The Nation of Israel (Dispensationalism vs Covenant Theology) The Book of Numbers Chapter 15

All right, turn in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 15. And tonight we're going to be going a little deeper than we normally do. So you're gonna have to pay attention, I think. We'll see in Numbers 15, how there were people who did not descend from Abraham who were allowed to join the nation of Israel.

So we're going to look into this and what it points to, and we'll be addressing something that came up recently, a week or two ago, the difference between the church and Israel, and how there may be some similarities, but the two are not the same.

So before we listen and follow along, let's open in prayer. Lord, we ask you that you would give us understanding tonight as we look into this subject. We know that Israel was under the old covenant and that we are under the new, but thankfully, Lord, we can both be partakers of the spiritual promise of salvation.

So we thank you for our salvation, which is in Christ. They looked ahead to the cross, we look back to the cross. So Lord, may Christ be glorified tonight in this assembly, and we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.

What chapter again?

Numbers chapter 15.

Non-Israelites Joining the Nation Under the Law

The Lord spoke to Moses, speak to the children of Israel.

And say to them, when you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you, and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or in your appointed feasts to make a sweet aroma to the Lord from the herd or the flock, then he who presents his offering to the Lord shall bring a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephor of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hymn of oil and one-fourth of a hymn of wine as a drink offering you shall prepare with the burnt offering or the sacrifice for each lamb.

Offer a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephor of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hymn of oil and as a drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hymn of wine as a sweet aroma to the Lord.

And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord, then shall be offered with the young bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephor of fine flour mixed with half a hymn of oil.

And you shall bring as the drink offering half a hymn of wine as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. Thus it shall be done for each young bull, for each ram, or for each lamb or young goat.

According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do with everyone according to their number. All who are native born shall do these things in this manner, in presenting an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

And if a stranger dwells with you or whoever is among you throughout your generations and would present an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord, just as you do, so shall he do. One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations.

As you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.

Again, the Lord spoke to Moses.

Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land to which I bring you, then it will be when you eat of the bread of the land that you shall offer up a heave offering to the Lord.

You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering. As a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up. Of the first of your ground meal, you shall give to the Lord a heave offering throughout your generations.

If you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day the Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations, then it will be, if it is unintentionally committed without the knowledge of the congregation, that the whole congregation shall offer one young bull as a burnt offering, as a sweet aroma to the Lord with its grain offering and its drink offering according to the ordinance and one kid of the goats as a sin offering.

So the priest shall make atonement for the whole congregation of the children of Israel and it shall be forgiven them for it was unintentional. They shall bring their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord and their sin offering before the Lord for their unintended sin.

It shall be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel and the stranger who dwells among them because all the people did it unintentionally. And if a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering.

So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally. When he sins unintentionally before the Lord to make atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him. You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwells among them.

But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord and he shall be cut off from among his people because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment.

That person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall be upon him.

Now, while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.

They put him under guard because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses.

The man must surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.

So as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses.

Speak to the children of Israel. Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them.

And that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. And that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy for your God. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

I am the Lord, your God.

The Church and Israel Are Not the Same

So continuing through the book of Numbers, I don't know if you feel this way, but I kind of feel this way, how it's sort of like a roller coaster ride, you know, up and down, up and down. Israel does the right thing, then they do the wrong thing.

They're following Moses, then they're rebelling against Moses. And the same cycle just keeps replaying and replaying. And guess what? It's gonna happen again. It's gonna happen again in the next chapter because that's the rebellion of Korah, but that'll be next week.

So from this section of chapter 14, verses one through 21, he's giving instructions regarding the offerings. They are to give these offerings when? When they come into the promised land. So that's a little bright spot that yes, you are going to enter into the land, but as of this moment, they have about 38 years, give or take, of wandering left to do.

But there's something significant that I wanna focus on in verses 13 and 14. Says, and all who are native born shall do these things in this manner in presenting an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

And if a stranger dwells with you or whoever is among you throughout your generations and would present an offering made by fire, a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord, just as you do, so shall he do. So you have these strangers that are sojourning with the children of Israel.

These individuals are not Jews. They're not actually Israelites. We've already seen this before with the mixed multitude who went with them out of Egypt. So they were not physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So what's a few of the groups that are wandering with them?

Children are the ones that came out of Israel.

Right, but some of the nationalities.

Well, maybe the Canaanite and the Ammonite.

Well, there'd be Egyptians, obviously. They're leaving Egypt. So some Egyptians were with them. We know that there are some Midianites with them because of Moses' in-laws and at least one Ethiopian, probably more.

So all of those people were technically not Israelites and yet they're considered to be part of the nation. Look at verse 16. One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.

So these would be non-Israelites who have renounced idolatry and they would have turned away from their false religion to join the nation. And this reminds me of Ruth. Remember the story of Ruth? Ruth was a Moabite and she said to her Jewish mother-in-law, your people shall be my people and your God, my God.

So that's what's happening with these people. They're not actually Israelites, but they're worshiping the God of Israel. Therefore, they're part of the nation. And if you think about it, over time these barriers would start to break down.

Just to use our nation as an illustration, if somebody immigrates to the United States from a foreign country, they can become a citizen, but those differences are still there, right? What would be some of the differences?

They might speak another language, have different traditions, what?

I said culture.

Culture, right? But if they come here and the next generation or two are born in this country, and if they assimilate, which is the main part, if they assimilate, then over time those barriers start to break down.

So the point is anyone could join the nation of Israel if they were willing to assimilate, adopt the customs, the practices, but the bigger issue was you accept and trust in the God of Israel.

Marcus.

I don't know if this is interesting to you or not, but that is the first, well, actually it should be because you're the one that walked out and read Al-Hasheba's invitation to Israel, which I took up, and on that first team, we had these orange shirts with Hebrew writing on it, and that's what the Hebrew writing was.

Your God shall be my God, and your people shall be my people.

Right.

So technically anyone could join the nation of Israel, not just the physical descendants of Abraham. Now all of this, I think, can be seen as a foreshadow of what will happen in the New Testament church.

The first church in Jerusalem was made up of pretty much all Jews, right? But from the earliest days, Gentiles began to call upon the name of the Lord, and they joined the church, and over time the church ended up becoming mostly Gentile, mainly through the ministry of the apostle Paul.

So Matthew Henry writes this about Numbers 15. He said, it was a happy forewarning of the calling of the Gentiles and their admission into the church. If the law made so little difference between Jew and Gentile, Numbers 15, much less would the gospel, which broke down the partition wall and reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God.

Now who knows what the partition wall is? Actually, we'll get to that in a few minutes. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter one, if you would, because the Bible talks about this. So when people think about the Old Testament, typically you think of the Old Testament as being all about Israel, all about the nation of Israel.

And that's true to a large degree, but just because somebody wasn't a physical descendant of Jacob, that does not mean that God didn't care about non-Israelites in the Old Testament. We referenced Ruth already, but there's a whole book, one of the minor prophets that really displays God's care and love and concern for non-Jewish people.

And what book is that?

Ruth.

Jonah.

Jonah, very good, right. Because Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh. Those were not Israelites to preach repentance. So that book proves that God cares about the Gentiles and he's cared about the Gentiles from the beginning.

So here in Numbers 15, you see that example of non-Israelites joining. There's Ruth, there's Rahab, Jonah, plenty of examples in the Old Testament. And when we get to the New Testament, you see phrases like what?

God so loved the world. Again and again, that's reinforced. The idea is God loves all people, Jew, Gentile, people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. So it's not totally a new thing. Look at Ephesians 1, verse nine.

It says, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.

In him also we have obtained an inheritance. So who is he writing to in Ephesus? Jews? Well, he's writing to a mixed group of Jew and Gentile. All right, now let's flip over to chapter two. So God has begun this work of redeeming man long ago.

He made a covenant with Israel and the nation was to be a witness. They were to be like a city set on a hill. They were to uphold God's law and to spread the knowledge of the Lord throughout all the earth.

Did they do that? Well, they did spread the knowledge of the Lord to a degree, but unfortunately, by the time you get to the New Testament, the nation of Israel became, the word is apostate, right? What does apostate mean?

They fell away from God. They turned away from God. When the Messiah came, when God incarnate came to them, they had him crucified. So here's the thing, where Israel failed, the church now has succeeded because through the church, God has literally spread his knowledge throughout the entire earth.

So I don't think there's a country on earth that doesn't have Christians in it or a church established in it. So in the church age, the knowledge of the Lord has spread. Israel failed in this. God is now working through the church.

Look at Ephesians 2 .11. And there's some familiar language here that you could tie back to Numbers 15. It says, therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

So the Jews had hope because they have the knowledge of God, but the Gentiles, what?

Had no hope, right?

They're the aliens or we were the strangers. We were the foreigners. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by what? The blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

Now, who knows what the middle wall of separation is a reference to?

What?

I can make a guess.

Okay, make a guess.

The law.

The law, all right.

I said the veil.

The veil, all right. You're on the right track, Mark.

Partitioned the temple.

Right.

So there was a literal barrier in the temple that kept the Gentiles out, that kept the Gentiles away. So the Jews could draw near to God. They could enter into the temple, draw near to God, but the Gentiles were kept out because the Gentiles were what?

They are considered by the Jews to be dogs, right? So the Gentiles are not part of this. They're dogs. They have no hope in the world, but Jesus, of course, changed all of that. Now, if you notice, Paul uses some Old Testament language here, not to teach that the church and Israel are now the same.

No, rather this language that shows that in this age, both Jew and Gentile are on the same level, okay? We are one in Christ. That barrier has been destroyed or broken down in Christ. Now we, the Gentiles, can draw near to God, right?

So this is a very significant thing. And just to point this out, a Jew who gets saved in this age is no more special. They're no more closer to God than a Gentile who gets saved. What's important is that you get saved.

So in the Old Testament, God was using the physical line of Jacob. In the New Testament, it's about our faith. It's about believing. It's not about bloodlines. Any questions so far?

All right.

So what matters is are you in covenant with Jesus Christ? Now that's also true in Numbers 15. The strangers who are part of other nations, they could draw near. They could become part of the nation. So there is this consistency, but there's also a difference.

In the Old Testament, it was about the nation of Israel, but you had to become like an Israelite. In the New Testament, we don't need to become Israelites,.

Right?

What do we need to become like? Or who do we need to become like? Christ, right? It's a new covenant with new terms, new conditions. And this is one of the reasons why Paul fought so hard against the Judaizers because they were trying to go backwards.

They were trying to keep that wall of separation up. Jesus broke it down. The Judaizers are trying to build it back up. So Paul uses that Old Testament language here in Ephesians to make this point of unity, Jew and Gentile together.

So that's my main point up until this point in the sermon. It's about faith, not about the bloodline because in Numbers 15, as long as they had faith.

In the true God, they could join the nation.

Comment.

Yes, comment.

I became aware of this mostly when I went to other countries. I was thinking when you go into Israel, I was really struck by it because it says foreigners. I've been to foreign passports and I've always thought that everyone else is foreigners.

I'm an American and the rest of the world is foreigners. But we are foreigners. But then I thought, well, in Haiti too, they used to yell Blanc, Blanc at us because we were white. But even in biblical terms, we're adopted into God's family.

So, you know, I know there's something of always being a minority, always being sort of different. I'm sure that true born again Christians, I don't know what percentage of mankind that would be, but I bet it's single digits or teens.

Okay, all right. So in the Old Testament, Israel was God's elect, right? The nation of Israel, they were God's chosen people. But in the New Testament, Christ is God's elect and anyone can become one of God's chosen if they are in Christ.

So it's about belief, not bloodline. But with that said, there's a common error that I think it's worth addressing. This came up a couple of weeks ago. So Ephesians chapter two, here is how some people will interpret this.

When it says, verse 12, that at that time, you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, but you know, you've been brought near. Some people teach that means that we are now Israel.

You are strangers from Commonwealth, but now you are Israelites. So I think most of you by now should be familiar with this idea that some churches teach that the New Testament church is the new Israel.

What's the problem with that? On the surface, what's the problem with that?

Marcus.

God is not finished with Israel, with his chosen people. Just continuing the cycle of turning to him and rebelling against him and turning to him. And by the way, they are turning back to him now.

All right, so that's the claim that God is not done with Israel. How would you prove that?

Revelation.

Revelation, why revelation?

Because from chapter four to the 20th, it's all about Israel.

Or you can just look at the deserts that are now orchards.

Okay.

And then Romans, I think too.

Yeah, so in the book of Revelation, the church is mentioned in chapters two, chapters two and three. And then from that point on, there's no mention of the church. There is a mention of Israel, we believe.

Okay.

Here's the thing. If you teach that the church is the new Israel, that totally messes up your view of the end times. I believe that our view of the end times of the rapture and the tribulation and the millennium, this is, not only is it very important, it's only gonna become more important when this all draws near, which it is drawing near, and when it actually happens.

When it happens, then it's really important, right? So we wanna make sure we have a proper understanding on all of this. So here are some of the differences. This is called replacement theology, this idea that the church replaces Israel.

What are some of the differences? Those who hold to covenant theology or replace, we are what? What's the word that we would identify? We are dispensational in our theology. Those who are covenantal in their theology or those who accept replacement theology, here are the differences.

We only baptize believers by immersion. They oftentimes will baptize babies by sprinkling.

Why?

Because to them, baptism is the new circumcision. So you circumcise babies, you baptize babies. So they will often baptize infants. To them, many of them, there is no 1 ,000-year kingdom upon the earth.

There is no rapture in their view. There is no tribulation in their view. There is generally no future for Israel in their view.

Why?

Because we are Israel. The church is Israel. No rapture, no tribulation, no kingdom, no future for Israel, baptizing babies. These are some very significant differences, right?

Amen.

Very, very significant. And because of all that, their view of the end times is totally different from our view. And what's important is their view is not the biblical view.

We'll be able to say, I told you so.

Yeah, well, you know, saying I told you so is overrated. We wanna win them over, amen? All right, let's turn to Romans 11. But you're right, we will be, you would be able to do that, I suppose. So turn to Romans 11.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Israel’s Future and the Olive Tree in Romans 11

Another difference between dispensationalists like us and those who believe in covenant theology. And, you know, I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm not questioning their faith. But another big difference is they will allegorize the Bible where we take the scripture more literally.

When the scripture says Israel, it means Israel. When the Bible says the church, it means the New Testament church. The church does not mean Israel, and Israel does not mean the church. And yet that's what they believe.

So let's try to prove this view with scripture. I think the biggest issue, if God doesn't keep his promises to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if God doesn't keep his promises, you have an even bigger problem on your hands.

Because if God doesn't keep his promise to the Jews, maybe he doesn't keep his promise to us. All right, Romans 11, verse 11. Hopefully this will clarify everything. Says, I say then that they, the Jews, stumbled, or he's asking a question.

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? What's the answer? Certainly not.

Why?

Because there's still a future for them. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. So God moved to the Gentiles, not because he's finished. He moved to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy, so that the Jews would see the blessing and the success of the New Testament church, and that eventually is going to lead them back to faith.

Then Paul gets into his illustration of the olive tree, which speaks of God's covenant blessings. The Jews are pictured as the natural branches. And what happened to the natural branches? They're, yeah, they're cut off.

So that the predominantly Gentile church, us, we get grafted in. So here's the tree, God's covenant blessings. They're cut off, we are grafted in. Following along so far?

Okay.

Romans 11, 23. And they also, speaking of Israel, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. I submit to you, Paul would not say this unless he knew it was going to happen, that God is going to graft Israel back in.

We believe this happens when? You know, Marcus said that it's starting to happen. And there's always been Jews who've believed in the Lord. There's always Jews getting saved at any moment in time.

They'll be raptured. But this is the Jews of the seven year tribulation.

Yeah, so Jews in large numbers will start converting to Christ during the tribulation. So once the Lord raptures the church, the church is now in heaven, now who is he going to deal with?

The Jews.

Right, the Jews. Look at verse 25. But of course, if you don't believe in any rapture and you don't believe in any tribulation, guess what? This never happens.

It doesn't matter what you believe.

You're right, it doesn't matter what someone believes. What matters is what does the Bible say? And this is proof right here, verse 25. He says, for I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until.

That's a very important word. Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

So Jesus was rejected and crucified in 30 AD or 33 AD. Paul is writing Romans and I forget the year, let's say it's 58 AD. Most people were thinking God's done with them. He's gonna destroy the temple or the Romans will destroy the temple in 70 AD.

But you know what? The time is coming when all Israel will be saved.

Why?

Verse 28, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, because they don't believe it, but concerning the election, that is God chose them, concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. What does that mean? Yeah, God is not going to change his mind. You say, yeah, but they rebelled again, they rejected Christ. What have we been reading in Exodus and Numbers?

This keeps happening. They keep rebelling, you know, the stiff neck. Is God done with them in Exodus when they rebelled?

No.

Is God done with them in Numbers when they rebelled? Remember, God, he threatened to start over. But did he do it?

No.

So why do we think that, okay, in the New Testament, now he's really had it and God's finished and he's gonna break his word and he's... It's never gonna happen because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

You couldn't get any more clear. All Israel in the future, Paul's saying, will be saved. So for someone to say that God is finished with Israel, this is a very, very serious error and churches that are turning that way, they need to take this seriously.

Amen.

Amen. So all Israel will be saved. Now let's go back to Numbers chapter 15 and we'll start to bring this to a close.

Yes.

Maybe it's not even noteworthy, but I always thought they were cut off because of unbelief, they were cut off, but they were broken off. I don't know, just seem more.

Yeah.

Broken off, cut off, but Paul makes it very clear they're gonna be grafted in again because God keeps his word. All right, so if you remember, we got on this topic because there were non-Israelites in the nation of Israel.

And the Lord told Moses that if they were to adopt the practices of the nation, if they were to celebrate the Passover, offer up the same sacrifices. In other words, if they were to assimilate, turn from idols, then they were now part of, part of the nation of Israel.

And again, this is a foreshadow of what God would do in the New Testament church, bringing in the Gentiles. So there's some similarities, but that by no means means that the church is now Israel. The Bible never says that, not a single time.

Okay, verses 22 through 29, just covered these two topics. It talks about unintentional sin versus presumptuous sin. So what's the difference here? Sin's done accidentally versus sin done intentionally.

If we'll look at verses 30 and 31, but the person who does anything presumptuously. So if you did it on accident, you could offer a sacrifice. You could work with that. If you did, if you broke God's law intentionally, look at what he says.

If they do anything presumptuously, whether he is a native born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord and he shall be cut off from among his people because he has despised the word of the Lord and he has broken his commandment.

That person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall be upon him. And then of course, the next thing you see is some guy who goes out and intentionally breaks the Sabbath. So, hey, let's put this thing to the test.

Is God serious? And he goes out and breaks the Sabbath for everybody to see and what happens to him?

Yeah, he's stoned.

Presumptuously really means that if doing something that you know is wrong, but you're doing it anyways.

Right, right.

So he's dealt with and God makes an example out of him.

Larry.

So that would be anything I know to be wrong, but I do it anyways.

Right.

All the time, regularly.

Yeah.

That is practicing as it says in the New Testament.

And other areas.

Yeah.

And what does God say about he who practices such things? I mean, I guess it depends on the depth of the sin.

Well, God, well, we see how serious God takes it. Under the law, under the law, there's no grace. Now, obviously God's grace was still present in the Old Testament, but the law says cut off. Man who breaks the Sabbath, death.

Israel rebelled against God. Maybe God should be done with them, but is he? I mean, thank God that he gives people the opportunity to repent. But yeah, it's a very, very serious thing. And then the last section, the Lord tells the Israelites to wear certain types of clothing, to put tassels on the corners of their garments.

Why?

To show that they were different. I mean, some guys walking around with tassels on every corner of his outfit. You're gonna be like, what is this guy doing? You know, it's a way to show they're different.

Another way of saying it, they're holy. They're set apart. Also by wearing it, it's a reminder. Why is this thing here? Oh, because I'm, I belong to the Lord. Right, you know, it's like someone, if they wore a cross around their neck, and I realize a lot of people wear that and it means nothing to them.

But if you wear a cross around your neck, I mean, if you look at it, that reminds you that I belong to the Lord, and it tells other people. Yes, Marcus.