Numbers 11:16-17 Bible Study | Episode 746

August 19, 2024

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

Numbers 11:16-17  Bible Study | Episode #746

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.

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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. Still numbers, chapter eleven. And we're dealing with the passage that had to do with the children of Israel, and they're complaining against God. And one of the things that God does, which I think is, well, it's fabulous, is he comes in and he institutes a organizational structure in which he expands the leadership of Israel. Now, Moses had done this in the sense of he had placed people over the thousands and the tens of thousands. He made sure that there was a leader of every tribe, and then that tribe had. That was under them. But this is going to be a leadership structure above that. That would have been, I guess the best way for me to describe it is the leadership structure that Moses instituted would have been like the states. Each tribe would be a state, and that state would have its own leadership structure, meaning it would have its own governor, which would have been the primary leader, which we've seen in the. In the last few chapters. God. God. Naming the leader of those places and then under them would have been people who would have been in charge of the different groups of people, the different clans of the tribe, and the different, different families. And so, as you kind of look at it, it's more like a state. The state has a leadership structure. God comes in, and he is going to institute this leadership structure, which is called. Which is going to be called the Sanhedrin. Now, over time, this leadership structure is going to involve the priesthood. And a lot of the leaders that are the elders in charge of Israel are going to be from the tribe of Levi, but they're going to be kind of the titular head or the top of the leadership structure. The other men are going to be gathered from. Gathered from the rest of Israel. And that would be more like our federal government. Wherever you have one primary leader who was the chief priest and then you have the other people who would be like Congress. The other 70, that would be like Congress. Now, that's the way it operated. When they did not have a king. Now, when they had a king, then you would have the king being the president. When I say like it, it's exactly like it, because our government set up like this. The president being in the office of king or the head of the state. And then the Sanhedrin would be Congress, or a picture of Congress, meaning they would be led by. Led by the priesthood, and they would make decisions and hand them up. And then you would have. I'm sorry, the Sanhedrin would be like the supreme Court, and then the. And then the. The prophets out in the wilderness profits out in the people, among the people would be like Congress. Now, that's the way our government's actually set up. And so our government is exactly set up, like the Old Testament israelite government. They would have a king which would be president. They would have a supreme court and a court system, which would be like the Sanhedrin. And then they would have the. The people who were representing the populace out in the. Out in the different areas of the country, and that would be Congress. And so you have these groups of people, because the 70, once you're a part of the 70, you're a part of that 70 until you die, just like our federal judges. When a federal judge goes on the court, if they are article three judge, then they get to. They. They are on the court until they die. And so as, as that works, it works the same way here. And Moses said, the Lord said to Moses, gather to my seven gathered. Gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, who you know to be elders of the people, meaning they're not just old, but the people consider them wise and in front of them. So there's a consideration of how the people view these people. It matters. I'm studying through the book of First Timothy with, with some of the pastors of the church. And as we go through this and some pastors from other churches, and as we go through this, you realize that it's important that how you're viewed by the people does matter. It's not the most important thing. And we're not supposed to make decisions and do things based off of what the people done. But what is important is that the people respect you, and the people people trust you because you've proven yourself to be a person worthy of respect and worthy of trust because you've loved them. We respect God because of his power and his wisdom and his knowledge. But we love God because he is, but we trust God because he has loved us and taught us to love him. And so there's a difference. There's two different types of leadership that go on in that and understanding that it's important for a person to be wise and knowledgeable and be able to make good, wise decisions for everyone. That's important. And it's important in leadership. But it's also important that, that be recognized by the people and that the people trust that person because, because they are a person. They're a person who is able to love and to care for other people. And that matters. That matters a whole lot in leadership. And so God said to him, when you're going to gather these people together, these elders, these 70, in fact, the word Sanhedrin that we use today means 70. It means the word 70. And so he said, gather these men together, the elders. And he says, to know, to be they known to be elders of the people and officer and officers over them, bring them to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you. Now, what I'm saying is Moses used to go in front of the tabernacle and meet with God and stand there and meet with God. Now he's going to have a group of people that come together and they meet with God also. They, now, Moses is still the leader. Moses still in charge. But, and Joshua, when he becomes in charge, he's going to be the one in charge. But this, these seventies, this group of 70 are going to have the opportunity to stand there and hear what God has to say, and they're going to have, they're going to have that knowledge and that insight in their hearts, and they're going to be able to go out and disseminate that among the people in a very powerful way because, well, they've heard from God themselves, and hearing from God matters. Now, we understand that we're a royal priesthood and we're all priests today and that we all have the Holy Spirit inside of us and we all hear from the Holy Spirit. And so these things are not just, they're not necessary in the sense of that we have to have a 70 today to do this. But what matters is, is that God wanted to make sure that there was a leadership that had the approval of the people, had the wisdom and the understanding of time that they spent in those leadership positions. And he is going to, he is going to place on them well, an important gift. It says in verse 17 that I'll come down and talk with you there I'll notice I'm going to come down and talk with you, and I'm going to talk with you while they're in their present, he says, and I will take the spirit that is upon you. Now notice there's, there's an understanding here that is important to get. It's an old testament understanding. And the old, in the old Testament, the spirit of the Lord came upon people. The spirit of Lord was not in them. Now do I believe the spirit of the Lord was in some of them? Yeah, I do. Just from, just from what passages say about certain things, yes. But the main way the spirit of the Lord operated, or the Holy Spirit operated in the lives of the leaders and the lives of the people that he was making giving revelation to, the main way that he operated was to be upon them. And the reason he was not in them is because they were not born again. The Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you when you're born again, when you have a spirit for the Holy Spirit to commune with. That's the whole point of the Holy Spirit living inside of you is the Holy Spirit communes with your spirit. Now if you don't have a spirit, then the Holy Spirit has no real reason to come inside of you. It can just come upon you in power as it happened in the old Testament. You're going to see that all the time as you're studying through the Old Testament, as we study through the Old Testament together, you will see that the spirit of the Lord came upon Old Testament saints, Old Testament believers, Old Testament leaders, you're going to see that the spirit of the Lord came upon them. In fact, when David was an only king of Israel for the first time, when he was out in the field with his father in the house meeting with Samuel and presenting all his other sons to him, when David was anointed, when he came in and Samuel said, surely this is the one that God's prepared for anointing. When he said that he anointed him with the earl. And the Bible says the spirit of the Lord came upon him and never left him. Now, does the spirit of the Lord come upon us in the New Testament? Yes, he does. But the first place he comes is inside of us, in our hearts. Spirit, the kingdom of God is in us now. It's not upon us. It's not on top of us. It is in us. And then when we read it by faith, like that well of living water, that artesian well that flows out from us, the spirit of the Lord flows out upon us in power. And a lot of Pentecostals call that the second baptism. I believe, I believe in that idea. Not necessarily the way Pentecostals theologically teach it, but I believe in that idea. I believe in that understanding that the spirit of the Lord comes inside of you when you were born again. He comes in and places in you a new spirit and communes with that spirit inside of you. And then when you begin to walk by faith and learn as a part of the salvific process, that obedience, that obedience that is born not of, not of ritual or rules, but that obedience that's born of faith, causes the spirit to come upon you in power, meaning it flows out from you as that well of living water. It flows out and it's upon you in power. And as long as you keep walking in obedience because you trust God, obedience born of faith when, when you keep walking in that obedience born of faith, that power increases, increases, increases and grows and grows and grows and changes everything around you. And that is very similar to the Old Testament saints. The Old Testament saints had the spirit upon them, and when they walked by faith the same way, even though they didn't have direct communion with God, even though they met with God at the tabernacle. At the tabernacle, or they met with God at the temple, that God dwelled with them, but he didn't dwell in them when they walked in obedience, the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them in its fullness. And so as you're kind of thinking through these things and studying them, you'll see that the Holy Spirit is upon, upon them. He's upon them here. He says, then I will come down and take, and talk with you there. I will take the spirit that is upon you, and I'll put that same upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. Now, what he's saying is, they're going to, they're not, they're not just going to be these leaders that are out there that you placed in charge of things. I'm going to empower them in a unique way, different than you just picking a leader and saying, you know, fix these problems over here. Go do that. What he's saying is, I'm going to do something unique here. I'm going to empower them with the same holy spirit that I've empowered you with, the same spirit that was able to change the rod into a snake, make the river, the Nile river, turn with blood, the locust, and all the different signs and wonders that Moses did because the spirit of God was upon him, is going to be upon them and they're going to be able to operate in the same spirit that you operate in. And so you see here that God is able to do that beyond just one leader. And whenever God's really moving and beginning to do big things, you can see that begin to happen oftentimes in churches. We want just one person to kind of make the decision and you know, they, they're the ones who, if they mess up or just, you know, kick them to the curb, pick somebody else. We, we want somebody else to go meet with God. You grow up on the mountain, you go talk to God. But the truth is, is when God really moves in, in a powerful way among his people, that spirit's going to come upon many, many people. And those people still have to operate in the leadership structure, but they still, they have a power unto themselves. And it's important that you recognize that, that power is there, that those in, in the congregation, just like here in the 70, recognize that, that they see it, that it's real and that they take on many of the burdens of leadership that the woman was carrying. Now the spiritual principle takes place here in the Old Testament, is a spiritual principle that should take place in the New Testament. It should be, it is the same principle. God didn't change, and God's method of teaching and growing leadership doesn't change. He has instituted church, which is a different institution than the children of Israel. That being said, the principles of leadership and the ways in which God leads his people are generally the same. They're, they're the same. Jesus came down and did he just go and do ministry by himself? No, he immediately found twelve and he began to teach them and train them in the way they should walk, in the way they should lead. And when he was gone, he had twelve powerful male leaders and eleven powerful male leaders, and then he had several women that were powerful, in word indeed. And they, and they supplemented that leadership structure and before you know it, within a couple centuries the world was never the same again. And so you see this understanding in leadership. And the primary thing is that they be people who are people of faith and who are people trustworthy because, you know, God can just look at them and say, hey, these people are trusted by the people because they're people of faith and they're people of love, they're people that genuinely care about others and that they're willing to walk in faith. In the things I revealed to them. And the Holy Spirit unveils that and makes them, well, he makes them leaders. And so these things that we recognize in our lives, we should see all the time. We should recognize them all the time, and we should, we should begin always, always be developing leaders. And that's what a good leader, singular leader does, is he develops other leaders, because as those, as those leaders take their position, the body is able to grow and the Bible body is able to become more than it is at the time. The leader is just the single, single lone wolf out there. The lone wolf in the winter dies, but the pack survives, is as Game of Thrones says, but it's actually true. If we're going to, if we're going to make it through the lean times, it's great to have leaders because, well, because that is a gift from God that he's given to us. And so I love this passage for that reason. Now, the next part of the passage is God's going to deal with this meat problem that the people are complaining and murmuring about it. You're going to see how God kind of deals with it. I think it's a very, somewhat gross, but interesting passage that we'll be dealing with tomorrow.

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.