Skip to content Strength in Families: Israel's Wilderness Walk Mar 30 · 14 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
93.9K followers
Family Research Council is serving in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, & freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
93.9K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Israel's Wilderness Journey Log 0:09 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word as our journey today takes us to Numbers chapters 33 and 34. We're almost finished with the book of Numbers. Then we are on we are on to0:21 Deuteronomy. But today, what did God require of the children of Israel to possess the promised land? That's what we're gonna look at today. Verse 56 of chapter 33. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to0:33 you as I thought to do to them. Now chapter 33 is really kind of Moses's travel log of the children of Israel's 40 year journey through the wilderness. The log provides an0:45 overview of, the various rest stops in, the road map that the children took as they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years. The narrative, in the book of Numbers0:57 only provides, detail of, the first and the last parts of the journey. Alright? So we we get the first few years into the wilderness, and then we get the kind of the last few years.1:09 But given what we read about at the start and at the finish, it's safe to assume that the 37 years in between were pretty much the same. And so what we have here in this chapter is just kind of a a1:20 listing of where they stopped along the way. Verse 1, chapter 33. These are the journeys of the children of Israel who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Now once again, we1:32 see this term. I pointed out before. The term armies or host, it's used to describe the families as they came out of Egypt and as they were in the wilderness and as they go into the1:44 promised land. You see the strength of a nation is found in its families. Verse 2, now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the lord, and these are their journeys according to their1:55 starting point. So the first 49 verses record, basically 42 stops in Israel's journey from Egypt to the promised land. It's evident2:07 that a man kept this log because with only, with just a couple of exceptions, it simply goes from 0.1 to point b. No detail or commentary, just the facts. Now the2:19 Bible doesn't record how many times the children of Israel said, are we there yet? But we we certainly have a lot of, their complaining recorded along the way. Verse 3.2:31 They departed from Rameses in the first month on the fifteenth day of the first month. And on the the day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of the Egyptians.2:43 Okay? We looked at this before, but they started with boldness, excitement, and anticipation, but that quickly melted away. So how is it that we can preserve the enthusiasm2:55 that we start with? We see this a lot with believers. You know, they they they accept Christ. They're forgiven of their sins, and they start into the Christian walk with great enthusiasm only to lose him3:07 along the way? Well, I think we we can gain some insights from the the journey of the children of Israel. Number 1, there was fear of opposition. When when Pharaoh's army was closing in3:19 and they stood facing the Red Sea, well, fear came upon them. And there was a lack of faith when they had no water. They they didn't look to God in anticipation of his provision based3:30 upon his promises. Rather, they complained, and they wanted to go back to bondage. And there was a lack of gratitude. They did not foster an attitude of gratitude,3:42 which is essential. They they they were desiring the bonds of Egypt over the freedom and the future that god had promised and provided. And then 4, idolatry.3:54 They turned their hearts away from god rather than to god. So those principles are the same in our Christian walk.4:06 Alright. Verse 40, verse 4 of chapter 33. For the Egyptians were bearing all their firstborn whom the lord had killed among them, also their gods the lord had ex had executed judgments. Now this tells4:18 again that the plagues that god brought upon Egypt targeted their false gods or more accurately these demonic principles in which they had placed their hope. Verse 5,4:30 the children of Israel moved from Rameses and camped at Succoth. When when I get to a list of names, of places or places like this, it's it's attempting just to skip over them because,4:43 quite frankly, the names are sometimes difficult to pronounce, and we can't find accurate pronounce pronunciations because we're just not sure. However, you will often find little tidbits of information that is tucked4:55 in between the names or places that convey significant truths. And other than the death of Aaron at age 123 in verse 38 and the note about the king of,5:07 Arad who attacked Israel, which is detailed in chapter 21, the only other stop with added detail was in verse 14 where they came where in, where there was no water5:19 for the people to drink. This account is recorded in chapters in Exodus chapter 17 when water came from the rock on the first occasion after Moses struck it. This may be recorded5:32 because this is where the people first tested God with their complaints. Alright. Verse, 50 of chapter 33. We're gonna jump forward to verse 50. Now the lord spoke toCommands to Possess the Promised Land 5:43 Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the5:53 inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places. You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and6:05 dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families. To the larger, you shall give a larger inheritance. To the6:17 smaller, you shall give a smaller inheritance. There, everyone's inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot, you shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. But6:29 if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your6:40 sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them. Now what we have here,6:53 very important instructions for not taking the land, but possessing the land. Right? It's 1 thing to take something. It's 1 thing to have have something, but to possess7:04 it. The first order of business after driving out the inhabitants completely completely destroy the instruments of idolatry. They're engraved stones. They're molded images, and they're7:16 high places where they worship their demonic powers. Now some might be tempted to say, wow. Wow. That's cruel. Kicking the people out of their land? Tempted to say, wow. Wow. That's cruel. Kicking the people out of their7:26 land? Okay. Paul's just a moment. Let's answer the question, whose land is it? Well, look at what Moses told Pharaoh back in Exodus Exodus chapter 97:38 verse 29. So Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hand to the lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail that you may know that the7:50 earth is the lord's. Read what David wrote in Psalm 24. The earth is the lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. You mean you mean god is8:02 the landlord? Yes. Yes. He's the landlord, and he therefore sets the rules. If the inhabitants ignore or break them, he can, has, and will put them8:13 out. Now this is very important to understand. It was the idolatry and the sword immorality that ultimately led led the inhabitants of Canaan to be vomited8:25 out of the land as Leviticus 18 states. If Israel if if that if they were to be a a a people of God, God's people identified with him,8:38 they had to worship him and him alone. They had to be a holy people. There could be, they could not have this syncretic faith, this mixture of religions, which ultimately did happen, leading8:50 the people astray, weakening the moral and the spiritual foundation of the nation, removing their protection, and making them vulnerable. As with any great civilization that collapsed,9:01 its demise began from within. There is a lesson for us, as a nation here. Now let me give a quick overview of chapter 34, which,Borders, Nation Building, and Promise vs. Possession 9:13 we're not gonna look at in great detail. Verse 1, chapter 34. Then Moses said then the lord said to Moses saying, command the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land9:24 that shall fall to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan to its boundaries. Now the first 12 verses provide the boundaries of the promised land, the land of Israel. Now there's just a few9:35 observations here. What did god do to establish the new nation of Israel? Well, first, as I mentioned a moment ago, he gave them an identity as a people, identified with him.9:47 They were his people. They took his name. They they they were associated with him, so they had an identity. He gave them laws and customs to follow. He he gave them laws, but then he9:59 gave the festivals, which, again, provided identity and and and provided an establishment of of a of a shared culture. Now he's giving them a land10:11 with defined borders. Right? You don't have a nation without borders As we will see by the requirements established for those who wanted to join Israel, they had to follow10:23 the laws and the customs. Okay? You can't have a nation if it's all fragmented with people who have different identities. I mean, that's how you build a nation. God went further as we see in the10:35 second half of chapter 34, and he had the the leaders of the 12 tribes assembled to allocate the land and establish the boundaries for the tribe. So it was really kind of a almost a a federalist10:47 system where you had the the tribes. They govern themselves, and they had a a a nation. We'll see that develop, over time. Alright. Second observation here is it was God's land10:59 to give. Okay? There were people living there, but as we read previously, their conduct was so vile that they were being spewed out of the land. And that's a warning, alright, as I11:11 mentioned a moment ago. And and and 3, another observation I wanna point out is that these borders are different than the borders that god gave Abraham that we looked at back in Genesis11:22 chapter 15. In fact, let me read that from verse, 18. From the river of Egypt, the great to the great river Euphrates. Now what Genesis 15 describes11:35 includes not only the current Jewish state, but portions of modern Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Very different than what we see or it's different than what we see here in numbers 34. So11:46 why why the difference? Well, it's promise versus possession. Numbers 34 was what they were to possess as they went into the promised land, but the total fulfillment of the11:58 promise is yet to come, alright, yet to occur. This subject was in the media recently when, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a friend, recognized12:10 the extent of God's promise to the Jewish people in Genesis 15 from the Nile to the Euphrates. Now the backlash was instantaneous, as it has always been. Right? Now12:23 these boundaries may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but god's promises will at some point be fulfilled. So stand by. What god has promised,12:35 god will do. Father, thank you for your word. And and, lord, it's just it's very clear what a people that are identified with you to possess what you have given them12:47 in its totality requires that we make you first. We put you first. We we we we destroy those things which pull away from you. And so, father, I pray that we would understand the spiritual12:59 nature of this message, the principles that we see in the old testament, applying them to our lives, to our home, to our walk with you. And so, father, I pray once again for the holy spirit to continue to to13:11 lead us on this journey, teaching us how to apply your truths to our lives in this world in which we live. And we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this13:23 morning. And until next time, keep standing on the word.13:29 Today's study comes from the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day,13:40 you can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 Israel's Wilderness Journey Log5:37 Commands to Possess the Promised Land9:10 Borders, Nation Building, and Promise vs. Possession
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.