The Christian life - Your battle, your boundaries, your lot
Text Numbers 33:50-34:25 Time 26/05/13 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
I want us to look this week at Numbers at the closing verses of
Numbers 33 and at Chapter 34. In these chapters Moses is told to tell
the Israelites about the task that lies ahead for them in the
Promised Land, to make clear to them the boundaries of the land and
to begin the process of allotting the land to the different tribes.
Once again, it is a story from a very long time ago and a place far
from here. Again there are these lists that are hard to read or
appreciate
Verses 3-5 Your
southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border
of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end
of the Salt Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and
go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to
Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea.
We
know where Egypt is and perhaps we can guess the Salt Sea is The Dead
Sea but most of the other names don't mean much.
The
men who would do the allotting:
18-21, etc And
appoint one leader from each tribe to help assign the land. These are
their names: Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah; Shemuel
son of Ammihud, from the tribe of Simeon; Elidad son of Kislon, from
the tribe of Benjamin, etc. We
have heard of Caleb but the rest are just names.
However, this is the story of the people of God. If they never had
come through the desert and never have settled in Canaan, then there
would be no David, no Solomon and no Jesus Christ. It is important
then.
But what practical use is it to us today? Well, let's think about it.
Here are the people of God and they are about to enter on a new life.
God wants Moses to set out some of the things they need to know –
that there is a battle ahead, the boundaries of the land, the
beginning of the allotment. Now when a person becomes a Christian it
is the beginning of a new life. And it is good at the beginning of it
to have certain things set out clearly. Indeed, it is good for us all
to be reminded of these things from time to time.
So three things
1.
Consider the Christian life, the battle to be fought and the life to
be lived
So we are still (33:50, 51) On
the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho and
now the LORD says to
Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you cross the
Jordan into Canaan, certain
things are going to need to happen. They, like Christians, had a task
to perform. Let's think about that first of all.
1.
Consider the task of the Christian negative and positive
1
Negative. 52 When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive
out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their
carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high
places.
As
you know, the Promised Land was inhabited by various tribes of the
Canaanites. These tribes were not only pagans but decadent pagans.
What we see here is two parts of God's plan for his world coming
together. On the one hand, these Canaanite peoples have become so
decadent that God has decided to judge them by removing them. On the
other, it is his purpose that the removal of these decadent pagans
will provide his own people with a land to live in. And so he puts
them under an obligation to drive out the Canaanites and Destroy
all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their
high places.
Something
similar pertains with regard to Christians. God hates sin, of course,
and wants to see it destroyed. Among his chief means to this end is
by putting Christians under an obligation to oppose sin in their
lives and put to death every remnant of it. In Colossians 1:5 Paul
says to believers Put
to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is
idolatry. Romans
8:13 is similar 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.
Just
as the Israelites were under an obligation to put to death the
Canaanites so, if you are a Christian you are under an obligation to
put sin to death wherever it arises in your life. We must not give
sin the oxygen it craves but strangle it to death.
2 Positive. Moses goes on in 33:53 to say Take
possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the
land to possess. They are to
(54) Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans.
To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a
smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute
it according to your ancestral tribes. So
not only were they to put to death the Canaanites bu they also had to
Take possession of the land they
had been given to possess. That included the dividing up of it that
is spoken of later.
Now
again there is a lesson for us here. The Christian life is to be
lived. That may seem a little obvious but it is surprising how often
that is forgotten. If we are true believers then we need to live as
true believers and do the sorts of things that Christians do –
praying, reading the Word, fellowshipping together, telling others of
Christ, acting in faith and seeking to please God.
Are
you a Christian? Are you putting sin to death then? Are you living
the Christian life? This is how it must be.
2.
Consider the consequences of failure in this task
In 33:55, 56 there is a warning But
if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow
to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.
They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then
I will do to you what I plan to do to them. There
are two warnings then. A failure to deal with the Canaanites will
mean constant unhappiness – they will become barbs in
your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the
land where you will live, More
than that, they themselves will be driven out by God himself.
There
is warning here too for every Christian. Most obviously, without this
putting sin to death and living the Christian life there can be no
real joy in the Christian life. Not only that but if you say you are
a Christian but are not living the Christian life then who is to say
God will not bring you to judgement.
2.
Consider the Christian life and the boundaries to be aware of
When we come into Chapter 34 we
learn what the boundaries of the Promised Land are to be. The
LORD speaks to Moses,
Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter Canaan, the
land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these
boundaries:
Four
boundaries are then described.
South (3-5) Your southern
side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom.
On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end of the
Salt Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go
south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to
Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea.
West (6) Your western
boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. Mediterranean.
This will be your boundary on the west.
North (7-9) For your
northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor and
from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad,
continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary
on the north.
East (10-12) For your
eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary
will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and
continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Kinnereth (Galilee)
Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at
the Salt Sea Dead Sea).
This will be your
land, with its boundaries on every side.
Now
in a similar way we can think perhaps of four boundaries that give
shape to the Christian life.
1.
Grace
That
has to be the first and the most important. Grace is basically
undeserved love. One of the greatest characteristics of God is that
he is the God of all grace. Because he is a God who is love he is
willing to be gracious to all who trust in him and call on him. To be
saved you must be in grace. Grace must form the border, as it were.
If you are outside God's grace then you cannot be his. You are cut
off from him. Once you are in his grace, it is important to do
nothing to jeopardise that grace, nothing to cheapen it or test it.
For example, you may be tempted to say that since you are saved by
grace not deeds then it doesn't matter if you sin or whether you do
good deeds or not but that is to cross the border, to make yourself a
foreigner to grace and that is both foolish and wicked.
2.
The Law
The
Law summed up in the Ten Commandments is another border for us. Some
don't like this idea. They say, you just said that grace was the
border. But that is like saying that because the northern border is
here then the southern border can't be here. No, grace is a border and
law is also a border. One of the things the Ten Commandments do is to
show us where we may be going wrong in life and to show us how to
live.
So,
for example, the commandments teach us to love God by being careful
how we use his name and by keeping his day holy. It warns us against
selfishness and dishonesty and greed. The Law forms an important
border – do not cross it – and if you do, get right back straight
away with due repentance.
3.
Love
Love
is another important barrier. Some Christians again don't get this. They know salvation is by grace and they know about the law but they forget about love. This was one of the problems in Corinth. One of the issues there was food offered to idols. Some simply said an idol is nothing and so it was not an issue. For others it was against their consciences to eat such meat. Paul points out that it is not a simple matter of who is right, who is wrong. There must be love.
4.
The brevity of life
This is an obvious one. You don't need me to say much about this. People die at different ages. Some die young, some live many years. George Beverley Shea recently died at 104! We do not know how long we will live.
3.
Consider the Christian life and the allotment that takes place
In the final section of Chapter 34
Moses commands the Israelites: (13-15) Assign this land by
lot as an inheritance. The LORD has ordered that it be given to the
nine and a half tribes, because the families of the tribe of Reuben,
the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their
inheritance. These two and a half tribes have received their
inheritance on the east side of the Jordan of Jericho, toward the
sunrise.
And
then we have the names of those who are to carry out this business in
verses 16-29. The actual allotment takes place later, of course, but
this is the first part. We too all have an allotment, as it were. We
can think of different aspects to it
1. Place of birth and upbringing
Where you were born and brought up is decided by God. It makes a difference which country you live in, what is the dominant religion and so on. Who your parents are makes a big difference.
2.
Place where you live as an adult
I grew up in South Wales. I never would have guessed I would spend so long in London.
3.
Your gifts and graces
You discover that there are some things you are good at and some things you are not.
4.
Place in the church (Pastors Deacons and women, etc)
If you become a Christian you will be expected to do something. We all have different talents, different things we can do to help -
5.
Providences good and bad
Sometimes major changes can come into our lives. It is God who does these things.
The things to remember is that this is all
this is decided by God, remember. This is your lot. That can be said rather cruelly but this is the case and we need to remember it.
I hope you will find this useful to remember in the week ahead.
