Numbers (Part 7)
Bible Study Time 2-24-08
(From James Roberts 3-14-99)
Bible Study Time 2-24-08
(From James Roberts 3-14-99)
Last week in our journey through the scripture, we saw the children of Israel at Kadesh Barnea, right at the doorway of the land of promise. God had given them that land and would have taken them right on into the land, but the people refused to go in because they heard an unfavorable report from ten of the spies who went in to spy out the land.
These ten spies said that the land was indeed a land that flows with milk and honey but that the giants of the land were too great to overcome. They reported that the children of Israel would never be able to take the land because the obstacles before them were too great.
Joshua and Caleb were the two spies who came back insisting that God was able to give them the land even as He had promised. They said, if the Lord delights in us, He will take us into the land; truly the land has many giants, but the Lord is able to take us into the land and give us the victory.
The people believed the spies who predicted defeat, and they became discouraged. As a result, they took up stones to stone Joshua and Caleb.
Then the Lord told Moses that the children of Israel were going to have to go back into the wilderness. They would have to wonder in the wilderness one year for every day that the spies were in the land of Canaan.
The spies were in the land of Canaan for forty days, and so the children of Israel were sentenced to wonder in the wilderness for forty years. God said that all those who were twenty years old and older would die in the wilderness, but then He promised that He would bring their children into the land of promise.
Now, in Numbers, Chapter 15, we find God giving the children of Israel some instructions for when they did enter into the Promised Land. He said, when you do enter into the land, there will be strangers who will be with you in the land.
These strangers were people who were not a part of the nation of Israel; they were to be what we would call proselytes. They were Gentiles would live among the Jews and accept all of the laws and customs of the Jews.
The Lord said that there was not to be one law for the stranger and another law for the children of Israel. No, there was to be only one Law for both the Jew and the stranger. These strangers were to come in and live among the children of Israel, but they were to live by all the rituals and forms and ceremonies that were prescribed in the Law, and they were to live by the same civil code as the children of Israel.
The Law was good and holy. If the children of Israel had obeyed that law, it would have given them perfect direction in their relationships one with another. The stranger who came to live among the Jews was to be a beneficiary of this just and holy law.
In the Law, God gave a law to deal with people who committed presumptuous sins. These were sins which were done intentionally, and there were certain prescribed offerings that they were to bring before the Lord for presumptuous sins. Then, there were also certain prescribed offerings which they were to bring if they sinned unintentionally.
As you know, the Law of Moses said to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The children of Israel were to keep this law perfectly and do no servile work on the Sabbath. Whether it was the weekly Sabbath, the yearly Sabbath, the Sabbath of Sabbath’s, or whether it was the year of the jubilee, all of the Sabbath days were to be kept. These were holy days that were to be set apart completely for the Lord.
Now, in Numbers 15, we see an incident which relates to the law of the Sabbath. In verse 32, we read:
Numbers 15:32 NKJV
32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
This seems to be a very innocent kind of activity, doesn’t it? This man was simply going around gathering sticks. It could be that he was planning to build a fire to bake bread or cook his meal, and this was forbidden on the Sabbath day. So in verse 33 we read:
Numbers 15:33-36 NKJV
33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
35 Then the LORD said to Moses,"The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
God told Moses to have this man stoned with stones because he was gathering sticks on the Sabbath. What a severe judgment this was, and it’s very interesting to compare this event to what Jesus taught about the Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus ministered under the Law covenant, and He did keep the Sabbath day. He did not advocate breaking the Sabbath day. However, He did heal people on the Sabbath, and He did do all sorts of good deeds on the Sabbath day. When confronted by the Jewish religious leaders, the Lord explained that man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man. Then He said, my Father works on the Sabbath, and just as my Father works on the Sabbath, I also work. He reminded them that the priests were permitted to minister on the Sabbath day according to the Law.
Essentially, the Lord Jesus was reminding the Jews that God never ceases from His work. By Him all things consist. By His power the many processes of our universe continue in harmonious function. If God stopped working for one moment, the universe would disintegrate into nothing. It is God who holds all things together.
In the Genesis account of creation, the Bible says that God rested on the Sabbath day, and this means that God rested from his work of creation. This does not mean that God stopped his work of holding the universe together. God works continuously and so Jesus said, just as the Father does good things continuously, even so I must continue doing good works even on the Sabbath.
When we come to the book of Colossians, Chapter 2, and verse 16, the Apostle Paul says that we today should not let any man judge us in regard to meat or drink or the Sabbath days, and then in verse 17 he gives the reason. He says that these things were:
Colossians 2:16 NKJV
17 . . . a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
God rested on the seventh day of creation, and He gave all of the Sabbath days of the Law, but these things were simply pictures or shadows of Jesus Christ. He says that the substance is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, if anyone wants to enter into a Sabbath rest, they must cease from their own works just as God ceased from His work on the seventh day of creation. As God rested in His finished work, even so you and I must cease from our own works of righteousness which we have done. Today, God calls us to rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.
The great difference between having salvation in Christ and having religion is found in the matter of works. Religion says that if you do this and this and this, then God will look upon you with favor. But our salvation in Christ says, to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.
In Numbers, Chapter 15, we see that the Law was a law of condemnation. The book of Galatians and the book of James both remind us of the fact that if a man breaks one law, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law. So in Numbers, Chapter 15, when this man was out picking up sticks, he was guilty of breaking the law of the Sabbath, but he was really guilty of breaking the whole Law. It didn’t matter that he had not committed adultery, and it didn’t matter that he had not stolen or lied. He had broken the Law by picking up sticks on the Sabbath day.
This pictures for us so vividly the condemnation that comes by the Law. We are all guilty of breaking the Law. Not one person has kept that Law perfectly except the Lord Jesus Christ. But because Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly, He was able to go to the cross and shed His blood as the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This is the blood that God accepts as the payment for all sin.
The only way that you and I can enter into a Sabbath rest is to put our faith in the saving power of the shed blood of Christ. When we do this, we can rest in the finished work of Christ. This rest is certainly a rest that outshines by far the Sabbath rest of the Law. As Paul said, the Sabbath rest of the Law was merely a shadow of the rest that is provided in Jesus Christ.
Now, in Numbers 15:38, we find the Lord telling the children of Israel to do something that is very interesting. He tells Moses:
Numbers 15:38-41 NKJV
38 "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.
39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
40 and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God."
This blue thread that ran through the tassels of their garments was to remind the children of Israel that God had given them the Law to separate them from all other nations. It was to remind them that they were not to take part in all of the religious idolatry of the other nations. They were to be a holy people, separated and holy for the Lord.
May I say this to you this morning? God has given to believers today His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and He has given to us His word to remind us of who we are. Like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, we are to be a holy people. We have been chosen by God to be His own peculiar, unique treasure. He says therefore that we should not walk as other Gentiles walk, but we are to be reminded that we belong to a heavenly company. We are members of the Church which is the Body and Christ, and Christ, Himself, is our Head. He wants us to be separated unto God for His work.
I see that our time it gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning.
Church links:
These ten spies said that the land was indeed a land that flows with milk and honey but that the giants of the land were too great to overcome. They reported that the children of Israel would never be able to take the land because the obstacles before them were too great.
Joshua and Caleb were the two spies who came back insisting that God was able to give them the land even as He had promised. They said, if the Lord delights in us, He will take us into the land; truly the land has many giants, but the Lord is able to take us into the land and give us the victory.
The people believed the spies who predicted defeat, and they became discouraged. As a result, they took up stones to stone Joshua and Caleb.
Then the Lord told Moses that the children of Israel were going to have to go back into the wilderness. They would have to wonder in the wilderness one year for every day that the spies were in the land of Canaan.
The spies were in the land of Canaan for forty days, and so the children of Israel were sentenced to wonder in the wilderness for forty years. God said that all those who were twenty years old and older would die in the wilderness, but then He promised that He would bring their children into the land of promise.
Now, in Numbers, Chapter 15, we find God giving the children of Israel some instructions for when they did enter into the Promised Land. He said, when you do enter into the land, there will be strangers who will be with you in the land.
These strangers were people who were not a part of the nation of Israel; they were to be what we would call proselytes. They were Gentiles would live among the Jews and accept all of the laws and customs of the Jews.
The Lord said that there was not to be one law for the stranger and another law for the children of Israel. No, there was to be only one Law for both the Jew and the stranger. These strangers were to come in and live among the children of Israel, but they were to live by all the rituals and forms and ceremonies that were prescribed in the Law, and they were to live by the same civil code as the children of Israel.
The Law was good and holy. If the children of Israel had obeyed that law, it would have given them perfect direction in their relationships one with another. The stranger who came to live among the Jews was to be a beneficiary of this just and holy law.
In the Law, God gave a law to deal with people who committed presumptuous sins. These were sins which were done intentionally, and there were certain prescribed offerings that they were to bring before the Lord for presumptuous sins. Then, there were also certain prescribed offerings which they were to bring if they sinned unintentionally.
As you know, the Law of Moses said to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The children of Israel were to keep this law perfectly and do no servile work on the Sabbath. Whether it was the weekly Sabbath, the yearly Sabbath, the Sabbath of Sabbath’s, or whether it was the year of the jubilee, all of the Sabbath days were to be kept. These were holy days that were to be set apart completely for the Lord.
Now, in Numbers 15, we see an incident which relates to the law of the Sabbath. In verse 32, we read:
Numbers 15:32 NKJV
32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
This seems to be a very innocent kind of activity, doesn’t it? This man was simply going around gathering sticks. It could be that he was planning to build a fire to bake bread or cook his meal, and this was forbidden on the Sabbath day. So in verse 33 we read:
Numbers 15:33-36 NKJV
33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
35 Then the LORD said to Moses,"The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
God told Moses to have this man stoned with stones because he was gathering sticks on the Sabbath. What a severe judgment this was, and it’s very interesting to compare this event to what Jesus taught about the Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus ministered under the Law covenant, and He did keep the Sabbath day. He did not advocate breaking the Sabbath day. However, He did heal people on the Sabbath, and He did do all sorts of good deeds on the Sabbath day. When confronted by the Jewish religious leaders, the Lord explained that man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man. Then He said, my Father works on the Sabbath, and just as my Father works on the Sabbath, I also work. He reminded them that the priests were permitted to minister on the Sabbath day according to the Law.
Essentially, the Lord Jesus was reminding the Jews that God never ceases from His work. By Him all things consist. By His power the many processes of our universe continue in harmonious function. If God stopped working for one moment, the universe would disintegrate into nothing. It is God who holds all things together.
In the Genesis account of creation, the Bible says that God rested on the Sabbath day, and this means that God rested from his work of creation. This does not mean that God stopped his work of holding the universe together. God works continuously and so Jesus said, just as the Father does good things continuously, even so I must continue doing good works even on the Sabbath.
When we come to the book of Colossians, Chapter 2, and verse 16, the Apostle Paul says that we today should not let any man judge us in regard to meat or drink or the Sabbath days, and then in verse 17 he gives the reason. He says that these things were:
Colossians 2:16 NKJV
17 . . . a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
God rested on the seventh day of creation, and He gave all of the Sabbath days of the Law, but these things were simply pictures or shadows of Jesus Christ. He says that the substance is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, if anyone wants to enter into a Sabbath rest, they must cease from their own works just as God ceased from His work on the seventh day of creation. As God rested in His finished work, even so you and I must cease from our own works of righteousness which we have done. Today, God calls us to rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.
The great difference between having salvation in Christ and having religion is found in the matter of works. Religion says that if you do this and this and this, then God will look upon you with favor. But our salvation in Christ says, to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.
In Numbers, Chapter 15, we see that the Law was a law of condemnation. The book of Galatians and the book of James both remind us of the fact that if a man breaks one law, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law. So in Numbers, Chapter 15, when this man was out picking up sticks, he was guilty of breaking the law of the Sabbath, but he was really guilty of breaking the whole Law. It didn’t matter that he had not committed adultery, and it didn’t matter that he had not stolen or lied. He had broken the Law by picking up sticks on the Sabbath day.
This pictures for us so vividly the condemnation that comes by the Law. We are all guilty of breaking the Law. Not one person has kept that Law perfectly except the Lord Jesus Christ. But because Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly, He was able to go to the cross and shed His blood as the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This is the blood that God accepts as the payment for all sin.
The only way that you and I can enter into a Sabbath rest is to put our faith in the saving power of the shed blood of Christ. When we do this, we can rest in the finished work of Christ. This rest is certainly a rest that outshines by far the Sabbath rest of the Law. As Paul said, the Sabbath rest of the Law was merely a shadow of the rest that is provided in Jesus Christ.
Now, in Numbers 15:38, we find the Lord telling the children of Israel to do something that is very interesting. He tells Moses:
Numbers 15:38-41 NKJV
38 "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.
39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
40 and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God."
This blue thread that ran through the tassels of their garments was to remind the children of Israel that God had given them the Law to separate them from all other nations. It was to remind them that they were not to take part in all of the religious idolatry of the other nations. They were to be a holy people, separated and holy for the Lord.
May I say this to you this morning? God has given to believers today His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and He has given to us His word to remind us of who we are. Like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, we are to be a holy people. We have been chosen by God to be His own peculiar, unique treasure. He says therefore that we should not walk as other Gentiles walk, but we are to be reminded that we belong to a heavenly company. We are members of the Church which is the Body and Christ, and Christ, Himself, is our Head. He wants us to be separated unto God for His work.
I see that our time it gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning.
Church links:
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