Numbers 20:6-11 Bible Study | Episode 785

October 11, 2024

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

Numbers 20:6-11  Bible Study | Episode #785

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 20, and we're dealing with Moses and really, his failure of leadership that caused him to not lead the children of Israel into the promised land. Actually, it was a breakdown of relationship, if you want to know the truth, because what Moses did was he had become bitter, he had become angry, he had grown weary of leading these people, and his. His actions reveal that. And so it is important when you. When you kind of look at this and think about it, whether you're. Whether you're a leader or not, like we talked about yesterday, whether you're a leader or not, it's a great kind of study in the leadership. It's one of those. One of those case studies, one of those deep dives into leadership, especially spiritual leadership. And let me say this. Of all the forms of leadership there is, pastoring a church is one of the most difficult. And I'm going to say that for a reason. Most other forms of leadership that you go, that you have, and I've been involved and experienced all of them, whether it's leadership such as the military, whether it's leadership as far as a business, whether it's leadership in regard as politics, whether it's a leadership in athletics, that's one of the places where young people learn about leadership. Whether it's leadership in small organizations, nonprofits, things like that. And military leadership is one of the leadership areas that people oftentimes study a lot and think about a lot and walk through a lot, whether it's those types of any of those types of leadership, most of the time, the people that you're leading in some way are compelled to follow you. Now, that may. That may be more or less in certain situations, but if you're a coach or if you're a coach or you're a leader on the field, likely you're a leader because you're one of the best players on the field. If you're a coach, then, you know, you're the one who decides what players go on the field. If you, if it's military, those are difficult leadership positions because oftentimes what has to take place to lead, you have to, you have to control your emotions. You have to calm yourself. You have to look and see the situation. You have to use the people that you have under you in the best way so that you can accomplish the mission. But everybody under you has to follow your lead. If the unit does not follow the leadership of the unit, then the unit most likely is going to perish, most likely is not going to be successful. And so leadership in that regard, you don't really have to, you don't really have to make people want to follow you. You just got to make sure that you do all the things in very hectic, difficult situations so that the right thing might be accomplished. That's difficult. That's difficult. Leadership businesses, leading nonprofits, politics, that is very relational businesses. You know, people have to do what you say if you're the boss, because you're the boss. And if they want to keep their job, they have to. Now, some people decide they don't want to keep their job because they don't like your leadership. And so, you know, that happens, too. And those things are major issues. But in the church, it is a total voluntary system. In the body of Christ, it is a total voluntary system. The people don't have to follow you. They don't have to. They don't have to be at, be under your leadership. They choose to follow you based off of the quality of your relationship, the quality of your leadership, the quality of who you are as a person. The leadership as a church leader is the most difficult because it requires a summation of all forms of leadership in a very difficult situation, in that the people who you're dealing with tend to be very passionate about what they're doing because they're passionate about their relationship with God, they're passionate about their future, and they're invested into the kingdom. So they're highly passionate. Oftentimes, unless you've done a good job of leading, and mainly in that regard, teaching and feeding the sheep, they're oftentimes not super knowledgeable about the word of God. And the more they're discipled, the less this is a problem. And the more a church grows in that area, the less unstable, the more stable the church becomes. And so that that can be grown. But that's also a product of leadership getting to that point. And then, and then you have the extra, you have the extra idea of, you know, they don't have to be there. They don't have to be there on Sunday. They don't have to follow your leadership. They don't have to do anything that you have them involved in or doing. They, they just don't have to be a part of that. And that's an important aspect of leadership, also getting people to follow you when they don't have to. And so Moses is in a very difficult position. It's a difficult leadership position. He's leading God's people. And sure, they're all families and they're all part of the children of Israel. And there's a lot of people that weren't genetically jewish but had become jewish and lived with jewish people in Egypt, and they come out with them and, and so there's, there's a big mob of people, and they are very difficult to wield and delete and, and they refuse to go up on the mountain and they refuse to do the things that Moses wants them to do and God wants them to do. And, and they rebel and they do all this stuff. And Moses just gets frustrated and tired. He gets burned out. And finally we get to Kadesh and there's no water there, and they have a legitimate concern, but now they go way overboard by saying, you know, why did you bring us out here to die? Well, they're dying in the wilderness because they chose not to go into the promised land. And that's a very difficult leadership position because if you're dealing with a group of people, and in a spiritual sense, pastors do deal with a group of people like this that don't want to go into the promised land. They don't want to trust God enough to have his very best. They just want to have a form of godliness, but they don't want to have any in any way its power. And a lot of pastors have to deal with this a long time. In many ministries, I have been blessed to be in a place a couple of times where I was dealing with a group of people who wanted to go in, who wanted to go into the promised land, who wanted to see God's best, who wanted to chase after that. But a lot of pastors don't ever get to deal with that. And they have to deal with stick stiff necked, hard hearted people. And, you know, Moses was dealing with this, and I can, I can relate to him in, in some regards. Because I've dealt with that before, but. But I can't relate to it like he has, because he's dealing with. With millions of people who are stiff necked and hard hearted and, wow, what a terrible position he has been in. And it is grated on him. And so what did Moses and Aaron do? Well, verse six says they went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle meeting, and they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. So, you know, they do what they're supposed to do. They go and deal with God, which is, by the way, the whole. The only way to ever. It's. The only way to ever lead is to deal with God, is to go deal with God and to grow with God, to be nurtured by God and the Holy Spirit, to be ministered to by the angels. I mean, that's what you're doing when you go to God. And Moses and Aaron went to God. They went in front of the tabernacle meeting. They fell on their faces. That's a picture of worship. That's the word for worship. And, I mean, they prostrated themselves. That's what they did. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them like God always does. He says, if you seek me, you'll find me. You gotta seek me with your whole heart. They're doing that. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, take the rod which you and your brother Aaron gathered. Gather the congregation together. Notice what rod? The rod he gave him right on top of that mountain, the first time they ever met. You know, the rod that has been used to deliver them out of Egypt. The rod that has been used to park the Red Sea. The rod that's given them water already before. I mean, it's God's power. It's a picture of the. Of the Holy Spirit's power and anointing on Moses. And so it says, take the rod like you have in the past. You and your brother Marin. Gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes. Notice he says, speak to the rock before the eyes, and it'll yield its water. Why? Why does he need to do that? Well, he doesn't need to take any action anymore. He doesn't have to do that. All he has to do is talk to God, because he and God are friends. They talk face to face, and God's talking to him face to face right here. And so he says, take the rod, you and your brethren. And all you got to do is just speak to the rock and. And do it right in front of the people and it'll yield its water. By the way, the rock is Jesus. Jesus is the rock. There's a song about that that rolls my sins away. But anyway, Jesus is the rock. And he says, speak to the rock and the rock will provide the water of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I'll give you a well of living water that well up into you to eternal life. Isn't that what he said to the woman at the well? He says, I give you. I give you living water. Well. That's what's happening here. And it will yield its water. And thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock and give drink to the congregation and their animals. Now, God had to provide that because he's going to sustain his people. And he said he was. So, I mean, it's not like this is something, something that is super hard on the very superficial. But when you bring to bear all the, you know, all the struggles and the turmoil and the problems and the issues, you know, Moses just tired of it. He's tired of the mess, and he is. And you see that, and it's quite obvious. And it says, so Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. So he took the rod from the tabernacle, and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, now, notice what he says, hear now, you rebels. Which means he doesn't really. He's tired of. He's tired of them. He is. I mean, it's just obvious. He needs a change of scenery, and God's going to give him one. God's going to call him home and call him to glory. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. He says, here, now, you rebels, must we bring water for you out of this rock? Well, yeah, we must, because God said so. But he's mad at the people. He's tired of them. He's tired of leading them. And that happens to leaders sometimes, especially when you're dealing with stiff necked, hardhearted people. I have a high regard for pastoral leadership, and I think highly of men and women who take on roles of leadership in kingdom work, whether it's a pastor, whether it's leading a nonprofit that deals with women's pregnancy. We've got many, many nonprofits out there that are part of our church that do great ministry. Ministry, too. **** cater to cops, ministry to people in the community, the homeless, the fatherless ministries that feed hundreds of people, hundreds of families, food each week, loaves and fishes. I mean, we do we have a lot of nonprofit. And they're led by men and women who are faithful, who are. Who are capable, who are strong leaders. They're, you know, just. Just great leadership all over the place. But, you know, and I have high regard for that. But. But it's a high calling, too, and it's difficult. And if they're going to do it, I. You know, I hold them to high standard in my eyes. You know, I hold myself to a high standard. And so those things are important. But I do. I do understand. People can grow tired and weary and have difficulty making things happen. And so they. They get older, they get. They. They get weary. They just can't handle it. And Moses does not speak to the people like God spoke to Moses. God just told Moses, take the walk, take the rod, and speak to the rock. And. And the. I'm gonna give them water because why? They need it. They do need to water. But he says, here now, you rebels. He's talking to all of them, and not all of them are rebels. Not all. Not. They're not all rebels, okay? Especially the children. They're the ones that are gonna go in. Everything. Everybody 18 and younger, when they didn't go in, were destined to get into the. Into the promised land. And so then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with the rod. Well, that's not what God told him to do. And if Jesus is a rock, he didn't tell him to strike the rock. He told him, strike the rock before, but not this time. Why? Because they had a relationship, and all he had to do is speak to God. That's an important understanding for Moses also. You know, when you get to a higher, higher level of leadership and God's. And, uh, giving you his anointing, your words have power. And what you say is important. And what you. What you, uh, what you negate saying, meaning you decide not to say, can have very huge ramifications. And when I say huge ramifications, I mean your silence is powerful, too. Uh, and so, uh, what you say and what you don't say are real important, and you have to be careful with it. You can't be flippant with it all the time. Okay? And he's. He's. He's getting to the place where he's. He's powerful. Uh, he's got power. He's got a powerful voice. Uh, and he didn't need to say this, and he didn't say it that way, but it did reveal an absolute issue he had in his own heart. With leading God's people. And he struck that rock twice when he. All he had to do was speak to. And oftentimes leaders fail to realize the power of what they speak, the power of their voice. And especially God's called leaders, they don't realize the power of their voice. And I'm just now figuring that out. I'm going to be honest with you. And I've been pastoring for almost 30 years. Well, I guess this summer I probably was called to the ministry, you know, about this time 30 years ago. I can't remember whether the trip was in June or July, but it was. It's about this time 30 years ago. I remember being hot. So it was about this time 30 years ago. And, you know, it's hard to realize that, okay, I got. My voice is important, so I need to be careful with what I say. Well, Moses is, you know, he's getting to that point. And so he lifted up his hand, struck the rock twice with his rod, and water, came out abundantly, and the congregation and animals drank, which is exactly what was supposed to happen. It's a miracle. It's a, it's, it's, it's one of those, uh, uh, great movements of God. Uh, and yet Moses is not going to be able to enjoy it because he didn't do it the way God said do it. God's going to take care of his people. God's going to lead his people. We're under shepherds of God's people. We need to realize that, you know, even when we're frustrated, we can't abandon our post. We got to keep leading. And oftentimes we need to lead even when we're tired of dealing with it. Boy, that's a tough way to. That's a tough message, but it's a good message for leaders. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe me to. To honor me or hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring the assembly into the land which I give them. What God said is, you know, it's time for you to come, y'all to come home. I'm not going to take you into the land with them because it's a new. It's a, you know, it's a, it's a new work I'm going to do, and y'all are, y'all just, you're just not ready. You just can't do it. Now. You, you don't, you're not. You're not wanting to lead them. And that's what he does. And it says, this water, the water of Meribah, this was the water of Mariba, meaning the water of contention. And it says, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and he was hallowed among them, meaning God did give them the water from the rock. But wow. Did they? Did they? Moses. Moses. It's one of those kind of breaking points in leadership. And, you know, it's one of those things that you should ponder. Some you should think about as a leader. You should really ponder this. A leader, whether you're, you lead a class or a small group, whether you lead a ministry, whether you lead a church, whatever you do, leadership wise, you should ponder this a lot. And guard your heart against anger and bitterness toward the people you lead. Just you have to have to guard your heart from it. And sometimes they make it real hard for you to do. And I understand that also. But you have to.

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.