Numbers 14:11-19 Bible Study | Episode 763

September 11, 2024

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

Numbers 14:11-19  Bible Study | Episode #763

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 14. Numbers, chapter 14, verse eleven. And God is using a methodology that is very familiar to me as far as my life and my education, to. Well, I guess the best way for me to say is he is using the socratic method. And it was God's method for. It was Socrates's method. But it is a method not for teaching. Even though it is used, people say it's a teaching method. It's not really a teaching method. It is a confirming method. It's a method of how to take someone who is learning something and confirm that in their mind and in their heart. It is a methodology by which we steal or we strengthen a person's understanding of something by testing them in the questioning process. And as you move up in the education process, especially when you get to the place where you're in some type of doctoral work, oftentimes when you go in, you don't sit and be taught. What happens is that they use this methodology by which they go in, and they say, okay, stand up. Tell us what you know about this. And then, as you're telling it, the teacher or the professor will ask questions of you about what you're explaining to. And in law school, this happens if you're getting a PhD, they bring you in, and they take your dissertation, and they allow you to present it. And as you're presenting it, they ask questions to see whether or not you have knowledge in this area. But the methodology that's being used is called the socratic method. What they're doing is. And when I say steel, I mean hardening. They're hardening inside of you. You are presenting as the knowledge that you have. Okay. And that is what God is doing here with Moses, because Moses is functioning as the leader of God's people and the deliverer, and you need to remember that always, because Moses is. Moses is going to bring God's word. That means he's. He is the prophet. He is going to lead God's people. Well, that means he's the leader and he's going to. He is going to be the one who tells people what to do and how to live, and he is going to deliver them out of Egypt. That's what he's doing here. And he's supposed to deliver them to the promised land. And so when you're thinking about this, you always remember that Moses is the prophet, the bringer of God's word. He's the deliverer. He's the one who delivers them out of Egypt. And he is. God's called man to lead. And those positions are forerunners, or what we call types of Christ. He is a picture of Christ when he functions in these roles and what God is doing here. When the people have decided that they don't want to go into the land, they don't want to do what God wants them to do. God asks Moses some questions. He brings Moses up, and he prepares Moses for what Moses is going to have to do, which means he's going to have to lead the people of Israel. He thought he was just going to take, go get them in Egypt, do some miracles there, which he did. Bring them out of Egypt, see God do some mighty works within them, take them into the promised land, let them spread out and take their land. And then his job pretty much over. Well, Moses job is not over. Moses has got a lot more work to be done because he's fixing to have to lead these people in the wilderness for 40 years. And that process is going to be a process by which all those who refuse to go in are going to die. And God has to prepare Moses for that. And preparing Moses for this is an important task, and it's an important level of leadership and understanding. In law school, every class use the Socratic method. You were supposed to teach yourself the material. You were supposed to read it beforehand. And when I was in law school, I was in my late thirties, and it was. I was mature, I prepared for class, and most of the students did, but, you know, you always had the immature that didn't. But I was prepared for every subject, every, every class. I knew exactly what we were going to talk about. I'd read it, I'd broken it down, I'd taken notes. I'd prepared as if I were going to have to teach class because I might, might have to teach it. And you go, well, how are you going to have to teach it? Well, professor's going to say, mister Harrison, stand up and give us a brief of this case. And we were going over cases which pointed to certain areas of the law, depending on what class we were in. If it was land, if it was property, we'd be a case on some kind of property. And I was supposed to stand up and, you know, give, give what happened in the case and the issue that was at hand and how the court ruled and why the court ruled that way. Basically, I was teaching. And as you stood up and talked that case, the professor would ask you questions. He would steal in you what you already had learned. It was a method of teaching. And it's a little bit of a meat grinder type situation. Because for those who had difficulty standing up and presenting that you had that problem. And that wasn't my problem. But for those who have trouble maybe organizing things in their minds in such a way that they can explain it publicly, you had to learn how to do that. Then you had to learn how to defend your position, which was important. And as an attorney, everybody needed to know how to do that anyway. But you can see how if you were a professor in university or you were teaching full time, you would need to be able to do that. And so if you were getting your PhD, you would need to be able to function in that. In that way also. And you can see how, if you're a doctor, you sure need to. A medical doctor, you sure need to know how well, be very confident in what you're doing. And that methodology is important to help teach in that field also. And so God says to Moses, how long will these people reject me? And how long have they not believed me with all the signs which I performed among them? Now, God's asking this question, and when you first read it, you go, well, I mean, Moses is going to have to come up with a good answer here. Because God doesn't know. Well, that's not true. That's not true. Moses sure surely doesn't know. But God does know. What he's asking Moses, is, I want you to recognize this. I want you to recognize this. The problem here is not that they're afraid of the Anakites. They're not afraid of the Canaanites. They're not afraid of the Hittites or the midianites or any other ites. They're not afraid of them. What they're afraid of. What their problem is, is they don't believe me. They never were going to have to defeat them anyway. I was going to defeat them. Their issue is not that they're afraid of those people in the land. Their issue is that they don't trust me. And so we ask Moses, how long will they reject me? And how long will they not believe me? Trust me. This is. Believe is the word for faith. They've rejected God. They've not trusted him. And he says, especially considering all the signs that I've performed among them, and I don't have to go into that with you. We've been studying this for, well, for a year or two. We know what he did before them. I will strike them with a pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they. What I'm saying is, Moses, what do you think about me killing them off and starting over with you? All right. Now hear me. Moses job is to be the prophet, the teller of God's word, to be the deliverer. The deliverer out of Egypt, and he is the leader of God's people. Well, Jesus is the word made flesh. He delivers us from sin and darkness and death into life. And he is king of kings and lord of lords. Moses is functioning in the rail of Christ in this situation. And so God is with Moses. He is perpetuating him mentally. And he is getting Moses to see, in his own perspective, what his job is. And notice Moses answer is perfect. Moses answers God with a full and complete understanding of who he is, which I think is fabulous, says, and Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear it. For by your mighty might, you brought these people up from among them. But he's saying this. The Egyptians are going to hear that you destroyed your people, and I went and delivered them. And that's not a good idea. Remember, this is all about grace. I knew God. The reason I went is because you wanted me to go so that you could prove how great a God you are. He's telling God what he has learned, what he now knows, what's ultimately who he is. He says, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among these people. Notice he's telling God the whole plan that he now totally understands, because it is who. It's who Moses is. He says that you, lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands above them. And that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, if you kill these people as one Mandev, then the nations which have heard all of your fame will speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which he swore to give them. Therefore, he killed them in the wilderness. And now I pray, let the power of my lord be great. Just as you have spoken, saying, he's telling God, listen, you're going to defame yourself. Which God knew. He's saying, look, God, you're powerful. You're the man who did all this stuff, which God knows. But the key is that now Moses knows. Moses is not that man on top of that mountain anymore. That's saying, well, you know, I can't talk. And who am I to go talk to Pharaoh and don't send me? He's not that man anymore. That's not who Moses is. Remember, this is not years and years after. This is just two or three years after that encounter that he had on top of the mountain with the burning bush. In just two or three years. Very short period of time. Very short period of time. He's gone from someone who is interested in God, is hearing from God, is not really sold out on God's plan. To a mandehead who God can ask questions of. And he give the exact right answer. Because he knows. He now knows. He is the prophet. He is the deliverer. He is the leader of God's people. He is the type of Christ. He is the forebearer of who Christ would be. And now I pray, let the power of the Lord be great. Just as you have spoken, saying, the Lord is long suffering. Notice he's talking back to God about who God is. And abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions. But he by no means clears the guilty. Visiting iniquity on the fathers of the children. To the third and fourth generation. Meaning you're abundant, you're forgiving your long suffering. You forgive iniquity. And you deal with sin. You're abundant and all that forgiveness. But you're also just meaning you. If a group of people act in a certain way that has repercussions. And you by no means are unjust. You're righteous and holy. He says, pardon the iniquity of this people. I pray according to the greatness of your mercy. Just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. He's telling God what he's learned about God. See, he's moved to the doctoral level. He's moved from being the student to being the master. Now, is he master over God? No, no, no. He's not master over God. But he is master. He's master of what God has called him to be. He is functioning fully and completely in his role as the deliverer. That's a powerful, powerful understanding. And it just happened in a few short years. Just a few short years, he steps in and he becomes who he's supposed to. And then the Lord said, I've pardoned according to your word. What he's saying is, you've made it. And you're right. And notice, he didn't say, I will.

Pardon according to your word.

He says, I already have. Because I know who you are, Moses. And you have become who you should be, who I made you to be. Great joy had to be in the heart of God to see Moses become what he was supposed to be. I want you to hear me today. Moses is not loved by God greater than you are. He's not. He's loved equally as you are. And what God wants you to do is to pass your doctoral dissertation. He wants you to make it through the class and get your PhD or get your Juris doctorate or whatever in life. He wants you to get to the place where you can recognize his hand at work and that you can speak boldly about the truth of who God is, even to God himself. Because ultimately, that's what you ultimately do when you pray and when you seek God out in powerful ways, what we do is we go before God. And when I'm. When I'm praying for something or when I'm praying for somebody, I'm not conjuring up something new. I'm not. I'm not coming to. To the table with something holy. Move it. Even God didn't. Didn't know about. No, that's not what I'm doing. What I'm doing is I'm going to God with a situation which I can rightly apply to God's word, because I know his word. And then I am claiming God's character, his nature, his promises. I'm claiming those things in that situation because I passed my doctoral dissertation. I know who God is. I know what he said. I know what his promises are, and I can rightly apply them to the situation I find myself in. And I can pray directly to God, and he does not have to tell me what to say. His spirit speaks through me and calls on God to be God as he has revealed himself. You, as a believer, can do this. You can do this. You don't need another man to do it in front of you. You are a great priest. You're a royal priesthood, and you have the right to go in front of the great high priest, Jesus himself, and ask for things according to God's revelation, according to God's word, and receive them, because over a short period of time, you can become a powerful believer. Remember, it only took the disciples three years of discipling to become world changing, world shaking believers. I only took Moses two and a half, three years to become a world shaking, world changing believer who can lead God's people. The discipleship process doesn't have to be super long. Now, over the course of life, you. You learn a lot of things. But the truth is, is that if you'll chase after God for a short period of time relative to your life, three or four years, if you'll chase after him fully and completely, you can be a powerful believer. And you ought to be. I pray that you will. I expect that you will.

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.