Numbers 11:18-20 Bible Study | Episode 747

August 20, 2024

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

Numbers 11:18-20   Bible Study | Episode #747

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 again. And you're sitting there going, well, pastor, you are, Chad, I can't believe it. You're just. You're not moving very fast in this chapter. And you would be right to say that because we have, we were in it last week, and it looks like we're going to stay in it for a good long while. And there's a reason for that. And this is really the first wrestling match about the wants and desires of God's people and God's will for them. And. And it centers around. It centers around food. And obviously, if you know me, that's an important thing for me. It would be an important topic for me to delve into anyway. And especially when they are desirous of meat to eat and they have not had any, although I want you to hear me, that man shall not live by bread alone. But every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, they were given food that was going to handle their needs, not in. It's not a situation, oftentimes people read into things that they're not there. It's not a situation where they were lacking something, where they were. Where they were not willing to be in it. They couldn't handle it. They were. They had to have the meat. It's not a situation where they were lacking that. First of all, you go, well, they've got to have protein. They've got to have fat. Yes, they do. And manna was not. But they did have huge herds of cattle and goats. They had access to, at the very minimum, without getting rid of a single animal. They had access to. They had access to the milk of the animals. So they were going to have protein and they were going to have fat from that. But they also were doing sacrifices, and they were bringing their own sacrifices. And we've been through the whole sacrificial system, and then they bought those sacrifices. They sat down with the priest and ate the sacrifice. So it's not as if they weren't eating meat. It's not as if they weren't eating the food that they needed for their body to be strong. That was not the issue. And that was not the problem. The issue and the problem was, is that they wanted. Well, they wanted fish. They wanted, you know, they wanted filet mignon. They wanted. What they wanted was what they wanted. And they wanted. They wanted in the supply that they wanted it. And they were not. They were hard hearted. And we know that from all the stories in the past. And they. They complained. And I want you to notice that, God, it's not the issue of saying, okay, here's a problem, Lord, can you. Will you. Will you resolve this problem for me? That. That's not the issue here. God is in the business of talking with us. God is in the business of dealing with us personally. God is in the business of us recognizing. I mean, even in the Lord's prayer or relates to the disciples prayer, give us this day our daily bread. What does that say? Well, we have needs, and we need you to meet those needs. You're the God who meets those needs. So it's not as if God was nothing, giving them the things that they needed for life. It's not as if that they were coming to God and saying, God, we have. We are. We are completely lacking in this, and we need that from you. They had the things that they needed. They had the manna, which was plenty of food for them. They did bring grain and things like that out of Egypt. They're making these grain offerings to God. They have them. And it's not as if they're not trading with people that come through and buy. Now, there wouldn't be enough to feed all, you know, million plus people. But. But they were. They had access to those things, and then they had. They had a unbelievable, unbelievably large amount of. They had an unbelievably large amount of cattle and sheep and livestock that they could eat from that. They. That they had the ability. They just didn't get it in the way they wanted it exactly like they wanted. And they're saying, God, you give us this the way we want it. You. You, God, we're coming to you. And. And in complaining, they're acting as if God has. Has not lived up to his responsibility as God. They're. They're. They're saying to him, saying, to them, him, you're not being the God that you promised to be, and that is an attack on, an assault on the character of God. And oftentimes, oftentimes when somebody says something about a situation, when they're saying it, they're not really talking about the situation. They're talking about the character of the person involved in the situation. And when they're making those statements, they're making those statements that we don't do the right thing by someone. Oftentimes, especially for me and my wife, you know, throughout life, you know, sometimes we just, when you're dealing with older family members and they say things to other people, making it seem as if, you know, you're not doing what you ought to be doing in relation to them, that's a problem. And acting as if you're, you know, you're, you're somehow not doing the things you ought to be doing in that relationship. That's a problem. Well, I can recognize that, uh, as, as now a mature adult who's got children and grandchildren, uh, I understand that. And, and elderly parents and, you know, elderly grandparents, uh, recently, and I understand that. And, and there is some, there is some consternation about it. And God says here, then you shall say to the people, consecrate yourself for tomorrow. Remember, he's already set aside that 70, uh, we studied that yesterday. The sanhedrin's been made. And he placed his spirit upon them. He said, consecrate yourself for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord saying, who will give us meat to eat? Meaning, who's going to take care of us because God's not taking care of us. Notice, notice they didn't say anything about God, and yet they said a lot about God. And oftentimes people want to backhand attack you, attack you in a way that they're not actually talking, but they are talking. And they basically, you know, God saying, you know, you're weeping and saying, who shall take care of us? And the truth is, is, is that they're not taking care of you. They're not, they're not handling you. They're. And you, that's what you're saying. Well, they're, they're saying that about God. He said, they says, who should, who give us meat to eat? And for it was well with us in Egypt. Notice we were better off in Egypt. Really. You were better off in Egypt. Really. You were better off in slavery, really. You were better off having your children slaughtered. You were better off in Egypt. You really were. You see how it goes oftentimes, our complaining about our position and us desiring what we want, God knowing that it's totally not within his will or his way. That's a problem, he says. He says, you shall, therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. Notice that's a word for shall anytime. And I'm an attorney, so the word shall has great significance if you read that in the law or you read that in the Bible, shall means you will. And if a judge issues an order and it says you shall do this and you don't, well, there's a good chance you're going to either pay a whole lot of money or you're going to go to jail. When the word shall there, it means you will do this. And if you do, if you don't do this, there's going to be a lot of shall go on after that. He says, you shall eat not one day, not two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor 20 days, but the whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. And that's the key phrase right there. He says, you're going to have it until you can't stand it anymore. And there is a warning in this. He says, but you have despised the Lord who is among you. Notice he said, you've despised me. And I'm right here with you. I've been, I'm in the midst of it. So you, you've acted like you would be better off somewhere else, and I'm here right in your presence. He said you despised the Lord who was among you and have wept before him, saying, why do we, why did we ever come out of Egypt? Notice he's, he's, he's, he's pretty much upset. Notice they didn't say anything about God specifically, but they said everything about God in, in this situation. They, they, they weren't getting what they wanted and they were pitching a temper tantrum. And God says, okay, I'm fixing to give you what you want. And let me tell you something. I'm gonna give it to you so much that you're going to wish you never had it before. He says, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, he says, you gonna eat it, and I'm gonna make you eat it. Now, what's the lesson? Well, there is a lesson here. There's a lesson that you have your desires and God has his will. And when your desires are not clearly in line with his will, in the moment, then seek his will and walk through it and see that your desires are not eventually met. Eventually, your desires are going to be fulfilled. The Bible says he fulfills the desires of our hearts, but we have to have hearts that are in many ways conformed to his will so that he can give us our best. We have to understand his, his will in his way for us, so that we might actually know what is the best for us. And here he says, I'm fixing to give you what you want and the one thing that you sure don't want from God. I want you to hear me. You don't want what you deserve, and you don't want what you want. What you want is what he has prepared for you. Now, in the moment, you may not feel that way. And in the situation you might be in, you may not be desirous of it, act actually coming about that way, but the truth is. The truth is, is that God knows exactly what's going to give you. Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, fulfillment, purpose, direction, life. He knows what it is. And so by leading you down the path of his will, he leads you down the path of fulfilling your deepest and inmost desires. He knows what's best for you, he knows what's good for you. He knows where the life is in you, and he knows how to meet those needs. But you can't do that by, well, I mean by attacking him, saying, you know, God's not taking care of me, and you sure can't do it by seeking out your own desires rather than knowing why and how and what God's doing in each situation. Because if you, if you begin to say, you know, God is not really God and he's not taking care of me, and I want this, and this is what I need, and I sure need this, and God's not providing it for me. You may go down a path where you get more of what you thought you wanted than you ever expected, and ultimately it'll lead to you being sick, you being well, you having meat coming out your nostrils. That's what he said. It's going to become loathsome to you, and eventually the thing that you wanted the most becomes the thing that you least want. And I found that to be really true about a lot of people. They hunger and thirst for something that's not God. And one day they wake up and they just can't stand it and don't want to ever be around it again. How did that happen? Well, they weren't chasing after God's will for them. They were chasing after their own will, their own purposes, their own life, and, and it was empty and meaningless. You know, King Solomon, David's son, he chased after everything in the world, and then he wrote a book about it. And the book, basically, well, the key, well, it's not a key verse, it's key word. The key word in that book is meaningless. In fact, if it, if it was sold on the, on the bookshelves of modern society, the headline would be meaningless, meaning everything that I thought I wanted or desired was meaningless. Everything that God has is fulfilling. And so we can't chase after our own things. Can't chase after our own desires. We have to, we have to do the things and see the God that is before us. And when he shows us his will in his way, he's going to fulfill your needs. I want you to hear me. He's not in the business of leaving you in want. He's going to meet those needs. He is a God who's true to those things, but you've got to trust him in them. You got to trust him and you got to give him, give him a his due, which is that he's God. So I want you to think about that and consider it. And as you search through life for what it is that you want, make sure that your wants and desires are falling in line with God's will. If they're not, then one day you might not want them. In fact, they may become loathsome, too.

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 pea