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Man, tonight I'm preaching an overview of the book of Numbers, an overview of the book of Numbers. I've already done a sermon like this for Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, and now I want to do it for the book of Numbers. Now the book of Numbers is a really important book in the Bible. It has a lot of Bible stories in it that if I brought up to you, you'd recognize and you'd know exactly right away what I was talking about, even if you didn't know the Bible very well. It's not a book that people read very often, but yet it's important enough to where here in the book of Jude, when false prophets are being mentioned, it says, woe unto them for they've gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and are perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Two out of three of those false prophets are found in the book of Numbers. That's where you'll find the story of Korah. That's where you'll find the story of Balaam. So God is referencing us back in the New Testament, back to the book of Numbers, to these Bible stories. Now the reason why a lot of people have not read the book of Numbers is that it's a pretty difficult book to read. It might even be one of the hardest books to read just because it has a lot of dry sections in it. Plus a lot of people, they start out January 1st and they're reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. They kind of slow down in Leviticus and that's where people tend to peter out. I know when I was a very young child, I attempted to read the whole Bible when I was, I don't know, maybe 12 or something like that. And I got through Leviticus and then I petered out at the beginning of Numbers, you know, right around the end of Leviticus, beginning of Numbers, somewhere in there. I had this plan. I was going to read 15 chapters a day. I got two days behind and I just couldn't read 45 chapters in Numbers and Deuteronomy. So instead of doing the smart thing and just, you know, pushing back my goal a few days, I just threw in the towel like a fool. But later when I was 17, 18 years old, I ended up, thank God, finishing and reading the whole Bible cover to cover. But I should have read it back when I was a child when I first started. And you know what? Today, the problem in Christianity, the problem in Christianity today, people are not reading the Bible. If people were reading the Bible, we would not be having the problems that we're having right now. All the stupidity, all the foolishness, all the weird doctrine that goes on, it's because people don't know the Bible. And so whatever garbage is served up from the eye of the pulpit, they just eat it up with fork and spoon because they don't know the Bible. I mean, it's just so important. God's people today are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And you know what? If you asked me doctrinal questions when I was a teenager, I would have given you all kinds of stupid answers because I hadn't read the Bible cover to cover. You know, you've got to read the whole book. And so that includes the book of Numbers. And the book of Numbers is probably a point where a lot of people get lost. And the purpose of giving a sermon that gives you an overview is so that you don't feel lost when you read these books. You know, sometimes when you're reading, you might get bogged down or stuck and you don't really even know what the story is about, what's going on. So sometimes it's good to kind of back up and get an overview so that you can kind of see the forest for the trees and understand the big picture of what's going on in the Bible. Then when you read it, it'll make more sense to you and you can understand the context of what you're reading. But I'm telling you, people today do not know the Bible. I just saw a clip that somebody posted of some goofball preacher. And he was basically giving a two or three minute video about why it doesn't matter what you wear. What clothes you wear just don't matter. Just wear whatever. And he said, I can't believe how preachers and churches, they're telling people what kind of clothes to wear. Who cares? It doesn't matter. And this is what this foolish preacher said. He said, the only time Jesus mentioned clothing was when he said, take no thought what you shall wear. Now look, anybody who's read the Bible just knows that that's a bold faced lie because there are other teachings that Christ gave on clothing. What about when he rebuked the Pharisees for their clothing? He talked about them going in the long robes and going to the long clothing. Oh, it doesn't matter because this guy says something that sounds good and people just eat it up. Oh, that's true. That's the only thing Jesus said about clothing. You know what? Jesus had other teachings on clothing. If you actually read the whole Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll find Jesus talking about those that wear soft clothing or ends King's houses. Is that what you expected John the Baptist to be wearing? Soft clothing? You know, no, he's wearing a rough garment. Look, we could talk about other teachings of Christ. Plus, whenever you hear people say, well, Jesus didn't mention it, it just shows they don't understand that the whole word of God is of Christ. You know, Jesus Christ said, think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. So you can't just get up and teach people to break the commandments that tell you, for example, that men should dress like men and women should dress like women. And that's usually the one that bugs them the most. That's the one they want to get rid of. Oh, Jesus didn't mention that. Yeah, he did when he said, teach them to follow the least commandment. Yeah, follow that commandment of a man, Meagan, men's clothing and women being in women's clothing that matters. But according to this foolish preacher, oh, that doesn't matter. Just wear whatever you want. Well, if a dude comes in, in woman's apparel, should we just say, hey, wear whatever you want? Jesus didn't mention it. Well, does Jesus just have to restate everything? No. But the reason people get sucked in by this smooth sounding preaching that's just kind of a permissive, do whatever you want kind of preaching is because they don't know the Bible. See, when I heard that preacher, other verses were jumping into my mind where Jesus mentioned clothing. This is about Christ establishing the teachings of the Old Testament or flooding into my mind. If you know the Bible, these things will come into your mind. You're not going to be led away with false doctrine like that. And that's just one, that's just a random example that I just happened to see this morning. But we could come up with hundreds or thousands of examples of false doctrines that are really easy to debunk if you read the Bible. So we want to make sure that we all read the Bible so that we're not led astray. The book of Numbers is a great book to be reading. Don't bail on the book of Numbers. It's one of those books that starts out rough, but when you get into it, it actually has some of the coolest stories and some of the most exciting passages. So let's jump into an overview of the book of Numbers. If you want to flip in your Bible back to Numbers chapter 8, just to kind of be ready there. But I'm just going to start talking to you about what the book of Numbers is about. Now first of all, before I get into the specific chapters, let me just explain that this book is part of the books of Moses, or the law of Moses. So there are five books that Moses wrote, and they're the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And so when we talk about the law, or the book of the law, that's what we're talking about, those five books. Jews and Judaizers will call this the Torah, because they don't speak English, but it's law. The Torah is just another language for law, right? So it's the books of the law, or the books of Moses, is what that's called. So Genesis obviously tells about the creation of the earth all the way up through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants going down into Egypt, right? Then Exodus, what does the word Exodus mean? It means they're leaving, right? Exodus is them leaving Egypt, Moses, the plagues, Pharaoh, the Red Sea, all that. So Exodus gets them out of Egypt. Well, the thing about Leviticus is Leviticus is not really a storybook. Leviticus is mainly just laws. It has very little story in it, very little. It's just a lot of laws. So the story is kind of on pause in the book of Leviticus. So Exodus gets them out of the wilderness, I'm sorry, excuse me. Exodus gets them out of Egypt, it gets them to Mount Sinai, they get the Ten Commandments, they get the laws of God. Numbers is where we kind of pick up the story from where Exodus left off, we pick it up in Numbers. So Numbers is where they end up offending God, not being allowed to go into the Promised Land, and wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. So Numbers covers them basically messing up and the 40 years that they spend wandering in the wilderness as a result. That's pretty much the subject matter of the book of Numbers in a nutshell. The overview is that it's that period of the wanderings in the wilderness between Mount Sinai and them going into the Promised Land. And then when you get to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy is a recap of everything that's happened and he just gives different details and so forth. Because the word Deuteronomy literally means second law. Deutero means second, the nami at the end means law. It's a second law because it's basically Moses is just kind of giving a recap of everything and telling the whole story from a different angle and giving a lot of laws from different angles and adding in different details and things that were left out. And that's what the Bible often does, doesn't it? The Bible often gives us things two times, three times, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. So Deuteronomy is a recap. So the story books are pretty much Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and then that pretty much leads into Joshua. That's kind of how the story would go. Leviticus and Deuteronomy are kind of just plugged in there with more laws, more information, a little bit of a recap. So let's get into some of these chapters here. So chapters 1 through 3 of Numbers, this is the rough patch right at the beginning where God's just counting the people. I mean, this is where it gets its name, Numbers, all right? Because it's just a lot of names of people and the numbers associated with those different families, how many people were in this tribe, how many people were in that tribe. Now when people get to these lists of names, they tend to kind of speed read over these. Some people I've even talked to said, oh, I just skip those. When I see a chapter that's a list of names, I just skip it right away. Now here's why that's a bad idea. Number one, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. But number two, I can honestly tell you right now that I do the exact opposite. When I get to a chapter that is a list of names, I do not speed up and speed read. I literally slow down and I read it out loud every time. Anytime it's a list of names, I read it out loud. And you say, why would you do that? Because reading lists of names out loud will make you a great reader. It will improve your reading skills. Now I just, over the past couple of weeks, I read the whole book of Numbers in Spanish. And obviously my Spanish is not as good as my English. And so as I read the whole book of Numbers in Spanish, I read all those names out loud in the book of Numbers using Spanish pronunciation to improve my Spanish reading. Now why is this important? Because the right way to read is phonetically, right? You read using phonics. And what I mean by that is that you sound out the letters in the word. There's another type of reading instruction out there that's sometimes known as the see and say method, I think, or I don't know what they call it these days. But it's a method where you'll see people where they look at a word and they kind of just learn to recognize that word. Not looking at each letter in the word and sounding it out, but they just kind of see the word and they'll recognize it. And when people learn to read with that faulty reading method, a lot of times they'll end up sort of guessing at words. They'll see a few letters and just sort of guess at what the word says. And when you hear these people read out loud, sometimes they struggle to read publicly and they'll get a lot of words wrong. They'll make a lot of mistakes. Now anybody who reads out loud is going to make mistakes because we're human and especially when you get up in front of people, you get nervous and you freeze up, your mind doesn't work right and you make mistakes. But when you see somebody making a mistake on every other verse as they read the Bible publicly, you know, it's probably time to get somebody else to get up there and read the Bible who's going to do it correctly. And as a preacher, especially you guys who want to preach someday or being trained to preach, it's pretty important that you learn how to read publicly because you're going to lose credibility in people's minds if you're constantly misreading, if you're constantly making mistakes, that's going to really bother people. So you want to be able to read publicly correctly and of course no one's going to be perfect, but you want to have the best skills possible. Well, one of the best ways to learn to read phonetically is to read the Bible because you're not going to see and say method those names. Think about that. How can you just look at those names and see and say, you don't recognize these names because the names are the craziest names, some of them that are foreign to us, they're not English type names. And so when you read down a list like this and you actually sound it out, you're actually training your brain to read phonetically by reading difficult names out loud. And if you really want to practice this, 1 Chronicles 1 through 9, buddy, dig in. 1 Chronicles 1 through 9 is your reading lesson. So you know, it's just kind of a list of names and numbers. Consider this an exercise for your brain. Consider this an exercise in reading out loud. Consider it an exercise in self-discipline. You know, maybe God makes you plow through some difficult chapters before he finds you worthy to get the hidden manna that's later in the book. You know, have a little character, have an attention span to dig in and sit down and have the character to do something hard. We all need to do hard things in life to build character and self-discipline. And one of those things is to read the Bible and not to just read the fun books but to get into numbers and plow through it and read it out loud. And you know, another good thing about reading it out loud is that you don't lose your train of thought. I don't normally read the Bible out loud. But when I get to chapters that are specifically boring, tedious, or a lot of names, I read those out loud just to help me focus on what I'm doing and to practice my out loud reading skills. Now you say, I don't know how to pronounce these names. Just pronounce them. Just sound them out. You know, or if you listen to an audio Bible, don't listen to some goofball who pronounces everything wrong. But you know, if you listen to an audio Bible, like I grew up listening to Alexander Scorby reading the Old Testament and I mean he pronounces the names right. I think that's the official pronunciation. Also if you get a self-pronouncing Bible where sometimes Bibles will have like little phonetic markers written in like short sounds, long sounds, accent marks, Alexander Scorby reads it exactly as the self-pronouncing Bible. So the way he reads it and the way it is in the self-pronouncing Bible, they jive. So that's one way that you can learn good pronunciations. But at least even if you pronounce them wrong, I mean who knows how they were really pronounced back then anyway, right? Amen? But just as long as you're sounding out the right consonants, making the right sounds, you're training your brain how to read better. And if we were to go around the room right now to all, you know, 200 some odd people and have everybody stand up and read out loud. Some people would be good at reading out loud and some people would struggle. And there'd be all different levels in between so we should all work on our skills in that area so that we could be used by God to read the Bible, preach and learn more. So that's a good reason to read even the difficult chapters. So chapters one through three, he's counting all the different families of the tribes and giving their numbers. Then in chapter four, he goes through the Levites and all their different jobs and he counts them for a while. Then in chapter five, we get into some laws. So in chapter five, he gives the laws on leprosy and how the lepers need to be put out of the camp. And he also goes into a dissertation on husbands who suspect their wife of committing adultery. You know, how to fix that problem if she really did commit adultery or if they just suspect her of committing adultery. It goes through that in chapter five. Then in chapter six, we have the chapter on the Nazarite vow. So again, more laws and I already preached about that recently. Chapter seven is a rough chapter. Chapter seven goes through the 12 tribes and they each bring this gift unto the Lord. But here's the thing, they're all bringing the exact same gift. But yet it lists each of the 12 gifts separately. And so it's just over and over, very repetitive. But chapter seven builds character. Chapter eight is where we get into the service of the Levites that they do in the tabernacle. So look, we're eight chapters in and there's no story yet. But the stories are coming. There are a lot of cool stories, but you got to plow through some of this stuff. Now I found something interesting in chapter eight that I had never really noticed before. In chapter eight about the Levites and the service that they do in the tabernacle. Look at verse 23. And this just shows you can read the Bible scores of times and you're always learning new things. And this kind of jumped out at me the last time I was reading it. Numbers 8 23 says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This is it that belongeth unto the Levites. From twenty and five years old and upward, they shall go into wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. And from the age of fifty years, they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and they shall serve no more. Now stop right there. What do we mean by this? The service of the congregation, of the tabernacle of the congregation rather, has to do with the actual literal offering of offerings unto the Lord, the burning of incense. So basically the official service unto the Lord of worshiping the Lord in the prescribed ways that they did under the old covenant. And the men who participated in that specific action were from 25 years old until 50 years old. Okay. But what is interesting is in verse 26, because it says they're not going to serve anymore when they're 50. But then it says, But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation to keep the charge and shall do no service, thus shalt thou do unto the Levites, touching their charge. So here's what I took away from this in my personal Bible reading, was that when they turn 50, they don't just go play golf somewhere. They don't just retire somewhere and do nothing. They still have a purpose. They still have a function, even though their role changes. Okay. Instead of being the guy who's right there in the tabernacle, involved in the services themselves, the worship services themselves, now it says they minister with their brethren. So what does it mean to minister? It's another type of servant. It's not the official service, but what does it mean? It means they're helping. So basically, they step down and they become a helper, which would take humility, right? To become now second fiddle when you turn 50. But they still have work to do. They still have ministry to perform when they're 50. But not only that, it tells us what else they do. It says to keep the charge. Now what does that mean, to keep the charge? That has to do with basically, they are on like a watch duty, a sentry duty. Charge is like guarding the place. You understand what I'm saying? So basically, they have a job to watch out and to supervise in a sense and make sure that things go. So this shows us that those who are older, okay, they still have work to do for the Lord. Now we see in this book of Numbers and in Exodus and Joshua, evidence of men of God doing great works much older than 50. For example, Moses himself was 80 years old when he brought the people out of Egypt. Moses and Aaron were both over 80 years old. And then not only that, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he goes in in the book of Joshua and fights his greatest battles when he's 85 years old. And he says, hey, even though I'm 85, as my strength was then, so it is now. Both to go out and to come in, I mean, he wants that mountain where the fiercest enemy is. And if he's 85, he's going to go fight that battle. So there's work to do. But we need, today in our churches, we need some men over 50 to be there in the ministry serving God. Now they may or may not be able to do all the things that they could do when they're younger, because different people age differently. How they took care of themselves or just, you know, genetics, I'm sure, play a role. And so, you know, there are going to be different levels of activity, but, you know, we don't need elderly people to just check out of God's work and just say, oh, I did that when I was younger. I went soul winning when I was younger. No, no, no, stay in the battle until the end, all the way until the finish line. And if you're retired, you might even have more time to serve God, because you might have extra time. And you can go out soul winning. You can go out, and plus, you can keep the charge. It ought to be the older people who are watching for the heresy and watching for the contemporary garbage to come in. Sadly today in Arizona, the elderly are more liberal than the young people. It's a shame. And even in churches today, the elderly are usually more liberal than the young people. That's a tragedy. They should be keeping the charge. I mean, they should be the ones saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, what's this thing about bringing in the homos? You know, they should be at the door keeping the charge like, uh-uh, no way. You know, we need some old man to stand up to this newfangled garbage, this contemporary junk, this watered down liberal doctrine. You know, you'd expect the old timers who grew up in a time when this country was a lot more decent than it is now, wouldn't you expect them to be there to keep the charge? Well, you know what? Maybe if they read the book in Numbers, they'd understand, hey, my ministry is not over when I turn 50. My ministry continues, and in fact, I want to keep the charge. I'm going to keep the charge. That's what we ought to be doing when we get older. Go to chapter 9. Chapter 9 covers the Passover, and it also covers the cloudy pillar. Now this is pretty interesting. God, if you remember in the book of Exodus, brings up the subject about the cloudy pillar by day and the pillar of fire by night. And this represented the presence of God. And whenever the cloudy pillar would move, that's how the children of Israel knew that they were supposed to move their camp. So they were literally led on their wanderings through the wilderness by God himself. And the Bible tells us that no matter how long the clouds stayed in one place, that's where they stayed. So over 40 years, they would stay somewhere until the cloud started moving. And then when the cloud moved, they'd say, all right, we're moving. Let's go. And even if it moved in the middle of the night, they'd get everybody up in the middle of the night and be like, all right, time to start moving. You know, that's part of their punishment is that they have to keep wandering. OK. Now look what it says. It's pretty interesting. It says in verse 15, and on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, chapter 9, verse 17, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony. And at evening, even it says, it's evening, and at even there was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning. So it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. So it wasn't literal fire, but it appeared like fire. It looked like fire. And it says in verse 17, and when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that, the children of Israel journeyed. And in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord, the children of Israel journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord, they pitched. As long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle, many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and journeyed not. And so now there's that word again, keeping the charge. What does it mean? They're making sure that they do it right. And that's what the elderly people need to do, right? Make sure that things are done right. Because you remember how it was 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago. And so that's what elders in the church can do for a church, is to provide maturity, stability, and the wisdom that only comes with age. But sadly, our church has very few older people in it, because they're all down at the liberal fun center, and they're not keeping any kind of charge down there. But the Bible says here, because like I said, they're more liberal than the young people in most cases. But thank God for the older people we do have, amen. And it says that they kept the charge of the Lord, meaning they went when He told them to go, and they journeyed not. And so it was when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle, according to the commandment of the Lord, they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord, they journeyed. And so it was when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, that they journeyed. Whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days or a month or a year that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents and journeyed not. But when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord, they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord, they journeyed. They kept the charge of the Lord at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. Now one thing that I know some people have been thrown off when they read this passage that kind of throws them for a loop is chapter 9, verse 22, okay. Because in chapter 9, verse 22, it says, you know, whether it was two days, a month, or a year, so some people will confusedly get the idea that like more than a year went by in this chapter. But that's not what happened, okay. Because this chapter is just speaking in general terms about the whole time they're wandering, this is what it was like. Because in a few chapters, they're going to get to the edge of the promised land, and they're not going to get to go in because of their unbelief. Well, that's less than a year after they left Egypt, okay. This is just a verse that's speaking in generality, so don't let that confuse you. Okay, so then chapter 10 is talking about how they're supposed to make two trumpets and when they're supposed to blow those trumpets to sound the alarm and to call them to battle and so forth. And then it goes through a list of names again, right, you practice your reading, who's in charge of each tribe. And then Moses tells his father-in-law he doesn't want him to leave, he wants him to come to the promised land with them. Okay, now chapter 11 is where you really start to get into the stories, okay. So if you can plow through the first 10 chapters of laws and numbers and names, chapter 11 is where the book of Numbers really picks up. This is where you start getting into the stories, okay. And in chapter 11, it starts out in verse 1, when the people complained, it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. So there's a lot of great teaching packed into that one verse. First of all, when we complain, that displeases the Lord, number one. Number one, whining, murmuring, complaining, bad attitude, unthankful, covetous. And not only that, when we complain, the Lord hears it. Even if we're not talking to him, even if we complain to our mom, complain to our dad, complain to our husband, wife, whatever, co-workers, boss. If we're just whining and having a bad attitude, you know, God hears that and he gets angry. He gets mad and his fiery wrath is kindled. And not only that, but it says that the Lord burned up and consumed those that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. What does that mean? That means they were on the edges. They were on the outskirts. They're the furthest away from church, right? Because the tabernacle is there and, you know, the camp is there and everybody's... The people that are on the uttermost parts are the people who are like the stragglers. They're not with the main group. They're not with the main church in the wilderness. They're kind of just hanging out on the edges. They're kind of the fringe people that have one foot in the world and one foot with the people of God. And you know, that's where you get burned. Get all the way in, right? Get all the way in. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, soul winning, reading your Bible, praying, you know, get all the way. Don't be half in, half out. That's where you get burned when you're on that outermost part of the camp. It says in verse 2, the people cried unto Moses and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. So again, Moses is interceding for the people there. And they called the name of the place Tabara because the fire of the Lord burnt among them. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. That's a mixture of Israelites and other nationalities that they picked up in Egypt that just kind of came along with them for the ride. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? So notice, who was it that fell a lusting? The mixed multitude. But then what's the result? The children of Israel also wept again. So the children of Israel are whining, God gets mad and they get burned up. They're like, we're sorry. And then Moses prays for them and it's fixed. Now the mixed multitude pipes up and then what happens? They're a bad influence on Israel. Next thing you know, Israel's whining again, in trouble again. So another thing we can learn from that is, you know, we need to be careful who we hang around, heathens. Now obviously it's not the fact that these people were of a mixed nationality that's the problem. You know, sorry white supremacists. That's not the issue. Because anybody of any color of skin could have joined the nation of Israel by getting circumcised and keeping the Passover. And the Bible says you shall have one law for the stranger and for him that's born in the land. And that once they joined the nation of Israel, they inherited with the children of Israel. And it even says that whatever tribe they live among, they become part of that tribe. They join that tribe. But what we see here is a spiritual mixed multitude today. It's when we're hanging around with the unsaved, the unbelievers and making them our best buddies, they can be a bad influence on us. So we need to be careful getting too close to worldly people. And you know what's even worse than hanging around with unsaved people is hanging around with backslidden Christians. You're better off hanging around with just fully unsaved, just fully non-Christian people than backslidden Christians. Because backslidden Christians, man, they want to drag you down with them and get you involved in their sin. So because of all this whining and complaining, Moses gets frustrated. You know, and it's like this for any leader. You know, if parents have to listen to their kids complaining, they get really frustrated, right? If all the church complained, then the pastor could get frustrated. If all the workers are complaining, it's going to frustrate the boss, right? Wives that are complaining, nagging all the time, that's going to drive their husband nuts, right? It's better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, the Bible says, than with the contentious woman with the continual dropping like a Chinese water torture or Japanese or whatever Asian water torture. Somebody over there in Asia came up with some weird tortures about dropping water on your forehead. And I don't know which one it was. Anybody know? Chinese? All right. Let's pin it on them then. All right. So it wasn't Korean. We know that much. It was a Chinese water torture, all right? So anyway, basically, Moses is just frustrated. He can't handle it. All the whining, all the complaining, there's nothing worse as a leader. So in verse 14, he says, I'm not able to bear all these people alone because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I found favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness. He's basically saying to God, look, God, do me a favor and kill me, right? Because he's just like, shut these people up. And you know what? That should show you how annoying complaining is. It makes leaders want to die. It makes them want to be killed by God because they just can't handle it. So that should show you. Think twice before you just whine, oatmeal again, kill me now. So it's annoying. Are we there yet on a long drive, right? The complaining, the whining, it's bad. So he gets help, right? And so God advises him to recruit 70 elders to help out with the burden. So there are 70 men, and God anoints these men with the Holy Spirit, and they end up being Moses' deputies to help him lead the people. He needs these 70 elders. And it's kind of a foreshadowing, too, of Christ ordaining 70 apostles in the book of Luke. So he gets help there. Now when we get to chapter 12, the story continues. Because remember, chapters 1 through 10, not really a story. But in chapter 11 onward, the story picks up. So in chapter 11, we have God burning people up. People are complaining. The 70 elders are ordained. All that story. Chapter 12, Miriam and Aaron, they speak against Moses. And they get in trouble with God. And here's what they said. Well, it says in verse 1, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. So what are they trying to do? They're trying to usurp some of his authority. They're trying to say, well, Moses isn't the leader that he's cracked up to be. What's he doing marrying an Ethiopian woman? Why is he marrying a black woman? What's up with that? And again, the Bible is not against interracial marriage. The Bible's not about race or color. The Bible's about being the people of God or not the people of God. So there's no evidence that Moses did anything wrong here. Presumably, his other wife has passed away. There's no record of when she died. But I'm assuming that his other wife passed away. And so he's marrying a new wife. For whatever reason, wants to marry this Ethiopian woman. That's what he does. And God doesn't condemn it. God doesn't say anything about it. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong here. Now, I've heard the white supremacist types try to say, well, that wasn't really an Ethiopian woman. Well, the Bible says it was. Right. So how can you sit there and explain this away? But they say, well, it was just an Israelite woman that was born in Ethiopia. Well, then it wouldn't call her an Ethiopian. She's obviously an Ethiopian woman. And plus, if she was just an Israelite woman living in Ethiopia, why does family get so mad about it? They obviously, whatever the reason, they're offended by something about this woman. And the Bible doesn't just randomly tell us she's Ethiopian unless that's what offended them. The fact that she's an Ethiopian. Because it says that because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. It gives us that fact. And then it even repeats it. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. Hey, did I mention you married an Ethiopian? So then it's like, oh, man, that must matter. Now, Ethiopians today, they're not that black today. I've been to Ethiopia on a layover twice. So I've been to the airport in Ethiopia. Well, look, when I was on the airplane flying to Ethiopia on Ethiopian Airlines, I thought that all the stewardesses were all sisters because they looked so similar to one another. I thought, like, is this a group of sisters that all work together as stewardesses? Because they looked. But then I got to the airport in Ethiopia and I saw that's what Ethiopian people look like. They all have a certain look to them, right? And they don't just look like a typical black person that you would see in America. Or they don't look the same as people you would see in Botswana or other parts of Africa or Nigeria. They have a very distinct look, Ethiopian people. And so I saw hundreds of Ethiopian people on those flights. And I realized, OK, this is what Ethiopians look like. And they're not very dark at all. They're actually pretty light skinned. But in the Bible, the Bible acts like they're pretty dark because it talks about the Ethiopian changing the color of his skin. So it's referring to the Ethiopians as being black people in the Bible. But nowadays, by African standards, they're pretty light skinned. Now, here's why. Because over the last few thousand years, they've become intermarried with other nationalities. Like, I believe that the Italians came in there and brought in a lot of Italian DNA. Also, the Arabs have been through there. There's been a lot of Islamic influence through there. So that's just a great lesson, how the ethnicity of a people can kind of change over time. The Ethiopians, a few thousand years ago, were black. Whereas now, they've become lightened up in their color. I think that's pretty obvious from reading the Bible and then looking at them now. Just goes to show you that thousands of years later, we're all so mixed anyway. And when I got my DNA checked, I had all kinds of DNA from all kinds of different races. And I got my parents' DNA checked. And look, by the way, let me just throw this out there. These DNA tests that tell you what percentage you are, not a legit DNA test. So don't use those to debunk DNA. Because anything that's telling you a percentage is fake because of the fact. How can you tell a percentage from DNA? Because all of us, we inherit different genes from our parents. I got my DNA tested, and my brother got his DNA tested. Well, guess what? Our results are different because we're not the same. So he might have picked up more of the Swedish genes than I got, even though we're both Andersons. He got more of that. I might have got more of something else. So our DNA results, if you put them side by side, we had all the same nationalities. Because obviously, we have the same ancestors. But we had different things. At the top of my list was more like the Spanish DNA, was toward the top of mine. Where he had it, but it was down lower. He had other things toward the top. I think the Scandinavian stuff was more at the top. So the point is that they can't give you a percentage. They can't tell you you're this percent this or this percent that. If you look at those results, they look pretty silly. What they can tell you is just which nationalities you resemble the most. So they looked at my DNA. And they said, hey, if we compare your DNA to people all over the world, your DNA looks the most like a Moroccan Berber. That was my number one result. Now, Moroccan Berbers are white people who live in Morocco in North Africa, right across from Spain. So I had a lot of Spanish and Moroccan Berber there. I went online and just Google imaged Moroccan Berbers. And I guess they kind of looked a little bit like me or whatever. But the point is that they can't tell you you're this percent this or this percent that. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's just not the way it works. And we talked to the people who pioneered these DNA science tests for our film, Marching Design. And they explained it to us for hours. And we read up on it for the movie. And I also talked to people that I know that have degrees in genetics and everything. And so I learned a lot about it. And Marching Design is a great film, amen? Let's get back on track here. So number chapter 12, they're mad that he married the Ethiopian woman. But notice, they don't come at him like, hey, why did you marry an Ethiopian? That's not what they bring up. What do they actually bring up? Well, you know, God spoke by us too, not just you. So a lot of times when people come at you and attack you, that's not the real reason why they're mad. People will get mad at you about something. And then they'll just find any excuse to attack you. And it's not always what they're attacking you for that's really making them mad. Sometimes it's something else that may. Because when people are mad at you, they'll find everything else wrong with you at that point. So what they say doesn't really match what God says they're problem with. See, God knows all things. And he says, hey, it was because he married that Ethiopian. That's what's got them so mad. But that's not what they say. Because maybe they don't want to come out with that and offend people and offend all the other Ethiopians or whatever that are with them. So anyway, God ends up punishing Miriam by smiting her with leprosy. I mean, he's like, hey, since you're so into being white, I'll make you real white. So she became leprous, like white with leprosy, like snow white. He made her real white. So then, obviously, Moses intercedes for her again. And basically, God says, well, he's going to heal her. But she has to suffer with that for a week. And she had to be put outside the camp for a week as a punishment. And then a week later, she's healed of her leprosy. And she comes back in. That's a pretty interesting story. I mean, it's not a boring chapter. I mean, chapter 11 is a pretty exciting chapter. Chapter 12 is a pretty exciting chapter. Then chapter 13 is pretty exciting. Chapter 13 is where God had them send out spies just to plan their attack of Canaan, just to do reconnaissance and figure out, OK, how are we going to do this? It'd be sort of like when we send out Brother Segura to plan some soul winning for us. And he might check it out and figure out the maps. And he prepares the soul winning plan. Or let's say I drive out to an Indian reservation. And I plan, like, OK, here's how we're going to do this trip to the Indian reservation. That's what they were supposed to be doing, recon. But what they end up deciding to do is, let's go spy it out and see whether we're going to do it or not. Now, that wasn't what God told them to do. They weren't supposed to go see whether they're going to do it or not. They're supposed to just do it because God told them to do it. They're supposed to just figure out how they're going to do it. But they go in there. And of course, there were the 12 spies, 10 were bad, and two were good. Who sang that song in Sunday school when you were a kid? 12 men went to spy on Canaan, 10 were bad, and two were good. What do you think they saw? Canaan, 10 were bad, two were good. Some saw John, it's big and tall. Some saw grapes on cluster's log. Some saw God was in it all, 10 were bad, and two were good. You keep going faster and faster and faster. So the 10 spies, they come back and they bring up an evil report saying, oh, we can't do it. It's too hard. There's giants in the land. And then Caleb and Joshua, the two good spies, they step up and say, we can do this. God's with us. Look what he's already done for us. We've already defeated other enemies. We crossed the Red Sea, for crying out loud. But the voice of the 10 prevails over the voice of the two. So the children of Israel, they whine. And they say, hey, let's make a captain. Let's go back to Egypt. And of course, God's infuriated that they won't go into the promised land because they're unbelief. So God ends up killing the 10 bad spies. They all just fall over dead of a plague. So when the people see that, they're like, whoa, that's pretty weird that those 10 guys all died. So then they repent. And they say, all right, we're ready to go into the promised land. Well, sorry, too late. You guys are wandering for 40 years until you all die. And your children will go into the promised land. So he says, everybody from 20 years old and upward is going to die before they can go into the promised land. And the only two exceptions are going to be Caleb and Joshua. So they went in in their 80s because they were faithful to the Lord. Everybody else was like 60 years old and younger that went into the promised land. So that happens in chapter 13. And chapter 14, they try to go into the land even though God told them no. They end up getting wiped out. What's interesting is that we have the stories in 11, 12, 13, and 14. Then all of a sudden in chapter 15, he just starts telling them about, OK, these are the burnt offerings you're going to give to me when we get into the promised land. What's funny about that is he just told them, you're not going to the promised land. You're going to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness. But then he comes right off of that into chapter 15 telling them about the offerings and sacrifices that they're going to do once they get to the land. And what I believe God's saying there is, look, just because you don't get to enter the promised land, your children will. Let's start preparing them for how they're going to do it when they get in the land so that they can do it right. And I did a whole sermon on that a few weeks ago called Plan B for Your Life on that particular story. OK, so then chapter 16, the stories continue. Chapter 16 is the story about the gainsaying of Korah. And I'd love to park it on that for a while, but we're running low on time tonight. But the gainsaying of Korah is what's brought up in the book of Jude. And in number 16, similar to Aaron and Miriam's complaints, Korah attacks Moses' authority and says, hey, we're all holy. We should all be in charge. And this is a spirit that we see today in a lot of churches where they don't want to have a pastor. They don't want to have a leader. They bristle at any kind of authority because we're all equal or whatever. And they don't understand that there are certain people that need to lead and that need to make decisions and be an elder or a bishop or a pastor. So that happens in chapter 16. Then in chapter 16, when they do that, God ends up opening a chasm of the earth. And Korah and Datham and Abiram and all their company end up literally going alive into the pit, the Bible tells us. And God talks about how this is a unique thing. God's going to make a new thing where he opens up the earth. And these guys are going to descend into hell. Now, presumably, they died on the way down. But he literally opened up a chasm and they dropped into hell, into the earth. So that's a pretty cool story in chapter 16. It's pretty dramatic, right? Then in chapter 17, he reiterates Moses and Aaron's authority where they all take a rod, right? And then Aaron's, they put out the rods. And then the next morning, Aaron's rod budded. And it sprouted leaves and produced almonds and flowers. So then Aaron's rod that budded was God's sign that he's chosen the tribe of Levi to be the spiritual leaders. And then that ends up going into the Ark of the Covenant, right? Aaron's rod that budded. Chapter 18 just gets more into the duties of the Levites and the things that they're going to do. Chapter 19 gives laws about purifying things that are unclean. So chapter 20, Miriam dies just of old age. I mean, they're getting old at that point. And then this is where Moses is supposed to speak to the rock, but he ends up smiting it twice. And then God tells him you're not going to get to go into the promised land. Aaron dies in chapter 20. Chapter 21 is the story about the fiery serpents where they have to make a brazen serpent and put it on a pole. Everybody who looks at the serpent is saved. And the Bible refers to that in John chapter 3 when it says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish by a eternal life. That's a great picture of salvation. Look and live. Look and live. Now, oh, I forgot, they also have to repent of all their sins. They also had to get baptized. They also had to do a lot of works. They also had to continue faithful unto the end. No, no, no. All they had to do, I mean, that's easy believism, amen? All you have to do is look at it. I mean, how hard is it just to look at something? They just had to look at the braids. And that's a picture that you just have to believe to be saved. Look to Jesus now and live. It's like the song says, the song in the hymnal, Look and Live, that's based on that story. I will tell you how I came, hallelujah, to Jesus when he made me whole. It was believing on his name, hallelujah, I trusted and he saved my soul. Look and live, my brother, look to Jesus now and live. How is it recorded? It is recorded in his word, hallelujah. It is only that you look and live. And the book of Numbers is recorded and in John chapter 3. So that's a pretty powerful story about the fiery serpents in chapter 21. Then chapters 22 through 24 take us through the story of Balaam. The story of Balaam is pretty interesting because it's a story that I don't know about you, but it had me scratching my head the first many times I read it. It's a difficult story to understand by itself. Other parts of the Bible explain it. But when you read it by itself, it's a little tough to understand. And it's one of those things that it went over my head the first several times I read it. Because I didn't understand why God wanted to kill Balaam when he tells Balaam he can go with him. But then when he gets up to go with him, it says that God sent an angel to kill Balaam because he went with him. I thought you said it was OK for him to go. But if you read that story really carefully, it makes sense. And then when you compare other scripture in Deuteronomy and especially in the book of Jude, 2 Peter chapter 2, and Revelation chapter 2, it makes sense. Let me just give it to you real quick in a nutshell. What it was was that Balaam was the kind of guy where he's offering spiritual services for money. And God holds this guy up as a rotten example in 2 Peter 2. He says that Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness. And it says that these false prophets are like Balaam. They want to get paid. So Balaam was a guy where people would pay him to bless them or pay for him to curse somebody. So Balak, the bad king, goes to Balaam and says, well, hey, I know that whoever you bless is blessed. And whoever you curse is cursed. So I want you to curse the children of Israel because they're my enemies. Well, the problem is the Lord's with the children of Israel. He's not with the heathen Midianites and the Moabites. So basically, Balaam goes to God and says, hey, God, is it all right if I go with it? And he says, no, don't go with those guys. God basically tells Balaam, do not curse them. Because he said, I'm blessing Israel. Israel are my people. I'm among them. They're doing right. And so no, do not curse them. So Balaam comes back and tells him, sorry, guys, I can't do it. So God told me no. Doesn't matter how much money you pay me. See, some people get hung up on that, and they think, oh, what a noble guy there. Because he won't take the money. Because he says, no, I'm not interested. I'm not going to do it. But here's what happens. They come back again later, and they ask him to do it again. And you know what he should have done at that point? He should have said, look, what part of no don't you understand here? It's wrong. It's sin. I'm not going to do it. But he's like, OK, I'm going to go ask God again. What's up with that? Think about that. But then also, when God answered him, he says, if they call for you, go. Next verse, he just gets up and goes. So that's what it was. He didn't wait for them to call him. He's just like, score. I get to go do this. And then he's like, OK, well, if they call you, go. And then he just goes without getting called. While he's on his way there, the angel comes to kill Balaam. And Balaam's ass, God allows Balaam's ass or donkey to see the angel that Balaam can't see. So the donkey basically is like jamming his foot into the rocks, because he's trying to get the donkey to go forward, and it won't go forward. So he's whipping it and beating it. And finally, the thing crushes Balaam's foot against the wall. And Balaam gets so mad, he starts yelling at the ass and saying, you know, if I had a sword in my hand, I'd kill you right now. And then God literally opens the mouth of the ass, and it begins to talk to Balaam. I mean, that's a pretty fascinating. I'm telling you, Numbers has some cool stories. If you can get through all those names, it's a fascinating book. And the funny thing is how Balaam just responds back. To me, the fact that the ass speaks is not the amazing part. The amazing part is just Balaam's conversation with it. It's kind of mind-blowing. But this is referenced in the New Testament, where it says, the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. So what does it say? Balaam is crazy. And what's he crazy about? He's crazy about making money. Now, sure, he refuses to curse Israel for one reason. Because there's an angel coming to kill him. And because God says, you better tell them exactly what I tell you, or I'm going to kill you. So then he says all the right things that God tells him to say, but his heart is what? After money. So even though he's saying and doing the right things outwardly, in his heart, he wants to do wrong. He wants to make the money. He wants to do it wrong. And so what he ends up doing, according to Revelation, it says that Balaam taught them to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. So basically, he can't pronounce a curse on them. But what he can do is get them to sin. And then by getting them to sin, they're going to be cursed. So he found a backdoor way to curse the children of Israel. And for his sin, he is slaughtered by the children of Israel, which is mentioned later on in the book and also in Joshua, where they killed Balaam. And it calls him Balaam the soothsayer. So Balaam's a bad guy. Super interesting story. Numbers 22 through 24 deal with Balaam. Chapter 25 is where they get into the fornication and idolatry. It doesn't mention Balaam, but Revelation tells us that he was the one behind the scenes there that made that happen in Numbers 25. OK, I got to hurry because I'm out of time. But Numbers 26, we count all the people all over again. Why? Because 40 years have gone by, OK, by the time we get to chapter 26. So he counts the people at the beginning. 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, or 38 years have gone by. He counts them all again. And when he numbers the people, all of the people who were over 20 at the beginning are all dead now. It's a whole new crop of people except Joshua and Caleb. And that's found in verses 64 and 65 of chapter 26, where he explains that all those people are dead. Chapter 27 is where the daughters of Zelophehad come to Moses. And they say, hey, our dad didn't have any sons. Can we, as women, inherit his property? And God reveals to Moses, yes. So what are all the feminists whining about the Bible as being too sexist? God gives them what they want here because God's a reasonable God. Just because he wants women to be in their proper role as wives and mothers, it doesn't mean that he's just anti-woman. Because these women came to him and said, hey, we want to inherit our dad's property. And God says, that's fine. That whenever they get married, it's going to go to their husband. And then in chapter 36, it's explained that if they want to keep their inheritance, they've got to marry someone in their tribe so that it stays with the tribe. So if they want to marry outside the tribe, they lose the inheritance. But as long as they marry within the tribe, they get to keep the property. So that precedent is set. Chapters 28 and 29 just go into a lot of offerings, animal sacrifice and things. Chapter 30 is the law regarding vows made by women, just the fact that their dad or their husband has the right to disinole their vows. Sorry, feminists. You guys like chapter 27, but chapter 30, you're not going to like it. And then chapter 31, they go to war with Midian. They're starting to battle in the Canaan land there. Chapter 32 is pretty interesting. This is where Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh decide that they're not going to go all the way into the Promised Land, but they want to stop just short of it on the east side of the Jordan River. And that's where that whole thing goes on. Chapter 33 gives a flashback and just lists all the wanderings. So this is another great reading practice out loud. And then we get into the cities of refuge, the daughters of the lafad, et cetera. So anyway, that's just a quick overview. It's hard to jam 36 chapters into one sermon. But I hope that with this sermon, you'd be inspired to say, you know what? I want to read the book of Numbers. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there. I'd like to dig in and get this knowledge and learn these Bible stories and understand these laws and judgments of God. Let's grow up as Christians. Let's get into the meat of the word. Let's not just get spoon-fed, sweetness and light on Sunday morning by some preacher who's going to tell us, hey, clothes don't matter. Nothing matters. You know, it's just the inside that matters. No, no, no. Let's actually read the whole Bible so that we don't just believe everything we hear and be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Numbers is a great book. But I'm not going to lie to you. It's a tough read. It's a tough read. You're going to have to actually grow up a little bit. You might have to get over your ADD a little bit. You might have to turn off the cartoons for a few hours and actually read some intelligent reading here. But it's a tough read. But you know what? It's a rewarding read in the book of Numbers. A lot to learn. A lot of great teaching here. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the whole Bible, Lord. But especially tonight, thank you for the book of Numbers. Powerful truths, Lord. And I pray that all of Christianity, Lord, would read the book of Numbers in 2018, Lord. Because I just believe that if every Christian in 2018 would just read the book of Numbers, they would have such a greater appreciation for who you are and what you're like and what you expect. And Lord, I just pray that there would be a revival or a renaissance of reading the book of Numbers and reading your word in general, Lord, so that we could be powerful servants of yours, Lord, and powerful preachers and powerful soul winners, Lord, and that we would be steadfast and unmovable. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.