Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church Podcast. If you're seeking a closer relationship with
Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you. Thank you for joining us today.
So like I said, there's three sections here. Well, four really, and I'm going to read the
first one, and we're not going to spend a lot of time in it, but I'll just read the first
verse here. It says, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness
of Zinn in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there, and was buried
there. So we're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I did want to just very briefly mention
a few things because of what's going on with Miriam. So Miriam being the sister of Aaron
and Moses, if you didn't know, I would encourage you if you have a commentary, or if you know,
blueletterbible.com, if you go on there and check out David Guzic commentary. He covers the history
of who Miriam is in a lot of detail, because she had a huge role in the people of Israel, and we
don't have a lot of time to go into it. But there is significance into why she's being
mentioned. And the first significance, I believe, is because of the role that she played, but the
second significance is because we just saw about five chapters ago where they stood before the
Promised Land, and were fearful and refused to go in because of the Giants, and God said, then
none of you are going to get to go, and only the next generation will enter in. And so this is the
first person that we're seeing in the older generation that has been taken, the Promised Land
has been taken away from them as their punishment. This is the first person we see die. And so the
biggest significance is that God's word is being fulfilled right here. So we're going to move on
though. Past that, I really would encourage you though. David Guzic, Bible commentary, he dives
into who Miriam is, and it gives a lot of history and just important details on who she is. I would
encourage you to check that out. But we'll continue in the next section in verse two. Now, there was
no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron,
and that people quarreled with Moses and said, with that we had perished when our brothers
perished before the Lord. Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into the wilderness,
that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to
bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates,
and there is no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly
to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared
to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, take the staff and assemble the congregation,
you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you should
bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses
took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the
assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, here now you rebels, shall we bring water
for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice,
and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their lives stuck. And the Lord said to
Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people
of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
These are the waters of Maraba, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord,
and through them he showed himself holy. We're going to stop there and just look at the first
lesson, in a sense, lesson of the rock. What can we glean from this? So at first glance,
this is the second time that the Lord has produced water out of a rock. I don't know a lot about rocks,
and you may know more than me about rocks, or maybe none of us know a whole lot about rocks,
but I do know that it's really hard to get water to come out of a rock. If you put a shirt outside
in the rain and you pick that shirt up afterwards and you bring it, you'll produce a lot of water,
but as some of you may know, I don't know if you've ever tried this, but if you go pick up a rock
that's outside that's been sitting in the rain and try and ring it out, it doesn't really produce
much water. So this is clearly a miracle of the Lord that is happening right here,
and it's the second time that it's happening, and at first I was thinking, okay, why are they
being punished for striking the rock, and the Lord produces the water out of the rock, and he did it
in the same fashion back in Exodus, God told him, strike this rock and water will come out of it.
So here he's striking the rock and water's coming out. So what is going on though? Why are they being
rebuked by the Lord? And that is where the first spiritual lesson comes from in the rock
is that they did not obey in the method that God asked. Method matters to God.
In verse 8 it said, take the staff, assemble the people, tell the rock before their eyes to yield
its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock. The Lord told him to speak to the rock,
and that would produce the water, but Moses went before the people and chose to take this as a moment
to be angry at them, and rebuke them, and in fact grumble against a grumbling people.
Here now you rebels. Shall we bring water for you? He had a heart posture that was not aligned
with the will of the Lord, and he used a method that was not what the Lord asked him to do.
How often do we do this, where the Lord is calling us to do something, but we are not walking in the
spirit of the Lord, and we do it in flesh, and God still works. Right here God still did what he
said he was going to do. He is faithful when we are faithless, and that is what he wanted to be seen.
He wanted Moses to go before the people and say, look, you are not a holy people. You're not acting
in accordance with the will of God. You are being grumbling and you're complaining and you're being
unfaithful, but God's going to be holy and faithful even still, and he's going to give us water in a
place where there's no water. And if he had done that, maybe we would have seen a different outcome.
But we do this so often is that we don't use the method that God is asking us to do.
So what is that method that God asks us to do? What is the spiritual application for us?
In the story of this rock, it is to walk in the Holy Spirit, to not listen to the flesh,
not walk in the flesh, but walk in the spirit. There's a slide that you can put up just in that next one
of what does it look like then to walk in the spirit. And I'm not going to read all of these,
but you can check them out on your own as well. But to walk in the spirit means that we are setting
our mind on spiritual things. We're letting the spirit lead our decisions. It means to stay
filled and under his influence, to respond quickly to his conviction and to bear fruit that looks
like Jesus. If you want to just turn to Galatians 5 really quick.
Galatians gives us a beautiful picture of what we are seeing in the story and numbers.
See if I can find it here. I remember in hermeneutics class the teacher always said,
put a bookmark where you want your references. That would have been a good idea.
All right, here we go. So in verse 5 starting in verse 16, this is what it says.
But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires
of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.
Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of
anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
Moses was walking in the flesh. It says it right there in verse 20 that the fruit of the flesh
is fits of anger. To walk in the flesh is to have fits of anger. And Moses here striking the rock
and rebuking them out of his flesh is in a fit of anger, not in grace and love to say,
look, the Lord is going to be holy and gracious even though you are unfaithful.
And then continuing, I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God. If you walk in the flesh and not in the spirit you will not inherit
the kingdom of God. If we just pick this verse up and place it right here that is what we are seeing.
Moses walked in flesh and God says you will not walk in the promised land because of this.
And then let's just finish up that. I shouldn't have turned back. I just want to finish reading
back Galatians. In 22 it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. And those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the
spirit let us also keep in step with the spirit. So spiritual lesson from story one, the rock.
Walk not in the flesh but in the spirit. The Lord honors us when we walk in the spirit,
he works in us when he walks in the spirit. And in his great grace he will work even when we don't.
But there is always a consequence. There is always
a missing out on blessing from the Lord when we choose to walk in the flesh and not in the spirit.
So verse 14, Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. Thus says our brother Israel,
you know all the hardship that we have met, how our fathers went down to Egypt and we lived in
Egypt a long time. In the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers and when we
tried to the Lord he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us to out of Egypt.
And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. Please let us pass through your land.
We will not pass through field or vineyard or drink water from a well. We will go along the king's
highway. We will not turn aside to the right or to the left. Until we have passed through
your territory. But Edom said to him, you shall not pass through lest I come out with the sword
against you. And the people of Israel said to him, we will go up by the highway. And if we drink
of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot nothing
more. But he said, you shall not pass through. And Edom came out against them with a large army
and with a strong force, thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory.
So Israel turned away from him. I think in this there are, there's a literal lesson that's being
learned in the Israelites. And then again, there's a spiritual lesson for us to take away.
The literal, if you don't walk in integrity in life and if you don't pursue to rebuild relationships,
then even your family will turn you away. This is the hardship that they're having to go through.
So just to back up, who is Edom? I think it's back in Genesis 16 when we see Esau,
or we see chapter 32, we see his lineage is the Edomites. So Jacob and Esau brothers, Jacob was
the conniving brother that was always tricking Esau to the point where he saw his birthright.
And now Esau is after him to kill him. And so he flees, it's this whole big dramatic story.
And then over a very large span of time, almost 14 years or more, I believe,
they actually meet again. And Esau doesn't come at him to kill him, but comes at him with forgiveness
and actually offers for him to come and live on his land with him. And Jacob, doing what Jacob
often did said, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll meet you there and live and did not meet with him
and went off and ignored him. And then we don't see any reconciliation. In fact, the only other
time we see them speaking is at their father's burial in chapter 36 of Genesis.
There was no reconciliation. And now over 400 years have passed and we still see that there has been
no reconciliation between these two brothers families. I think the spiritual implication for us
is simply that when we walk in integrity, the Lord shows us favor. Even the world wants to honor us
in Psalm 6, or Proverbs 16, it says that those that walk in righteousness will make peace even
with their enemies. So to walk in righteousness, to walk in integrity, to stand upright,
will be able to go through the road and be invited to take from the vineyard. But when we don't,
we have a story like this where two families are not willing to help each other. And obviously,
we see that this is all in the Lord's plan because taking the shortcut would have gotten them to
where they wanted to go soon. But it forces them to go a long way around. And in that time,
the older generation passes away, fulfilling what God said.
There's another slide. You can just pull up that next one, Justin, just more versus for that
application of walking in integrity. To walk in integrity means to live honorably before God
and people. To let your life be worthy of the gospel. To model good works with sincerity and
sound speech. To think and act on what is honorable in every situation. And to keep your conduct
excellent so others glorify God. I just experienced this the other night.
I was out to dinner with Tara, my wife. Someone got us a gift card to a steakhouse,
which is the greatest blessing ever sometimes, you know? I love steak. So does Tara. And
I had a friend that encouraged me to do this, where whenever he goes out to eat,
and he prays for his meal, it's the waiter or waitress like is the one that brings the food,
he says, hey, I'm about to pray for my food. Can I pray for you too? It's just such an easy layup.
And I don't know why I haven't been doing it. But he encouraged me to do this. And so we're out
to dinner a few days later. And they bring us our food, and we pray for our food. Someone else brought
the food. And then our waitress came by and she said, hey, how's everything going? Is the food good?
All that stuff. And I said, yes, that's good. We're very satisfied. We just prayed for our food.
Can we pray for you? And she shared just something that was going on with her daughter and her and
she just it was she was caught off guard. And you could tell she was like, why do you want to pray for
me? But she sat there and thought for a minute and had something to pray about. And so I just laid
my hand on her shoulder and we prayed for her right then. And the cool thing about it
is that after we prayed, she was already doing a good job as a waitress. But after we prayed,
she became the greatest waitress ever, bringing us things that we did not pay for. And immediately
can I get you any drinks? Can I get you more bread? Can I get you more of that special sauce?
And it just goes to show that when you walk in a way that honors the Lord, you walk in the Spirit,
even people living in the world want to honor you.
If the Israelites were known for honoring the Lord, what would have happened here?
But we see this in Exodus and in Numbers where it says that the fame of the Israelites went
across all the land. But as we probably know, good news often travels with bad news.
And so the Edomites are sitting here like we want nothing to do with you guys.
And to be quite frank, you're not very trustworthy because you said you were going to obey God and
you haven't even done that. You're saying right here, and I just want to point out two verses
where it says, we'll just stay on the road. We won't turn from the right. We won't turn from the left.
And what does the king say? No, you can't come in.
And then he backtracks. Okay, okay. It was unrealistic to say that we wouldn't turn from the
left or the right and drink your water. We probably will, but we'll pay for it. We'll pay for it, I promise.
Everything that they're saying is giving more evidence to the untrustworthiness.
And the king of Edom knows this or he just wants nothing to do with his people that just
brings destruction everywhere they go. But either way, to walk in integrity brings honor from both God
and in many ways and at many times, even from the world. We'll move on to verse 22.
And they journeyed from Kadesh and the people of Israel, the whole congregation came to Mount
Har. And the Lord said to Moses, and Aaron at Mount Har, on the border of the land of Edom,
let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people
of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Marabbah. We just saw that in verse 10.
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to the Mount Har and strip Aaron of his garments
and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.
Moses did as the Lord commanded and they went up Mount Har in the sight of all the congregation.
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on
the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. And when all the
congregations saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron 30 days.
Again, the Lord's word is being fulfilled. When he gives a promise, he sticks to a promise.
And when he says, you will not enter my land and you will die here.
We can see you die pretty quick. Goes up the mountain and did not return.
Because of his unrighteous behavior. Because of his not trusting in the Lord.
And I just want to point out a verse that I was going to point out earlier and I went right past it.
But God said in his rebuke to them, it's because you didn't believe in me.
And it's because Aaron did not believe that God would be righteous. That God would be faithful.
That God would show his holiness. That now his position of the most holy person in the camp in a
sense. The most authoritative person in the camp. The one that goes into the holy of holy places
to intercede on behalf of the people is not being given to his son but being taken from him.
And given by the Lord to his son. Not given by him. I think the spiritual application for us
is perhaps clear. Our job, first I'll just point out that we are, if you've given your life to Jesus,
you've been washed by his blood, you are a royal priest in the house of the Lord.
We are brothers with Aaron. We are standing and have the opportunity to stand in the holy place.
We have actually become the temple of the Lord when you've been washed with the blood of Jesus.
When you've confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart.
And that's what God is looking for. Believe in me.
And therefore, we have a responsibility also to not allow God's calling in our life to be
taken from us from a life of disobedience and just pushing off obeying him and walking in the
spirit. And he's going to just say, okay, then I'm going to give this to the next generation.
But to actually honor the Lord by being the one that's passing on what he's teaching us.
And I'm not saying that this means that every person that is walking in a spiritual calling
that God has put on their life needs to find a younger person to hand it over to.
But what was the great commandment of Jesus? Go therefore and make disciples.
So are we making disciples? Are we passing on the robe? Are we going to get to a point in our
life where God has to remove it from us? I know that in my life, this is something that I wrestle with
often because there are so many Godly men and women in my life all throughout the places that I've
lived that aren't passing down the robe. They're walking with the Lord but they're not passing down
the robe. And there's so many young people in my generation that are having children and they're
walking with the Lord and they're doing their best to read the Word and to walk in the spirit
but they're not passing down the robe. They're not passing down the way of the Lord to their
children. I know that's not us. That's a different church.
But let us pass down the robe. So I would encourage you
just sit with that this week. Lord, who is it? Who is it that you want me to pass the robe to?
Lord, what is this robe that I'm wearing right now? What is the calling that you've put on my life?
What are the lessons that you've taught me? What are the ways in walking in the spirit that you
have shown me through your Word and how can I teach the next person? It's fixing our eyes on Jesus
and passing what he's teaching us to the next. So just in quick wrap-up, I apologize. 30 minutes
there. Time goes really quick, doesn't it? The three applications for us and then we'll break
up into groups. From the story of the rock, walk in the spirit. Allow the spirit to take hold of your
life and don't continue to be captured by your flesh but allow yourself to be captured by Jesus
and desire him more. And the lesson from the road, walk in integrity so that the Lord can bless you.
Walk in a manner that people have nothing bad to say against us. I think that's in Ephesians
or the verse that says outdo one another in good works and then the final application from Aaron on
the mountain. Pass on the robe. Pass on the lessons that the Lord has taught you. Don't be stagnant
in your faith but give it on to the next generation. There truly is a turning point happening in this
country and in my generation and we're desperate for leaders, we're desperate for mentors that
will teach us the word of the Lord, that will teach us how to walk in the spirit of the Lord.
So let's pray and then we'll split up. Lord, we just thank you for your word. Thank you Jesus that
you are in and through every passage that we read. Or we thank you that you are our high priest.
We thank you that you are the rock that was struck but that you poured out your grace.
You poured out your word. Thank you Jesus. Lord, I pray that your spirit would just be in us and
through us as we gather together and just discuss this passage in Jesus name. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.