Numbers covers the nearly 40 year period from the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai until the eve of the conquest. Numbers 20 is the ending of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and we see in verse 1 that the Israelites have taken 40 years to make an 11 day journey to Kadesh. This is because of the lack of faith that the spies had as they went and checked out the Promised Land. Ten of the spies came back and lived in fear, while Joshua and Caleb had faith that the land could be taken. Due to the lack of faith of the 10, an entire generation was affected! We see that Moses’ sister, Miriam, has just died and was buried at Kadesh. She was the only woman whose death was mentioned for this entire generation. Then, in verse 2, we see a repeat of the people with Moses. There was no water for the people or their livestock, so they assembled against Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with them and said it would have been better to be in Egypt instead of this desert. And they added, “why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?” Not only did they ask the rhetorical question concerning whether they were brought out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, as they had asked before, but they also expressed the wish that they had died as their rebellious brothers had before. To call the place where God had guided them as “evil” was dangerous ground for the people to tread. Moses and Aaron, as before, went to the tent of meeting and fell on their faces before the Lord. God clearly told Moses to:

1. Take the staff
2. Assemble the congregation
3. Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.

Moses disobeyed. Instead, he:

1. Took the staff
2. Assembled the congreation
3. STRUCK the rock twice and water flowed.

Moses also said, “Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” The prophet who previously had been called “more humble than any other man on the face of the earth” had acted in arrogance. Moses was told to strike the rock and obeyed (Ex 17:6) but in Numbers 20 he was only to speak to the rock (Nu 20:8) and he disobeyed (Nu 20:11-12). Here are some things to consider about why Moses might have been in a bad state of mind:

1. His big sister has died
2. He was frustrated
3. He was angry
4. He was tired of being blamed for everything that went wrong
5. He had gotten them through one disaster after another
6. He was continually interceding on their behalf to keep them out of trouble
7. We have seen that Moses has an anger problem. He killed an Egyptian, he left Pharaoh in anger after announcing the final plague, and he broke the tablets during the golden calf incident. With all this background knowledge, we can see why Moses had done the thing that worked 40 years earlier. God had told him to strike the rock before, but it was the wrong thing to do this time. What Moses had told the Israelites to do – to listen – he himself had not done. Sometimes in exhaustion or exasperation, we don’t pay close attention to God. We assume He will always work the same way, but He doesn’t. There was a dire consequence for Moses’ action. In verse 12, “And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” There are consequences for sin. We are forgiven, but actions have consequences, so we need to think deeply about our decisions. The tragedy is that Yahweh could get them out of Egypt in one night, but couldn’t get Egypt out of them in 40 years.

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1. Are you careful, thoughtful, and responsible when you speak the Lord’s name? Are you in awe when you hear His name, or have you become “too familiar” with Him? When should you have more reverence for the name of the Lord?
2. What is a promise from this Truth that causes you to want to worship the Lord?
3. Choose to start your Thanksgiving week with worshiping the name of Jesus. Give thanks that you can see Him face-to-face because He resides IN you!

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The story of the Israelites moves from the action-packed saga of chapters 1-18 to the more monotonous explanations of the law in chapters 19-40. That said, without understanding the law, we all would still be slaves. James M. Boice said, “Deliverance from slavery is one thing, but freedom without law leads to license and license is only another form of slavery.” Moral Law (Ex 20) – Since it flows from God’s character, it is to be obeyed. (The 10 commandments) Civil Law (Ex 21-24) – This was given to Israel uniquely and is not binding on us. Ceremonial Law (Ex 25-40) – No need to perform the sacrifices because they pointed forward to Christ who fulfilled it completely. Moses goes up Mt. Sinai and meets with God, who gives him the law in the form of the 10 commandments on two tablets. While Moses is on the mountain for 40 days, the masses below get impatient and anxious, and want another “leader”. They told Aaron to “make us gods who shall go before us.” The promises of a God they could not see or touch were not enough. They were used to seeing these two pillars that represented God’s presence to them. They wanted something tangible. Aaron told them to bring him the gold earrings from the people, and he fashioned a calf made from that gold. This is the same gold that God had provided for the people as they left the land of Egypt. Aaron made a calf, probably after the Egyptian bull god, Apis. The people “rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” The word “play” refers to gross sexual immorality. God told Moses to “Go down, for YOUR people, who YOU brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” It is a condemning word to the Israelites, but Moses reminds God that they are HIS people. Moses goes down, rebukes the people, broke the tablets, burned the calf, ground it to powder, scattered it in the water, and made the people drink it. Then, he ordered the sons of Levi to go throughout the camp and kill about 3000 men. The consequences were severe because idol worship is severe. Idols never deliver what they promise. We are controlled by the idols of our lives. An idol is anything more important to you than God, and anything that controls our heart and imagination more than God. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. Idols can represent good things like family, children, careers, and achievements. External idolatry – typically easy to spot because it is obvious in the culture Internal idolatry – soul worship of the heart and mind. It takes the honor only due to the Lord. Moses prays again and asks God to forgive the people. He even offers to be the sacrifice for the people, but God responds with, “Whoever his sinned against me, I will blot out of my book”. The Law was insufficient to forgive us of our sins, but it points to the person of Jesus Christ! Questions:

1. What controls your time? What do you spend your money on?
2. If you seek power, it will control you. If you seek friendships, they will control you. What are you seeking? Is this compromise worth what you give to it?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you anything that is taking your devotion away from the Lord. Commit to do the work to destroy those idols.
4. Read through the 10 commandments (Ex 20) and commit to follow God’s heart.

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Just three days after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they begin grumbling. In fairness to the people, they had walked about 40 miles and didn’t know where they were going, but their concern turned to doubting what God could do. They grumbled throughout Moses’ 40 years of leadership. They grumbled when Moses came to save them from Egypt, on the edge of the Red Sea, when they didn’t have water to drink, and when they were hungry. Every time the people complain, we see Moses get on his knees to pray. The people wanted to go back to Egypt where they remembered having plenty of food and water. But we see back in Exodus 2:23 that the people cried out to God to deliver them from Egypt and slavery. Grumbling “romaticizes yesterday”. If we really think about it, the “good ‘ol days” were filled with tough times too. It just gets blurred because of the present troubles of the day. When we grumble, it is against the Lord. Grumbling matters because:

1. It harms the body of Christ
2. It devalues the character and goodness of God (Ex 17:11)

In Numbers 14, we see that the people rebel to the point that God said, “I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” Moses intercedes for the people and God hears his prayer and spares the people. But the consequence of their grumbling and disbelief was that none of that generation would get to enter into the land that God promised them. It was a dire consequence because grumbling is a sin. TO DO: If you are a leader who is grumbled against, pray for those people to have a soft heart for the Lord and that they would remember His goodness in their life. If you are someone who may be fluent in the language of “grumble”, take time to express gratitude. Remember, we grumble less when we remember more. Questions:

1. In what situations do you find yourself prone to grumble? Why do you think that is?
2. If grumbling hurts the body of Christ and devalues God, why do you do it? If we know that it ultimately doesn’t do any good, why do we continue?
3. Where do you see God’s goodness and faithfulness in your life? Take time to thank Him for His goodness and provision for you.

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The parting of the Red Sea that is told in Exodus 14 is one of the most well-known stories of the Bible. The Hebrews have just left Egypt and are heading out into the wilderness. This is a harsh, barren desert that a group couldn’t make it without outside help. Thankfully, they have the Spirit of God who is going before them as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. He provides warmth on the cold nights, gives light to their path, and shade in the desert sun. He is enough. While they are wandering, God tells them to turn back, which ultimately leads them to a dead end! Eventually, they get to a point where there are massive enemy fortresses to the north, a blazing desert to the south, Egypt to the west, and the Red Sea in front of them. Verse 5 says, “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, ‘What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?’ So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.” Pharaoh pursued the people of Israel. He wanted to go back on his word. What the people failed to grasp was that God was sovereignly directing the whole encounter, but they couldn’t see it while they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Verse 10 says, “the feared greatly”. They looked for someone to blame, so they blamed Moses. They decided it would be better to go back to Egypt than to die in the desert. They had just watched God bring the most powerful nation on the earth to submission with the 10 plagues, and they are asking to go back? They are technically free but they are operating as slaves…slaves to fear. Moses says to them, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” He realized that God was at work, protecting them, and would have a plan. He sure did! God didn’t give Israel a plan of attack. He told them to trust Him to fight for them. Their eyes were on the Egyptians and the sea, which means they were looking in the wrong places. They needed to shift their attention away from their fears in order to recognize that the Lord would indeed fight on their behalf. God then used Moses to part the Red Sea. The people of Israel walked through, and then when the Egyptians chased after them, God closed the sea over them and they were “all lost”. There are nine books of the Bible that all reference the parting of the Red Sea. It is definitely a miracle of provision by God for His people! Verse 31 says, “Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. When we see a dead end, God sees an opportunity. When we see impossibility, God sees possibility. When we can’t see a way, God sees the way. The journey TO the Red Sea is just as vital as CROSSING it.

Questions:

1. What is your impossibility today? Where have you leaned on your own strength, and where have you learned to let God fight for you?
2. When is a time that you saw God provide for you in a Red Sea moment in your life? Give Him thanks for that provision.

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Moses is now 80 years old and living as a shepherd near Horeb (which is Sinai). He has a remarkable encounter with God in the burning bush. God said to Moses, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land…” He also told Moses to take off his sandals because he was in the presence of God on holy ground. God is reminding Moses that He is holy, transcendent, ad immanent. God is “separate from” and worthy of our worship. We must always look for God’s presence in the ordinary.

God goes on to say in verse 10, “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses had excuse after excuse as to why he shouldn’t be the one to go:

Excuse 1 – Moses said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh”? This could have been his discouragement from when he encountered and murdered the Egyptian. In his failure, he might have replayed Ex. 2:14 over and over in his mind from when he was questioned in his willingness to step into a situation and do something. It didn’t go well.” God answered with, “I will be with you”.

Excuse 2 – Who should I tell them sent me? God answered, “I AM has sent me to you.” God has said in His name that He is self-existent and self-sufficient. LORD means YHWH, which is the Hebrew unspeakable name of God.

Excuse 3 – They won’t believe me. God answered with giving Moses 3 miraculous signs that he can do to show them God’s power. He could turn his staff into a snake, make his hand leprous, and turn water to blood.

Excuse 4 – I’m not a good speaker. God answered by giving Moses his brother Aaron to help speak the words that God gave to Moses.

Our passivity is rooted in poor theology. When we embrace the theology of God’s presence, promise, and power, passivity no longer makes any sense.

When we stop fearing God, we start fearing man. In other words, when we stop looking through the lens of Scripture and the sufficiency and the power of God, we start looking in the mirror at our own insufficiencies and weaknesses.

So, we must reject passivity and trust God that when He calls us to do something, He will be with us and give us everything we need to do it.

Question: God has promised to always be with us. Do you live your life believing that Truth? When is this Truth “not enough” for you (circumstances, fears, self-sufficiency, etc…)? Talk about ways to keep this promise at the forefront of your mind and heart.

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The life of Moses is such an important part of God’s story of redemption. He is mentioned in the Old Testament 810 times, and his part of the Grand Story follows Joseph’s story of God’s provision for the Hebrew people. When Joseph’s family entered Goshen, there were 70 total Hebrews in Egypt. That numbered swelled to millions, which cause the Pharaoh to become concerned. He made the Hebrews slaves, “and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the filed.”

Exodus 1:15 says, “Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” The midwives feared God and didn’t follow the king’s orders and let the children live. “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile but you shall let every daughter live.'”

Chapter 2 begins with the birth of Moses. At 3 months old, his mom builds a basket and puts Moses in the basket instead of throwing him in the Nile. The basket winds up at the bathing pool of Pharaoh’s daughter and she unknowingly asks Moses’ sister, Miriam, to find a midwife. Miriam takes Moses back to his own mother to be raised for the next 3-4 years before he became Pharaoh’s daughter’s son.

• This story reveals human nature that when we feel like everything is falling apart, we often ask, “Where is God in this”? God is hardly mentioned, but He uses the bad to bring good. The slavery of the Hebrews grew them to great numbers and to be very resilient.

In Chapter 2:11, Moses is now 40, he kills an Egyptian, is seen, and flees to the desert in the land of Midian. He meets his wife, Zipporah, and has a son. Verse 23-25 says, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.”

• God uses everything in Moses’ story to prepare him for the calling. He meets him in the desert. The tough times take him to where he needs to be as a man and a leader. He learns humility.
• God is working through the weak and not the strong.
• All the key players in this story are women (Shiphrah, Puah, Moses’ mom and sister, Pharaoh’s daughter

Remember, Moses points us to someone else…

1. The king demands that all the boys should be killed and yet the boy lives and sets the people free.
2. He is rejected by his people, goes into the desert, is anointed by the Spirit, and comes back to lead the people to freedom.

Verses 24-25 say, “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. God tells Abraham about all of this when He made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. God played the role of both parties in that covenant because He was going to take care of everything Himself!

If you are tired and weary, God sees you and knows you in the deepest of ways. Even when we don’t understand, we can trust. He always has your best in mind.

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