What Am I Supposed to Learn from Numbers?

Numbers:“MAKING YOU HOLY IS

HARD WORK FOR BOTH OF US.”

1.The Old Generation: Numbers 1:1-10:10

2.The Tragic Transition: Numbers 10:11-5:18

3.The New Generation: Numbers 21-36

Numbers 11:1 Now the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortune, and when the Lord heard He was full of wrath,

REBELLION #1

and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.

REBELLION #1

Numbers 11:4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! … But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

REBELLION #2

Numbers 11:18 …Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it

REBELLION #2

you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”

REBELLION #2

Numbers 11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

REBELLION #2

Numbers 12:1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife….. 2 ‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

REBELLION #3

Numbers 12:8 …”why then were you not afraid to so speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and He left them.

REBELLION #3

Numbers 12:10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous.

REBELLION #3

Numbers 14:22 “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,

REBELLION #4

23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.”

REBELLION #4

They tested God ten times= “rejected Me.”• Craving (11:4) • Wailing (11:4) • Contempt (14:23) • Presumption (14:44) • Grumbling (14:2) • Insolence (16:1)

1.Presumption that everything that looks okay on the surface is okay, blinds you to your real problem.

PRESUMPTION AND THE REFUSAL TO BELIEVE

2.They refused to walk the narrow road of belief that welcomes exposure of failure and conflict, knowing that God has a plan to overcome them.

PRESUMPTION AND THE REFUSAL TO BELIEVE

Numbers 14:34 …“For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sin and know what it is like to have me against you..”

DIVINE DISCIPLINE

1.The Lord disciplined His people but remained faithful to His covenant promises in spite of their fickleness.

DIVINE DISCIPLINE

2.God’s love is kind, but it can also be severe.

DIVINE DISCIPLINE

Romans 11:22 Consider the kindness and severity of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness.

DIVINE DISCIPLINE

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction; many enter through it.

THE HARD ROAD OF LIFE: WANDERINGS

14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.

THE HARD ROAD OF LIFE: WANDERINGS

You will experience failure and conflict on the road that leads to where God is taking you. It is the right road even when it feels like it’s killing you.

THE HARD ROAD OF LIFE: WANDERINGS