Numbers 11:4-15 Bible Study | Episode 745

August 16, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Numbers 11:4-15 Bible Study | Episode #745

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name. Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter eleven. Number chapter eleven. We're dealing with. We're dealing with a little bit of complaining. We dealt with some yesterday, and we're going to deal with some today. And this complaint is, well, I guess, carried into more detail. The complaining that went on before was just general complaining about all the things that were going on. It was murmuring. That's where there's a bunch of people over, whispering, talking about this, that or the other that they don't like. And we talked about those issues. This is. This is an actual issue that they have. But I'm going to talk about why. Was it really that big an issue, or were they looking for a reason to have trouble? And then I'm going to talk about Moses's reaction, and we're going to look at it from Moses's perspective, and we're going to kind of get an idea of how we, as a people, uh, when we. When we do things like this, uh, cause leadership, um, well, calls leadership not to want to be leaders. Uh, it says in verse four. Now, the mixed multitude were among them. Yielded, uh, yielded, uh, the two intense cravings. Now, the word mixed multitudes only used once in scripture, and it really means rabble or just a bunch of odds and ends people. It's. It's not. It's not anybody of any import. It's not anybody. It's not. It's not even a group of people that you can readily identify. It's not like this tribe was having trouble because something specifically was going on with them. It's just a mixed multitude. A group of people that, well, you just can't identify. You don't know who they are, says a mixed multitude that were among them yielded to intense cravings. Now, notice, this is a fleshly issue. This is the cravings of the flesh. It's not a issue of whether or not something right or wrong was being done, whether or not they were being led properly. This is literally a group of people that are giving into fleshly cravings. And it says, who will give us meat to eat? Now, the first question is they're acting as if they don't have meat to eat. Now, God's going to take care of this later on, but in that, he's going to give them an abundance of meat to eat. But in this certain situation, in this situation right here, they had meat to eat. And you go, well, where did they get the meat to eat? Well, they had, they had flocks that they taken they herds and flocks that they'd taken out of Egypt. They had, they had an abundance of animals that were readily available for them to eat. Now the reason they probably, this group of people were complaining and moaning is they probably were of a group of people that did not take care of their flocks and herds. They either lost them from mismanagement, they did not manage how much they ate. They just partied and enjoyed them and did not take care of the herds that they have and ate them faster than obviously they could multiply. And rather than rationing them out, knowing that they were going to be on this long journey, they just ate them up and then had no more. And if you, if you've got animals and you're farming, you can't just eat all the animals up one year because they'll not produce anymore for the next year because, well, they've been eat or ate or you ate them or. Well, you know what I'm talking about. And so they had animals to eat a, they either had run out of them or they just didn't like what they had. And so oftentimes that's what happens when you're, when you're dealing with church folks, when you're dealing with God's people, they just complain about stuff that just really is their fault, really is a problem. That's their issue, not, not an issue of the people. And so he says, who will give them meat to eat? And we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt. Notice they want meat now. They want fish now. It's fish meat. Yes, but they wanted fish. Well, they're not in a place where there is food. They're not fish in the wilderness. There's no, there's not fish there. There's just not fish there. All right. Notice they say we ate fish freely in Egypt. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. But now our whole being is dried up. There's nothing at all except this manna before ours. I love that the one thing that they complain about is the thing that is sustaining them. God has given them manna, and manna was something that sustained them completely. It provided them all the nutrients and vitamins that they needed to live. But they, they wanted, they wanted the finer things. They wanted the cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic. They wanted all the spices, and they wanted. They wanted all the fruits and vegetables that they had. And they were in the wilderness moving toward the promised land. By the way, their trip to the promised land was only supposed to take a short period of time. From leaving Sinai to the promised land would not have been any more than two or three weeks journey, and they could have gone right on in to the promised land. This same group of people is going to be group people that says we can't go into the promised land because. Because there's giants there. And knowing that God has given them a land flowing with milk and honey, which would have been what it would have provided them. All the vineyards and all the melons and all the garlic that they needed, they're not going to want to go in because they're going to have to. They're going to have to deal with the giants that are there. They're going to have to deal with the people of that land, and they don't want to do it, but they also, they also want these things. And so what they want is somebody else to provide it for them rather than them handle it themselves. Now, that's what's going on here. It says, now, the manna was like coriander seed, and it's color, like the color of bedelium. The people went out about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it with the mortar, cooked it in pans and made cakes of it. And it tastes. Its taste was like that of a pastry prepared with oil. So it had a little bit of sweet flavor to it. And it was a pastry prepared with oil. When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. So the manna was there every morning for them to eat. It was available for them to eat. It was, it was. It was not only sustaining, it was perfect for them. And by the way, the man is a picture of Jesus being the bread of life. That, I mean, that's the truth. And they, they're complaining about having just that they want a little more they want a little spice to it. They want. Now, the spiritual picture of this is, rather than, let's not just talk. Let's not talk about God's word. Let's just have fun and enjoy being together. And let's focus on the things that are of not great importance and put this manna aside so that, because we're just tired of eating it, we're tired of. We're tired of hearing. Hearing from God. Now, that's the spiritual picture. And that spiritual picture is obviously going to anger God. And I want you to notice Moses doesn't handle it well. It says in verse ten that Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused. Moses also was displeased. So God is angry and Moses is upset. So Moses said to the Lord, why have you afflicted your servant? And why have you not found faith? Why have I not found favor in your sight that you've laid the burden of all these people on me? What he's saying is, I'm tired of leading these folks. I'm tired of listening to them. I'm tired of listening to their complaining. Why now, this complaint had to be fairly. Had to be fairly at a high level for Moses to say, I'm tired of it. So tired of it, I'm ready to quit, and then move on. Why have you. Why have you done this to me, God? And let me tell you, when you're dealing with a bunch of complaining people, sometimes that's how you feel. And, you know, especially when they're complaining about things, that they're the ones who caused the problem. And there's a strong likelihood that there's two things that work here. People are complaining about problems they saw they caused themselves. And secondly, they're complaining about things not being the way they want them to be, because they're unwilling to do what it takes to make those things the way it ought to be. And that's exactly what's going to happen and what is happening. They're the, these are the, these are the same people who would have. Would have wanted to turn back and go to Egypt. These are the same people who, when they get to the promised land, don't want to go in. These are the same people who do not want to do what it takes to have God's best. But when they don't have God's best, they're going to complain bitterly about it, and they're going to reject that which causes God's best which is the manna, which is the bread of life, which is Jesus. And that happens in the church a lot. It happens a whole lot. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to be told that. I don't want us to talk about that. Even Brother Jimmy, last night in his sermon, said that a lot of churches that he's been around said you couldn't talk about Hell. Well, I've been in churches where they didn't want to hear about the blood. And let me tell you something. Hell's in scripture, and hell's mentioned in scripture a whole lot of. And that's. There's a reason for it, because God wants you to understand that there is eternal punishment for those who do not trust him. And the blood. The blood is very important. In fact, Pastor Jimmy gave me an insight that I never had before on that. And the blood is the atoning sacrifice, and it also speaks to us from the cross. It does. The blood of Jesus Christ is the answer to things. And so if you don't want to hear about it, if you're a church that does not want to hear about it, or if you're a church that wants to take out parts of God's word and just not. Let's not deal with those things, let's not. Let's not talk about those things. If that's who you are and that's how you are, let me tell you something. You're just like the children of Israel right here. You're complaining about things that are the things God is using to bless you. Now, that doesn't happen at Lake Community church, but I do know it happens because I've been there where it was happening. And of all the things that I know, when I'm with pastors, the things they struggle with the most is the people unwilling to hear the word of God. The word of God, they're unwilling to hear it. And when they're unwilling to hear the word of God, they're going to be moaning and complaining. Notice Moses is pretty, pretty upset about it. So Moses said to the Lord, why have you afflicted me like this? He said, did I conceive all these people? Meaning they're not my children? They're your children, God, did I beget them that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child? Meaning, why am I carrying them around? I'm. It's like I'm a. It's like I'm a nursemaid to the land which you swore to your father, to their fathers. And he's literally saying that I'm a nursemaid carrying them to the land that you swore to their fathers. Now, Moses is one of them, but he's so tired of them that he doesn't even associate himself with them. And, you know, when your pastor is not associating himself with you, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. I'm gonna say you're in trouble for a couple of reasons. First of all, he's not leading you anymore. Second of all, you've probably, you're probably the reason why he's not leading you anymore. And third of all, you're not gonna experience a whole lot of God's best if there's not a unity of God's people and God's leadership, yeah, there's gonna be problems. And those of you who know about those things because you've been in those places, you know what I'm talking about? He said, where am I to get meat to give all these people for? They weep all over me saying, great, give us meat that we may eat. Now, listen, I want to make just side note. I like eating meat, and I want to have meat to eat. But remember, it's not that they didn't have meat to eat. It's that either they don't like what they got, or they want something else. And we know it. They want something else because they're asking for fish, and there's no fish in the wilderness. So God's not. God's not. They're not going to be able to get fish right there unless God does a miracle, which God could do a miracle and give them fish. But the whole point is, is that there's not any fish there. Notice, they don't want their livestock anymore. They don't want any of their cattle or sheep or any of that. They want something different other than what God's provided for them. And let me tell you something. When you have a people that call themselves christian or are Christians, and they want something separate from what God's provision is, they don't want something that's godly. They don't want something that's good and that never, ever leads to anything healthy or are good for God's people. When God's people start getting rid of God's word in whole or in part, and I want you to hear me, when God's people start getting rid of God's word in whole or in part, then there's a problem. There's a major problem developing. And, and those people are heading toward disaster. He says, I'm not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now. Now, you know, Moses is being a little dramatic, but maybe not. Maybe he's not being dramatic. Maybe he's so tired of it, he's ready for it to be over. Don't know if I found favor in your sight. He's saying, kill me if I found favor in your sight. That's pretty. He's pretty sick of them, he says, and do not let me see my wretchedness, meaning I don't want to. I don't want to keep going this way and ultimately see how. Where it leads me. I just can't handle it. So that's pretty terrible. Now God's going to give him the Sanhedrin, and that's what we'll begin to talk about next week. But the truth is, is that, that any place where this type of murmuring, this type of complaining is a regular part of how things are done, there is going to be disaster around the corner, and it's going to cause division between the people and the leadership, and it is ultimately going to lead to. To people not wanting to hear what God has to say and just wanting what they want. And that can be devastating for a body of believers. And so I'd say to you, first of all, praise God, that we don't deal with that as lake community church. Second of all, if you're in a place like that, don't be a part of the murmuring. Third of all, if the murmurings are going to keep on going forever, you probably need to find another place to be. And finally, always hold on to God's word. Let me say this. God's word is sustaining and powerful. And even if it's not comfortable or you don't enjoy it in the moment, remember, his blessings and his grace is new every morning, and he's wanting to provide that for you. So don't give in to the temptation to complain. Be a part of the solution. Be searching for where God's in the midst of it, and allow God to be fully as you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today, in Jesus name.