Numbers 9:15-23; 10:29-36 | In the Wilderness

Listen to this week’s sermon, God is in Control preached by Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches from Numbers 9:15-23; 10:29-36.

Episode Transcript

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (00:00):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Benjamin.
You're listening to a sermonaudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourFather answer the Lord's prayer
.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.

Pastor Jason Dunn (00:21):
Pray this prayer of illumination with me.
Pray this prayer ofillumination with me.
Living God, help us to hearyour word with open hearts so
that we may truly understand andbelieve, and believing that we
may follow in faithfulness andobedience, through Christ, our
Lord.
Amen.
Remain standing for ourscripture reading from the book

(00:43):
of Numbers.
Amen, remain standing for ourscripture reading from the book
of Numbers.
On that day that the tabernaclewas set up, the cloud covered
the tabernacle, the tent of thetestimony, and at the evening it
was over the tabernacle likethe appearance of fire until
morning.
So it was always the cloudcovered it by day and the
appearance of fire by night.

(01:05):
And whenever the cloud liftedfrom over the tent, and after
the people of Israel set out andin the place where the cloud
settled down there, the peopleof Israel camped At the command
of the Lord.
The people of Israel set outand at the command of the Lord,
they camped as long as the cloudrested over the tabernacle.

(01:25):
They remained in camp and Mosessaid to Hobab, the son of Ruel,
the Midianite, moses'father-in-law, we are setting
out for the place of which theLord said I will give it to you,
come with us and we will dogood to you, for the Lord has
promised good to Israel.

(01:51):
But he said to him I will not go.
I will depart to my own landand to my own kindred.
And he said Please do not leaveus, for you know where we
should camp, in the wilderness,and you will serve us as eyes
for us.
And if you go, do go with us.
Whatever the good the Lord willdo to us, the same will we do
to you.
So they set out from the mountof the Lord, three days' journey

(02:14):
, and the ark of the covenant ofthe Lord went before them,
three days' journey to seek outa resting place for them.
And the cloud of the Lord wasover them by day.
Whenever they set out from thecamp and whenever the ark set
out, moses said Arise, o Lord,and let your enemies be
scattered and let those who hateyou flee before you.

(02:37):
And when it rested, he saidReturn, o Lord, to the ten
thousands of thousands of Israel.
This is God's word.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dy (02:48):
So imagine with me for a moment.
Just a little over a year ago,you were a slave in Egypt.
Pharaoh had oppressed yourpeople into slavery.
You were doing hard labor eachand every day, to the point
where God's people were cryingout for deliverance.

(03:08):
Yahweh, who had seemingly beenthe God of this people, seemed
to be silent.
But that's when a savior cameon the scene.
Moses came out of the wilderness.
Moses came to Pharaoh to speakGod's words to Pharaoh, saying
Pharaoh refused.

(03:29):
And so you saw God fight foryou.
You saw him fight for youagainst Pharaoh, against the
gods of Egypt, against theEgyptian people.
You saw God lead you out ofEgypt along with the people and
through the Red Sea.
You saw the walls of water oneither side of you.
As you walked through them, yousang a song of salvation when

(03:50):
you reached the other side andthe water closed in on the
enemies of God.
And then you came and were ledup to the mountain of God's
presence, mount Sinai, where yousaw the cloud right, the
rumblings, the earthquake.
You saw the cloud right, therumblings, the earthquake, the
fire.
You heard God's words speak tothe people.
You saw God's presence andpower there on the mountain, and

(04:13):
then Moses went up on themountain.
He received the TenCommandments and God's
instructions and he came down tothe people.
They built the tabernacle.
And then God's presence cameand dwelt in the tabernacle.
The God who fought for hispeople in presence and power was
now dwelling with his people inthe tabernacle, the sanctuary
of his presence that would gowith them wherever they went.

(04:37):
And now you are preparing to gofrom Sinai to the promised land,
you who just a year ago wereslaves in Egypt, but you can't
help but to remember thatslavery.
And you realize you are in thewilderness, food is not
guaranteed.
You know that you will comeacross enemies.
You are not a people that has aformal military to speak of the

(05:00):
same way that others do.
You have no chariots to go outinto battle with, of the same
way that others do.
You have no chariots to go outinto battle with.
There's somewhat of a fear.
You don't have a map right, amap to lead you wherever you
should go.
There's no Google Maps right.
You're just trusting in theLord to lead you where he will
See.
We are all lost in thewilderness without God to lead

(05:22):
us.
Paul talks about in 2Corinthians 10,.
He looks back on the Exodusstory.
He looks back on our passageand he said this was written and
recorded for our benefit.
Israel's story is our story.
Israel had received thepromises from Abraham.
They were looking forward tothe promised land that they had

(05:46):
not yet received.
They had not yet entered yet,but God had fought for them and
delivered them and brought themto where they were.
Likewise, we have God'spromises, but we have not yet
entered the new heavens and newearth.
In many ways we are still in thewilderness.
As Israel had God's instruction, so also we have God's
instruction.
We have the Word of God writtenin the scriptures.

(06:07):
Jesus has given us the greatestcommand to love him and to love
others.
We have God's instruction aswell, and God also dwells with
us.
God dwells with us where two ormore are gathered in his name.
He dwells in us in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit.
God is with us in the churchtoday.
So Israel's story is our story,and yet we also are in the

(06:32):
wilderness and we know this.
You look at the world around you.
The world is not as it ought tobe right.
We see the wars that have beenraging for years and years.
We just see the recent eventsthat have happened in our nation
.
We see people's response tothose events, right, the hatred
and the vitriol.
We see not only the wildernesswithout, but the wilderness

(06:53):
within our hearts.
Right, we know that we live ina sinful and broken world and we
know that our own hearts aresinful and broken.
And so I don't know what yourwilderness is this morning.
It could be loneliness, itcould be depression, it could be
an unsatisfying job, it couldbe that you are looking for work
or job, it could be a medicaldiagnosis, it could be

(07:14):
relational rupture.
Whatever your wilderness isthis morning, you know it, you
feel it, you experience it dayin and day out, and whatever
wilderness you are in, onlyYahweh can lead you out.
And maybe you come today andyou're not sure whether Yahweh
exists, whether God exists,whether he's a personal,

(07:36):
all-knowing and all-sovereignGod, right.
But you know what thewilderness is, you know the
brokenness in your own heart andin the world, and we believe
that Jesus Christ is the way,the truth and the life, and he
is the only one who can lead usback to Eden, back to what it
means to live not in thewilderness, but in flourishing.

(07:59):
So my main idea today is that,even though we are in the
wilderness, the Lord leads hispeople with presence and power.
So that first point is the Lordleads with presence.
Go ahead and go to Numbers,chapter 9, verse 15.
So I've got two points today,but I've got three sub points
under this one, so there's alittle subterfuge in there.

(08:21):
All right, you got it.
So Numbers 9, verse 15 says Onthe day that the tabernacle was
set up, the cloud covered thetabernacle the tent of testimony
and at evening it was over thetabernacle, the tent of
testimony and at evening it wasover the tabernacle like the
appearance of fire until morning.
Okay, full stop.
That is incredible, Think aboutit.

(08:42):
So in Exodus 40, we see thatthe tabernacle is set up and you
know, god's people had probablybuilt places of worship in
Egypt.
Right, there were slaves inEgypt building many things, and
so who knows what exactly theyexpected.
But when they built thetabernacle, god's presence came
down.
It was so glorious that noteven Moses could come in at

(09:04):
first.
Imagine today like you know,this is not necessarily related
to real events but if New Cityplanted a church somewhere in
North Orlando and we got abuilding and we cut the ribbon
and then all of a sudden, likeyou know, there's just this big
cloud and a fire by night, andGod's glorious presence, and we
couldn't even enter in.
Right, that would.

(09:25):
If you had a weak faith, youwould believe in something.
Right, this is God's realpresence that is with them in
the midst of the camp.
Right, this actually happened.
Exodus 40 talks about how itgives you the month, the day and
the year.
Right, this happened in historyand so we might ask where then

(09:49):
is his presence today?
In John 1, the author and thespirit through John, says that
the word became flesh and dweltamong us.
Right, god took on humanity andcame down into earth.
He tabernacled, so to speak,among us.
Right, god's presence came downas man and dwelt among the

(10:11):
people that he created.
Right, matthew 28 talks abouthow Jesus, in sending out his
disciples before he ascended, hesays I will be with you to the
end of the age.
And so we know that Jesus iswith his church.
And then in Acts, chapter 1 and2, we see that not only does he
promise the Holy Spirit, but hesends the Spirit into them and

(10:33):
into the church to dwell in usby faith.
Right, so God.
Now, he has tabernacled amongstus in history as Jesus Christ
and now, by the Holy Spirit, heactually makes his home among
those who are his.
God's real presence is with ustoday.
And so then, what is the reasonfor his presence, you might ask?
Why would an all-knowing,sovereign God, who created all

(11:00):
things, who saw a rebelliouspeople, turn away from him in
the world that we live in?
Why would he want to come as aman, knowing what we would do to
him?
Why would he want to dwell inme?
Right, a sinful human being, weknow the sin in our hearts.
Why would God want to call anddwell in me?
Well, we know this.
Why he wants to do this?
When we look at Genesis 1 and 2,right, god created man for
relationship with himself.

(11:21):
Adam and Eve walked with God inthe garden.
They had conversationalrelationship with the living God
, who actively delighted them asa parent delights in his child,
right?
I mean it's almost impossibleto imagine, because not too long
later, adam would be tempted.
Right, I mean it's almostimpossible to imagine because
not too long later, adam wouldbe tempted.
Right, he had been giveninstruction to guard Eden, to

(11:42):
guard Eve, and he failed in thatinstruction to protect.
He failed and was complicit infalling in sin, and therefore
the earth became cursed, becamea wilderness, and the wilderness
in his heart arose as well ashe turned from God.
And yet God gave him a promiseSomebody from your lineage would
crush the head of the serpent.

(12:02):
And what does that mean?
Right, that means that somebodywould defeat the lie of sin,
that we can be our own God.
Somebody would live righteously, would follow God's instruction
and protect God's people, andof course, that would be Jesus
Christ.
But when we look at our text, inNumbers 10, verse 29, we see a

(12:24):
reference to God's promiseswhere Moses says we are setting
out for the place of which theLord said I will give it to you.
Of which the Lord said I willgive it to you.
What he's referencing is God'spromise to Abraham.
God calls Abraham from hispeople and he says I will give
you, I will make a people of you, I will bring you to a land, I

(12:48):
will bring you to my place andthrough you, I will bring a
blessing to all nations.
What God's saying is I'm goingto bring you back into my
presence, I'm going to restorewhat was lost Fellowship with me
in the garden, and you willwalk with me in the garden once
again, in fellowship.
Right, this is what Israel wasmoving towards, to a restoration
of all that is good, to leavingthe wilderness behind, right.
And so again the question,though what reason does he have

(13:14):
to dwell with me?
In John 3.16, the author says,as we all know, for God so loved
the world that he sent his onlyson.
In Ephesians 1, we see that weare chosen before the creation
of the world to be his right.
It's God's steadfast love, it'shis desire to walk with us in

(13:34):
relationship, to delight in us,by which he pursues us, and is
the reason that he calls us tohimself to dwell with him.
There was a man whose name wasIvan.
He was a Christian and he wasimprisoned for his faith in
Russia, and as he was a prisonerthere, he would be taken out to

(13:55):
be interrogated.
And as he was beinginterrogated, oftentimes the
only thing he could kind of lookto comfort for was his blanket
in his cell.
That's all he had.
And so, after beinginterrogated, one day he came
back to his cell and was lookingforward to just wrapping in his
blanket, and he saw that therewas actually someone in his cell
wrapped in that blanket.
He assumed that it was somebodywho was there to probably get

(14:17):
him to talk, to report back whathe said.
And so he just he couldn'tstand it anymore.
He knelt down in the cell andhe said Lord, I can't do it
anymore.
He was defeated and the personwrapped up in the blanket said
what do you mean?
And so he said it again he'sjust like, I just can't do it

(14:37):
anymore.
And the person wrapped up inthe blanket said Ivan, have you
forgotten that the Lord is withyou?
And he looked and the person inthe blanket was gone.
And at once he got up and herejoiced and he danced in his
cell the man who couldn't walkanother step a moment before.
And the guard saw him in themorning and he said who gave you

(15:00):
food?
And Ivan said nobody gave mefood.
And he said so what's going on?
He said my Lord is with me.
The guard was like well, whereis he now?
And he opened his heart and hepointed at his heart and the
guard said well, I'm going toshoot you and your Lord right
now.
And he pointed the pistol athim and Ivan said that's okay, I
know that I will be in paradisewhen you do with my Lord.

(15:23):
And the guard just shook hishead.
He reholstered his pistol andhe walked away in disbelief that
man would actually be releasednot too long after and continue
to preach the gospel among thenations until he was 80 years
old.
Later on he would find out thatat that time that that happened,
that his wife and daughter werepraying for him.
They were praying Isaiah 51, 14.

(15:45):
The cowering prisoners willsoon be set free.
They will not die in theirdungeon, nor will they lack
bread.
See, ivan, he was at the end ofhimself.
There's nothing he could do.
He had given, almost given upon the Lord.
He was crying out and the Lordcame to him, not because of what
he was doing, but because ofhis steadfast love that God

(16:07):
really became present to him.
And so my third point we knowhe's really present.
We know the reason for hispresence.
This is steadfast love.
But how do we experience hispresence?
It's through our response.
Go ahead back and look with meat the passage In verse 17,.

(16:27):
It reads chapter 9, 17.
And whenever the cloud liftedover the tent.
After that, the repetitive,just keep reading.
It's the same thing over andover and over again, that phrase

(16:53):
at the command of the Lord isrepeated seven times, and that
going out and resting isrepeated three times, and
there's a repetitiveness to itbecause there's a beauty to it.
There's a beauty to the prose,there's a beauty to the fact
that God's people were soattentive to what God was doing
that they followed wherever hewould go.
Right Again, they didn't have.

(17:14):
Well it actually.
It kind of is like when youplug in Google Maps to a place
you haven't been and you justkind of listen to it and hope
it'll bring you to the rightplace.
Except this is Yahweh, right,this is the Lord.
And so, man, I lost my own waybecause I'm making a joke.
Okay, so they are so as theyare.

(17:35):
So that word actually forcommand is the word for mouth in
the Hebrew, and so this isactually God's instruction out
of his mouth.
It's kind of like in the NewTestament, in the Gospels, when
it said Jesus opened his mouthand instructed him.
In the same way, god is reallypresent with his people.
He's opening his mouth and he'sinstructing them.
He's talking to Mosesface-to-face, as a man does to

(17:57):
his friend.
Moses is talking to the Levitesand the Levites are giving
instruction to God's people tomove out quickly whenever God's
presence is going forth right.
And so they experienced God'spresence with them.
They experienced his provisionfor them, they experienced him
fighting for them as theylistened to the instruction of

(18:18):
the Lord.
Right and Jesus as well.
When he finishes the Sermon onthe Mount, he said blessed.
Or rather, the man who doesthese things is like the man who
builds his house on a rock.
Later on, he said blessed areyou if you do these things, if
you follow my commands.
We experience God's goodpresence as we listen to his
instruction.
We see this also in the episodewith the centurion in Luke,

(18:42):
chapter 7.
There's a Roman centurion whosends a messenger to Jesus
because his servant is dying andhe's heard of Jesus.
Apparently, he knows that he'sgood, right.
He believes that he has thepower to do this, and so he asks
him to come heal his servant.
And Jesus responds in theaffirmative.
He prepares to go, and then themessenger says no, you can stay

(19:04):
.
He believes that you can healhim from afar because he is a
man under authority and he haspeople under him.
He knows that when he askssomeone to go, they go, and when
he asks someone to come.
They come and Jesus hears thisand he marvels at him.
He says because not anywhere inIsrael has he seen such faith.
And what is that faith?

(19:26):
That faith is somebody whounderstands the authority that
Jesus has and understands hisgoodness, understands that he
can ask Jesus for healing andthat Jesus will accomplish it by
his authority.
See, we live in a world and inthe day today, where we really
idolize autonomy, we idolizeindividualism.
Of course, we should be able todetermine what is good and

(19:47):
right for us.
Right, maybe we're evenChristians and we have the
scriptures.
But we want to determine forourselves what that looks like.
We want to do it in our own way.
But we see something differentfrom Jesus.
We see something different fromthis people, this hanging on
the Lord's instruction andfollowing wherever he should go.

(20:08):
There was a young woman who alsowas struggling with this, this
tension of you know, I have myown desires, right, and I'm
really struggling with my owndesires and Jesus' lordship.
So she went to a mentor of hersand the mentor said okay, I'm
going to write two words on thissheet of paper, I'm going to
hand it back to you and I'mgoing to ask you just to spend
10 minutes with this later andthen cross one of the words out.

(20:28):
And so she did.
She spent 10 minutes with it.
She read the two words.
The words were no Jesus, orrather no Lord, and as she
meditated on it, she realized Ican't say no to Jesus and still
have him be my Lord, and hecannot be my Lord and have me

(20:50):
say no to him.
Be my Lord and have me say noto him.
She realized that she could nothave both.
In order for Jesus to be ourLord and Savior, to experience
his presence with us, we need tosubmit to him as Lord, and so
your wilderness might lookdifferent, but God became
incarnate and he's with you inthat wilderness and in his

(21:12):
goodness he wants to lead youforth and lead you out, but we
must be willing to listen and tofollow him in all of those
areas.
So we know the Lord leads hispeople with presence, which is
my first point.
My second point the Lord leadsus with power.
Go ahead and turn to Numbers,chapter 10, verse 33.
Verse 33 says here we see thatYahweh is Israel's warrior.

(22:10):
They believe that thetabernacle was the footstool of
God's throne, right where he wasdwelling in majesty.
But they also believe that thetabernacle was the chariot of
the Lord.
And so the chariot of the Lordwent out before them because he
was leading the way, he wasfighting their battles for them,
he was ready to go before them.

(22:31):
And indeed we see throughoutthe book of Numbers, throughout
the Exodus story, that God doesfight their battles for them.
We see the walls of Jerichocome down when they enter the
promised land.
Right, god is Yahweh's warrior,or Yahweh is Israel's warrior,
and we also see this in Psalm 68.
David, the author of Psalm 68,psalm 68.

(22:58):
David, the author of Psalm 68,writes, and actually almost
nearly quotes our passage, andhe does that in verse 1, which
is right here God shall arise,he says, his enemies shall be
scattered and those who hate himshall flee before him.
And then in verse 7, o God,when you went out before your

(23:18):
people, when you marched throughthe wilderness, the earth
quaked, the heavens poured down.
Rain before God, the one ofSinai, before God, the God of
Israel, rain in abundance.
O God, you shed abroad.
You restored your inheritance,the land as it languished, your
flock found a dwelling in it.
In your goodness, o God, youprovided for the needy.

(23:40):
The reason David looks back onour passage and on these events
is because he knows that thesame God who is warrior over
Israel is the same God who iswarrior and has delivered him.
And we see the church singthese songs throughout the ages,
because the same God is warriorover us and goes before us.
But you might be asking, doeshe go before me?

(24:01):
It doesn't always seem like it,right.
One commentator puts it thisway as the ark was among the
Israelites, so is Christ amonghis people.
And what ground of confidencethe church had.
Because that pledge of God'spresence at the ark, we have the
same and a more sure ground ofconfidence in Christ's

(24:24):
incarnation.
See, even though Israel was inthe wilderness, god knew that it
was the wilderness of theirhearts that truly set them apart
from him, that truly needed tobe conquered.
That's why Jesus Christ alsoarose.
Right, jesus Christ seeminglyarises from heaven to become

(24:44):
incarnate as man to the earth.
Jesus Christ died and wascrucified for our sins on the
cross, taking upon himself thesins of all those who would
believe, enduring the wrath ofGod and then rising from the
dead.
And then he would rise andascend into heaven to reign at
the right hand of God victorious, and one day we will see that

(25:06):
reign in its fullness.
And then we know in Ephesians 5, it says he rises in our hearts
when we believe in him by faith.
Right, so Jesus Christ answersthat call of Moses to arise.
God has arisen in Jesus Christto defeat not only the
wilderness in the world and inour hearts and we know that he
will accomplish that in full oneday but to defeat the

(25:27):
wilderness in our hearts, todefeat the lies of Satan in our
hearts, to defeat sin and deathforever.
But this happens again as we gowith him.
That's why Jesus says in Luke 9, those who would be his
disciples must deny themselves,take up their cross and follow

(25:47):
him.
That's why he says you cannotlove the world and love the Lord
.
You have to choose.
Cs Lewis in Mere Christianitysays there is no neutral ground
in the universe.
Every square inch, every splitsecond is claimed by God and
counterclaimed by Satan.
In Matthew 28, 18 through 20,we also see that it's as we go

(26:09):
in God's mission, right, it's aswe follow his leading, it's as
we follow him into his missionto redeem the world back to
himself that he goes with us.
That's why Matthew 28, 18, hesays as you make disciples of
all nations, as you go to thesenew places where it will be
difficult, that I will foreverbe with you to the end of the
age.
And we see that throughout thebook of Acts as well.
It's as people live inobedience that they're filled

(26:32):
with the Spirit and they're sentout in power.
We see this in Corrie Ten Boom,who is the Dutch Christian who,
with her family, hid Jewsduring the Nazi occupation.
She was eventually arrested andimprisoned in Ravensbruck
concentration camp.
In her memoir the Hiding Place,corrie describes a moment when

(26:53):
she and her sister Betsysmuggled a small Bible past the
guards.
They knew that if it wasdiscovered it would be
confiscated and they would bebeaten or worse.
As they passed throughinspection, corrie felt utterly
helpless.
Guards were searching womenright in front of them.
Yet when it was their turn, theguards suddenly turned away

(27:14):
distracted, and Corrie walkedunnoticed with the Bible under
her clothing.
Later she reflected.
God made the guards blind.
The Bible was at my side, yethe kept it hidden.
It was as if the Lord himselfhad fought for us.
That moment became a powerfultestimony for Corrie, but even
more, God used it, as he woulduse that Bible to minister to

(27:37):
countless women in that camp.
See, jesus leads us in presence.
He leads us in power.
He goes before us.
He has defeated death.
He has defeated death for usbecause of the steadfast love of
the Lord, and he invites us toonly respond in faith and
receive and then follow him ashe leads us out in presence and

(28:00):
power, follow where he goes,listen and obey his instructions
, like a good parent whodelights in their child and
instructs them in the way thatthey should go, that they might
have good and flourishing life.
So, in conclusion, god ispresent with you in your

(28:20):
wilderness.
God is leading you in power.
He is fighting for you.
He's inviting you to listen nowto what he has to say.
Listen now to what he has tosay.
In Romans, chapter 8, Paul saysto those that he's writing to

(28:43):
the church in Rome that nothingcan separate them from the love
of God in Jesus Christ noprincipalities, no powers, right
, no one who would come afterthem, no persecutors, no
loneliness, whatever wilderness,no medical diagnosis.
Nothing can separate you fromthe love of God in Jesus Christ,

(29:04):
because he has already gonebefore you, he is already with
you and he's already invitingyou to receive all that he has
for you.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Yahweh, you are a good God, youare a sovereign God.

(29:24):
You are here now.
You are here by your spirit,convicting us of sin.
You're here in your spiritspeaking truth to our hearts.
You're here in your spirit,inviting us to know you.
You are here in your spiritindwelling us, reminding us that
you delight in us, reminding usthat you are fighting for us
and that you are present to us.
Lord, help us to experienceyour loving presence, experience

(29:45):
your loving kindness,experiencing your steadfast love
in our lives.
We thank you, o Lord, that thatis true.
We pray this in Jesus' name,amen.