Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 23, 2023 | Numbers - A Judgement of Quail

Transcript

April 23, 2023 | Numbers - A Judgement of Quail · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see you everybody.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if uh if you are new uh this morning we are going through the book of numbers.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the book of numbers, I feel like I've been telling you for a while that it's about Israel moving through the desert, and up to this point we've had five weeks of them not moving at all, right?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh today we move out, okay?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are we're following along with with Israel as they as they pick up camp uh from under the shadow of Mount Sinai and they move, right?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's gonna bring a lot of problems, a lot more than they probably thought.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh as we're getting into this, we've got quite a bit of text that we're going through this morning.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I just wanted to show you where it says that they pick up and move out, and kind of how that builds in a lot of the things that we've been talking about the last couple weeks, and then uh we'll get into this crazy situation that involves an insane amount of quail.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so uh in ch uh this is Numbers chapter 10, verses, well, you can see the verses there in the bottom right.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Israelites set out from the desert of Sinai and travelled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the desert of Peran.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: They set out this first time at the Lord's command through Moses.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So they set out from the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them during those three days to find them a place to rest.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud of the Lord was over them by day, and when they set out from the camp.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that, like I said, this takes in a lot of the things that we've talked about, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about the tabernacle and what that meant, that the Lord dwelled with the Israelites as they were going through the camp.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're setting out from this the desert of Sinai would also be kind of under the shadow of Mount Sinai.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And there were a lot of things that happened there, right?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The the um historical side of Mount Sinai, if there were placards, it would just kind of be littered with them because it's where we had the golden calf incident, it's where we have the Ten Commandments, it's where they received the Mosaic Law, it's where they build the tabernacle, it's where basically all of Leviticus happens.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so Mount Sinai is really significant.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And now the cloud that was on top of that mountain is moving out, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that cloud is now going, is sort of settling over the tabernacle when it lifts, uh, the Israelites move out, and they are led by the Ark of the Covenant, which is where God's presence sort of manifests itself.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want, we talked so much about the cloud in last week's podcast that I don't even think I can say the word cloud much anymore without thinking about that.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to learn more, that's that's where you can go.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice something here at the end of this passage.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Um, so they set out from the mountain of the Lord and traveled for three days.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that old uh Tootsie Pop commercial, right?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: With the the owl?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, How many, well the kid asks, like, how many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the owl goes like, one, two, three, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then he bites the kid's Tootsie Pop, and the kid's like, okay.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so how many days does it take for Israel after they set out before they get into a bunch of trouble?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three days.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Takes three days for them, okay?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They have not traveled very long at all before they are in a lot of hot water.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is what we're looking at this morning.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But there's actually, we're looking at the second story.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I didn't say that very well.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So they set out, they get into trouble, but that is found at the beginning of chapter 11 in the first three verses.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of brushed over because the section in chapter 10 about them leaving is really big, and then the section we're going to look at that takes up the rest of chapter 11 is really big.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But after three days, the Lord's judgment comes upon them because they're complaining about traveling.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, we get to our story this morning, uh, which is what happens when they begin to grow discontent with the Lord and all of his provision that he has given to them in the wilderness, and spoiler alert, what it tells us about our own lack of contentment in life.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if you'll go with me to chapter 11, it's where we'll kind of begin this morning.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, If only we had meat to eat.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: But now we have lost our appetite.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: We never see anything but this manna.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, the most fun word in this the rabble.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the rabble, right?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's kind of an interesting, it's sort of hard to translate.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there isn't a rabble's a pretty good word for it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a vag group of vagabonds or like the riffraff.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it sounds like a 1950s like James Dean movie, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the rabble is this group that has grown discontent with the Lord.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, well, who's who is in this group?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there are some people who say that it was, because it's true, when Israel left Egypt and God rescued them from slavery, there were some non-Israelites who came along with them.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the reason why, as they're going through the desert, there are instructions for how to handle non-Israelites participating in the uh kingdom community there.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But this is definitely including some of the Israelites as well.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so there are those who begin to complain, and what they're complaining about here is the manna that's on the ground.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh pretty soon after they left Egypt, they realized that they did not have enough food to go on this journey.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so they begin to complain to God, and God says, Okay, um, I'm going to provide for you, and I'm gonna provide this food for you.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is daily this sort of crust-like substance forms on the ground, and they would go out and they would gather it and they would bring it back in.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was always enough food.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: There was as much as anybody could gather, and it came every single day, except for the day before the Sabbath, they were supposed to rest, they could gather two days' worth.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so God was providing for their daily needs, and now they are tired of the manna.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They want like grape flavored, they want cherry flavored, they want all these different kinds of things.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're not satisfied with the kind of manna that they're getting.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so this group, this rabble, has begun to crave things.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when they're craving things, uh, this, and you're gonna see as we move through this story, every little bit of information begins to reveal this deeper heartache within the nation of Israel and the division that is present between them and the Lord their God.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And here is the beginning of it, which is that they're craving, and another word for this would be like lust, and not in the sense of like a sexual lust, but in just the sense that they want something unnaturally that they should not have.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so they begin to crave or they begin to lust after, in this case, it is just a wider variety of food.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they begin to look back to when they were slaves in Egypt, and they're like, those Egyptian watermelons were the best.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: If only we had one of those here.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And instead we get this manna stuff.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the saddest part about this entire passage, though, the saddest part is when they say, Hey, remember when we were at Egypt at no cost.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: How twisted, right, is their minds.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we are not even two years from then being redeemed from Egypt.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: These are people who uh were making mud bricks, and if they didn't do it fast enough, they were being whipped.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they were under oppression, and at the beginning of Exodus, we see that the nation of Egypt is killing their children because they were growing too populous.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reading a book right now called How the Word Was Passed, which is about slavery here in America and sort of the vestiges of it that still remain to a degree.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm reading through this book and was getting ready for this message, I'm like, uh there's a certain measure here where it's hard for me to understand, but to think that somebody being redeemed from abject slavery, then less than two years later, is like, oh yeah, no, that that is where we want to be.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was the food was free for us.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And as as we know, that slavery certainly they were not free.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: But this becomes, though, their attitude.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it becomes the attitude that they persist with as they go through the desert, which is that they forget all of the trials and circumstances that they were under previously, and they forget them very quickly, and begin to accuse God of things that he has not done, and begin to doubt him and change the narrative.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very popular word right now, but this gaslighting would be what Israel is basically doing to God.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not that he can be gaslit, if that's a word, but they are changing the narrative about him.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they are, God does things for them, and he cares for them, loves them, has made them his covenant people, and then they go, You never loved us, you never did these things.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: But this is not the first time, though, that they have asked for this kind of food.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I go back just one second to something we already talked about, but in Exodus 16, this is the first time they ask for food.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Does that sound like God?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them, at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread, then you will know that I am the Lord your God.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So this, if if we go back in our timeline, and you're familiar with that, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: They've been rescued from Egypt.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is before the, this is right after the Red Sea.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so chapter 14 in Exodus, Moses parts the Red Sea, they walk through, closes back in, Pharaoh's army is done for.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 15 is this amazing moment of praise to the Lord where they're so thankful.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then chapter 16, they go, We want quail.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we want food.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: We want, they're already looking back to Egypt when the chariots of their armies are still floating at the top of the water, right?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord answers them here in a very gracious and merciful way.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Okay, I will provide you with these things.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: You say you want meat, and he brings them quail, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is gonna be a question later on.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why quail?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because quail naturally live in this environment.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a specific kind of quail.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: They live sort of in Europe, but they migrate south and to the northern part of Africa and Western Asia, and so there is a natural quail that lives in the wilderness that God was bringing to them.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, so God brings them this, and then after their complaint here is when he first brings manna.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So walk with me, right?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: They they leave their sort of in the the they can still see the the Red Sea behind them, and they say, Lord, we want food, give us food, and God says, Okay, I will give you food.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're satisfied.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But then here we go to Numbers 11, and it is no longer just food that they want, but now they are upset with the variety of food that they're being offered.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: This also begins to we see it as their developing attitude because whatever the Lord does for them is not satisfying to them ultimately.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever he does then becomes the floor, and they begin to want more and more and more of him, and hurl these terrible accusations against God, saying that he brought them into the desert to starve to death, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll see more of things like that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, man, there's a measure here where we begin to understand that this was not just one single complaint, but that Israel was developing an attitude and a heart that went against the Lord and did not trust in him.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: But as we go on, though, we'll see the reaction that Moses first has in chapter 11 to Israel's request or demand, however you want to phrase that.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: He asked the Lord, Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did I conceive all these people?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Are they all my kids?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Did I give them birth?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I get meat for all these people?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: They keep wailing to me, give us meat to eat.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot carry all these people by myself.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: The burden is too heavy for me.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me if I have found favor in your eyes, and do not let me face my own ruin.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the sad parts about this story is it ends up splitting into two different problems.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just the war between Israel and God and the accusations that one is making to the other.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then there's this other problem that happens in chapter 11 with Moses and his leadership and the way that he feels insufficient to carry out the tasks that God has given him.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine thousands upon thousands of people coming to you constantly and yelling at you and claiming that you are the reason for their struggle, even though that's not the case, and Moses becomes very weary.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for the purpose of this morning, we're going to kind of split out those two stories, and we're going to focus on the one regarding Israel telling God that they need this food in the wilderness.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the story of and how God uh ultimately provides an answer for Moses to carry out his will, and it has to do with the Holy Spirit making an appearance and resting on elders and things like that.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll share more about that on the podcast.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning we're going to kind of be laser focused on Israel going to God and saying, What have you done for me lately?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right, Lord, you provided this manna.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but where's the variety?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Back in Egypt, at no cost, I sat around pots of meat and had all of the food that I could want.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses was troubled, it says here, um, at the very beginning, there.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, um, and literally what this means is that what he saw was evil.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so Moses sees those, sees all of these people who are just, and it says there at the beginning, uh, wailing at the entrance to their tents.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like they had necessarily gotten into a mob, but that every single one of them in their own way was just sort of, you know, going, you know what would be really nice?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is if God wasn't trying to kill us out here in the desert, talking with their friends and saying, you know what would be really great is if we had some more meat.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because this manna, I'm getting tired of it every day.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's only so many ways that you can cook manna.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm getting annoyed with it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess God doesn't really care about us because this is what he's given to us.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: This dissatisfaction is just running, though, like a virus through the entire camp.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so then we begin to see the Lord's response to this.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: This was Moses.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now we'll see what God has to say.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell the people, consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord heard you when you wailed.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: If only we had meat to eat, we were better off in Egypt.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, Why do we ever leave Egypt?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Two things here I want to point out to you.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: The first is, again, I told you, each basically passage reveals, sort of peels back one layer of this story.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we begin to see that the complaint that they have against God is not just about meat, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's the surface complaint.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: But there's something that is happening within the heart of the Israelites that has led them to this place where they are continually dissatisfied with the Lord, continually challenging his authority and his ability, continually rebelling against him.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is deeper.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what it says here is, right, after the it is going to come out of your nostrils, God says, Well, it's because you have rejected the Lord.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, That is why this judgment is coming.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: This judgment is coming not specifically because you have said, We want quail, we want meat, but because you have rejected the Lord.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, how in the world have they rejected the Lord?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because they continually say that what God has done for them is not good enough, and furthermore, that they don't want the things that God has done for them.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of the commentaries I use in preparing for numbers said this: said the wish to go back to Egypt was a wish to go back to a time before Yahweh, that's the covenant name of the Lord, was in their midst, and thus was rebellion against the one who had saved them from slavery.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was the choice of a new God.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you say that's pretty dramatic, but that's what's happening, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't, I mean, they were Israel, yes, in Egypt.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: They were in exile, yes, in Egypt.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: But as you can tell when they come out and they have to have this entire instruction given to them of how to worship the Lord and know the Lord.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And even we have the golden calf incident back in Mount Sinai.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like they did not know God.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They did not understand his covenant promises, they did not have a healthy relationship with them.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so when they want to go back, basically, to the abuser, to the one who was treating them horribly because there was meat, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Unable to see the freedom that they have in God, unable to see the glory that he is leading them towards, they want to go back to this, and God says, That means you're rejecting me.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have brought you out, I am the liberator, I am your savior, I have given you this pathway to freedom and to honestly, in their case, prosperity.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, No, thanks.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go back.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're rejecting God.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying they don't want what he has to offer.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And even when they do almost begrudgingly accept his gracious gifts, whenever that happens, they become unsatisfied very quickly.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: One other thing, though, I want to point out about this passage, verses 18 through 20, is God, when he's describing the quail that are about to come, and there's about to be a lot of quail that's about to come, okay?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Consecrate yourselves.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you think, well, I feel like the only time I've heard the word consecrate is when we're talking about like the tabernacle and making things holy.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, that's right.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is the only time that we hear about that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Consecrate means to make something holy, to set it apart.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the only time we've really heard it in the Bible up to this point is regarding things like the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and those who need to make themselves holy or clean so that they can interact with God, right?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, so why do they need to get ready?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is saying, what is about to happen in this flood of quail that will cover the camp?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, that is not just one or two or three.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, this is a holy event that you are about to experience.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: This judgment of God will be known to be from God, both by its magnitude, but also because I am in the presence of it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, get ready for tomorrow.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Prepare yourselves as if you were going to make a sacrifice, because my judgment is coming.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: That should have been the first sign that they had that things were not going to go well for them, beyond the whole coming out of your nose stuff, right?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we have one more comment from Moses, though, before we get to the quail themselves.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a pretty sad, it's a pretty sad account.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um Moses has been struggling with how to handle the people, understandably, uh, but he is now this idea of providing meat for the camp and God's word begins to stretch even the boundaries of Moses' faith.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Moses said, Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord answered Moses, Is the Lord's arm too short?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now you will see whether or not what I will say will come true for you.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, how Moses begins here, this here I am statement, that contrasts something that the Lord has said and that we've talked about like every single week, which is because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is a central element to the story of Israel going through the desert, is God was with them.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was in their presence, right?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've gone over that.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably like, yes, I know.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, so when Moses says, Here I am, the way you're supposed to read that is like, where are you?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Moses says, Here I am around all of these people, here I am in the camp, and the distinct That he's making is, Lord, I don't see where you are.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're making this claim sort of from on high, and then obviously his questions that he has are thinking that it is upon him to carry it out.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a fair assumption because that is the way that Moses has operated.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: God has said, do this, and then Moses does it, and God works through Moses in many of these circumstances.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here now, though, is going to be a situation where this holy event comes and this insane number of quail descend upon the camp, and that is nothing that Moses needs to do, but yet Moses is frustrated and it begins to stretch.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so now we see even the Lord's anointed one, who has the Holy Spirit upon him to lead his people, is beginning to turn against God.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so now God is handling the nation that is rebelling, but then also his leader that is, at the very least, questioning God.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord says, he kind of has this phrase, is my arm too short?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means is not that right we're measuring appendages here, but it's just a phrase that he would use to say, like, is the strength of my hand not good enough?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you think my power has limits?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that I cannot accomplish, as he says, the things that I tell you I'm going to do?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a very significant question on the part of Moses.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because what happens is at a certain point in time, the questions of who, what, when, where, how, and why that we pose to God, that eventually they become a bridge too far.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: The questions that we go to Him and say, Lord, I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't know who, all of the things that we have in our lives as we're going through these circumstances, eventually they come to a point where God says, Do you think I cannot do the things I've said I'm going to do?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when we've hit that point, we've done gone too far.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've gone too far.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So our final passage, though, uh the quail are coming.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Quail are coming, and oh boy, are they coming.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 31 through 34.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now a wind uh went up, went out from the Lord, and dwok drove quail in from the sea.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as the day's walk in any direction, all that day and night, and all the next day, the people went out and gathered quail.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: No one gathered less than ten homers.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then they spread them out all around the camp.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: But while the meat was still between their teeth, and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore the place was named uh it's the B sounds like a V, so it's Kivroth Hata, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's first talk about the amount of quail.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Two cubits is um roughly like three feet deep.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got three feet deep in a day's journey, so miles.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: The person who gathered the least gathered ten homers.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Homer is sort of an equivalent to a donkey load.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so lots of quail is the answer that you should be getting out of this, right?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: They gathered how much?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: They gathered plenty, would be the response.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so at the outset, right, they God says, You want quail?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Quail, right?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Lord, we don't know.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we're sifting through it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like going through the snow.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've we've got all of these things.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when it says they're gathering or they're spreading it out around the camp, excuse me, that's just an ancient practice of preserving the meat so that they could have it.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: So God at the at the beginning part here has has, and I don't want to, man, I don't want to, none of my comment is against what the Lord has done.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: But at the first part here, he has technically provided what they were asking for in abundance.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So before I get to the next part, I just want to share with you my favorite painting that I think I've ever shared of the quail being gathered.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is during medieval times, this is in 1250.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Real painting about what's coming.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want you like, okay, so first of all, Moses, right, is here.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you, you, he's like looking at all these people.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have this person here who's like, but Moses, I only gathered two little quails.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then these people are like fighting over a quail and they're like yanking on it.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we got this guy, right, who's like coming in to steal his little quail.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: We've got this lady, right, who I don't know what's going on here.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're like fighting between the two of them.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're going for a quail.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, oh my arm.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, and so all of this, all of these quail then are coming in around, and I just look, and then I go back to Moses' eyes and I'm like, I know that look, right?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I don't know if that'll ever be topped because I I now the situation, there was a lot more quail than that.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: They definitely got more than two, but you know, I just it's beautiful.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the quail.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um let's talk about the plague.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the quail comes, and there's so much of it, they can gather as much as they want.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can imagine, right, there a theme that goes through this passage is that they are uh craving or lusting after this quail.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's an unnatural sort of desire that they have.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can probably imagine the scene in the Israelite camp as all of this quail comes out and then they're just gorging themselves on it, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we have the sense um in Psalm 78, which I'll get to in a second, that sort of describes a bit of this situation.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it says that they basically ate their fill and were completely full of all this quail.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you can kind of picture them pot-bellied, hanging around the camp.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then um it says, but while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, or it's at least part of the way through their eating, the anger of the Lord burned against the people and he struck them with a severe plague.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So some people think that this plague was like God worked through natural means and it was some kind of food poisoning because they didn't prepare the quail enough before they started eating it.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And some people think, just like he does many different times, that it was another kind of plague, um, one that just brought death upon them.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh previously in chapter 11, he brought fire.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's not fire here, but the Lord is not limited to using food poisoning.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is, it leads to the death of many of the Israelites.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a judgment that is brought upon them for their sin.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And there's probably a question that you have at some point where you go, okay, bringing death for wanting quail doesn't seem to be an equal statement for me, right?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't seem like just punishment for what had happened.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about that for a second because it is important in understanding this passage before we go to a personal application here in a second, it is important to understand from this passage that this is way deeper than just asking for quail.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Asking for describing this as just asking for quail is how you and I describe parts of our lives that we're not proud of when we glance over all the unsavory details and just say, like, yeah, it was a rough time in my life.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Saying it was just asking for quail is neglecting the heart and the faith and the obedience issues that were present.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, we are in a specific time in uh Israel's history here where their relationship and their king and their allegiance is supposed to be tied to God Himself.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is different than our world today in the sense that they were under a, we would call it a theocracy, but God ruled them.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you are rebelling not only against your ruler, but against your divine creator, you're doing it consistently.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that this transgression runs to the very roots of their faith.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Psalm 78, I would encourage you to read all of it because it describes basically Israel's history and how they acted as the most ungrateful people that you've ever known.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a summary.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved, for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you see, there at the very end is something extremely significant, which is when you have a God that has redeemed you and rescued you from 400 years of slavery, and he is your savior and liberator, and then you say, I don't want what you have, I'm good on my own.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, not even I just want to be separate.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to my previous way of life.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to slavery, and we all understand how terrible of an idea that is.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you look at God and you go, Man, I think the crazy thing in this story is not that he brought death to them, but that it took this long before there was something where God said, Okay, you know what?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of the questioning.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because you obviously do not understand what is going on here.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it is not a matter of uh sort of ignorance, but it is a willful disobedience and a desire to go against the things that I have provided.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing but spitting in the face of God when he says, Look at all that I have done, and they go, Yeah, we wish you wouldn't have done that.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we wish we wish we could go back.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is no different than somebody today who rejects Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is no different because the cross is how God has provided deliverance for those who are rebels in his kingdom, in his world, and also it is something that is done through faith in God, by believing in him.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so somebody who says, I don't believe in Jesus Christ, I don't trust in the gift of salvation that he has provided for me, we say, okay, well then, I'm sorry to say, but that means that it results in not only a physical, but a spiritual death for you too, because that is the free gift of grace that God has provided for us.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to slap it out of God's hand and say, no thanks, well then you bear the weight of the punishment that is coming for your sin.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is no different today than those who reject Jesus Christ.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the most shocking thing is not that God brought death for their craving demands, but that the Israelites never learned the lesson.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go back and read Psalm 78, which would be a shorter way than just reading the whole Old Testament, you would understand as it continues to go over and over and over again, it says, God provided for them, then they rejected him.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: God did what they asked because he is a good and kind and gracious father.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: He brought them the desires of their heart, and then they slapped it out of his hand.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then eventually God says, Okay, I will give you what you were asking for.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: You say you don't want me.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well then you won't have me.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can go back, you can go into exile, you can explore the ends of yourself as you recognize what it looks like to live a life without my blessing, without my grace and mercy.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe you will understand what it is that I had just given it to you freely in the first place.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing, though, and last thing I want to bring up, is how this story reflects many of our own relationship with God.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: See, the promises of God are not that you will have money, it is not that you will have success, it is not that you will receive all the desires of your heart.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not the kind of promises that God makes to us.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of promises that God makes to us are those that say you can be forgiven of your sin by faith in Jesus Christ, you can have a fulfilling relationship with God through the cross, and that he would provide, in this case, for your daily physical needs.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is why when Jesus later on tells us how to pray, he says, Lord, give us today our daily bread.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: What he's referencing is this.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that we quickly lose sight of all the blessings that God has given to us during our time of complaining.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: We become like horses with blinders on when we get fixated on something that we want Him to do for us, and in so doing lose sight of all of the other ways that God has graciously cared for us during this time.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: All of the other ways that He has answered our prayers, all of the ways in which He has provided for us.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: We neglect to realize how gracious He has been to us.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what that does is it then develops within us a heart where we put God to the test by equating our desires with his deliverance.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that, if I can say it in a different way, is if we put those blinders on and we think only of God as doing, or not doing, rather, the specific thing we want him to do, then our faith gets wrapped up into this system where God checking off our list is the way that we assess whether or not he is being faithful to us.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens is we become very dissatisfied because God, shocker, does not think that everything that we want is something we should have immediately or something that he wants to give us in the first place, and then we reject him.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: We say, God, you didn't do the thing that I asked you to do.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Where were you in my time of need?
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I was there.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was there the whole time.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you didn't see me.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: And instead you chose to focus on one singular thing and said that I wasn't present in your desire.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't present, in this case in quail, and providing meat, even though daily they could go out and they could gather manna, and daily they could go out and see the cloud of fire that was resting above the tabernacle, and yet they go, God's not here.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: What we need to do is develop an attitude of gratitude for the Lord.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: What that looks like is this the Lord has blessed me more than I deserve, and in more ways than I can count.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of testing him, I will thank him for what I have.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read it one more time.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has blessed me more than I deserve, and in more ways than I can count.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of testing him, I will thank him for what I have.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell let me tell you what will happen if you develop this attitude within you.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, you are going to start thinking more about what he has done for you instead of what he has not done for you.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have ever tried writing that list down and run out of options, come talk to me, I will give you some more things to add to it, right?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: The list of the ways that the Lord has blessed us and cared for us and stewarded us, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shown his amazing love for us is an inexhaustible list.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And at the very top of that list is what he has done for us, even though we were rebels in his kingdom.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: That there is nothing that we have done that we deserve, there is nothing that we have done that we can claim ownership to because of our works, everything is by God's grace.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you begin the rest of the list.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: What will also happen is you'll begin to savor the blessings of God that He does bring to you because you recognize that they aren't guaranteed, right?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you quit looking at everything like it's a given, like you deserve it, if you quit looking at all of the beauty in your life and then make it sort of, okay, patch over it and make it the new floor and then want more things, you'll begin to realize that if we start from daily bread and build up, you will see all the ways that the Lord, because he is kind and generous, has given you way more and me way more than I ever deserve.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: And those things become more sweet because you know they aren't guaranteed.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, oftentimes we look at them and go, like the Israelites, yes, yes, but you know, that was a week ago, right?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about this week, Lord?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so we begin to savor these things.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: You begin to think less about what you don't have and about what you do.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when your eyes are fixed on God, finally, and most significantly, when your eyes are fixed on God instead of what you don't have, you will begin to appreciate more than you ever have before the gift of salvation that was presented to you.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are way too many of us who consider that it is God's duty to save us from our sin.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it is not that at all.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: God's duty is that as a righteous judge, he punishes us for the way that we have rebelled against his kingdom.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is by grace and his mercy that he says, here is the pathway.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, there's so many people who go, you know what, though?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, there was this time a long while ago where I didn't have to, you know, follow you and be in submission to a king and make you the Lord of my life and call you my savior.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was this time where I was the king of my own life.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it looks a lot like being a slave in Egypt.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I had pots of meat, and there were these great watermelons, okay?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I should tell you about them.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: But what also is true that I don't recognize is that I was a slave.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was a slave to sin, I was a slave to the evil one, I was a slave to my own fleshly desires, and ultimately I wasn't living much of a life at all.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, yeah.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, okay, well, if you want that, I'm gonna do the best that I can to show you that that is not the path that you should take.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: But if you continue, this is Romans 1, if you continue to desire the things of your heart and exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship the created rather than the creator, then I will give you over to those things.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in the case of the Israelites, he says, I will give you all the quail you could possibly want or ever need, but you'll realize that that is not what you needed.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: What you needed was trust and faith in me.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, the Israelites do not learn this lesson.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: We will talk about that more as we continue going through the book of Numbers.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the question for us is, will we learn that lesson?
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: God, you are good.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are good.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: You are far, treat us, Lord, far better than we could ever imagine or deserve.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or Lord, maybe we imagine ways in which you should treat us better.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that is the thing that needs to be corrected.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because God, you have blessed us in more ways than we deserve and in more ways than we can count.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God, when we continually go before you and ask you who, what, when, where, why, and how, Lord, and when those questions begin to actually question your power and your authority.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we ask for forgiveness.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would bring us mercy and you would cover over that sin because we know that we have gone a bridge too far.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for Jesus Christ.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: God, we know that you are a good and faithful and merciful and gracious Lord.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we ask that we would think more often by the power of your spirit about the ways that you have blessed us, Lord, and not the ways that we perceive that you haven't.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Please give us today, God, our daily bread, and may we set our sights on that and be thankful for what you have provided through your mercy.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you, and we thank you.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you guys.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.