Welcome to the love and context podcast engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts Ben and Spencer
Whether you're tuning in from your car your office your home or anywhere in between we are so happy to have you join us today
Our mission is simple to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love
Together will uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love God and love the people in our everyday lives
So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom
That is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago without further ado. Let's dive right in
Welcome to the love and context podcast if you are on YouTube
You might be seeing us right now
And if you're not on YouTube you can go to YouTube and you can see us and apologies
But do they really want to see yeah, that's the quest there's a very good question
so this is something we had a couple people talking about and we're like, hey world try it and
If you really enjoy listening to the podcast, it's still gonna be available in audio form
But on YouTube, we're just gonna put up a video form
we'll see how that works if you tune in and you're gonna be like I
Know when Ben recorded this because if he's wearing a button-up shirt
It was probably during the work week. Uh-huh. And if I'm wearing a hat and a sweatshirt, it was probably during the weekend. I
Just look like this all the time. That should be a lot of fun
All right, so we are continuing on in the book of numbers. Yes, we are and actually before we get to that
We had a couple of people send me an email or just commented to me and I need to clean up a couple of mistakes
Yes, you do. Yes couple mistakes. So turns out that if you eat pig you don't get botulism you get trigonosis
Yes. Yeah, so that is a I warned everybody. I'm not a doctor. Well
He should we were in Alaska. He should know this because it's same if you bear you get trigonosis
Yes
Yes, cuz I eat a lot of bear
Just bear with me. That's terrible fun. I
Should know those things but I don't yeah also can we just be honest botulism is a way funner word to say than trigonosis
It is yeah
It's a way more fun where it is. The other thing we were talking about is at the end of chapter 11
So this is the last episode we recorded with pastor Nick
There's this interesting thing where a guy gets ticked off with them and he comes after them because something to do with the meat
This is while the meat is still in their mouth. He he brought a plague, right?
Yeah, and the question we didn't address it we moved past it because it wasn't part of our conversation at that point
It's actually really interesting that this whole story with the quail and the manna and like this whole like 72 and like all these things
Are mirrored back earlier in the book of Exodus. Yeah
We saw that God provides the meat for them to eat and it's more meat than they can handle
But in this narrative Moses has been like, okay God, but can you handle it?
There's six hundred thousand people. Can you really get us enough meat for everybody?
Of course, that's a bad question for God because of course he can he literally parts the sea so you can walk through and dry land
but apparently
Meats too hard to handle literally took out the most powerful nation in the world to free you
Exactly. So it's interesting because if you actually look and like why has got ticked off at the end of this because they're actually eating meat
It actually says a verse 32. No one gathered less than 10 omers
That's interesting because each day they're actually supposed to only gather one omber for bread
Yeah, but nobody gathered less than 10. Mm-hmm
And then it also says that they spread the quail over the entire camp. So it's like right in God's face
It's a story of mistrust once again, okay the meat's out here, but is that gonna be able to sustain the meat?
Yeah, which I mean, I think it's actually very familiar in the church is where okay
We have the blessing of God, but will the blessing of God last?
That's a very common concern for people because they don't know how to live in the blessing
Mm-hmm. Yeah, they don't know how to walk where there's always enough. Yeah, but maybe not an abundance but always enough
Yeah, and I think maybe the tendency especially as American Christians is that we want to gather more than enough and we rely on our resources
Rather than on what God provides. Yeah, absolutely
So the people even though there's an there's additional leadership at this point, they're still stuck with this distrust grumbling state
They don't trust God in the desert despite what he's done for them
And they actually named the place kibra Hattava that just rolls off the tongue
Yeah, which actually means graves of lust not a great name for a place, right?
So that actually brings us to the story that we're actually gonna be coming into today
So remember last time we just talked about there's 72 elders 70 or 72 depending on how you read read that
That God takes the spirit off of Moses and now he puts it on the 72
Mm-hmm. So God has taken the spirit off of Moses and he's placed it on the other 72
They've prophesied but they don't continue to prophesy and Moses makes that statement which we talked about a lot
It would be great if everybody had this year like I have it
Yes, right, which is just really demonstrating the heart of Moses now
immediately after 72 elders now being imbued with authority, huh chapter 12 opens with this
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Kushite wife for he had married a Kushite
Okay
Let's just take a step back
Have you ever been in a church where people are unhappy with the leadership or they're unhappy with their position or they're unhappy with a leader
And so rather than actually coming out and talking about the leader they like pick on something innocuous. I
Can't relate to that at all. There you can't right? It's just it's you're talking about. Oh, he has a Kushite wife
Yeah, I
Think you actually have told me that story about you and your dad your dad's story about the car that he owned
Oh, yeah, he was praying for a car and he was gifted like a basically brand new car
It was like a year or two old very low mileage and then he's had people being like you're in ministry
Why do you own such a nice car?
I'm not understanding the context of it at all that he was praying for a new car because he needed a different car and
He was gifted the exact thing the Lord provided the exact thing he needed
Which it's always good to pause here and say it's okay for ministers to have nice cars
Uh-huh. And in fact, it's okay for people to have money. It's not okay for their money to run them. Yes. Yeah, yeah and
I've just been chuckling at this whole thing cuz it's a hey, let's pick on Moses as a wife
Yeah, like I that's cuz they've picked on Moses before and it didn't end well for them. Yeah
Yeah, they're like picking on Moses isn't gonna work. So let's pick on as a wife. Let's try to spread some rumors
Let's try to do something that's not helpful here. The relatability to the church nowadays is
crazy on that because we I know a lot of people where they just want to find what is wrong
Mm-hmm. And so if something is going really well, then they start complaining about oh
These walls in this building aren't painted the exact color
I want it's actually a sign that you're probably doing a lot of things really well if that's the only complaints they have
Yeah, if you're in leadership if you're sitting there and you're like, okay
The complaints are very minimal or minor or not a big deal or like things that really shouldn't matter
You're probably doing things pretty well not to mention is starts to really reveal like people's real hard issues
Yes, if you're being real petty about like wall colors. Mm-hmm
This is a lot more about you than it does about the color that you're making the church
Oh, this was years and years ago, but I was I was at a church just visiting and
A lady like pulled the pastoral team aside after church and I was like, okay, she probably has some very big that she wants to
Bring up and she went on this whole rant about how they have placed the coffee service in the church in the wrong location
And that just disrupts the whole flow of everything that's going on Sunday morning. It's terrible
Sacrilegious to the kingdom of God which I two things like either one this church is actually doing things really well to her
That's the biggest complaint or two
They have some people in the church that have some issues like that of just finding what is wrong and trying to exploit them
Yeah, it's interesting coming back to a conversation
We had a couple weeks ago is it's way more conducive to the kingdom of God to be the kind of person who looks to see
What's right in somebody's life? Yeah. Yeah, we were talking about how when you know somebody long enough
They're gonna say something that is borderline heretical. Mm-hmm
And so instead of jumping on everything that they might say incorrectly, we're trying to find the good in them and build that up
Yeah, if you've been blessed with the opportunity to preach and teach you're going to preach heresy at some point
Yeah, not intentionally, but you're going to do it. Yeah and
Trust me having spoken from the pulpit you will say something silly and definitely not what you meant
In fact, there is a great clip that I pulled from last week's sermon of our pastor
and I'll tell you about it later because it's not necessarily appropriate to throw out here and
It's gonna disappear before you get to the podcast version of our church. Yeah, but it's it was pretty great. That's awesome
Yeah, so some people are like, oh my god
Yeah, so maybe Miriam and Aaron are feeling intimidated
Maybe they're feeling left out and but I do think it's interesting that to know that in the text here
What happens up happening in numbers by the way, we stopped didn't say this. This is numbers 12 through 18
Mm-hmm get your Bible out read it
We're gonna assume that you've been through this so that you kind of understand where we're going with this
Yeah, I think it's interesting here that Moses doesn't actually deal with the
Complaint God deals with it directly
Yeah
They grumble about Moses, but God actually answers on behalf of Moses and I want to point this out
Because later in a story probably coming up next week
Moses answers on behalf of God
Not the other way around and it gets him into trouble and one thing to note too on this little part right here
It's not the people who are complaining. It says Miriam and Aaron begin to talk against
Moses because of his kushra wife the people have been complaining plenty and they're gonna continue to play complain plenty
But in this story, it's actually the leadership
Yeah
Which also goes to show goes to kind of reinforce you that if you have a grumbling that is occurring in your fellowship
Mm-hmm. It doesn't go away. No, you had to deal with that. Yeah, God answers. He takes care of and he actually
Gives Miriam a skin disease something that looks like leprosy
She gets a skin disease or if any of you have been there at the birth of your child
Mother's probably definitely there. They were not birthed via c-section
There's like this white film that is like on their body. It's a really good like moisturizer
It's it's basically like one of the best nutrients you can get and it's really good for baby skin
But it makes them look kind of weird when they first come out
Yeah, you don't you don't clean it off
You want it to stay on their body for a little bit because they actually Aaron comments is it looks like a baby skin
So it makes sense. That's what it looks like. So skin disease. It looks something like that
Uh-huh, and it's interesting that Miriam actually doesn't complain. It's actually Aaron that says hey
This is unintentional and disease is coming Miriam actually doesn't say anything. She doesn't complain
She doesn't bring up words nothing, but Aaron brings it up and asks for mercy
And so then Moses prays to God and then God ultimately relents but says that she has to sit outside the fellowship for seven days
Mm-hmm. All right
So it's normally something like being unclean and so he's more driving home the point that it wasn't okay
It's not okay to complain and to be smirked the people that God puts into leadership
Mm-hmm. And also a thing to note is Aaron and Miriam were not removed from leadership, correct?
Correct because of this. Nope. They stay in their positions like the issue was dealt with. Yeah, there was some contention
There's some strife from amongst the leadership team for the Israelites and the issue was dealt with by God
Are you insinuating that we could learn a lot about leadership and running a church from the Bible? Not at all
Seems crazy. I'm not insinuating. I'm saying that
I'm saying that very directly so it is interesting to note though
That says that they don't go anywhere that all the people actually wait until Miriam is back
Yeah before they go anywhere because they're not going super far in the desert
They could have just left her and kept wandering but they're like, nope
We're gonna wait until Miriam's better
So then we did tell you guys to buckle up because it just starts to get progressively worse through this section of scripture
So then they send the spies out to go and look at the land one from each of the tribe and they're they're asking me to
Do things like they want to see what the land is like. What are the people doing?
They want to see what the land is like. What are the people like? What is the soil like? Are they strong?
Are they weak? Do they have houses? Do they have walls like what does this land actually look like? So for your business people?
They're like hey go do your market research. Yeah, exactly. Go do your research
You're gonna start selling a product in this area
Go see if that's actually a needed product and adjust your plan accordingly
Exactly. So they go they take one person from each tribe and they send 12 out and they all go and they take a look and
They bring back grapes. They bring back pomegranates. They bring back figs
By the way, I want you to note the pomegranate figs and grapes because it's gonna come up later in another story
Mm-hmm, they return after 40 days. So this isn't like a
Quick overnight look like they've been there for a while. They've been
Searching out the land looking at the cities checking out the people
Yeah, and I think it's interesting here that they actually come back and they say yeah, the land is exactly like God promised us
Looks exactly like God promised us
Yeah, but
The people are huge
Now this is the first time you guys have gone to see me on video
I am 6'6 and I am just as big as I look on that camera
Spencer is not a small man, but he looks small when he sits next to me
Mm-hmm. He is a he is on the larger side of human a spectrum. Yeah, but what the people say they said
Yeah, the land is exactly what God told us it was going to be
It's not told on there's these massive people who live there. Also, the Amalekites are there
You remember those guys that kept coming after our weak people in the desert. They live there and they're big. They're huge
We don't like them. And so they're laying like this groundwork of this conversation. Now. I love Caleb's response
Uh-huh. He's like, let's go. Let's go. No. All right, we got this and God's going with us
We can do this Caleb is is so fun because even the book of
Joshua, uh-huh. He's this old man chasing down giants. Uh-huh. Caleb is like, let's go. Let's go the others though
The other ten and I'm gonna say ten because Joshua is not named in this portion
But Joshua ultimately sides with Caleb that they should go into the land
Yeah, but the other ten started thinking that is foolhardy for them to go and so they go and they spread a bad report now
I went in and looked at the Hebrew in this and the word is dibba dibba
Is a dibba report meaning it's whispering. Mm-hmm
Stefanation
It's an evil report
It's this subtle
Conversation that's happening. It's more like it's more like a gossip mill
It's almost like you were complaining about a kushite wife of one of your leaders. Mm-hmm. Yeah
That you're whispering and you're spreading this bad report and you're kind of getting this this grumbling that is going on
Yeah, see you have at this point you have the people coming back and they're running to their neighbors. Hey, did you hear?
Did you hear? Yeah the land over there
There's giants over there. They're gonna kick our rear ends if we enter in there and we're gonna die
And then not only that did you know that there is nephilim those guys from genesis, right?
Yeah, those godlike warriors the offspring of angels and and kings
Those guys are there like what chance do we possibly have against them?
Yeah, we are just lowly slaves from egypt run away right like this is the mentality and caleb's like we're going
We got this killer doesn't care. He's like he's like god will take care of any of those people
Yeah, so out of that it spreads in the entire community. And so then they all start going
Oh, if only we had died in egypt or in the desert, but you brought us here to be slaughtered by the nephilim
You brought us to be slaughtered by the nephilim. Okay
Calm down
How many times does god put his face in his hands?
Just like face palm like just okay dozens gotta be dozens right at least when he's like you've seen me do all these things
You've seen me rescue you from egypt. You've seen me provide for you in the desert
You've seen me provide a shade during the day via cloud and warmth during the night via fire every day every night
You have seen like you have seen the glory of my presence reflected off of moses
You're literally eating food from heaven. Yeah, and meat every day. Yeah, and then you get to a land where there's some people who are a little bigger than you
And they're like we need to spread a rumor because there's no way we can handle that and not to mention these exact same people had been there when egypt was destroyed
Yeah, it's not like they've never seen a superpower destroyed. Yeah, this is not news to them. This is something that they've seen before. Yep
now
Taking a step back
I do want to identify with the story a little bit
Oh, yeah, because I see the victories of god all the time in my life and then I run into a new thing and i'm like, oh no
Uh-huh. Oh no. Uh-huh. This is insurmountable for god. Yeah
Because in the middle of the desert, it's hard to remember that god is sovereign
Oh, yeah
So coming out of that god has actually really ticked off
He's facepalmed again because there's a statement in there that say we're gonna elect a new leader
And to take us back to egypt
Now, I don't know if they remember how they left egypt, but egypt's not just gonna welcome them back with open arms
No, not to mention egypt is virtually destroyed
Yeah, like the amount of destruction that went on in egypt during the 10 plagues was going to take a long time for the egyptians to rebuild
They're wanting to literally go back to slavery
Rather than go and take the land that is actually needed and I got to be honest with you. I get it
Yeah, it's really tempting to when you recognize the road that you have to fight through
It is really tempting to want to go back to what's comfortable. Yep, rather than to go into what's promised. Yep
Oh completely and we want to have a ton of compassion with that
But at the same time if you do that, you're gonna end up dying in the desert
Or you're gonna live your entire life in slavery. Yeah, god is going to empower you but you have to go. Mm-hmm
Yeah, you have to take the steps you have to take the steps
You have to take the steps you have to take the steps
Yeah, you have to take the steps you have to walk in the path that the lord has laid before you
When you say you say well ben, that's the old testament. It's like matthew 28 all authority
Jesus speaking in heaven and on earth has been given to me
therefore
Go and make make disciples, right?
You still have to go and make disciples all authority has come go and it's not only that
It's also matthew 10 when jesus is sending the 72 out
To go from town to town the proclaiming gospel proclaiming the good news. The messiah is here
His like his send-off remarks of like hey, we're commissioning you for ministry to go preach the good news
Not just like being powered but it's also like hey people are gonna hate you
They're gonna throw you in prison. They're gonna try to stone you
They're gonna try to kill you all this stuff and then he gets matthew 10 28 and he's like hey
But don't fear the ones who can just condemn the body instead fear the one who can condemn both body and soul
In other words, he's saying hey if you're falling after me the worst that's gonna happen is you're gonna die
And then even when you die as paul says to live as christ, but to die is actually gain
So when you look at this
Nothing is insurmountable for god, right? We actually leaned into that
So much in our communities would change
Yeah
And one of the reasons we wanted to pause here and talk about this is because I think sometimes we tend to disassociate what israel
Is going through with what we're going through? Yeah, and we'd be like, oh you
Silly israelites didn't you walk through the did through the desert and get fed?
Didn't you walk through the sea on dry land and i'm like didn't you get changed from death to life through jesus christ?
Okay, except for they have is way worse than we do
Yeah, can we can we acknowledge that because we're like like oh you silly israelites
We understand you were brought out of slavery. You were like, oh you're brought out of slavery
I was good. They're actually brought out of everything and now brought into the desert where they didn't know anything how to fully trust god
And they get to another spot where they have to fully trust god and their options are go back in the desert and die
Or go move forward and die in their minds. Those are their options and we are over here like oh heavenly father
I am persecuted because my hairdresser is out of town and I had to cancel that appointment. It's rough. It's real rough
One and not to mention like we just talked about the division of the spirit. Yeah, so the spirit rested
On people. Yeah in the new testament the spirit rests in people. Yes. We are now the temple of the holy spirit
Yeah, we carry that temple with us everywhere exactly. I was like so in a lot of ways
Uh a lot of the struggles that they have we shouldn't struggle with because now we have a changed nature and empowered by the holy spirit
Yep, so we don't want to throw them under a bus because they were operating without the spirit inside of them
Yeah, we want to have compassion with them because it's the same struggle that we go through today
So then god is like, you know what?
I'm done with you guys like we'll just i'll just raise up people through moses aron and the people who are being faithful
Uh-huh, and i'll just do it through them. But moses he intercedes. Yeah
Like moses is very similar to what happens on mount sinai
Uh-huh moses intercedes and he's like god remember your covenant remember that you are slow to anger abounding in love
And he reminds him of who he is and I think there's also this invitation from god
He's asking moses to remember who he is. Yeah, so god relents and forgives
But he says that no one except joshua and caleb are going to be able to go into the promised land
Everybody else is going to spend 40 years in the desert and they're going to live out there and die out there
And then their kids are going to go take the land
So moses goes and he tells the guys or tells israel this
And then they start they're like, oh no, tell you what we'll go take the land now
Now that god said we can't do it we'll do it
I hear a little bit of my four-year-old. Maybe your five-year-old in there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah 100
100 there's a number of times where my five-year-old has to face the consequences of her action and she's oh no now
I'll go clean my room
But you're still gonna clean your room, but you're still gonna have the consequences aren't going away. I'm going away
Yeah, and so like first scott says go and take the land and they're like, ah, it's too much for you god
And then he's like, okay. Well, you're not gonna
Are you not gonna go into the promised land? I'll grant you your request. Yeah
You're gonna stay in the desert and your kids are gonna go take it and they're like, okay
Now that you said we can't have it. We're gonna go take it moses like guys. No, no, no
No, god is not going to go with you
You will go alone and you will get your butts handed to you. Uh-huh. They're like no, no, no, we're gonna go
We're gonna fulfill the promise of god. Well
listen
To god like clearly the issue here is that they're not listening
And there's a there's also a very relatable lesson in this as well. A lot of people who are like I am
Fulfilling the work of the lord or I'm fulfilling the promises of god
You have that same attitude, right? Yeah
And then it's like but are you actually walking in the direction he is walking?
Because there's because and what happens is you eventually burn out you fall
And a good one that we talk about frequently on this podcast
You're like it's my obligation as a believer to point out the sin and like to
To deal with the sin in other people's lives
and I was like
Yes, you are called to judge
But you're also called to love god and love other people first and from that your judgment comes you're also called to examine yourself
Take the plank out of your eye before you take the speck out of your brother's eye
Yeah, right. There's a lot of self examination that takes place before other people's examination
Can we rabbit trail real quick on that? Yep rabbit. All right, great
So the self-examination piece before you try to fix somebody else's problem
What that does is that allows you to be like man?
I have issues just like they do and it allows you to approach them
It doesn't mean you're not going to approach them in conversation
but it allows you to approach them in conversation with compassion and mercy and grace because you recognize you are in the same position as they
agreed and so
When you take down we feel like man, I need to address the color of ben's shirt with him. It's really obnoxious
Yes, I need to say ben don't ever wear that color of shirt first
First of all, my mom would agree with you. She hates yellow really that's funny. Yeah, you're welcome ben's mom
First I would need to kind of examine myself and be like, okay
Who am I to address the color of ben's shirt when I literally own four of these sweaters?
Same color and everything
Because I don't want to have to think about what clothes i'm wearing
I also believe he only owns one pair of pants, but I think it's six pair of the exact same pair of pants. Yeah
My wife laughs at me because she's like you buy like the same color pants and everything
I was like, yeah, because I don't have to think about it. You know the reality though. There's someone on this podcast
That's like I feel you spencer. I feel you. Yeah, exactly
But it leads to a place of self-examination before you have a conversation
Yeah, and I think that it helps you develop this fancy word called empathy
Uh-huh. Yeah, like our heart should always be like driven by empathy and understanding like where somebody is and our desire is to help them
Be better not to correct them from being wrong and i'm going to say that again
Our desire is to help them be better not to correct them because they're wrong. Yep
Mm-hmm. I think most of our correction or our love that we distribute to our brothers in in the modern church in america
I should specify
Is viewed through the lens of you need to be correct rather than I want you closer to god
We need to remember just as we were sinners
And we're redeemed by the work of christ. So are the people around us who say yes to jesus
The people who were sinners who said yes to jesus and they're redeemed by the work of christ
And just as we draw closer to christ more of the ickiness of our lives is revealed
Same with the other people around us, right?
So once again in this story
They want to go back and they're like, okay god if you're not going with us, we're still going to go fulfill your promise
And not surprising they get their butts handed to them
Like it is not even a contest because moses doesn't go with them and the ark of the covenant doesn't go with them
So neither thing which also means that the levites probably aren't on board with what's going on. That would be my guess
So, you know my kid, you know how she's kind of like she's a stubborn strong. Well, just like her father. Yeah. Yes. Yes
And I say she gets it from her mom, but her mom disagrees, but my kid's very stubborn
She's very strong-willed and she's very much like no I got this. I will figure this out. I can do it. I'm like, okay
And you just have to and there's things you just have to let her figure out and then she comes back to you. She's like that was
Stupid I couldn't do that. And I was like, do you want help learning how to do this?
No, I got this and then she'll run back outside and then she'll like try to figure it out and then she'll come back in
Cry and be like I can't do it and i'll be like do you want me to help you figure this out?
I can help you I can show you how to do it. No, I can do it
Do you I like sense that in this story and and that actually plays really well in because the biggest thing that she needs
In order to figure out how to do life is relationship with you
Yeah, like she needs to walk with you as you instruct her on actually how to do these things correctly
Now right after this section where they get their butts handed to them
There's this there's these these rules these laws that come out and people are like, oh well
God's just instituting more laws to make sure that they don't they don't break things and he's making it more strict now
He's actually giving them laws that are going to help them become the kind of people that don't need to be corrected
Yeah, it's meant to do something in them. So let's take a look at the laws that are that actually come out now
There's a couple of offerings that come out like these these offerings that are meant to do what what offerings do?
They restore relationship. We've talked about this in the offering series
Yeah
If you understand leviticus and you understand that the purpose of sacrifice and offerings is to restore relationship between god and humanity
You understand that if god says now, hey, these are going to be some new offerings
That's not because he needs more stuff. Yeah, it's because you're far away and you need to be closer
Yeah, you are away from where we are actually interacting. It's about reconnecting humanity about restore relationships
And then he gives them offerings for unintentional sins
Mm-hmm when you're grumbling and whispering and conniving and then you're like, you know what? We probably shouldn't be doing this. Yeah
Let's just restore that come back to me
And then they have this section where they talk about the sabbath breakers if you break the sabbath now
What's the importance of sabbath?
To remember who god is right and connect you to your identity. He made in the image of god
Yep, it's a day that is set aside. It's holy it's built around like a date night once a week for god
Yeah, and he comes out and I don't want to downplay this whole idea of that
They will kill like the person who breaks a sabbath because I once again we want to get into
Uh tribal language historical context. We've talked about this before
But kill doesn't always necessarily mean kill now in this story. They actually do go out and stone a guy. Yeah
Um, I don't know. That's necessarily the ongoing motif, but it's serious
Mm-hmm like you need to once a week remember that you are made for a purpose call back into your identity because that's going to cause
You to be the kind of person who doesn't walk around and complain
Yeah
Now we're doing a sermon on the mount series at the church, right? Yeah, and jesus frequently will make statements
You have heard it said but I say unto you which is rabbinic speak. We've talked about on the podcast
That says you've always heard this but it was always this
Yes, yes do not murder was always supposed to turn you into the kind of person who loves your neighbor
And we're like, how do you get that? I was like think about the contact is being spoken into so right here
Don't break the sabbath or else you're going to get put out of the community
Yeah
Because we're about remembering relationship with god if you do not understand the fundamental nature of you and god coming together
And stopping and finding your identity in him and not your production
Then you're never going to be able to fulfill the mission of the kingdom. Yeah
Yeah, so good
So that that's the purpose of these laws is going to be given now
We're going to get another section of story and then it's going to happen again. So let's take a look what happens next
so now the levites come up and they say
You have gone too far. They say to erin and moses. Okay. Now first of all who instituted the changes?
God so was it moses and erin that went too far? No, who are they judging?
God not a good thing to do
The whole community is holy true
Every one of them true and the lord is with them
true
All of that true. Mm-hmm
Why then do you set yourselves above the lord's assembly?
false
They didn't set themselves above god's assembly
God did god did
Which actually moses then defers to god
He says god will show up the next day and he's going to tell you who's in charge
Yeah, god's actually going to be the one to do this
But he continues and he says makes this statement
He says isn't it enough levites that god has separated you?
From the rest of the community. You're already set apart more. Yeah
You he's brought you to work on the temple and the altar
Don't you realize that it's actually against god that you're complaining you yourselves are set apart
Yeah, you yourselves are the priest who are supposed to teach the entire kingdom how to be priests. Yeah
And yeah, you're complaining about hierarchy. You've been placed in a hierarchy
Uh-huh for instruction not for importance. Yeah
You're not complaining about us. You're actually complaining about god
There's this huge conflict between moses and these guys because he actually like he
He asks some of them to come and they refuse to come and that's when he actually makes a statement
About don't you know that you're being set apart?
They may they make the statement
They say we will not come isn't it enough that you've brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us
in the wilderness
Okay, i'm sorry. What?
Do you did you not just read what happened earlier in the chapter moses brings you there and there's 10 people who spread a bad
Report. Mm-hmm. Like he didn't stop them from going in no the people started to complain and we're like, oh let's elect a new leader
Take us the opposite way
Now you want to want to lord it over us moreover
You haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of field of vineyards
Do you want to treat these men like slaves said the people who wanted to go back to egypt?
No, we will not come
So then moses gets angry and says don't accept their offering because there's this offering to reestablish relationship
Yeah, I have not taken so much of the donkey from them or have been wronged by them
So then moses says to kora you and all your followers are to appear before the lord tomorrow you and they and aaron
Each man to take a censor and put incense in it 250 sensors in all and presented before the lord
You and aaron are to present your sensors also
When kora had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance of the tent of meeting the glory of the lord
Appeared to the entire assembly. That's terrifying. Yes. Okay. The lord said to moses and aaron
Separate yourselves from all this assembly so I can put an end to them all at once
Okay, they got an answer to their question
Now one of the things I want to compliment aaron and moses on it says that they fall face down and cry out
Oh god, the god who gives a breath to all living thing. Will you be angry with the entire assembly for only one man sin?
So then he has a move away from kora dathan and abiram
They're actually taken away by god. You can read the rest of the story
But you hopefully you're seeing this this continued like oh you you didn't let us go into the land
You told us you weren't going to go into the land
I often find when i'm working with people that are struggling to follow god
God gives them an instruction and they don't do it
And then later like when it no longer applies to them
They want to do it and then they're like god said that if I did this then and I was like
Well, he gave me that instruction like two years ago. Yeah
And then they're like god is just not fulfilling his promise. He said if I did this then blah blah blah
It's very clear that you're not in a regular relationship conversation with god. Yeah
And that is being reflected very clearly in the way that you interpret your life through him
Yeah, it's clear to me that what we need to do is reestablish your relationship with god
And so often the relationship with god down to what can I do
Exactly, and it's no
It's not what can you do that's part of it, but a big part of it is also just go sit still
Yeah, and be in fellowship with that. We talked about the several realities see what god is doing and follow. Yeah
Yeah
So right after this story where the story of the censors were a bunch of people like the earth splits open and they get consumed
So you think people would be thinking maybe just calm down a little bit
Yeah, the next day the whole israeli community grumbled against moses and erin you have killed the lord's people. Okay. I'm sorry
I'm sorry
Did they not see the glory of god that appeared and like they were all going to get wiped out?
Uh-huh and moses and erin actually did on their behalf pleaded on their behalf that they wouldn't and so then they they go around
Okay
When the assembly gathered in opposition to moses and erin and turned toward the tent of meeting suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory
The lord appeared. Okay. This is the point where you calm down and beg forgiveness
Uh-huh, then moses and erin went to the front of the tent of meeting god says to moses get away from this assembly
So I can end them at once
And they fell face down once again
erin and moses
Plead on behalf of the people who are rebelling which by the way is just
A great picture for leadership. So take this picture. For example on this you have a whole community
Who is frustrated at you? You're in leadership
For its ministry, whatever goes beyond it. Mm-hmm
Your whole community and everybody's frustrated at you and instead of spreading a bad report or getting mad at them
You go to god and you just plead on their behalf
It's almost like that kind of thing changes the world. Yeah
Definitely 100% of the harder path to go 100% like it is way more difficult to go
Plead on the behalf of people who are badmouthing you than it is to just go badmouthing back
And up to this point like moses and erin could have just been like, okay god do your thing. Yeah, except they still recognize the heart of god
And they recognize their responsibility to the people
And so they plead on their behalf
It is very difficult when people are complaining and whining and and about things that you didn't do
Yeah, like things that aren't your fault to actually go and put god on display in that midst
Like things that aren't your fault to actually go and put god on display in that midst
That's difficult yeah, it is I I out of this story, uh, once again god relents, right
But out of this story god actually is is he says okay
You know what? We're just going to establish this once and for all so he says to moses he says
Speak to the israelites and get 12 staffs one from each of the leaders of their ancestral tribes
And write the name of each man on the staff of levi write erin's name
And place them in the tent meeting in front of the ark of the covenant law where i'll meet you the staff belongs to the man
I choose will sprout and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the israelites
So they go and they do that and the next day moses entered the tent and saw the erin staff
Which represented the tribe of levi had not only sprouted but had sprouted blossom and produced almonds
And I want to stress almonds because it's going to be important to a story coming up. Yeah
Then moses brought out all the staffs and from the lord's presence to all the israelites
They looked at them and each of the leaders took his own staff
The lord said to moses put back erin staff in front of the ark of the covenant law to be kept as a sign of the rebellious
This will put an end to their grumbling against me so that they will not die
moses did as the lord commanded him then the israelites said we will die we're lost we're all lost anyone who comes near the tabernacle lord
Will die are we all going to die?
Okay, now god's just said i'm putting the staff back so you're not going to die
Because the words you're doing but we talked about how jesus uh represents the word of god
And it comes from between the mercy seats and there's the bread of the covenant the
The actual 10 words and now the staff is in there. Yeah all things that jesus represents in his kingdom ministry
This is it this is the authority this is who god has placed in authority
Which then I think translates to jesus very clearly all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me therefore go
He is the budded staff
He is the budded staff. Mm-hmm. He is the bread from heaven. He is torah main flesh
Yeah, and god is trying to tell his people he's like listen
These are the people that I have set up into authority now. This wouldn't be much of an issue except
Back in exodus. They're like we don't want to hear from god directly you hear him and then tell us what he has to say
Uh-huh
It's almost like if people would actually listen to god rather than getting scared of everything he has to say
There might be a lot less miscommunication. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah
So true. Do you think in?
in church life
We have a tendency to just think the worst without talking to god. Absolutely. We have a tendency to think the worst without talking to god
I think we actually take it a step further
We think the worst jumped that jumped to the conclusion that that's what's going to happen and then start acting on it before the situation's
Actually fully taking place. Yeah
It's actually devastating to a lot of churches because you'll have leadership who will be like, okay this happens
This is probably going to be the case and then we're going to have to figure out how to deal with that and then they'll start
dealing with these
Made up situation in their head. I want to be clear
We as leaders in churches and ministries we should be looking ahead and keeping our eyes open for potential issues
potential problems, but we should also
Uh and taking the time to be like, all right lord, what are you doing in this moment?
Where am I in this story? Where do you want me in this story?
Because the reality is i've been in leadership roles at a few different churches now you have as well
And I could ask you this question have any of them gone exactly how you saw it exactly how I thought
Yeah, it works out exactly like I thought it would be yeah a little bit of a rhetorical question there
Like every role i've been in I I step out and I have vision and i'm like this is what's gonna happen
And then six months in I was like the lord had a different plan
Mm-hmm, and that's what it is
So it's when we as leaders walk and step with the lord, that's when the community changes right
When we try to force the change, that's when we glorify ourselves
I think if there's a something we can learn in this section
It's that and when you tend to focus focus on your opinion rather than the voice of god
That you end up with some really messed up ideas about what happened. Yeah, also revisionist history is a real bit of the big thing
Oh, yeah
I think that we also need to be honest about like our history and what happened and our responsibilities. It's it's interesting
So we had talked earlier. We said that this
idea of
Offerings come up afterwards and like the Sabbath restore a relationship after this section with the priesthood
It actually says that now these are the duties of the priests and leviaths god reminds them once again
This is who you're supposed to be
Yeah, and then there's offerings for the priests and leviaths and it carries all the way into
This the story about the water of cleansing and there's a there's like a new thing about what the Israelites are supposed to do
Which is actually going to carry into our story next week. Yeah, but god says this is the issue
And now let's make sure that we don't run into it again
We used to have these things when I was a resident assistant in college called kevin rules
Sorry, if somebody's listening their name is kevin
And they were rules that we had to make because somebody named kevin did something dumb
Uh-huh, and the rules were actually designed to make sure that something dumb didn't happen again. Yeah, but in god's case
They're not just rules that are meant to get people to stop being dumb
They're actually rules that are laws that are instituted for the purpose of restoring relationship or creating something different in you
So that you become a different kind of person. Yeah, that's the big difference between american laws and laws of god. Yeah, right. Yeah, I
Think the invitation in this in this text is to be the kind of leaders like Aaron and Michael
At least in this story next week. It's gonna be a little bit different
Be the kind of people in these stories that plead on behalf of people that don't deserve it. Yeah
Yeah, because let's be honest. We don't deserve it either. We don't and
With that said I know there's people in my life who have pleaded on behalf of myself. Yeah
And I know there's people in my life who i've pleaded on behalf of them
Yeah, we're gonna wrap the story here
Yeah
Because we don't if we go any further we're actually going to get into next week's topic or we're going to be talking about water from a rock
Good story, it's gonna be fun. Yeah, so you can read ahead on that
So a couple of things that are going cool is one apparently now we're gonna have video on youtube
Yeah, provided that this turns out decent. Otherwise, i'm gonna edit all of this out. Nobody's gonna know the difference
Yep, if it turns out well though, you'll be able to start watching us on youtube. The video will get better
This is our first week. So it's gonna take us a little bit like it did with audio
Yeah, it will get better things will always improve. We are always striving to be better
So with that said if you actually have like hey, here's some good video tips that you have let us know
We'd love that and just make sure it's simple because we're really not smart
We're smart just not about technology. Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah. Yeah, we're not smart technology
Yeah, yeah, you can find us on facebook instagram tick tock
Some of the things we're gonna start sending out and we've started posting some videos
We've been making book recommendations. Yeah different books that we recommend
We've we've put them in the show notes before but we're actually talking about why this book
Yeah, additionally, i'm going to talk to spencer about this but we're going to get a link set up on our website and on our link tree
To some different swag items that you can get for love and context
The current one that is we designed a shirt and it says the debtor's is really hot
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I think that would be pretty cool
We got that as a gift for uh, pastor nick's wife who commented that we say that a lot
At the point that she will actually listen to this episode
We've actually gotten her a shirt already that says that and I can't wait to tell you about her reaction
It's great. If you want to order something like that would be great
I think we're going to design a couple of hats and some different things. Uh, we all we do this in our spare time
So obviously we're not going to be able to devote a ton of time to it. Mm-hmm
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All right till next time. Bye
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