THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Numbers 31. We're going to be reading this chapter together, and then we're going to be given, I hope, a brief overview of what I want to share with you from this chapter.

And then our brother is going to bring the sermon on the Word of God to us. So, beloved of Christ, paying much attention to each one of the words. and by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of his spirit, giving thanks because of the word that is in front of us and that we can read it and that we can know of our God and of our Savior. I'm going to invite you to carefully and paying attention to each one of those words read together with me by faith. Numbers chapter 31.

This is the word of God. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people. So Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance in Midian. You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.

So they were provided out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, 12,000 armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. They worked against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every male. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Har, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with a sword.

And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took a plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. All their cities, in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire. and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of men and of beasts. Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses and to Eliezer the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, and the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. Moses and Eliezer the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.

And Moses was angry with the officer of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them, Have you let all the women leave? Behold, These, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. And so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known men by lying with him.

But all the young girls who have not known men, by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. In camp, outside the camp, seven days, whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day. And on the seventh day, you shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goat's hair, and every article of wood. Then Eliezer the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle, This is the statue of the Lord that the Lord has commanded Moses. Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire and you shall be clean.

Nevertheless, You shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water. You must wash your clothes on the seventh day and you shall be clean. And afterward, you may come into the camp. The Lord said to Moses, Take the count of the plunder that was taken, both of men and of beasts.

You and Eliezer, the priest and the heads of the father's houses of the congregation, and divide the plunder into two parts between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation. And Levi, for the Lord, a tribute, from the men of war who went out to battle. One out of five hundred of the people and one of the oxen of the donkeys and of the flocks. Take it from their half and give it to Eliezer the priest as a contribution to the Lord. And from the people of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every 50 of the people of of the people, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the cattle, and give them to the Levites to keep guard over the tabernacle of the Lord.

And Moses and Eleazar, the priests, did as the Lord commanded Moses. Now the plunder remaining of the spoil that the army took was 675,000 sheep. 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 persons in all, women who had not known men by lying with him. And the half, the portion of those who had gone out into the army, numbered 337,500 sheep, and the Lord's tribute of sheep was 675. The cattle were 36,000, of which the Lord's tribute was 72.

The donkeys were 30,500, of which the Lord's tribute was 61. The persons were 16,000, of which the Lord's tribute was 32 persons. And Moses gave the tribute, which was the contribution for the Lord, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commended Moses. from the people of Israel's half, which Moses separated from that of the men who had served in the army. Now the congregation's half was 337,500 sheep, 36,000 cattle, and 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 persons from the people of Israel's half.

Moses took one of every 50, both of persons and of beasts, and gave them to the Levites who kept guard over the tabernacle of the Lord. as the Lord commanded Moses. Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came near to Moses and said to Moses, Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our command. And there is not a man missing from us. And we have brought the Lord's offering, what each man found, articles of gold, amulets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and beads, to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.

And Moses and Eleazar, the priests, received from them the gold, all crafted articles. And all the gold of the contribution that they presented to the Lord from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds was 16,750 shekels. The men in the army had each taken plunder for himself. And Moses and Eleazar, the priests, received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds who brought it into the 10th meeting as a memorial for the people of Israel before the Lord. Lord Jesus, bless the reading of your word and help us, please, by the power of your Holy Spirit to understand and to be illuminated on the things that we have and we decide to say.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Beloved of Christ, for the last month or so on every opportunity that I've had had from this pulpit to address you from the book of numbers I have attempted. before the Lord and I hope by the Spirit to present to you different characteristics of the promise of God as He was given to the people of Israel. I have said to you that when we see the promise of God given to the people of Israel, we can see a shadow of the promise of God given to the people of God spiritually speaking.

And this last month or so, I have desire to present to you different characteristics of that promise of God given to the people of Israel so that by understanding better the promise that God gave to the people of Israel of the promised land, we will understand under and within the authority of scripture the promise of God given to the people of God. Spiritually speaking, some of those characteristics that we have mentioned so far, if you remember, is the first that God gave that promise to his people through inheritance. That is what I wanted to share with you from numbers chapter 27 with the daughters of Salafat, that the promise that God gave to the people of Israel of this promised land is an inheritance. And that is important because that speaks of the ownership of God over the land and, more importantly, of the relationship that God had with the people of Israel who were going to receive that land and inheritance is given from the father to the son. So the promise of God to the people of Israel was given through an inheritance there in Chapter 27, the second half of that chapter.

Also, I wanted to make the point and give this to you that this promise is given through a mediator. So he's not only an inheritance, but it's also a mediator. And that man in that case was Moses, who died, who perished and then passes the role of the mediator onto Joshua, who is going to be the one who takes the people of Israel into the promised land. The mediator under the old covenant was a servant of the promise. But the mediator of the promise of the new covenant is the substance and the value and everything that the promise is.

So for that reason, the inheritance under the new covenant is an inheritance that is kept and is reserved for us in heaven because it's established in Jesus Christ, who is the mediator, who does not die as Moses or Joshua. Then, after that, from my heart, I wanted to speak to you about this other element of obedience. We see or we can see that in chapter 28 and 29 and even in 29 with the sacrifices and with the vows 28, 29 and 30 with the vows and the sacrifices. I said to you that God's promise is not only given us an inheritance to the people of Israel, through a mediator, but it's also a promise that necessitates and that requires the obedience of the people so that by that obedience, they will not only inherit the land, but they will keep possession of it. It depended on the obedience on the people of the old covenant.

And then we can see that under the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of this better covenant, he keeps entirely and perfectly the obedience of the law and of the law so that we can be the recipients of the promise of this eternal inheritance in a better covenant that does not only obey the requirements of the law, but much greater. The righteousness of God is given to us through the person of Jesus Christ because Jesus obeys the Father. All of those elements, the inheritance, the mediator and the obedience are important because, as I have mentioned to you, beloved of Christ, the Old Testament promise is a shadow of the New Testament promise. The people of Israel is a shadow of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel is called the Son of God in Exodus chapter 4.

The people of Israel is a shadow of the people of God, the church. This promise of the land is also the promise of the new heavens and the new earth. The wilderness is a shadow of our pilgrims on this present world as we go towards glory. All of these is a shadow that is given to us through physical elements so that when we study this, we can see the character of God and the spiritual substance of it, namely the new covenant and the person of Jesus Christ. Now I want to add another element to that promise of God so that we will understand it better.

We have that this promise is given us an inheritance through a mediator and that requires obedience. But now I want us to meditate about another element, and that element is God's destruction of his enemies. God's promise. is given to his people through the destruction of God's enemies. This inheritance that God has promised to his people, that is going to be given through a mediator, that is going to be given through obedience, is also a promise that is given through the destruction of God's enemies.

Now, there are many ways in which God could have given this promise to the people of God. He's sovereign over all, and he could have chosen different ways to give this promised land to the people of Israel. But he decided that this promise will be given through the destruction of the enemies of God, who are also the enemies of the people of God. That's how the whole story started. Remember, Egypt was the first enemy of this promise.

And then therefore, God came with judgment upon Egypt and destroyed them in a sense. And then the people of God could continue through the wilderness. Then through the wilderness, many nations, hidden nations will come to attack or oppose the people of Israel. And then through the destruction of those peoples, then the Lord will give the promise to the people of Israel. And then when you read the book of Joshua and the conquering of the land, the predominant topic of the book of Joshua is primarily that the destruction of those people who were the possessors of the land.

The Lord was pleased to deliver this promise to his people through the destruction of the enemies of God. And that is very, very important. So what I want us to do this afternoon, beloved of Christ, is that through the example of the destruction of the medianites, which is what we have read here in Chapter 31, through the destruction of these people, which are the enemies of God, that we understand a little bit better this element of God's promise for his people so that we will be able to bring it into a spiritual understanding of the New Covenant in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, the example that we have before us in Numbers chapter 31, namely the destruction of the Midianites, is very important. It's important because the destruction of the Midianites will not only happen here in chapter 31, but you may remember the famous story of Gideon in Judges chapter 7.

Even the prophets and the Psalms will use the destruction of the Midianites as a reference to speak to or about the judgment of God over his enemies and the enemies of the people of Israel. So the example of the destruction of the Midianites, as we have it here in chapter 31, is a very good example for us to meditate about this element of God's promise so that we will be able to understand it in the new covenant. So very briefly, let's just simply see what we have in front of us in chapter 31 so that we will understand the main important elements of the narrative. And then from there, I will be able to present to you some important matters that will help us to understand the spiritual speaking in the new covenant. Chapter 31.

We have the destruction of these Midianites. We are not able to understand what is taking place in Numbers 31 if we do not remember what happened with Balaam. Remember Balaam, the diviner, the false prophet? And also what happened in Numbers chapter 25 when the Midianite women or the Moabites Based on the council, we're told here in chapter 31, based on the council of Balaam, these women will come in the midst of the Israelites to incite them to sexual immorality. You remember that?

These women that came in the camp, and not only that, but also to idolatry and to worship of their gods. It says in Numbers chapter 25 that the Israelites prostituted themselves. that upon the counsel of this Balaam, who was unable by the restraining power of God to curse them, then in his wickedness and wanting to carry on his desire of destroying the people of Israel, gives advice to send these women to tempt them and to make them fall in sexual immorality and idolatry, knowing that if he cannot destroy the people of Israel, then the God of Israel will bring judgment upon the people of Israel. He does so, and these women indeed incite these men to all type of wickedness. And you remember that upon the prostitution of the heart of the people of Israel, the Athenians will appear as the one that is avenging the wrath of the Lord and the righteousness of God, of whom the Lord was pleased.

But then we're told that in the end of this chapter 25 that the Lord gave a command, and that command was that these medianites and these people, and especially this daughter of the medianites who had caused remember, as a brother explained to us numbers 25, all of these wickedness among the people of Israel that they were supposed to be destroyed. What the Midianites had done in the context of the people of Israel was so wicked, so unrighteous, not only in sexual immorality, but also in changing and moving the hearts of the people of Israel to these veils or to these gods, these pagan gods. The commandment of the Lord was that the Midianites were going to be destroyed and the judgment will come upon them. And that is the judgment that we have in chapter 31. Moses decides, even the Lord tells Moses that after this he is going to die.

He says, go and get the men of war and fight against the Midianites. And what we have in chapter 31 is just a powerful and almighty victory of the people of Israel over the Midianites. Initially, they failed to destroy the women who had been the ones who caused the sin among the people of Israel. But after an exhortation from Moses, they go and destroy everyone. Men and women and children, only the young virgins were alive.

Animals and the spoils and the things were all taken because they had been victorious by the power of God over this Midianite, executing the judgment that the Lord had promised in Numbers 25. a clear victory of the people of Israel. And we're told in verse 49 that not even one man of the people of Israel perished in this war. The hand of the Lord was so mightily on the people of Israel that they were utterly victorious and not even one man of the 12,000 men that went to war perished because this was the judgment of the Lord. The element that I wanted to share with you is that God's promise given to his people requires not only this inheritance that is given through a mediator through this necessity of obedience, but also this promise requires the destruction of God's enemies.

This is not the first time, as I have said, Egypt were destroyed, the Amalekites, the Amorites, they were destroyed through the wilderness. And now here we have the Midianites. And as Joshua goes into the promised land, there's destruction of the Canaanites by the numbers utterly destroyed, according to the book of Joshua. What can we learn from this? How are we going to take these truths that we have just seen here in chapter 31 and apply them spiritually speaking with the authority or within the authority of the scripture in the new covenant?

How are we going to understand these things? So many things that we could speak about beloved of Christ. We could speak here about the righteous judgment of God upon the hidden who are not his people. We could speak here about the severity of the judgment of God. Or even we could speak about the instrumentality of God's people when God is going to execute a judgment.

As Psalm 149 says that we have a two edged sword and we destroy kings and we put them in chains. So many things that we could speak as principle of the doctrine of God from Chapter 31. But there's one thing that I want us to meditate upon that I think is going to help us. And that is to understand the nature of the enemies of God, the nature of the enemies of God. I have said to you that the element that will help us to understand better this promise of God given to the people of Israel is the destruction of God's enemies.

So give me your heart and your mind, beloved of Christ. And by faith, let me just present a couple of few aspects that will help us understand better the enemies of God and, of course, to understand better God's destruction of his enemies as an important aspect of his promise for his people. First thing that I want you to think with me here is who are the enemies of God? Who are the enemies of God in this narrative of Israel coming from Egypt and heading towards the promised land? Who are the enemies of God?

Now, God could define his enemies, as he does it in the New Testament, as everyone who is in enmity with him because of their general, imputed unrighteousness. But when we analyze carefully the narrative of the people of Israel leaving the land of Egypt towards the promised land, we see that the enemies of God are defined by those who clearly opposed the fulfillment of his promise for his people. Think about that. The enemies of God are those who oppose not so much God directly, which is true. Everyone is in enmity with God because of their unrighteousness.

But when you see the narrative of Israel coming and leaving Egypt towards the promised land, you see that the enemies of God are those who oppose the fulfillment of God's promise for his people. The people of Egypt opposed the promise of the Lord by keeping and not allowing the people of Israel go. So judgment came upon them and then they were liberated and they started the journey through the wilderness. The Amalekites, the Amorites and the Canaanites and even the Midianites through the process or through the journey in the wilderness opposed In different ways and in different manners, the progress and the sojournings of the people of Israel, sometimes not letting them pass, but just simply coming to attack them. And what happened?

Many times the Lord destroyed them through the people of Israel. They opposed the fulfillment of the promise of God. The fulfillment of the promise of God was to arrive to the promised land. They opposed that and the Lord came with judgment through Israel and destroyed them. And we see that, of course, very clearly in the book of Joshua, when the many hidden nations of the promised land will oppose the conquering of Joshua.

Of course, in their mind, they were right. This is our land. You're coming to steal our land or to take our land. But they were opposing the fulfillment of God's promise for his people. And then judgment came to those nations in Joshua through Joshua and through the army and all of them utterly destroyed.

The enemies of God are those who oppose the fulfillment of God's promise for his people. Now, in what ways do these enemies oppose the fulfillment of God's promise for his people? At least three ways we can see in the narrative from Egypt to the promised land in which these enemies of God oppose the fulfillment of God's promise to his people. First one, bondage. The people of Israel kept in bondage the people of God, and they opposed the fulfillment of God's promise for the people of Israel by keeping them in bondage.

Bondage, captivity, is one of the ways that the enemies of God will try to prevent the fulfillment of His promise unto His people. Then when the judgment of God came upon Egypt and they were liberated through the wilderness, then the way that the enemies of God will oppose the progress or the development of His promise for His people was by making war. the enemies of God make war with the people or against the people of God to oppose the fulfillment of God's promise unto his people. Again, the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Canaanites in different ways and in different manners through the wilderness came to make war or to oppose them in different ways so that they will not make it to the promised land. Bondage, making word.

And then we have the third one, which is exemplified with the Midianites. How did the Midianites, through Balaam's advice, wanted to oppose the fulfillment of God's promise? Through corruption. They wanted to corrupt the people of Israel. They wanted to divide the heart of the people of Israel.

They wanted to bring unrighteousness and wickedness within the context of the people of God. So by it, Satan behind it all will prevent the fulfillment of God's promise unto his people. Because their hearts were corrupted, there was sin, there was unrighteousness, and the judgment of God will come upon them. Many times the Lord said, Moses, or a couple of times at least, let me destroy these people and I will make a great nation out of you. And in the intercession of Moses rescued the initial generation, at least, to continue going through the wilderness.

The enemies of God, beloved of Christ, are those who oppose the fulfillment of God's promise for his people. And they do it through bondage. They threw into making war with or against the people of God. And they also do it with the desire of corrupting the heart of the people of God. Now, the question, beloved of Christ, that we need to ask ourselves is why the Lord will do it this particular way?

Because if you think about it, the other thing that we can say about these enemies of God is that it seems that the Lord was pleased. Let me take that back. It does not seem that he was pleased. He pleased the Lord. who is almighty, who is sovereign and who could have chosen many different ways to take the people of Israel from Egypt into the promised land to do it through opposition and not only opposition of the enemies of God and his people, but through the destruction of them.

It seems again, that is not the word. It is clearly in a scripture that it was the desire of God that there will be opposition from the enemies of God. And not only that, but because of this opposition, these enemies will be destroyed. He could have easily just let Pharaoh, let them go from the first time that Moses and Aaron came because he's sovereign over the hearts of men. But then we have in Romans chapter nine and we're told that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened by the Lord so that the glory of God will be manifested in his sin.

So the Lord was pleased and that there will be an enemy and that enemy will oppose the people and that the enemy will be destroyed in the fulfillment of his promise. Same thing is said of all other nations and all other people that opposed the people of Israel as they were going through the wilderness. Their hearts were hardened, their spirits were taken by deceit, and the Lord allowed them to be hardened to come and oppose the people of Israel. The enemies of the Lord are those who oppose the fulfillment of God's promise for his people, and they do it through bondage, corruption and making war against his people because and upon the decree of God, who has been pleased in determining that his promise is going to be given to his people through the destruction and judgment of his enemies. Then the question that follows is why?

Why does God allow that enemies will be raised in this case before or in front of the people of Israel? Why would God allow that many and multiple enemies who took them in bondage many times, who took them captive and corrupted them and did all of these things against the people of God? Why would he allow? that all of these enemies will be raised. And why was he pleased to destroy them?

When, as I said, he could easily just bring their could have brought their hearts to terms of peace or move them into just simply moving from the way and other people will just go and reach the place that he had promised. At least two reasons that I want to point your heart. And then I will conclude with that beloved of Christ. The first one is clearly to show the inability of the old dispensation given to the people of Israel to completely deal with the enemies of God. Even though God was behind the judgment that came upon the heathens through the people of Israel multiple times, we're going to find that as the people of Israel make it into the promised land, indeed, the enemies of God and the enemies of the people of Israel are going to prevail to the point that the inheritance that is given through a mediator because of the disobedience is going to be completely taken and the people of Israel is going to be taken in exile.

Because the workings of God through the Old Dispensation were not supposed to be for the final consummation of obedience and the utter destruction of God's enemies. Why? Because the physical enemies of the old covenant were nothing more than a shadow of the greatest spiritual enemy of God and God's people, namely, sin. Because through the disobedience of one man, sin entered into the world. And through this disobedience or through this sin, death and death spread to all people because all people sin.

All the disobedience and all the unrighteousness that could not be solved when the dispensation of Moses corresponded to the greatest enemy of God and the greatest enemy of the people of God, who indeed has taken captive the people of God, namely sin, the one that makes war against the people of God, sin, and the one that wants to bring corruption to the people of God, sin. And the Lord was pleased to manifest these things in the Old Dispensation so that when his son Jesus Christ will come, he will be the one that will be able to utterly destroy the works of the devil and sin upon the cross, bringing death to death and bringing death to sin so that through the full obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, the people of God will have the promise that They will be fully liberated from the bondage and captivity of the penalty of sin. They will be given liberty from the dominating power of that sin that is making war against them. And they will receive the promise that the corruption of the presence of sin will be fully eliminated once they are united to the person of Jesus Christ. Why?

Because through one man all sin, and then through the Lord Jesus Christ, many will made alive. And it's in the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ that those who are united to Him, will receive the promise that they will be witness of the destruction of the final enemy of the Lord. After he has come to subject everyone under his feet, he will give the kingdom to the father and destroy all the enemies and all the kings and all the rulers being the last enemy. death upon the establishment of this kingdom of the Lord, that which is mortal will be made immortal, that which is perishable will be made imperishable, and the power of death will be no more. Because just as the living and the dead will be judged according to the scriptures, and when the books are opened to see who is written on that book in the same way, Hell and death will be cast out into the lake of fire so that the city of God will come down from heaven to make a dwelling with the people of God, in which not only the fulfillment of the promise, the inheritance is given to the people of God, but the mediator of that glorious covenant, having obeyed completely the requirements of God and giving that to the people of God, will be able to dwell with God forever and ever.

utterly destroying all the enemies of God, being the last one death, being God himself with his people, wiping their tears, encouraging their hearts with their presence, where sin and death will be no more. He will have an eternal fellowship with them, a fellowship that is not no vulnerable to separation because the enemy of God who was the one that threatened this glorious union, even from the garden, now has been fully eliminated so that we will have certainty that our union with Christ is not under risk, not because of the presence or not of sin, but rather because now we are united to the eternal life of the Savior who has defeated sin and death already. Every time that we go through the Old Testament, even with the limitations of my words, every time, beloved of Christ, that you go through the Old Testament and you see all of these physical realities, they are pointing to a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Pointing to a spiritual reality, and that is the redemption of the saints. Pointing to a glorious message, and that is the message of the gospel.

And pointing to the glory of one, the triune God, who is in heaven, who has rescued us, and who has made us his people, never to be separated, never to never to be taken in exile, but to always be with him. Amen.