THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Numbers 34 from verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan as defined by its borders, you shall, my apologies, your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, and your southern border shall run from the end of the Salt Sea on the east, and your border shall turn south of the accent of Akribim and cross to Zim, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh Bania. Then it shall go on to Hazar Adar and pass along to Asmon.

And the border shall turn from Asmon to the brook of Egypt, and its limit shall be at the sea. For the western border you shall have the great sea and its coast. This shall be your western border. This shall be your northern border. From the Great Sea, you shall draw a line to Mount Hoar.

From Mount Hoar, you shall draw a line to Lebo Hamath, and the limit of the border shall be at Zeded. Then the border shall extend to Ziphron, and its limit shall be Hazar Enan. This shall be your northern border. You shall draw a line to your eastern border from Hazar Enan to Shefam, and the border shall go down from Shefam to Ribla on the east side of Ein. And the border shall go down and reach to the shoulder of the sea of the Shinareth on the east.

And the border shall go down to the Jordan, and its limit shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land as defined. by its borders all around. Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, This is the land that you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and the half tribe. For the tribe of the people of Reuben by father's houses and the tribe of the people of Gad by their father's houses have received their inheritance, and also the half tribe of Manasseh.

The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan east of Jericho towards the sunrise. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance, Eliezer the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. You shall take one sheep from every tribe to divide the land for inheritance. These are the names of the men. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunel.

Of the tribe of the people of Simeon, Samuel, the son of Ammihud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Shislon. Of the tribe of the people of Dan, a chief, Buki, the son of Jogli. Of the people of Joseph, of the tribe of the people of Manasseh, a chief. Haniel, the son of Ephod.

And of the tribe of the people of Ephraim, a chief. Chemuel, the son of Shiphtan. Of the tribe of the people of Zebulun, a chief. Elizabethan, the son of Parnach. And of the tribe of the people of Issachar, a chief.

Paltiel, the son of Azan. And of the tribe of the people of Asher, a chief. Ehud, the son of Shelomi, of the tribe of the people of Naphtali, a chief. Padahel, the son of Amihud. These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever, forever. Let's come to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us, Lord, where we've been able to open your word and read it. We understand, Lord, and we believe that this is your word spoken from your mouth, God-breathed.

It is inerrant, it is infallible, and it's spoken from the very being of our great God. So we come before you in reverence and awe. Recognizing, Lord, that your word carries with it the supreme authority, the very authority of God himself. Give us ears to hear. And Lord, I pray that you would meet with us this evening.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we are fast approaching the last chapters in the book of Numbers. We have the people of Israel now banked or parked there in the plains of Moab, just on the eastern side of the Jordan River, on the brink of going into the land flowing with milk and honey, that land that the Lord God had promised their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it would seem fitting right now for the Lord to actually indicate to these people and give specific detail to the people of Israel about the land they're about to inherit.

Because when Abraham was taken up the mountain and shown the land of the Canaanites that the Lord will give to his descendants after 400 some years in slavery, he wasn't told exactly the borders and the extents and the limits. However, now what we have before us here in chapter 34, we have the Lord giving instruction to Moses to tell the people about where the borders are going to lie, where the boundaries are going to be for these people to receive the land promised by God himself. Also, what we have here is we have the appointments of those who would be responsible to divide the land amongst the families within the tribe. But I want us to see something here. The Lord's pretty specific.

He's telling the people how far to the south, how far to the south, and how far to the north, and how far to the east, and where the land, the borders are gonna be drawn. He's being quite specific with these people as to where and what this land is going to entail. No gray areas here. But as I read this chapter 34, I don't get the sense. that the Lord is speaking in a way that there's a possibility of two outcomes to the conquest that these people are about to engage in.

It seems to me, as I read, there's a high level of confidence in the words of our Lord spoken to Moses to proclaim to the people that although these people are still on the eastern side of the Jordan, yet to go and engage in these fierce war and battles with all the people who live in Canaan, the land of Canaan, it seems to me that the Lord is saying, if you trust in me, If you believe upon me, then you will receive the land that I have promised. In other words, if you place your trust in me, the battle is already won even before you cross into the Jordan. There's not even a hint here in the words of our Lord that there's a possibility that's not going to take place. But there's always in the back of our mind as new covenant people, we need to realize that the old covenant and the stipulations that God had given to these people always have an if condition. We said that last week, and I want to remind us once again.

There are certain details of the Old Covenant, the promises that God made to Abraham, that are irrespective of the obedience of the people. In other words, God said to Abraham, I will give the people a land flowing with milk and honey, and he will do that. He didn't stipulate its borders, but he said, I will give them. But then he says to these people in the previous chapter, that if they obey God, and slay the enemy, take care of the enemy, and all idolatry within Israel, within the land of Canaan, land of His giving, because no idolatry must be before the Lord. All the metal images, all the stone statues, all the shrines in high places, you need to destroy and destroy even the Canaanites, or force them and drive them out of the land.

No sin must be present before me. Then you will retain the land, you will Take the land in the borders and the boundaries as stipulated here in chapter 34, and you will keep the land. However, if you don't, then what I was going to do to them, I will do to you. The land will vomit you out of its mouth. But in the text that we have before us, there's a level of certainty in the words of our Lord.

Even from the very first verse, when the Lord speaks to Moses, He tells him when. See that there? He says, when you go into the promised land. When you go into the land of Canaan. We enter the Canaan land and then He gives the explanation.

It's not as if you go, but it's a when you go, you'll take possession of this land. You know what's interesting to me? In this section here, We don't have any detail about what these people are going to be confronted with. No detail about what's before them. Now, in the previous chapter, there was just a glimpse.

It wasn't a great deal of detail. The Lord had said that you're going to cross into Canaan, but you need to deal with all the idolatry and the people. But there wasn't a great deal of detail of what the people of Israel are going to be confronted with. How fierce are the conflicts going to be in our fortified other cities? How well-trained are these Canaanites that they'll encounter?

No detail. Instead, as I said, just some brief information about the people of Israel taking care of the idolatrous practices and the people who reside in the land, and then it goes straight on to the borders and boundaries. This is the area that I'm giving to you. And then from 12 or 13 to 15, he speaks about the fact that it is only nine and a half tribes, and we know why. Because back in chapter 32, we know that the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gan and the half tribe of Manasseh, they were liking the land that is on the eastern side of the Jordan.

They asked Moses to ask God, can we have it? God obliged. Nine and a half tribes left, right? Nine and a half. The Levites aren't there, but we have Manasseh and Ephraim.

They form one tribe that they both mentioned. But there's no mention about what these people are going to be confronted with. No mention at all. But we are told, also, that these tribes, or the tribes, or the allotments that the tribes are going to receive, will be according to their size. Remember that last week, the last few verses of the last chapter.

This wasn't new to these people, it wasn't new to Moses, because back in chapter 26, chapter 26, the second census of the new generation of people, the first was done, remember, in chapter 1 of the book of Numbers. But that census of people, all those people that perished in the wilderness, because if you remember, only men over the age of 20 were counted as fighting men. And when God proclaimed judgment upon the people in Numbers chapter 14, all those fighting men perished in the wilderness. Second Census chapter 26, once again, all the numbers were counted, but over 600,000, they were reminded once again, they will be receiving allotments. And those allotments will be according to the size of the tribe.

If you had a big tribe, you'd have a large allotment, and it would be determined by casting of lots. But then what we have here is we have a selection. God himself chooses chief men from amongst the tribes, the nine and a half tribes. He chooses chief men. And those chief men have now the responsibility, once those tribes are allotted according to size and according to lot, then they have the chief responsibility, what seems to be to divide that allotment amongst the families in the tribes.

These are trustworthy men that the Lord has appointed. Can you imagine the conflict that would take place if he just left it to themselves? But chief among the chief men, we have two names. We have Eliezer, the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, also mentioned there, you can see in verse 17. But once again, Once again, there is no mention of the expectation of war.

They know there's going to be a war ahead of them. They know, these people know that they're going to enter into a land where the Canaanites are a formidable enemy. And I said last week, they are not going to give their land over to the Israelites because they asked nicely. It's not going to be handed over to them on a silver platter. They're going to have to fight.

And the fighting has to be to death because they're not going to give their land over unless they die for it. They will fight. Yahweh will be with them. We know that much. He says it all along.

But these people of Israel are going to have to fight. And beloved, I want us just to think about that momentous task that is before them. Because it's one thing to think about what God has promised, but what about the enemies that are over there? Think about what's going in the heart of these people. We are, by God's grace, if we've been inserted in Jesus Christ, then we have the Spirit of God in us that has given us a trust in his word and his promises.

And yet even right now, if you're confronted with the exact same thing, on the eastern side of the Jordan, just to go over, what would you experience as spirit-indwelt Christians? There'd be a level of fear and anxiety in your hearts. I think so. I think there'd be many questions in the hearts of these people. I think they'd be asking themselves questions like, this is great, Moses.

Thank you so much for telling us about the size of the land. Can you tell us about what we to expect once we go over there? How strong is the enemy? How fortified are their cities? The first city, Jericho, that's a pretty fortified wall they had there, right?

It was impregnable in those days. How big are the giants that they told us about earlier? Remember those spies that came back in chapter 14? Giants! Are those giants even defeatable, Moses?

What about the weapons they're using? How advanced are their weapons? Moses, how long will we be away from our families? Will we all return to our families or will there be casualties of war? I think they're pretty good questions to be asking.

But there's none of that here. There's no answers to any of those questions before us. None. Absolutely none. Fear and anxiety is a natural response of a human being who falls into a situation like this.

Natural fleshly response is fear and anxiety. That's so easy to set in when you don't know the lack of knowledge. And beloved, it's not only the weak, even the strong. This Joshua, this man, this mighty warrior that will lead him into battle, God's own choice. In the book that bears his own name, if you remember, in the book of Joshua, in the first chapter, in the first paragraph of that book, you have a section that is known to be the commissioning of God, of Joshua, to lead the people into the conquest.

Nine verses, only nine verses in the commission, we're told. Go there and read how many times the Lord God Himself has to tell Joshua. Be strong, Joshua. Be courageous. Don't be frightened.

How many times does the Lord have to repeat those words over and over again in only nine verses? Why is that exhortation needed? Is it because Joshua was already strong and courageous? Or is it because he may have experienced what we would experience with fear and a bit of anxiety as the situation may have lended itself to. You're in the strong among them.

And then what does God tell Joshua? I love that section. That section is wonderful. We'll get there soon. Well, in a couple of years, but we'll get there.

But the hope of Joshua, the encouragement of Joshua, the strength of Joshua doesn't come because of who Joshua is. Not at all. If God doesn't tell Joshua, Joshua, it's okay, you've got 600,000 plus men. What have you got to fear? These men aren't battle ready.

They're not even remotely capable of fighting the guys who are ready to fight in Canaan, that armies that they're going to be confronted with. No. Now when the Lord wants to ease Joshua's fear and anxiety, when the Lord says to Joshua, do not fear, don't be afraid, be courageous. It is because he says, I, as I was with Moses, I will be with you, Joshua. I will not leave or nor forsake you, Joshua.

I will be with you wherever you go. Beloved, that is the remedy. for your fear and your anxiety, that the Lord is with you. And over and over again, the Lord has told the people of Israel that I will be with you. And not only has he said that, he's given them a visual sign of that.

He's got the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire at night. They can see the manifestation of the glory of God, that God is with them. Do they need to know what they're going to be confronted with? It's like you and I need to ask the question, what is coming tomorrow? Lord, tell me what my future holds.

Lord, tell me what's going to happen next year, next month. Tell me, Lord, if I should take this work and tell me what happens down the track. Show it to me, Lord. No, that's pagan. Simply know who God is and know that he's promised to be with you and never to leave you nor forsake you.

That's enough. We don't know what we're going to be confronted with once we cross the Jordan. But He's with us. That's enough. That's enough.

It seems like any thought of the difficulty or the terror that would come with even envisaging a war like this is a non-issue in God's mind when He issues the the contents of chapter 34. He skips right over any of that and he goes immediately into the dividing of the land and the boundaries as well. It's like the Lord has the absolute confidence that he will fulfill the land promise he made to Abraham and he expects his people to have the same assurance if they would trust in him. If they would recognize who this God is and trust in Him, then you ought to have the same confidence that I have, because I've spoken. And if I've spoken, the Lord is saying, I will fulfill my promises.

God is with us. Who can be against us? You know, as I read this text and meditate upon it, it's almost like The Lord is saying, if you trust me, the victory's won. That's why I'm not going to give you detail about what you're going to go through. The victory is won already.

And it's almost like He's saying, if I'm with you, you'll know. If I'm with you and you believe that I'm with you, you'll know that you will conquer the Canaanites. You'll know that you'll have the victory. You'll know that the land will be given over to you as an inheritance. It's almost like Him saying, But don't feel like you need to go on because you might have so much confidence and it might happen so, so well for you if you trust in me that you might think you need to keep going and conquer the world.

Don't do that. I've not given you the world. I've given you an allotment of land on the western side, on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. That's as far as you're going to go. Be satisfied with what I give you.

Be satisfied with what I'm going to give you. God is generous. He's overly generous with His people. He's overly generous with all His people. But we know something, don't we, beloved brothers and sisters?

We know that Israel does not possess the whole land that is stipulated here before us. There are regions and territories that are named here because it's in antiquity and the land has been given over to so many hands that scholars are unable to identify exactly and put the markers in, but there's enough here. that scholars were able, with a degree of certainty, to put some markers down, and even by those, drawing out where the Israelites, what the Lord had promised, or had told the Israelites, if they believed that He would give them the land, that we can tell, even by that, that they did not possess the whole land that is stipulated here, that is listed here, in the Word, in chapter 34. Sadly, because of lack of faith, Sadly, because of disobedience, Israel fails to completely drive out the Canaanites. Last paragraph in the last chapter, if you don't drive them out, if you don't take care of sin, if you don't take care of the rebellion and the idolatry and the filthiness that is in that land, the land I'm giving you, if you don't clean it out as I commanded then, I will do to you what I was going to do to them.

The land will vomit you out of its mouth. And that's what we see, because they did not completely deal with the Canaanites. Even the inheritance that they did possess and enjoyed for a short period of time, that disease, the Canaanites that were among them, became a pretty violent and horrible influence to them. And before long, the people's hearts began to look like the hearts of the Canaanites around them. They indulged in pagan practices.

They built, many of their kings built shrines and hide places and sacrifice to these pagan gods, the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the Dagons. They did not take care of the sin, the rebellion, the idolatry in the land and what was given to them. They enjoyed for only a short period and then it was gone. It was taken away because they defiled the land, the very land that God had given them and he vomited them out of their mouth. So brothers and sisters, in closing, What can we learn from this?

That there are actually many things we can learn. We can speak on a personal Christian life point of view and say, although the Lord God in Christ has taken care of the dominating power of sin in our lives, the presence is still there. And we ought to take care of that. We ought to deal and kill the sin that is in us by faith in Jesus, by living in the Spirit. We can go down that path, but I'm not going to.

There are many applications we can look at, but the one I really want to have a look at is this. It's the fact that the Old Testament, we've said over and over again, every time we open up the Old, we say the Old Testament Israel, the Old Covenant, is very much a picture, a shadow, a type of a better reality to come. A greater reality to come. A reality that is fulfilled in Christ. A glorious reality filled in the New Covenant.

And so I want to see down there in verse 17 how we once again, those two names just come up again. The Joshua and the High Priest Eliezer. Joshua is the warrior that would lead them into the conquest. Eliezer is the high priest, the son of Aaron, in the order of the Levites. And he would be the one who would be sacrificing on their behalf and mediating between the people of Israel and God, providing atonement for sin through the sacrifices.

Through the service of the tabernacle. But beloved, I want to see that despite all their efforts, these men, as faithful as they were, despite all their efforts, the enemy remained unconquered. Despite all their continual sacrifices, sin remained among them. These were me men. Beloved, if a true inheritance is desired, one that cannot be lost, an eternal rest from the enemy, is the longing of the heart, then someone greater than Eliezer is needed.

Someone greater than Joshua is needed, because the heart of matter is, the true enemy is sin. Unless sin is substantially dealt with once and for all, you're always going to have unrest. Unrest. No matter how many sacrifices are offered, if sin is not substantially dealt with, there is not going to be peace, there's not going to be security, there's not going to be comfort, and there will not be rest. And as much as the people of Israel were desiring and coveting that rest, The greatest blessing of being in that land was that God will be their God, and they will be His people, but they will also experience that rest.

They wanted the land because it would give them rest from their enemies, and they can say, now my soul is at rest. So as we meditate upon these chapters, unlike the Israelites, we have the whole story before us. We have the New Testament in our hearts. I pray and hope would be ignited with joy because of the glory of the new covenant for which the old was but a shadow. In the new covenant, our conquering general is the Messiah, the messianic king.

He's not Yeshua, the son of none, but Yeshua, the son of God. The better Joshua. He courageously takes the battle to the enemy and he completely disarms the enemy. He completely destroys the enemy and he conquers over all the enemies of God's people and of God. The last being death.

Our great high priest is not Eliezer in the order of the Levites but our great high priest is Jesus Christ in the order of Melchizedek. He has offered not an ongoing sacrifice like Eliezer would have had to, but a once and for all sacrifice, not with the blood of goats and bulls, but the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His own precious blood. In his death and his resurrection, he dealt the death blow to sin. He dealt the death blow to death.

Not the Canaanites. The enemy for us is not the Canaanites. The Canaanites are a picture of the enemy. The enemy is indwelling sin. Because that is the enemy.

That is what makes us in rebellion with God, in enmity with God. Because there's filth and unrighteousness in every single man. But for those who have come to trust in Jesus Christ, He has taken care once and for all of the greatest enemy. Praise be to God. And he's taking care of all the consequences of that enemy for his people.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But beloved, what about the inheritance? What about that inheritance that even Abraham, that great patriarch, was looking to an inheritance, not simply on this earth, on this land, but one which has the author and the master architect being God?

What about that inheritance? For us Christians who come to trust in the Lord, to love Him, those of us who have been cleansed by His blood, those of us who have believed that He is the one who's conquered sin and conquered the enemy, For those of us who his sacrifice, his mediatory role as a great high priest, and his sacrifice was on our behalf. His blood was shed on our behalf because we believe he was. And because our names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life from all eternity past. How about for us, can the inheritance that he has purchased, can that be taken away?

Because these people did taste and see the promised land, the land flown with milk and honey, right? They were in there for many hundred years. But then it was taken away from them. Why? Because it was predicated upon their own obedience.

Can our inheritance be taken away? Why not? Because it's not your obedience and mine. It's the obedience of Christ. He said to the people of Israel, you must obey.

If you go and you slay all the enemy and get rid of all sin, which one of us can take care of that problem? Which one of us can take care of the sin from our heart and get rid of all the sin from our heart? Beloved, in our unregenerated state as sinners, we didn't even want to take care of the sin that is among us. We enjoyed it. like some of these Israelites.

Many, not most, who enjoyed the sacrifices to the Baals and the Asheroth and the pagan, idolatrous worship, because otherwise they wouldn't have allowed it to come in. Many of the kings, not a righteous king in the North. Not a single righteous king in the North. No, it's not because of who we are, or because how strong we are, or how lovely we are, or how intelligent we are, or how much we hated sin. It's because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The person and the work of Christ is applied to the believer by faith. What a glorious message! Because, beloved, if the Old Covenant was like, if the New Covenant was like the Old, and it was stipulated on promises, only if, if we obey, then you and I will be just as pitied as every one of those Israelites who have perished in the wilderness and beyond, and have now suffered under the wrath of God. So can our inheritance be taken away? Praise be to God.

No, it cannot. Listen to the words of the Apostle Peter, who says it far better than I can. I'll conclude with these words. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

He that caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfailing. Just think about those words. Kept in heaven for you, Christian. Can it be taken away? What comes next tells us the answer.

Kept in heaven for you, who by, that is the you, that who by God's power. Who can stay the hand of God? Who can thwart His will? Who can overpower the God of the universe, the Omnipotent One? No one, zero, not a single man, not a single person, not a single entity, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while it's necessary you have been grieved by various trials, so that the testing or the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold and and more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1, 3, 7. So what does this passage tell us? It's all been done. What is our response to what Christ has done?

Believe. Trust and obey. For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. That order is important. Trust first and obey with your eyes fixed upon the Lord.

Let's pray.