THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters, friends, let's read together Numbers chapter 20 with much faith by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, asking not only that we understand the words that we read, but also that he may speak to us as his word is expounded and that we may be made more like the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is Numbers chapter 20.

And this is the word of God and the people of Israel. The whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month and the people stayed in Kaddish. And Miriam died there and was buried there. 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, we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord.

Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, but we in our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates or there is no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

And 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 you give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Here and now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice.

And water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarrel with the Lord, and through them He shows Himself holy. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. Thus says your brother Israel, you know all the hardship that we have met, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers, And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt.

And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through a field or vineyard or drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway. We will not return aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.

But Edom said to him, You shall not pass through, lest I come out with a sword against you.' And the people of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more. But he said, You shall not pass through. And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force.

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him. And they turned from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eliezer, his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor and strip Aaron from his garments and put them on Eliezer, his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.

Moses did as the Lord commanded that they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eliezer, his son. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eliezer came down from the mountain. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron 30 days.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Beloved of Jesus Christ, let me point and bring the attention of your hearts to the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter, his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 10, when he's writing by the power of the Holy Spirit about the things that took place with the people of Israel and how the Apostle, with the power of the Holy Spirit, brings an exhortation to the Church of the New Covenant. And he says that they should not be unaware of what took place in the Old Covenant, that the people of Israel, these people that we are reading about here, they were partakers of the glory of the Lord and all the manifestations of the mighty hand of the Lord as they were brought out of the land of Egypt. They were in the cloud with the Lord.

They crossed the Red Sea with the Lord. They were baptized in the Red Sea and they were baptized in the cloud. They ate the spiritual food and they drank of the spiritual rock that was Jesus Christ. The Apostle says there in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that even though the manifested glory of the Lord was in the midst of the people of Israel, the Lord was not pleased with many of them. Many of them rebelled against the Lord.

All of these mighty works were not sufficient so that they will follow in faith the Lord God of Israel, but rather, Complained after complaint after complaint was the pattern of the people of Israel as we have seen it through the different books here in the Old Testament. Then the apostle says there in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that the things that took place for the people of Israel, they took place as an example, as an example for the church of the new covenant. They took place. They were written as an example, as an instruction for the Church of the New Covenant in First Corinthians, Chapter 10. So that if you think that you stand firm, you are to take heed, lest you fall.

Just as many souls perished in the wilderness and did not receive the promise of the Lord when He liberated them from Egypt and give them the promise that He was going to take them to the promised land. Many of those perished in the wilderness. So the apostle says, take heed, take heed. If you think that you stand firm, take heed, lest you may fall. What a terrifying exhortation is given to us from Scripture because, beloved of Christ, what we see here in Numbers chapter 20 is precisely the justice of God.

We don't have only people perishing in the wilderness, but we have Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses and Aaron, a Levite, the one whose mouth was filled with things and praises unto the Lord once they had crossed the Red Sea, dying before entering into the Promised Land. Not only that, but we have Aaron, the one who had set apart from the Levites, chosen to be the high priest, chosen to be the intermediary between God and the people. We have him here not only disobeying the Lord, but receiving the justice because of his sin and dying at Mount Hor, not being able to enter into the promised land. And if that was a little thing, we have Moses. The most humble man, according to the words of the Scripture.

The one that is the prophet, the prophet of God. No other prophet had that relationship with the Lord. The Lord spoke to many prophets through visions, but with Moses, He did it face to face. Yet Moses, because of his disobedience, in a natural sense, he's also going to perish in the wilderness. He's going to be left without entering into the promised land.

He's going to die before entering into the promised land. And what we have here, beloved of Christ in chapter 20, is precisely his disobedience. That was the reason why he will not make it into the promised land. What a fearful warning is given unto us by God, by His Spirit in Scripture, not in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament. Because the same Apostle Paul, or better, the same Spirit that speaks through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, is the one that speaks through the author of Hebrews in chapter 3 and 4, saying, take heed, brethren, Christians, Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God.

But rather, as it is called today, exhort one another daily that the deceitfulness of sin may not harden your hearts. For if you have been partakers of Jesus Christ, then you are to hold the promise until the end, the promise that you received from the very beginning." So now, The Spirit of God says in Hebrews and now to you, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of the rebellion in the wilderness. Who are those who perished there in the wilderness? Are not those who saw the glory of God for 40 years?

Are not those who receive all these mighty works of God? But all of those things did not profit to them because the word came without faith. So many of them perished there in the wilderness. And then the author of Hebrews continue in chapter four, therefore, he says, therefore, Let us fear God. Let us fear God, knowing that there is a rest, knowing that there is a promised land that is still to be achieved, that is still to be entered into.

Church of the New Covenant, let us fear, lest any of us might be found not to be able to reach the promised land. I don't know about you, brothers and sisters, but certainly to me, that is a reason to be fearful before my Lord. And know that there's nothing in me that I can make it until the end if it's not by the grace of Jesus Christ. And we are not to take those fearful warnings as the unbeliever just in the mind. We are to take the word of God as what it is, the word of God.

So what he says in Hebrews, in Corinthians, in Numbers, in every part of the Bible is the word of God, and it's true. And it is to be apprehended by faith so that we will be made more like the Lord Jesus Christ. But praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ that through His Spirit, He does not only give us the warning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and also the warnings there in Hebrews chapter 3 and 4, but He continues there in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11. He says that He is faithful. that God, the God of Israel, the God of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is faithful, that even though we go through trials and difficulties and tribulations and temptations, none of those is going to be beyond what we can bear.

But rather, the Lord who is faithful in placing before us difficulties that we can bear, He also provides a door of escape that He also gives us the means by which we can overcome the temptation and the difficulty. So then the soul of the one that is in tribulation, the soul of the saint who is backslidden, the soul of the saint who is not in the ways of Christ, the soul of the person that is not with the love that he or she should have, ask him or herself, what is that door? What is that door of escape? What is that door of escape that I need to take so I will be able to overcome temptation and trial and difficulty? And then the author of Hebrews in chapter 4, as he continues the same argument of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, gives the answer.

If rest would have been possible to be accomplished in the old covenant, Joshua would have not given them a rest that was temporal, but rather an eternal. That's why God speaks of a rest that is yet to come, a rest that is eternal. And the Lord Jesus Christ says, Come to me, all who are heavy and weary, and I will give you rest. Beloved of Christ, that door is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Him, the one that gives rest to the soul of the one that is in tribulation.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that opens the door. It is the object of the destination that gives peace to the soul of the one that in and of himself is not able to endure the things of this world. That's why the old covenant people perished in the wilderness, because the word of the Lord did not profit to them because he did not have faith. But praise be to God that through his gospel in Jesus Christ, salvation is by faith to faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as we are to be fearful because of the warnings of the New Testament, we are also to be certain that if we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is good to complete the work that he has started in us.

that He is the one that keeps us, sustains us, that He is the one that completes the work and that is not of us. Those things took place as an example so that the church of the new covenant will know that apart from the divine, that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we will perish in the wilderness just as they did. But praise be to God that we don't have a priest like Aaron, that we don't have a prophet like Moses, and that we don't have the law like the Sinai, but we have Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of the law, the high priest, and who is the one through whom God has spoken to us in these last days, the precious Lord Jesus Christ. So just as you can see the great warning in this chapter, beloved of Christ, you can also see the promises and the rest of the gospel of Christ. And there are particular two places in which I want you to see the Lord, your Savior, Jesus Christ in this chapter here.

The first one is in verse 24. in which we see here the death of Aaron. Providentially, the Lord has used the people in Edom so that the people of Israel will be taken to Mount Hor and in that mount Aaron is going to die. The high priest chosen from among the Levites to be the high priest. And then we're told in verse 24, Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebel against my commandment at the waters of Meribah.

Take Aaron and Eliezer, his son, bring them up to Mount Hor and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eliezer, his son, and Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there. Open the eyes of your heart, beloved of Christ, and see here something very important. What a fearful thing is going through the mind of Aaron, just even now, that he just rebelled not long ago. And the Lord says that he is going to die because of that disobedience. The Lord himself says to him, to Moses better, that he's going to die because of the rebellion on the waters of Meribah that just happened.

What a reason for you or for him just simply to believe that the judgment of God has come upon him and that that's it, that there is no forgiveness, that there is not eternal hope for him. Rather, the Bible says that he's joined to his father. Same words that the Lord God of Israel uses to speak to David in 2 Samuel. That Aaron is joined to his father. That, yes, he's going to die in the flesh.

But this Aaron, by faith and by the mercy of God, has been united to God eternally. But that is not the main thing that I want you to see there. The most important thing that I want you to see there is that Aaron came to the mountain with someone, right? Who is that? Eliezer, his son.

Because this high priest, this high priest who was supposed to be the intermediary, who was supposed to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people and God, this high priest was a sinful man. And because of his sin, he will perish and he will die. And the system of the priestly system to which he belonged was only comprised by sinful men. And the continuity of that priest who depended upon passing the role of high priest from father to son, from father to son, from father to son, and there will be no high priest who will be able to atone incompletely for the sins of the people of Israel until... A man will be born, not from the tribe of Levi, but rather from the tribe of Judah.

A man who is not in the priesthood of Aaron, but rather who has been chosen eternally according to the priestly system of Melchizedek, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom there was no trait of being a priest, but became the high priest of the church. The one who will offer a sacrifice once for all, not having any sinning of himself, so that the offering of the Savior will be sufficient to atone for the sins of the church, and His eternal life will be the guarantee that those who trust in Him will receive eternal life, and that the sins of those people have been fully and completely forgiven, and that there is no need of other high priests, nor of other sacrifice, because He paid it all. Aaron, Eliezer, his son, Saadok, and all the high priests of the old covenant, they all died and offered for their sins. And that was not enough to cover for the sins of the people. But if by grace through faith you have been united to Christ, then the death of the Lamb of God upon that cross has sufficiently covered for your sins and set you apart to be united to Him for the eternity that is to come.

The second thing that I want you to see in the text, and the second way that I want to show you Christ here, it is through the disobedience of Moses. And pay attention to this, please, beloved of Christ. Many of you may be asking, why such a judgment on Moses? Why such a harsh and difficult judgment on Moses? He came and he struck the rock and water came out of the rock and the Lord had given him an instruction.

But why such a strong and harsh and difficult judgment upon Moses, the one who had interceded on behalf of the people of Israel? the one who had led the people of Israel, the one who had instructed the people of Israel, the one who had given his life, whose effort has been spent by serving the people of Israel, exhorting and teaching and pointing to God, the one who had erected the tabernacle and all of those things. Why such a harsh and difficult judgment upon this Moses, whom had the hope to enter into the Promised Land, and now because of something that seems to be small, Then this Moses is not going to enter into the land. If everything that I have just said is indeed that which should be in your mind, that there's something such as a harsh judgment of God, that there is something that a small thing compared to the judgment of God, if that is what it was in your mind or in your heart, let me tell you that you have a very low view of sin. None of the judgments of the Lord are harsh.

Actually, the judgments of the Lord are pure and always perfect. Everything that He does is absolutely perfect. None of the decisions that the Lord has ever made has been not even 1% short of perfection, love, graciousness and everything that He is. By no means the judgment or the discipline or whatever you want to call it that came upon Moses falls into the category of unfair or something that was over. Everything that he does is just and is perfect.

But how are we going to understand that? How are we going to see Jesus Christ in that decision of the Lord over Moses? Well, beloved of Christ, let me submit to you that if you're going to understand the beauty of the gospel in this passage here in Numbers chapter 20, that if you're going to see the beauty of Jesus Christ here and in that decision of the Lord upon Moses, then you are to remember and you are to understand what happened in Exodus chapter 17. Because the waters of Meribah is not the first time that we have them here. Water coming from a rock is not the first time that happens here in Numbers chapter 20, but rather the first time that waters came from a rock was there also the waters of Meribah from a stone in Exodus chapter 17.

And if you're going to understand what happened in numbers 20, we briefly have to address what happened there in Exodus chapter 17. Pay attention to this, that if I'm able to communicate this to you, beloved of Christ, you will see the glory of the gospel. There's no need for you to read it. I'm just going to tell you here. The people of Israel, no long after they had left the land of Egypt, liberated by the power of the God of Israel.

You remember the waters opened, the Red Sea, they crossed, they went, they made it to the other side. They saw the judgment of God upon the Egyptians. Soon in their journey through the wilderness, few days after they had crossed the Red Sea, complaint came in the midst of the people. Many complained and the victor complained. First was water, then was food.

The Lord provided everything that they needed. And finally they arrived to Exodus chapter 17, in which they are going to complain once again after they have seen the mighty works of God, beloved of Christ. The mighty works of God are a testimony to His faithfulness and these people had seen it all. Exodus 17 arrives and they complained because they arrived to a place in which there was no water. Then the Lord burst in His anger and He's going to bring judgment upon the people of Israel.

But then He decides to do something. He decides to bring the people of Israel to trial. before I broke." So the Lord says, bring the congregation and bring the elders of Israel and bring Moses and I'm going to bring you to trial. You deserve that I strike you, people of Israel, because you have asked for water when I have provided everything for you and you have doubted My name and you have doubted what I can do.

What you deserve, people of Israel, is that I strike you with judgment But I'm now bringing you before this stone so that you see the glory of my grace and the glory of my mercy. Here, before the witnesses, the elders of Israel and Moses, I'm going to give my road to Moses. And Moses, as my representative, he's going to come to strike the stone. I'm not striking you, Israel, because you deserve the judgment, but rather I strike the rock and the rock is the one that is receiving the judgment that you deserve. And from that judgment, water is coming.

The water that you rebelled, the water that you asked is coming from the judgment that I am now executing upon that rock. The rock is struck, the rock is open, and water comes from that rock. And the sinful people now forgiven by the Lord drink of the water that is result of the judgment inflicted upon that rock. And then the apostle Paul in first Corinthians chapter 10 says something about that rock. That that rock is Jesus Christ.

And not only that, he says something else. that that rock followed them. That that rock, who is Jesus Christ, followed them. Now the rock was not following behind the camp as they were moving. Every time that the people of Israel wanted water, water was already provided from the rock.

And the strike that Moses inflicted upon that rock in the first time was the representation of the once for all judgment of God forgiven for the people, but inflicted upon that rock. So when Moses now here in Numbers chapter 20 is required to do the provision of water from the rock, he is clearly instructed not to strike the rock, but to speak to the rock. Speak to the rock and then when the rock is spoken to, water will come from the rock. Why? Because the Lord has struck the rock already in Exodus chapter 17.

The sacrifice of the judgment has already been made and the water is fully available for the people of Israel. And that rock was providing water for them through the 40 years, through the wilderness, not only as a testimony to the provision of the Lord, but rather to the testimony of the substitutionary judgment of the Lord that had happened at the waters of Meribah. Every time that water will come from the rock, they will remember that this is the God that provides. Yes, praise God. But this is also the God that has spared us, that did not inflict judgment.

So what a great sin on Moses when he comes in his anger and his emotions to take this rock of God and to strike that rock once again, not trusting in what the Lord has said to him. He said, speak to the Lord and make me holy. The holiness of the Lord before the people of Israel was to be manifested in the fact that that rock continues to provide the water that they need. And it's a testimony to the righteous judgment of God. Yet Moses, filled with emotions and filled with his flesh, comes and takes the road and strikes the road once again as if another judgment was needed.

The apostle, or better, the author of Hebrews, speaks of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ as something that happens once for all. And woe unto them. who want to sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ once again. Warn to them who want to make of the Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him back to the cross. Warn to them that want to sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ.

Warn to Moses. Warn to Moses that his duty was to give glory to God by showing them how the water will come out of the stone, but rather he struck the rock twice. But here, even there, beloved of Christ, we can see the great mercy of the Lord. Because this Moses was not different to the many people that perished in the wilderness. He was also worthy of perishing just in the same way of the other people that perished, not only physically, but also spiritually.

And it is when the glory of God incarnate in His Son comes to this earth, that the Moses who did not receive the promise of seeing the land, not entering better into the land. It's going actually to be in the land and not only in the land, but it's going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because then he's taken up to the Mount of Transfiguration, I think you say it in English. Elijah and Moses will be there in the promised land, giving a testimony to the disciples of the Lord, and then Moses receiving the mercy of the Savior. Beloved of Jesus Christ, brother and sister and friend, whoever you are, whatever the state of your heart is, whatever the state of your soul is, There is no other name given on this earth, in heaven and on earth, by which you can be saved, by which you can be edified, by which you can be strengthened, by which you can have peace, by which you can be made more like God than the name of Jesus Christ.

His blood has paid it all. He is the High Priest. He is our Apostle. He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer.

He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Lion of Judah. He is the rock from which we can continually drink, the rock that has been opened once for all, so that those who are in need of rest can come to that rock and receive the waters not of Meribah, by the waters of heaven that purify entirely the soul to set you apart, to remove you from the corruption of this world and to insert you into the holiness of God, never to be separated. And all of this by the glorious promise of the gospel, which is foolishness for those who perish, but is the power of God for those who have faith. Lord Jesus Christ, bless us as we meditate upon these things.

Amen.