‘Presence’ (Psalm 23:4)

 

A Bible scholar was in Palestine in the 1800s and he noticed that the shepherds were more rugged than we tend to think.  ‘They looked more like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder; a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in hand.  Such were the equipment; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countanences showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment’ (from The Treasury of David).

There is no one more compassionate than our good shepherd, Jesus.  He is the most kind and loving person that there ever has been.  But this lamb of God is also the lion of Judah.  He has broad shoulders to carry his lost sheep home.  He has defeated our foes of death and the devil.  No one can snatch us from his mighty hand.

The structure of this Psalm is x-shaped (Hebrew chi).  In such Hebrew poems the main point is made in the centre of the x.  If we include the title for this psalm then the central words are ‘you are with me.’  This is the Immanuel Psalm—God with us!

The valley is one of the right paths

Before we enter the valley (verse 4), we are told that the good shepherd leads us in the right paths.  Dark valleys are a part of Jesus’ plan for our lives.  We might not understand why Jesus leads us there, but he promises to be with us.  The Bible scholar, Don Carson, explains that suffering is inevitable in life, if you are not suffering now, cheer up it is only a matter of time.  Don’t think that it is a sign that God has let you down simply because your circumstances are hard.

J. I. Packer writes, ‘If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek the grace to be ashamed of yourself.  Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonours our great God and Saviour’ (Knowing God).

The valley is hard

The valley of the shadow of death/darkness includes death, but I think it includes more than death. 

Dark valleys were everything that the sheep feared—bandits, unstable footing, flash floods, snakes and wild animals.

In the valley we fear evil.  But the Hebrew word for evil (ra) means more than just moral evil.  It is a word that can be translated ‘disaster’ or ‘chaos’.  I think we can use this of depression, family strife, grief, loneliness and doubt.  I think that Jesus can bring us into a valley where he lovingly shows us our sins and where we need to change.

God is not only with us in the valley, he is in control of all that takes place there.  In the book of Job, Job responds to his wife, asking, ‘shall we accept good from God and not evil (ra)?’ (Job 2:10).  Amos asks, ‘Does disaster (ra) come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?’ (3:6).

The fact that God is in charge even over the chaos we face in life may leave us with hard questions.  We may wonder what he is at.  But I would much rather to be in the hands of a strong God who has proven his love and faithfulness to be through the life and death of his Son than be the subject of mindless chaos.

The valley is not our destination

In the valley the psalmist talks about walking.  I don’t know about you, but when I am afraid I want to either run or I freeze.  But when we stay close to the shepherd we can walk.

We walk ‘through’ the valley.  The valley is not our destination.  I have talked to a number people about the topic of depression.  They assure me that the very hardest moments of depression do not last.  We can say to those in the darkest places that ‘this too will pass.’  Sometimes there are parts of the shadow that do not lift in this life, but we are heading to a place where God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

I was speaking at the funeral of a man who died by suicide.  I admitted that the shadow of his death would probably be somewhere in the background for his adult children all their lives.  But that they must let it be the defining feature of their lives.  They must keep walking.  The dark valley is not where we are to settle.  We walk as we seek the help of our Christian brothers and sisters.  We walk even as we seek professional help.  We walk as we pray.

Jesus is especially with us in the valley

Ray Ortland wrote a lovely book on a verse that tells us that God is with us in our brokenness.  The verse is Isaiah 57:15: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit’.  Ortland explains that the lowly in spirit are devastated people who have hit rock bottom.

The psalmist says that, ‘The LORD is near the broken-hearted and lifts up those who are crushed in spirit’ (34:18).

Notice that as the psalmist goes into the valley he stops talking about the shepherd and starts talking to the shepherd—from ‘my’ to ‘you’.  ‘The deeper the cloud the closer the Lord’ (Motyer).  One person looked back on a time of pain and admitted, ‘I miss how close I was to God then.’

Ask the good shepherd to keep you on track

When we are in pain we are faced with a fork in the road.  We can either lean in closer to our shepherd or we become bitter. 

Your rod and staff they comfort me. 

The rod was a two and a half mace with iron inserted into its head.  Anyone who threatened the sheep was likely to have the living daylights beaten out of them.  Our great enemy the devil has been defeated and death has lost its sting.

The staff was used to hook sheep out of the ditch, and also to give them a whack when they were going off path.  God disciplines those he loves, and no discipline is pleasant at the time (Hebrews 12).  A friend of mine pointed out that when she starts to ignore God, he gives her a ‘kick up the butt’.  It might be the gentle wounds of a friend, circumstances that make you realize your need of him or an increased inner restlessness.  Thank God that he will do what it takes to bring you back on path!

The valley is darkness and death

The valley isn’t just about death, but it does include death. 

In the last church I served there was a man who had a nagging fear of death.  That is not uncommon.  Jesus came to deal with that fear.  He came ‘to free those who were held in slavery all their lives to the fear of death’ (Hebrews 2:15).  Of course, we doubt and at times fear.  But Jesus wants us free from that fear.

I only got to Kinfire one day, but I heard the speaker, Glen Scrivener, give a good illustration.  He said that death is like a shroud and Jesus is like a needle.  We are the thread that Jesus bring through the death shroud.

Remember that ‘precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints’ (Psalm 116:15).

In his book, Fear No Evil, David Watson wrote about his terminal illness.  ‘The actual moment of dying is still surrounded by mystery, but as I keep my eyes on Jesus I am not afraid.  Jesus has already been through death, and he will be with us as we walk through ourselves.’

Conclusion

David Gibson says that the whole of the Bible is summed up in the words, ‘you are with me.’

When Jesus brings us into the valley with all its chaos, ‘you are with me’.

When we have every reason to fear, ‘you are with me’.

When our past comes to haunt us, our shepherd comes to our defence.  ‘You are with me.’

When the going is hard.  ‘You are with me.’

When it is hard to stand up for our faith.  ‘You are with me.’

When God’s time comes for us to leave this life, ‘you are with me.’      

Psalm 23:1-3 ‘The Voice of the shepherd’

There were two brothers with almost identical voices.  When someone would ring the home telephone they would get mixed up as to which of the boys were on the line. 

One of those boys left home to study, and was away for a few years.  When he returned to the family’s sheep farm, he wanted to see the new sheep that had been born since he left out.  He gave his call and none of the sheep came.  But when his shepherd brother called they came!

Sheep appear to be attracted primarily by the voice of the shepherd, which they know and are eager to follow (Bailey).

As we look at these verses which centre on being led by the shepherd we will remember that he leads us with his voice.

The title of this psalm tells us that it was written by David—the shepherd king.  We don’t know at what stage in his life he wrote this Psalm, but in his life he would experience the horror of falling into deep sin, losing children, family breakdown, and life threatening opponents.

When you read LORD in capital letters in a modern Bible it is a translation of the Hebrew YHWH, Yahweh/Jehovah.  To understand this name for God we need to go back to Moses’s encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3).  There God calls Moses to go to his people and tell that God has heard their cries and that that He is going to free them from slavery in Egypt.  Moses asks, ‘who shall I say has sent me?’  God answers, ‘I am who I am’.  Yahweh means is related to ‘to be’.  He is!  God is saying, ‘I will be present with me people to be whatever they need me to be for them’ (Davis).

What paths are you on today?  How is following Jesus challenging for you?  Who do you struggle to love?  What temptations do you face?  Yahweh says, ‘I am with you in this situation and I am who you need me to be for this.’

The LORD is ‘my’ shepherd.  The great reformer Martin Luther says that the essence of being a Christian is being able to use personal pronouns.  ‘The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).

‘Shepherd’.  A sheep is a defenseless animal.  Sheep don’t have a strong bite or a loud roar.  They do not have big claws or horns.  They are slow, so they can’t outrun predictors.  A sheep’s only protection is the shepherd.  Sheep are vulnerable, stubborn and prone to going off path.  Just like us!

I think that in the Christian church we put too much effort on leadership and not enough on followership.  You see the essence of being a Christian is to be a follower.  Sheep follow their shepherd.  Indeed, no matter what positions of leadership you are given, seek to look to people that you can follow as they follow Christ.

One of the beautiful descriptions of our shepherd God is found in the prophecy of Isaiah.  ‘He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.  He gently leads those who have young’ (40:11).

Jesus took the title of shepherd for himself.  ‘I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep’ (John 10:11).  Interesting Psalm 23 comes straight after a Psalm that mentions the horrors of the cross and the joy of the resurrection.

Jesus also says that ‘the sheep listen to his voice and he calls them out by name’ (John 10:3).  I find assurance in this verse.  I know that I am one of His flock because God has worked in my heart so that I listen to His voice.  He may speak to us in through an impression as we pray, but He only speaks to us unmistakably through His Word the Bible.  The fact that you let the Bible tell you what to believe and how to live is an evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in you.

One scholar writing on Psalm 23 says something that has divided opinion between myself and Caroline.  He writes, ‘A Bible read without prayer for the life and teaching of the Holy Spirit is worse (and I say this after a lot of thought) than a Bible not read at all.’  What do you think?  Will reading the Bible in a prayerless manner simply make you puffed up and pharisaical or is it good to get the knowledge into you head, whatever your motive so that it is there to draw on when you are more mature?

‘I shall not want’ is better translated ‘I shall lack nothing.’  God never promises everything that we want because that would spoil us, and He is a good shepherd who knows what is best for us.  I remember when I finished college in Dublin my pastor asked me to come and meet him.  He listened to me and diagnosed my lack of contentment.  He gave me a verse that fitted well to me: ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim. 6:6).

‘He makes me lie down’.  Have you tried to make a sheep lie down?  You can order a dog to lie down, but you cannot order a sheep to.  A sheep only lies down when it feels safe and well-fed.  The former shepherd and Bible scholar, Douglas MacMillan, points out that four things stop a sheep from lying down: fear, antagonism (he writes about a bully sheep and urges us not to be the sort of sheep that upset the flock to which we belong), annoyance (flies and insects), and hunger.

I find it interesting that the Hebrew root for shepherd comes from the verb ‘to fed’.  It is a reminder to those of us who have been called to be under-shepherds/elders/pastors that our primary job is to feed the sheep and that a health church will always be a well-fed one.

‘He leads me’.  The sheep weren’t driven from behind, they were led by the shepherd. 

By green pastures.  Apparently, the pastures were only green for about three months of the year.  It is interesting that in Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus looks at the crowd with compassion because they were like ‘sheep without a shepherd’ and He teaches them.  Then when he feds them he commanded them to sit down on ‘the green grass’.  It seems that Mark wants us to remember this Psalm.

Beside ‘still waters’ can also be translated ‘waters of rest’.  Sheep cannot drink from flowing water.  I think it goes up their noses.  So a shepherd will dam a stream in order for them to drink.  The theme of rest is a big one in the Bible. In Jesus’ day the religious leaders shepherd their people though the burden of rule-keeping and guilt.  Jesus comes and invites the people, ‘come onto me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28).  He has done everything necessary through the cross and resurrection to free us from the guilt and power of sin.  He wants us to realize the joy of following Him.

‘He restores my soul’.  I think it is interesting that the Psalms tells us that ‘The Law [Torah=Guidance, instruction] of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul’ (Psalm 19:7).  The Bible is not the goal.  Jesus is the goal.  Jesus is revealed all the way through the Bible.  Our knowledge of Him sustains us.  Ken Bailey says that ‘he restores my soul’ can also be translated ‘he causes me to return’.  Listen to Him calling us back to Himself.             

‘He leads me in paths of righteousness/right paths.’  ‘Our generation is confused as to the nature of true freedom’ (Wilson and Roberts).  ‘On their own sheep do not walk in straight lines, if they are going in straight lines it is because they are being led by the shepherd’ (Davis).  ‘The wilderness of Palestine often exhibits a maze of faint trials worn by countless flocks of sheep.  The shepherd alone knows which of them leads out of the valley to the next stage of the days journey, rather than an abrupt end or off a cliff edge’ (Bailey).

‘For his name sake’.  ‘Hugh wonderful it is to realize that the Lord keeps us on paths of righteousness because his reputation is on the line’ (Hughes).

Conclusion

Douglas MacMillan was away from the farm for three years.  Then he came home for a summer holiday.  He wanted to look at the new lambs.  His hands were dangling down at his side when he felt the nudge of a sheep’s nose against him.  This sheep had come up to him and made a point of nudging him.  He recognized this sheep.  Five years earlier, when she was a lamb, he had nursed her for six months, often taking her to the farm house to feed her by bottle.  He was thrilled.  She was saying I know you’.

When we love, we long to be loved in return.  So, when was the last time we went to Jesus and simply said, ‘Lord Jesus, I am glad I know you, I am glad that you laid down you life that I could become one of your sheep, I delight to follow you and  I love you?’

Blessed are the pure in heart

When I was in Edgehill College I got to go on a placement to Sri Lanka.  On one occasion a group of us climbed a small mountain called Bible Rock.  We ascended through a leach infected forest.  At the top was a plateau.  To our surprise there was a hut there, which was the home of a Buddhist monk.  To our even greater surprise he had a television in that hut.  And I am not too sure how surprised we were that he wanted to charge us money to see his shrine.

Presumably that monk believed that by breaking away from society he might be more able to live a holy life.

I hope that holiness is a concern for each of us, but if you are like me not only is there the desire to be holy there is the disappointment as we realise how unholy we are.              

            As we look at Matthew 5 verse 8 we are going to ask five questions.

1.  What is the heart?

2.  What does it mean to have a pure heart?

3.  How can our hearts become pure?

4.  What about the impurity I see in my heart?

5.  What does it mean to see God?

Question 1:  What is the heart?

We tend of associate the heart with affection.  If we love someone we put a heart by their name, if we lose someone we are broken-hearted.  However the Bible uses ‘heart’ in a much broader way.  

            Mark 2:6-7, reads, ‘‘Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that?”’ The word translated ‘thinking’ is ‘kardiais’, which comes from kardia (heart).  Hence the King James Version translates, ‘they reasoned in their hearts.’  The heart for the Bible writers includes what we might refer to as the ‘mind’.

            There are numerous passages in the Bible that talk of people being hard-hearted, they are stubborn.  The heart referring to the ‘will’. 

So when we look at this verse we are not just talking of our affections, but also our ‘mind’ and our ‘will’. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, says that in the Bible, ‘heart’ means the centre of one’s personality.  Purity of heart has to do with our very core being, it is to show itself in our likes and dislikes, our motivation, our thoughts and our understanding.

The Bible also tells us that humankind has a heart problem. In Mark 7:21-23 Jesus declares, ‘. . .out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.’  Out of men’s hearts—you see that Buddhist monk was wasting his time thinking that by breaking away from society he would achieve holiness, for as he climbed up that mountain (presumably on one occasion bringing his) his problem came with him.  It has been said that, ‘The heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart.’  If we are to have real holiness then something needs to happen in our heart.  

Question 2: ‘What does it mean to have a pure heart?’

The primary emphasis on the word pure in our verse, according to John Stott, is ‘sincerity’.  J. B. Phillips translates these words, ‘blessed are the utterly sincere. . .’

During Jesus earthly ministry people who would have had a great reputation for holiness would have been the Pharisees.  They seemed to hover around the Temple and Synagogues, they tithed even the herbs of their garden, they fasted and prayed, they would have been great for quoting Scriptures; but this is what Jesus says to them- Matthew 23:25-26, ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside will also be clean.’

The word hypocrite comes from a word meaning ‘to act’.  Their actions are not sincere, it was all just a show.  So what does he tell them?  ‘First clean the inside of the cup’, their heart- their desires, their motives, their mindset, their very being must be transformed; ‘and then the outside of the dish will also be clean’—they will act with sincerity.  Genuine holiness is heart holiness, it is sincere rather than an act because it works from the inside out.   

Question 3: ‘How can our hearts become pure?’

We have already pointed out that humankind has a heart problem, so how can we ever hope to have a pure heart?

David prayed in Psalm 51, ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’ God can do for us, what we can not do for ourselves.

            Tragically that Buddhist monk on his own on top of that mountain, lacked the one thing he needed if he ever was to have heart holiness: a relationship with the true and living God.

Yes we may be able to change some of our patterns of behaviour, but only God can change our very core—our heart. 

            However the fact that it is God’s work doesn’t mean that we just put up our feet and wait for it to happen.  Philippians 2:12-13,  ‘. . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.’

            It is God who changes us, verse 13 . . . who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure’ and because of that we are to ‘continue to work out our salvation’ i.e., to grow up in our faith; there is a responsibility upon us, to act dependant co-operation. Not activism or self dependant effort.  Not passivism or apathy. Dependant co-operation.

Question 4: ‘What about the impurity I see in my heart?’

            I want you to turn to page x (2 Corinthians 3).

            When we became Christians, when we were born-again God did a work in our hearts.  We see this in verse 3.  Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth saying, ‘You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts’ (a reference to our Old Testament reading).

            Yet even as born-again people we are so often aware that we are not as we ought to be.  That we so often fail to be like Jesus.  Well thank God his work in our hearts has not finished.  Look over the page to verse 18, And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

            We are ‘being transformed’, we are not yet the finished article, but there is a change taking place.  It is as if God has put a ‘work in progress’ sign over our hearts.

John Newton the slave trader who became a Christian, and who wrote the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ said, ‘I may not be as good as I ought to be, but by the grace of God, I am not as bad as I used to be.’  

Question 5: ‘What does it mean ‘to see God’?’

Martin Lloyd-Jones, ‘Christian people can see God in a sense that nobody else can.  The Christian can see God in nature, whereas the none Christian cannot.  The Christian sees God in the events of history.  There is a vision possible to the eye of faith that no-one else has.  But there is a seeing also in the sense of knowing Him, a sense of feeling he is near, and enjoying his presence. . . Another way that we see him is in our experience, in His gracious dealings with us . . But of course that is nothing compared with what is yet to be.’

The pure in heart experience God. 

Knowing him, sense of feeling he in near

1 John 3 verse 2-3, ‘Dear friends, now we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he is pure.’

‘[T]he Christian purifies himself now because pure is what he will ultimately be’ (Carson) . 

‘The pure in heart are blessed because they will see God.  Although this is not ultimately true until the new heaven and earth, yet it is true even now.  Our perception of God and his ways, as well as our fellowship with him, depends on our purity of heart’ (Carson).  What an incentive to purity!

‘Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see God.’

 

 

 

 

The tribes that settle to the east of the Jordan

In Numbers 32 half of the tribe of Manasseh, the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of dan ask to settle on the east side of the Jordan, outside the Promised Land (32:5).

Moses is initially worried that this will discourage the rest of the tribes from entering the Promised Land.  But they assure Moses that they will send their fighting men with the other tribes to conquer Canaan.

A word on the daughters of Zelophehad

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see' (Hebrews 11:1)

The book of Numbers is given that name because in contains are two censuses.  One at the beginning and one at end of the book. 

Both censuses are of fighting men aged twenty years are older.  The Levites are not counted because they did not fight.

The censuses are forty years apart.  By the second census all those recorded in the first census have died, except for Caleb and Joshua (Moses is not yet dead, but he will not enter the Promised Land).

The second census records a slight decrease of the first.  God had intended for his people to multiply, but this had been a stagnant period of time.

The second census is bookended by mention of the daughters of Zelophehad.  They give us hope that the new generation will be more faithful than the last.

These women care about justice, for their father.  He had died with five daughters but no sons.  Without sons his name--and any allotment of land in his name--would vanish.  The sisters mention that Zelophehad had not taken part in the rebellion of Korah.  He was a normal sinner who died a normal death.  God makes provision for the daughters to inherit and for the land to remain in the tribe, the tribe of Manasseh.

The reason that these women are to be admired so much is that they are exercising great faith. They weren't questioning God's ability to give them the land.  they are already planning what to do when they get there.

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see' (Hebrews 11:1)

 

God’s grace to complainers (Numbers 20:1-13)

She looked at me in anger and said, ‘you don’t care about us.’  She gave me a real dressing down.  I didn’t know what to say, but for the next few months (actually for the next couple of years) I went over that conversation again and again.  Mostly I defended myself.  But the greatest sting of criticism is where we know there is at least some truth in it.  I know that at times I do not care enough for people. 

It came to an end when she wrote me a letter of apology.  She was so kind and gracious, because when I tried to explain that I too was at fault she explained that her apology was unconditional.  She was not insisting I meet her halfway.  Her initial words may have been harsh, but she had allowed God reshape her heart.  My heart had simply ruminated.  Grace had softened her, but I had not let grace shape me.

This morning we are looking at how God responds to complaint.  Of course, he has not done anything wrong.  While there are times that God responds to his complaining people with acts of discipline, here he simply responds with immense kindness.  This is a challenge for us when we are on the receiving end of criticism.

What you should do when people complain

‘Now there was no water for the congregation.  And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.  And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!  Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into the wilderness, that we might die here, both we and our cattle?  And why have you made us come out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?  It is not place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink”’ (2-5).

Their complaint is so unfair!  They have forgotten that Egypt was a place of slavery.  They had had cried out in great suffering and God had rescued them.  Besides, it wasn’t Moses who had brought them into the wilderness, it was God.  The reason they were still in the wilderness was that they had refused to trust God and let him lead them into Canaan.  They might not have figs or vines or pomegranates, but that was their fault.  The twelve spies had brought figs and pomegranates back from the Promised Land, along a vine so great that it took two men to carry it on a pole, but they refused to trust God to bless them!

Moses and Aaron did what we should do when people complain against us—they prayed!  When you can’t ever please your parents, bring it to God.  When that workmate is a faultfinder, bring it to God.  When your spouse never seems pleased, bring it to God.  When your children think you are the worst, bring it to God.  ‘Lord, I don’t know what to do.  Help me!  They are saying things that hurt.  Please keep my heart from bitterness.  Give me wisdom.’

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.  So, you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle’ (8-9).

God is so kind!  The people’s complaint against Moses and Aaron was really a complaint against him.  They were implying that he could not be trusted, and that he had let them down.  Yet he blesses them.  God does not treat us as our sins deserve but according to his loving kindness.

What you shouldn’t do when people complain

God was wanting to treat the people with undeserved kindness, Moses was not!  He speaks to them harshly.  ‘Hear now, you rebels’ (10a).  James tells us that ‘human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires’ (James 1:20).  He not only acts as their judge, he is thinking of himself as their savior. ‘… shall we bring water from the rock?’ (10b).  He is not the one who can make water gush from the rock, only God can do that. 

It’s tragic to see Moses act so proudly, for we have already been told that he was the humblest man on the earth (12:3).  To be on the receiving end of complaint is a real test for our hearts.  If we simply respond with self-justification we will become proud.  ‘Who are they to speak about me like that?’  God had shown these people such kindness and had done them no wrong.  Yet he responds to them with even more kindness.  May we seek to show the kindness of God to those who complain about us.

Forty years earlier the people had also complained about lack of water and God gave them water from a rock (Exod. 17:1-7).  God had already described himself as their rock (Gen. 49:24), so the symbolism was clear.  It’s even clearer for us, for the apostle Paul tells us that the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).  In Exodus Moses had been commanded to strike the rock and water came gushing out.  ‘In that awesome picture of grace, the Lord was willing to be struck himself instead of his rebellious people, so that they might receive life-giving water’ (Duguid).  Jesus takes the punishment we deserve so that we might be blessed in him.

After I preached on this church, a friend of mine pointed out something I had missed.  Why didn't God command Moses to strike the rock again?  He wasn't to strike the rock again because the rock had already been struck.  If this is a picture of Jesus being struck for our sin, then we need to realise that Jesus' being struck was a once and for all event.  

God’s grace poured out over our critical spirit

What a lovely picture it would have been if Moses had obeyed God’s command!  Moses only would have spoken and God would have delivered.  With Moses striking the rock there was the danger that Moses and his staff would get the glory.  You see the other ‘gods’ of that region could be manipulated by sorcerers and diviners.  But if Moses had simply spoken to the rock no one could have thought that this was God’s doing.

Despite the people complaining, and Moses disobeying, there was abundant grace.  I had never before thought of what that word ‘gush’ implied.  Here is water for six-hundred thousand fighting men and their families and their livestock.  This is not a well down the back garden, this is a mighty waterfall.  ‘Behold, what manner of love the father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God’ (1 John 3:1).  Where sin increased grace increased all the more (Romans 5:20).  There is more mercy in God that sin in us.

Moses’s disobedience was serious.  The LORD explained to Moses that in this act he was failing to trust God.  The same lack of trust that had stopped the people entering Canaan.  He had also failed to uphold God as holy in the eyes of the people.  He did not show God the reverence he is due.  Remember that in the pervious incident with water from the rock Moses had been told him that, ‘I will stand there before you on the rock’ (Ex. 17:6).  Hitting the rock may have been an expression of great anger directed at God.  Be careful that your frustration with God’s people does not turn into frustration with God.  Many people have turned away from God’s church because of their frustration with God’s people.  I am not saying that you can never change churches, but when you cut off yourself from all local fellowships you are wounding the body of Christ.

Moses is disciplined for his disobedience.  He will not now enter the Promised Land.  I think we feel this is unfair because we believe God owes Moses.  After all Moses had put up with these complaining people for forty years of ministry.  But God does not owe us anything.  You see even the best things we do are stained with that terrible sin of pride and self-congratulation.  Jesus said that at the end of our day we should simply say, ‘we are unworthy servants who have only done our duty’ (Luke 17:10).

Yet grace does win in the life of Moses.  I remember being moved when a famous preacher that I got to listen to told us that Moses did indeed enter the Promised Land.  Remember the transfiguration.  Jesus is standing in the Promised Land revealing the beauty of his holiness, and who is there with him?  Moses and Elijah.  What Moses could not do because of his sin, he could experience because of Jesus.  Better still, there is a Promised Land that awaits all those who have entrusted themselves to God’s forgiving and transforming grace.  We will share that land with the risen Jesus, with Moses, and with all those who look forward to his appearing.  He calls you to step into the gushing grace that can cleanse us to the uttermost.

Conclusion

‘These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy’ (13).

There are two places that were named Meribah in the Old Testament.  They are the two places where God brought water from the rock.  Meribah means ‘quarrelling’.  The people were complaining against Moses, and really criticizing God.  In both cases God responds to their complaints with waters of blessing.  He showed himself holy (or different than us) by how he responded to their criticism. 

When was the last time you complained?  Both criticism and complaint are expressions of our dissatisfaction.  Maybe, like Moses, you looked at those you live with and judged them: ‘you rebels!’  ‘You are not treating me as I deserve!’  Like the people of Israel, you may be angry about your circumstances.  Behind our criticism and complaints can be an attitude of, ‘I deserve better’ or ‘I know better’.  We think we have been let down by others, or even by God himself.

So, how do we change?

We change as grace teaches us that God has truly been good to us!  Remember that the rock is Christ.  If you have been swallowed up by the love of Jesus then God does not treat you as your sins deserve but according to his loving kindness.  Jesus is God’s assurance that he is good to his people—for he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:32).

So, we ask God for the grace to respond to complainers with the kindness God has shown us.  We try not to complain by trusting God even when our circumstances test us.  We ask God for the grace to see the cross and sing of his goodness.

Do you want to be a zealot? (Numbers 25)

How you would like to be remembered?

Maybe they would say, ‘she had faith, like Abraham’, ‘he was kind, like Boaz’, ‘she was loyal, like Ruth,’ ‘he held on to God, like Job’, ‘he was passionate, like Peter’, or ‘he was a great encourager, like Barnabas’.  But what about Phineas?  Would you like to be seen as a zealot?

Zeal gets mixed press these days.  We talk about people with misguided zeal.  We might think of a terrorist as being zealot.  Indeed, on a surface reading it looks like Phineas is a terrorist.  Zeal looks unbalanced and dangerous.

I hope to show you that Phinehas’s zeal is worth imitating.

We should want to honour God with our eyes and our bodies (1-4)

What an irony that straight after God causes Balaam to bless the people they run headlong into scandalous evil.  They were a people not counting themselves among the nations (23:9), yet now they are behaving as the worst of the nations.  God had described their tents as lovely (24:5), and now they engage in filth.  Balaam could not bring a curse upon them, but they stir God’s anger up themselves.

We are told later that the plan to seduce the Israelite men was Balaam’s (31:16).  Presumably he was still seeking money from, Balak, the king of Moab.  Perhaps he said to Balak, ‘their God won’t let me curse them, but what about getting your women to seduce them?’  The worship of Baal of Peor involved sexual rituals.  The men were happy to indulge in sex and sacrifices.  Balaam would later pay for his wicked scheming with his life (31:8).

The Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel.  The Lord told Moses to take the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.  The leaders had failed to correct the people’s idolatry and endangered the whole community.  Leadership comes with increased responsibility.  James writes, ‘not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’ (James 3:1).

A woman asked John Piper if God could ever feel such anger against people who are in Christ.  He explained that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Jesus is our chief whose death has turned away God’s judicial anger from us.  One thing that He never feels towards us is contempt.  Yet we can grieve the Holy Spirit.  While those who do not have a relationship with Jesus cannot please Him, we can.  If we are capable of pleasing Him then sadly we are capable of disappointing Him.  This story shows us how seriously God takes sexual sin.  We should want to honour God with our eyes and bodies.       

We should pray, ‘Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours’ (5-9)

The Bible commentator, Iain Duguid, points out that Moses doesn’t seem to want to obey God’s command to execute the tribal chiefs.  Instead, he says to the judges of Israel, ‘each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor’ (5).  It seems that Moses doesn’t even carry out this more limited punishment.

The people weep at the entrance of the tabernacle.  Maybe they are devastated at the sin that has infected their camp.  We sometimes sing, ‘break my heart for what breaks yours.’  May we see the awfulness of sexual sin and idolatry for what it is!  Meanwhile a plague of God’s judgement is sweeping over God’s people.

Then something shocking happens.  ‘And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  When Phineas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the young man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.  Thus the plague of the people of Israel was stopped.  Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand’ (6-9).

There is debate about where this couple are having sex.  Were they having sex in a family tent near the tabernacle?  Some think that they were having sex in the tabernacle itself.  They seem to flaunt their relationship in from of the people who were at the entrance to the tabernacle.  Certainly the this is an outrageous act of rebellion in or around the tabernacle. 

It is important to realise that Phineas was not a vigilante.  He was not simply talking the law into his own hands.  This is not like someone bombing an abortion clinic or murdering a vocal enemy of God’s people.  Phineas, the grandson of the High Priest, was a part of the Levites who were reasonable for guarding the sanctuary against defilement.  We are not told exactly where the chamber was where the man from the tribe of Simeon and the Midianite woman were having sex but it seems to be in or near the tabernacle compound.

Are we zealous?  When we see evil vividly portrayed before us on the news are we moved to weep and pray?  Are we a people zealous for good works (Titus 2:14)?  Are we moved to action when we see the homeless on our city streets?  Do we advocate for the unborn, and tell those living in the shadow of abortion of the God who loves to forgive?  Do we speak up for the migrant and those discriminated against?  Do we seek opportunities to tell a wicked world about the one who gave His life for our sin?  

Let our godly zeal be a legacy to those who follow us (10-18)

The final verses of this passage tell us who the main players in the story were and how their actions affected those who came after them.  We live in an individualistic society where we think that what we do is no one’s business but ours.  That is not how the Bible sees things.  We are interrelated.  We are parts of families.  We should be connected to a church.  What we do affects others.  We can see that lived out all around us.  The sins of the fathers and mothers have consequences for the sons and daughters.  The godly zeal of the mothers and fathers can bring blessing.  Indeed, we are inheritors of the blessing of our older brother, Jesus.

Because Phineas cared about the honour of God and was willing to act, God gave to him a covenant of peace, and his descendants a perpetual priesthood.  The name of the man who was killed was Zimri, from the tribe of Simeon.  When it comes to the census later in the book of Numbers we will see that their number has dramatically fallen.  Perhaps they suffered most in the plague.  The woman, Cozbi, was the daughter of a tribal chief of Midian.  Moses is told to strike down the Midianites.

What we do affects those connected with us.  What you look at on a screen might not just pollute your mind, it may affect the whole spiritual climate of our church.  Bitterness and unforgiveness are never simply private sins.  Likewise, we can bless generations to come by laying a foundation of love and good deeds.  You might remember me mentioning a woman called ‘auntie Emma’ who was a matriarch in the last church I served.  When I met her in a nursing home and saw that her dementia-filled mind was bursting with love for Jesus, I believe I saw one of the reasons why the church had a legacy of kindness and grace.  There is a lovely old proverb that says, ‘a healthy society is one where old men plant trees that they will never see ripen.’  Let our godly zeal be a legacy to those who follow us!

Conclusion

‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

You know how we know that zeal is a good thing?  We know that zeal is a good thing because the opposite of zeal is apathy.  Apathy has nothing to commend itself to us.

There is one greater that Phineas.  Like Phineas he was zealous against sin.  But instead of piercing the sinner he was pierced for the sinful.  It wasn't their death that stopped God's judgement but his.  He wants his people to be holy, as he is holy.  But we can't become holy apart from him.  We can't change in our own strength.  So we look at him.  We delight in what he has done for us.  We strive for in the power of his spirit to change.      

May it be said of us, ‘they had godly zeal, just like Phineas.’