Into the Wilderness
Series: A Biblical Guide to Wilderness Survival
August 14, 2010
I have to admit to you this morning that I’m scared to death about what I’m about to do! Today, I’m starting a new message series, but let me tell you what I’m really scared about…
1. I’m scared about the subject matter, because I’m going to do a 37 message series on the book…of Numbers! Have any of you ever read the book of Numbers? (raise hand). That’s what I was afraid of! I remember when I first started reading the bible…I did what most people do, I started reading at the front and worked towards the back. Start with Gen.(explain), Exodus (explain), Leviticus (slow down with all regulations and laws)… then…I came to NUMBERS! And in the 1st chapter, it started naming all the tribes of Israel and how many were in each tribe, using these crazy sounding names that I could hardly pronounce and to be honest…I totally zoned out! I thought, “This has got to be the most BORING book ever written!” So I got as far as chapter 3…and I thought, “That’s it! I’m outta here!
2. The 2nd thing I’m scared about is, I’m scared that you’ll do the same thing I did! If you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to give up…but I want to encourage you this morning…don’t do it! Because after exploring Numbers in detail for a couple of months, I began to discover some truths that lit. blew my mind!
On the surface, I thought Numbers was so simple a 3 grader could understand it, and so I was amazed to find a treasure trove laying just beneath the surface. To paraphrase something Augustine once said, “The bible is shallow enough for a child to paddle in, and yet at the same time, deep enough to drown an elephant. “ That’s true! There’s much more in Numbers than meets the eye! In fact, what I thought was the most “boring” book in the bible, actually turned out to be one of the most exciting, insightful and interesting books in the bible! There’s SOOOO much to learn about the nature & personality of God and how He deals with us…His people! So…stick with me! If you do, you’ll be MORE than glad you did!
With that said, let’s dive into the 1st verse of Numbers as kind of an overview of the book as a whole. The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt.
-Numbers 1:1 (NIV)
As you start to read the book of Numbers, you begin to realize that it doesn’t really have a beginning. It kind of starts out like it’s in midsentence. That’s because God wants us to know that the story in Numbers is just a continuation of His dealing with His people that started in Gen., ran through Exodus and into Leviticus and Numbers. Now, surprisingly, if you jump ahead, you’ll notice that Numbers doesn’t really have an ending either! It just kind of peters out with the story of some daughters who want their father’s inheritance. On top of that Numbers is a little bit circular. It starts out in the wilderness and it ends up in the wilderness. No wonder the Hebrew name for this book is “In the Wilderness”! It’s the story of God’s people going around in circles in the desert! They start out getting ready to enter into the land God promised them, and at the end of the book they find themselves in the exact same place. From beginning to end, it’s 36 chapters, covering 40 years and one whole generation of people… wandering around in the Sinai desert! Sometimes I’ve felt that way about my life, haven’t you? God is trying to teach me something, but either I’m too stupid or too stubborn to learn it, and so I find myself taking “1 more lap around the desert!”. Trying to learn the lesson I should have already learned.
No beginning? No end? A circular plot with people wandering around in the desert? You’d be tempted to believe that the Book of Numbers is a total mess. But don’t judge a book by it’s cover…because as we’re going to see, God knows exactly what He’s doing every step of the way.
Now, in vs. 1, we pick-up on a conversation that God and Moses are having in the “Tent of Meeting” (or Tabernacle). The “Tent of Meeting” was an elaborate tent (we’ll get into the details later)…but for now, you just need to know that it was a place where Moses could go to meet God face to face. Vs. 1 even tells us WHEN this meeting took place…it was on “the first day of the second month, of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt.” In otherwords, it had now been over a year since God had miraculously delivered the nation of Israel out of 400 years of Egyptian slavery. (remember the plagues and how Yul Brenner used to go around saying, “So let it be written…so let it be done”. Remember how Charlton Heston raised his staff and parts the ‘jello’ so that the people of God can walk through on dry land? Well, it had now been a little bit over a year since all that happened. God had brought them into the wilderness to Mt. Sinai and entered into a “Blood Covenant” with them. (talked about that last week). They were to be His people and He would be their God. He would protect them and fight for them. He would give them land and establish them as His ‘chosen people’, so that the rest of the world would see it and want to get in on the deal.
The problem was… they weren’t AT the promised land yet! They were standing here between the Exodus and the Promised Land. They were ‘Betweeners’. And that’s what we are, if you think about it! We’re ‘betweeners’! If you’re a true Christian this morning, you’ve been saved from the bondage of sin, but you’re not quite to heaven yet! (the promised land). We live between salvation accomplished and salvation completed. Jesus brought us our salvation at the Cross, but we’re still living here in this world waiting for Him to return (or for us to return to Him). We’re living in the wilderness! And living between the Exodus and the Promised Land isn’t any fun sometimes! Wars, sickness, sin, broken relationships, misunderstandings, pain, tears…(my daughter miscarriage)…it’s all a part of the wilderness experience! We’re camping out in the ‘boonies’ and there’s not a Marriot for 1000’s of miles! Calvin Miller had it right when he said, “The world is poor because her fortune is buried in the sky, and all her treasure maps are of the earth”
If you think about it, we actually have a lot in common with the Israelites we read about in Numbers! (More than we even realize as we’re going to see!) But there’s hope! Remember where Moses was? He was standing in the “Tent of Meeting”, which was located smack dab in the middle of the camp! See, God didn’t bring them out of Egypt and then just dump them in the desert like trash. “Ok…my jobs done. I delivered you from Pharoah, now you’re on your own! Good luck in making it to the other side! You’re gonna need it!” NO! God’s in the wilderness WITH THEM! And God is with us too! Remember, Jesus promised to be with us in our wilderness. After giving the disciples their marching orders He said in Matthew 28:20… “And (you can) be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Wow! That’s good to know! That no matter what happens to us between the day of our salvation and the day of our consummation (when we meet Jesus face to face)…He promised that He would be with us. That His presence would be there through thick and thin, in all our trials and tribulations, hardships and disappointments. If you think you’re living in the ‘promised land’ and everything should be hunky-dory from here on out…you need a reality check brother! See, we’re still in the wilderness! But at least through it all…we don’t have to go it alone! We have the presence and the power of God’s Spirit every step of the way!
However, our greatest temptation along the way, is the temptation to forget the end goal! The people of Israel were constantly tempted to doubt that there really was a Promised Land ahead. As they woke up every morning and looked out over the horizon…
• All they could see was the barrenness of the wilderness!
• All they could hear was the howling wind of the wasteland all around them.
• All they could taste was the hunger and thirst of the wilderness.
It was a tough life! On some days it must have seemed like life was nothing more than a series of unrelated and random events…and they were going nowhere. That’s where we are isn’t it? As we go from one day to the next, we lose track of the goal. You wake up, you go to work, you go to bed. There’s never enough time or money to really do what you want to do, and so life gets all tangled and twisted.
We’re tempted to believe that the wilderness we see is really all there is. That God’s not really in charge and there’s no real purpose or meaning in it all. There is no real ‘promised land’. It’s just something we made up to help us deal with the barrenness of our lives. Just like in the book of Numbers…a book with no beginning, no end, people wandering around in circles for 40 years. On the surface we feel like we’re just wandering from one place to the next, going around in circles…but just like in Numbers…don’t doubt that under and through it all, there is a guiding hand, a divine author who knows where we are, and where He’s taking us. Listen…there IS a story line to your life! It’s complicated, and there are a lot of twists and turns along the way, but eventually, if we’ll stick with Him…He’ll bring us to the promised land He’s prepared for us! Do you believe that? I do!
See, that’s what it means to live by faith: to believe the reality of God’s plan for our lives…even when we can’t necessarily see it with our eyes. As we’re going to see, there are 2 generations of Israelites in Numbers. The 1st generation refused to live by faith. Instead, they only believed what they’re eyes saw and distrusted what God told them. In the end they missed the promised land…they abandoned God and died in the wilderness. However, the 2nd generation of Israelites got another chance to live by faith. They were the ones who actually entered the Promised Land. Let me ask you, which generation are you? Are you just living life day by day as if this is all there is? You life motto is…”Get all you can, can all you get and then sit on the can” …OR… are you living and trusting God in everything you do, whether it makes sense or not? Ask yourself…”Is my life different in the way I act and make decisions because I know there is a heaven…or is my life no different from anyone else in the worldly wilderness?
See, the reason we grumble about the conditions and the accommodations of this life…is because somewhere along the way, we forgot that this isn’t our real home! This is just a Motel 6 along the way! If the way you live your life isn’t radically different from the non-believers around you…then it’s because you’ve lost the plot of the story! You’re wandering around, totally forgetting that you’re in the middle of this incredible Exodus from death to eternal life! A lot of people I know have gotten so used to being in the wilderness, they think that’s all there is.
They remind me of the true story about these scientists who decided that they were going to develop a fish that could live outside of water. So by selecting a healthy herring… they bred and crossbred, hormoned and chromosomed until they finally produced a fish that could exist & live… out of water! (True story!) Only one problem… the project director wasn’t satisfied. He suspected that even though the fish had learned to live on dry land… it still had a secret desire for water.
“Re-educate it”, he said. “Change it’s very desires!” So again, they went to work, this time retraining even the strongest reflexes. Finally they achieved their goal. A fish that would rather DIE than get wet! Even humidity filled this fish with dread! The director, proud of his triumph, took the fish on tour. And then one day, the unthinkable happened. Accidentally (according to official reports)… the fish fell into a lake! It sank to the bottom, eyes and gills clamped shut, afraid to move, afraid of becoming even wetter. And of course, it dared not breathe! Every instinct said “NO!”… but breathe it must…
So the fish drew a tentative gill-full. Its eyes bulged. It breathed again and flicked a fin. It breathed a 3rd time and wriggled with delight. Then it darted away. The fish had discovered water! Now, that’s really a parable of how you and I, educated and re-educated by the worlds system…react to the thought of God before our salvation. In fact, we’ve been conditioned by the world to reject God!
Even the thought of God “fills our gills” with fear and dread. So we run, (or waddle) away from Him. Yet in spite of all the worlds’ efforts to change our desires… we still have a secret longing to know Him. And then one day, almost as an accident (at least from our pt. of view)… something happens to get our attention. Slowly, painfully… eyes that were clamped shut to spiritual things, begin to slowly open. And against everything we’ve ever been taught… we take in a tentative breath…and to our surprise we discover God!
And to our delight, we find out that we were really created to know and love Him all along! Acts 17:28, puts it this way… “For in Him, we live and move and have our being!” Someone once said that, “It’s as hard for a sinner to recognize the worlds system as it is for a fish to discover impurities in the water.” There’s a sense, a feeling that things aren’t right… but you just can’t put your finger on it. Listen…this is NOT your home! This world is NOT your natural environment! Don’t let the world convince you that this is all there is! You weren’t made for this world, you were made for heaven! So open up your gills!!!
So how do you keep your faith alive as you’re walking through the wilderness? The answer is found in remembering that God is right here with us! See, it’s no coincidence that along with telling us that these people had come out of Egypt, that vs.1 mentions the presence of God speaking to Moses in the Tent of Meeting. The function and purpose of the “Tabernacle” was to be a place of communication from God to man! See, we follow a God who really does speak and gives direction and purpose to our lives!
All through the book of Numbers, we’re going to run into sections where God reminds them of His covenant laws. In otherwords, He’s telling them, “You’re accountable to ME and no-one else! I am a your God and you need to center you life around ME, and nothing else. In fact, centering your life around anyone or anything else is idolatry!”. So how do you center your life around God? Well, 1st of all, you need to seek His face on a daily basis, 2ndly, you need to read His Word. There are so many messages that this world is sending out and if all you do is soak in media through Facebook, TV, movies, and music…this world is going to seem more and more real, while God is going to seem more and more distant.
The 3rd thing you need to do in order to make sure you’re centering you life around God is to gather together with other believers. See, the “Tent of Meeting” or The Tabernacle” wasn’t a place for individuals, it was a place of corporate worship. It’s where the tribes of Israel worshiped together. If you separated yourself and isolated yourself from the other tribes…you died! The same is true today…isolated believers get lost and die alone in the desert. We need each other so we can be encouraged and challenged. People who think they don’t need the church, who think they can do fine all by themselves…ending up getting lost in the wilderness and left behind. If we don’t make sure that God is in the middle of everything in our lives eventually, the wilderness is going to look more real to you than the promised land! You’ll fall away and end up being disillusioned, defeated and dead!
Read John 1:14 with me… “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Did you know that the word, “dwelling” in the grk. is lit. translated…”to pitch a tent”, or to “tabernacle” among us? Do you know what that verse is saying? It’s telling us that the same God who set up the “Tent of Meeting” in the wilderness of Egypt, has now come to “dwell” or “tabernacle” with us in the person of Jesus Christ! He came from Heaven and took on Himself the frustrations and temptations of the “wilderness life” we live. After his baptism he even went out into the wilderness just as Israel did for a 40 day fast. (Mt.4:1-11). He went into the wilderness for 40 days, where he faced the exact same temptations that the O.T. Israelites faced in 40 years. With one exception…He remained faithful and never sinned like they did.
He voluntarily faced the same temptations and tests that we face everyday…only He never failed them like we do.
• Where we grumble constantly…He never grumbled.
• Where we doubt and question that God cares and provides…he never doubted and never questioned.
According to Heb.12:2…Jesus is “the author and perfector of our faith”...He went through the wilderness for us and accomplished our salvation. He did what we (because of our sin) couldn’t do…and then He helps us to do it!
Listen folks…We’re doing the “wilderness walk” right now… but someday, it’s going to end and we’re going to arrive at the promised land of rest. Amen? You say, “Pastor, how can you know that for sure?” Simple… because Jesus has already arrived there before me! And He’s promised that where He is…you and I can be forever. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ this morning…His destiny is your destiny! If you’re following Him, you’re going to end up where He is, right?
As we study the book of Numbers together, my prayer is that it will do for you what it did for me…it gave me a greater determination to make it faithfully through the wilderness and to the goal of my heavenly home!
