Is the Lord’s power limited?
Numbers 11:16-23
On Ash Wednesday we began our 40-day journey toward the cross and the resurrection. We were reminded of God’s amazing grace on the one hand and of our own sin on the other. We nailed our sins to the cross. We admonished each other to turn away from sin and to be faithful to Jesus Christ as we traced a little black cross of ash on each other’s forehead. The ashes we used symbolized death and sorrow; they came from the house down the street where three young lives were lost recently.
Our journey toward Easter is a walk of faith, just as the journey toward the promised land was a walk of faith for the children of Israel. And that journey sometimes goes through the desert.
Some of you know about the desert in your personal lives. Life has become difficult. Physical health has become a concern. Human relationships no longer seem rewarding. Financial resources have dried up. The steps you take don’t seem to get you anywhere. Life seems like a trackless waste.
Congregations sometimes experience the desert as well. Prayers don’t seem to get answered. Ministries don’t seem to yield fruit. Apathy abounds. Nothing seems to be happening.
But there is a way through the desert. Our scripture today describes a critical episode in the life of the Israelites as God led them through the desert. We need to remember that out in the desert there isn’t much available unless God provides it.
To get our bearings, here are a couple of questions:
1. In what country were the Israelites slaves before they got to the desert?
2. Who led them out of Egypt?
3. What special laws did Moses receive from God on the mountain?
These 10 commandments became an agreement between them and God. God had shown his Amazing Grace in bringing them out; they would live in joyful obedience to his commands. They stayed at Mt. Sinai a little over a year to get their heads screwed on straight and their hearts plugged in, where God made clear to them that they should observe the Passover so they never forget that they were saved by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. God passed over their homes and saved theim from death. In the same way Jesus made clear that that we should observe the Lord’s Supper so we never forget how the blood of the Lamb of God saves us from eternal death. And, we learned last Sunday, just as it was a sin not to hold the Passover Feast, so it is a sin for disciples of Jesus to disobey when He commands us to eat & drink in remembrance of him.
Today’s passage is one that gets our heads and feet out of the sand, one that moves our focus beyond ourselves to that of the God who provides.
1. Trumpets. We begin in Chapter 10 where we see that God commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets. These trumpets were to be used to signal readiness to the people. They served in place of cell phones, two-way radios, and public address systems. God made provisions for the journey. And according to I Corinthians. 15:52, God will use a trumpet one last time to call his people home.
2. Journey begins. Starting in verse 11, we see that the cloud lifted, another of God’s provisions, and at the Lord’s command they began to move again toward the promised land. It must have been exciting to think that the promise God had made to Abraham was on its way to fulfillment.
3. Complaints. But, in Chapter 11, just three days into this segment of the journey, they get bogged down. The music has changed. No longer can you hear the lively music of marching. Instead, all you hear is the steady drumbeat of complaint, like rain dripping on a tin roof. If you look at the vocabulary in Chapter 11 you see words like complaining, weeping, craving, if only. Somehow dissatisfaction, discouragement, and disappointment had taken over. And the problem seems to be with their food, according to verse 5. The Lord had miraculously delivered them from Egypt and had made provisions for food in the desert, but some among them wanted to go back to the menu of slavery.
So they complained. They heard each other’s complaints. Moses heard their complaints. The Lord heard their complaints, The Lord got angry at them for complaining; Moses got angry at the Lord. Things were a mess.
If you have ever taken a family vacation, you know something about complaints. After all your hard work of planning, packing, and paying so that everyone can have a good time, 30 minutes down the road one child says, “Mom, he’s over on my side.” “Mom, I want my own pillow.” “Dad, I’ve gotta go potty.” “Mom, I’m bored.” Everyone gets out of sorts, even the parents who say, “Look, if you don’t stop this complaining we will turn around and go home.”
It happens in homes, it happens in the public square, it happens in churches. Back in the 80s when this congregation had to tear down the old sanctuary and move to this building, I’m sure there must have been some who said, “This doesn’t seem like a place of worship. If only we could go back…” When my home church in Iowa got new hymnals one person said, “I don’t know why we couldn’t keep the old ones. We’ll just have to learn new page numbers.” Life in the desert is hard.
The truth is, whether we are talking about Israel, individual Christians, or the church as a whole, the story of God’s people is a sorry tale of a weak, complaining, faithless group.
The Psalmist recognized complaining as a serious matter in Psalms 78 & 106. Both of these psalms describe a cycle of belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience.
In Numbers 11, we find some advice for complainers:
First piece of advice: If you are going to complain, do it someplace where the Lord can’t hear you. Numbers 11:1 says they complained in the hearing of the Lord, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Remember, if the Lord hears you, he just might do something about it! Just as when you pray for patience, he might give you an opportunity to try it out.
Second piece of advice. When you feel like complaining, remember your blessings. Numbers 11:5 says, “We remember what we used to eat in Egypt.” Did they complain then? Of course. They complained about their slavery. Don’t forget all that God has provided for you in the past. Life with God is a life of faith –faith in God’s provisions, faith in God’s adequacy, faith in God’s guidance. It’s easy to focus on ourselves and forget all that God has done and to whine and complain. Complaining is a failure of faith. Complaining is taking our eyes off God and putting them on ourselves. This is a good time to look back to remember your blessings.
Third piece of advice. When you feel like complaining, share your burden. It is instructive to see what happened to Moses. Look at his prayer in Numbers 11:11ff. You would think that Moses is responsible for all these people himself. But look what happened in 11:16. God provided a way for 70 other burden bearers to help. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes pastors feel like Moses did. But God did not expect Moses to bear the burden alone and he doesn’t expect us to bear our burdens alone. Sometimes I have heard people say, “I’m sorry to burden you with this.” We shouldn’t apologize for bringing our burdens to a fellow Christian. Paul told the Galatians to bear each other’s burdens. (6:2)
Fourth piece of advice. When you feel like complaining, let God show his hand. Numbers 11:21 is both a sad and a wonderful part of the story. After all he has seen God do, Moses faces a crisis of belief. He has a God-sized problem but doesn’t believe God can do anything about it. And God comes through with an amazing response – more than adequate meat for these complainers. And just as his wind was present in the creation of the world and when he gave the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so he uses it here as his transportation system for his provisions.
I know how it is. In our personal lives we are tempted to look at human resources rather than at God’s provisions. In church life, we are tempted to look at human resources rather than God’s provisions. Getting through the desert takes more than human genius; it takes the creative power of God. Getting through the desert takes more than our faith; it takes the faithfulness of God.
The story of the Bible is that God’s people exist only because of God’s love and action. God is able to carry out whatever He wills. Often when we face a challenge in church life we look at each other and say, “Now what do we do?” How can we provide funds to send 12 kids to camp? How can we ever begin a Kids Club? How could we possibly have enough resources to help people in financial need? And we forget that Jesus said in Mark 10:27 “For all things are possible.” And we forget Paul’s prayer in Ephesians. 3:20.
Is God’s hand shortened? Is his power limited? Here is a story from Henry Blackaby, former pastor and now well-known revival leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, from his book Experiencing God. (Experiencing God: How to live the full adventure of knowing and doing the will of God. Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King, Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville. 1994.)
One year the people on their finance committee said, “Pastor, you have taught us to walk by faith in every area of the life of our church except in the budget.” He asked them to explain. They said, “Well, when we set the budget, we set the budget on the basis of what we believe we can do. It does not reflect that we expect God to do anything.”
“Hmmm,” he said. “Then how do you feel we ought to set the budget?”
They said, “First, we should determine all that God wants to do through us. Second, we need to estimate what the cost will be. Finally, we need to divide the budget goal into three categories: (1) what we expect our tithers to give, (2) what others have promised to give, and (3) what we must depend on God to do.”
As a church, they prayed and decided that God did want them to use that approach to budgeting. They didn’t try to dream their own dreams for God. They wanted to be absolutely sure that God was leading them to do the things they put in the budget. They listed what that would cost. They listed what they thought would come in through offerings. And the difference between what they might reasonably expect to receive and the larger total was what they decided to ask God to provide.
By faith they decided to adopt the grand total as their operating budget for the year. At this point they reached a crisis of faith. Did they really believe that the God who led them to do these things also would provide the resources to bring them to pass? Blackaby: Anytime God leads you to do something that has God-sized dimensions, you will face a crisis of belief. When you face a crisis of belief, what you do next reveals what you really believe about God.
Their normal budget would have been $74,000. The budget they set was $164,000. They pledged to pray daily that God would meet their needs. Any money that came in that they did not anticipate they credited to God. At the yearend, they had received $172,000. He said that God had taught their church a lesson in faith that radically changed them all. They could have decided on the lesser amount and never known anything more about God. People in the community watching that church would have only seen what people could do. They would not have seen what God can do.
God has given our congregation a mission expressed in 5 purposes. Our fifth purpose says, “We demonstrate God’s love through ministry beyond our church family.” As pastors, we have prayed for a long time about this purpose. What if we all pledged to pray about this purpose? What if all of us who could gather to ask God to reveal to us what ministries he wants this church to put our energies into? What if, in addition, each of us agreed to pray daily asking God to reveal to us what projects he wants us to take on? Then what if we put down what that would cost and set our budget accordingly, asking God to provide beyond what we know we can give? Is God’s hand shortened? Is his power limited?
Summary/Challenge
• Make time to pray during this Lenten season. Concentrate on praising.
• Bring your prayers to the cross at Wednesday evening’s Lenten service. It’s an opportunity to share burdens and pray corporately.
• Let God open your eyes to his unlimited power.
