The Journey

The Book of Numbers contains a lot of statistics related to the people of God, but it is much more than just facts and figures. It records Israel’s 40-year journey through the wilderness, beginning at Mount Sinai and ending on the plains of Moab, across from the Promised Land. The writings found in Numbers reveal a genuine picture of the Israelites and their growing relationship with God. The successes and failures of God’s people are recorded as they journeyed through the wilderness. This book is an instruction manual, a road map, that is designed to help the Israelites as they come out of the bondage of Egypt and into the blessings of the Promised Land. In three way it describes:

how the nation was to organize itself for its journey to the Promised Land.
how the priests and Levites were to function during this journey which lay ahead.

how they were to prepare themselves for the conquest of the Land of Canaan.

The fact that the book covers nearly 40 years leads me to the title of today’s sermon – “Bumps on the Road.” They were on a journey that was filled with discovery and learning, along with challenges and failure. Despite their struggles and rebellion, God honours his promise to Abraham and prepares the Israelites to cross over into the Promised Land. This wilderness journey is more than simple acknowledgment of the 10 Commandments giving at Mount Sinai. It involves an intentional commitment to obedience. Taking risks for God. Faithfulness. Overcoming the bumps on the road. The Book of Numbers is not for the faint of heart, it is for those who are willing to pay the price, so to speak, like Joshua and Caleb, who despite the challenges, were confident that God could and would take them into the Promised Land.

Connecting the Old and the New

As a young boy growing up I had lots to learn. School was something I liked because I wanted to learn, to discover and find out about life on earth, but I was also a dreamer and wanted to go to the stars. My mind was always thinking and imagining. The lessons preparing me for life were not just taught in the classroom, but also learned is daily experience. I learned by study but also by failure; failure is not sin. And sometimes I learned very difficult lessons as a result of my disobedience or rebellion. The same is true for the people of God as seen in the Book of Numbers.

There is a connecting passage of Scripture that relates to the Book of Numbers that we are reading through now. Do you ever look at these Old Testament books and we wonder why in the world are we studying them? How does this relate to us today? Is this even applicable? 1 Cor 10:1-22 unpackages the Book of Numbers for us. It connects the Old and New together. It gives understanding to us. Helps us to overcome some of the bumps on the road as we journey towards our Promised Land. You will find that the Lord says what happened to the children of Israel in the Old Testament happened as an example to us of the things that we have to deal with in our life.

The Bible is our instruction manual, our road map that reveals timeless and eternal truths. It is God’s Love Story calling us out of self-consciousness and back into a God-Consciousness. This is the journey. The bumps on the road that we face daily are really no different from the problems that people faced back in the Book of Numbers.

Bumps on the Road

Let’s read through 1 Cor 10… For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

This is all about a journey; they all passed through, they all ate, they all drank, they were scattered. During the Israelites 40 years of wandering, Jesus accompanied them, not in person, not flesh and blood, but through provision, through divine and supernatural encounters. There is something to be said about learning from our forefathers, learning from the past, so that history does not repeat itself. We are to learn from these examples, these models or types, so that we keep our heart from evil things. Here are a few bumps in the road to avoid.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” (1 Cor 10:7). Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it was god… devotees, fanatics, worshippers. In the day and age of enlightenment, idolatry is far more elusive to pin down. Our minds can make up idols as easily as bird’s tweet. And there are a lot of Tweets out there today leading people astray. How about carved images? (Ex 20:4-5). Government. Economy. Science. People. And so on. The Bible says covetousness is idolatry (Col 3:5). Worshipping creation is idolatry (Rom 1:25).
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day (1 Cor 10:8). The trouble with sex and immorality and perversion is not new. It has been going on for generations. This is a bump in the road that can sideline people. We live in a sexualized culture where marriages suffer. Men suffer. Women suffer. Children suffer. In the context of Numbers 25, sexual immorality led to eating and drinking and sacrificing and worshipping other gods. The Lord was very angry because of this.
We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes (1 Cor 10:9). The Israelites put God to the test (Psalm 78;18) by questioning the plans and purposes of God. They demanded water and food and were selfishly challenging God to provide. We can learn from this. Self-care is a benefit to us for sure, as long as it does not cross over into selfishness. There is a fine line between what is good and seeing how far you can push the limits with God.
And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel (1 Cor 10:10). The grumblings of the Israelites against God is seen several times on the way to the Promised Land. It is so easy to overlook this bump in the road as insignificant or inconsequential. The power of life and death is in the tongue (Prov 12:18). We must learn from the examples of Scripture and avoid this all-too-easy slip of the tongue.

Listen to how Eugene Peterson sums up these bumps in the road. These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it (The Message 1 Cor 10:11-13).

In Conclusion

The Israelites experienced a few bumps in the road during their wilderness wanderings. They would have engaged in the Passover Meal 40 times or so. They knew what it was to remember, year after year, God delivering them from the bondage and slavery in Egypt. This is also spoken of in 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul uses the Old Testament passages from Exodus and Numbers to warn us of potential slavery and bondage to sin. In the same breath he then speaks of the Lord’s Supper. “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor 10:16-17). This cup of blessing or thanksgiving is the name the Jews gave the cup at the end of a meal. It was also used of the third cup at Passover. Paul now brings it home in relation to Communion. He also does this with the bread. In essence he is saying it is time to partake of the person of Jesus Christ. We all have bumps in the road of life. Nevertheless, we have a gracious and merciful God. He warns us from lessons of the Old Testament. He are some bumps in the road to avoid; idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God and grumbling. Paul even states that when these temptations come “God is faithful; he will not let you tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor 10:13).

Communion Time…