Discouragement, death and encouraging victories

Text Numbers 20:14-21:3 Time 21/10/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We are looking at the Book of Numbers and this evening I want us to look at three incidents briefly recorded in Numbers 20:14-21:3. The Israelites are coming towards the end of their long journey through the desert and they are soon to enter the Promised Land. However, there are a number of things to face first. First, there is a disappointment or discouragement, then there is the death of Aaron the High Priest and thirdly there is an encouraging victory over the Canaanites at Hormah.

We are not in a desert or wilderness; we do not want to pass through Edom; our High Priest cannot die and we do not expect to be attacked by Canaanites. However, if we are Christians we are in what has been called the wilderness of this world and we can expect to meet with discouragements, with deaths and also with encouraging victories. There is a good deal in these verses to help us on our journey, therefore. So we say

1. In this fallen world sometimes things will go wrong

We often seem to be making this point but I think that is because the Bible is often reminding us of the fact and because we often need to be reminded of the fact. Calvin talks somewhere about how people try to make themselves a Garden of Eden here on earth but that is impossible in a fallen world. One of the reasons God allows troubles to come into our lives is to remind us that this is not our home and to encourage us to look to him and nowhere else.

Here what happens is (14-17) that

Moses sends messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: This is what your brother Israel says: You know about all the hardships that have come upon us. Our forefathers went down into Egypt, and we lived there many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, but when we cried out to the Lord, he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. Please let us pass through your country. We will not go through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the king’s highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory.

The request is perfectly reasonable. God's people wish only to pass through. Further, Jacob and Esau were brothers and these are their descendants. There should have been friendship. It is a little like negotiations between this country and Germany, say. But just as those relationships have often not been friendly so here we read (18) that Edom answered: You may not pass through here; if you try, we will march out and attack you with the sword. Even when The Israelites reply We will go along the main road, and if we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to pass through on foot - nothing else the response is negative. In fact we read (20) that Edom came out against them with a large and powerful army. And so Since Edom refused to let them go through their territory, Israel turned away from them. They had no choice.

It does not say explicitly that the subject was made a matter of prayer but there is no suggestion here that Moses or Israel had failed to pray about it either. Nor is there any suggestion that it was some sort of direct punishment. There is not even an immediate judgement on the Edomites for their unkindness either. Rather, it is simply the case that God allowed Edom to reject the Israelite's perfectly reasonable request and did nothing to prevent it. It must have been hard for Moses to take but it seems he faced it with his usual meekness. We must do the same. Personally, in our family or church life and nationally too there will be such times.

So, for example, you may pray for someone to be kind to you in a certain situation – a teacher or work colleague you may need help from. You ask for it but it may not be given. As a family you may want to move house, say, but the you may miss the house you hoped for because the owner decides (perhaps unfairly) to sell to someone else. As a church we may well ask the council to be favourable to us over something – the payment of a fee, the arrangements for work that could interrupt our patterns. We may ask them and we may ask God but there is no guarantee what we want will happen. We simply need to face up to the fact and not be discouraged when things do not go as we would wish. Just as God guaranteed that he would bring his people into the Promised Land but not that everything would be easy so he guarantees heaven to all his children but not necessarily with the ease we sometimes hope for.

2. In this fallen world from time to time significant people will die

Secondly, in verses 22-29 we read about the death of Aaron. We read in verses 22-26

The whole Israelite community set out from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. At Mount Hor, near the border of Edom, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Get Aaron and his son Eleazar and take them up Mount Hor. Remove Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will die there.

Now this is no ordinary death, of course. There are at least three peculiarities.

1. Aaron's death is announced beforehand. Sometimes, of course, we have some idea beforehand that a person is about to die but we do not get divine announcements like this.

2. Aaron's death, it is made quite clear, was a punishment. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. It may well be that people are punished by death today in a similar way. This was certainly still going on in New Testament days. However, without a divine statement, we cannot have the same certainty as there is here. So, for example, when someone known for a promiscuous lifestyle dies from AIDS, say, we have reason to wonder if their death is a punishment but we need to be careful how we assess the matter for no doubt there are very promiscuous and godless people who have nevertheless reached a good old age.

3. Aaron was the High Priest and he was to be succeeded by his son. Specific arrangements are made regarding the transfer of his sacred garments, which Moses completed – he and Aaron and Eleazar

went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community. Moses removed Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

Now Aaron and Eleazar had the role of pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ in his priestly role. What they could not do was to show perfectly that he is an everlasting priest who, though he was slain, he rose again. Nevertheless, there is a reminder her that in this fallen world people die. We read that when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days. It was a bitter blow for Israel. And so today sometimes important people in the nation and in the churches die and there is quite rightly great mourning.

I am old enough to remember the death of the former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in 1965 and the televising of the state funeral on national television. He was an old man but the nation mourned. I remember too that when Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones died in 1981, although I did not know him I knew that he was a great man in the history of the church and so I made sure I was at his funeral in Newcastle Emlyn in West Wales. Both my parents are now dead. My mother died near the end of the last century and my father near the beginning of this one. I cried when they died and so did others. They were not national heroes or outstanding servants of the church but they meant a lot to me and my sister and to others and so we mourned before God.

It would be nice to think that I will never attend any more funerals or hear of any deaths that touch me deeply. But no, that is not likely. At some point in the near or more distant future I will hear of the death of someone significant on the radio or TV or I will read their obituary in the newspaper. I will attend some funeral or other where we mourn the loss of someone whose significance has been great or even very great. That is, of course, if my own funeral does not come first.

I don't think it is anything we should get used to. We should not. However, we must not be surprised at it. It comes to all in due time. It is another aspect of living in a fallen world. It is also a reminder that we must never pout our faith in men. No matter how great a person is as a statesman, a preacher, a wonderful father or mother – they are mortal at best. Our faith must always be in the eternal God who never dies .

 

3. In this fallen world sometimes there will be notable victories

The final thing I want us to focus on is the opening three verses of Chapter 21. We read there that When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. So it begins as though there is simply more bad news. You know that saying “trouble always comes in threes”.

Well, on this occasion that proves to be quite an erroneous idea as we read that Israel did not respond by saying “ah, trouble always comes in threes” or “what's the point? Everything is against us.” No, we read in verse 2 that Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities. No they prayed and vowed themselves to God in reaction.

And God was faithful. What wonderful words we read in verse 3 of Chapter 21 The Lord listened to Israel’s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They in turn were faithful to their vow and completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.

Now as we said at the beginning it is not our calling to destroy Canaanites. We are in a battle, however, and we are under an obligation to put to death sin wherever it manifests itself in our lives. Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. The Canaanites were defeated at Hormah because the LORD gave the Canaanites over to his people. If we look to God we will know victory over our sins too, however persistent and irremovable they may appear to be at times. By the Spirit we can put them to death. I like the line in that hymn “Each victory will help you some other to win”. No doubt this victory helped the Israelites to believe that God would give them further victories. We too will be encouraged when we know victories over our sins.

Conclusion

We do not know what the coming week or months will bring. There may be discouragements, there may be deaths even but there are likely to be victories too if we will look to the Lord. If we trust in him he will bring us safely through the wilderness of this world and to heaven above.