History, Holiness and Us An introduction to the journey in Numbers. Summer time is VACATION time! VACATION: an old French word from the Latin

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1 SINAI: Faith in the Wilderness #1 1 P age SINAI #1 History, Holiness and Us An introduction to the journey in Numbers Summer time is VACATION time! VACATION: an old French word from the Latin David A. Staff, teaching pastor vacare meaning to be unoccupied! Summer time is the time to vacate and go have some fun to be unoccupied with what you HAVE to do and be occupied with what you want to do. So where are you going this summer to be unoccupied? According to the Travel Channel, the top 10 vacations 1. Paris (France) 2. New York City 3. Hawaii 4. Rome 5. Cancun Mexico 6. Orlando (Florida) 7. London 8. Miami 9. Las Vegas 10. San Francisco You probably have a favorite spot, perhaps not on that list. You have your own top 10. But here s my guess. There s one place in the world that is not on your list, or anyone s list not at least anyone I know. It s called the SINAI peninsula (in the Middle East). I ve never seen an ad or a poster beckoning Get your SINAI Vacation Guide today! And here s why. The Sinai wilderness in this v-shaped peninsula and beyond is 24,000 square miles of practically nothing. It can be frigidly cold at night and unbearably hot in the day. The bulk of any population clings to the coasts in just a few cities; only the Bedouins and nomads dare the interior country. Three-thousand, five hundred years ago, there was less then than there is today. Not much more than rugged terrain, majestic mountains, rocks and sand, a vast expanse. A place where you d better know how to protect yourself and where to find water. And 3,500 years ago, it was where 2 million Israelites who had vacated Egypt--organized in 12 tribes, or large family groups, would spend significant time. IN THE WILD. These were The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his 12 sons Originally 75 of them who traveled to Egypt to live under the protective care of Joseph, who had become powerful in

2 Pharaoh s land. God s chosen people (the people God chose to love) who after Joseph s death were enslaved in harsh labor and suffering by the Pharaohs of Egypt for over 400 years The gray-hairs and families and young people and children who witnessed in their lives the incredible rescuing power of the Lord as God: destroying the 1 st born of Egypt, releasing his people from slavery, and leading them safely through the Red Sea. Exodus 14:30-31 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 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. Now several million people camping around the base of Mt. Sinai, waiting sometimes patiently and sometimes sinfully, for God to reveal to Moses his nation-shaping Laws, that they might be God s unique people in the world. Exodus 19:7-9 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever. Their future destiny was to be the Promised Land. Their pathway a journey through the wilderness of Sinai. And how they together as God s redeemed people -- would navigate that journey is something you/i cannot ignore. We too have been rescued, and we too are on a journey in a wild world. Still, your QUESTION might just be this: Why study a book of the Bible I have barely opened in my life, a book about a people I hardly know, wandering around in a place I d never choose to go? 4 powerful reasons (why I hope you ll come every Sunday) Reason #1 Because NUMBERS is life-changing-scripture. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (p.996 ESV) 2 Tim 3:14-17 (ESV) But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 LIVING BIBLE But you must keep on believing the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know that you can trust those of us who have taught you. You know how, when you were a small child, you were taught the holy Scriptures; and it is these that make you wise to accept God s salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus. The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. It is God s way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone. 2 P age SINAI #1

3 Have you discovered how uniquely USEFUL, how incredibly PROFITABLE the Bible is? I mean really!? Do you read it? Do you search it in different places for what you and your heart need in life? Are you falling more and more in love with what you find here? This is a LIVING BOOK. All of it God Himself breathed out. That means you can trust its source and truthfulness. All of it is profitable and useful to populate our minds with truth, reprove our sinning with conviction, correct our wrong steps with right steps, and provide personal, spiritual strength training. It is THE VOLUME which can prepare us at every point to be and do what blesses us and pleases God. AND that includes a book you ve barely opened about a people you hardly know wandering around a place you d never choose to go. 3 P age SINAI #1 REASON #2 Because NUMBERS contains life-critical warnings re: life-destroying sin. 1 Cor 10 (p.957 ESV) You see, there are Christians, even churches, that sometimes come to think (foolishly!) that they are not in need of learning from the past. George Santayana s timeless dictum, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it....those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them. Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them tends to fall on deaf ears. But the Apostle Paul one of the early coaches of the early church, knew differently. And so he wrote this to a church that was a bit too proud and a bit too deaf: 1 Corinthians 10: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he

4 stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Now glance back through that Scripture passage for a moment. Any chance (vss. 1-5) that even though you and I (like the Corinthians) are awash in spiritual privileges, that we might not be walking in a way that is pleasing to God? Any chance (vss. 6-9) that even though we are God s people, we might passionately desire evil things personally get into sexual immorality or try to put God to the test by complaining (like the people back there)? Any chance (vss ) we might get to thinking that we can stand on our own, or that we can fight off any temptation on our own and ending up falling flat on our face (like the people back there)? When Paul was writing this, he was thinking about what is recorded in the book of Numbers! Life-critical warnings regarding life-destroying sin. Why would we not look, and learn? REASON #3 NUMBERS reveals a GOD who loves to be in the midst of His people to lead them well! An Old Testament scholar (Gordon Wenham) captures this very well. Listen carefully to his observation: [The book of Numbers] like other parts of Scripture, does not attempt to paint a detailed portrait of God s character. Nevertheless certain traits emerge very clearly. Fundamental to Israel s experience was the real and visible presence of God among them. Numbers speaks of God s frequent, visible presence with his people during their wilderness wanderings. The fiery cloud covering the tabernacle showed that it was no empty royal palace, but that the Lord God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them (Numbers 23:21). Wherever the cloud went, the people followed; when the cloud stopped moving, the people camped (Numbers 9:15-23). So impressive was this phenomenon that not only did the Mesopotamian seer Balaam recognize it, but so did the Egyptians and Canaanites according to Numbers 14:14. They have heard that Thou, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for Thou, O Lord, art seen face-to-face, and thy cloud stands over them and Thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Ultimately, it would lead them to the land of promise which would be hallowed by the presence of God living among His people (Numbers 35:34). i 4 P age SINAI #1

5 In the years we ve all been together as a body of Jesus disciples, by far and away the most thrilling thing I ve heard came from a father of one of our teenagers who was baptized this past Easter. He was explaining to me why they came back here after a short period of being away, and why they stayed. He simply said, When we walked in here, we could (almost tangibly) sense the presence of the Spirit of God here, in the midst of this church family. By the way is He in the middle, at the center, of your life? How important is that? How central is that? How absolutely critical is that? In Numbers, we will be vividly reminded that God Himself desires to be right in the middle of all that is happening on our journey together. Because ALL SCRIPTURE is life-changing; because WE REQUIRE life-critical warnings about life-destroying sin, because GOD DESIRES to be right in the middle. Hebrews 11:1-6 (ESV) REASON #4 Because in NUMBERS, traveling well in the wild requires nothing less than OBEDIENT FAITH. Hebrews 11:1-10 (p.1007 ESV) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Rabbi Shammai, who lived in the 3 rd century, noted that as he wrote the laws down he was receiving from God, Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive to do commands all told 613 commands in the Law. Then, it was King David in Psalm 15 who reduced the 613 commands to 11. The prophet Isaiah (33:14-15) made them six. Micah 6:8 binds them to three. And Habakkuk 2:4 reduces them all to one; namely, The just shall live by faith 5 P age SINAI #1

6 FINISHING UP There is a story of a man who came to his old friend, a music teacher, and upon stepping into his classroom, said to him, What s the good news today! The old teacher was silent as he stood up and walked across the room. He picked up a small velvet covered hammer, and struck a tuning fork with it. The note reverberated through the room, and the teacher turned to his former student. That, he said, is A. It is A today; it was A five thousand years ago, and it will be A ten thousand years from now. He continued: The soprano upstairs sings off key; the tenor across the hall flats on his high notes, and the piano downstairs is out of tune. He struck the note again and said, That is an A, my friend, and that s the good news for today. ii Why study a book of the Bible I have barely opened in my life, a book about a people I hardly know, wandering around in a place I d never choose to go? Because we need truth for a journey through life in what can be a very tough and wild world. We need to strike the book of NUMBERS with our hammer and get re-tuned attuned this truth. The LORD God loves to be trusted, and who will richly reward, those who choose to navigate the journey with relentless, obedient faith Copyright 2017 David A. Staff All rights reserved i Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), 45. ii From Michael P. Green, ed., 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1982, 1985, 1989)5, 1989) P age SINAI #1

disqualified 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

disqualified 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (ESV) The BAckDrop: How God Provided