the sun
Very briefly I would like to dwell tonight upon the seriousness of death in the wilderness
The Lord is not here, he has risen
There is a blessed living man in the glory of God tonight
Further the spirit of God is here
A divine person who links our hearts livingly with himself
A blessed living spirit
But it is in the light of this that death in the wilderness becomes a serious matter
When we see the implications of the teaching
Death in this context is part of a bigger subject
The issues of life and death belong to God
Remember how the king of Israel could say am I God?
To kill and to make alive
But if I read scripture correctly
The wilderness represents our responsible pathway
And there is ever the possibility in that responsibility
Of losing the slender threads of our communion with God
We never could thank him enough
That the links which have been forged at Calvary can never be broken
Nevertheless there is the possibility in our responsible life
Of losing communion with God
Now if I am correct in my researches
I haven't got this from the book
I think there are seven occasions
When the Lord by plague or by violent means
Had to bring death upon the people of God in the wilderness
Six of these are recorded in numbers
One of them in exodus
There may be other occasions
As for example when Miriam was smitten with leprosy
A sort of living death
There may be other instances that the brethren can think of
But for the moment I am going to ask you to focus on the seven occasions
I am moreover going to take the order of them
Not the order that appears in numbers
But the order that appears in 1 Corinthians 10
Where I believe we have the spiritual order
May I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance
You remember in that chapter
How that the people of God fed upon the manna
They drank of that rock which followed them
Which rock was Christ
But then the scripture says with many of them
God was not well pleased
And then we have listed five instances of their defection
We read that they lusted
We read that they became idolaters
We read that they committed fornication
We read that they tempted Christ
And the last one we read that they murmured
And if we were to look up the context of these
We would find a very interesting Old Testament story
To follow this brief New Testament synopsis
It would seem that the two instances that are omitted in 1 Corinthians 10
Are dealt with elsewhere in the New Testament
No mention is made in 1 Corinthians 10 of the sin of unbelief
You remember how that on the occasion of the spies being sent into the land
How that the people refused to go into the land
And the divine judgment was that your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness
Could it be that this particular instance is omitted from 1 Corinthians 10
For the very simple reason that it receives a full treatment in Hebrews 3 and 4
Secondly in 1 Corinthians 10 there is no mention made
Of the sin of apostasy, Korah, Nathan, Satan and Abiram
For the simple reason one suggests
That this defection receives full treatment in the epistle by Jude and in 2 Peter
Now why is this so important?
When we read further in Numbers
We find in the 17th chapter a very clear reference to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Remember concerning that which spoke of the tribe of Levi
That the staff budded and it brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and brought forth almonds
A clear picture in the Old Testament of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
In that chapter we read I will cause to cease the murmurings of the people of Israel before me
And then a little later in Numbers in the 20th and 21st chapters
We find what clearly is a reference to the Spirit
Gather my people together and I will give them water
Do you remember how the princes of the congregation with their spades dug the well
And it was on that remarkable occasion that we get the word spring up a well
Sing ye unto it
Even in the chapter that we have looked at in the 21st chapter
We find clearer references to an abundance of water
Water, water brooks, rivers, springs
That which is typical of the land and it's a land that has an abundance of water
Clear references to the Spirit
It's when we are livingly brought into this sphere
Where Christ is supreme, where the Father's world is open to us
Where we are conscious of the place that grace has put us in
That anything that is a challenge to the preeminence of Christ
Is viewed in a very serious way
And it's in the context of the preeminence of Christ
That we have to look a little more closely at these affections that bring the divine judgment
Could we do that quickly, very briefly
We read in 1 Corinthians 10
That the people lusted
Hebrews, Hathaba, the graves of lust
Now when we look at the 11th chapter of Numbers
Sad to say the occasion is when the people were growing weary of the man
You remember how that they began to grind it with mills
They put it into the mortar, they made cakes of it
And the taste of it was like the taste of fresh oil
Hearts that are getting weary of Christ begin to turn elsewhere
And in that chapter you find that they began to long for meat
And God gave them poison
You remember, and it's always a solemn consideration
That God does tend to give us what our hearts are set upon
But on the very occasion when the flesh was between their teeth
Before even it was chewed
We read that God smote them with a very great plague
The next step after the lusting is idolatry
And when we turn back to Exodus
We find on the occasion of the golden calf
That when the sight had been lost of Moses
As for this Moses we know not what is become of him
The people made a calf
Unless we should think it was overt idolatry
You remember how that Aaron said it is a feast under Jehovah
It is possible even to have the form of outward religion
When the heart is far away
And on that occasion 6,000 people died
The next step after the lusting and the idolatry
Is fornication
You remember how that after Balaam's prophecy
In the twenty-fifth chapter
We find that the people began to commit fornication
With the daughters of Midian
Fornication
And on this occasion 23 or 24,000 people died
As for the other two instances I am going to jump those over
In connection with apostasy and unbelief
The fifth of the cases in 1 Corinthians 10 is they murmured
And murmuring has to be understood in the context where it occurs
It is not just groaning with circumstances
It is groaning with the divine order
What comes out last in the moral section 1 Corinthians 10
Comes out first in the historical section of Numbers
You remember how that there is a little division in Numbers at that point
God has been speaking of the count
The numbering of the tribes
They have been set in relation to the ark
Instructions have been given for carrying the ark to the wilderness
A divine profession that is in the dignity of heaven
And you find that there are some who would murmur against it
Who kick against the divine order
And this is a very serious symptom
Because it indicates underneath that the heart is not brightened with God
This was the occasion when the fire burnt
And some in the outermost parts of the camp died in the wilderness
I am afraid these things, beloved brethren, are happening amongst us
I speak feelingly in the section we have had in our own meeting
I am not washing dirty linen in public
But these things are happening
We had a campaign recently
An enthusiastic sister got hold of somebody who wasn't very well established
In the meeting, come along to the campaign
I am afraid they may have got that dear soul along to the campaign
But we haven't seen them anymore at the meeting
The fire burns in the outermost parts of the camp
But in taking up a subject like this
What one would seek ever so briefly to point out
Is that God would have us in living condition before himself
The scripture comes to mind
That the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked
The Lord has no pleasure in the cessation of communion of any of his own
With the blessed man at his right hand
And the enjoyment of all the Father's work
And that was really what led me to the 21st chapter of Numbers
Here is a very interesting section
Clearly an important one
Because where we stopped reading at verse 10
For the first time you find that the children of Israel set forward
They had been wandering here before
But now they set forward
And in verse 11 it's towards the sun rising
They're marching towards the sun rising
It had been a time of victory at the beginning of the chapter
They overcame the Canaanites
The traitor, the merchant element had been defeated
But where we started reading in verse 4
The heart of the people was much discouraged because of the way
We noticed in the 17th chapter didn't we
In connection with that which is a figure of Christ
Aaron's rod that was buttered
At the end of that chapter you come to those words
Behold who's died, we perish, we all perish
And I'm afraid that all of us have to learn from time to time
That in our own hearts we tend to wander away
Prone to wander, Lord we feel it
Prone to leave the God we love
The very Him that we started with
And thus thy deep protection, much better should I know
But I'm afraid that inside we're conscious of that flesh
Which is enmity against God
Now what we learn in this section
Some folks take it up as being very simple
I think it's a very profound passage
We find the truth of the praise of God
It's a wonderful thing for us to realize
That every defection that we see outside or inside
This evil heart of unbelief
This flesh that is enmity against God
We can trace it up to the source
We can trace it up to the devil himself
And the interesting thing that we learn in this passage
That the brazen serpent has been set upon a pole
We know from the New Testament scripture
That this is a plain reference to the Lord Jesus
As he died upon the cross
Do we not really know
That has made him to be sin for us
Do you know sin?
That we should be made the consciousness of God in him
And in another passage
What the law could not do
In that it would weep through the flesh
God sinned in his own son
And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh
At the cross God has not only dealt with sin
He has dealt with sin
He has dealt with the root principle of it
And he has put it away forever
And in this passage we find that whoever looked
Upon that serpent on the pole
Lived the principle of life
Amen
I remember once listening to a missionary
Back from the Congo
We have been out eating for a while
He was preaching on this scripture in the gospel
He brought forward an illustration
That perhaps helped so far as his gospel preaching was concerned
But he underestimated the case
This was the story
In the Congo one of the natives had been bitten by a snake
Fairly common occurrence
And they brought the patient in Moribund
Into the surgery
And because he had the anti-venom vaccine
He was able to put a needle in the vein
And the patient recuperated
He came back to life
But that hardly was teaching here
It's not a question of coming back to the old life
No
Thanks be to God you live in a new life
You are raised to the realm where Christ is in resurrection
And the spirit gives us a living link with a blessed man out of death
In order that we might live in the sphere where he lives
And the life that is suggested here in time
Is that eternal life
Which is opened out for us in New Testament scripture
Well I was better and this was what was in my mind
May I say
That if anybody has any sensitivity to the present position
Generally
I think we have to earn an often times deadness of conscience
A name that we live and we are dead
We have to say in our own hearts
We are conscious of the unresponsiveness of those hearts to Christ
And I just wonder whether perhaps this little word of death in the wilderness
Not an outward and visible affair
A matter that touches us in our affections
Isn't a very practical matter for us in this day in which we live
May we be preserved from deadness
And live in a precious life
Which God has made available to us
In the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus …