The LORD Chooses His Leaders

Transcription

1 The LORD Chooses His Leaders June 19, 2016 Numbers 17 Happy Father s Day! As I have tried to make clear throughout our study of Moses life, to me the study of Moses is a study in leadership. It is a study of the LORD as the leader of His people, and also a study of Moses as the leader of his people. And in today s passage, those two studies converge into one. We are in Numbers 17. Last week, Pastor Brad preached Numbers 16, where there was a rebellion from among the people, led by Korah. Korah and those around him rose up against Moses and Aaron and said to them, You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD s assembly? (16:3) I hope their thinking is clear to you, and applicable to our setting as well. In their thinking, all of the Israelites were equal in the sight of God. He was with them all equally, collectively, individually. If that is the case, why should Moses and Aaron be elevated as leaders? Why not them? In their minds, they certainly could make decisions every bit as good and wise as Moses and Aaron. Can you see how this might resemble us? Do we believe that all people are created equal, that all Christians are equal before God, that all Christians have equal access to the Spirit of God, the wisdom of God? Yes, we believe all of these things! And rightfully so. And then we combine them with our fierce independence, our rugged individualism, our disdain for strong leadership, our

2 right to choose our OWN leadership, and what have we got? We have a situation ripe for the same rebellion as Korah. I pause here to be clear, especially for those who are new to us, or who don t necessarily know me all that well. This sermon could seem to you as filled with a hidden message, or at least self serving. After all, look at the title! The LORD Chooses His Leaders! Who is the leader here? I am. So what am I saying? I speak for God. Be quiet, sit down, listen and obey. This is the word of God! And because it is me who is preaching it, I am going to preach it with power, conviction and authority. Right? Pastor Curt must be on a power kick. Right? But this is where I want to share my heart. The truth is I would rather that any one of you preach this sermon. It is not about me. It is not about us. I am not fighting some secret battle against foes. This is simply me as your pastor, reading the Word of God and applying it to our lives. I have no axes to grind. I have no hidden agenda. I have no illusions of grandeur. But this IS the Word of God and we had better treat it as such. Right? So, here in Numbers 17, the LORD sets up a process to show the nation of Israel that He chooses His leaders, and that He can choose whomever He wants to lead them. He has that freedom, and He uses it. Follow along as I read Numbers 17. Main point: The LORD calls His leaders. Now, He doesn t always do so using the method seen here, the budding of a staff. But He does call them, make clear who they are, and then calls the people to affirm His selections and follow after them. This is the only way the Kingdom can work efficiently. There has to be leaders, but the issue is, Who? So, as we go through this text, I ask you not to focus on me as who you THINK is the leader of our church, but instead I ask you to focus your

3 attention on leadership of God s people, whether in government, or in the church, or in the classroom, or at work, or in the home. What is your attitude about the leaders God has set over you, or perhaps what is your attitude about your own position of leadership? (2 parts) I. It is the LORD who calls out His leaders. vv. 1-7 In our nation, we choose our leaders by having elections which begin with people desiring to be leaders, who then seek others to nominate them and get to be placed on a ballot, followed by a vote of the electorate. As is the case with our presidential election, there are often more than one stage, the primaries, the conventions, and finally the election. And, in our form of church government, it is not that much different. We have a nominating committee, (or in the case of a pastor a search committee) followed by a discovery process and finally the vote of the people. It is very similar. But the reality is actually quite different between the two, or at least it ought to be. In society, elections are based on popularity and promises, almost all of which are worthless. In the church, our goal is simply to affirm those whom God is calling to lead. That is a major difference, or at least ought to be. Again, I back up in the text to a relevant detail from the previous chapter. As Pastor Brad made clear last week, there were actually two rebellions in chapter 16. The first was the rebellion of Korah and his, ending with the earth swallowing them up. This led to the second rebellion of the people at large, who blamed Moses and Aaron that some of their people had died, and ended with a

4 plague that only stopped because Aaron obediently acted as priest, offering incense, making atonement, and running between the dead of the plague and the rest of the people, putting a stop to the plague. (16:47-50) So chapter 16 ends with the issue of leadership still an open question. That is where we pick up the story. The LORD said to Moses, 2 Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. Notice v.1. What do you see? In one sense, this could just be a formula for continuing the dialogue of the text. Or, it could be an important part of the story. This is what the text is all about. Does Moses (and Aaron) have the right to speak for God? Dozens of times we see this phrasing in the text, but at least here it is significant. Who speaks for God? Can anyone speak for God? How do we determine who that might be? We have already learned that it can t be on the basis of popular vote, as we saw with the spies in the land. 10 came back with a bad report, 2 spoke for God. The people went with the majority, but they were wrong. So majority rules must not be the determiner. Here, the LORD sets up a scenario where the choice is shown to clearly be His. Each tribe is to take the walking stick of its leader and write the name on the staff of that leader. Again we see the significance of the stick. We see this all through the story of Moses. Before it was the power of Moses staff. Here it is the life of Aaron s staff. But first we have each tribe put forth its leader with his name on his staff. Notice that the name is not of the tribe, but of the leader. What is the significance of this? When we get to the choice, it is not Levi chosen over the other tribes, but Aaron himself who is chosen out of that tribe. It was him, and his sons. It was to be personal. I can t help but think that Jesus was not just

5 from the tribe of Judah, but He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He was individually and uniquely chosen. 3 On the staff of Levi write Aaron s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. Now, this is where you might say God rigged the election. He told Moses to write Aaron s name on the staff for the tribe of Levi. Already, we ought to see where this is going. This was not left up to chance, not to the people choice, the exercise was overseen by a sovereign God. In other words, this whole thing was not for Him to choose, but for them to see clearly His choice. You might say He had an influential voice on the nominating committee! 4 Place them in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony, where I meet with you. 5 The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites. Then take these staffs and put them where God meets with the people. Put them where no one would mess with them. Put them where only the high priest would dare go. Hmmmm... They are making the choice for the high priest! 6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron s staff was among them. 7 Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the Tent of the Testimony.

6 There you are. There is the test: twelve staffs with twelve names on them, waiting for one of them to bud, to show signs of life. One of these twelve staffs would sprout life after being just a stick for so long. Now the people just wait for the sign from God. Let s pause for a second and see if this matches up with our approach to selecting leaders. As Americans, we vote, we express our opinion, we make our voice known. But in the church, it is not about the election, our opinion, making our voice known. It is about affirming God s choice. That is like night/day difference. We must not see it as personality, popularity, promises. We must see it as Who has God raised up? I assure you, none of us would have chosen Moses, or Gideon, or David, or Peter, or Paul, or any of the other leaders God chose. We would have chosen Saul or Samson, or Solomon, the real men among us. But the old man (Moses), the drunk (Noah), the guy who committed murder and adultery (David), who was a wimp (Gideon), who had anxiety issues (Timothy)? Him? Yet, those are the types of people He sometimes chooses. Scripture is clear, they are all flawed, their flaws are obvious. Are our leaders flawed? Every one of us. Are our flaws obvious? Yes and there are more you can t see. Does that disqualify us from leadership? Not at all. The important issue is whether God has called us, here, now, for this season. That is what our process needs to determine. Whose staff is budding among all the rest? II. The people are called to recognize His choices and follow these leaders. vv Once the process has indicated a clear choice, then the response needs to be recognized and followed. There is not the choice of do over.

7 8 The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron s staff, which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. The choice was clear. Not only did the long dead staff produce life, but it produced flowers, fruit (I know an almond is a nut, but you get the point!) I think God was clear: this one, this one, this one. This one is my choice. I choose Aaron! His staff not only came alive but was blessed with bounty, blessing, God s hand was upon him. Was there any doubt as to the choice? Not any more. The process made it clear who the choice was. No one could falsify, or duplicate the feat. Aaron was chosen to be the high priest of his people. God had spoken. 9 Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the LORD s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each man took his own staff. The next step was to show the people. The people had to see the evidence for themselves. It had to be clear to them. Notice here that the other men had to take back their staffs. They had to take back the reminder that their staff with their name on it did not bud, did not blossom, did not produce almonds. They were to carry around the reminder that God did not choose them. Humbling? Of course. Important? Clearly. Produce envy and anger leading to bitterness? Probably. But they had to know for themselves. Just the fact that there are leaders means that the majority have to live with the fact that they are not the leaders. That is just a fact. Yet, isn t it good to be reminded that the choice was not based on popularity, or power, or position, or promises, but on the hand of God? It should be. But notice the next verses.

8 10 The LORD said to Moses, Put back Aaron s staff in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die. 11 Moses did just as the LORD commanded him. Did you catch this? Moses was to take the staff of Aaron and put it where? In front of the Testimony, or in the holiest of holy places. Wait! Who would see it there? Aaron would, and Aaron s son after him, and his son after him. the high priest alone would see it. Hmmmm... So, for whom was the permanent display set up? Well, in one sense for everyone, for future generations. But who would see the reminder? The one chosen at that time to serve in that capacity. Why might he need to see it? Well, it could be for different reasons. It could be that he was feeling powerful and important when he fulfilled his high priestly duties. Yes, leadership and its trappings can go to your head. As a leader you sometimes do get treated differently. You sometimes sit at the head table, get asked to speak, receive perks that others do not receive. And so, it would be important to remember that it was not about you, but about a choice that God made to bless. But at the opposite end, seeing the budded staff could serve as a reminder that God called YOU to this position. I know every good leader needs such reminders. Good leaders are very aware of their flaws, shortcomings, failures. It is a very daunting thing to have a group of people in front of you, expecting you to speak for God. I recently learned that this thought is behind the clerical collars that some traditions utilize. They are black collars representing sin, and a small white section in the front representing the voice when he speaks for God. So it is a reminder that the person is a sinner but speaks with the voice of God. Interesting! We don t do that. I just wear a tie so you can know who the pastor is!

9 I want you to know that I take my calling from God with great seriousness. I have seen our other leaders demonstrate the same. I am humbled to be called pastor, to serve as a leader. I carry the mantle as a heavy burden, not a symbol of importance. I regularly have to remind myself of my calling. I have gone through dark periods when I wondered whether the church (not necessarily Hillcrest) would survive my leadership. I ALWAYS feel inadequate. And yet, I have been called, the process was clear, I carry with me the evidence. Just know that I preach to myself every week before I preach to you. I regularly preach the gospel to myself before I preach it to you. 12 The Israelites said to Moses, We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! 13 Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die? Finally! Finally the rebellion is over and the people get it. In their arrogance they presumed to be fit to speak for God, lead God s people, be qualified to enter the very presence of God. But now they realize that no one is fit, that no one is qualified, that no one dare make that claim. In fact, the truth is that only God can call, only God can set apart, can only God can free one from the condemnation of claiming to speak for God. Only by His invitation can we approach the throne of grace with boldness. Only by the extension of His staff can we approach Him. Thank the LORD that He has called someone, anyone to lead. Right? So, where do we go from here? As you ve just seen, if you are a leader, don t let it go to your head. You are not all that. You are there because the people have affirmed a process that ended up with your staff budding. Remember that! But also remember that God has called YOU here, now, for this purpose, flaws and all. And if you are in the majority who are not the leaders, then remind yourselves that God has appointed leaders over you. You have affirmed the

10 process. Now your duty is to recognize and follow without jealousy but with thanks that these are willing to shoulder the load. Now, I am quite aware of the baggage we all bring to this issue. Almost by definition, our church exists because of the failure of other churches, of other traditions, of other leaders. We by nature are very wary of leaders. We want leaders held in check. As I say so often, A leader is someone out in front just far enough to be shot at from all sides. Or, in the context of marriage, Most godly women I know want to follow the lead of a godly husband. Right?... As long as he goes where she wants him to go. And yet, leadership is by definition taking people where they would not otherwise go. By definition, leadership will be hard, wearying, heavy, burdensome. I can only imagine the weight upon Aaron of running between the living and the dead in the midst of a plague seeing that more people are dropping in front of you because you are not running fast enough! And he was an old man! So, On this Father s Day, it is right and good that we honor the men who lead us. Thank you, LORD, for sending us good and godly leaders! If we believe this is the Word of God, then what should be different about our lives? 1) We will not presume to be leaders. We will be humbled to be called to positions of leadership and take them seriously. 2) We will not be jealous of those who are called to be leaders. 3) We will respect our leaders and pray for them.

11 4) We will take seriously our role in the selection and affirmation of God s choices for leadership. 5) We will remind ourselves that God does not take lightly when we rebel against His leaders. 6) We will humble ourselves before God as our true leader.