I recently heard this story: There is this old hound dog who loved to
hunt squirrels. He is wandering around the forests near his house one day
looking for squirrels to terrorize when he notices a hungry cougar stalking
him. He doesn’t have anytime to get away so looking around quickly without
making eye contact with the cougar, he notices a pile of bones. He goes up to
the pile of bones keeping his back turned towards the cougar. As the cougar is
getting close enough to pounce and close enough to hear, the dog licks his lips
and says to himself loudly over the bones, “I am still hungry. That cougar made
for one really good dinner but another one would really hit the spot.” The
cougar hears this and almost mid-pounce turns around and decides not to attack
the wise old hound dog. Now the hound dog is chuckling to himself about how he
outsmarted the cougar when he is overheard by a squirrel that the dog was
chasing. The squirrel, upon hearing what had happened, chases after the cougar.
He finds the cougar and is determined to rid himself of the old hound dog once
and for all. He tells the hungry cougar what the hound dog had done. The cougar
is mad now and the squirrel can’t wait to see the hound dog get what he figures
he has coming to him. The hound dog then spots this cougar running toward him
with a squirrel sitting upon his shoulder. Sizing up the situation: ‘up oh’, he
thinks. He then turns again so that he has his back to the oncoming cougar and
squirrel and right when the cougar and the squirrel are in range, he says very
loudly, “I’m still hungry. I wonder what is keeping that squirrel? I sent him
to get me some more cougars a long time ago.”
The squirrel’s predicament here in challenging the hound dog is not
entirely different than Israel’s predicament in challenging God in our pericope
today. The hungry cougar feels he has been betrayed by the appetizer sitting on
his shoulder. The squirrel has moved from the proverbial frying pan into the
fire. These Israelites as well: the Israelites have just forfeited their
salvation from Egypt and are about to die in the desert.
Now speaking about Egypt as well as the Israelites, there are a number
of things that struck me as I was reading through and about the book of Numbers
this week. One is that the Israelites in the book of Numbers seem to be in
exactly the same predicament as the Egyptians were in the book of Exodus. With
Exodus serving almost as a previous chapter in the Pentateuch, it is like God
does all of the events of the Exodus for Egypt AND to point out to Israel all
the troubles they can be spared if they simply recognize God and submit to Him.
Israel fails to do this in our text today. Israel just keeps complaining;
Israel refuses to let it go. Thus God says, Numbers 14:22-23: “not one of those
[Israelites] who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the
wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them
will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has
treated me with contempt will ever see it.” And, of course, the Egyptians of
Exodus also fail to do so and they lose their sons to the Angel of Death and
their soldiers to the Reed Sea. God says to Israel at the banks of the Reed
Sea, Exodus 14:13b: “The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.” And
indeed they don’t: just as the Egyptians are drowned in the Lord’s sorrow, so
too the Israelites die in the wilderness.
We still remember the story of the Exodus that we have been speaking
about here throughout the summer, right? The story of the plagues begin with
God telling us that He is sending all of these very dramatic signs –10 of them
– so that He will reveal Himself to Pharaoh and the children of Egypt, the
Egyptians (Exodus 7:5). Pharaoh’s heart nonetheless hardens and I really
appreciate the way Sarah-Grace explains Pharaoh’s refusal to let it go, his
rejection of the Lord and the hardening of his heart. She says, “…this time the
scripture says, ‘The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart’, but other times so far it
said ‘Pharaoh hardened his heart’ or ‘Pharaoh's heart was hardened’. So, we
need to remember that sometimes if we want to harden our hearts God will harden
our hearts for us even though it breaks His heart to do it.”[1]
Pharaoh’s Egypt thus rejects the salvation offered to them by refusing
to ‘let it go’, refusing to let go and let God handle things and then an army
and all the eldest sons of Egypt wind up dying for their sins (Exodus 14). We
remember all of this about God, Pharaoh, Egypt, the plagues and how it
developed, right?
So then, what really struck me this week while I was reading Numbers is
what God saw happen to Pharaoh and the children of Egypt; so He also is now
seeing happen to the house of Jacob and the children of Israel. God loves the
Israelites no less than He loves the Egyptians and He offers them the same
opportunities to let it go that He offered the Egyptians and just like the
Egyptians refused to let it go and let God handle things, rejecting their
salvation and perishing; so too the Israelites who were in a very real
relationship with God reject His Salvation and suffer the consequences (TSA
doc. 9). God says, Numbers 14:22-23, “not one of those [Israelites] who saw my
glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who
disobeyed me and tested me ten times— not one of them will ever see the land I
promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt
will ever see it.” God loves the Israelites no less than He loves the Egyptians
and they reject him no less than the Egyptians did and they lose this salvation
that He had already provided for them, perishing just like the Egyptians.[2]
This is sad.
Just like God sent ten signs (which we usually refer to as ‘plagues’)
upon the Egyptians so they will let go, turn to God and experience the joys
inherent to obeying the Lord; so too God, Numbers 22, sent ten situations upon
the Israelites so they might follow God but they still grumble and complain
refusing to let it go; they still reject Him each step of the way. As God warns
the Egyptians through signs and 10 plagues so God warns the Israelites with ten
opportunities to serve Him and ten times the Israelites, just like Pharaoh,
spurn God.[3]
The ten opportunities referred to in Numbers that God gave the Israelites
probably include:
- When
they are trapped at the Red Sea instead of having faith in God, they said
to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought
us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of
Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the
Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to
die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:11-12).
- At
Marah, they find bitter water and instead of trusting in God, they
grumbled to Moses (Exodus 15:22-24).
- In
the Desert of Sin they hunger and instead of trusting in God, they accuse:
“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots
of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into
this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:1-3)
- In
the Desert of Sin as God provides for their hunger, instead of trusting
and thanking the LORD, they disobey God, hoarding manna (Exodus 16:19-20).
- In
the Desert of Sin as God continues to provide relief for their hunger,
they once again refuse to put their faith in the LORD; opting instead to
disobey God by gathering manna on the seventh day (Exodus 16:27-30)
- At
Rephidim, they are thirsty and instead of turning to God they said, “Why
did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock
die of thirst?” (Exodus 17:1-4)
- At
Mount Sinai, they make the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-35)
- At
Taberah the people rage against the Lord about all of their perceived
hardships and as He hears this God’s anger is aroused (Numbers 11:1-3)
- At
Kibroth Hattaavah the people provoke God to plague them, complaining “If
only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no
cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we
never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-34)
- And
now in our chapter today, they ultimately reject God’s leadership at
Kadesh in the Desert of Paran, refusing to claim the salvation of their
Promised Land saying, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this
wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall
by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it
be better for us to go back to Egypt? …We should choose a leader and go
back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-3).
Just like Pharaoh with every plague, the Israelites with each new
opportunity to turn to God, to serve the Lord, to follow him; instead choose to
defy Him again and again, complaining bitterly about what He is doing for them,
refusing to let it go, repeatedly threatening and finally actually repenting of
their salvation. They accuse God of abandoning them to die in the desert and
-in the end- just like God hardened Pharaoh’s heart after Pharaoh’s heart was
hardened and Pharaoh hardened his own heart; so with the Israelites’
threatening to turn away from God so they won’t die in the desert God does
eventually let them go and as a result they do die in the desert.[4]
Just as Pharaoh persisted in hardening his heart so God let him do it and even
hardened his heart for him in the end, so with the Israelites as they persisted
in repenting of serving God, in the end God withdraws His offer of the promised
land of salvation for them.
God did everything so that the Egyptians and the Israelites could each
let their problems go and come to Him and continue in a saving relationship
with Him but as they each reject Him over and over and over again, though it
breaks His heart, He permits them to experience the rejection that they choose
for themselves and as a result both wind up dying in their sins. As God reached
out to the Egyptians so He reached out to the Israelites and as He reached out
to the Israelites so He reaches out to us still today.
The biggest challenge in our lives – whatever it may be - we can either
let it go and let God handle it or we can bitterly complain about our Lord,
harden our hearts and reject our salvation; we can either let it go and let God
take control of our lives; we can either turn everything over to God, following
Him into His promised salvation or we can complain bitterly against God, harden
our hearts, reject His salvation and die outside of His promised Salvation.
Now there is good news in all of this for both the Egyptians and the
Israelites and for us as well. Even as Pharaoh hardened his heart and Pharaoh’s
army drowned in the Reed Sea, a number of his officials, a number of the
Egyptians during the plagues – the Bible says – come to know the Lord. And even
as the entire generation of Israelites (save Joshua and Caleb) die in the
wilderness of Sin outside of the promise; God still forgives them and He offers
that very same opportunity to be saved to their children and the children of
Israel do not reject God’s salvation. They follow God and they follow Joshua
into the Promised Land, the promised rest, and they receive that inheritance
that God had promised and prepared for them.
And this is interesting: we know that the OT is written primarily in
Hebrew and the NT is written primarily in Greek. And we know that God used
Joshua to lead the children of Israel into their promised salvation. And we
know that Joshua is a Hebrew name; do you know what the Greek variant of the
name ‘Joshua’ is? What is Joshua’s name in Greek? It is Jesus. God uses the OT
Joshua/Jesus to lead the children of Israel to salvation and God uses the
eternal Joshua/Jesus to lead all of us to eternal salvation in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead so that we can all let it
go. We can let go, let God deal with our problems and we can follow Jesus into
that eternal Promised Land or we can reject that salvation and perish in the
wilderness of our own making. Just like with the Egyptians and just like with
the Israelites, the choice is ours. I believe that God loves us every bit as
much as He loved the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Israelites and I believe
the just as He sent them opportunity after opportunity to turn to Him and live,
so too He sends us opportunity after opportunity to live, each as real and as
recognizable as those of the ancients. If we look back on our own experiences I
think we will find that God many times has very dramatically addressed us in
our times of distress simply hoping that we will let it go; that we will let go
and follow Him into His promised salvation. The question for us today is the
same as it was for the Egyptians and the Israelites all those many years ago,
will we reject God’s love, persisting in rebellion and thus perish in the
wilderness of our own Sin or will we let it go and follow God into His glorious
salvation for both now and forever?
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
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[1] Sarah-Grace Ramsay, Plague Pops – Salvation only comes from God:
Exodus 7-12 (Sheepspeak: August 2014: Saskatchewan). Available on-line at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/08/plague-pops-salvation-only-comes-from.html
[2] Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary.
Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1981 (Tyndale Old Testament
Commentaries 4), S. 135
[3] Ronald B. Allen, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Numbers/Notes
to Numbers/Numbers 14 Notes/Numbers Note 14:22, Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. Thomas B. Dozeman, The Book of Numbers, (NIB II:
Abingdon Press: Nashville, Tenn., 1998), 125.
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