Verse for the Day, 10 June 2016.

Numbers 14:10-24, “... But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.  (11)  And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?  (12)  I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."  (13)  But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,  (14)  and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.  (15)  Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,  (16)  'It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'  (17)  And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,  (18)  'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'  (19)  Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."  (20)  Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned, according to your word.  (21)  But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,  (22)  none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,  (23)  shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.  (24)  But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.”

The drama of Numbers 14 continues, with the people rebelling against God and threatening to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, God makes His presence know. Moses immediately enters into the tent of meeting in order to hear from God. Moses must have been trembling in fear as he thought how God might respond to this latest rebellion. If God had poured out His wrath, anger, judgement and discipline when the people had rebelled in a lesser manner, how great would His wrath be on this occasion!

God’s response is entirely understandable, He has been true to every promise and extended grace upon grace, yet the people have continued to rebel against Him. God’s patience and grace has been tested and pushed numerous times, but now the time of grace has come to an end. We are mistaken if we think that God’s grace to the rebellious is unending, for Scripture makes it clear that a time is coming when the day of grace comes to an end for every person, and the day of judgement dawns. The nation of Israel have arrived at the day of judgement.

They have utterly rejected God and broken their covenant with Him, and now they will come to know the consequences. God declares to Moses that He will completely destroy them, wipe them out, disinherit them, and then will raise the nation up again through Moses. As God declares what His judgement will be, we must not think that God is losing His temper and is lacking in self-control. The judgement is entirely just, in fact one could even say it was overdue! God is just in His anger and fury, He is just, perfect and fair in His judgements and He is in complete control.

As God states His judgement, Moses plucks up his courage and intercedes on behalf of the people. This takes us back to Abraham when he interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah. It is not that Abraham and Moses are arrogant, proud, or think anything of themselves that God should listen to them. But what they are doing is speaking, praying, to God in the terms and language God has spoken to them, according to God’s nature, character, declarations and promises. They are seeking God’s grace through the means that He has given to us, namely prayer and through His love, grace, faithfulness and willingness to forgive. The basis on which Moses appeals to God to relent and forgive, is God’s glory, honour, steadfast love and grace. At no point does Moses try to defend what the people have done, he doesn’t seek to excuse or justify their sin. He simply pleads, “Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

God hears Moses’ prayer and responds with grace, but the rebellion of the people is not without consequence. Just as God was gracious towards Adam and Eve by not destroying them the moment after they ate the fruit, so here God withholds His judgement for a time. The people of Israel will be rescued from immediate destruction, but they will now endure 40 years of restless wandering through the wilderness and every day bodies will fall. Every day for the next 40 years that will watch their entire generation die. They will never enter into the Promised Land, and they will not know the rest, favour and blessing of God. But God will remain faithful, and He will raise up another generation that will succeed where this generation failed.

In the midst of Moses’ intercession, we are given a glimpse of something even greater, we are pointed to another mediator, who will intercede on our behalf. We are being pointed to Christ and His great work as our High Priest, Mediator and the one who makes intercession for us. The actions and words of Moses, point us to the actions and words of Christ. Think of Christ’s willingness to take upon Himself the punishment for our rebellion and sinfulness. Think of how we derided, insulted, laughed at and mocked Christ as he hung of the cross, having been nailed to it by human, sinful hands. Yet what is it that Christ prays and pleads before the Father for? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34. God the Son pleads that God the Father might not treat us as we deserve, but extend grace and forgiveness.

This work of Christ is stupendous! He pleads that God the Father might forgive us, rebels, haters of God, those who have despised and rejected His Son and lived in deliberate and defiant sin, stripping Him of His glory and trampling it under our feet. And as Christ pleads, “Father, forgive them…” God the Father responds by extending grace, forgiveness and salvation to all who call upon Him through the person and work of God the Son.

“O how the grace of God amazes me!

It loosed me from my bond and set me free!

What made it happen so?

‘Twas His will, this much I know,

Set me, as now I show, at liberty.

And when I think of how at Calvary,

He bore sins penalty instead of me.

Amazed, I wonder why

He, the Sinless One should die

For one so vile as I;

My Saviour He!”

(Emmanuel Sibomana)

God of grace, Lord of mercy, how great is Your love towards God the Son that You should hear His prayer and answer it favourably! How great is the humility, love, compassion and grace of Christ that He should surrender His life so as to save our lives. We give You thanks for answering God the Son’s prayer and not counting our sins against us. May we grow in our thankfulness towards You for the favour we have received. Aid us by Your Spirit to follow in the footsteps of Abraham, Moses and most of all, Christ, by making intercession on behalf of those who are still rebels, pleading that You might have mercy on them and save them through Christ. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 9 June 2016.

Numbers 14:1-10, “Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  (2)  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  (3)  Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"  (4)  And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt."  (5)  Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.  (6)  And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes  (7)  and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.  (8)  If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  (9)  Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."  (10)  Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.”

Speechless, dumbfounded, lost for words, shock, disbelief! These verses produce such a result when we read them. We are tempted to rub our eyes and read it again just in case we misread this passage. Numbers 14 reveals to us a sobering truth, a frightening reality with regards to our sinfulness. Mankind has the most remarkable and tragic ability to rebel against God, and to do so with a cold, calculated and stubborn defiance.

Most people who read through Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, when they get to this chapter they are left wondering, “What more could God have done to prove Himself trustworthy, faithful, true and able?” The people of Israel spectacularly, tragically fail on every level when they rebel against God.

We need to pay careful attention to what is happening in this passage, because the punishment that God pours out on this generation is severe, every single one of them will die, except for two men. Many might think this punishment is harsh and undeserved, that God has gone too far and should have been a bit kinder, more gracious and forgiving. However, once we see the full extent of their sin and rebellion, we will be able to understand why God punishes them so severely.

Firstly, we need to keep in mind this is not the first time the people have rebelled against God. There have been multiple rebellions, some more passive, but others much more active and deliberate, with the making and worship of the gold calf being the chief of these rebellions. The people have shown contempt for God, constantly doubting and questioning God, accusing God of being deceitful, lying and unfaithful, even worse accusing God of evil, of wanting to kill them. Thus it is not as though God has not been gracious in the past and given them opportunity to repent and change their ways. God has been, exceedingly, exceedingly patient and gracious with the people of Israel.

In Numbers 14:1-10, they are doing more than just refusing to go into the Promised Land, it is a wholesale rejection of God. They reject God’s deliverance and salvation from slavery in Egypt, they reject God’s promise to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. They reject God’s promise to give them a new land, new life and a new freedom. They now have it firmly fixed in their minds that God is not true, nor is He to be trusted, God is a liar, a deceiver and a God who wants to destroy them, God is out to humiliate and slaughter them, causing them to suffer immensely. They are calling into question everything that God is and calling God’s salvation evil, God’s promises evil, and that God is not a God of life, but a God of death.

Once they have completely rejected and rebelled against God, they then turn against God’s servants, Moses, Aaron, Caleb and Joshua. Such is their anger and determination to rebel, such is their hate against God that they want to kill these four men. The very sentence that the people of Israel deserved time and time again for their sinful ways, they now wish to execute against God’s chosen men.

They reject and rebel against God and His servants, and finally they reject their salvation, they reject their freedom, they reject their nation, they reject each other, they reject themselves. How do they do this? They reject all this by stating that they wish to return to Egypt. In seeking to return to Egypt they are choosing to subject themselves to slavery once more. Had they returned to Egypt they would have not received a warm welcome, if the Egyptians did not slaughter every single one of them, they would mistreat and enslave them with greater harshness than ever before. The Israelites are willing to see each other, their own wives, sons, daughters subject to harsh labour and cruelty, they would rather have Pharaoh throw their new born children into the Nile, than to trust God and go into the Promised Land. The truth is that we do not truly appreciate just how great their rebellion is! It is a complete, utter, wholesale, deliberate and defiant rejection and rebellion of God and anything associated with God, His servants and His promises.

This passage records yet another occasion of man’s sinfulness and rebellion against God. As much as we would like to distance ourselves from it and regard ourselves as being better, we cannot. Numbers 14 makes the following truth crystal clear, man, all mankind has rebelled against God and rejected Him to the same degree. Every one of our lives are a chilling testimony of how we have done exactly this, despite the fact that God has given so much to us, revealed Himself to us and been so good towards us.

God has been gracious, patient, merciful, kind, gentle and forgiving. He has warned us time and time again, He has made know His truth to us and the consequences if we should reject Him. Yet we continued on in our rebellion. Our rejection of God was not passive, or a mere over-sight, or a mistake, it was deliberate, active, defiant and personal. Every time we sin, grumble, complain, doubt or accuse God, we are guilty of such a rejection of God. Every time we desire something more than God, give something the place of God in our lives, and strip God of His Godhood giving it to someone or something else, we are guilty of such a rebellion. Therefore, every single one of us deserves to be sent out into the wilderness of God’s judgement and to perish under His hand of holy, divine and just wrath.

Having read this passage and realised that it is also true of our own hearts and lives, we are left marvelling at the awesome grace of God towards us in and through Jesus Christ. How incredible it is that God should want and desire to save, redeem, justify, adopt, and glorify rebels such as us! God chose to pour out His wrath against us rebels upon God the Son, and made His enemies, His own children and set them upon thrones in His kingdom as co-heirs!

“And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?”

Almighty God, we humble ourselves before Your throne, we lay our faces down to the dust, for we are all rebels against You. How great is our sin before Your eyes! Yet how much greater is the grace and the atoning sacrifice of God the Son before Your eyes! How great Your love and mercy is that You should save Your enemies and make us Your very own children. Faithful, holy God, help us to see the horror of our rebellion and the immensity of Your grace, so that we might grow in love, thanksgiving and the pursuit of holiness. May we constantly and joyfully testify to others of how we have been given such a great salvation. All glory, honour, praise and adoration belongs to You, our gracious God. Amen.