Because He Prayed

“And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.” (De 9:20 AV)

It may be the only thing standing between us and the chastening hand of God is the prayer of a man of God.  At least twice, for both Israel and Aaron, it was the intercession of Moses that stayed the hand of God.  Specially in the matter of the molten calf, Aaron’s life was in jeopardy.  Moses could have chosen to not intercede for Aaron and would have been fully justified in doing so.  Herein is the heart of Moses!  He loved the people whom God had given him to the point of interceding for them at the very times they deserved it the least.

When I was a kid, my sister and I were at a local department store and my sister dared me to shoplift.  Always trying to impress her, (and to this day I have no idea why) I attempted that very thing.  Asking her to be the lookout, she failed miserably in her assigned task.  I was caught.  Taken to the office of the loss prevention officer, I sat there terrified of what my future life of a convicted criminal might be like.  I was too young to go off to prison over a whistle that cost a penny.  But I had heard horror stories of hardened eight-year-olds becoming career criminals after they had left their prison experience.  There I sat, waiting to be loaded into a squad car and hauled off to a maximum-security prison.  I sat there for two hours.  Not a peep from me or the officer.  I sat there, staring at the floor.  He sat there, starring at me.  Then in walked my father.  I was told to wait outside the office.  A few minutes later, my father, came out and headed towards the car.  Without saying a word, I followed.  The ride home was silent.  We got home and we both exited the car.  He went back to work in my office and I sat outside waiting to be called to his office and chastened for my hideous criminal activity.  Hours went by.  Nothing.  Diner came and we all sat at the table.  My father carried on his usual conversations with the family.  I sat in silence.  The next day, it was silence all over again.  It wasn’t until later that afternoon that I realized my father was not going to bring it up.  What I realized was that in those few moments with the loss prevention officer, my father bore my shame and interceded on my behalf.  It was this love that spoke volumes.  Never again did I ever cause my father problems.  He loved me.  He loved me enough to stand for me when I deserved it the least.

Many a preacher bears the shame of disobedient sheep.  When the make choices that are worthy of God’s chastening hand, they also bear the shame and reproach the sheep’s choice brings upon the house of God and even the preacher.  Yet, they love the sheep.  They will pray for the sheep.  There are times when God’s hand is determined to come, yet the prayers of the man of God stays that hand.  He bears the reproach of the people of God whom he is leading and begs God’s mercy for them.  It could very well be that there are churches and saints that are alive today because there was a preacher who stood for them and prayed for them.

Remember The Victories

“If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;” (De 7:17-18 AV)

This is exactly what they would eventually say.  They would eventually be faced with enemies whom they considered too much for them to face.  In fact, it wasn’t that much later when, indeed, they said this very thing.  When the twelve spies returned from spying out the land, they reported the inhabitants were too numerous and large for their little nation to conquer.  Because of their lack of faith, the wondered in the wilderness for forty years until the faithless generation passed away.  What they forgot was the great victories of the recent past.  What is surprising was the victories were rather recent.  Within a few years.  Yet, it doesn’t take much to forget what God has done for you.

Recently, I visited a physician’s assistant for an issue related to my heart.  She wanted a complete medical history.  From memory, I tried to recall all that had happened in my 54 years of life.  As my wife and I were leaving, I began to recall one thing after another that I forgot to tell this faithful health worker.  My mother kept a small diary for each of her children of their health issues until age 18.  I think when she got to her fifth of eleven children, the task became a little too much to carry on.  Specially when eight of those were boys.  She would have to make come sort of entry multiple times a day.  Depending on which of her children lost a battle with common sense.  I have that little book.  When we got home from the appointment, I entered all those things that I could remember.  As I was entering those, it occurred to me how many times I was in trouble and the LORD watched over me.  In several of them, my life was a bit in jeopardy.  But God is faithful.

The enemies of the child of God are the world, the devil, and the flesh.  The flesh being the hardest of all.  By way of application, let us consider a few questions.  Why is it that we think a particular sin is impossible to defeat when the LORD has given us victory over so many already?  Why is it that we allow the flesh to tempt us to failure when the LORD has already given us the victory?  Why is it that we have forgotten the victory of many other areas of life and assume this one battle is impossible to win?  Why is it that when the number of victories already received outnumber the one that has us in defeat and we still think by God’s grace we cannot overcome?  The sin that doth so easily beset us is nor greater or less than the other monsters God has defeated.  We just think it is.  Yield to the Holy Spirit and the giant will fall.

No Go Zones

“Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” (De 2:5 AV)

There are fights in which we should engage.  Others are better left alone.  Our battle is a spiritual one.  Not a physical one.  There are areas of domain which the church has not been given.  There are places and things which do not belong to the church of God.  These should be left alone.  In our passage, Israel is passing through the east side of their eventual kingdom.  This is the portion given to the two-and-a-half tribes who didn’t want to settle on the west side of Jordan.  Mount Seir, which was given to he descendants of Esau was off limits territory for the Jewish settlement.  Seeing as how they were common descendants through Isaac, Israel was to dwell peaceably as their neighbor.  But they were not allowed to engage in battle for the territory of Mount Seir.  It wasn’t theirs.

The church should be careful that it doesn’t involve itself in matters that do not belong to it.  It is one thing to try to influence other interests for the glory of God.  Quite another to seek to control it.  This is a balance that is sometimes difficult to determine.  I will give an example.  Years ago, I was asked to serve in a chaplaincy department of a local hospital.  This chaplaincy department consisted of all different sorts of faiths.  There was some real soul searching as the LORD led me on the choice of involvement.  I could just see my independent Baptist brethren as they erroneously believed I had compromised.  I didn’t.  I held to my convictions and would not allow the chaplaincy department place on my any expectations or restrictions that would violate my conscience.  I will pray in Jesus name whether accepted or not.  I will not to a baby baptism no matter how much the parents of the patient want it.  I will not administer the LORD’s supper to a none-member of an independent Baptist church.  If asked for advice, I will use only the KJV.  However, I was asked to volunteer in this department for responsibilities that would jeopardize my convictions.  Sorry, no can do.  A non-denominational chaplaincy ministry is not something a separated Baptist should control.

There are many such ministries or opportunities that avail themselves to the Bible believer.  One must ask “is that my inheritance?  Does that area of opportunity belong to the Bible-believer?”  I have seen too many professing Christians ‘think outside the box’ and involve themselves too deeply in things they ought not.  That is not ours.  We may buy water or temporary needs as Israel was allowed.  But it is not ours.

Willful Irritants

“But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.” (Nu 33:55 AV)

One of the ways in which the LORD teaches us truth us through types or examples in the lives of others.  Israel is a study in the nature of the saint.  As Israel reacted to the hand of God, we can also see our spiritual growth in the LORD upon receiving Him as our Savior.  Steps of maturity which the nation of Israel went through are similar to the stepping stones of our own maturity.  If the exodus from Egypt is a type of salvation from the world, then from that event on, the Nation of Israel illustrates that which the believer will have to face.

One of those realities is the pursuit of holiness.  We also call that sanctification or separation.  Holiness is the state.  Sanctification is the motive.  Separation is the process. When Israel was promised the land of Canaan, it did not come without participation on their part.  God was not going to empty the land for them, plant their crops, and build them houses in which to dwell.  These things would have to come by their own hand with the empowering of the Spirit of God.  One of those most important and foundational acts was to cleanse the land of the heathen that dwelt there.  This land had been given to Abraham and was largely uninhabited at that time.  During the 430 years of captivity to Egypt, the godless moved in.  Now, the LORD required they be removed.  However, this removal process mandated the nation take up arms to do so.  Which ever enemy of Israel and the LORD were left because Israel did not fight, would remain to be a curse to the nation of Israel.  If they had a troublesome neighbor, it was their fault for failing to evict them.

What does this type teach us?  We have sins in our lives which we give safe harbor so that we might enjoy its company from time to time.  We indulge in this sin without taking up arms against it.  Like Israel, we believe we can peacefully and mutually co-exist.  As long as one or the other does not try to control the relationship, then a mutual relationship of exploitation can exist.  The problem is, sin never seeks to co-exist.  It seeks to control.  The pleasure we think we are enjoying comes at a cost.  Eventually the sin which we once enjoyed becomes a constant source of irritation.  This is to what the LORD is referring.  Eradicate the enemy or it will be a constant source of trouble.  Wise counsel for the child of God.  We may enjoy it for a moment, but over time, it will begin as an irritant, then evolve into a full-blown infection.

Discouragement Spreads

“Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.” (Nu 32:8-9 AV)

Moses is referring to the ten spies who discouraged the nation from taking the land almost forty years ago.  Here, it is the two and a half tribes who settled on the east side of Jordan.  Moses warned these two and a half tribes that if the did not join with the majority of the nation, there was a real possibility the minority would discourage the majority. 

Not that I endorse all that C.S. Lewis has written, but in his book Screwtape Letters the tool of the devil that worked most of all was discouragement.  There is even an “illustration” that many preachers use that teaches the same principle.  Discouragement can be epidemic.  In our passage, Moses is comparing two separate events with the same potential outcome.  The first, when Joshua and Caleb were the only good spies, were defeated by the discouraging report of ten spies.  The majority discoursed the minority.  The ten spies who had little faith discouraged the nation from a great victory if they simply would have trusted the word of the LORD.  In our passage, the minority has the potential of discouraging the majority.  This discouragement can become a plague that starts out small, but grows and grows, making the whole body anemic.

Years ago, I had a pastor friend who pastored a nearby church to my own.  We used to exercise together.  We would often get coffee together.  His church was in my neighborhood.  He pastored a Southern Baptist church which tend to be committee or congregationally run with little regard to the authority of the pastor.  We were talking about his call to the pulpit which came after I had already been in the area.  He was the rookie of the neighborhood.  He had remarked that he had received 100% of the vote and he would never take a church unless the vote was unanimous.  Then he made the remark that he would never make any decision unless he had 100% percent of support.  That may sound good.  But there is a flaw in this reasoning.  Even if there was one individual who felt differently, then the church would not go in the direction which the LORD had led the pastor.  Discouragement becomes the rule of the congregation.  Which also means, nothing really changes.  The church is motivated by the least motivating factor.  Or not motivated at all.

Discouragement is a disease of the heart.  It affects all those who come in contact with it.  It will affect the whole body and keep the group from going forward in to the will of God.  May the LORD have mercy if we are the one spreading discouragement that keeps the whole body from stepping up in faith towards what God can do.

A Heart For The Sheep

“And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying, Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.” (Nu 27:15-17 AV)

Of all the things Moses could have prayed, he prayed the LORD would provide leadership for his people prior to his exit from Earth.  The LORD had just told Moses to go to a particular place and look upon the promised land because God was about to bring him home.  He was told to look upon the land that he would never transverse because of his sin of striking the rock.  Moses could have asked for leniency.  He could have asked for mercy.  Moses could have asked that he be allowed to merely cross Jordan and step on the shores of Canaan prior to his death.  HE asked for none of these things.  He didn’t need to ask forgiveness, for he already had it.  The only reason God brought it up again was in the context of the privilege to at least gaze upon Canaan.  Not to make Moses feel guilt over a sin that had been previously atoned for.  The only request Moses had was that the sheep be no scattered for lack of leadership.

Moses is perhaps one of the three greatest examples of a pastoral heart.  Christ being the first and always the best example.  David perhaps the second best.  But what it comes to loving an unlovely and ungrateful people, Moses has to rank right up there with the best of the best.  No doubt, Moses lost his temper with the people more than the Bible records.  The bible records only twice did Moses allow his anger with the people get the better of him.  The Bible chooses to record Moses love and patience for his people far and above his lack of patience and frustration.  Moses, in my humble opinion, should be a study for each and every pastoral candidate.  The man of God should make a special mentor of the man, Moses.

I have had the greatest privilege of serving with men of God whom I consider modern day Moses’.  The have been an example to me on how to love others even when other seem to be a thorn in the flesh.  These me, I can honestly say, never complained about any of the sheep God gave them.  They did have a realistic opinion about the sheep, but the loved them in spite of some of the trouble which they endured.  These men are gradually graduating to their final home.  This generation is passing before our eyes.  A generation that understood what pastoral ministry was all about.  They were not ‘kingdom builders’ which are modern seminaries are turning out.  They are first and foremost, shepherds.  They are not ‘headliners’ on a church marquee.  Their office is open to any and all who may wish their time.  They will never be in the annuals of a ‘Who’s Who’ because as far as they are concerned, they are a nobody trying to be a blessing to other nobodies.  They love their people.  And when they are gone, those whom they loved will realize just how much they were loved.  These men truly loved the sheep and their greatest concern was their welfare.

God Does Not Change

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Nu 23:19 AV)

This verse has been over used in the debate of God’s sovereignty compared with the free will of mankind.  It is not our intent to debate this issue.  We must stay within context of the statement above.  The context is the king of Moab’s desire for the prophet of God to curse the nation of Israel.  Balak is seeking the magical curse of Balaam upon Israel because he feels threatened by Israel’s shear numbers.  Balak understands that if God curses them, then Moab is safe.  There are two errors in his judgement.  The first is that Israel is a physical threat to Moab to begin with.  They are not.  The second is that God can curse Israel to begin with.  That is what we want to consider this morning.

Yesterday, we considered the fact that God does not save to destroy.  God is not out to get you.  He is not a tyrant who takes pleasure in the torture of a creation whom He loves.  The hardships one faces are meant for our cleansing or maturity.  They are not meant to reduce us to ashes.  This passage is a good follow-up.  God is a God of honor and character.  If He promised something, then He will do it.  His covenants cannot be altered.  Even though the character of Israel is mentioned in this passage, it is not the foundation of the covenant God made with their ancestors.  The covenant God made with Abraham is unconditional.  God cannot go back on His word.  If He has stated something, then it is binding.  It cannot be canceled.  Balaam could no more curse Israel than he could change the course of the sun.

This truth of God’s unalterable righteousness and purpose is the foundation of our faith.  If God is not absolute and His word equally so, then there cannot be any faith.  We plan our lives around things that are predictable.  The sun comes up.  Gravity is absolute.  Math doesn’t change. Etc.  Without these absolutes, life could not exist.  If God is not a God of His word, then creation cannot exist.  God does not change.  Period.  It is that truth that brings security and comfort to God’s people.  No matter what the world believes or Satan attempts to prove, it doesn’t matter.  God is God and there is nothing that can change Him!