THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Numbers chapter, book of Numbers chapter 33. These are the stages of the people of Israel when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

Moses wrote down their starting places stage by stage by commandment of the Lord and these are the stages according to their starting places. They set out from Ramses in the first month of the 15th day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord had struck down among them. On their guards also the Lord executed judgments. So the people of Israel set out from Ramses and camped at Saqqoth.

And they set out from Saqqoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. And they set out from Etham and turned back to Pi-Hahiroth. which is the east of Baal Zephon and they camped before Migdol and they set out from before Heroth and passed through the midst of the sea in the wilderness and they went a three days journey in the wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah and they set out from Marah and came to Elim. At Elim there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees and they camped there Excuse me. And they set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

And they set out from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin. And they set out from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dofka. And they set out from Dofka and camped at Alash. And they set out from Alash and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. And they set out from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.

And they set out from the wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hatavah. And they set out of Kibroth Hatavah and camped at Hezeroth. And they set out from Hezeroth and camped at Rithma. And they set out from Rithma and camped at Rimon-Perez. And they set out from Rimon-Perez and camped at Libna.

And they set out from Libna and camped at Rissa. And they set out from Rissa and camped at Kehalatha. And they set out from Kehalatha and camped at Mount Sefer. And they set out from Mount Sefer and camped at Heredah. And they set out from Harada and camped at Mekeloth.

And they set out from Mekeloth and camped at Tahath. And they set out from Tahath and camped at Terah. And they set out from Terah and camped at Mithka. And they set out from Mithka and camped at Hashmonah. And they set out from Hashmonah and camped at Moreroth.

And they set out from Mazaroth and camped at Beni-Jachan. And they set out from Beni-Jachan and camped at Hor-Hagedad. And they set out from Hor-Hagedad and camped at Jobathah. And they set out from Jobathah and camped at Habronah. And they set out from Habronah and camped at Ezeon-Geba.

And they set out from Esion Gebba and camped in the wilderness of Zin, that is, Keresh. And they set out from Keresh and camped at Mount Hor on the edge of the land of Edom. And Aaron the priest went up from Mount Hor at the command of the Lord and died there in the 40th year after the people of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt. And on the first day of the fifth month, And Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor. And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the people of Israel, and they set out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.

And then they set out from Zalmonah and camped in Punon. And then they set out from Kunon, Punon, and camped at Oboth. And they set out from Oboth and camped at Ere-Aberim in the territory of Moab. And they set out from Eim and camped at Dibon-Gad. And they set out from Dibon-Gad and camped at Almon-Diblethem.

And they set out from Almon-Diblethem and camped in the mountains of Aberim before Nebo. And they set out from the mountains of Abiram and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. They camped by the Jordan from Beth Jehimoth as far as Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab. And the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from there before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it for I have given the land to you to possess it you shall inherit the land by lot according to your plans to a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance wherever the lot falls for anyone that shall be his according to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit but But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them who you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.

And I will do to you as I thought to do to them. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Let's come before our Lord in a quick word of prayer.

And now Lord, we ask that you would be with us. That Lord, you would give us faith in this moment to hear your word preached. That, Lord, you would give us light, illuminate truths for our hearts, Lord, that we would receive from your holy hand. Open our hearts. Open our ears.

Be with your servant this afternoon, Lord. May the words that come out of my mouth only be those that correspond to truth, truth that you've revealed for your people, for their edification. We ask this in faith. Amen. Well, beloved brothers and sisters and friends, what we have before us in this chapter, in the 33rd chapter in the book of Numbers, is very much articulated quite well in the titles that you have before you, where it says this is a recount, a recount of the journey of the people of Israel.

Some of your translations might even say a review of Israel's journey and that is exactly what it is. Now it's not exhaustive by any means but this is indeed a review of what has transpired over the last 40 years from the time the people of Israel were rescued from Egypt to now where they're at the brink of receiving the Promised Land. This is a review. This is being given by God. God had commanded Moses, write this down.

And before us what we find in this review, it's not that detailed, but there is a list of many names. Names of places where the people of Israel had visited over the last 40 years. Names that you and I, or frankly I, struggle to pronounce. But names of places that have significance in the story of the people of Israel. And beloved, we know that we can go back into the previous books, for example, in Exodus, and then in the first many chapters of the book of Numbers, and we can look and examine and study the detail and see what has taken place through the journey.

But the Lord has commanded Moses to write this summary, if you will, in these 49 verses. It's 56 in this chapter. 49 are the summary. And He has done that, beloved, for a reason. Of course, we as 21st century audience will benefit immensely and I pray that we will this evening.

For this original audience, the ones who are before Moses and even the generation to come, beloved, I believe these people have been given these verses in order for them to remember. Remember. Remember what the Lord your God has done and never ever forget Remember who YHWH is and what He has done for you and unworthy people. And don't forget it. And I believe this summary here before us feeds that purpose, that they would read these accounts and they would remember, but not only remember what YHWH has done and His blessings, His protection, His provision, His goodness, His grace, but also that they would heed the warnings that are found in these words also.

God commands Moses to write. You see, it's not a great deal of detail in this chapter before us. There's not much detail actually. As you probably heard me read, there's just a lot of names. They came to so-and-so place and then they set forth from so-and-so place.

They came to another so-and-so place but they set forth from that place also. And the names for us might not be familiar. I mean we may read those names and think maybe we've heard them before. There's about 40 of them before us by the way. Israel were like nomads.

They went from one place to another to another in their wilderness journeys. And these places to us may not have significance. But beloved, for these people, they did. But for these people, these places are more than just simply places where they camped. More than simple places where sometimes they spent a few weeks and other times longer, much, much longer.

No, beyond that, these places have deep, significant meaning for the people of Israel. And so as we work our way through this glorious chapter, I hope that the Lord will reveal for us some truths that we can also treasure in our hearts. Beloved, Israel, as I said earlier, were a people who were in bondage in Egypt. They had no prospects in Egypt. They were in chains.

They couldn't leave. They couldn't come. They couldn't go. They were under oppressive rule and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. Zero.

And we followed through the story of what Yahweh has done in rescuing them from bondage in Egypt. We've followed through. We're really now at the brink of these people called Israel into going into, by conquest, the promised land and receiving the promised land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we've seen, we've worked our way as a congregation through about 40 years of history from Exodus chapter one all the way through to where we are now. We've seen, you could say it made the journey with this group of people.

We've experienced their experience together. Beloved, if we have seen this, I'm sure they would also. There was many ups and downs in that journey, many difficult times. there was many blessings as well. And the generation that is this writing here in chapter 33 is written to is not the generation over the age of 20 that came out of Egypt, but rather their children and those who are at least under the age of 20 who didn't come under the judgment of God.

So as these words were read from the mouth of Moses to the people who were there awaiting the command of God to cross over the Jordan and go into battle with the enemy in order to receive the land that God had promised. They knew as they look back in their history that that 40 years in essence should not have been 40 years. The reason why it wasn't a year For 40 years, it was because of the sin of their parents, the sins of their uncles and aunties, the sins of the older generation. And they knew full well it was because of that sin and rebellion that the bodies of their parents and their uncles and aunties and their relatives were buried and scattered across the wilderness. But they also knew that over that 40 years, Yahweh has demonstrated an incredible faithfulness to keep His promise.

Over that 40 years, they've been able to look back and say, yes, our parents have sinned in great ways, and so have we. But we cannot deny God's protection, God's provision, God's love, God's mercy, God's power. We cannot deny that God has acted towards us in a way that we and our parents don't deserve. Because here we are, we're still a people and we all deserve death. Yeah, we're a people still.

And God is still going ahead with that plan to give us the land flowing with milk and honey. He's still gonna keep his word. He's still going to keep his word, even though we don't deserve it. He's preserving a remnant, and that remnant will be the recipients of his blessing, even though throughout the stages and throughout the last 40 years, we've seen his goodness, and that goodness was only repaid with what, beloved? Unbelief, rebellion, sin.

That's all God got back, for the most part, from these people who were the recipients of His blessing, the recipients of Him freeing them from the slavery under the Egyptians and providing for them with His mighty arm, miracle after miracle, the manifest presence of God with them. A cloud of fire in the night, or I'm sorry, a pillar of fire in the night and a cloud in the day to lead them. Yahweh is with us. He's delivered us through His mighty hand, yet how did they repay Him over the 40 years? Let's have a look.

Let's have a look at how they repaid Him. As this generation reads these words, or have these words read to them, they will be confronted with a very important reality. And that is, we now know, of course, we've always known, how our parents reacted and responded to Yahweh and His goodness. How will we respond? When we look back and remember, are we going to respond as they did in unbelief, rebellion, sin, and then suffer the same fate as they?

Will we come to know that He is worthy of all worship, worthy of allegiance, worthy of our obedience, worthy of our love? Will we acknowledge these things and trust Him and obey Him? Will we hold to His promises or will we do like our parents did? As I said, these people are on the brink of the conquest. And beloved, if they were aware of the fearful difficulties and the obstacles that their parents had experienced, and even they in the wilderness up until this time, what they have before them, and we need to keep this in mind.

There's far more fearful. They think about what they have before them. They're about to enter into the promised land that God said He'll give them, but it's not going to be handed to them on a silver platter. They're going to have to fight. Fight.

they're gonna have to fight. And if they thought it was scary to spend 40 years in the wilderness with the odd people who came from behind them and attacked them, and the few battles they'd engaged in, or the fact they got a little bit hungry, or a little bit thirsty, or the fearful creatures around them, if they thought that was fearful, what they're gonna experience in the conquest is going to be immensely more fearful. Because the Canaanites are a strong group of people. When the spies came back, yes, they embellished and they exaggerated, but they are a strong people. Their cities are fortified.

They are battle-trained. They're ready for war and they're not going to give you their land. They're going to fight and they're going to fight to the death. What you're going to enter into, what you're going to embark on, is going to be far greater. than what you've seen really in the last 40 years.

So if there's ever a moment you need to trust in the Lord, it's now. It's now. So in these 49 verses, The whole journey experience is brought fresh to their minds. Every single one of them needs to answer in their hearts, can Yahweh be trusted? Because beloved, if they come to the conclusion in their own hearts that God cannot be trusted, they will be completely overwhelmed with fear as they engage in what Yahweh has called them to go and engage into.

If they can't believe that Yahweh is going to give them the victory, then they're going to be trembling with fear. Will they trust and obey? Now, we're not going to go through all the places for the sake of time. There's many. As I said, there's about 40 of them listed for us.

But let's just have a look at a few. Verse 8. Verse 8 tells us, And they set out from before Herod and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness. That's it. It's so easy to simply breeze by these words, isn't it?

And just continue through the chapter without a second thought. But for this generation, those words are very significant, and I'm hoping that you know the significance of those words. Because the question we need to ask, which would have come completely natural to their minds, is how did they cross through the sea? Now true, many of these people weren't born at this stage, but I believe every single last one of them knew the story. Because after the Lord rescued them by His mighty hand through miracles, the absolute power of God was put on display when He rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

And they were taken out of Egypt and began their journey. Pharaoh's mind was changed because his heart was hardened and he pursued the people of Israel. He pursued them and pursued them with his great and mighty army and their chariots. And they found themselves with their back to the Red Sea, nowhere to go. And this mighty army right in front of them.

What does God do? What did they do in that moment? They have already experienced the mighty hand of God. The 10 massive miracles, the plagues that he set upon Egypt, even the last we're told was they walked out of that place whilst the Egyptians were burying their dead. How did they respond?

Well, they responded by saying, why did you bring us out here Moses to die? We would have been better back in Egypt. How did God respond? How did God respond to that? You open the sea.

You've seen that movie, The Ten Commandments. I don't know if you looked like that or not, but it helps us understand how great and majestic that would have been. Two walls of water going all the way up. This million plus Israelites walking across, that floor was, the sandy floor would have been perfectly dry we're told, and they crossed, they crossed the Red Sea. And then when the army of Pharaoh tried to do the same, God collapsed that water, that wall just collapsed into the, and they were all completely destroyed.

The enemies were gone, and they were saved. But verse 9 we're told about a place called Marra or Morra. Now no more details given to us in verse 9. You and I would think, okay, let's just move on. But these people are not going to move on because they know Marra or Morra means bitter.

You see, three days journey from when they were at the Red Sea, they came across a place where there was an abundance of water, but the water was not drinkable. It was bitter water. These people were thirsty. And once again, what did they do? They began to grumble and complain.

But then how does God respond to their grumbling and complaining? How does God respond to their needs? He tells Moses, Moses, you take one of that log over there, throw it into the water. Moses does. And then the water goes from being bitter into being sweet.

The people drank and were completely satisfied. God is great. He can be trusted. He's a provider. How about verse 12?

We're told wilderness of the Zin. That's it. Wilderness of the Zin is mentioned. The people were hungry. This is the place they were hungry and they began again to complain.

Moses, you've taken us from Egypt. We had our meat pots before us. We had an abundant supply of bread in our baskets. Why'd you bring us out here for us to die from hunger? Moses.

How does God respond to their grumbling? He sends them manna from heaven. You remember that, manna from heaven. And beloved, even now, these people who are here on the west side, on the eastern side of the Jordan, waiting to go into the land of Canaan, even now, six days a week, they are being supernaturally provided with the manna from heaven for them to eat. Not seven, because on the sixth day, they get a double supply so they can rest on the Sabbath, which is also a blessing of God.

They never knew rest in Egypt. The Lord said, I'm doing this to test them, to see whether they'll trust me or not. We know many failed the test because God said, I only collect as much as you eat. Don't keep any overnight. What did they do?

They failed the test. Greed, covetousness. They kept some in their camp and the next day this stinky smell of worms was eating the manna. Why can't you just trust the Lord? How many mighty acts and wonders and miracles does he have to perform before you can just simply trust him wholeheartedly?

Verse 14. Rephidim is mentioned. And we're just systematically going through a few verses here. And again, we're told in that section, there was no water for the people to drink. No water.

for the people to drink. And again, what was the response? Of the people, we don't have to guess anymore, we know. Quarrelling, they're upset, they're discontent, unbelief. And what did God do?

God provided water once again, but this time, not by throwing the log or getting Moses to throw a log in the water, but rather by making water flow and gush from a rock, satisfying the thirst of all the people. God is great. He is a great provider of His people. He can be trusted in everything. He can be trusted.

We can go on. We can go on, but I'm not going to. You get the picture. You see where we're going with this. Yahweh has always proven to be faithful.

He's never negated on his promises and he's always provided for his people. God is good and he can be trusted. And as these people read through this quick summary, those images should flood to their hearts and minds and create in them a warmth towards this God and say, God, wherever you send us, we will follow. But beloved, also what we see in these passages is that God is God. God is God.

And that means the Creator God demands of His creature obedience. Obedience. He demands obedience. He cannot tolerate disobedience. Disobedience is sin.

And no sin can be before the Holy God of the universe, the One who lives in unapproachable light. He cannot look upon disobedience and sin. Sin needs to be dealt with. And so these people, as they looked through these verses, or they weren't verses, as Moses would have read this to them, they would have been aware fully of the times or the places that were mentioned, not only the provision of God mentioned, so that they can know that God in His mighty hand provided for the people, but also they would know that God is also a God of wrath, because He hates sin. and he will pour out his judgment upon sin, disobedience, rebellion, treason.

That's who God is. And so let's, I'll give you an example. For example, verse 16, we have this name of a place called Kibroth Hatava. Kibroth Hatava. Probably doesn't ring a bell for us, does it?

What does that even, what is that place? Probably doesn't ring a bell, but beloved people who are reading this were Hebrew-speaking Israelites, right? And those words, hibroth kadavam, simply mean the graves of the craving. This is where the people of Israel said to God, you've provided us this bread from heaven, but we despise what you've given us. We no longer want this manna, we want meat.

We want what we had in Egypt. We don't want this manner. This is not what we want anymore. What you're providing, God, we do not want. We want something that you can't provide.

Actually, we want something that we had in Egypt. We don't want this manner. You remember what Guy did? He provided them with meat. He gave them quail from overseas.

He came and an abundance of quail. But these people were so greedy that they collected and collected and collected all this quail, beyond what they can eat, as if they'll never see food again. just collected and good and then it's so god's not a good god to provide for them as if he hasn't provided in the past and so they now need to depend upon themselves and they collected and they were eating like greedy people and while the meat was still in their teeth god poured his plague upon them he's a god of judgment he's a god who cannot look upon sin rebellion or disobedience. He is a holy God. And although He is faithful in all His ways, He cannot tolerate sin.

He demands holiness. Sin must be dealt with. Sin must be dealt with. This is the picture that these people would have seen before them. And then you've got these verses in verse 38 and 39.

And you've got these incredible verses that put before these people the most holy of men among them. The only one who over the last almost 40 years enters every year into the holy of holies no one else no one else who enters into the holy of holies Aaron the high priest can anything unclean enter into the holy of holies absolutely no and then you have in the verses before us a picture of even this Aaron he's not going to make it into the promised land why because of his sin even Aaron Even Aaron in and of himself is not worthy for the inheritance that God is giving Surely that was a lesson for these people if Aaron Aaron Aaron this priest that that takes in the blood sacrifice so that God would atone for our sin He's the mediator on our behalf he's the one who offers the sacrifice for the atonement of the sins of Israel if Aaron is not spared and Will God spare our sins? It's almost like God's saying, as Moses reads these verses, Israel, don't get audacious. Don't become brazen. Don't become overly confident.

Yahweh chose you and rescued you from the Egyptians some 40 years earlier. Not because you're overly righteous, or that you're glorious, or that you are in and of yourself inherently the apple of His eye. That's not it at all. Actually, how does this passage begin? The passage begins in verse 3.

We're told that on the 15th day of the first month, when they were rescued from Egypt, and that was by God's mighty hand, they would have known that. We know that. On that day, Egypt was burying, or the Egyptians were burying their dead. Imagine that. Imagine walking out of that place and then you've got mourning, wailing and weeping everywhere.

They've got graves open and they're slotting in to those graves, dead corpses. Do you think the Israelites walked away thinking, we're better than you? We don't deserve that death because we're better than you. Is that what God said to them? But our brothers and sisters, we know the Israelites in Egypt were serving pagan Egyptian gods.

They were worshipping the Egyptian gods. We know that because the major prophets tell us, look at Ezekiel chapter 20. They were given over to the wrong things. They weren't inherently righteous. They were able to walk out of that place by grace and grace alone because God provided the atonement.

Because God said, a lamb will die and that blood will be on your doorposts and on the lintels of your homes. And the angel of death will pass over you because I'm providing an atonement. that you're inherently wonderful but I'm providing a substitute you should be dead also but I'm providing a substitute on your behalf and we're told also in verse 4 that not only that on the night or the day after the Passover they walk through and walk out of that place free but also we're told that on that day God poured out his judgment on the false deities, the false gods of the Egyptians by demonstrating himself the only God of the universe. That's what verse 4 is about. The Egyptians had so many deities.

They had a God for almost anything and everything. But God said, through his mighty hand, he proves that all their gods are impotent. They're not real gods. They're all impotent. There is only one God, only one God of the universe.

And he's the God who judges the living and the dead. He's the God who actually has called His people out of Egypt for them to be a people holy unto Himself. So this second generation Israelites, they know this. They know there is only one God. They know it.

They've been told the stories. They've witnessed the deaths in the wilderness. Many of these people came out of Egypt. They're under the age of 20, but they witnessed it. They witnessed the demonstration of God's power.

They witnessed the demonstration of God's protection and his providence and his provisions. They witnessed that over the last 40 years. They know. They know there is no other God. Israel, you know this.

Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. You should know this and you should serve him and love him with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. He's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no other God but him. Your heart should be given over to Him. The first commandment.

You should be jealous for this God. That you see no unrighteousness before. He sees no unrighteousness before His eyes. That there are no idols. There are no false pagan worships.

Worshipping before Him. You should be jealous for this Israel. You should be jealous for this Israel. That there would be not even a single hint of idolatry before his eyes because he's a good God and he's the only God of the universe. So when you enter into the land flowing with milk and honey, when you enter into that land there's going to be occupants there and they're the Canaanites and they're going to have wicked, wicked things.

You're going to be my army and you need to destroy them. I don't want to see a single metal image, a single idol stone, a single place of worship in high places. All of that is to be destroyed. All of it. All wickedness, even people, are to be destroyed or driven out.

All of them. Israel. You know God is one. You know God is faithful. You know His mighty arm is strong.

There is no other God. Will you obey? Will you love Him? Will you trust Him? Will you bend your knee to Him and Him alone?

Because then comes the warning. Verse 55 and 56, this is the warning I want you to see. But if, but if you don't drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them who remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And, and I, I will do this, I will do to you as though, as I thought to do to them. What does that mean, beloved?

What does that mean? There's an if there, that these people are to go into the land of Canaan and they're to destroy everything that has a hint of a false deity, everything. That's unrighteousness before God. Basically go into the land and observe the first commandment, there is no other God but me. But if you do not, if you do not, then he says, there will be thorn in your sides and there will be barbs in your eyes, and that does happen.

But then he goes on to say, and I will do to you as I thought to do to them. What was God thinking to do to them? Kick them out. It's my land. I own it.

I choose who lives in that land and who does not. I'm giving it to you as an inheritance, but don't you think for a moment it's your eternal inheritance just because you're a wonderful people. If you don't obey, I'm going to kick you out as well. Wow, they're pretty heavy words if you hear those from God, right? Especially to a generation that have just seen their parents before them, see the wonderful mighty hand of God in full swing, and they weren't able to obey.

And now God says, you're to obey, or you get kicked out of the land. And so beloved, we know the history and we know Israel fails to obey completely and fully. We know that. We'll get to see that as we move into the latter parts of Joshua and beyond. And that's a sad thing because they do come under the influence of the Canaanites.

And eventually God will judge Israel. And the instrument of his judgment will be the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Beloved, Israel will lose that inheritance that they were so longing for. That land promised to Abraham, the land flowing with milk and honey, will go. Why?

Because there is an if condition. If. If you. Even in Exodus chapter 19 through 24, God says, Yahweh says, if you obey. If you obey.

And they do not obey. The promises of God are grand and they're glorious. The blessings of God are incredible. That He would be their God and they would be His people. And He'll curse their enemies.

And He'll bless them and they will flourish in this land. Their children will flourish in the land. If you obey. If you obey, the promise will be secure. If you trust in me, the promise will be secured.

If you have this inheritance and you will all dwell among you and you will prosper in all your ways. If, if you obey my commandments, the commandment or the inheritance was predicated on and if promise and beloved, that's the old covenant. The if will kill any human being. Why? Because as human beings we cannot and it's impossible for us who are in Adam, and that's every one of us, to fulfill the righteous decrees and commands of God.

It is absolutely impossible. That's the old covenant ratified in the blood of oxen. Command is good, the laws are righteous, but sinful man cannot obey. And that's the problem, cannot obey perfectly. So the blessings of God turn into what?

Curses. Curses. What is their hope? What is the only hope for humanity? Beloved, Israel didn't obey because they could not obey.

The only hope is for a new covenant, one that is ratified not in the blood of oxen, but in the blood of the righteous lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Beloved, this is the beauty of the new covenant. This is the beauty of what Christ has done. These people listening to Moses would have been longing in their heart thinking, how can we How can we? Who has ever seen the demonstration of God's power in the physical sense?

Like our fathers and our mothers and our uncles and our aunts who came out of Egypt. Who has seen the miracles like that? And who can? Who can obey? They didn't obey.

They've come under the judgment of God. Not a single one other than Caleb and Joshua for God's reasons will make it into the promised land. But not even Moses, not mentioned here, but not even Aaron, the most holy of them. Where is our hope to be? Hope is to be in God.

Hope is to be in the one that was promised back in the garden in Genesis chapter 3. The one who is the seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent. The promise is to be in true Israel. The one who is set by God to be the true people of God. The one who wasn't baptized in the Red Sea but was baptized in the Jordan River.

The one who didn't spend 40 years in the wilderness, but spent 40 days in the wilderness. The one who didn't eat or drink for 40 days and didn't complain, but trusted completely in the Father. The one. The one who bore the temptations, not of just demons, but Satan himself. Poured out everything he could at this Jesus, the righteous one of God.

But he prevailed time after time after time. How? Because he held the word of God and said, thus it is written. It is written. God has said and God will remain true to his promises.

He's the one who perfectly obeyed the will of the father, perfectly obeyed the law of God. And he's the one who goes to that cross as the great high priest to offer a sacrifice of blood, not of oxen, not of bulls, not of goats, but his own blood. that he would pour that blood on the cross. And beloved, unlike Aaron, he didn't need to sacrifice for his own sins, for he never sinned. He is the great high priest who offers the sacrifice, and he is the sacrifice itself.

To atone for the sins of his people once and for all, but beyond that, which is a glorious truth. The righteousness of Christ, This perfect life of obedience. Remember here, if you obey, you'll have this inheritance. I'll be your God, you'll be my people, it's all yours. No one will take it away from you.

You'll enjoy the inheritance of God because of your obedience. Disobeying is taken, but because of the obedience and the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. He has purchased that inheritance. An inheritance that can never ever be taken away because he accomplished the perfect obedience required by God. And everyone who comes to trust in him is inserted and united into the life of Christ to enjoy all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies that are found in him.

He's purchased it for you, brothers and sisters. It's not your obedience. It's his. He's done it all. He's done it all.

So when we go into life, we're not to fear what comes before us, because maybe we disobey and we lose everything. It cannot be lost. It's in Christ. If you've come to trust in Him, if you've bent your knee to Him in faith, then Jesus Christ, the true Israel, has done it all. And we're able to come and walk by faith, not by sight, because He's done it all.

One day we will enjoy Him for all eternity. He's done it all. Let's pray.