Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.92 → restored 4.70
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
Third and the last seminar in this particular series entitled How to Study the Bible. It has been suggested to me that it would be helpful if I clarified a few of the semi-technical terms that I have used in the course of this study. People have been mystified a little bit by what the difference could possibly be between structure and analysis and pattern and thought flow.
So let me attempt as clearly and briefly as I can to explain the meanings that I put upon these terms. I'm a little bit like Humpty Dumpty was in Alice in Wonderland. Words mean what I decide they shall mean, you see. So when I talk of thought flow, this is no wonderful or exotic thing. It simply means the connection of thought between one word and another, between one sentence and another, between one paragraph and another, and between one whole incident and another, and so forth and onwards.
The thought flow from one end of a book to the other. That is what we are doing at any time when we are studying scripture, seeing what the connection of thought is between one thing and another. We may please to concentrate on one sentence or one phrase and neglect the surrounding context and simply dwell upon one phrase, and since it is the word of God, it can speak to our very hearts and souls. But when it comes to the serious study of scripture that tries to discover what scripture itself is saying, then, of course, the preeminent thing is first that we should read it, and read it, and read it.
Because our brains are on the human side, like computers. You can't get answers out of computer unless you feed in first the basic information. And so, I limit not the illumination of the Holy Spirit, of course. But unless we on our side are prepared to feed the information that the Holy Spirit gives us in scripture into the computers of our mind, it is difficult for us to get anything out, so to speak.
The Holy Spirit, if we do our part of feeding in the information into our minds, can then show us the significance of the information. And helpful to that end, therefore, is constantly the question of thought flow. How do you get from this sentence to that sentence? What is the connection of thought? Where is the narrative going? And so forth. I have used also the term structure, and used it in a sense differing from pattern.
If I may use a humble example, if you came to my house in Belfast, my little cottage, you would open the front door and you would find yourself standing in what we call the hall. That's a place where people stand before they stand somewhere else. That in my house has doors to it that separate it structurally from a dining room, from a sitting room, and from a kitchen. These three rooms are set apart structurally from each other.
But if you came in and noticed the pattern on the carpet in the floor of the hall, you would see that that pattern not only covers the floor of the hallway, but goes up the stairs, right along the landings to the top of the house. And of course, the stairs and the landings are different structurally from the hallway. If you stood in the hall and opened the door into the, uh, into the dining room, you pass from the hall to the dining room, you're passing from one structural element to the other structural element.
You can shut the door, and they are completely self-contained compartments. When you looked at the carpet in the dining room, you would see it was of a different pattern from the carpet in the hall. But then you would notice a funny thing, because it's my house, you see, uh, and the house has to resemble the owner, uh, and occupant. And you would find that there is a series of pictures called The Cries of London. There are two of those pictures in the hall, and when you open the doorway into the dining room, you'll find the series of pictures continues all the way around the dining room as well, you'll see.
So these pictures form a pattern, and the pattern is shared by two of the structures. Now it's getting complicated. Well, the only way you'll solve that is to come and look at it, do you see? But that is so, and a lot of houses are like that. Mm-hmm. But when you look at those pictures, two of them are in the hall, the rest of them, about a half a dozen or more, are in the dining room. The pattern of the pictures is not distributed proportionately to the structure.
When you look at the, um, pattern in the hallway, as I said, you'll note, we notice the pattern on the carpet goes up the stairs and right up the landings all the way, though the landings are separate structurally from the hall. You say, what about the pattern of those pictures? Ah, now there's a difference. The pattern on the floor of the, of the entrance hall goes up the stairs, but, uh, you see, but the pattern of the pictures doesn't. Pattern, you'll see, is a very different thing from structures. The men will find this all difficult to follow.
The ladies, the ladies will understand it completely with all their expertise at color and all this kind of thing, you see. So in scripture, if you wanted to pursue the structure of the Gospel of John, you would find that after the long introduction, not just the prologue, but the long introduction that goes into chapter two and verse 12, that the rest of the gospel of John is devoted to four journeys that our Lord Jesus made from Galilee to Jerusalem on the occasion of the Jewish feasts, and then back again north towards Galilee.
There is nothing else in John, but those four journeys to Jerusalem and back. That is the structure of the thing. The first structure opens. Now there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went down to Jerusalem, two verse thirteen. It proceeds to tell you what happened in Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple and the discussion with the resident theologian in Jerusalem, Nicodemus. Then how our Lord went from the capital city to the surrounding county and went down to where John was baptizing.
And then he decided to go back north, and he went through Samaria. And eventually, chapter four will tell you how he arrived back in the north at Cana of Galilee, where he did the first miracle before he went to Jerusalem, and how a nobleman came to Cana when he heard Jesus was come back out of Jerusalem, back to Galilee. John stresses the fact because he thinks you might have forgotten by the time you got to chapter four that you had been told our Lord was on a journey to Jerusalem and back again. So being a kindly writer as the Apostle John, he keeps on telling you it, hoping that at last it will register, you see.
He's been down to Jerusalem, and he come back again. Well, he's got back then. And chapter five opens. And there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went down to Jerusalem. And it tells you what he did in Jerusalem. And then it tells you that he came back to Galilee, and it records some miracles and some sermons he preached when he had come back from the south up north. That includes chapter six. so now he's back up north. And chapter seven opens. There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went down to Jerusalem.
You couldn't miss it if you tried. You have to try hard to miss that kind of thing, or else look out of the window when you're supposed to be reading it or something. Bible is written for simple folks. And that journey is described in great detail to the end of chapter ten, and it includes our Lord's presence in Jerusalem, not only in the Feast of Tabernacles, but on the Feast of Dedication. And at the end of chapter ten, what happens then? Jesus went away to where John was at the first baptizing. That is, considerably north, not where he later baptized, but considerably north.
Our Lord went back north to where John was at the first baptizing. So we come to the end of chapter ten. What do you suppose chapter eleven is going to be about? Now have a guess, even if you've never read it before. Well, it doesn't say there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went down to Jerusalem. It waits to the end of chapter eleven to tell you that. But chapter eleven begins by the story of our Lord's coming to Bethany, raising Lazarus from the dead, and withdrawing while the pilgrims came through, and many of them through Bethany, as they were going to the feast at Jerusalem.
And our Lord did it deliberately to maximize the publicity of his final journey to Jerusalem. The third journey he had gone up secretly, incognito, but the fourth, he went, but first arranged the maximum publicity, because on this fourth visit, it was to be his official visit as Zion's king, coming to Jerusalem as Zion's king. And he deliberately fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah that Jerusalem's king would come riding on a donkey.
And that fourth journey takes up the whole of the rest of John and ends with the chapter twenty one that records how our Lord, after the resurrection, was back in Galilee and what he did with the miraculous draught of fishes for his disciples. Now that is structure, simple structure, four visits to Jerusalem and back. But of course it is part of the message, for we're told why he went to Jerusalem, and we shall immediately perceive that he went to Jerusalem on the occasion of these great festivals, and there he examined and commented upon the worship of the nation and their service of God.
It is a very dramatic structure, for if we are attending to it, John will nudge us in the ribs and say, you see that figure going up there with the pilgrims to Jerusalem? Yes. Well, that's Jesus of Nazareth. Yes. But who is he? Well, that's God incarnate, actually. Watch him arrive in the temple. That is his father's house. This is God the Son, God incarnate. But they're supposed to be worshiping.
And he makes his comments on their worship. He listened to their singing, and whether they meant it. He pointed to the practices that were quite inconsistent in the temple with the worship of God. In the end, John tells us that they grew tired of his comments, and bustled him out to Calvary and executed him, and went back to their temple to worship. You see the irony of it, don't you?
So structure isn't there simply for, so that we can play crossword puzzles with the word of God. Structure is part of the message. And if I may have a word in the ears of preachers and teachers, you don't always need to, um, keep parading words like structure, unless you're talking to a highly intelligent audience like the present one. You want to say there are four s- uh, this is the structure, you simply say, now you'll notice we're going with the Lord Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem in this message tonight, you see.
What for? Well, it's a festival, and then you proceed with the story. And when they come back the next time, you say, uh, do you remember last time we went with our Lord in on one of his journeys of inspection to Jerusalem? You remember that, do you? Well, now we're going on another one. And you can get away without even using the word structure. Marvelous, that, isn't it? Well, then there are patterns. I use the word pattern in this study of numbers, but perhaps in illustrating these technical terms, it's easier to use a book that is better known. There are a number of patterns in the Gospel of John.
There are, for instance, six stories in which women are prominent that are not mentioned by any other gospel writer. And that's why the women constantly talk about it. You know, you, you've noticed that, haven't you? These six stories. The first of them is the wedding of Cana of Galilee, and we are told that the mother of Jesus was there. Curiously, nothing is said about the bride, but never mind. Sometimes mothers, in-laws, and other things, and mothers are more important at weddings, you'll see. So that's number one.
No one else tells us that story. In chapter four, there's a story of the Samaritan woman. No one else tells us that. In chapter eight, I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that the story of the woman taken in adultery was put there originally by John, from whatever source he may have taken the story. It's another woman, no one else tells us about her. In chapter uh eleven and twelve there is the long story about Martha and Mary. Now, other gospel writers tell us about the feast that was made in that house, but only John gives us the long story of the sickness, death of Lazarus, their brother, and how our Lord came and raised Lazarus from the dead.
Then there is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the death of her son. And the famous words, not elsewhere recorded, that he said to Mary, pointing to John, woman, behold thy son. And to John said he, son, behold thy mother. And finally, there is the extended story about Mary Magdalene in the garden. When our Lord addressed her and said, "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Six stories then about women, in which women are prominent.
They all have a common theme. That theme is relationship. For instance, the woman in chapter four was living with a man that wasn't her husband. The relationship was unsatisfactory. The woman in chapter eight had been unfaithful to her relationship. They form a pair, don't they? In chapter eleven we have Martha and Mary at the death of their brother. In chapter nineteen, Mary at the death of her son.
And in the story of Mary Magdalene, you have the question of relationship explicitly expounded. I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And to come back to the first story, the wedding at which the mother of Jesus was present. What are weddings if they're not the formalizing publicly of a new relationship? Yeah? So there's a pattern, and the stories are interrelated, but if you study them, you will notice that they are not distributed equally throughout the structural sections of the book, because they're not structure.
They're like the pattern on my carpet in the hallway. There's a lot of it in the hallway. Some of it goes up the stairs, but it's not equally distributed through the house because it's not a structural feature, it's simply a pattern. And one could go on more, but I mustn't. I'm supposed to be talking about numbers. Don't spill the beans and tell the organizers that I strayed from the truth and got onto a subject, uh, that wasn't supposed to be one, you'll see. Mm-hmm. But again, if we're talking, you preachers, to a general congregation, you don't even have to use the word pattern if you don't want to.
You can discuss the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee and the new relationship and all those wonderful things that come out of that story. And the next time you preach, you could say, yesterday, last time, we had a story about a wedding. Well, now we're going to come across another story in which a woman is prominent, and the wedding hadn't been so successful, you know. She'd had five husbands, and uh, and so you carry on. You may eventually point out how those stories are related one to another, and how that they're putting different sides of a common theme. But even doing that, you don't even have to use the word pattern if you don't want to.
What did I mean when I said, uh, the other day, in talking about the rebellions in the second half of the book of Numbers, that I'm not giving you a structure? People have said to me, but it looks very much like, uh, to us as if it were a structure anyway. Well, I don't really mind what you, what you call it. But I was, uh, shielding my own flank, actually, because when it comes to the structure of the whole book of Numbers, opinions differ, do they not, on what is the basis of the structure. And therefore, I didn't want to get myself discussing that at length and putting all sorts of different views.
I exhorted you to do the reading and, uh, certified you that there are different opinions on the structure. I took the easy way out, and I pointed to a dominant theme. Perhaps you don't remember the phrase I used, just deliberately used. That this is a dominant theme is pretty obvious, you see. So whether you think it's part of the structure, it could be, or whether you think it's not technically part of structure, never mind, it is a dominant theme. And we shall be talking about the significance of that dominant theme a bit more this morning. And similarly, the sacrifices are a dominant theme.
Call them structure if you want to. I would call them, more inclined to call them pattern, a repeated pattern, but let's not quarrel about term. You'll see. These are devices that one would use in ordinary literature, and I, by background, am a teacher of the Greek and Roman classical literature, and have learned a lot of things from old Aristotle, uh, you'll see. And therefore, for investigating the literary parts of scripture, narrative and so forth, it is helpful, uh, to notice such things as structure and pattern.
But I repeat what I there said. Now abideth thought flow, structure, and pattern, these three, and the greatest of these is what? Thought flow. Yes, because it's thought flow that determines all the rest. After that, we come back to the second half of the book of Numbers, and in the time available to me, I, I seek to s- say one or two more things about, first about these rebellions, and then about some of the sacrifices.
There is a series of rebellions, as we have discovered. But now, in interpreting what was the nature, the distinguishing nature of each rebellion, and deciding its implications, now we have to tread very carefully. That is a matter of study. But there is also a pastoral concern. For when it comes to preaching from them, and using these stories as examples, so the New Testament calls them, examples to be brought to our attention as Christians, so that we do not make the same mistakes as ancient Israel made, and that is one Corinthians ten and it Paul's explicit word about these rebellions.
When it comes to applying them to ourselves and our fellow believers, we need exceedingly great care. First of all, to discover what scripture itself is saying, what the rebellion was, and what it was about. And then be very careful how we apply it to ourselves and our fellow believers. For it's easy to be a little clumsy here, and to apply warnings about apostates straight apostates they were, in some of these cases, and without realizing that, to apply those warnings to dear, genuine believers that have fallen into some difficulty.
It's easy to misjudge people, is it not? And the last rebellion, I call your attention to it, the last one in chapter thirty two one, thirty six thirteen, uh, uh, in that particular section, the rebellion, or the supposed rebellion of the two and a half tribes. We are told that the two and a half tribes came to Moses one bright morning, and they said, sir, might we make a request of you? When, uh, uh, uh, the nation has conquered the Canaanite population, could we request that you give us territory east of Jordan?
Because we've noticed there's a lot of grass there, and we have a lot of cattle, and cattle, Moses, you will see, go with grass. So could we please be given, when you distribute the land, the territory east of Jordan? At which point Moses, if I may say it of such an exalted figure, flew off the handles. You generation of apostates, he says. Didn't we have enough trouble with your fathers at Kadesh Barnea, when they could have gone into the promised land and refused to go?
And have you forgotten the judgment of God that descended upon us because of their refusal to go into the land. And here you are, wanting to stay the other side of Jordan. You'll bring upon us the further judgment of God. So they waited till the storm abated, a sign of great grace, and calmly they said, but sir, we weren't proposing any such thing. Yes, we made the request that we be given land east of Jordan, but you haven't forgotten yourself, sir, have you, that the Lord gave us victory over that land and gave the nation that territory.
But secondly, sir, we are prepared to go fighting and go in the very vanguard of the troops. We're not proposing ourselves to stay east of Jordan. We'll make barricades for our women and children, but we will go fully armed. We will go right in the front of the battle lines, and we will not come back until the whole land has been conquered. We are not slack. We are not apostates. We're not proposing to discourage our brethren.
But only asking that when the whole land is conquered and the tribes are dismissed and dispersed, we be allowed to inherit the territory that God has himself has given the nation east of Jordan. And Moses copped. Well, well, if that's what you meant, that's okay. Maybe I'm just warning you, you better do what you promised. Well, yes, of course. And we can understand Moses, can't we? The question of Israel's refusal to enter the land at Kadesh Barnea and all their subsequent trouble so overwhelmed him that on one occasion he lost his temper with the people, and God on that account said that he would never lead them into the Promised Land.
You can understand he's being a bit touchy, can't you? And sniffing rebellions where they didn't exist. Dear old Moses. If Moses needed to be careful and could be mistaken in his diagnosis, how much more should we be careful in diagnosis, knowing what these rebellions are about, and be careful in our application of their lesson, lest we misapply them. The first rebellion, the refusal eventually to go into the Promised Land.
Mercifully, we are not left to ourselves to decide what wa- what the rebellion was about. Because in the Psalms, there is a whole, a half of a psalm given over to applying the lesson to subsequent generation of Israelites. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation, when Israel refused to enter the promised land. And I swear in my wrath, says God, that they would not enter into my rest. This obviously was a very serious rebellion, such that God eventually took an oath to say that the men who refused to go in would never go in.
That psalm is taken and quoted in the letter to the Hebrews, chapters three and four, at great length. Its individual words and phrases are expounded in the way of a good preacher sticking to his text. And as we read the, what the writer to Hebrews says, we become aware likewise that the rebellion was a very serious rebellion. Who are these people that refused to go in? The writer to the Hebrews says that they had an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God.
That was the seriousness of it. They weren't a bunch of dear believers that temporarily lost their nerve. And when we read the text of Numbers, chapter eleven and chapter fourteen in particular, we shall hear God giving his verdict. How long will they not believe me? How long will they despise me? Who have seen my signs ten times over, and still despise me and refuse to believe me.
Hebrews comments, the end of chapter three, we see that they couldn't enter in. Why not? Because of disobedience, says the writer, and then adds, because of unbelief. The temptation at that point is to say that cannot genuine believers disobey the Lord from time to time? Of course they can. Cannot genuine believers be small in faith and not really believe certain of the promises God has made. Oh, certainly they can.
Yes, but we must be careful with our technical terms. The word that the writer to the Hebrews uses about this particular disobedience and refusal to believe, the word for disobedience is a word that occurs throughout the New Testament. It is never once used of true believers. It's an altogether different word that is used about obedience, uh, when it comes to true believers. The kind of people it's talking about, you see, are deliberate defiers of God.
Paul talks to Titus about the ungodly, and he describes them at the end of his chapter one in every work abominable, and he calls them by this same word disobedient. Or in the Acts of the Apostles, when the gospel is preached, some believe, some don't yet believe, but there were others, the Jews who disobeyed is the word. They were the people that took up stones and s- tried to stone the apostles and drove them out and tried to get the Gentiles not to believe them.
Those Jews were not true believers who happened to has hit a difficult day, a bad day, and were out of kilter. It is the word that is used in the Gospel of John, he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. He who disobeys the Son shall not see life. The wrath of God abides on. Disobedience in what sense? It is a someone who has been illumined by the Holy Spirit and deliberately refuses to obey the gospel or to believe it.
This was what happened at Kadesh Barnea. It was a solemn occasion. And God would have destroyed the whole nation had it not been for the intercessions of Moses, who pleaded the character of God and God's own reputation. What will the Egyptians say, said Moses to God? And if I had been God, I would have said, Moses, do you suppose I care what Egyptians say? But apparently God did care what Egyptians said. For if you destroy the whole nation, the Egyptians will say, well, that proves the whole thing, you see, because God couldn't bring them in.
Their God, he wasn't big enough, and he couldn't bring them in, so he abandoned them in the wilderness. And then what the will the Egyptians think of you, God? And God listened to Moses. Moses was marvelously faithful, wasn't he? Because God offered to take Moses, destroy all the others, and make a nation of him. And if he had done that, God would have fulfilled all his promise to Abraham. Because Moses, you see, was a descendant of Abraham, and if God made a nation from him, well, that would have fulfilled the promise to Abraham. But when God proposed it to Moses, Moses said, thank you, Lord, but no.
If you're going to destroy them, you destroy me. So God said, well, I will bring my judgment upon the men who refuse to go into the land. And of course, God's judgment was just, wasn't it? He had pleaded with them, ten times he had pleaded with them. They had finally refused, talked of stoning the good spies and going back to Egypt. God's judgment was this. Well, you don't want to go in? Don't go in. In that sense, my brothers, my sisters, God will never compel anybody to go to heaven.
If people are illuminated by God's Holy Spirit, and know it is God himself speaking to them, and deliberately refuse, they reject God's heaven. There comes a point when God will say, well, have your choice. Don't go to heaven. They're very solemn, isn't it? That rebellion, therefore, was over some very fundamental things, as the writer makes clear in Hebrews chapters three and four.
More than that, I do not wish now to stay- say. In one of those very expensive books that our friend from Canada was trying to sell you, you'll see, the matter is discussed at some length, you'll see, and you could check upon my spoken interpretation with what is written there. Let's move on to this, uh, uh, uh, uh, we should notice in passing what we said yesterday, that in their folly, when God said he- they wouldn't go into the land, he, the, the, the, the Israelites attempted now of their own strength and power to go in and fight the enemy.
The ark didn't go with them. God didn't read it as repentance. And the king of Arad came out and chased them away. There they are at the end of chapter fourteen, running away from the Promised Land as hard as their legs will take them. Where now, in the way that the book of Numbers is put together, we have that marvelous collocation of ideas, don't we, that we mentioned yesterday. Here they are running away, and chapter fifteen opens, say unto the children of Israel, when you be come into the land.
And the younger generation picked up their ears. Forty years in the wilderness we've got to be now. Ah, but yes, said someone. Do you see what's implied in that command? Why is God telling us that now? Because we can't plant crops in the desert, and we can't reap the corn. Why is God talking to us about that now, when you... And the penny dropped. The very command, when you come into the land, you shall offer a meal offering of the flour on the altar to the Lord, was not only a command, it was an implied assurance that one day they would get in.
Cool, that's marvelous, isn't it? I do wish I had the time to talk to you about that offering of meal, the meal offering, and what at the highest level it talks of. I must resist that in te- temptation, or I shall be in trouble with the clock. But to emphasize the need to be careful in our interpretation and diagnoses of this rebellion, I want to come to the second one, the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. What was that about? We noticed yesterday that the rebellion of Korah is mentioned in the epistle to Jude, by Jude.
It was in fact a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Chapter sixteen, you take too much upon yourselves, they said, you Moses and Aaron. And we are of the tribe of Levi, just like you are. And there you are prancing about, Moses, and pretending you're the great voice of God to us people. We're just as good as you. And as for you, Aaron, walking around in those robes and telling us you're the only one that may go into the holiest of all and make atonement for the people, we were right just as you.
All the people are holy. You're taking too much upon yourself, Aaron, so-called high priest. What kind of a rebellion was that? It was so bad and so fundamental that God told Moses and the rest of Israel, if I fail to do something absolutely unique with these rebels. Ah, he said, you better get them together.
And they assembled. Tell them to, to put on incense in their censers and burn incense. I'll tell you what I think of. The very earth beneath their feet opened and swallowed them up. They went down alive into Hades. Trust I've said enough to show that they weren't true believers. And who was Moses? He was the apostle of their confession. The one who had stood on Mount Sinai and seen God and heard his voice. God's inspired, authoritative mouthpiece who brought the word of God, which word of God is written down by inspiration of God in the Old Testament.
To contest Moses' claim was to contest his inspiration by God, his unique authority as the voice of God for that generation. And the modern equivalent would be to refuse to believe the Old Testament written by Moses as the inspired word of God. He was the apostle of their confession, and Aaron was the high priest of their confession. Sure, there were many other priests and Levites, but Aaron was the high priest. He alone was authorized to represent the nation and on the Day of Atonement to enter the holiest of all, to make atonement for sin.
They rebelled against the apostle and high priest of their confession. And when it was over, and the fire of God had burned the senses of those priests, those would-be priests, Korah, Datham, and Abiram. Korah was only a Levite, not a priest. God told Moses that they were to collect the censers of those re- rebels. They were to beat them out, and they were to attach them to the altar, with the effect, of course, that thereafter for generations, when people came to that altar to offer their sin offerings or their burnt offerings, if they were thinking what they did and watching that altar, they would see nailed to that altar the evidence of that rebellion against Moses and Aaron.
Now the application of it is clear, for the New Testament talks of this matter, and it characterizes Korah's rebellion by the Greek word antilogia, which means to speak against, but to speak against in a hostile sense of rebellion. In other places in the New Testament, that same Greek word antilogia is translated in the King James Version as contradiction. That's the Latin for the Greek idea, contra against and diccio saying, to say against, you'll see.
And one notable passage is to be found in Hebrews chapter twelve. Talking to his fellow believers who were enduring persecution from their fellow nationals, the Jews, the writer says, consider him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, when he endured the cross and despised the shame. Here is the word characteristic of chorus rebellion then in the New Testament. See what it means when it is in, eh eh eh, when it is interpreted in Hebrews chapter twelve.
It is a talking about not some slip that the Apostle Thomas may have made in one of his more melancholy moments, nor even talking about the failure of nerve that beset Peter when suddenly his courage fled and he denied the Lord. This is talking about the Jewish authorities, who with their eyes open, and knowing that Christ was innocent, yet concocted their charges against him. Oh, how they argued.
Oh, how they contradicted his claim. And in the end, their rebellion against him took the form that they crucified their own Messiah. He endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. Every time we come to Calvary and remember it, we meet two wonderful things, don't we? Calvary, the expression of this world's, and sometimes the religious world's, satanic hatred of God's dear Son, showing that man is a rebel to the depths of his being.
And at the same time, it shows the magnificent mercy of God, that while we were yet rebels, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. Thus did God commend his love towards us while we were yet sinners. It's a long section, and it would be absurd for me to try to fill in the details, vastly important though they are, but these are just introductory seminars, semin- sem- seminars, and I'm not supposed to be preaching anyway.
I can't resist, however, calling your attention to the third rebellion. And to our astonishment, but in the end it increases our faith in the reliability of scripture and the honesty of God. We are told in that section that Moses and Aaron rebelled. What was it over? Well, we're told that at a certain part of the journey, things were very tough for the Israelites.
They were being attacked by the is- the, uh, powers in southern Palestine. The situation on the march, nations like Edom and Moab were highly unreasonable, and water was, uh, failing. And the people, can you imagine the cattle moaning their heads off because they lack water? Mothers distressed with the babies and their tongues beginning to swell. And yes, frankly spoken, the people murmured against God and Moses.
You can translate the word they quarreled. And of course it is a sin to murmur against God. One Corinthians ten reminds us of this, neither murmur as they murmured. But when they murmured, Moses went before God and, uh, told God the situation, and God replied. And if we would interpret the situation rightly, we should notice exactly what God didn't say and what he did say. In God's reply to Moses, there was no criticism of the people.
Pray notice it when you read it. It was simply God's instruction to Moses that Aaron should take his rod, that is the famous rod that budded, emblem of his high priestly ministry, to convey the heart and character of a holy God to his people. Why no criticism from God? We'll read the story again. The people were at the end of their terror. They'd been so through so much in the wilderness, and this on top of it.
They got to a position of saying, Moses, we'd rather die. We can't stick it any longer. People at the end of their tether, and they quarreled with Moses, and they quarreled with God, actually. Will you blame them? Will you stand over them as a severe critic and belabor them with your stick of office? Or will you feel a sympathy? Will you ever know or remember a case in your own life when things were so tough that in your heart you questioned God's goodness and felt that death would be preferable?
Never been there? Some of God's people have. And when people at the end of their tether, they can sometimes come out with criticisms of God. Why does God do this to me? What would God do to such people in such distress? He told Aaron to take his priestly staff of office as a great high priest and speak, that's all he had to do, speak to the rock, and the rock would gush out its waters to relieve the distress of God's people.
And he would have sanctified God in the eyes of the people and helped the people to see that God in allowing all this hard journey, was a God who felt with their sufferings, and in all their affliction, he was afflicted. And a God who, knowing their need, would not allow them to be tested above what they were able. Aaron was bused to speak to the rock, and it would bring forth the waters of dibli- divine soothing, thirst quenching, and peace. Instead of which? But Moses was at about the end of his tether too.
Ha. They took this rod that was meant to be the office of the high priest to expound God, and coaching the rock, they smote the rock, said Moses to the people, you lot of rebels, you. Must I bring water out of this rock for you? That was no way really, was it, to talk to people that emotionally were at the end of their tether. And God took offense at that, offense with Moses and Aaron. You've misrepresented me, he says. You've not sanctified me before the people.
As a result, you will never lead them into the promised land of peace and riches. Yes. It's a solemn thing to stand before people in the name of God, isn't it? Solemn thing to stand before people who are under suffering or have been persecuted and at the end of their tether and wonder whether God still loves them or whether they can believe still. Then to represent God correctly to them. Oh, what it requires of a priestly ministry to convey, yes, the holiness, but the mercy and the love of God.
And then we think back, in the center of the preparations, as we saw yesterday, there was the Aaronic blessing. This Aaron was supposed to stand from time to time and bless the people, make them feel in their very hearts the kindness, the mercy, and the love of God. And Aaron had failed, miserably failed, and so had Moses. You say that put an end to all the blessing. No, it didn't. If Aaron wouldn't say it and Moses didn't say it, God had it said.
And the next chapters are all about that wicked old Balaam, who stood to earn a lot of money by cursing Israel, and to his endless frustration wasn't allowed to. For God met him and said, now, Balaam, you'll say what I once said, and you won't say any of your nonsense. You should bless the people. Poor old Balaam. He lost all his fee for his religious services, you'll see, but he had to stand there and say, God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. Has he said it? Well, then do it. He has, I have received commandment to bless, and Israel shall be blessed, and I can't stop it.
Marvelous that, isn't it? Because when Israel's high priest failed, then God still had the blessing, for God's character hadn't changed. God is not a man that he should lie. Has he said it? Then he will do it. He has given commandment to bless. I cannot reverse it, and God's people shall be blessed. You are allowed, even in a seminar, to say in your hearts, Hallelujah. While I apologize for not getting to the end of Numbers, but then my job has been simply to open a little door into the book, to point out one or two things that are to be seen inside, and leave it for your further.
Shall we pray? Lord, thou who has given thy word by thy divine inspiration, we bless thee for it. We bless thee for its sheer interest, but more so now, as we perceive these things go down to the very root of our experience of God. We ask thy grace and perseverance in the study and thinking about thy word, and above all, thine illumination, that first we might understand rightly what thou art saying, and secondly, that we might properly convey thy word and thy character to the people around us, of whatever kind.
And this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
