Numbers 20, "Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Losses"

Numbers chapter 20 be reading the entire chapter from verse 1 to the end hear the word of the Lord and the people of Israel the whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zen in the first month and the people stayed at in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there now there was no water for the congregation and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and People quarreled with Moses and said would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the

Lord Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here both?

We and our cattle and why have you made us come up out of the Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates and there is no water to drink then

Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent meeting and fell on their faces and the

Glory of the Lord appeared to them and the Lord spoke to Moses saying Take the staff and assemble the congregation you and Aaron and your brother and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water

So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give water to the congregation and their cattle

Give drink to the congregation their cattle Excuse me verse 9 and Moses took the staff from before the

Lord as he commanded him Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them here now you rebels shall we bring water for you out of this rock and Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their livestock and The Lord said to Moses and Aaron because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people

Of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them

These are the waters of Meribah where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord and through them he showed himself holy

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom Thus says your brother Israel You know all the hardship that we have met how our fathers went down to Egypt and we lived in Egypt a long time and the

Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers and when we cried to the Lord He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt and here we are in Kadesh a city on the edge

Of your territory, please. Let us pass through your land We will not pass through field or vineyard or drink water from a well.

We will go along the Kings Highway We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory but Edom said to him you shall not pass through lest I come out with a sword against you and The people of Israel said to him we will go up by the highway and if we drink of your water

I and my livestock then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through one foot nothing more and He said you shall not pass through and Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory. So Israel turned away from him and They journeyed from Kadesh and the people of Israel the whole congregation came to Mount Hor and the

Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor on the border of the land of Edom Let Aaron be gathered to his people

For he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah Take Aaron and Eliezer his son and bring them up to Mount Hor and strip

Aaron of his garments and put them on Eliezer his son and Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there

Moses did as the Lord commanded and they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation and Moses stripped

Aaron of his garments and put them on an Eliezer his son and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain then

Moses and Eliezer came down from the mountain and when all the congregation saw there and had perished all the house of Israel wept for Aaron 30 days

May the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word Well, how do you respond to losses?

If you lose something Suffer a setback maybe an injury a failure

Just give up and say forget about it. Drop it too hard Of course the easy answer they got a motivational speech kind of answer, you know, the coaches pep talk

Answers to say it's gut check time. Now. You got a dig deep try harder never quit

What have what Taekwondo quite Taekwondo calls an indomitable spirit?

Being capable of being driven to surrender Never give up Despite being down maybe down by 25 points in the

Super Bowl Far in last place in a half -mile race. Your business is still struggling after years of trying to make it

Church is still small After all after almost ten years, but you keep trying and sometimes that's true

As some of you know for my freshman year of running cross -country I was injured but and so couldn't run but I wanted to be a college athlete

So I worked out a lot. Otherwise with the lifting weights and swimming So I'd be in shape so I could run again

And so I could be, you know still in shape by the time track season comes along. So I So I would be decent at least so no injury.

I was resolved. No injury was gonna stop me That was my freshman year at the end of my senior year

I was injured again But it was as if to tell me that that chapter in my life is over.

It's time to move on So I moved on to seminary sometimes losses are a way a painful way of Telling us that something that that we've lost that it's over.

Maybe when it's maybe it's time to grow up and think less of winning games or races and more of Getting an education a career.

Maybe a family sometimes losses are the end of Something now we don't like to hear that.

We like the motivational speech idea. You know, we're always going to win It's always going to be successful We want to be associated with winning with success, you know football season has now started.

Oh so good Again, and now in college football Alabama is number one again

Still winning still successful and and there are of course, I've noticed over the past several years

There seems like there's just more and more Alabama fans Around Mary even found and I think it was in Singapore an

Alabama shirt I mean there in East Asia, there's a Alabama crimson tide shirt for sale

And they're everywhere now Mary yeah, she found that there of course

Well, most of these new fans are fairweather fans when

Alabama starts to lose They'll probably disappear that's because they like Alabama now because Alabama has been successful and they want to be on the winning side people want to be on the side of Success of winners and the same is often true with churches, too

You know if if such -and -such a church has grown so large to have so many hundreds or even thousands

It's a success and you want to be associated with success. You want to have a church that's looked up to as Successful it has its campus is so big

It has maybe even several satellite campuses where you can join the service by watching this successful pastor by video

You might be you might be anonymous to everyone there so large you get lost in the crowd

No one knows who you are, but you know, you comfort yourself with a thought That you're among success.

This is it. You're you're in a successful church and that then that means by extension You're successful That way you can go home satisfied

And despite all the other losses in your life You're a success. Of course, we can play that game too.

It's easy to be smug ourselves. Okay, we're small We're not like that wouldn't are we but we can redefine true success as a smallness

That must be what it means to really be spiritually successful You're small as as if being willing to sit on a thinly padded chairs in a gym

With just a few dozen others and sing psalms Sometimes are messed up because the flies got wrong and to listen to long sermons

That's the sign of true success if you could do that. Aha. You're you're a winner

We might praise ourself then We're we're the chosen few We're the successful ones and so because of that You'd be kind of nonchalant

About including new people. Maybe we don't want to really grow, you know You don't care about growing because that could endanger we grew that would endanger our status of a successful small church

We can satisfy ourselves with the same Comforting ideas That the other people have is a way of avoiding dealing with losses

But maybe Maybe God doesn't want us to avoid dealing with losses

Maybe the losses are God speaking to us Sure, maybe sometimes it's to try again

Maybe to start over maybe to end something close a chapter in your life and go into something else

Maybe sometimes it's to give up on something or maybe it's just to persevere

With losses Maybe on the way to the promised land The Lord wants us to taste some losses so that in the end

We won't be losers Well here in numbers 20 we see losses we see what happens when you lose a supporter

When you lose your temper When you lose the easy way and when you lose a brother

How are you going to respond when you lose? Well first in just one verse we see

Moses Loses support see the loss of a supporter of Miriam. They've been wondering now for years

We're told in numbers chapter 33 verse 38 that Aaron died It was just at the very end of the chapter.

He died in the fifth month of the 40th year on the other words

Remember they were sent us to wander for 40 years at Aaron died at the very end of all their wandering

So this end of this chapter is at the end of their wandering here We're told that they come into the wilderness of Zen which is further north and Sinai coming just just south of the promised land

They come into that wilderness it says in the first month and I think we can assume then that that that's the first month also of the 40th year

So that is for 40 years now They passed have passed from where we began this series just about a month ago in numbers 15 40 years they've been pulling up stakes folding your tent and you know their tents following the cloud

Into the desert setting up tents again every day picking up manna waiting

Funeral after funeral for an entire generation to drop in the desert in the 40th year

They're now back where they started in a little place called Kadesh. This is the same place

Well where they were where they were camping when they remember when they sent out the spies into the promised land

When they were should have just gone straight in after coming out of Egypt, this is where 40 years earlier

Spies came back. They decided we can't take the land the Lord's setting us up for a failure. We're not going to do it

This is the same place from where they had to turn back Into the desert after all this don't you know,

Lord said all the adults over 20 are gonna die So now they're back there in that same place, but if we expect then well, this is gonna be a new beginning

This is a second chance Well instead of that we get another loss And this time

Miriam herself after Moses You know sure you had some problems with your sister

Miriam over that Ethiopian wife But she saved your life The Miriam did she saved your life when you're a baby drifting down the

Nile in a basket She arranged for you to be raised by your own mother. She led Israel and that great celebration

Remember, they just come through this Red Sea and God destroys the Egyptian army with it when it collapses on top of them

She's the one who led Israel in this great celebration of that victory of that salvation

The Bible calls her a prophetess And so as a prophetess inspired by the

Holy Spirit She supported her brother a prophet now it it was almost certainly much easier for Moses to put up with all the

Frustrations of Israel that they gave him with our whining and their sins and all their the problems

So it's only much easier for him to put up with that. I would assume With his sister the prophetess

Supporting him. She's been a supporter Now she passes away like the rest of her generation.

It doesn't say how Moses responded to that But it was a loss People probably told him at the funeral, you know,

I'm sorry for your loss How would you respond to that kind of loss Well, he's lost a sister

And next and maybe a connection he loses his temper We were told before with the rebellion rebellion of Korah if you remember it said clearly that he was angry with the people

But even then he didn't lose his temper. I Being angry and losing your temper two different things

He was angry But he was in control with that when that rebellion happened here after 40 years the people of Israel are they're still complaining

It sounds as though they've learned nothing during all that time at the beginning of their wandering

They just came out of Egypt in Exodus chapter 17. They complained about there being no water. They're back here in Kadesh When they're first there and Moses was told there to strike the rock with his staff and then water came out here 40 years later the same complaints the same unbelief the same kind of pathetic whining.

I wish we had died This is so horrible The same blaming of Moses himself in verse 4 they asked him

Why have you brought us into the assembly? Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord as our us this congregation into the wilderness that we should die here

You're bringing us to die Okay, they're still thinking they're being set up to be killed both

We and our cattle and no one and no one like that. Now. Can you imagine if you're Moses? Living with people like this for 40 years 40 years.

They've seen the Lord lead them by a pillar of cloud provide manna every morning and yet They get a little thirsty and instead of believing that the

Lord will provide is he always has They immediately resort to blaming and unbelief again.

I think the frustration would drive almost anyone Just over the edge So Moses and Aaron go to the

Lord To intercede for the people as they have many times before Falling on their faces praying interceding the end of verse 6 says the glory of the

Lord appeared to them Then I don't know exactly what that means how it what it looked like but God manifest himself to them

God had not left them. He speaks to them telling them in verse 8 take the staff Interesting, isn't it take the staff and assemble the congregation you and Aaron your brother and tell the rock before their eyes

Make sure they all hear you to yield its water Now this sounds a lot like they they did what they did 40 years earlier next to the 17 when they were first out of Egypt except for one crucial difference

Do you notice it? The Lord specifically tells Moses and Aaron to tell the rock speak to the rock

Now, of course normally talking to a rock won't produce anything Our words will have no effect on a rock

The only way water will come from a rock at one's word if it is if it is the Word of God God is the one who spoke into the darkness.

Let there be light and there is light God is the one whose word produces what he says

Before in Exodus 17 God had Moses strike the rock But they'll hear the Lord wants Moses to particularly show that God is providing the water.

So only Speak to the rock That's all you have to do Yeah Oddly enough

God has Moses take his staff Why? He's not supposed to use his staff

So why bring it? Why not in fact, you know, why not even warn

Moses? Hey Moses, just so you won't be tempted to use that staff. Make sure you leave it at home

Whatever you do leave that staff in your staff closet Not only did the

Lord specifically tell him to take the staff verse 9 emphasizes notice that Emphasizes the fact that Moses took the staff just as the

Lord commanded him Now, why did the Lord command him to take a staff that the Lord knew?

Would cause Moses so much trouble It doesn't say why so we only speculate but it's as though Moses It's as though he hadn't prayed

Not to be led into temptation So the Lord allowed him to be tempted Not that the

Lord made Moses or Aaron do something that they wouldn't do by themselves. They acted freely

They acted according to their own nature if he has a staff in his hand Moses left to himself will verbally attack the people and hit the rock

Even after the Lord specifically tells him just to speak to the rock. That's what Moses one of the best men to ever live

That's what Moses will do with his free will a lot of people want free will

This is what free will will get you right here the Lord could have intervened to keep him from sinning to protect him from himself and That's what we're told to pray for ourselves and the

Lord's Prayer, you know lead us not into temptation In other words, don't let me fall into situations where I'll be left up to myself and all my weaknesses and all my sins

Don't leave me to that because I'll fall into it. I know I will but here the Lord didn't

Protect him from himself. He showed him the Lord showed Moses and us what we're like Without his grace

Well, the result was loss It's a total loss for Moses and Aaron He gathered the people before the rock all gathered together like he said and then he did what came naturally to him

He harangued the people he vented his pent -up frustrations that he's had for about 40 years now

His grudges here now you rebels we bring water Shall we bring water?

For you out of this rock The Lord didn't tell him to rebuke the people that was never there any instructions.

That's just Moses being himself Finally, I know more the meekest man on the earth, you know when

Miriam criticized him He was called the meekest man on the earth. Now. He wants he wants to let him have it

I've been storing this up for years now. They need to hear this He let him have it he and Aaron and the

Lord like the three musketeers the first of me, you know, they're should say Who is this weed bit about you notice that too?

Here now you rebels shall we bring water for this rock for you? Who is it?

Who's the weed? You know Moses and Aaron and the Lord all together

Well, I think they quieted my microphone you the like the three musketeers the three amigos all for one and one for all

You know like they're all equal partners, that's the way Moses talked in it Shall we bring the water the way the

Lord told him to do it? There would be no doubt that it was an act of God. He could simply say let there be water and The rock would start to gush out and everyone would know that only the

Word of God could create such a flow Only God can make your word into a waterfall

But the way Moses and all his wisdom and greatness Decided was better to do it

Made him look like an equal partner with the Lord that it takes it takes

Moses special touch The technique with which he wields his staff it even takes

It even takes two whacks of the staff to get the water to flow. Do you notice that got hit?

He hits it twice If it was from God, why would it take two strikes? You know as though God couldn't do it on the first first first strike

Moses hit it twice Because he didn't quite believe it was all from God.

He believed it depended on him for something these people needed to hear from him for something to break through to him a loss of temper is a victory for ego

These people Moses things are maybe this rock this child this car

This printer this husband this wife It should be doing what

I want them to do now So I will make them do it with my

Indomitable spirit which I'll make them do it with the power of my words or maybe my volume

Well, I'll make them do what I determined they should do we're sometimes tempted to do this with spiritual things

Maybe a child Someone is unbelieving Maybe they're continuing in sin and rejecting the

Lord and we're called to speak the word to them faith comes by hearing Hearing particularly the

Word of Christ the good news about Jesus, but maybe we're impatient with that Maybe we don't believe that that alone will work.

We don't see it working right now We don't see the water flowing yet So we're tempted to hit

Maybe not physically but with a stick but verbally hear this you rebel you are

Whatever whatever it takes to break through their rock hard Heart with the blows of our words.

We'll get the water flowing. We'll do it With the repeated strikes of our words

I'm tempted with that a lot Amazingly though the water does flow That's the miracle here, isn't it?

Moses didn't do what he said and yet God still gives the water Lord provides the water despite the loss of Moses temper.

We might think you know We might think the Lord should refuse to do the miracle because the because Moses did his part all wrong

Right, you got to follow the instructions to get the result you want right? That's the way we think isn't it? he spoiled what was supposed to be a visual display of God's mercy by his anger to rebuke by his striking it by Thinking it comes from his work by rebelling himself while calling the people rebels

But the Lord did display his grace by providing the water anyway you notice

They didn't have to do everything right to be provided for to be sustained God was going to give them what they needed even though the people were complaining rebels and Moses lost his temper

They got the water by grace that's why grace is amazing a

Grace that saves wretches like us. It's grace It's grace that despite their losses

That will get them to the promised land Through many dangers toils and snares

I have already come Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home

But that doesn't mean the sin will have no cost Here the water gushes out the people drink their animals are satisfied, but for Moses and Aaron Something's wrong

The Lord says to them You did not believe in me To uphold me as holy their roots sin

It's in all roots and all sin is unbelief. Whatever is not a faith is sin Paul says in Romans chapter 14 verse 23

Moses struck the rock twice because he didn't believe that the Lord would do what he said God needed some help from him in the form of the right technique a form of a second whack or the form of some force

It's like some Christians today Believe that God's kingdom will only grow through their right strategies

It takes an altar call, you know with the organ playing softly as we all bow our heads and close our eyes

Some counselors coming forward as we give the invitation Of course, that's the prime the pump make it easier for the sinners to come forward and say the right prayer

You got to have all that set up our manipulation for People to for people to believe or the gospel to succeed, you know doesn't work right?

It's what people think It takes our manipulation Like the missionary who excused the high -pressure tactics to get money out of people whipping the people to get more and more to making a show out of givings because other people then would want to also show off their giving and And you got to do that.

She said because if you don't The church won't get built without it Or maybe like some people's idea of you know

Old -fashioned preaching to harangue the people with angry shouts of repent turn or burn while prancing back and forth

I'm never good at that because I can't think and walk at the same time heavily inhaling Between every sentence of pronouncing

God with an extra syllable at the end Sure, it's it's right to talk about repentance and hell even when the

Bible does but it's not your volume In or your willingness to be offensive

That will make the water flow or the extra syllable after God It's not that that makes the water flow only the

Word of God That's easy to make fun of that old generation when I now we have a newer generation of manipulation

Don't you know now many think you need those special lights and the worship leader with an electric guitar who takes us from a crescendo of loud rock music with pretty shallow empty lyrics to Down to a soft musical lead -in to a video or maybe a skit and a short talk from a sensitive guy

Who just wants to give you some practical advice? Never works for me. I just don't come across as a sensitive guy.

The problem isn't really with any of those things By themselves probably any of them can be used in the right context except don't say

God that just sounds weird But any of them can be used in the proper in some this is some degree.

The problem is that people trust them They trust the technique

Their particular way of striking the rock to get the water to flow Instead of trusting the

Word of God Here God says Moses you did not believe in me Moses didn't have faith in God Lacking faith.

He doesn't uphold the Lord as holy Holy holy means distinct separate higher greater

He doesn't hold the Lord is holy before the people He doesn't hold him as someone is different from the gods of this world, you know

The gods of Egypt they've required the proper technique of the magicians the incantation the rituals

To do their tricks. That's how you got tricks out of them. You said the right words in the right order or did whatever today maybe the gods of psychology or emotional manipulation of entertainment the lights and the fog machine and the

Music to get people to believe you got to get it in right order to get the result you want, right?

No Whole God is holy his Martin Luther said, you know someone asked him how he started the

Reformation He said I Did nothing the Word did everything

Moses for all his faith and meekness and greatness before Lost faith here and so suffered great loss

He and his brother Aaron will not be allowed to enter the promised land Moses wouldn't be wouldn't show

God as holy and someone higher and is greater than himself Than all the other gods at the waters of Meribah the waters of quarreling the word

Meribah means quarreling they quarrel with God They wish they were dead. They were claiming that the Lord had brought them

Hatton brought them into a good land even though the good land is promised to them and is in God's sight as Good as there is already but they wouldn't believe and even

Moses and Aaron at the end wouldn't believe and So by their actions that they quarrel with God instead of striking instead of speaking they struck

But still in verse 13 God shows himself to be holy. You notice that verse 13 God did show himself to be holy despite what

Moses did unlike the other gods You know, there's then or our gods of technique now

You know our gods won't give give the water Unless you follow the right technique, you don't follow the right technique, you don't have the right

Conditions the right electrical jar and then light lights you don't get the right result

But here the true God Moses didn't follow the right technique, but God still gave them

The result the water God gave it anyway demonstrating that he is indeed different He's gracious when we're legalistic and Then he barred

Moses and Aaron from entering the promised land Showing that he is just and holy When we're indulgent and weak

Well, they got the water but they suffered loss and yet still God is seen as holy

Well next they suffered the loss of the easy way Aaron Hernandez had the easy way

He was a star receiver for the University of Florida and when they won the national championship and then got a 40 million dollar contract

To play for the New England Patriots all he had to do as a young man in his early 20s was play football for a few seasons and he would have enough money to live in Outrageous luxury for the rest of his life.

Just play football. That's all you have to do. How could he lose? Well, he lost

Because he chose to play the gangster to be the thug. He murdered someone who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison

Instead of the easy life that he could have had in his 1 .3 million dollar four -story mansion

Last April he hung himself in his jail cell People often maybe not to the degree that Aaron Hernandez often have an easy way in life

You just you follow the Lord's principles you you work you study You don't have sex out of marriage be faithful in marriage be a person of your word a person of integrity

But then they get drawn away They're gonna party So they fail out of school then they have a much harder time finding a decent job

They have a child out of wedlock and so are burdened with having to care for a child without a spouse or having to pay child

Support the Lord's ways may seem hard sometimes But they are certainly easier than the alternative

Here Israel has already squandered the the easy way of going straight into the promised land which would be just go straight north

Forty years earlier they they lost that Coming right out of the south now.

The Lord is leading them around the east but Edom is in the way now

Edom Should be hospitable Since their descendants of Esau Which was

Jacob's brother Jacob was Israel So they're sort of related nations

Moses sends them a message calling themselves Call him Israel themselves Edom's brother.

We're your brother Edom and Moses is expecting he's hoping for an ally

For them to be for a friend in Edom a friendly neighbor And he tells them of all the hardships they've had the

Egyptians dealt harshly with them They cried to the Lord and he brought them out of Egypt But now they've suffered to have you know, they've been wandering for 40 years

And they don't want to have to go any further. And so he asked their permission to pass through Edom They're on the edge of Edom's territory

The easy way would be to take what's called the King's Highway road right through the middle of Edom right where they want to go

If they can't if they can't do that They'd have to go far south away from the promised land then loop around the east in the desert

I'd be much further They promised they won't trample on their vineyards.

They won't even drink their well water They'll stay strictly on their highway and the Edomites respond in verse 18

With rudely no Even threatening them if they try Moses politely appeals again in verse 19

We will go up by the highway and if we drink any of your water I am I livestock that I will pay you for it.

Let me only pass through one foot nothing more They respond bluntly You shall not pass through and then they came out with her army to ward them off to Israel has lost a brother and Gained an enemy and this sets the relations between Edom and Israel for the rest of their history

They would be hostile to Israel even joining later much centuries later with the

Babylonians to destroy Israel they never got Edom never got over their hatred of Israel and Malachi tells us why the very end of the

Old Testament the Lord had determined Jacob I loved Jacob Israel, I love but Esau Edom I hated

Paul quotes that in Romans chapter 9 and So Edom Esau is a picture of those who are not the people of God Who don't have

God's mercy even if they're brothers of those who do God has not had mercy on them

And so they hate the people that God has had mercy on Here their hostility means that Israel that has suffered so much loss

Will lose the easy way that they could have had and we'll have to go all the way around Sometimes we lose the easy way because of our sins like Aaron Hernandez sometimes our inattention our laziness but sometimes we lose the easy way simply because God has had mercy on us and those he hasn't had mercy on us

They hate us for that Sometimes just being one of God's people will cost you an easy life at least some ease in this life

We saw in John chapter 15. Remember just a couple of months ago. Jesus warned us that The world that hated him

It's gonna hate us to Gave him a hard time. It's gonna give us a hard time And the very next chapter

John 16. He told us that in this world you will have Tribulation so don't be surprised and you have it precisely because you do belong to him because God has had mercy on you

James tells us that friendship with the world is is enmity that is making an enemy of God and the reverse is true too being a friend of God Choosing to believe him follow him go his ways will mean that the world

Will make you its enemy. I remember commenting to someone here in this building

Standing right up in that room there and at that time you could see down on here.

The floor was there's no platform here then With this place was a mess And it needed an enormous amount of work

Commenting someone up there and I believe it was George or Joe was down here working That here's

George and Joe And others sure doing so much work now they deserve to be enjoying their retirement

Relaxing sitting at home, whatever they like to do Instead they're here Working many hours try to try to turn this decrepit old gym.

It had been a furniture factory It was full of sawdust and shredded insulation Marked up floors working hard to turn this into a decent place to meet

They took the hard way Because of their commitment to the Lord You will lose

Some ease that you could have had in this world simply because you decided to follow the

Lord Here Israel, I suppose they could have asked the Lord to give them Edom Let them conquer it and so they can take the easy way by force

But instead as Roman chapter 12 verse 18 says they decided as far as it depends on them to live at peace with all

They lost the easy way and after so much marching they had to march much further all the way south of Edom and back around toward the east and then north again again as They're on their way

They suffer one more loss and Moses in particular suffers a big loss

He began this chapter by losing his sister and he ends this chapter by losing his brother

They come to a mountain called Mount Hoar and the Lord tells them let Aaron be gathered to his people

Clearly showing even in the Old Testament that the dead don't cease to exist. They're still alive The Lord says for he shall not enter the land that I have given notice that I have given is done

The people of Israel he shall not enter it. Not not because he didn't believe the Lord could could give it to them like the rest of the that generation but because Because Lord says because you you too who called the other people rebels you rebelled against my command

Literally in Hebrew it says little against my my mouth You disbelieve the words

God said God says you disbelieve the words of my mouth. I said speak you struck You wouldn't believe my word was powerful enough

They had fallen into the pitfall of rebellion because of their unbelief So they're to take

Eliezer Aaron's son and when they get to the top of the mountain take Aaron's priestly garments from him put them on Eliezer he now

Is the chief priest then Aaron shall die God buries his workers, but continues his work

Three of them go up the mountain Two of them come down Imagine if you're an

Israelite You know all your life Aaron has been your chief priest.

He's been the one for over 40 years now Who mediates between you and God if you want to go to God you have to go through Aaron and yeah now he's gone

Well, they weep for him for a month Imagine if you're Moses You know

Aaron was the one God gave you at the burning bush when you were sure that you could not do this on your own

Okay, then Aaron will be your Your aid your brother now, you've lost him and you lost him because of your own sin

What are you to do with so much loss? You just keep going

Come on, Moses gut check time dig deep says the coach at halftime Hang in there

Maybe the people said well, they gave him a cute poster of a kitten hanging by his kitten. That's claws Have an indomitable spirit

Moses. Come on. This is another Success is just around the corner it all sounds so shallow and Meaningless even insulting

What are you to do when you have loss What do you do when the loss is so great?

You've been weeping for 30 days and the only reason you don't anymore. It's not because You have an indomitable spirit

But because you just can't anymore. You're just too exhausted Even the weeping has beaten you

You don't need to try harder or hang in there The time for that is over Now it's time

For you to believe God The time for your unconquerable will is done

When Jesus struggled with What Jesus struggled with in the Garden of Gethsemane? Was whether he would let the father's will dominate his own

Whether he would finish what he began in becoming a man and He would be willing to be treated

He would he would give me he would be willing to lose being treated as Equal with God the father

Would he be willing to lose that? would would he drink the cup of loss and Every step of the way

He followed the father's will Until finally he had to say father

Into your hand I commit my spirit He suffered the loss of everything

So that now even when we lose We'll know that we have been given everything

But we've been given everything By grace By what

Christ did for us and in earning us everything not

By our hanging in there by our just keep trying by our

Indomitable spirit No Not by us at all by grace it was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace

My fears relieved How precious did that grace appear?