Numbers 20 | In the Wilderness

Listen to this week’s sermon, In the Wilderness preached by Pastor Eric Stites from Numbers 20.

Episode Transcript

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (00:06):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Benjamin.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, Orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourFather answer the Lord's
Prayer.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at Newcity Orlando.com.

Nadia Chong (00:21):
Please join me in this prayer of illumination.
God of mercy, the covenantpromises in your eternal word do
not change.
Holy Spirit, enable us torespond to your gracious
promises with faithful andobedient hearts through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
And the people stayed inKadesh, and Miriam died there

(00:54):
and was buried there.
Now there was no water for thecongregation, and they assembled
themselves together againstMoses and against Aaron.
And the people quarreled withMoses and said, Would that we
have perished when our brothersperished before the Lord?
Why have you brought theassembly of the Lord into this
wilderness that we should diehere, both we and our cattle?

(01:16):
And why have you made us comeup out of Egypt to bring us to
this evil place?
It is no place for grain orfigs or vines or pomegranates,
and there is no water to drink.
Then Moses and Aaron went fromthe presence of the assembly to
the entrance of the tent ofmeeting, and fell on their
faces.
And the glory of the Lordappeared to them, and the Lord

(01:37):
spoke to Moses, saying, Take thestaff and assemble the
congregation, you and Aaron,your brother, and tell the rock
before their eyes to yield itswater.
So you shall bring water out ofthe rock for them, and give
drink to the congregation andtheir cattle.
And Moses took the staff frombefore the Lord, and he
commanded him.
Then Moses and Aaron gatheredthe assembly together before the

(01:59):
rock, and he said to them, Hearnow, you rebels, shall we bring
water for you out of this rock?
And Moses lifted up his handand struck the rock with his
staff twice, and water came outabundantly, and the congregation
drank, and their livestock.
And the Lord said to Moses andAaron, Because you did not
believe in me, to uphold me asthe holy in the eyes of the

(02:20):
people of Israel, therefore youshall not bring this assembly
into the land that I have giventhem.
These are the waters ofMeribah, where the people of
Israel quarreled with the Lord,and through them he showed
himself holy.
This is God's word.

Pastor Eric Stites (02:48):
But um, no, I'm co-founder of Crosstown
Ministries.
Many of you know that, but uhagain and again, there are
always numerous new people hereat New City as we continue to
grow, though we preach onnumbers.
Um and uh so uh but one of thekingdom partners of New City,
and so always want to take thisopportunity to um say thank you

(03:11):
because uh without New Citythere would be no crosstown
ministries.
And so uh thank you, thank youfor your support as a kingdom
partner, thank you for bringingsnacks.
Um thank you for those of youwho've who volunteer, who come
read with our students, all thethings.
Um as time goes on, we justwant to continue to grow
relationship uh here at NewCity.

(03:31):
And so uh I just wanted to sayuh thank you from the bottom of
my heart uh for that.
So um Numbers 20.
Um when I read this passage, uhthe question that comes to my
mind first is um is thewilderness necessary?
Uh we've been in this uh book,obviously, for the past uh

(03:53):
several weeks, and uh you're inthis wilderness and it just
continues to go on and on, itseems like.
And so is it necessary?
And and if so, why?
Um when you read this passage,uh there's a whole lot of
tragedy, really.
There's uh a lot of struggle,and and maybe you might even
think, man, it's a little bitunfair uh the judgment that uh

(04:17):
God has uh for Moses.
So you might be sitting hereand you feel a little bit like
Moses.
Um he's a leader, uh he's ahe's a leader of God's uh
people, but maybe you're aleader.
Uh maybe you're a leader in abusiness, maybe you're uh a
leader um in your uh home, maybeyou're a leader at school.
Um I don't know.
But the reality is, like uhMoses, he he gets so much right.

(04:41):
He led God's people out ofEgypt.
When they rebel, he's pleadingwith God to uh to on their
behalf to have grace on them,and he's patient through most of
their complaining andgrumbling, and then he messes up
this one time here, and boom,um God gives him a consequence,
and it's a serious one.
He's been wandering with thepeople since they left Egypt to

(05:04):
enter the promised land, and nowsorry, Moses, um you don't get
to go in.
So maybe that feels like you.
Um I was on the phone with afriend this week when we were
talking about the fact thatleadership is this endless
series of decisions that wemake, and we might make 95% of
those decisions right.
And we get 5% wrong, maybe.

(05:24):
And guess what everyoneremembers?
The ones we got wrong, right?
Um, and that it causes aweariness.
Um, maybe as a leader, you getangry from getting almost
everything right, um, but thatalmost feels like you got
nothing right.
And being tired and beingangry, as we can see from Moses,
uh, is a dangerous combination.

(05:46):
Um, you might be sitting hereand you feel like the rest of
the people who are with Mosessitting under his horrible
leadership.
Um been in the wilderness for40 years.
Um, you've got lots ofuncertainty.
You've been waiting to enter uhthis promised land.
You're always feeling likeyou're in need.
There's always obstacle afterobstacle after after obstacle,

(06:08):
and it just doesn't ever feellike you're gonna get there.
And so you grow cynical.
Um maybe that's you.
Um Chuck DeGroat wrote a bookcalled Leaving Um Egypt.
Um, and in this book, um, hedescribes the danger of forming
an identity from your wildernesswandering.
Um, he says that this can oftenhappen happen around what we

(06:30):
call trauma bonding.
Um, it's a buzzword, right?
But instead, what he said isthat uh instead of the
wilderness being a place alongthe way to a final destination,
it just becomes the destinationwhere we just complain about
everything going on around us.
And our identity is formed ofthis is just the way it's gonna
be, forever and ever.

(06:51):
And in that, there's this kindof somewhat veiled, halfway
rebellious spirit toward Godbecause he hasn't given you what
you wanted, hasn't gotten youout of the circumstance, and so
then we just distract ourselveswith food and drink and social
media and and all the things.
And of course, the sad realityis that your wilderness becomes

(07:11):
Egypt.
So you traded one form ofbondage for another, all while
calling it freedom.
So why the wilderness?
Why the wilderness?
Uh my wife and I went toCalifornia um this past summer
to celebrate uh our 15-yearanniversary.
Um, thank you.
Um we uh we flew into SanFrancisco and slowly made our

(07:35):
way down the Pacific CoastHighway, eventually ending up in
wine country.
Now I'm not much of a winedrinker uh myself.
I don't like appreciate thetaste um the way that um others
might be able to.
However, um while we were here,uh I decided I'm gonna become
an expert.
Um I want to learn everything Ipossibly can.

(07:55):
Um and and when you're thereand you're driving, I mean, just
everywhere you go, um, there'suh vineyard after uh vineyard,
and they look a little bit umlike this.
Uh there's a picture that Itook.
Um my wife and I actuallystayed on uh a vineyard, which
was really cool.
And so this was our view umjust looking out.
And so uh we would go todifferent places, and you know,

(08:17):
they pour out all these uhtastings, samples of different
wines, a few of the white, a fewof the red, um, and then they
explain it all to you.
And so there were some thingsthat surprised me about this
whole process of making uh wine.
The first thing is when youlook out there um at that
picture, even in my mind, when Ithought of wine, I thought of

(08:39):
green, luscious, uh everythingaround is well watered and all
this type of stuff.
And instead, I found out I wasin a desert.
I had no idea.
The only green was thevineyard, was the vines uh of
grapes.
That was the only thing green.
When you look at the ground,um, dry, rocky um soil.
And so what I found out is thatwinemakers will intentionally

(09:06):
make their grapes struggle.
This is what they called it.
Intentionally producingstressful situations on the
grape uh produces higher qualityfruit with deeper, more complex
flavors, which ultimatelyleads, of course, to far
superior and might I add, farmore expensive uh wine.
So instead of irrigating thevineyard and you know, all the

(09:27):
things I thought in my head ofthis perfectly watered uh
garden, um, and instead theyactually decide not to water it.
Um they'll they'll just waitfor rain.
If it comes, great, if itdoesn't, uh they assume that the
struggle is good.
The survival mechanism uhforces the energy directly to
the grape itself.
And so it produces this betterflavor, color, and aroma.

(09:50):
And so the saying is true.
The struggle of the vine makesbetter wine.
Why the wilderness?
Because God ordained it thatway.
Um, through our struggles, Idon't understand.
Um I wish there was a differentway, I wish there was an easier
way to make that better wine.

(10:10):
But for whatever reason, it'sthrough our struggle that he
gives us the opportunity to sinkour roots into something.
And the question of numbers iswill Israel sink their roots
deep into him?
Or will they sink their rootsdeep into their circumstances?
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians10 about the wilderness.
He says, These things happenedto them as an example, but they

(10:33):
were written down for us for ourinstruction.
So let's let their wildernessexample instruct our wilderness
experience so that we can putour roots down deep into the
truth of who God is.
Let's allow the struggle of thevine to make the best wine.
So, first, um, our first pointis that the Lord's people

(10:54):
complain, and that there is anallure of accusation.
The Lord's people complain, whoare these people?
Well, um, as we enter into thestory in this verse, at the
beginning, we're in the fortiethyear of the wandering through
the desert.
Mike Allen, a couple weeks agohere preached on Numbers 13 and
14, and this was the firstgeneration that had uh all but

(11:19):
died out at this point.
But the reason that was thecase is because it was a
consequence for theirdisobedience.
They were walking about into,they were about to walk into the
promised land, twelve spies aresent out to check out this
land, they all return.
Ten of them say, hey, it's areally cool land, but also
followed with a bunch of reallybig people and were scared.
And so instead of going intothe land, um uh they decide it's

(11:41):
too much for them.
And their disob the consequencefor their unbelief was, hey,
you get to wander.
You get to wander in thisdesert.
And so here we have the secondgeneration about to enter in
again to the promised land, andwe find out that they deal with
many of the same um issues.
And so what's going on?

(12:01):
Um, there's no water.
And not just like a little bitof a problem.
Um, there's none.
There's no water to drink, itsays, there's none for their
livestock, there's none to growfood.
This is a truly um desperatesituation.
Once again, not the first timethis has happened.
So when you go back to Exodus14, right after Israel had been

(12:21):
uh uh uh brought out of Egypt,there was no water, the people
cry out to Moses, and God bringswater in a similar way to how
he does here.
But we'll come back to that ina moment.
What I want to talk about rightnow is what I would call the
anatomy of complaint.
Um, the anatomy of a complaint.
You see, it all starts with areal need, the real thing.

(12:43):
We don't have water, Moses.
Um, but before they go toMoses, what happens?
Clearly they spoke to eachother because they got to the
point where they assembledtogether.
So I don't know, we don't knowfrom scripture exactly what
happened, but clearly there'ssome people who are getting
together and say, hey, we got togo to Moses and tell them we
need something.
Some agitators in the midst,some leaders among them that had

(13:05):
the ability to speak and geteveryone together.
And then Scripture says theyassembled all of them together.
This isn't just a little groupof people, it's a lot of people.
They assemble together, and itsays clearly they set themselves
in opposition to Moses and toAaron, and it says they
quarreled with Moses.
And so they start working theirway backward through their

(13:25):
story.
In verse 3, um, it says, Man, Iwish we just died when our
brothers had died.
Do they even really know whatthey're talking about?
So weighty statement to saythat they wished they had died
when their brothers had died.
They continue to go backwards.
Why did you even bring us intothis wilderness, Moses?

(13:46):
Then they go on and say, Whydid you bring us up out of
Egypt?
Did you forget?
This is the second generation.
So these weren't even the oneswho were in Egypt.
They don't even know what itwas to be in that type of
bondage, and yet they take onthe words of their previous
generation as if they were theirown.

(14:07):
And so, um, why does thishappen?
Because they were the audienceof their parents.
So I want to take a few thingsaway from this in the anatomy of
a complaint.
The first thing of this isnever underestimate the power of
our words, especially to thosewho are listening, especially to
those who are under our care.
And especially when those wordsuh tend to speak of the

(14:30):
negative things.
They'll be heard, they'll beunderstood, and they might even
be believed.
Even if those who you arespeaking to haven't been through
what you've been through.
And so much so that we could beinforming what someone believes
about who God is, his verycharacter.
This is what was happening forIsrael.
Second generation was just aproduct of the first.

(14:51):
So never underestimate thepower of your words.
The second thing would be neverunderestimate the power of how
sin is passed down.
Now, we all believe thisbecause of Adam.
We know good theology.
Adam falls, we're all born withsin, all that type of stuff.
Yes, I'm talking about that,but I'm talking about something
more than that.
I'm talking about the specificsin, the specific nature of the

(15:15):
sin that you might be passeddown.
The second generation isrebelling in the exact same way
the first generation was, takingon their words almost
identically.
And where did they get thatfrom?
From their parents.
You see, whether you like it ornot, whether you know it or
not, we're all a product ofwhere we came from.

(15:35):
Product of parents, a productof school, a product of church,
or the lack thereof.
And so listen, um, one of themost godly things that we can do
is to raise our ownself-awareness of where we came
from.
Uh, my father was an alcoholic,um, passed away six years ago.

(15:55):
And so you better believe Imust take that seriously.
Not because I think I'm it'snot even about the alcohol part.
Maybe that's true.
I just told you a whole storyabout going to wine country.
Maybe I need to be careful.
Um but that's not what I mean.
What I mean is, what does thatproduce?
What does that teach me abouthow to be a father?
What does that teach me abouthow to be a husband?

(16:18):
It didn't teach me much, but itdid teach me some negative
things.
So I could either say, itdoesn't matter.
Or I could say, Let me blamethe one who came before me, or I
could raise my ownself-awareness and say, What is
this doing?
And so to this day, stillwalking through, not as a victim
of it, um, but seeking thehealing from wounds from the

(16:39):
only one who can heal thosewounds.
So never underestimate thepower of past down sin.
And finally, neverunderestimate the temptation to
go back to Egypt.
This is why Chuck DeGroat wrotean entire book on this.
What I mean is we have thepowerful ability in our mind to
rewrite our narratives so thatour past in light of our present

(17:02):
somehow seems different.
Israel was able to say thatbeing in the in Israel in
bondage and slavery for 400years was better than being free
in the wilderness.
They were able to rewrite thatnarrative and then speak it
freely to their kids, so much sothat they believed it, not even
having been there.
Manna's raining down fromheaven, feeding them.

(17:23):
They have the presence of Godwith in cloud and fire, and yet
they still said it was betterback then.
Sometimes our freedom doesn'tlook like how we want it to
look.
And so we look back on thebondage as if those were the
good old days.
So never underestimate.
Never underestimate the powerof your words and the power of
sin to pass down and the powerof the temptation to go back to

(17:45):
Egypt.
So, the anatomy of a complaint.
Right after we complain,there's the allure of
accusation.
Right on the heels ofcomplaining about something,
once we've done that, we can getto the place where we get to
accuse someone for what we'regoing through.
So, why why have you broughtthe assembly of the Lord into

(18:06):
this wilderness?
They cry out.
Why have you made us come upout of Egypt?
Who are they talking to?
Moses and Aaron.
What?
Moses and Aaron didn't do this.
Moses didn't cause this.
The Lord led them into thewilderness.
And that's because Israel criedout to them from bondage and
said, Will you come free us?
And he does it.
Before this, they were in Egyptmaking bricks without straw

(18:30):
under backbreaking tyranny.
And then they have the audacityto say, Why did you, Moses,
make us come up out of Egypt?
Why are and then to add on tothat, why are they walking
around for these 40 years?
Is that Moses' fault?
No, it was them.
It was their own sin.
It was their own disbelief inwhat God was saying about going

(18:53):
into the promised land.
They believed the ten spiesrather than God himself saying,
This is the promised land.
It is so tempting to accusethose in leadership.
So why is complaining andaccusation, why is this take
root so easily?
Because at its heart iscontempt.

(19:14):
Contempt is this fierce refusalto face your own brokenness and
instead to turn and point thefinger and blame someone else.
We're just doing what's beendone since the fall.
Adam messes up, and when Godcomes to him and says, What did
you do?
He looks at his wife and says,It was her fault.
And then what does she do?
She looks at the serpent andsays, Um, it was his fault.

(19:36):
This is what we do to coverourselves.
And Israel was no different,right?
It's their sin, but it's Moses'fault.
And the same is true of ustoday.
Behind all the complaining,behind the accusation, there's
often a shame-filled personunwilling to take the covering
off.
But the invitation from theLord in Scripture is always take

(20:00):
the cover off.
Bring the shame to him and toreceive grace.
Have your head lifted up and beredignified as being made in
the image of God.
You see, we need to hear all ofthis as a truly uh loving
warning.
Because the reality is, uh, inverse 13, uh Numbers lets us

(20:23):
know that indeed Israel wasn'tjust quarreling with Moses and
Aaron.
It says they were quarrelingwith the Lord Himself.
And so the issue is not betweenMoses and the people, but truly
with all of God's people andwith the Lord Himself.
So why the wilderness?
Why the wilderness?
Chuck DeGroat says thewilderness is a necessary place

(20:47):
where we are stripped of ourarrogance, our
self-righteousness, and ourhypocrisy.
It is the furnace oftransformation.
In other words, it's thestruggle of the vine that makes
the best wine.
So will you let it be that?
Will you let the wilderness bewhat God has caused it to be?
Will you allow the things inyou to be exposed?

(21:09):
Will you take responsibilityfor the brokenness and the
invitation to grow deep rootswithin him?
So, first, the Lord's people,we love to complain.
And there's an allure ofaccusation.
But let's turn now to thesecond big uh person in the
story, which is Moses and Aaronthemselves.
Um, the Lord's leaders respond.

(21:30):
And they want revenge for therebellious.
Revenge for the rebellious.
How did Moses and Aaron respondto the complaining and
accusation?
Well, they have an incredibleresponse in verse 6.
It says they simply turned fromthe face of the congregation
back to the tent of meetingwhere God is, where they fell on
their faces before the face ofthe Lord.

(21:54):
Wow.
I'm telling you what, I've beenin leadership in different ways
in a lot of differentenvironments, and I don't
respond like that.
Right?
When we're faced with thesetypes of things, uh, what do we
do?
Let them have it.
We would have tried tostraighten the truth out, defend
ourselves uh from theaccusations, put them in their

(22:14):
place, let them know you'rereally hard to lead.
Don't you know that?
Um we would have reminded themthat, hey, you've been in this
position before, remember?
And remember, look how the Lordprovided?
On and on and on.
That would have been uh myresponse.
But instead, Moses and Aaron,they take it all in, they walk
away, and they fall on theirface before the Lord.

(22:37):
That is leadership.
Our culture today, um, in ourworld today, we are on a quest
for what great leadership is.
Just look at look at what'sgoing on around us, right?
Um, how divided we are indifferent ways.
We want great uh leadership.
And so we ask, is it is itwielding the largest sword to

(22:58):
beat down the opponents?
Is it confronting opposition totheir face, belittling people,
talking about how much biggerand better we are?
Is it being the loudest in theroom, having the best strategic
plan, having the mostcharismatic personality?
Um I'm not saying it's none ofthose things, but I know it
doesn't start there.

(23:18):
I know it starts with fallingon our face before the Lord.
Um, it's from this posture thatuh we learn what we're supposed
to do.
Um, because it's in thisposture that we have to listen.
And sometimes we might speak,sometimes we might remain
silent, sometimes we might becalled to act, sometimes we
might be called to waitpatiently, sometimes we might be

(23:39):
called to slow down, sometimeswe might be called to move
quickly.
But great leadership is anambassadorship.
It's a representation we'releading as a representative of
not ourselves, uh, but of God.
Otherwise, you're leading as arepresentative of yourself,
competing with God's glory, um,causing idolatry.

(24:01):
So to have others give theirworship to us rather than to
God.
But there's something in ourworld today, in our culture, and
we love to make an idol ofleadership.
We're looking for somebody tomake a way, to show us where to
go.
Um we're looking for someone tovenerate.
Let's clear from this story.

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If we can't venerate Moses, weshould be very careful.
Moses won't have any of it.
Uh I'm sorry, God won't haveany of it.
The Lord won't have any of itbecause he is indeed the Lord.
So, Moses and Aaron, they goand meet with the Lord and they
get their direction from him.

(24:43):
It says this, take the staff,this is the Lord speaking,
assemble the people and tell therock before their eyes to yield
its water.
So, what does Moses do?
He starts off so well.
He takes the staff, heassembles the people in front of
the rock, and he takes a deepbreath, and he starts to speak,
and you're hoping for the best.

(25:04):
And what comes out?
Hear now, you rebels.
Hear now, you rebels.
Shall we bring forth water fromthis rock?
Moses, man, finally had enough.
Can you blame him?
I love the humanity of theBible.

(25:24):
It doesn't hold back.
The accumulation of enduring somuch from this people finally
overflows in this angry outburstto the people.
You've been rebelling foryears.
Remember the generation beforeyou?
They all had to pass away outhere because of the same thing.
You want water?
Here you go.

(25:45):
And so in anger, he reaches uphis hand, it says, Um, with a
staff in his hand, and hestrikes the rock one time, bang.
That wasn't enough.
Strikes the rock a second time,bang.
And water, it says, gushes out.
And so you can almost feel thetension in Moses that he's been

(26:06):
holding on to for so long.
Um we have to wonder like, whatdoes Moses walk away with?
Does he does he feel relieved?
Finally let him have it.
Finally let go.
Been holding that in for a longtime.
I don't know.
I don't know exactly what wasgoing on.
But whatever we are thinking,it's all quickly washed away
with the Lord's words back toMoses in verse 12.

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Because you did not believe inme to hold me as holy in the
eyes of the people of Israel,therefore you shall not bring
this assembly into the land thatI have given them.
What?
He's done so much right, somuch right for so long.
Um how is this fair?
So, what did he do wrong?

(26:50):
Well, two things mainly.
The Lord's command was to go infront of the rock and speak to
the rock, but instead he spoketo the people and let them have
it.
The second thing was is henever said to strike the rock.
Right?
All he said was to speak to therock.
And the and the Lord interpretsum what that means, which is

(27:11):
that you didn't believe in me.
So from our human eyes, thisjust doesn't seem uh fair.
But in that moment of humanfrailty, of honesty, you could
even argue it's justifiablefrustration, he speaks.
But the Lord let him know it'swrong.
It was sin.
And not only that, it waspublic sin because uh because of

(27:34):
how he was leading uh God'speople astray, and the Lord
gives them a tragic consequence.
Um it's wrong because Moseswanted revenge for the rebellion
he didn't trust.
And so then we move on in thestory, and you don't hear from
Moses.
We don't really know uh what hethinks, all we hear is the
consequence, and the story moveson.

(27:55):
But uh Brian Chapel, in hissermon on this same text, um,
helped me to see that we doactually hear from Moses.
How?
Well, who wrote the book?
Moses.
Moses wrote the book ofNumbers.
So Moses is telling on himself.

(28:15):
This is Moses' confession.
He didn't do it right.
And he didn't just let it beknown to the people there, he
let it known for generations andgenerations to come.
So we can read Moses today andrealize he didn't do it right.
And so in writing the passage,he doesn't seek to protect
himself, he doesn't seek todefend his actions, he doesn't

(28:37):
share how unfair all of thiswas, he doesn't tell everybody I
got 95% of it right and onlyblew it 5% of the time.
Doesn't do any of that.
He simply says the story likeit happened, including his
motivation of his heart, how hefailed in this moment, and then
he sees himself as beinguninvited from being able to go

(28:57):
into the promised land after allhe's been through, as simply a
just action on behalf of theLord, who Moses loved with his
whole heart.
It doesn't change that.
You see, Moses demonstratedtrue leadership.
He started down that road ofcomplaint and accusation, but

(29:18):
when contempt could settle inand he could blame others for
his actions, he owned it and thetragic consequences that came
with it.
Even though Moses didn'tbelieve God in that moment, he
knows the truth of who the Lordis.
And ultimately, this is whatthe struggle in the wilderness
was for.

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It was for Moses, too.
So that he might sink his rootsdeep into the truth of who God
is.
The struggle of the vineproduces the best wine.
The same was true for Moses.
So finally, we have the peoplecomplaining and the allure of
accusation.
We have the leaders responding.

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Wanting revenge for therebellion, but finally we see
the Lord's holiness isdisplayed.
That He gives grace for thegraceless.
So in verse 12 again, we hear,Because you didn't believe in
me, speaking to Moses, to upholdme as holy in the eyes of the
people of Israel.
And through them it says thatGod would show himself holy.

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Holiness, not something we talkabout a whole lot today.
Kind of scared of the word, Ithink, a little bit outdated.
Conjures up pictures of Godmaybe being angry, judging from
on high, giving out consequencesjust because, even in this
story, it could feel like, man,come on, couldn't you just give

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Moses a little grace?
But quite simply, holiness isjust God being set apart.
It's that God has a glory allhis own that he's not going to
share with anyone else.
It simply means that God isGod, we are not.
He's the creator, and we're thecreature.
He speaks, we listen, or choosenot to.

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And at the end of the day, hisholiness, no matter what, will
be upheld.
And so for Moses and all theIsraelites standing there at the
precipice of the promised land,about to go in, the Lord wanted
them to understand this onething.
Just one thing.
That despite everything thatwas going on, all that Moses
did, all that the people did, hewanted them to know I'm still

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God.
And that this promised land isa beautiful place.
The land flowing with milk andhoney and all the things that
they wanted that they didn'thave right now.
But he wanted them tounderstand this and hear this.
It means nothing if you don'thave me.
We want God to change all thecircumstances, and sometimes

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without him.
The wilderness is so that wemight be close to him.
You see, we struggle with thecircumstance just like Israel,
see what's all around andwondering why, God, aren't you
changing all of this yet?
Their time wandering about inthe wilderness wasn't just to
make them pay for what they'ddone.
It wasn't to make them delaytheir gratification and finally

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be able to come to the promisedland.
It was so they would learn howto depend on the Lord no matter
what.
They were so focused on gettingto the promised land, they were
forgetting who made thepromise.
And that being with him wasenough, was sufficient.
So as we read this story, itcan be hard to see grace.

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It can be hard to see grace,but it's there.
It can seem like the only thingthere is brokenness and
judgment, but instead, what wesee is that the Lord displays
his holiness in a verysurprising way.
In verse 10, look, if you can,Moses cries out, Here now, you
rebels, shall we bring forthwater for you out of this rock?
It says, and Moses lifted uphis hand, struck the rock with a

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staff twice, and what?
Water came out abundantly.
And the congregation drank andtheir livestock.
Grace.
See, though the people arecomplaining, accusing, not
taking responsibility for theirsin, even though Moses is having
his own lack of faith with thisangry outburst, the Lord

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displays holiness with grace.
He gives the people what theyneed, what they ask for, gives
it abundantly, even though theydeserve none of it.
You see, sometimes we thinkgrace is something that God
gives as an answer to hisholiness.
He's so holy I can't get closeto him, so I need grace.

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But what I actually want you tosee here in Numbers 20 and
throughout the whole book ofNumbers, throughout all the Old
Testament, before Christ,scripture shows us that grace is
a display of God's holiness.
It's a part of his holiness.
It's what sets him apart thatin Exodus, when Moses asks, Who
are you?
Show me who you are, God callsback the Lord, slow to anger,

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abounding in steadfast love,forgiving iniquity and
transgression.
This is who the Lord is.
This is the character of God.
How abundant is the grace.
How abundant is the grace.
Guess what?
There wasn't like 20 peoplehere.
You see, sometimes when we getthis little picture of water

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flowing out of the rock, we getthe like, you know, back in the
day, the old felt boards, youknow, and you got like the
pasture and the little sheep andthe people, and there's this
cute little flowing, you know,river kind of trickling out of
the rock.
There were 600,000 people thatleft Egypt.
Most commentators would agreethere's at least two million

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people out here in thewilderness.
This wasn't a cute littletrickle.
This was water flowing forth inabundance to water the entire
congregation, it said, and alltheir livestock.
This wasn't a little bit.
This was lavish grace, abundantgrace.

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And so what's going on withthis rock?
What is this thing?
It's not the first time itshowed up.
In Exodus 17, there's almostthis identical situation.
The people need water, and theycry out to Moses.
He goes to the Lord, the Lordtells them to go to the rock,
and that he will stand beforeMoses, stand in front of the
rock, and that Moses can strikethe rock with his staff and

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water will flow.
That's in Exodus 17.
And that's why it makes sensein our story, man.
Moses is just going back towhat he did before, right?
But so it almost seems unfair.
But here's the difference.
In Exodus 17, the Lord standsbefore Moses on the rock and
tells Moses to strike the rock.
You see, commentators wouldagree, in essence, the Lord is

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saying, As you strike the rock,you're striking me.
There has to be sacrifice inorder to bring about the grace
of water.
Despite all their complaint anddisobedience.
And so here in Numbers 20, theLord commands Moses simply to
speak to the rock.
Why?
Because he has already struckthe rock.

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It need not be struck again.
Grace will flow from thisplace.
So Moses isn't just disobeyingthe Lord's command, he's also
telling the Lord, that firsttime wasn't enough.
I need to strike you again andagain for grace to come.
First Corinthians 10, if youdon't believe anything of what

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I'm saying, let 1 Corinthians10, let Paul interpret the Old
Testament for you.
Verse 1 through 4 says this forI do not want you to be
unaware, brothers, that ourfathers were all under the
cloud.
They all passed through thesea, and all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in thesea, and all ate the same
spiritual food, and all drankthe same spiritual drink, for

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they drank from the spiritualrock that followed them, and
that rock was who?
Christ.
You see where things were ashadow of what was to come.
No one could imagine what thiswas.
Paul says, No, that rock wasChrist.
And so in John chapter 4, inJesus' life, he's with the

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Samaritan woman at the well.
He says, Sir, everyone whodrinks of this water, speaking
of the water in the well, willbe thirsty again.
But whoever drinks of the waterthat I will give him will never
be thirsty again.
The water that I give him willbecome in him a spring of water,
welling up to eternal life.
So the woman said, Sir, give methis water so that I will not

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be thirsty or have to come hereto draw water.
Jesus, the living water, therock upon which the Israelites
would get their water.
We move fast forward throughJesus' life, and on the cross,
Jesus cries out for the firsttime in the Gospels at the very

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end of the book of John.
Guess what he says?
I'm thirsty.
You see, the one who suffered,who offered living water that
wells up to eternal life is nowthirsty.
And in one final act of crueltytowards Jesus, the soldiers who
were there didn't give himwater.
What'd they give him?
Sour wine.

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And at that he bowed his headand it died and he died.
It says a few moments later,Jesus' side was pierced, and not
only did blood pour forth, butwhat else?
Water from his side.
And so in the sacrifice ofChrist, in the blood that is
poured out, there is also thewater of life.
The living waters that he spokeof to this unsuspecting

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Samaritan woman at a well werebeing poured forth to quench the
world of its thirst.
And so the rock that gave anabundant flow of grace-filled
water in the wilderness wouldbecome the instrument of God's
infinite grace by being struckon the cross.
How many times?
Just once.
Just once.

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And it was enough.
Bearing the sin of all of us,though we complain, though we
accuse, though we go tocontempt, though we want revenge
for the rebellious.
No, indeed, his sacrifice isenough to bear all of that sin.
So this morning, I would askyou, where are you in the

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wilderness?
Maybe you don't know this rock.
Maybe you don't know Christ.
And you may be wandering aroundin the circles of this life
trying to quench your thirstwith everything the world has to
offer.
I bet you're here this morningknowing it doesn't work.
You're still thirsty.
I assure you that Jesus standsready with a holy grace just for

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you.
Come to Him.
You may be part of the Lord'speople filled with complaints
and accusations and all thatshame-filled contempt.
Take the cover off.
Come to Jesus.
Or you may want revenge for therebel the rebellious, and Jesus
offers you to lay aside youranger and your weariness and

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come to him.
Because God's holiness truly isdisplayed in his lavish grace
of living water.
Our call to worship said thisCome, everyone who thirsts, come
to the waters, and he who hasno money, come buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk withoutmoney and without price.

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Why do you spend your money forthat which is not bread and
your labor for that which doesnot satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, andeat what is good, and delight
yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear and come tome, hear that your soul may
live.
This morning I would invite youto come to the rock, the one

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who is the living water offeredto you as a well up to eternal
life.
Let's pray.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, wecome to you this morning.
I want to be self-aware of allthe ways that we can be just

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like Israel, where it's easy tolook at them and say, How could
they possibly complain andgrumble over all that you had
done for them?
And yet we look at our ownlives recognizing the apple
hasn't fallen far from the tree.
We do the same.
Will you give us the grace ofseeing our sin and taking
responsibility for it?

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Um, but Jesus, you have notleft us without hope.
Jesus, thank you that you havebeen struck once for all time
and once for all of us, so thatwe might come to you with your
open arms and might receivegrace, might receive
forgiveness, might receive life.

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And so, Jesus, we come to younow, lifting you up as the one
who is uh worthy of all of ourworship, where we are tempted to
put it in other places, um,Lord, just as the people of
Israel were, um, we stand nowwanting to uphold your holiness
in a way that they might havemissed it, Lord.

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Help us to see that yourholiness is on display in the
grace that you have given us.
We thank you for this now.
Spirit, will you seal upon ourhearts the truth of your word?
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.