Numbers 16-17, "Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Rebellion"

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Numbers 16-17 Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Rebellion

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Numbers chapter 16 all the way through chapter 17. Hear the word of the Lord Now Korah the son of Ishar son of Kohath son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab and on the son of Peleth sons of Reuben took men and They rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly well -known men
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They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them you have gone too far
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For all in the congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the
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Lord? when Moses heard it he fell on his face and he said to Korah and all his company in the morning
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The Lord will show who is his and who is holy and will bring him nearer to him
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The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him do this Take censers
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Korah and all his company put fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow and the man whom the
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Lord chooses shall be the Holy One you have gone too far sons of Levi and Moses said to Korah here now you sons of Levi Is it too small a thing for you that the
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God of Israel has? Separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself To be to do service in the tabernacle of the
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Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them and that he has Brought you near him and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you and would you seek the priesthood also?
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Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together what is
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Aaron that you grumble against him and Moses said to Dathan and Abiram sons of Elieb And and excuse me and Nate and Moses sent to Dathan and Abiram's Environs sons of Elieb and they said we will not come up Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in this?
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Wilderness that you must also make yourself a prince over us Moreover, you have not brought us up into a land flowing with milk and honey nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards
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Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up and Moses was very angry and said to the
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Lord do not respect their offering I have not taken one donkey from them and I have not harmed one of them and Moses said to Korah be present you and all your company before the
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Lord you and a and Aaron tomorrow and Let every one of you take his censer and put incense on and every one of you bring before the
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Lord his censer 250 censers You also in Aaron each his censer so every man took his censer and put fire on them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of Meeting with the
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Lord and with Moses and Aaron then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting and the glory of the
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Lord appeared to all the congregation and the Lord spoke to Moses and said to Aaron's saying separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment and they fell in their faces and said
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Oh God the God of the spirits of all flesh shall one man sin and will you be angry with all the congregation and the
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Lord spoke to Moses saying Say to the congregation get away from the dwelling of Korah Dathan and Abiram then
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Moses of wrote the Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram and the elders of Israel followed him and he spoke to the
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Congregation saying depart please from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest you be swept away with all their sins so they got away from the dwelling of Korah Dathan and Abiram and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives their sons and their little ones and Moses said said hereby you shall know that the
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Lord has sent me to do these all these works and that it has not been Of my own accord if these men die as all men die or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind
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Then the Lord has not sent me But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up With all that belongs to them and they go down alive and to Sheol then you shall know that these men have despised the
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Lord and As soon as he had finished speaking all these words the ground under them split apart and the earth opened his mouth and swallowed them
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Up with their households and all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods so they and all that belong to them went a lot down alive and to Sheol and the earth closed over them and they perish from the midst of the assembly and All Israel who were around them fled at their cry for they said lest the earth swallow us up alive
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You know It doesn't say alive Let's the earth swallow us up and fire came out from the Lord and consumed 250 men offering the incense then the
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Lord spoke to Moses saying tell Eliezer the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze then scatter the fire far and wide for they have become holy as For the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives.
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Let them be made into hammered pieces Hammered plates as a covering for that altar for they for the altar for they offered them before the
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Lord and they became holy thus They shall be assigned to the people of Israel So Eliezer the priest took the bronze censers
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Which those who were burned had offered and they were hammered out is a covering for the altar to be a reminder to the people
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Of Israel so that no outsider who was not of the descendants of Aaron should draw near to burn incense before the
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Lord Lest he become like Korah in his company as the Lord said to him through Moses but on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron saying you have killed the people of the
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Lord and when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron they turned toward the tent of meeting and behold the cloud covered it in the glory of the
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Lord appeared and Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying
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Get away from the midst of this congregation that I may consume them in a moment and they fell on their faces and Moses said to Aaron take your censer and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the
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Congregation and make atonement for them for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun
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So Aaron took it as Moses had said and ran into the midst of the assembly and behold
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The plague had already gone among the people had already begun among the people and he put on the incense and made atonement for the
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People and he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stopped now those who died in the plague were 14 ,700 besides those who died in the affair of Korah and Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting when the
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Plague was stopped Chapter 17 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the people of Israel and get from them staffs one for each
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One for each father's house from all their chiefs according to their father's houses
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Twelve staffs write each man's name on his staff and write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi For there shall be one staff for the head of each father's house
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Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony Where I meet with you and the staff of the man whom
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I choose shall sprout thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumble against you
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Moses spoke to the people of Israel and all their chiefs gave him staffs one for each chief according to their father's houses twelve staffs and the staff of Aaron was among their staffs and Moses deposited the staffs before the
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Lord in the Tent of the the testimony on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony and behold the staff of Aaron For the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and it bore ripe almonds
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Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel and they looked and each man took his staff and the
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Lord said to Moses put back the staff of Aaron before the Testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels that you may make an end of their grumblings against me lest they die
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Thus did Moses as the Lord commanded him. So he did and The people of Israel said to Moses behold we perish we are undone
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We are all undone everyone who comes near who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord shall die.
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Are we all to perish? May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his
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Holy Word Well, if a pitfall is a hidden trap
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Something it's not obvious Something's obscure that you that you can easily accidentally step into is rebellion a pitfall
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Or is it obvious? You know in theory, of course authority is clear.
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The King says pay your taxes For your tea or for your written documents got to put a stamp on it you say no way
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Maybe throw the tea in the harbor you start a rebellion Or do you call it a revolution?
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You know one man's rebellion is another man's revolution Just a few months before I came here.
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I mean we moved here over 10 years ago now I preached a series of sermons in a church in Pennsylvania that taught while I was there in their
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Sunday school that the American Revolution Was wrong because it was a rebellion and all rebellion is wrong
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They said we simply always submit no matter what that's what they said, but I thought
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Well, you know at the time of the American Revolution or rebellion what you want to call it You would have to make a choice to rebel against someone
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You know if you follow the governments of the colonies which now declaring themselves to be states
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You rebel against the king of England if you follow the king of England you rebel against your state
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If you lived in North Carolina or Virginia in 1776 You're going to have to choose
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Who to rebel against? Almost four score in seven years later
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Once again, you'd have to choose who to rebel against your state if you're in the south anyway, or the federal government
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If you're in North Carolina or Virginia Do you submit to them or do you submit to the
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USA? Loyalist to the USA called the Union called the others
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Rebels just like the British, you know the loyalist to the king in 1776 called the
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American revolutionaries rebels The conclusion though the many Americans now after all that so confusing they think well the conclusion is
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That rebellion is not such a bad thing after all It can be glorious to be a rebel
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That's what many Americans think, you know Stone Mountain Georgia has an enormous engraving of the leaders of the rebellion carved into the side of it
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The University of Mississippi is nicknamed the rebels Even the heroes of the Star Wars films, you know, they're fighting for the rebellion
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Rebels can even be cool. Don't you know even if they're rebels without a cause like James Dean But rebels almost always want a cause, you know a cause greater than just slick hair and Leather jackets and fast cars.
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We commonly hail our heroes of all kinds as Rebels for some cause they got to have something they're rebelling for so about 50 years ago
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Martin Luther King was celebrated as a I guess probably some people sell He was a rebel against an oppressive system the same system
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Oddly enough that the other rebels were fighting for about a century before Martin Luther King today
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We have some rebels who think that they have inherited Martin Luther King's mantle to overturn an oppressive system
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That's keeping them down keeping the people down now what they call the LGBTQ community and to some extent there is a
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Real community there some people scoff and not real community But to some extent there is one a community that's centered on the idea
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That there are that they are the new rebels that they're rebels for the sexual
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Revolution, they're the new freedom fighters fighting for erotic freedom
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That's the new cause Christians are though Attempted again then to simply say all rebellion is wrong
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They were just to submit to the system no matter what it is and when it comes to who you who should marry who or What bathroom to use that seems to make some sense, but then how far back do you take that?
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Do you undo civil rights? Because you just always submit to the system. Do you submit again to the the monarch in England, do we send
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Queen Elizabeth a Apology letter and say we're part we submit again.
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How far back do you go? How about undoing the Protestant Reformation? We're coming up to the 500th anniversary of the
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Reformation this very this October should we celebrate it as a glorious revolution Or should we mourn it as a sinful rebellion?
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Is the Pope the head of the church again? Well, it all depends on what's being rebelled against doesn't it in?
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1776 how do you choose which? Authority to submit to the state and then the
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Continental Congress or the king Well in in 1861, how do you choose who to rebel against your southern state or?
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the USA 500 years ago in 1517 who you rebel against Martin Luther or the
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Catholic Church Well the modern answer the answer most Americans go to today is well, whichever the people decide let the let the people
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Choose who to submit to who to rebel against but that's really not what Martin Luther was for So he's protesting for gonna let the people decide what to believe.
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No, that's not what he here I stand the people have decided. No, it's not what it's not even what if you read carefully
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Declaration of Independence It's not even what Thomas Jefferson was writing about. He was writing about inalienable rights endowed by a creator and As much as many of want to point to him as a rebel with a cause
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Martin Luther King and his famous. I have a dream speech decried Alabama's popularly elected governor
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George Wallace Decried him for lips quote dripping with the words of interposition and nullification in other words
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He decried him for threatening to nullify federal law Martin Luther King may have been a revolutionary
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But he wasn't a rebel. He was for Authority he along with Jefferson and his namesake
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Martin Luther saw themselves not as rebels as overturning law just for their own sake but as revolutionaries bringing rebellious laws and law enforcers to conform to higher laws natural laws the lofty laws of heaven
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Well, what about you Are you a rebel or a revolutionary?
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well here we see rebellion and Revolution Israel began as a revolution the government the authority at least the man who thought he had the authority
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Pharaoh Did not want to let Israel go but the higher authority overrode him
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Israel left in a revolution They were going to be the kingdom of priests in Exodus chapter 19 verse 6 they were going to be ruled by laws
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Not by absolute kings who just issuing decrees edicts like dictators
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They were going to be a different kind of nation a holy nation They were going to be a revolutionary people like Peter says that we now are in first Peter chapter 2 verse 9 now
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The church is the holy nation, but just like from the beginning in the garden There is rebellion we see that here in this passage in three parts the cause of the rebellion the consequences of the rebellion and finally the cure for the rebellion
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Well, the rebellion starts with four men Speaking up and they were leading men.
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This isn't just the riffraff, you know sitting at a bar Complaining about the ghost gods in Washington.
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This isn't just riffraff. These are leaders taking a stand Cora Dathan Abiram and on Cora was a
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Levite. That's the holy tribe That's the tribe that was supposed to take care of the tabernacle Some of the priests were
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Levites who at least those who were descended from Aaron, but not all of them Not all all of the
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Levites were priests. The the rest of them were assistants in the tabernacle They were helpers of the priest.
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They were Deacons so to speak the others the initial rebellion these other names this
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Dathan Abiram and on they were Reuben It's from the tribe of Reuben and Reuben had been the oldest son of Jacob Who's the literal first Israel and so is the oldest son that they would normally?
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They should have been the leaders and all of these men then were close to power But not in the center of it
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These leading men rallied 250 other leading men Called chiefs of the congregation, you know, they're called in verse 2 notes, but they're also in verse 2 well -known men
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Two hundred and fifty leading men. That's a respectable impressive gathering a
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Congress it's enough Certainly for a revolution Are they rebels or?
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revolutionaries Well, they assembled together and in verse 3 they made their declaration to Moses and Aaron you have gone too far
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For all in the congregation are holy every one of them And the Lord is among them why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the
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Lord? Notice three things about this declaration. This is their deck. You know America is this declaration of independence?
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This is their declaration notice three things at the declaration of these rebels because this is the way the rebels will always sound
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There's the protest. There's the position and finally there's the accusation first.
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They make a protest Moses Aaron You've gone too far
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They've overreached They've abused their authority the rebels kind of admit in that that Moses and Aaron had some authority some legitimate authority, but now they've used it for personal gain
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Moses, you know, he's not a man of the people. He's not accessible. He's not approachable He's always hanging out there in that holy place with the
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Lord and we can't go into him I mean he comes out and he's wearing this veil. His face is glowing. Who do you think he is
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Aaron? He won't let other people offer sacrifices What's up with that? He thinks he has a monopoly on it
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Rebels will protest that the leader has gotten too big for his britches and then they take a surprisingly sound position.
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It's a true Biblical position it sounds respectable. It's when you say yeah, you're right.
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You're right That's all true a popular position that we can all rally behind all in the congregation are
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Holy every one of them and the Lord is among them all true They were already told that the whole nation was supposed to be a nation of priests
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They were just called at the end of chapter 15 just after just before the story begins
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They were called to be holy and indeed the Lord was among them right there in that tabernacle
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Rebels are almost always going to proclaim a position that makes them appear
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That they are interested in interested in something other than just rebelling against authority
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They want a good -looking position to take they want a
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Cause that people can rally behind at least it looks like their cause
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That's what makes rebellion a pitfall It disguises itself as something else as if it's really for this legitimate cause it
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Claims some widely accepted principle that they say is under threat which they are trying to protect
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Moses and Aaron are are undermining what we're all about. We've got to take control from them They say it claims, you know something that you want to believe in so you want to get behind maybe it's states rights
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They shout when in reality Which you know the legitimate cause sure when in reality
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What they're what they're What they're protesting again is is the president that the other states?
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fairly elected When in reality what they want is a constitution that doesn't allow other states by their rights to take away their
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Slaves who have oddly enough no rights in their states Maybe today among many
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Baptist churches. They will fight for the position of the priesthood of all believers, which they claim That's what they claim.
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It sounds good right priesthood of all believers all God's people I'm not accountable for anyone But the way it comes out when reality they are rebelling against church discipline that the
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Lord Jesus gave us the idea that they are accountable to a church And probably a church too, which maybe they want to be a member of But they don't want to have to attend of all things
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Rebels always hide their true position Maybe it's licentiousness. I was just living wild Antinomianism that is lawlessness.
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Maybe it's just wanting to have their own way Maybe it's slavery. They'll hide their true position under some noble sounding position
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Then there's the accusation on the basis of a true position. We're all holy the
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Lord is among us It's much easier to make a false accusation here you
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Exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord Well, there's no evidence that Moses or Aaron did that at the burning bush
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Moses tried to talk the Lord out of sending him to Israel. He didn't want to be the leader in numbers 14
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Just shortly before this rebellion Probably just days weeks, but the most just a few months the
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Lord threatens to destroy the whole nation as he does here I think he's showing something about by doing that. He's showing something about Moses's heart
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All right, and he does that in numbers 14 the Lord threatened to destroy the whole nation and make a new nation from Moses the nation of Moses No, if Moses is what they say
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He would have thought hmm. I like the sound of that the nation of Moses, you know with ambassadors from the nation of Moses and Moses's Congress and the federal government of Moses name on the map
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Republic of Moses, you know, that sounds good doesn't it to be a George Washington not just another
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Leader kind of all the older nation just a one among many but to be the father. I'd be great wouldn't it?
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But instead he pleaded with the Lord not to do that. He does that here several times He's not exalted himself above the assembly above the nation.
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The Lord's exalted him and The other people that he's not exalted Don't they don't like that that they envy him.
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They envy the glory that the Lord has let Moses reflect So they're going to bring him down to their level in The 1740s
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Jonathan Edwards became an esteemed leader of the Great Awakening Writing not only very sophisticated theology books some of the probably
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Considered the greatest theologian America's ever produced but also books that spread the revival that sparked worldwide missions and the preaching superstar of their day
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George Whitfield visited Edwards and his home and commented favorably that about Edwards family how they
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Live simply that they live like people who were not just living for this world But they really believed that they were living for heaven and they he commented at Whitfield did about how
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Edwards as Edwards preached and Excuse me as Whitfield preached in Edwards Church Edwards wept through the whole sermon.
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That's the kind of you know, you look at his sermons You think he must have been a hard cold man. He was he was a man of Passion and to this day and we're just sermon sinners in the hands of an angry
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God is the example of the Great Awakening Most American students are exposed to now you would think then with all that all those accomplishments
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That his position as pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts would have been secure
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Right unless he does something you'd have to do something really awful to ever get removed as pastor there you would think
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But over time people began to grumble He's gone too far They would take biblical sounding positions.
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We're all holy Who are you to tell us, you know, some of us can't take the Lord's Supper They accused him of trying to abuse his authority and in 1750
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They fired him What's the cause of the rebellion? Jonathan Edwards believed that he was fired because some of the church members had been influenced by Armenian theology
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That is the theology that it's our will that determines God's will God's decisions hinge on ours
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His eternal plan of salvation depends on the choices we make Our choices are ultimate.
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We are the master of our fate. We are the captain of our soul That's sort of Armenian theology Encapsulated that that of course that appeals to our pride
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What we like to believe about ourself how important we are and we determine so much So Paul says the natural person
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Cannot accept the things of the Holy Spirit. He is not able in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 He's not able not because God is stopping him from accepting the things of the
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Spirit But but he or she is not it is not able to accept the gospel because the natural person
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The person who is left untouched by God's grace Unconvicted by the
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Holy Spirit of his or her sin the person who is just left dead in sin
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That person is so full of The pride of life that pride that the serpent appealed to in the
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Garden of Eden, you know that you can you can become like God Why should you hint? Why should you depend on his word?
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You can you can say what's good or bad? That pride that we surrender to when we took that fruit.
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We're so full of that pride that if we're left natural Unchanged by grace
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We can't accept the idea that We're then slaves of sin Needing a
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Savior to free us that we're that dependent That we require someone between us and God to make atonement for our sins that we can't accept the idea
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That there's nothing in our hands we can bring but only to the cross we must cling
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What causes the rebellion Pride Here are these chiefs of the congregation
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They can't tolerate the idea that they have to approach God Through someone else that they can't approach
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God on their own that they need an intermediary to atone for them So they rebel you have gone too far
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By putting yourself between me and the Lord they can bring their own censors to the
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Lord They say so Moses after falling on his face the first time in this story. He does at least three times here
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Challenges Cora and his people the rebellious Levites in verses 5 to 7 now here is a test It's the first of three tests in this in this passage come to the entrance of the tabernacle with your own censors
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There's these kind of bronze pans that they put hot coals in and then incense on it Come that the next day
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Burn that incense before the Lord like the priests were supposed to do in other words do this priestly
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Activity and see if the Lord accepts your offering. It's a test and then he says to them the man whom the
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Lord chooses Shall be holy. He's the one selected you thought you were all set apart for being priest
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We'll see what the Lord thinks and he concludes Moses says back to them You have gone too far
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Then starting at verse 8 even Moses rebukes them you Levites you were called to be separate from the rest of the nation
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You had that you this you had this esteem position already by serving in the tabernacle
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You had this privilege of being brought near to the Lord being able to work in the tabernacle, but that wasn't good enough for you
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You thought you deserve more than that. You wanted not just to be pre you wanted to be priest too
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And so he says you haven't just rebelled against Aaron Not as you not only you just resent
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Aaron the rightful priest, but you've rebelled against the Lord in my opinion
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This area probably most of the south is full of men who were probably called to help to be deacons
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To maybe to teach Sunday school to help in the ministry of the church and maybe they did it
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Well, maybe they were just gifted and they were just did their role. Well, and then something happened pride
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Puff them up They it wasn't good enough just to serve Their service their their class that wasn't enough and so they had to be it'd be the center of attention it to be the preacher and So they leave it a breakaway group to listen to them pride causes rebellions
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Notice the day than a Byram are so proud They won't even submit to the terms of Moses's death
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I mean this began as we should all be able to act like priests and so Moses gives an opportunity Okay, come and do it and see what happens and now they say no way we will not come up That's just the way rebels are
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Defiantly. No, we're not gonna do whatever you say. We're not gonna do it. That's the way rebels are It doesn't matter what you tell them they want to do
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Anything they're told here they even ridiculously complain notice verse 13 because this is the way rebels sound
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This is how ridiculous they are. You have brought us up. You have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey
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Okay, that's Egypt. They're referring to understand They call
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Egypt where they were slaves By the same term the
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Lord caused the promised land That was their house of slavery and now they're calling it a land flowing with milk and honey what in the world
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Rebels confuse slavery this world this present evil age They confuse it with the promised land with heaven
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They then they say to Moses, you know, you've not brought you brought us into this wilderness this desert
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You haven't brought us notice verse 14. You have not you it's your fault
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Moses You haven't brought us into the promised land you haven't brought us to fields and vineyards like you said you would
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You know, but the fact is you remember just a couple chapters before this that the only reason they they aren't entering the promised land flowing with milk and honey
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The only reason they're not going into it right now as they are complaining is because they refuse to go
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Moses but they did it. So instead here they accuse Moses of wanting to make himself a prince
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Rebels don't take responsibility for their sin. It's someone else's fault Someone else's fault that they're still a drunk or there's still a drug addict or they're still in bondage to some sexual perversion or promiscuity to Immorality, it's someone else's fault that our relationships are also messed up you traumatize me by calling my choices sinful
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So Moses finally is very angry This is the first time Moses if they would've been angry before now that finally ticks him off and he asked the
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Lord not to accept their offerings The cause is pride What are the consequences?
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Well, they'll see the next day Cora's rebellion has spread through the whole nation notice verse 19
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Cora has assembled notices in verse 19 Cora has assembled all the
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Congregation against Moses and Aaron That's one of the consequences of rebellion.
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It's contagious The people are now following Cora Cora is now they're a leader if it were a democracy and they took a vote
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Cora would win But this is the Lord's nation not the people's so the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron in verse 20
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Telling them to separate from the rest of the people so that the Lord can wipe them all out But Moses and Aaron for the second time
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Falling their faces they're praying they're interceding. They're not putting themselves above the congregation. Are they they're serving them
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They're calling out to the Lord calling him in verse 22 the God of the spirits of all flesh
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Interesting title for God, isn't it? They blame that rebellion on Cora They say it's one man's sin
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Don't blame the whole congregation one man led them into sin Now he was probably a very charismatic attractive leader and Entertaining speaker a
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Confident fast talker the kind of personality that people just naturally flock to the kind that gets elected in democracies
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Or takes over churches because of their charm their authority their confidence Which people mistake for being called by God which they'll sometimes call.
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Oh, he's anointed Evidently Moses and Aaron are right to put most of the blame on Cora It's his fault one man's sin because the
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Lord listens to their appeal and instead of telling them to separate from all the nation Tells the nation to separate from the tents of Cora Dathan and Abiram Moses then goes out into there
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You can imagine this vast campsite out there in the desert goes out to the neighbors of Dathan and Abiram there's two rebels the two who were too arrogant to even accept
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Moses's challenge and Tells him, you know tells the neighbors there get as far away from Dathan Abiram's tents as you can and he warns them
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Tuts nothing of theirs lest you be swept away in their sins so they believe
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Moses they moved away leaving kind of an empty space a Boundary marker around Dathan and Abiram if they were afraid they didn't show it
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They defiantly come out to the entrance of the doors of their tents Staying there with their families and so Moses puts himself to the test.
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Here's the second test in this passage He put himself to the test in verse 28 hereby
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You shall know that the Lord has sent me to do these works and it is not of my own accord
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These men if they died normally of old age or some natural disease Like normal people do then he says the
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Lord has not sent me But it but in verse 30 if the
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Lord creates something new literally in Hebrew, it's an interesting phrase literally it it's if the
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Lord creates a Creation and the word for create there is a special word used only for God Only God does this kind of creating is found in the very first verse of the
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Bible in the beginning God Created here if the Lord creates something that only he can create
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It's not some accident you can blame on you know, they got a disease they got a bacteria
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I got a virus if it just some normal death happens to them. They got a heart attack then I'm a fraud.
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I'm only out for power like you say But if the Lord does something only he can do
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The ground opens up and swallows them then you'll know That these men aren't just protesting me, but that they have despised the
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Lord Doesn't take any time Immediately says it happens the ground under them splits open they fall in Everyone in their families everything they have falls in and then the ground closes back up again
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They wouldn't go up to meet Moses in the tabernacle. So the Lord makes them go down to their graves
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The people standing around Panicked you imagine they they fled they're screaming, you know, they're gonna swallow me up to the scurrying away like, you know mice
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Meanwhile back at the tabernacle the same time. There's those 250 Notable men chiefs of the people followers of Korah.
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They're there in the tabernacle offering their incense and Fire comes shooting out from the
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Lord from the Holy of Holies and burns them all up completely with their incense the consequences a pride of rebellion is death
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Our God is a consuming fire His judgment brings death to us because of our sins
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You know if there is no atonement if there's no high priest mediating between us and God appeasing
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God's wrath The consequence of that is death They were to be reminded of that by having those bronze censors
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That the rebels had were using having them beaten into a covering for the altar there in the tabernacle
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And it said it'll be a sign for the people of Israel You know every time Imagine now from now on for generations to come every time they come into the tabernacle later to the temple
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There's this altar there bronze plates covering it. That's the altar Covered with the the bronze that came from those rebels who died for their sins
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In particular, it's a reminder that the only the that only the right priest
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Can approach God? The consequences of sin are that you need a priest
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You need an intermediary you need someone the Lord has chosen for you
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To represent you to him or you will have death One of the consequences of sin is that people don't learn from sin and from his consequences and verses 41 to 50 the very next day
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People still haven't learned They are still rebellious and they still somehow blame
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Moses for those deaths that their rebellion caused
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You know, they grumble and they declared you have killed the people of the Lord You know, it's again.
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They're so holy. They really love the people of the Lord But Moses he killed them as if somehow
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Moses caused the ground to open up or fire to shoot out of the tabernacle They assembled against Moses against Aaron you notice it against them again and So the glory of the
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Lord appears and the Lord tells Moses to get away from the congregation That I may consume them in a moment so for the third time
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Moses and Aaron following their faces and intercede for the nation This time the
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Lord has already begun to strike the people with the plague The consequences of rebellion against the
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Lord is death What's the cure The cause of rebellion is pride.
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The consequence is death What's the cure? Well Moses tells
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Aaron in verse 46 take your censure Get fire from the altar. It's the holy fire and take the fire and the incense go out into the middle of this assembly that was against them, but go out into the middle of it and He says make
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Atonement there's the key word make atonement for them the offering from God's selected priest
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That will atone for some of them atonement is the cure
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The problem is that wrath of God has the wrath has gone out from the Lord God's wrath must be appeased if God's wrath is not appeased
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Then everyone dies because everyone had sinned to appease God's anger.
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It's called atonement Making at one again so that the
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Lord is no longer angry with us for our sins here the priest offering a fragrant offering pleasing to the
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Lord is a picture of atonement So Aaron runs into the middle of this people remember assembled against him and Moses He runs out into the middle of it with this outbreak of plague that's sweeping through them he stands between the dead and the living the plague stops where the atonement begins
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The cure is atonement The atonement must come from the right priest
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This rebellion began because the people arrogantly thought that they were good enough on their own to offer their own
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Sacrifices make their own atonement. They didn't really need a priest between them and God. They didn't need an intermediary
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To represent them to the Lord that they could bring something. They had something in their hands they could bring
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The cause was their pride. The consequences was that fourteen thousand seven hundred of them lay dead before the cure the atonement
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Stopped the death people today Also think they don't need an atonement
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Their sins aren't so bad That the anger of the Lord has it broken out.
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No, he's not angry There's no such, you know sinners in the hands of an angry. That's God.
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That's so barbaric. That's so that's not the true God the anger the Lord has it broken out and even okay, even if we've upset
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God a little by our choices He's indulgent. We can appease him well enough
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Ourselves with our morality with our you know, make a resolution with our religion. We can do it ourself
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But they're wrong First oddly enough to many people's ears many people surprised the gospel the good news
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Begins with the bad news that the wrath of God is now currently being revealed
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It's being manifest like here against the rebels of Corinth's rebellion and it's being manifest against all
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Ungodliness, so you need atonement But you better know where the atonement comes from You can't provide it yourself
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Number 17 shows that to hopefully prove once and for all hopefully
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Whom God has selected? Who is the priest the intermediary between us and God the right one?
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To finally settle that question the Lord lays down another test. This is the third test of this passage
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This time the leader of each tribe is to give their staff to Moses to put in the Holy of Holies overnight
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Just leave it there and that's where the Lord says in verse 4 that that's where he meets with Moses the staff of the one that the
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Lord chooses as Priest, he says it will sprout Okay, that would be odd enough when it these walking sticks of dead wood dead for years that it suddenly sprouted
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But thus by this By God doing that he will make the complaints about Aaron going too far.
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He will make those stop So Moses does it and the next day he finds
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Aaron staff It sprouted I was it sprouted, you know, it's a long dead piece of wood
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Suddenly sprouted and not only to do that. It bloomed, you know bore flowers and bore
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Almonds not just almonds but ripe almonds ready to eat life
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Comes from God's authority The authority they had been rebelling against, you know, the staff was their sign of other authority life comes from the authority
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That comes from God The others get back their staffs But errands with the sprout and the blossoms and the almonds was to be put back in the
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Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant there called the testimony here in verse 10 is there to be a sign for the rebels a
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Sign that God selects the one who stands between him and Sinners who
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God selects the one who can make atonement It's a sign that he says the rebels better heed better pay attention to the sign
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Lest they die The people the rebels They still don't get it
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All that rebels can see when they finally see that the consequences of their rebellion is death
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All they can see is the wrath of God. All they can hear are the threats of judgment All they can smell is the fragrance of death
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So they cry out in verses 12 and 13 we perish we are undone
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We are all undone everyone who comes near who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord shall die
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We are are we all to perish? No There is a cure
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You perish if your rebels Unatoned for with no high priest to appease the wrath of God but the sign here is that God has provided a high priest to Stand between us and death to atone for us to take away his just anger
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God has shown us also Whom he has selected The high priest forever from the order of Melchizedek proven with a sign
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That not just his staff a piece of dead wood came to life But that he came to life after being crucified on a piece of wood by that He stands now between death and life atoning for his people for us
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Former rebels the plague of spiritual death stops where his atonement begins
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He now separates life from death and now his rule symbolized by his staff his scepter his rule the same rule that we used to be rebels against that we complained against even if just Silently that we claim to have noble positions
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Against there were really just a disguise for our insistence that we would rule that we would carry the staff
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But his rule his scepter Now brings life it blossoms into a revolution of life
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Which will one day bring us back to a promised land flowing with all his blessings
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Now we live right now in a time of rebellion and Revolution The rebellion against God is still going on still raging even while Christ rules
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Even right now putting all his enemies under his feet He's leading the revolution against the rebellion
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So, are you a rebel or a revolutionary?