THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Miriam and Aram spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. For he had married a Cushite woman.

And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.

And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, Hear my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles. And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, O my Lord, do not punish us, because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, whose fleshes have eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb. Moses cried to the Lord, O God, please heal her, please.

But the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a spit in her face, should he not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside a camp seven days, and after that she might be brought in again. So Miriam was shot outside a camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. After that, the people set out from Hazarov and camped in the wilderness of Paran." Amen.

This is the Word of God. Now, beloved of Christ, the warning that God gives to His people through his prophets and through his spirit. The warning that the Lord gives in the old covenant and in the new covenant is the same. If anyone among you thinks that he or she stands firm, let them take heed, lest they fall. If anyone, it does not matter their status, It does no matter where they come from or their background.

If anyone among you thinks that she or he stands firm, let them take heed lest they fall. The same warning in the old covenant is the warning given to us in the new covenant. It does no matter. how we have come to be the people of God. If at any point in our mind enters the thought that even of ourselves we stand firm, that is the moment in which we are to take heed lest they fall.

Because even after we have been converted and made part of the people of God, The heart that you have within you is still deceitful above all things. It's wicked and it cannot be trusted. So if you think when the moment that the thought comes into your mind that in and of yourself, that you're standing firm, that is the moment that by the grace of the Spirit of Christ, we are to take heed, lest we fall from grace, lest we fall from the faith. Because our heart is not only deceitful and wicked, but sin is also deceitful. And sin remains within us and is deceitful, and can take us to believe that we can stand in and of ourselves, and that we are firm in and of ourselves, deceiving our heads, deceiving our hearts, deceiving our souls.

Removing us from dependence upon the Lord. If anyone, it doesn't matter if that is a lay person or if that is the sister and the brother and Moses. That is the terrifying reality that we have here in Numbers chapter 12, beloved of Christ. that the same sin that was present among the people of Israel was so corrosive and had the power to spread that even those who were very close to Moses, not only spiritually and covenantally speaking, but also in the flesh, his brother and his sister, were deceived by the deceitfulness of sin and were taken by the power of sin in their flesh and by the deceitfulness of Satan to oppose Moses. They were not indeed opposing Moses.

They, in fact, were opposing the Lord God of Israel, who had set apart Moses to be the one who was going to speak On behalf of God and who was going to be the one that it was going to carry the authority of God himself What a wicked heart beloved of Christ Just as we are to have a biblical view of who God is and the power of redeeming His people, we are also to have a biblical understanding of the unrighteousness, the wickedness of sin, and the reality that sin still abides in us and among us. And that is what was taking place in Numbers chapter 12 there, just after the people of Israel had set out, after they had started their journey towards the promised land, after they had received the oracles of God, after they had received the priesthood and everything that was necessary for them to make it to the promised land in obedience, in submission to the Lord and to establish on earth the kingdom of God, the deceitfulness of sin, through the flesh, the fallen flesh, not only of the people of Israel, but also those who were very close to Moses, enter into the people of God. Those who had been called to be holy, set apart. Those who had been given the law of God to be holy, just as He is holy. Sin had made his way into the people of God.

And that had taken place through the heart of the people, through the heart of Aaron and through the heart of Miriam. In chapter 11, this sin was manifested with a complaining attitude. And I said to you that the substance of that sin was dissatisfaction with the will of the Lord. When a soul is not satisfied with the will and the power of the Lord for our life, then the heart of the person is necessarily going to complain with the circumstances or above the circumstances and ultimately complaining for what the Lord has decided for the life of that person. Yet here in chapter 12, beloved of Christ, the external manifestation of that same sin, dissatisfaction with the ways of the Lord, is evidence and clearly manifested in pride.

Miriam and Aaron are going to question the authority of Moses. Has God spoken only through Moses? Has God only spoken to the people of Israel through Moses? He has also spoken through us. If anyone thinks that he or she stands firm, let them take heed lest they fall."

These people, indeed, were of high reputation within the context of the people of Israel. Indeed, God had spoken through them. Even Miriam was a prophetess. Miriam was a woman of worship that the women of Israel had followed. And Aaron, he was a high priest.

What a glorious role that he had been given to be the intermediary between God and the people of Israel, chosen among the chosen people of Israel, elect among the elect. He had been chosen to carry the glorious service of being the representative of the people before God. They wanted authority, they wanted a reputation, they had it. But when the deceitfulness of sin enters into the heart of a person, then we are utterly blinded and we become like fools. That is what the Bible says about those who deny the ways of the Lord, that they are fools, foolish.

The one that denies God is foolish. The one that thinks that he is wise, yet he makes himself fool in his own ways. That is the power of the deceitfulness of sin, making us fool. This was Miriam and Aaron questioning in their pride, in their desire to be something greater, in their desire to receive the worship of men, not the worship of God. In their desire to be seen, to be observed, to be followed, to be heard.

In their desire to be something greater of what the Lord had told them that they were supposed to be. In that satanic, demonic, fleshly desire, beloved of Christ. They were moved to question the authority, the God-given authority of Moses among the people of Israel. They were united to him, not by the covenantal powers of God in the midst of the people of Israel, but also they were his brother and his sister. What a terrifying thing, beloved of Christ.

And we have the judgment of God coming upon the presence of sin here. Leprous, she's made a leprous and she's taken outside of the camp. And this God of his scripture, that interprets his scripture for his people, divinely gives us the spirit of what is taking place here among the people of Israel, through the lips or through the hands of the Apostle Paul, who, writing to the church in Corinth, he says to them about the presence of sin in their midst. Don't you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lamp? Don't you not know, Corinthians?

Don't you not know, people of God, that a little leaven among you leavens the whole lamp? That a little presence of sin corrupts the whole lamp? Don't you not know that sin is corrosive, that sin is present, that sin begets sin? Don't you not know that you are supposed to deal with sin with much seriousness? Because sin is going to destroy you, my people.

Sin is going to deceive you. Sin is going to take you to a different path. Sin is going to blind you to the grace and the beauty of Christ. Sin is going to make you self-centered and not Christ-centered. Sin is going to remove you from the abundant blessings of the presence of God.

Don't you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore you are to cleanse out the old leaven that you will be a new lump. You are to remove the old leaven. You're to remove sin from your presence. You're to cast away sin from your presence, that indeed the lamp of the people of God will be cleansed, a new lamp.

The Apostle speaking to the Corinthians makes his case in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Passover and that he has been sacrificed already. And because of the sacrifice of Christ, indeed, the people of God has the power to remove sin from among them and to be that new lamp. In the old covenant, God will be the one that comes to execute the purifying judgment of removing the old lamp from the midst of the people. So He will come and execute that judgment even upon Miriam, even upon the sister of Moses, even upon the prophetess. Even upon the woman who had been an example for the women of Israel.

Even upon the woman who is going to be equated with Moses and Aaron as a leader of the people of Israel in Micah. Even upon this woman. If you think that you stand firm, take heed lest you fall. God executes judgment and removes sin from the presence of the people of Israel. So you see, there is a way in which there is a clear practical application for the new covenant church, because these things have been written as an example, as an instruction for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are not to allow the presence of unrepentant sin in the midst of the church, and that we're to cleanse out the covenant people of God by removing the sin, if that is the case, just as the apostle Paul did it there with the church of Corinth in first Corinthians chapter five.

My beloved Christ, the most glorious thing about this chapter is not so much the judgment of God upon Miriam and upon, of course, also Aaron, but rather is how judgment is executed because Miriam and Aaron are going to bring an accusation rooted in their pride. wanting to have the authority that they did not have. And they're going to question the character of Moses, the one who is in authority. His character is going to be questioned, and they're going to accuse him. And the Lord, the one who knows all things, the one who heard the accusation in the heart and in the mouth of Miriam and Aaron, He is going to bring the final verdict of this accusation.

And he's going to say, don't you know that among you there are many prophets, but my prophet Moses, he's a special one. Because I don't speak to him in visions or in riddles or in difficult ways. But rather to this Moses, I speak mouth to mouth, face to face. I clearly reveal to him. And he says something glorious there in verse 7.

that is going to connect us to the beauty of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Because in verse seven he says, Not so with my servant Moses. And he is going to be called or defined by the Lord God of Israel as faithful in all my house. He's faithful in all my house. This Moses that you are accusing, this Moses that you're bringing a sinful, wicked accusation, this Moses is indeed the one through whom I have spoken.

And this is the one that is chosen among you so that you will be guided and that you will go into the promised land. Beloved of Christ, if Israel made it into the promised land, it is, of course, because of the divine appointment that He had given that promise. But seeing it from a pure human point of view, the intercessions of Moses contributed to Israel making it into the promised land. How many times did not Israel upon the judgment of God was removed from that judgment because of the intercession of Moses and because Moses indeed held the wrath of God through his prayer and through his intercession and through those many intercessions, then a remnant of the people of Israel will make it into the promised land. Not different here with a meek and humble Moses who had all the right to execute judgment upon Miriam and Moses.

Yet he comes before the Lord to intercede on behalf of his brother and sister. Judgment is executed, but he is called a faithful servant in the house of the Lord. The author of Hebrews takes these words that are given to us in chapter 12 of Numbers to make the greater point in teaching us this reality. So if you go to Hebrews, then we can see the divine interpretation of this statement. In Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews chapter 3, this faithful Moses, the one that interceded on behalf of Miriam and Aaron, there in Numbers chapter 12, this faithful servant in the house of the Lord, It is the comparative point to speak of the role of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then in Hebrews chapter three, the author, the Spirit of God says, Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. that Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence in our boasting in our hope. Continue reading please. Therefore, therefore, because Christ as faithful, not as a servant, but as a son, and not upon the old people of Israel, but rather the church, therefore, As the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts in the day of rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to test and saw my works for 40 years.

Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is cold today, that none of you might be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm, to the end. Beloved of Christ, the old covenant people of Israel received the words of God through the authoritative mouth of Moses. The authority of Moses was confirmed and established even when that authority was questioned by even his family. God established his authority in Moses. And Moses said that there was going to be a greater one to come, a prophet like unto Moses.

In other times and in diverse manners, in different ways, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. But in these latter days, He has spoken to us, what the author of Hebrews says, through the Son. So take heed that you may not harden your heart and that you may not hear His voice, not the voice of Moses, but the voice of Christ. of whom the holy prophets and apostles have testified to us in scriptures, that we are to keep our hope steady until the end, that we may not fall in the wilderness, that we have this hope that is kept and established for us in heaven, And just as the intercession of Moses was effective to bring a remnant in the old people of Israel to the promised land, then we have the intercession of not a servant in the household of God, but we have the intercession of God and His Son. The intercession that is continual and ongoing.

A high priest who is in heaven interceding for us. Our name, our grievance in His hands. He's interceding for us. And just as the intercession of Moses was effective to give the promised land to the people of Israel, There's going to come a day in which the last trumpet is going to sound, and then the people of God are going to make it into the final promised land of God, kept and reserved for us, because the intercession that has kept us is greater, is the intercession of the Son of God, our glorious Lamb, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.