Numbers 12:14-16 Bible Study | Episode 756

September 2, 2024

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

Numbers 12:14-16   Bible Study | Episode #756

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 Leviticus, chapter. I mean, numbers, chapter twelve. Leviticus. We've already been through Leviticus. We're in numbers, chapter twelve, and we're dealing with the very end of the story of where Miriam and Aaron fomented a rebellion, really, against Moses. And Moses has done what he should do as a leader. He has done what's right, even though Miriam and Aaron fomented this rebellion, even though God has called them to account for it. Moses has stepped in as he should, fulfilling his role as the deliverer, fulfilling his role as God's called leader for the people of Israel. He has prayed for the one who. Well, the one who wronged him, and he has asked God to deliver her from this and deliver Aaron from this. And so he's done exactly what he should do. But we gotta deal with the final. The final results, because ultimately, and you need to hear this, ultimately, God's the judge of these things. We're not the judge of these things. We don't get to decide these things. God ultimately gets to decide these things. And so, so many times when we're in. When we're in prayer, we leave out the fact that God gets to determine the outcome. We get to determine whether or not we're going to walk in faith with him. He gets to determine the outcome. And oftentimes, when I was younger as a pastor, I would go into that passage in James where it says, if any of you are sick, let him call on the elders of the church and anoint with oil, and the prayer and face shall raise him up for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And I felt so burdened that if I did not pray the prayer in a certain way or I didn't do it the right way, that there wouldn't be the results that James calls for. And then that would be an indication that I, well, I wasn't righteous. And I took righteousness back then when I was very, very young in the ministry, I took righteousness to mean that I was holy, that I was, I was, I had the stamp of approval from God. And that that was, that was a heavy burden for a young pastor to carry. And then I realized a couple of things. The first thing I realized was, even when I pray, God is the arbiter of the prayer. He's the one who determines what is the outcome come going to be. My job is to be righteous because the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And what is righteousness? Righteousness is to be right with God. And how do I gain righteousness? Well, the way I gain righteousness is by faith. I gain righteousness by trusting God. And when, when you hear God's revelation, you believe it and you do it, you will, you are acting in faith. Faith is the only thing that's going to please God. Without it, it's possible to please God. Faith is all that there is going to be to please God. And then when I pray for someone in a situation, I'm not in charge of the outcome. So I don't try to be in charge of the outcome, because me trying to be in charge of the outcome is going to, I want you to hear me. It's going to decrease my faith, because now I am placing myself in the position of being the arbiter of how the universe is going to operate. And that makes me placing myself somewhere on the level of God. And so when things don't work out the way I want them to work out, I'm saying that I am God, and I'm the one who gets to decide. That's not what I'm to do. What am I to do? Hear God, believe God. Act upon it. God said, if anyone's sick, I'm gonna anoint them. I'm to pray over them. I'm to expect that God hears me, because he does. I'm gonna walk through all the things that. That cause it to be possible that I could actually come into the chamber. And God know me. And when I say the chamber, I'm talking about the throne room of heaven, and God know me, and God hear me, and God lend his ear toward me. So I'm going to trust that when God says, I'm supposed to wet boldly before his throne, I wept boldly before his throne, I'm going to trust that God says, you have not. Cause you ask not, I'm going to ask God. I'm going to all the passages that deal with God's faithfulness to his children, I'm going to believe in. And then I'm going to lay that thing down at his altar and I'm going to let him work it out. I'm going to act in righteousness, which means I'm going to act in faith. Not that I'm so pro. Holy or something important. I'm going to act in faith because God's made it possible that I could approach him and that I could speak to him through the, through the blood of Jesus, I can speak to him. And I have the right to ask these things, and so I ask them now. God has more at play than just my request. God wants to increase my faith. So I'm willing to see. I'm going to see the results of my faith all the time, because God's in the business of increasing our faith. But he also gets to decide how this is all going to spell out. And in this situation, Moses did exactly what he was supposed to do. He didn't, he didn't have to write some eloquent prayer to get God to move. You don't have to cajole God into moving. You don't have to try to, you don't have to push him along. He's not the old man of heaven who can barely hear and doesn't understand. He doesn't have to be, he doesn't have to be guided in the right direction. God is in the right. He is the right direction. So it's not necessary that we guide God where we want him to go. That's not, that's not how it works. And I want you to hear me today. That's not how it works. I am to be faithful in the part I'm to play in any situation. And then I let God be God. Because God being God is going to be way better than anything I could come up with myself. Okay, well, better. And so God says to Moses, Moses has asked, please heal her. Oh, God, I pray. Notice that's all he said, Moses. And did he need to say anymore? No, God understands what Moses is saying. God says, Moses, and listen, Moses doesn't have to like it or want to or whatever. Moses is being who he ought to be. Moses is fulfilling his call in this situation. He says, heal her. Oh, God, I pray. And by the way, this is a prayer of healing. It is whether your, your, your disease or sickness or illness is the direct result of some action that you've taken in rebellion against goddess, as in this situation, or whether your sickness or illness is the result of the natural state of the world that we live in, which is sin. The world that we live in is marred by sin. And so sickness and death and all those things are the result of that. And so the natural world being mourned by sin, it's going to cause us to be ill or sick sometimes. And so oftentimes we try to look and see what purpose, for what purpose did this, that bad thing happen? Sometimes it's something you actually did. Okay? If you. If you. If you have bad. A really bad liver, because you've been drinking like a fish for 20 years, if you've been drinking alcohol in. In the. By the gallons each day, rather than just by the, uh, by the glass, uh, and you've now got some kind of liver problem, well, that's the result of something you've done, okay? It doesn't mean that it's not an illness that. That could be prayed over. It just means it's a result of something you've done. Now, if you were to find, you know, pancreatic cancer and you tried to live right and well, and you. You got pancreatic cancer, it's not because of something you've done. It's just because that sin and cancer are in the world as the result of the fall of man, and we can pray for that also, okay? It doesn't matter what's going on. No need to. No need to dwell on that. What we need to dwell on is praying for the problem and walking in righteousness. And remember, righteousness is by faith. So walking by faith, what we need to do is pray over it and walk by faith and let God be God in these matters. Now, listen to me. Not every prayer over every sickness is going to result in them being healed. Why? Because you're eventually going to die. Supported under man wants to die. And then the judgment that Bible says God has numbered our days past, which we cannot go. Now, he didn't number them at the end of our days. He numbered them way before we ever existed. He has, in the past, numbered your days past, which you cannot go. And so, understanding that God is. Is in control of your days means that something is eventually going to. Something eventually going to cause you to die. And death is the natural end of the physical life. And so we're not trying to live forever on this earth. We're trying to live in the eternal life that's provided for us in Jesus Christ. And understanding that and knowing that, we understand that God's going to deal with different sicknesses and illnesses in different ways. And he may even say to you, I've given this to you for you to walk in more powerful faith through this than me, just heal you miraculously. In this moment, I may even be teaching you to walk in overcoming powerful faith so that you might glorify me mirror by causing me to you to rat through this over a long period of time than a short period of time. Sometimes God is growing us, teaching us matureness in the situation, and sometimes we're just suffering the consequence of our rebellion, okay? And, and even in that, there's going to be hope and victory in life. But sometimes you got to kind of walk it out and get it fixed. If you're addicted to alcohol or you're addicted to drugs or you're addicted to something, sure, God can miraculously heal you. Or sometimes he makes you through a process where you learn to trust him rather than to rely on those drugs. And sometimes that requires you to go to, maybe go to rehab or maybe went through a long term process. And both of them are healing. Both, both results are ultimately healing. But one of them is going to make you into a more powerful and very more powerful person of faith, and the other one's going to bring about a direct result of miraculous God's activity in the world. I believe in both of those. I believe in all of that. I have a family member that has asked me in the past, do you believe in divine healing? I do, but I don't believe God divinely heals in every situation. He's not. Some situations. There was a element of, you know, my, my grace is sufficient for you that. That you walk through this and glorify me in this. And so it's not always just, we're going to get it fixed right here. Sometimes you, you, your obedience and your faithfulness is a shining light of hope to others as you walk through an issue which could also be an issue of some kind of sickness or illness in your body. And why would we want. Would we take it any other way in this situation? The Lord says to Moses something that's very interesting. He says, if her father had put, had, but split in her face, would she not be shamed? Seven days now, that's pretty gross. Okay. It's the picture of disgust that a father would have for something a daughter did. And I would never spit my daughter's faces. But he says, if something even that terrible had happened, okay, which God's equating with Miriam rebelling against him, and Moses. So God takes this very seriously. God considers her actions to be as disgusting as a father spitting in his daughter's face. He can sit. He's making those things equivalent. He's saying, if her father had spit in her face, would she not be shamed? Seven days. So, obviously, if. If that were to take place, you were to do something so terrible that would cause her father to spit in her face. Are you with me? Then, if that's the case, what she did to us, to you, Moses, as my. As my leader and to me, ultimately, because you're following my leadership, you're doing what I'm telling you to do, then. Then wouldn't she. Wouldn't she bear at least that burden for a while? Yeah. So he says, let her be shut out of the camp seven days. And if that happened to you where your father spit in your face back then, you would be. You'd be separated out of the count for seven days because of your actions. And he says, and afterward, she may be received again. Notice, in this whole passage at the end, God doesn't deal with her being healed. Why? Because that's the whole purpose of going through this process. God's going to bring about some type of healing in your life. He's gonna heal. He's gonna heal your brokenness. He's gonna heal your physical body. He's gonna heal your mind and your heart. He's gonna heal your future and your hopes and your dreams for what God could do in the future. He's gonna provide healing for all those things. And some of that healing one day is gonna be summed up in you being present with him, which is to be dead in the body, but to be present in. In the eternal life that God has given us in his son. Okay? So I'm gonna be present with him one day, and that is ultimate healing. I'm going to have all that I've ever needed. I'm going to be physically as great as I've ever been meant to be. I'm going to have all the understanding and knowledge, and I'm going to have all the faith and hope, and I am going to be made completely whole before him. But while on this earth, I might be divinely healed in certain situations, I might be divinely strengthened in certain situations, or God might walk me through a process in certain situations. And in this situation, God says, well, she's got leprosy right now. We're gonna put her out of the camp for seven days. Why? Because there needs to be some level of punishment retributive justice. There needs to be some level of understanding by God's people that you doing this is not going to be okay. I'm not going to allow just anybody to stand up and say, you know, I can speak for God, and when I've clearly identified the person that's going to speak on my behalf. Because you wouldn't come up on the mountain anyway, so you didn't come up on the mountain. I talked to Moses face to face. You don't get to say that. You spoke for me also, when I've clearly defined the person who would, the only one who's willing to come and meet with me face to face. And so I'm gonna put you out of camp for seven days so that you can consider what you have done. And it says so. Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was backed in again, meaning they didn't leave her out there by herself forever. She was shut out of the camp. That didn't mean she didn't have food or drink. It just means she was separated from everybody else and she had a little time to think about what she'd done. Okay, now you go. Why was Aaron. Well, I already told you, I don't think Aaron was the initiator of this problem. It's quite clear he wasn't. He was just the coward that didn't handle it himself. And I. He always is paying a price for that. And he's lost two sons because of his inactivity, his inability to act when God is clearly in opposition to what's going on around him. And now he's having to deal with this also. But Miriam was the initiator of the problem quite clearly. She's the one that got leprosy. Moses prayed for her, as he should have. God said, all right, I'm a healer, but we're going to put outside the camp for seven days to show the people that we can't do this. Remember, God's got to be holy. He's going to be merciful and graceful, but he's got to be holy also. And so when we go through these processes, when you're dealing with God, go to God. Ask God for what you know has been revealed to you that you need. Expect to receive it. Expect to receive it in the moment, expect to receive it in this lifetime. Expect to receive it in eternity. And God's going to let those things out. But you need to walk by faith with him as he goes through these processes. And sometimes he's going to do something powerful and miraculous in the moment to say, I'm God, here I am, I can do it right now. Sometimes at the end of the process, he leads you through. You are far more powerful in your faith than you were before. And sometimes you went through these problems the rest of your life. And God proves that he is a sustaining, powerful God. And then even in the midst of struggle and difficulty, you can have joy and hope even to the day you go deep.

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.