Numbers 20:22-29 Bible Study | Episode 787

October 15, 2024

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

Numbers 20:22-29  Bible Study | Episode #787

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. Going to finish out the chapter with the last story. We've already seen in book of numbers that Miriam passes away. And this one is kind of a strange situation. And when I say strange, it's not strange, but it's one of those notable stories that you need to just kind of log in your brain, because it's one of those things as you think through scripture and as you remember things, it's one of those things that might tie off several things as you're studying, as you're studying, you're considering as you're, as you're, as you're trying to figure out things in life. You know, sometimes in scripture, God just gives us these stories, and, and at the right moment, in the right situation, it comes back to you. You're just kind of thinking through God's word, and, and the story just kind of hits you. It comes back to you and it says, it says to your heart. You know, I remember that that's, that it makes sense that what I'm dealing with right now makes sense in light of that story. And this is one of those stories. It's not, it's not one of those things that is exciting, but it is a story that you need to kind of remember because God goes into detail about it. He doesn't just kind of say that Aaron passes away. He, he goes into detail how this is going to take place. And Aaron is an important figure in scripture. He's an important figure in scripture because he is the first priest. Now, he's not the first priest in scripture in the sense of any priest, because obviously, Melchizedek was the first priest in scripture. But Aaron is the first priest of the priestly line that would serve God in the temple for over a thousand years. And so he is. He is the first priest in that line. And that line goes all the way to the times of Jesus and even passed then. And it's really more than a thousand years. And that line still exists now. And is important for us to understand that we, we're not in the Aaron or the levitical priestly line. We serve under the line of Jesus. And Jesus is in the, in the line of Melchizedek. He's in the order of Melchizedek. But Aaron and his priestly line give us a lot of insights into how God views, views us. Because we're a kingdom of priests. And so it says now the children of Israel, the whole congregation journeyed from Kadesh and came to mount Hor. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in, in mount hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel. Because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Now notice he's not dying because they did what they did in the Arab em. And we already discussed that. We discussed it last week. God told them to speak to the rock, and they struck the rock. Moses struck the rock. And they did it out of anger for the people. They did it because, you know, they just grown weary leading this group of people. And the people were not easy to lead. But when you get to the place where you just can't stand to be around the people that God's placed you over to lead, well, then you really don't need to be in that position. And we discussed that last week. One of the things that's interesting about this is that God tells Aaron when he's going to pass away, you're going to be gathered to your people. And a lot of times we want to think that is uncommon. But when we get older, that's not as uncommon as one would think. When you're young, you think you're never going to die. And so the idea that you might have a time or a moment that you die is, well, it's foreign to you. You don't want, you don't want that to take place. But as you get older, you realize that they're going, there's going to be a time to die. And for some people, as they're older, they die. They die really quick. And I, you know, you don't have any idea that it's coming. They have a stroke or a heart attack or some major medical event, and they pass away quickly. And it was unexpected. And we'll say that. We'll say, well, if you're talking about, if you're talking about somebody who's older, age or you go, was it unexpected? Well, I mean, that's, that's how it works. A lot of times it was unexpected. We didn't expect it to pass away. We didn't expect that that person would die at that moment. But many, many people reach the end of a long illness, maybe a battle with cancer, maybe a battle with congestive heart failure, maybe a battle with some kind of disease of one of their organs, something like that. And they just, it's just obvious that they are slowly, slowly their strength is going away. And, and they know, you know, even the doctors say, you know, I gave you two weeks to live. I give you two months. Now, is that always true? Does that always take place? No, because the doctors are practicing medicine. They, they don't know for sure. They're not God. They don't get to decide. But we can know those things when, with Aaron, it's not unusual that God says, you know, he's going to, he's going to pass away. And, and the real reason is, is he, he's going to pass away is because we're appointed unto man wants to. It's appointed unto man wants to die. And then the judgment, well, Aaron, Aaron's going to be a human being, and he's going to die. The, the key to this verse that kind of gives you, makes you feel like he's, he's dying, because what happened at Mariba is that he shall not enter the land. And they all expected to enter land. Moses expected to enter the land. Aaron expected to enter the land. And Moses and Aaron are not going to get to enter the land. And they're not going to get to enter the land because of this situation. They're not. And God's saying, look, he shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I've given to the children of Israel because you rebelled against my word at the water of Mariba. He's going to be. He's going to be taken up before then, and now is the time now when it's going to happen. Now, we don't know anything else about that. We don't know if it, if it was obvious to everybody that Aaron was beginning to get sick, but we know that Aaron, God said it's time for Aaron to go and that he's not going to enter the land. And we're seeing that play out in the same chapter where God told them that they're not going in, and God's true to his word. And, you know, sometimes in life we don't get to experience the fruit of our labors. We don't get to experience them. Now, I believe in eternity, you experience them to the fullest. But I, in this life, it's not always the case. This situation is actually the situation that Martin Luther King was using when he gave his I have a dream speech. He said, I may not see it. That is so. Even the idea of not entering into the results of your labor is seen in that speech by Martin Luther King. It is a common christian understanding that you may labor many, many years, you may labor for a long, long time, and you may not see the fullness of your labor. And understanding that is important because it gives us an understanding that there needs to be continuity of leadership, continuity of ministry. We are all, none of us are going to carry out all the great things that God is going to produce with our faith. None of, none of us are going to carry that out in the fullness of our lives. It's going to, it's going to last far longer than that. Our faith is powerful. Our faith in God is important, and it lasts far past our own living. It is a faith that God uses throughout history and time to do big thing. Big thing. So God said, take Aaron and Eliezer, his son, and bring them up on Mount Horace and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar, his son, for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there. Notice God's got continuity of leadership. He is making sure that this role, this very important role, remember, there's the role of the political leader, the leader of the people. And then there's the role of the priest who goes before God and is an intermediary for the people. Well, this role of a priest is very important. It's important not just for the Old Testament sacrificial system, but it's important for the New Testament. God wants human beings to come before him and to meet with him. He wants that, that is the ultimate desire of his heart in creating humanity, is that we would have personal relationship with him and we would be able to come before him and deal with him. And so he's going to make sure there's a continuity of leadership in, in the priesthood. And Aaron is going to give his priestly garments to his son Eleazar, and they're going to do it ceremonially. It is a passing of the torch. Now, there were kings in Israel and, and there were prophets, but the priest, the priestly line, the kingly line changed and different people in different places, but the priestly line stayed in order. And the reason is because in the New Testament, even though we are kings and even though we're a kingdom of kings and priests, the priestly line is the most important one because it's the one that has relationship with God. He says, take Aaron, and he says, and strip Aaron of his garments and, and put them on Eleazar his son. For Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there. So Moses just did just as the lord commanded and they went up to mount hor in the sight of all the congregation, Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar, his son. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. Now, when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron for 30 days. Now, I think this is hilarious. The reason, and it is hilarious when you're a leader, the reason that Aaron is, the best way to say it is the reason that Aaron's not, he's not going to be able to go into the land, is the people were just as absolutely terrible to lead as they possibly could be. And they got, and I mean, just, just kind of plain language straight up, they got on Moses and Aaron's last nerve, all the whining. And by the way, we're going to start next chapter, more whining, more complaining. And God ain't, God's going to get tired of it. God got tired of it. Aaron and Moses tired of it. All of them, they're just tired of it. And then when they die, the people are just so upset and they mourn for 30 days. You know, they don't always realize what they have in something until they're gone. And oftentimes we do that with many of our leaders and we do that especially with those people who are, who are the ones who disciple us. You don't realize what, what great value a person is in their life until they've passed on. And the same thing happens here with, with Aaron. Uh, the people see him, uh, removed from his position, which all of us are going to be removed from our position. And the understanding that you're not replaceable is not true. You are very replaceable. God's going to replace you. And, and you may say, well, he place replaced me with a lesser person. Well, he might, he might not have, uh, you, you never have any idea about that, uh, he, he replaces us and he moves on to the next one. And that happens in every area of life. But the continuity of that leadership is important. And God made sure that he passed it on in front of everybody so that Eleazar would have the same authority in the same position as Aaron did. And then when Aaron passes away, everybody, well, they mourned for 30 days. They mourned because Aaron was gone, even though they didn't treat him very well while he was there. In fact, they pushed him to do things that were not right. They pushed him to create the golden calf. He was, in many ways, not a great leader anyway. His sons were, his sons before Eleazar were not good men. And God had to take their lives because they didn't follow God's instruction. Aaron, in many ways, was a very flawed leader. And yet God's people mourned him because any leadership, any steps of faith, any walking with God, maybe as the patriarch or matriarch of a family, maybe leading your own household, any leadership that is provided in the kingdom of God and done by faith is going to have its effect. It may not have great effect, but it is going to have its effect and it should be honored. Realized, realized that they had a great loss when they lost Aaron. They had a great loss because Aaron had seen God. Aaron had been on top of the mountain. Aaron had spoken with the Lord face to face. And when you lose someone like that, even, even if you didn't treat them right when they're alive, oftentimes you realize what you've lost when they've passed. And so they moon for him for 30 days and then they go back to their same old stuff. Don't expect always that when people realize that they've lost someone of importance, that they're going to make life changes at the funeral, don't expect that. And I see that here for sure. A lot of times we expect people to realize a life short. Life's temporal, and you ought to live a certain way and get your life straight. We expect that. We want that, but we don't always get that. We just don't. And that's just the way life is. Sometimes you'll have some deathbed conversions, in the sense of somebody else at your deathbed being converted, and sometimes that works. But the truth is, is that funerals many times have the same effect as a worship service. They affect you while you're there, but you don't allow it to have anything to do with when you walk out the door. And that type of lifestyle will lead you to be like the children of Israel were always complaining, always upset, never, ever trying to find God in the midst of anything I would say to you, be like Moses and Aaron who went on the mountain and sought out God. They may have been flawed men, and they definitely were flawed men, but they were great men. And they were great men because they sought out God. Uh, where most people would have feared to go, and did fear to go, Moses and Aaron. When they saw the great sight of that burning bush, when they, uh, when they, uh, realized that God had something going on, even though that it made them afraid, even though they, uh, they balked at the idea of doing some of the things God asked them to do, uh, they sought God out. And, uh, even in the midst of their own fear, they found faith and they trusted God. And they did mighty things. Wow, did they do mighty things. And so it doesn't require perfection to be a great servant of the Lord. It just requires faith. And I want to definitely say that about Aaron as we, as we end this chapter and turn the page on the priesthood. 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.