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Now, for the second part of our study, which necessarily is brief, I will ask you to look at the actual text of Numbers, so that you may see the one or two incidents that I shall be referring to. We've got to the point, haven't we, historically, then we see the failure of Moses, the lawgiver, and the failure of Aaron, the high priest. Neither of them would be able to bring Israel into their inheritance.
Our Lord has fulfilled both, that is to say, he is a better priest after the order of Melchizedek. And then Romans chapter eight tells us that what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. What the law couldn't do, there was nothing wrong with the law, but it was weak through the flesh, that is to say, our flesh.
And you have a supreme example of it in Moses. The law that God gave him was perfect, you'll see, but it was weak through Moses' flesh. He couldn't keep it himself, and rebelled against God through unbelief, and therefore could not bring the people into their promised land. Now we move on. It's going to be quite a while in the book of Numbers before they get to the banks of the Jordan. They have to, uh, carry on from Kadesh, as the text itself says.
They were not far off the border, the western border of Edom, and Moses sent an envoy to negotiate with Edom a passage through the country so that they, uh, guaranteed they wouldn't drink any water, uh, if they did, they'd pay for it, and they wouldn't gobble up any food, just say they merely wanted passage, and they tried to negotiate, and Eden wouldn't have it. As a result, they had to turn south once more, and eventually crossed over east of Eden at a point, presumably, where there were virtually two parts of Eden and a very narrow neck dividing the two, and they went through there and up the eastern side of Eden.
That would have brought them to Moab eventually, and then to such countries as the Ammonites, and then to the Amorites, do you see? Here we shall meet, uh, some battles, and Moses would have led the people of God through them. Do you see those battles? And we noticed in our first session that they were physical battles of warfare, but then eventually it came to a question of a spiritual battle with, uh, Balaam and Balak. But now let's notice two incidents that occurred.
This is now in chapter twenty one and verse four. Another case of where the people ran out of water. The people, soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spoke against God, this is twenty one verse five— and against Moses. Where have you, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and there is no water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. Now that was very serious. It is serious to murmur against the Lord, even when circumstances are difficult.
But on this occasion, they not only complained about there was no water in the wilderness, but they loathe the light bread, which is the bread that God gave them from heaven to eat. This was insulting God. It is a serious thing to murmur against God, and one Corinthians ten reminds us, neither murmur against God as they did and were destroyed by the serpent. This time, God sends a fiery serpent among them, and they bit the people, and much people died, fiery serpents, because their poison brought, uh, very serious inflammation and rising of temperature.
Do you see? God's discipline on his people. But then, and they cried to God, God in his mercy instructed Moses, and he was to make a serpent of copper and put it on a pole and pronounce in the camp that whoever looked at the serpent on the pole would live, that is, recover from the poison of the serpents, do see. Now we have our Lord's own interpretation of that story. He used it as an analogy with Nicodemus, didn't he? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Uh, you'll see, and many an evangelist has rightly taken it and preached the gospel from it, even as our Lord preached the gospel to Nicodemus. But of course, the cross of Christ carries a, a deep meaning beyond that. Romans chapter eight says, he that spared not his own son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? So let's notice the symbolism. The people's, uh, judgment was that the fiery serpents bit them and caused inflammation and serious, and eventually death.
The serpent? Well, we all have learned about the serpent, have we not, from Genesis onward. If you ask where does man's inclination to blame God come from, well, it originated in the Garden of Eden at the suggestion of his satanic majesty. Has God said? And God wants to keep you down, and God puts lovely things under your nose and then says you can't have them, and all that kind of thing. Julesette, that's where the human race learned to mistrust God. The poison of the serpent.
How has God dealt with it? How does God silence Satan's poison, if you see what I mean? And you have the story. It was not a live serpent, it was a serpent of copper. No poison in it. The end of the serpent plague. How does God, for a believer, answer the poison of s- of Satan's temptation and misrepresentation of God? Well, we have it in one of our hymns, don't we? He spareth not his son.
'Tis this that silences each rising fear. 'Tis this that bids the hard thought disappear. He spareth not his son. For he has made him to be sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So did God cure this second incident by this wonderful, uh, uh, picture. The serpent, now without its sting, without its poison, a dead serpent on a pole, which, looking to which brought life and recovery to the Israelites.
No difficulty then in seeing in the story historically a reference to our Lord and his death at Calvary. The next major incident, eh, once more concerns water. And observant students of scripture will notice how throughout this section of Numbers, water keeps appearing and appearing. It will appear in Balaam's prophecies eventually. But you see, uh, then, uh, God said to see, verse sixteen. and from thence they journeyed to Be'er, that means a well, that is the well whereof the Lord said to Moses, gather the people together and I will give them water.
Then sang Israel this song, spring up, O well, sing ye unto it, the well which the princes digged, which the nobles of the people delved with the scepters and with their staves. And from the wilderness they journeyed on to Madanah, do you see? Mm-hmm. And if I allowed you to be fanciful tonight, I- I- I allow myself to be fanciful sometimes, you see. And so you have a picture of Calvary with a serpent on the pole, and then we have a well of water springing up. What would you say that was, if anything?
How does that speak to you? Is that the Spirit of God or the Word of God? Y- y- yes, pardon? John 4. John 4? What, and what do you mean by John four? The lady at the well where the Lord spoke up. What, yes, and what did he say to her? Uh... The gift of God, he would have given me living water. Yes. He that drinketh of the water of this well shall thirst again, but the water that I shall give him. How does that go on? Pardon? Shall never thirst, yes. And the water that I shall give him shall?
Be a, pardon? Be a whole what? Yes, shall be a well of water springing up into eternal life. Look at the language of this, uh, particular verse. They said, spring up a well, yes, a well of living water. Spoken to the woman of Samaria with all the disappointments that had surrounded her life. Sad and serious disappointments in marital affairs, and then in social affairs in the village. And supremely in the utterly unsatisfying religion of Samaritanism.
And she met our blessed Lord, and to that thirsty woman, the promise given of the gift of the Holy Spirit, of course, a well of water springing up within unto eternal life. Marvelous story for those wanting to get across the wilderness, you know. Taught by the death of Christ, the answer to Satan's poison in our thinking. Then the Holy Spirit, a well of water springing up within us unto eternal life. Yes. So I'm now, now not going to speak about the, um, uh, battles that they had to fight.
You will see them listed in verse, uh, twenty one onwards, the battles that they had to fight on their way towards the promised land. For I want to come finally to chapters twenty two and twenty three and twenty four. Juicy. For, as I said at the beginning, here was another battle. But this time it wasn't a physical battle. It was a spiritual battle. Aimed at stopping Israel getting any further along the wilderness, aimed at stopping them getting into their promised land.
A spiritual battle. As Balak, a king of Moab, called Balaam the prophet to come and curse Israel because he was afraid of them, do you see? And when Balaam came, he was a false prophet, of course, but he used his divination and his enchantments and his omens and all the rest of the tomfoolery, the pseudo-religion and black magic indeed. And this time it was a warfare carried up on the tops of the mountains. I don't know if even Israel knew about what was going on, uh, you know.
Eventually they would have discovered, and the prophet Micah, as you are well aware, in the prophet Micah, God asked Israel to remember what, uh, Balaam and Balak tried to get up to and how God answered them. But you will see, in that battle, that spiritual warfare, it wasn't Israel that fought it. It was God that fought it. It's a tremendous story. And, uh, uh, on another occasion, perhaps we should be able to look at some of the detail. But, um, the first thing that I would like you to notice is what Balak said in verse tw- uh, chapter twenty two, Uh, verse uh, And Moab was sore afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.
And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, now shall this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as an ox lith- licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. And he sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river, to the land of the children of Israel, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me, this people, for they are too mighty for me. Peradventure I shall prevail that we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land.
For I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou curcest is cursed, you see. And the first thing that alarmed Balak was the sheer number of the people, you see. And Balaam was brought along to curse them because they were so numerous, and hoping that this curse would diminish their numbers. So let's look at the first message that, uh, Balaam was obliged to, um, uh, deliver to Balak the king. This is chapter twenty three.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go. Peradventure the Lord will come to meet me, and whatsoever he showeth me, I will tell thee. And he went to a bare height. And God met Balaam, and he said unto him, that is, Balaam said unto God, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus shalt thou speak. And he returned unto him, and lo, he stood by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his parable and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab, from the mountains of the east.
Come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hill- hills I behold him. Lo, it is a people that dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Now, pray notice that remark, uh, that ga- that, uh, Balaam reports, you'll see.
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Which is the very thing that the king of of Moab was afraid of. He told Balak, there comes out this people, and they're like a multitude, a vast number of them, and they'll gobble up the whole land. Come and curse them do. They are so numerous. And the first thing, uh, uh, God makes Balaam report is that this is a special people, not to be reckoned among the Gentiles, but you see, who can count the dust of them? But of course, that is making all sorts of memory bells going on in your head, isn't it?
For... do you remember what Abram, or God said to Abram, originally? Pardon? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh, you see, um, chapter twelve, the Lord of Genesis one, of chapter twelve, verse one. the Lord said to Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto the land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and be thou a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed, you'll see.
And subsequently God said to Abraham, I'll make your seed like the sand on the seashore that cannot be numbered, and like the very stars of heaven. Uh, blessed be he that blesses you, and cursed be he that curses you, says God. I've determined to bless them. And the centuries have rolled by, and the centuries have gone on, and now here are Israel in the wilderness, and there's going on a battle up aloft on the mountain. Balaam come to try and convince God to abandon Israel and curse them.
He won't do, will it? The very first thing, God's promise, I will make of you, Abram, a nation. Your seed shall be as the stars of heaven, as on the sand of the seashore, that shall not be multiply- that that cannot be counted. And so God is doing it. And God refuses to listen to Balaam and Balak, or to change his eternal purpose. Marvelous, that. Because Israel were down the mountain, they weren't listening into this. We're giving a side of what's going on aloft, up on the top of the mountain, and the false prophet trying by his menagerie of spiritual doubtful practices, black magic and omens and divination and whatnot, and trying, this is a good pagan idea, if he gives the god more sacrifices than the others, well, God will come over to his side.
That's the logic of bribery, you know, in the business world. Yes. And God remains utterly faithful to his promise to Abram and to his seed. Yes? And that brings us what to must be the end of our study tonight, because it is ten o'clock. But I have gone on so far, we shall have to come back to it next time, uh, to suggest a hint or two of what you might care to examine if you got an odd fifteen minutes in the course of the next seven days.
You never know. You might get an odd, it could be twenty minutes after the news before you went to bed or something, or, you know, uh, who who knows you might. Just to trace out what is going on in this battle up the mountain. When Balaam is trying to convince God to go against his original promises to Abram and to his seed, and God remaining absolutely faithful to his promise. It's a comfort to my heart, you know, down here on this world, fighting the sundry enemies that come my way, and not always successfully.
To think of a higher position, of principalities and powers in the heavenly places, doing their hardest to destroy God's people and to get God to change his mind. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren, you know, and he accuses them day and night. And tries to lay hold on the very holiness of God and demand that God therefore destroy us who profess faith in him, but whose conduct is not always as it should be.
What a comfort it is to know that that God, even while you're asleep, even while we're not aware of the conflicts going on, that God aloft is being faithful to the promise given to Abram and to his seed. For God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should deceive. Has he said it, and will he not carry it out? Yeah. We rest on thee, our defender, and go not forth alone to meet the foe.
A hint or two. As I say, God willing, we shall come back to it next time and demonstrate it a little bit more. But there is the linkage of thought that comes now in this whole section. The blessing of God to be pronounced by his high priest upon the people. The blessing. And even when the high priest fails, God is going to have his people blessed. Ha ha! If Aaron won't do it, well, yeah, well, he'll get somebody else to do it. Who will that be? Balaam? You say, God, you're never going to use that ass of a man he was, and a wicked man to be.
You'll not use him. I use whom I please, he says. And if Aaron won't do it, I'll get Balaam to do it. And he shall pronounce what I put in his lips. I shall make him say it, for I'm determined to bless my people, and bless them I will, and I'll get Balaam to acknowledge that he cannot reverse it. Poor old Balaam. For the Lord God has given a commandment to bless, and I can't reverse it. What nice. Mm. Marvelous. No fiend, no hobgoblin, no devil can make God depart from his determination to bless his people.
Shall we just give thanks before we go? Our Father, we thank thee for this Old Testament instance and example of thine astonishing faithful to thy people, poor and failing as they were, and sometimes rebelling. But we bless thee, thou didst understand their hearts, and for them, and even more for us, has given us a good medicine to calm the heart, to silence our fears, and that our faith in thee might remain in spite of Earth's tribulations. And we do thank thee for our perfect savior and our intercessor, who in thy right hand intercedes for us.
And we bless thee that thou art the God that has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and nothing can deflect thee from thy purpose to bless thy people. Thus send us home, we pray, with the comfort of thy word in our hearts and a determination to go on trusting thee throughout the journey until thou dost bring us home to thy heaven. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.
