Thursday Night Bible Study

Numbers 21 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"Conflict Within And Without"  •  6.14.12  •  Thursday Night Bible Study, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- In chapter 20, Israel began her final descent toward the Promised Land, Canaan. She had first come to the border of her cousin Edom, who strictly forbade use of the King's Highway.

- That forced the people of Israel to take a detour and to face conflict square in the eye, a motif that will follow them for many years of their formative existence.

- By the end of this chapter before us, we'll see Israel fight their first three battles and draw parallels between their experience in history and our experience in principle.

Text

• Numbers 21:1-3 : "The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, 'If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.' And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah." : Arad is located in the southern part of modern day Israel. The King followed Edom's aggressive lead, but took it further and actually fought against Israel.

- The road to Atharim would lead them to this place known as Hormah. This battle did not go very well in the beginning. Arad captured some of Israel's fighting force, making them prisoners.

- In the Christian life, as in the case of the road to Canaan, there are overwhelming battles that we face and some become captives or casualties. Israel fought, but were turned away at this point.

- When Israel collected themselves, they collectively made a vow, a promise to the Lord. They would destroy these cities if God would deliver Arad into their hand.

- Now, the interesting thing about this story is that 39 years earlier, Israel had come to this same area and were presented with the same information.

- We studied that section in Numbers 14. They saw the giants, they saw their enemies and when they tried to force the issue, they saw defeat in Hormah!

- They had refused to believe God and they faced defeat. Here is Israel again at the same place and their response, the difference in this story, is vastly different!

- When some of Israel had been taken captive, Israel, instead of recoiling, ran to the Lord!

- At the thought of a new captivity, it seems that Israel became incensed. This is the first time that Israel seems determined to join themselves to God's program.

- God wanted them to be the tools, the vehicle to displace the idolatrous and wicked Canaanites. To this point, Israel had been filled with doubts at best, perhaps a lack of desire at worst.

- They put themselves under a vow to do God's bidding. God listened and gave their enemies into their hands and Israel utterly destroyed their enemy.

- Sometimes we need to see a battle lost and a person or people that we care about hurt, before we will jump in with our full heart into what God wants us to do.

- When they did, God moved through them and they utterly destroyed or "devoted those cities to destruction," Hormah being a word that memorializes their victory.

- This is a great illustration of what happens when a people or a person grows in their faith. The enemy comes against them and instead of cowering in fear and unbelief, there is fight!

• Numbers 21:4 : "Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way." : The Red Sea, circumventing the land of Edom. It's yet another detour and in a real and metaphorical way, they are right back where they began.

- It's hard to think that you have gone such a long distance, but have really not moved at all!

- The collective soul, the life of the people went out from them because of this detour. It was too much for them in this moment.

- Their discouragement is about to give way to impatience, which is about to give way to another moment of God's chastening hand.

- Discouragement is a part of every believer's journey. Being grieved is a part of the process. Being delayed is par for the course. Feeling hopeless and lost can crash over us like waves.

- It's not abnormal to feel this way. Life can be very difficult. What needs to be said is that our difficulty, if it is to be resolved in a healthy way, must be brought to God in prayer.

- It's the expression of our discouragement that leads us into trouble. We must learn to express our discouragment in a healthy manner, so that it will strengthen us and bless others.

- In the case of Israel, their discouragement brought greater grief upon them.

• Numbers 21:5,6 : "And the people spoke against God and against Moses: 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.' So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died." : Discouragement along the way turned into discontentment. When we do not properly deal with our own heart's responses to divine work, it will inevitably seep out toward others.

- This is no accident. This is a repeated pattern left here by the Holy Spirit, meant to communicate to us regarding what we do with our attitude!

- I DO NOT want to be the guy who is stuck with the same complaint for 40 years of life!

- "You brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness!" That has been the recurring cry of Israel over the term of their time in the wilderness. This is the same cry, but a new generation.

- Where did this generation get this? From their parents! This sense of entitlement to be able to talk to leadership and their God this way, is taught by example. Let us learn to represent correctly!

- Their cry however grew even more vile, as they complained of there being no water or food and that their soul loathed the manna.

- First of all, there was food. It was called "manna." There was water. God had brought it from rocks. Second, what a sad place to be when our discontent reveals our true heart.

- They were tired of God's miracle manna. They called it "contemptible" or "despicable."

- One commentator mentions that this may have given off a sound when it was spoken similar to that sound made when one vomits!

- They were utterly sick of the manna, a testimony to their flesh life. In the New Testament, Jesus identifies Himself as the fulfillment of the picture of the manna.

- In John 6:35, Jesus calls Himself the bread which came from heaven. He is the Manna!

- Today, much of His church finds that they are sick of hearing about Jesus, wanting instead a "new series" of nearly or mostly Biblical teaching to tickle their ears.

- What is most valuable and most miraculous, a steady diet of God's Word, exalting His Christ, is treated today as if it's a cancer! Lord, have mercy on us!

- In the case of the Israelites, God responded by sending fiery serpents among the people, presumably serpents whose bite caused great inflammation and eventually led to death!

• Numbers 21:7-9 : "Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.' So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived." : The snakes are biting and the people are running back to God. Don't think for a moment that this is something detestable.

- Don't think that this response is not right, simply because it stems from desperation. God wants us to run to Him and cry for mercy. He wants us to receive forgiveness.

- They come in confession for what they had done. They confessed that they had spoken against the Lord and Moses and sought prayer. The pain of their sin was greater than their pride!

- Moses again prayed for the people, the ones who had spoken against him. It not really much to brag about when we pray for those who do right by us. Moses could brag a little if he wanted to!

- It is the mark of divine work in your life and mine when a blessing follows a curse! Moses is a man whose meek character convicts and challenges us.

- When Moses prayed, God responded. He gave Moses a picture. Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole so that the people could look at it and live.

- At this point, Moses had to fashion a serpent out of a piece of brass and he set it upon a standard, a pole, potentially with a cross beam. Those who looked at it lived.

- Can you imagine this moment? You are snake bitten and somebody tells you to look at the bronze serpent and you'll be ok? Imagine the responses?

- "You want me to look at what? Do you have any neosporin?" Yet, this was a symbol that God wanted the people to see. Consider these points.

- First, it's material was bronze. Bronze, we have repeatedly seen, is the metal of judgment. Second, it's image was that of the serpent. Their present suffering was caused by the serpent's bite!

- Third, notice that it was the sole cure. God did not call for several serpents to be made. There was only one. Fourth, it required an action of faith alone. They had to look!

- They could do nothing. There was no way for them to act. They were simply to look at the serpent and set in the simplest of terms: Look and live. Don't look, don't live!

- In John 3. Jesus told Nicodemus that He was the point of this story.

• John 3:14,15 :  "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life!"

- In the same way that the serpent became the symbol of the Israeli's sin, so Jesus became the symbol of our sin, taking the curse we deserved upon Himself! Look to Him!

• Numbers 21:10-20 : " Now the children of Israel moved on and camped in Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Ije Abarim, in the wilderness which is east of Moab, toward the sunrise. From there they moved and camped in the Valley of Zered.  From there they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord: 'Waheb in Suphah,
The brooks of the Arnon, And the slope of the brooks that reaches to the dwelling of Ar, and lies on the border of Moab.' From there they went to Beer, which is the well where the Lord said to Moses, 'Gather the people together, and I will give them water.' Then Israel sang this song: 'Spring up, O well! All of you sing to it—
The well the leaders sank, Dug by the nation’s nobles, By the lawgiver, with their staves.' And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah, from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth, in the valley that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah which looks down on the wasteland." : This section details Israel's movement toward the land of Canaan and God's hand upon them.

- They moved on, they moved closer and closer, all the while mobe among the land of their enemies. They came and found water and were taken care of.

• Numbers 21:21-23 : "Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 'Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.' But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel." :  Israel had called upon Edom and requested passage through their land. Now they did the same thing with the Amorites, seeking to engage their King.

- The same offer was made. They were just wishing to pass through, but the King refused and came out to fight against Israel.

- Notice that Israel is not the aggressor at this point. They are simply asking for passage. But the Amorites would have none of it.

- According to Jewish sources outside of the BIble, the Amorites were the chief proponents of Canaanite religion. According to the Jewish literature, the Amorites heavily practiced witchcraft.

- There is a whiff of this in the story of King Manasseh, who sinned greatly before the Lord, "according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out!" (II Chronicles 33:2)

- The account in that chapter describes Baal and Asherah worship (v.3), human sacrifice (v.6), occultic practices such as fortune telling, sorcery and necromancers. (v.6)

- All of that came from, originated out of the Amorites. They were trendsetters in terms of wickedness in the land of Canaan.

- It's no wonder that they came out against the people of Israel to fight with them.

• Numbers 21:24-26 : "Then Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the people of Ammon; for the border of the people of Ammon was fortified. So Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon." : Israel conquest over the Amorites was extensive, moving all the way to the Ammonite border. Most of this land adjoins itself with what is now Southern Israel.

- The tribe of Judah will eventually inhabit this part of the land. Hesbon was the capital city that bordered on what is was at that time Ammon, but is Syria today.

- The Amorite had taken that city from Moab and now Israel had wrested it from them. The point that Moses is making is that this was a legal way in which to receive land.

- It had not been the Amorites. It had been the Moabites' land. It now belonged to Israel and was their first possession in the land.

• Numbers 21:27-32 : "Therefore those who speak in proverbs say: 'Come to Heshbon, let it be built; Let the city of Sihon be repaired. For fire went out from Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon; It consumed Ar of Moab, The lords of the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, And his daughters into captivity,
To Sihon king of the Amorites. But we have shot at them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. Then we laid waste as far as Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.' Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. Then Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there." : The sayings of the people circulated among them, speaking of their victory.

- This was a major battle to win and you can hear the tone of celebration, the confidence and the momentum that Israel was experiencing at this time.

- As you read through much of the Old Testament, you will see that Sihon was a byword for Israel that consistently stood as a reminder of God's victory over his enemies.

• Numbers 21:33-35 : "And they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. So Og king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.' So they defeated him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left him; and they took possession of his land." : Og came out against the people of Israel as they came to Bashan. Og, this ancient King, did not even let them ask. He saw them and attacked! Israel did not invite or provoke this!

- In your walk with Christ, there will be times when the battle comes out of nowhere, and it comes for no perceptible reason! It's a surprise that you cannot plan for, but must respond to!

- Notice that God had to come to Moses and tell him not to fear, meaning that Moses was afraid! Here's a guy with great spiritual acumen and with promises galore and he's afraid!

- There are attacks that are going to come your way and mine that will scare you to pieces! Og is that kind of attacker.

- Deuteronomy 3:11 gives a little more detail. He was a giant of a man who slept on an iron bed 13 feet long and 6 feet wide! A California King mattress is 6 ft, by 6 ft!

- He was a giant, but no match for God. Your issue is gigantic, but no match for God either!

- In the same way that Israel had defeated Sihon, they also defeated Og. One victory gives us confidence to fight another one!

Conclusion

- Numbers 21 is all about conflict. Enemies without and the enemy within. Some enemies are passively aggressive and threatening like Edom, or surprisingly aggressive, like Bashan.

- The enemy within surfaces when we give into discouragement and discontentment. He is there when fear and uncertainty is real.

- The enemies come in all shapes and sizes and they stir our hearts in different ways. There is excitement, fear, elation, bewilderment, and difficulty.

- But throughout we learn that our God is greater still! Greater than our inner enemy and greater than our external enemy. Through Him we war and are victorious.