Numbers 11:31-35 Bible Study | Episode 750

August 23, 2024

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

Numbers 11:31-35   Bible Study | Episode #750

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 a numbers, chapter eleven. Numbers, chapter eleven. We had a break yesterday. I didn't quite get up in time to do the Bible study because I was a little bit nauseated yesterday. So we just tried to make it through today, and I'm still a little that way this morning. But we will make it through this long day also and see what God has for us. It is a great opportunity to. Well, just to enjoy what God's doing and not focus on the flesh, which is something that we naturally do. We naturally focus on the flesh. And that's what this whole story's about. Because, remember, they've left Mount the mountain, Mount Sinai and the mountain where they received the word of God, and they're headed toward the promised land. And so many times in our lives, so many times in our lives, we don't understand that. That transition from knowing about God to knowing God, which is the transition from the mountaintop where God reveals himself to us, to the promised land where we walk with him by faith. That transition is going to have to deal with some things. It's going to have to. Some things are going to come about. And really, all these troubles that we're going to talk about, that we've been talking about, and that we're going to talk about, is God giving us a foreshadowing and an understanding of how in our own lives, we begin to complain, we begin to give in to the world, we begin to give in to the flesh. And we allow that to sidetrack us, to remove us, to keep us from experiencing God's very, very best. And that's what happens here with them complaining about not having enough meat to eat. Because what happens is that they give in to the lust of their flesh or the desires of their flesh. And this is something that's regular. We know that our flesh is strong and that our flesh is desirous of its own will in its own way. And we struggle with that. Every one of us, every believer struggles with that. And so when we're studying through God's word, and we're especially studying through the picture of going from God's revelation to God's promises, as we, as we study this transition, which is going to end up being a long transition, this transition from going from God's revelation to God's promises involves a putting to death of your flesh. It also involves a submission of your will. It also involves a. A understanding that you're not in control, but God's in control. And we're going to deal with some of that also in the next few Bible studies this week. But in this Bible study, you have to see that God gives them. God's not going to take. You know, so many times when we deal with flesh, we think, and I can remember discussing this with young men when I was in my thirties, and we just said, you know, the desire is asceticism, which is just. Just to go off and become monks and separated yourself from the flesh. And that's really what that movement was all about, is to separate yourself from the world totally, so that your flesh would not, you would not give into your flesh. But I'm gonna tell you, even those monks on those mountains struggle with their flesh, every one of them, because you can't get away from your flesh. And the answer is not to. The answer is not to remove all things that might cause your flesh to flare up. That's not the answer. The answer is, when the flesh flares, you flee it. You flee the situation. You get away from it. You remove yourself from it. But you can't totally remove all. You can't remove the possibility of the world igniting the fire of your flesh. There's no way to do that. That's not possible, because your flesh can tap into what your mind remembers. And if you've indulged your flesh in any possible way in this world, and we all have, because we're all human, even if I am by myself and totally away from anything that would indulge my flesh in any way, I can still tap into the resource of my memory and feed the fire of my flesh, we all can. There's just this just not possible to remove the flesh from our lives. What's possible is to learn how to recognize that the flesh is flaring up. Because God is beginning, is moving me toward his kingdom and his best. And so the answer is to run toward God and run away from, run away from the fleshly desires that come up so easily in our lives. The New Testament says that so easily entangle us. It's kind of like a running back running and the defense, trying to grab his legs and drag him down. It's like trying to run through a field where the grass is real high and you got to pick your knees up, because if you don't, your feet get caught by the grass and you trip and fall. Your flesh easily entangles you. And so oftentimes we think that our solution is really a, a human solution. It is to, it is to try to remove that which is causing the problem, rather than running toward God and running away from the problem. See, you are actually engaging the issue rather than actually, rather than running toward God. And you go, well, aren't we supposed to engage the issue? Not in this situation. No, you're not. You're to flee it. We're to flee youthful lust. We're to flee the fleshly desires that we had in our youth that plague us on into our senior years. We're to flee those things now when it deals with the world. Do not be conformed to the image of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Yeah, I can be changed from the way I lived in this world, from worldliness to godliness, by actually confronting it, thinking through it, and dealing with it. But that's not, that's not those lustful fleshly desires that come from my, come from my literal, it comes from my being, the physical being that I live in. I can't, I can't. You cannot. You cannot remove them from your life, and you cannot, you cannot attack them and try to deal with them directly. You have to trust God for those things. And the people gave in to their desire for what, quite literally in this passage is flesh. They wanted to eat meat, and so they are on their way to the land flowing with milk and honey, and they're in the process of complaining, which, you know, anytime you're on big trip, you don't want you. I mean, you're fired up and excited. But the truth is, the trip that we're going on, we don't know the destination. We don't understand it. We can't conceive of the goodness of God when we leave his revelation, we can't see, conceive of how it's going to totally play out. And so oftentimes we get dragged away by our own fleshly desires, and that's what they did, they. They were dragged away by their desires, the desires of their flesh, and they complained and murmured against God and they said things about God that were not true and they dishonored him. That's what they did. And so what God did was he sent a wind. It says that in verse 31. Now, wind went out from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp. About a day's journey on the side, on this side, and about a day's journey on the other side, meaning in both directions, there were. There were these quail that were there to eat. And it says all around the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, meaning they fluttered at a height that they could get them. They weren't flying up above them, they were. They were fluttering around and they never got any more than about two cubits high, which is about four, three or 4ft high. So they couldn't get up off the ground. There were just so many of them that they. That they were all over the place. And the people stayed up all that day and all night and all the next day and gathered the quail. They were just grabbing them as much as they could get. And he who gathered at least gathered ten homers, which is a whole lot, a lot of quail. I mean, there was. It was a bunch. And you go, you go, why? Why is he saying the least? Because there were people who were piling it up, truckloads of it, and it says. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. Now, now, listen to me. When you were. When you were not born again, when you were not walking with God, when you had no idea of who he was, a real, real understanding of what would it meant to be a believer. You could live in the world and you could feed your flesh and that seemed like the best thing to do. It seemed like the thing that was desirable to do is to just feed your flesh. And that's what you did. You know, you can't wait till the weekend, and then you end up partying on Thursday night too, and then Wednesday night and on into Monday. And before you know it, all you're doing is feeding your flesh. All the time, all the time. All the time you're feeding your flesh. You do everything you can do to feed your flesh. And you've seen the people who do that to the point where all they're doing is feeding their flesh and they destroy their lives because your flesh will destroy you. And so that's just their lives. That's how they live. And it's death, and it slowly seeps toward death. And those who have some eyes to see and ears to hear, they realize that. I even had a conversation with a young couple yesterday, and they said, you know, people in their twenties and thirties still acting like they're in high school and, and they're actually letting their kids join them in that. They're, they're partying all week long and on the weekends, and they're, they've got their children right there in the midst of it. And you know that they were shocked by it. And I was sitting there thinking, well, that's not, that's not something new to this age. That's, that's something that's been going on for a long, long time. And, and so that feeding that flesh is just right there in front of you. But when you get a revelation from God, when you get an understanding from God, I want you to hear me. When you start feeding your flesh again from revelation, where God has revealed himself to the place where God has for you his best, his promises, his kingdom, when you start feeding your flesh in that area, it becomes bitter and it tastes like death. It does. It is a plague on your flesh. The revelation of God is a plague on your flesh. The revelation of God is a power to overcome your flesh. The revelation of God is in his ability to know where to go for help. And when the Bible says flee youthful lust, it doesn't mean just to run with reckless abandon any, in any direction. It means to flee toward God. Not to flee, not just to flee for flight sake. It is to flee toward the God who loves you and the God who gave you hope. It is quite literally to flee toward his best and to flee toward him. And so I can say this without any reservations, as a man who next week will turn 52, your flesh is still alive. When you get past 40, when you get over the hill and start on the downside of it, your flesh is still running, running full speed. And I can also say this, that you can overcome that by fleeing toward God. It is absolutely possible. And I can also tell you that as you, as you go toward God's best, your flesh in seasons is going to flare up. It's going to desire the old ways and the old things and the old life and the old way of living. And it's, it's going to. It's going to tempt you and try to drag you off. And the putting of death, putting to death your flesh or. Or the leaving your flesh behind is a process that has to be learned by believers in order to experience God's very, very best. It takes a. It takes a journey, a strong, difficult journey to lay the things of this world aside and to pick up the things of God. And God will make sure that when you feed your flesh, that it tastes and smell like death for you. He will. And that's one of the gifts of God, is that even in the midst of. Of feeding your flesh and as you used to be, it would be a lot of fun and excitement. It becomes. It becomes nasty to you, it becomes deadly. And you go, well, what are you talking about, feeding your flesh? I'm talking about all kinds of stuff. You name it. I don't know what it is for you. It might be shopping all day long and buying, spending every dime you've got. It might be some kind of sexual issue. It might be some kind of substance that you are addicted to. I don't know, it might be food. It might be something that feeds your flesh. The number of things that feed your flesh and take you away from God's best are numerous. They're just many times, they're just more than you can imagine. And whatever that is for you, and however that is and whatever that may be in multitude, because it might not just be one thing, whatever that is for you, however that manifests itself for you, I want you to hear me. When you get a revelation from God and begin to seek him out, when you. When you meet God on Mount Sinai and really figure out who he is and then begin to seek him out, your flesh is going to rise up. And when you indulge it, it is not going to be like it used to be. It is not going to be like it used to be. It might be good for a moment, okay? It might be good for a moment, but ultimately leads to death, okay? A sin that's pleasurable for a moment, but at least to death. And for a believer who's got a revelation for God, it smells like that all the time, okay? You realize that if I give into this, it may be pleasurable for this second, but afterwards, it's going to be more painful than it's ever been before. And that's what it is to really walk with God, is he? He helps you deal with that. But remember, I'm not running in any direction. I'm running toward God. And so when I put to death my flesh, or when I escape my flesh and run from it and allow God to put it to death, what does he do? Well, he makes it death. He does. That's what he did here. They chased after their own desires because they. They were going from revelation. And when I say revelation, I mean God revealing himself on Mount Sinai. They're going from revelation to God's kingdom and his best, which was the promised land. In that journey, there has to be a dealing with your flesh, and the dealing with your flesh is your. Your answer to it is to run to him. To run to him and. And to run away from it. And his answer for you is to make that old flesh and those old things that you used to do, even though you know they're going to be just in the very moment that I'm in it maybe may be pleasurable, but ultimately, right after it's over, its death, and you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever indulged your flesh after you've received God's revelation and you're chasing after him, you know that it's pleasurable just for a second. And then the pain and the struggle and the death that comes from it, not. Not physical death. It is literally, it feels like the spirit of God is seeping from you. And in many ways, that is the case, even though he's not leaving you. The power of God is being removed from you. As that happens, you know what it feels like to have that death, and it's a plague. The feeding of the flesh, for a believer, is a plague. And the Lord aroused it against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. That's verse 33. So they called the name there Kilbroth Hatavah. Hatavah, I think, is how it's named. And that means the graves of lust are the graves of their craving. And that's really on the journey from revelation to the kingdom. The promises of God is the death or the graves of your cravings. And God does lead you through that. He leads you through it to teach you to run from it, to teach you to run from him and to teach you to leave those things behind. And I'm not going to lie to you. Of all the processes and all the things you go with, go through with God, this is probably one of the most difficult ones. It is. And I do not. I'm not here to condemn or to put you down at all. It's a struggle. It's a real thing. And I think that's the whole reason Jesus came, is he wanted to be familiar with our suffering. Sure, all the suffering that is in the world, but really the familiarity with believers trying to figure out how to get out of their flesh and live by the spirit, and you can see that with all the disciples there, they're sure enough struggling with their flesh as they're right there in the presence of God himself. And so they know that they need Jesus, and they know that Jesus is there for them, and they know that they need to put those things aside. But it ain't easy being cheesy. You know how it is. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's a process of putting to death the old life so that you might walk in the new. And you got to have Kilbroth Hatabah, which is you've got to have the graves of lust or the graves of our pleasure. You got to put those things in the ground because they're really not real joy, peace, passion. They're really not. They're just pleasurable, but for a very finite period of time. It says, then God moved the people on to Hazareth, and they camp there. God's going to move you through it, and God's going to help you deal with it, but you're going to have to run to him when that flesh rises up. And it's a real thing. And I pray for you that you will know what it means to overcome and to walk by the spirit and not live by the desires of your flesh, because it is a great place to be. It is a great place of joy.

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.