Hello Sunday school teachers, preachers, and students! Welcome to SundaySchoolPreacher.com. Listen, you need to get yourself a Moses on your side. This week’s lesson is titled “Faithful In Consequences” and “God Forgives”. I show in this week’s lesson how Moses goes to bat for these unfaithful, rebellious, stiff-necked people. God is fed up and angry. Time after time they have refused to believe God. Even after God has taken significant measures, created ways out of no ways, and miraculously delivered, provided for, and protected these people, they still won’t believe God. God is angry, God is fed up. And God is ready to destroy the chosen people of Israel.
But Moses pleads the case for the Israelites. Like a skillful lawyer, Moses recounts for God the words God told him in Exodus and reminds God of the love, mercy and grace that God is known for. Moses reminds God that the Egyptians will say God destroyed them because God couldn’t deliver them into the land of Canaan. God was ready to destroy the Israelites but after Moses pleads the case God changes God’s mind. Instead of destruction God chooses forgiveness. You need to get a Moses on your side.
This week’s lesson picks up exactly where last week ended. The spies have returned from their forty day reconnaissance. They all report that the land flows with milk and honey but only Joshua and Caleb say to invade the land immediately. The other ten spies say that yes, the land flows with milk and honey but there are giants that live in the land. In their bad report they say that they are mere grasshoppers in the sight of these giants. They exaggerate saying that even the land itself swallows up its inhabitants. They could see everything God had already done for them. They could see how bountiful the land was. But they could not see what God could do through them. As we continue in the theme of responding to God’s faithfulness, this week I focus on faithful Moses advocating for an unfaithful Israel. Some of the ideas surrounding this week’s text include the terms:
Advocate
Fidelity
Background:
Numbers deals with the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years. Moses is credited as its author. The structure of Numbers revolves around two censuses taken to number the nation in preparation for invasion of the land of Canaan. The first census was taken in chapter one and the second in chapter 26. The first census numbered over 600,000 men. This did not include women and children. Nelson’s Bible Handbook explains “if this is correct the Israelite population would have been more than two million people”. Historians note that this would have been an unusually high population for a nation state. Nelson’s also notes “one possible explanation is that the word translated thousands in English could have meant something like units, tents, or clans in the Hebrew language. If so, a much smaller number was in mind”.
The New Interpreter’s Study Bible explains that “the English title refers to the many numbers contained in the two census lists that form the central pillars of the book’s structure in chapters 1 and 26”. So these censuses are central to the structure of the book, but the message of Numbers is the story of the old generation out of Egypt dying off as the new generation prepares to move into the Promised Land. The NISB also explains that “the central narrative of Numbers is the spy story of chapters 13-14. These chapters narrate the theme of judgement and death for an old generation and birth and hope of a new generation of God’s people”. In these two chapters we learn why the old generation lost the Promised Land and the new generation would receive it. The old generation is beginning to show a pattern. Time after time, the generation that came out of Egypt fails to trust God. Because they fail to trust God, God eventually gets fed up of their rebellion and faithlessness.
In this fourteenth chapter we see the importance of an advocate. It was Moses who spoke on behalf of the Israelites. God was fed up with God’s own people. But because of the advocacy of Moses, instead of destroying these rebellious Israelites God forgives them. This chapter opens with the congregation weeping aloud and complaining against Moses and Aaron. Once again, they cry out in despair wishing that they had died back in the land of their captivity. These are a people who still have not learned that God is their provider, that God is their deliverer, and that God is their protector. With their faithlessness we see in this chapter how the Israelites reject God, how God decides to destroy the Israelites, how Moses changes God’s mind and how God ultimately forgives the Israelite nation. Some important words to consider from this text include:
Advocate
Fidelity
Review of Last Week and How it Connects to This Week.
Last week’s lesson opened at chapter thirteen verses one and two with the LORD speaking to Moses. I noted that the LORD instructs Moses to send men into the land of Canaan. This is the land that God promised Abraham. The Promised Land and the nation of Israel were hundreds of years in the making but now the descendants of Abraham were on the verge of receiving the long awaited promise.
The text skips to verse 17a where Moses sent the 12 spies into Canaan to explore the land and determine its suitability for conquest.
At verse twenty-five I noted that the spies have returned from their 40 day reconnaissance and how the number forty is used quite often in the Bible. I also noted that we should not ascribe any more meaning to numbers than necessary. We risk playing with occult numerology when giving more meaning to numbers than needed. Some occult practices include numerology, astrology, witchcraft, tarot cards and others.
In verse twenty-six the spies assembled at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran to report their findings to Moses, Aaron, and the whole assembly.
In verse 27 the spies revealed that the land flowed with milk and honey. Not only did they tell of the goodness of the land but they brought back evidence of the bountiful harvests that await the other side.
In verse 28 despite them seeing the bountiful blessing of the land; the spies report that the people were powerful and the cities were fortified and very large. I noted that the first census reported over 600,000 men. Historians record that this would have been an unusually large number of people because most nation states were not this large at that time. So it seems that these spies see the blessings possible in the Promised Land, they see the powerful people, they see the large cities, but they do not see the fulfilled promise of God nor do they see themselves as powerful in God’s might.
The text skips to chapter fourteen verses one and two where the entire congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. They wept because they believed the exaggerated report of the ten spies. The New Interpreter’s Bible One Volume Commentary explains that there are two versions of the spy’s negative report. “In the first version the land flows with milk and honey. In the second version verses 32-33 declare that the land itself is so bad that it eats its inhabitants”. Additionally, “the spies warn of giant Anakites and of a mythological and semi-divine race of giants known as the Nephilim”. The Israelites see these giants and once again fall into fear. Instead of believing God, instead of believing they were powerful and strong and brave, instead of believing they were enough and that they had enough. They choose instead to believe the report of these men instead of the command of God. They are out of Egypt. They have been delivered from enslavement by mighty works and wonders of God. God has provided them with mana in the morning and meat in the evening. God has turned bitter water to drinkable water. Even with all these miraculous works they cannot see how God will give them this Promised Land. Once again, they complain against Moses and Aaron. Once again, they wish that they had died in the land of Egypt or in the wilderness. As they wept that night, God heard their cry. They cry out not in faith, but in unfaithfulness. They don’t cry out in belief, but in unbelief. Theirs is not a cry of hope, but hopelessness. Although the old generation has seen the mighty works of God; this conquest is just a step too far for them to take.
In verse five Moses and Aaron fell on their face before all of the assembly. They realized what the Israelites were doing. They realized this entire nation is choosing to reject God even after all God has done for them.
Verses six and seven show Joshua and Caleb as the faithful few who believe God can and will do what God said God would do. They tear their clothes in frustration and declare again that the land they went through was an exceedingly good land.
In verse eight they explain that if the LORD is pleased with them The LORD will give them this land that flows with milk and honey.
In verses nine and ten they warn the Israelites not to rebel against the LORD and not to fear the people of the land. Instead of heeding the warning of Joshua and Caleb, the whole congregation threatened to stone them. The lesson this week is entitled “Faithful in Consequences” and “God Forgives”. The scripture text comes from Numbers 14:10b-20.
What Takes Place in This Passage:
This week’s lesson opens where last week’s lesson closed. Last week the Israelites rejected God’s plan to take the land of Canaan. They complained against Moses and Aaron and wished to have died, back in the land of captivity. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and reiterated how good the land was and that God would bless them if God is please with them. Verse 10a says “But the whole congregation threatened to stone them”.
Our lesson picks up at verse 10b. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. The Glory of God is defined as “the divine essence of God as absolutely resplendent and ultimately great”. In other words, God is manifested at the tabernacle or the tent of meeting in a way that all the Israelites recognize as God. If all of the Israelites could see this manifestation of God, it seems to me that would be enough to repent and turn to God in faithful obedience.
In verse eleven the LORD speaks to Moses. The LORD questions “how long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them”? God is angry with these Israelites. They have demonstrated that they despise God and refuse to believe in God despite God delivering them from the Egyptians, despite God allowing them to cross the Red Sea and drowning the Egyptian soldiers, despite God giving them water to drink and bread and meat to eat. Despite all of this the Israelites are faithless and God has had enough.
Verse twelve shows just how angry God was. God says “I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they”. To disinherit is to completely walk away from. It brings to mind the idea that you don’t even want to see them anymore. God is ready to disinherit the people whom he promised Abraham would become a great nation and would number as many as the sand of the sea. At this point you get the idea that God wants nothing more to do with this unfaithful, rebellious, stiff-necked people. God is fed up with the Israelites. In the same way God promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, now God tells Moses that God will make a great nation of him.
In verse thirteen Moses skillfully begins his advocacy for the Israelites. Moses like a skillful lawyer defending a client pleads his case with God. He begins by telling God the Egyptians will hear of it. God had taken great care to deliver the descendants of Abraham from the Egyptians.
In verse fourteen Moses continues defending the Israelites telling God the Egyptians will tell the people of Canaan that their God was in the midst of them, seen face to face by them, and was with them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Moses is making the point to God that God has been present in their deliverance and that if they are abandoned or destroyed now it will be seen as if God could not keep them. The point Moses is making is that these are God’s people. If the rest of the world sees them as defeated and wiped out it will reflect on God.
In verses fifteen and sixteen Moses presses his point to God. He tells God “if you kill this people all at once the nations who have heard about you will say it’s because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them”. Not only that but the reason God killed them was because God could not deliver them into the land. Moses is playing hard-ball with God. He pulls no punches. Moses is going to defend these Israelites with everything at his disposal. You need to get somebody like Moses on your side. Moses goes to bat for these unfaithful, rebellious, stiff-necked people with all of their faults and all of their failures.
In verses seventeen and eighteen Moses goes as far as to remind God of what God said to him in the past. Moses quotes back to God what God said in Exodus 34:1-9. Moses reminds God that God should be slow to anger and abounding in love. He reminds God that God does not clear the guilty but visits upon them the iniquity of the parents upon the children for the third and fourth generations.
In verses nineteen and twenty Moses asks God to forgive the iniquity of the Israelites because of the greatness of God’s love. After hearing this passionate plea from Moses God relents. God changes God’s mind and said “I do forgive, just as you have asked”. It was this passionate plea that changes God’s mind. Where God was ready to completely wipe out this nation, God is now ready to forgive only because Moses pleaded on their behalf. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a Moses to plead on our behalf? The good news is that we do. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God making intercession for us even now.
Context:
Synonyms for “advocate” include terms like promoter, backer, proponent, campaigner, supporter, and defender among others. Whatever you want to call it, we all need some of it in our lives. We need people that see the best in us despite our current faults and failures. We need people who will love us fiercely despite our not being very lovable at the moment. Advocates understand that despite your current situation or circumstances there is a better way, there is a better system, there is a better you and that we are all made better when you are better. Despite their rejection of God and despite the people complaining against Moses and Aaron, Moses chose to fight for a better Israelite nation. We should do the same in our own families, communities, states and this nation. Let’s be somebody’s Moses.
Key Characters in the text:
Moses – The first great leader of the Hebrew people, regarded by some as the author of the first five books of the Old Testament. Moses is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims for his daring leadership and diplomacy as well as his promulgation of the divine law (Townsend).
Key Words
Advocate – one who pleads the cause of another
Fidelity – The quality or state of being faithful. The fidelity of God is shown in God’s dependability, trustworthiness, and reliability.
Themes, Topics, Discussion, or Sermon Preparation Ideas:
1. You need to get a Moses.
2. Just because you don’t believe it, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Questions:
1. Did God really change God’s mind? Or was God seriously going to kill the entire nation of Israel? Discuss whether it is possible for God to change God’s mind.
2. Moses is a fierce advocate for the Israelites. What people or causes should we become fierce advocates for?
Concluding Thought:
You’ve probably heard someone say “he/she is getting on my last nerve. That’s where the people of Israel were with God. God had had enough of their foolishness and just wasn’t going to take it anymore. Because Moses stepped in to remind God of God’s love and mercy God forgave the nation and relented from destroying them. Perhaps we need to be the “Moses” in someone’s life. Moses was a great advocate but Jesus is the ultimate advocate.
Preview of Next Week’s Lesson:
Next week the lesson remains in the Pentateuch but moves to the book of Deuteronomy. Next week I will discuss how God provided the commandments and how God expects us to follow in obedient faith. God expects our obedience. We continue in the theme of responses to God’s faithfulness. Next week’s lesson is titled “Obedient Faith”.
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