The Cost of Moses Disobedience — David Ravenhill

Well it's a joy to be back in Palestine. It's nice not to have to fly. Just been able to drive a little over about an hour and 30 minutes or 20 minutes or something like that and a delight to be with Joyce and Andy.

I just hope when Andy does his message on the hymns that he doesn't start with the Messiah because it will be a long a long session if he takes that one first and works his way through it. You know many of the old hymns had eight and ten stanzas and over the years we've reduced them down and even in my generation maybe five or six stanzas but you go back to some of Wesley's old hymns they went on and on and on I mean eight ten twelve was not unusual and they would sing an entire message literally and they finally sort of whittled them down to four or five stanzas in most hymn books.

So if you get a hold of an old Methodist hymn book or whatever you'll you know you'll have the whole the original message before it was edited. Anyway let's look to the Lord in prayer shall we? Father once again we thank you Lord for the blood.

Thank you Lord that we stand by grace and by grace alone. Thank you Lord for all that you've done for us. We remember Lord the pit from whence we've been dug. Lord you lifted me also the psalmist said out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay set our feet on a solid rock and put a new song in our heart even praise unto our God and we give you thanks we give you praise for all that you've done Lord.

Nothing that we've merited nothing that we've earned nothing that we've accomplished by ourselves Lord just purely by your grace and we thank you again for it. Bless this time Lord open up our eyes, our ears, our understanding.

Moses, Joshua, and the Transition of Leadership

Open up the word Lord I pray tonight in Jesus name. Amen. Turn with me if you will to the book of Joshua and I want to do a little Bible study with you on first of all Moses and then into the life of Joshua.

Let me begin reading in Joshua chapter 1. First one now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord that Lord spoke to Joshua the son of none Moses servant saying Moses my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise crosses Jordan you and all the people to the land which I am going to give them and to the sons of Israel every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you just as I spoke to Moses.

He goes on in verse 5 no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I've been with Moses I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

And I think most of us are familiar with this portion of scripture it is a transition time in the nation of Israel one long chapter has ended that long chapter comprises 40 years under the leadership of Moses and now comes the the word of Lord to Joshua Moses my servant is dead.

I want you now to assume the responsibility and I want you to take the children of Israel into the land. I want to back up and I want to look at the death of Moses for a little while because we can read it Moses my servant is dead and you can calculate those of you who know something about Moses life the first 40 years of his life he was raised the son of Pharaoh's daughter he was the king's kid he lived in the White House of his day the palace of his day you know he had all the privileges and everything that royalty could afford him and yet it didn't satisfy him.

The Bible says that he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than all the pleasures and treasures of Egypt and so he came to that decision that all the material things that the world has to offer not what I'm looking for there was an emptiness as HG Wells says there is God shaped blank in the life of every man that only God can can fill.

And so the first 40 years again he lived a life of luxury and in many ways his own people obviously were in servitude and bondage. The next 40 years he spends on the backside of the desert and he is looking after his father-in-law sheep he'd never attained to his own flock.

That's always amazed me that a man of his caliber you know you'd think by the end of 40 years he would have had his own flock and would have been independent after all if it had been Jacob he would have conned his father-in-law out of the you know the best of all the flock and so on and so forth built up herds twice as big you know and there's a little bit of Jacob and all of us I guess.

But Moses was content to just look after his father and his Lord's flock. He'd lost that sort of drive that zeal and that get up and go that he used to have and I think he was slacking more than one way but God was working in his life.

And so that brings us to 80 years of age. And then we know that the children of Israel wandered for the next 40 years in the wilderness after God raised up Moses to be the the deliverer. So you add those 340 years and when I was in school before they had the new math that made 120 years and know what 3 times 40 makes today in new math.

But I assume it's the same just a different way of going about it. And so you assume that listen 120 years of age that's pretty good going. No wonder he died after all you know I don't expect to reach that age myself.

If I make it to 80 or 90 I'll be happy. And you know nobody thinks in terms of reaching 120 years of age and so we assume that Moses died of natural causes. But that is not the not the case. Moses died for something other than that and I want you to at least I'll turn to the Scriptures.

You don't necessarily have to let me give you the reference. So 1 Corinthians chapter 10 it tells us here concerning the journey of the children of Israel. Verse 11 now these happen these things happen to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the age of come.

In other words everything that we read in the Old Testament and especially the whole wandering of the children of Israel and so on it was all written for our instruction and then notice upon whom the end of the earth has come.

In other words it's especially relevant to our particular generation. All scripture of course is inspired by God and profitable. And so as we study the life of Moses we don't want to just sort of study it as they you know from a historical point of view and just trying to get facts and so on so forth.

I trust that you know it will serve as a as a warning. Certainly has in my own life and in view of some current events I think it's especially relevant that here is a great man of God and possibly one of the greatest men of God that we have in the Word of God.

I don't think there's any question about that but he died a premature death when he died the Bible says and let's turn to it I'm gonna have you at least know where the scriptures are Deuteronomy chapter 34 and verse 7 although Moses was 120 years old when he died his eye was not dim and his vigor abated.

In other words he had not had LASIK surgery on his eyes. He was not wearing contact lenses or glasses. He was not drinking v8 juice every day in order to you know get some sort of strength or mixing some sort of concoction to you know get some energy.

He wasn't into energy drinks and so on. Nor was he you know driving around in his electric wheelchair. He was 120 years of age and his vigor was not abated. His eye was not dim. He still had good 20 -20 vision.

He still had plenty of get up and go. That's quite a remarkable statement concerning a 120 year old man when you consider again 40 years in the palace where he possibly you know ate every cholesterol-clogging food that he could being a king's kid the next 40 years he was out in the harsh temperatures of the wilderness the backside of the desert under the blazing heat of the Sun every day and so on so forth you think that would have wrinkled him up like an old prune and so on.

And then the last 40 years of the worst 40 years he had to contend with somewhere around a million people that seem to have one agenda and that was to complain. And you know everybody that you know aspires to having a big church.

I say the bigger the church the more problems you know. Well Moses had the you know young he chose size church of his own before mega churches were popular and he had the problems to go with it. So if you're aspiring to a mega church you know you're gonna have mega problems.

So just be warned. And you would thought those things alone would have caused this man to have you know dropped dead long ago. But here is again an old man and yet full of vigor vitality again his eye is not dim.

But what we need to do now we need to begin to look into the the life of Moses. And I want you to turn with me first of all to Exodus chapter 17. Children of Israel of course have just come out of the wilderness on this particular occasion and as they have begun their journey there is a lack of water and the Lord speaks to Moses here in chapter 3 and he says behold I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And of course we know from other scriptures that out of that rock there came a river that the psalmist says was like the ocean depths. That's amazing isn't it.

Some of you may have read my book. I'm not trying to sell books I don't have any here but I have a book they drank from the river and died in the wilderness. And we need to understand something about that river in the wilderness it was literally according to the Word of God like the ocean depths.

After all you had a million people. They were agricultural people. They did not go to offices during the day to work. They were not involved in some sort of industry producing something. They were farmers and they had crops.

They had herds. In fact Moses finally you know said to Pharaoh listen you've got to let us go with our young and our old with our herds and our cattle. You know herds and cattle were absolutely essential for their life again.

They didn't go to the supermarket to get their milk and the yogurt and so on and so forth. They had to milk their cows every morning and so on and so forth. But if there was a million people I can imagine there were at least 5 million cattle possibly way more than that possibly something more like 20 million cattle.

And so you have 20 million cattle. Or let's be super conservative and say 5 million cattle plus a million people that you need a water supply to look after that size city if you like a city the size of say Dallas Texas.

What is Dallas. Population wise anybody up on the statistics here anyway I assume Dallas and Fort Worth are somewhere in the three three to four million bracket somewhere there about so you can imagine the water supply that it took to look after Dallas foot just today came out of that rock.

It was like the ocean depths. And of course the rock represented Christ. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 10. The rock that followed them was Christ. And in typology that rock was only struck once.

The striking of the rock again out of your innermost being will flow. The Holy Spirit was not given because Jesus was not yet crucified but the moment he was crucified he was able to release again that river of life the anointing of the Spirit of God and so on.

And what happens of course is that a little later on the children of Israel are complaining once again. And so we go to Numbers. Chapter 20 in verse 6 it says. And Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

When we talk about the glory of God we're not just talking about a bright shimmering you know a halogen headlight type thing that somebody cranks up you know it turns up the rear stats. So it's this brilliant light.

The glory of God was his nature his character. When Moses said show me your glory God did not just put him in the cleft of the rock and sort of partially hide him and God passed by and he was brighter than the noonday sun that may have been there but he revealed who he was the Lord who is you know compassionate and kind and merciful and so on and so forth.

That's the the glory of God is the nature of God. In the New Testament says God Jesus turned water into wine and manifest his glory part of his nature part of his glory again it is his power the authority that he has over anything and everything.

And so here we find that God comes in his glory. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying take the rod you and your that you and your brother Aaron sorry take the rod and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes that it may yield its water and you shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.

So the rock had already been struck once. There was no need to strike it again. In this case he said speak to it again rather like the scripture that says spring up a well that says sometimes there's seemingly that rock.

The water disappeared underground and it would spring up. Verse 11. And Moses lifted up his hands and he struck the rock twice with his rod and water came forth abundantly and the congregation of the beast drank.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron because you have not believed me to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel. Therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

So God says to Moses because of what you've done you will not go in to the promised land. I I can't get over the tragedy of that statement when you consider this man Moses such an incredible man of God.

And yet God says to him because of what you've done you've misrepresented me before the people. You have not treated me as holy in the sight of the people. I told you to do one thing and you did another thing.

You rebelled against my command. Obviously Moses was upset. Notice in verse 10 if we back up and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock and he said to them listen to me you rebels shall we bring forth water for you out of the rock.

In other words you know he is upset. And in that moment of anger instead of following explicitly the command of the Lord to speak to the rock he just takes out his anger. And he beats that rock twice.

And of course again in typology spoiled if you like that whole typology God is the God of types. As you know in the Old Testament we New Testament refers to them as the shadow. Christ is the substance.

But there was a destroying of the the type. The rock was never to be. Jesus was never to be crucified over and over again. He was to be stricken once and once only. And so here is the sentence. Now for that one state of anger because of what you've done let's go to verse 23 or verse 22.

Now they set out from Kadesh the sons of Israel the whole congregation and they came to Mount Hor. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom saying Aaron shall be gathered to his people for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah take Aaron and his son Eliezer and bring them up to the Mount Hor and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son.

Now the stripping of his garments was not simply taking off his clothes. It was stripping him of his priestly office. He was no longer to function in his calling. He was no longer to function in the capacity that God had originally anointed him.

For what a tragedy when a man of God is stripped again of his garments. I know there's varying views on this that you know the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. But the context of that is speaking about Israel not the gifts and the callings of the Spirit of God.

At least that's my understanding. And I think if we interpret it correctly it is speaking of the nation of Israel. I do believe men can lose their anointing. I do believe God can strip somebody. And Aaron it says is gathered to his people and he dies there.

We then go on following the story in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 37. And Moses is now recalling the events of the last 40 years basically. And he says the Lord was angry with me on your account saying not even you shall enter there speaking the promised land.

So he reminds Moses again that you are not going to enter the land over into chapter 3 of Deuteronomy and verse 23 Moses does I think what all of us would do. He tries to get God to change his mind. Verse 23.

I also pleaded with the Lord at that time saying O Lord God that has begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy strong hand. For what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do such great and mighty acts as thine.

Let me I pray thee cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan that good hill country and Lebanon. So here he is trying to get God to change his mind. I pleaded with God. I can see Moses on his face before God crying out God please.

This is the thing I've longed for. This was my original assignment. You told me there at the burning bush I was to lead this nation bring them into the promised land and so on and so forth. And you know for me of all people to be cut short and not go in.

You can imagine the embarrassment the humiliation. And so again he is crying out to God let me I pray cross over and see the fair land. But the Lord was angry with me on your account would not listen to me.

And the Lord said to me enough speak to me no more of this matter. So God there's times when God is a little rough in a righteous way and he says okay forget it. Moses listen when I say no I mean no. You know no amount of pleading no amount of fasting.

A prayer is going to change my mind. I don't care how many people lay hands on you and so on and so forth. You know you will not go in to the promised land. But on the other hand he says you can climb up to the top of Mount Pisgah lift up your eyes verse 27 to the west to the north to the south to the east see it with your eyes.

But you shall not cross over this Jordan. So God says you know I'll give you a a distant view of it. Climb up the mountain you know take out your binoculars if you like and look northward westward eastward and at least you'll get to see it.

But you will not go in and possess it. Then we go into a chapter 4 of Deuteronomy verse 21. Now the Lord was angry angry with me on your account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan that I should not enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance for I shall die in this land.

I shall not cross the Jordan but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. So Moses is aware of the fact that he's going to die. He's aware of the fact that his term of office if you like is about ready to come to an end.

God has made it absolutely clear to him even though he's begged and pleaded and so on and so forth. Then we go into chapter 31 of Deuteronomy and verse 14. And the Lord said to Moses behold the time for you to die is near.

I don't know how God spoke that. You know whether one day he sort of woke him up early in the morning says by the way Moses let me just remind you. You know you're gonna die pretty soon. You know what a friend we have in Jesus.

You know yeah. I don't know how he did it. But listen don't forget Moses. You know just a reminder. You know times just about at the end. You know just let you know Moses the time for you to end is near.

Call Joshua present yourself at the tent of meeting that I may commission him and so on. Then over into chapter 32 and verse 48. And the Lord spoke to Moses the very same day saying go up to this mountain at the Abiram Mount Nebo which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho and look at the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession.

Then die on the mountain where you were sent and be gathered to your people as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his excuse me his people because you broke faith with me in the midst of the sons of Israel the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.

Because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. For you shall see the land of the distance but you shall not go there into the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel. The Jerusalem Bible says because you did not display my holiness among the sons of Israel.

Because you did not display my holiness. Another translation says because you did not manifest my holiness. Moffat's translation says when you fail to honor me among the Israelites. I don't know how many of you are in leadership but this is certainly a solemn warning.

The Bible says to whom much is given much is required. James says be not many teachers. Thus incurring the greater judgment Moses had pleaded with God. Show me a glory. He was one of the few men that had seen God face to face and to whom much is given much is required.

He knew God. The Bible says the children of Israel saw the acts of God. But Moses knew the ways of God. He understood the mind of God he understood the heart of God. He had an intimacy with God that nobody else had at least in that particular generation.

And therefore he was held to a higher degree of accountability. I'm sure most of you by now have heard the tragic news. I don't know all the the fullness of the allegations that Ted Haggard the head of the what they call it in the head of the Evangelical Alliance and the the pastor of the megachurch there New Life Church in Colorado has been accused of homosexuality plus drug usage.

And he has at least admitted supposedly according to the news to some of those charges or stopped step down now from being the pastor at least for a little while. And this is tragic to say the least that a man of that caliber a man that has had such a noticeable recognized ministry phone to the White House able to counsel and talk to the president a man with a very high profile even if the allegations are not completely true.

Tonight they interviewed him just as I was leaving and he said well he said I did buy drugs but I didn't use them. So I don't know why you buy drugs when you don't have any plans on using. I'm not that sort of a shopper.

Normally I buy things that I use. But he may have just been out thought it'd be nice to have some drugs even though I don't use them. You know I can't imagine the head of a megachurch buying drugs and not using them.

But we will see in the days to come. But I think we need to pray certainly that the enemy does not use that to his advantage. The Bible says that when a man falls great is the fall thereof and the ramifications you know are incredible.

In a church of that size I say it takes an average of five to eight years for a congregation to recover. When a pastor falls morally it has such a ripple effect let alone on his family his children. I understand he's got five children and so on.

It's devastating news. But here is a man again one moment of anger and God says listen I've raised you up to represent me and you have failed to represent my true nature my true character. I do not fly off the handle.

My anger is a righteous anger and my anger builds. I am slow to anger. I don't just you know get mad. I don't call people you know a bunch of rebels just because they've been hard on you and so on. So here it's.

Joshua's Qualifications for Leadership

And of course Joshua now is his replacement. And what I want to look at is I want to look at what qualified Joshua to be a leader. And then I want to go back and tie in something that God says to Moses with sorry what something that God says to Joshua with what he says here to to Moses.

So this is again a season of transition now. Joshua chapter 1 Moses my sermon is dead. Joshua it's time for you to arise. I want you now to assume the responsibility of the man who has mentored you the man that you were a servant to all these years.

And I want you to take over now. Nobody is just sort of taken that quickly and thrust into a position of authority. A friend of mine says you have to earn your stripes. And certainly Joshua is a man that earned his stripes.

And I want to look at some of the things that qualified Joshua to be the leader that he was. And the first one is that he was victorious over sin. The very first time we're introduced to Joshua is back in Exodus chapter 17.

Children of Israel again have just come out of the land of Egypt and one of their first battles is with the Amalekites. The Amalekites are referred to in the Bible as the sinners the Amalekites. And let's pick the story up in verse 9.

And Moses said to Joshua choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill and the staff of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against Amalek and Moses and Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill and it came about when Moses held up his hands or his hand that Israel prevailed when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed but Moses hands were heavy and they took a stone and they put it under him and he sat on it and Aaron and Hur supported his hands one on one side one on the other.

Thus his hands were steady until the sun had set. And so Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. One of the very first battles for all of us for that matter when we come out of Egypt is the battle to not only not only do we leave sin behind but we've got to know how to master that sin.

And the Amalekites are referred to as the sinners the Amalekites. In other words different tribes that the children of Israel drove out have got different aspects of significance. But the Amalekites are referred to as the sinners the Amalekites.

And it seems that the Amalekites were one problem that constantly dogged the nation of Israel. And so this picture here we have to take as a whole we have Moses on top of the mountain. We've got Joshua down in the valley fighting leading the the troops.

But we can't separate the two. If we do then there's going to be defeat. And as long as Moses hands were held up we find that Joshua was successful in overwhelming the Amalekites. In other words he was able to prevail over sin.

As soon as Moses hands came down we find that the Amalekites gained the upper hand and they were able to destroy the people of God. Aaron and Her see what is going on. They notice the tendency and they put a rock under Moses.

Because obviously the battle goes on for hours and hours and hours and one stands on one hand on one side and holds up his hand. Aaron stands on the other holds up his hands. And what is interesting in my Bible.

In the margin of my Bible it says this because a hand is against the throne of the Lord. Because the hand is against the throne of the Lord. In other words again in if you like in typology Moses was touching the throne of God.

There's only one way you and I will ever be successful like Joshua in overwhelming Amalek overwhelming sin standing victorious against sin. And that is to be in contact with the throne of God. The moment you and I lose our relationship with God or lose contact with God sin will always gain the upper hand.

We cannot do it in our own strength. It's impossible. I think that's why the New Testament says men ought always to pray lifting up holy hands. It's not just that you know we put our hands up just sort of symbolic.

Well part of its symbolic. But I mean that that symbolism is I am taking hold of God. I am touching the throne of God. That's what prayer is all about. Like I want to speak in the morning on prayer and spiritual warfare.

But I would love if we change the the the word prayer to let's touch the throne of God. You know prayer is it's so used and abused almost you know you announce a prayer meeting and everybody thinks you know how exciting that's gonna be.

You know nobody shows up for prayer meetings anymore. But if we said listen we're gonna have a meeting where we're gonna touch the throne of God. You know maybe we need to just sort of change our terminology.

It sounds a little more exciting doesn't it. Because prayer has sort of lost its meaning. But that's really what it is. It's touching the throne of God. Moses is touching the throne of God. He is in partnership with Joshua and as long as he's got a hand against the throne we have a young man that is able to conquer and be victorious over sin.

So that's the first qualifying thing that we see in the life of Joshua. As far as I know that's the very first time that his name is mentioned in the in the Old Testament. But that's where it begins isn't it.

That's where ministry begins. And let's face it whether you're in a full-time ministry or not we're all called to be ministers. We all have one calling we are ambassadors for Christ. God wants to plead through us to the last be reconciled to God.

But in order to do that we need to live a separated life. We need to know what it is to conquer sin. The next thing about Joshua we find is in Exodus chapter 24 and this is where Moses is called by God to leave the children of Israel.

He leaves them in the hand in the hands of Aaron and he is called to go up into the mountain. Verse 12. And the Lord said to Moses come up to me on the mountain and remain there and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the command which which I have written for their instruction.

And so Moses rose with Joshua his servant and Moses went up to the mountain of God. Now we don't have all the details there but it seems that Moses then went up further because it says verse 17. And the eyes of the sons of Israel or to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of God was like a consuming fire on the mountain and Moses enter the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

So we have no record of Joshua actually going up if you like right into the very summit. But it does seem that he was there alone on the mountain and he is there for 40 days. It is during those 40 days you recall that the children of Israel eventually become restless and rebellious.

They go to Aaron and they say listen we want a God that will go before us. We don't know what's happened to Moses. 40 days have gone by. That's a you know a long period of time a good month month and a half has gone by and there's no sign of Moses last time we saw him you know we saw him making his way up the mountain there.

No doubt he's fallen down into some crevasse or something or broken his neck or something. But he obviously is not coming back. You know you know two days three days four days five days and so on. But I mean he's never been out of our sight from the moment he you know led us out of the out of Egypt and this is unusual.

This is not like him to be gone that amount of time. And anyway they put pressure on Aaron. Aaron during that time creates the golden calf. And around that golden calf of course there's all sorts of immorality and so on so forth.

But here during that same period of time Joshua is alone and and I take from that that he is a man of character a man of character you know he does not. We have no record of Joshua getting involved in the worship of the golden calf.

The rest of the children of Israel every last one of them seemingly was involved in the worship of the golden calf. But Joshua is there on the mountain and character I think is revealed when you're alone.

What you do when you're alone. He could have made his way down. He could have said listen I don't know what's happened. You know it's been 40 days or it's been two weeks now. I've waited and waited and waited patiently for Moses to come down.