Well, good morning, everyone. I always hate to break up the socializing. I think it's very important to do. Very important. It's uh The getting to interact with each other is one of the special times of a Sunday morning.
So that's that's a It's a good thing. That's why we've been doing it every week. My name is Rob Aulis. I'm associate pastor here at Lifeline Community, and I'm on board today. Brian's out of town, and so I get the call.
And I'm glad to do that. For those of you who don't know much about me, I oversee a lot of different ministries here at Lifeline Community. Um in fact, one of the One of the ministries that I oversee is I'm one of the college teachers here for our partnership with Davis College, and I get to do a lot of teaching through the Old Testament. I do a lot of the Bible classes that are here and It's been a real privilege. And so today, as I was getting ready to preach, I'll have people say, Well, when are you going to preach in the Old Testament?
since that's what you teach all the time. And I thought, all right. We'll give it a shot. Right? No, I actually enjoy teaching in the Old Testament.
But what I wanted to do today is do something just a little different. You see, the level that I teach in these Bible classes is a little different than just walking through on a verse by verse or a chapter by chapter. Expositional study like we typically do in sermon series, like Brian is doing as he's walking us through Genesis. What we do is do a little bit more, kind of what I would call not a 10,000-foot view, but more like a drone view as you're walking through. The text of Scripture.
So, for example, last fall, the whole Bible class was on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
So, you can imagine, you know, kind of the speed that you would have to go through in something like that. And the beautiful thing about that. Is that It is real easy if you're just pushing through reading. to miss a lot of the little things interconnecting. But it's also easy to miss maybe some of the deep stuff.
But what I like to do as I'm reading is looking for the things that I'm meant to catch. as a reader, the things that I'm supposed to perceive as the the slide says. that are supposed to say, hey, Take a little bit more notice about this. because it's in there for a reason. And so that's what I'm going to share with you today.
I'm just going to kind of open up the world of Rob's brain, and it's scary. Like, it really is. on how I'm reading through and kind of just looking for things and wanting to present a good overall picture for the students in the class. And so that's what you're gonna get today. And so to do that, Um before we get into the text, and by the way, if you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles in the seats in front of you.
Um you're welcome to grab and use that. If you don't own one, take it with you as our gift to you. We wouldn't want anybody to not have access. to a Bible. But uh back to patterns.
Di D Do you see what's in that picture? Yeah, this is a little easier one, right? You can. See uh Fido there. Right, our Dalmatian puppy.
This is kind of what we do when we're going through kind of this drone. View. Guys, we have a trouble with perceiving. Like, it's really the truth. Like, my wife will say, go to the pantry or go to the fridge, grab a bottle of ketchup, and I'll stare at it for a long time, knowing there's got to be one in there.
And finally, I say, hum, we don't have any ketchup. And she'll walk right there, pull it right out, and say it was right in front of your face, right? Right? But before you get too hard on me, I tell you what, when I'm in the woods, I can see the deer no problem. Right?
I can. You see that that guy right there? Yeah. See, so so there's different levels of how you perceive, and so you have to train yourself sometimes to be able to do so. When we look at patterns, we see patterns all through nature and we can learn a lot about them.
Just like the hexagon structure in a beehive. Feminace sequence is all through everything. Just about everything we do, including the sound coming out of my microphone. To you guys, the secret behind that technology is found in nature in the Fibonacci sequence.
So it's pretty amazing stuff.
Sometimes we're meant to catch the thing that's different. Right? Right? And it's supposed to stand out to us so it's not so much the pattern, it's the break in the pattern, right?
So that we can learn from it, right? This is one of my all-time favorite little comics there. I don't know if you can see it, but you got the guy off that's learned how to cook things on a spit, so he's not. Burning his hands right there. And so when we're reading through the scriptures, We're looking not just at what are the patterns, particularly at drone level, but what are the breaks in the patterns that I'm supposed to learn from?
and the boy's scripture loaded with patterns. And you don't necessarily see them. Let me just show you, just from Genesis 1.
Some of the patterns. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the first verse. seven letters in the Hebrew. And boy, the Bible scriptures love the number seven.
And they love the number three. And so when you look, there's three nouns in the verse: God, heaven, and earth, and each in Genesis 1 appears a multiple of seven times. And then, in fact, there's seven stanzas of the creation, the seven days of creation, and each one contains three pronouncements. emphasizing God's concern for the success of mankind. These are things that particularly the Hebrew reader catches.
And sees more in the patterns and sees the focus of what we're trying to do. Light Appears seven times in stanza one and seven times in stanza four when God makes the light givers. to fill in the light. And then water is seven times and stanzas two and three, beasts are seven times and five and six, and that phrase. It is good, or it was good, appears six times.
And then at the very end, the seventh time. With the break. Because it adds the word vary. In it.
So these are things that sit there in the scripture, some of the fun stuff that you can look for. But then there's sometimes a real big break. And I've got just two examples of big breaks. Paul cites this one in Galatians 4, 4 to 5: that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoptions of sons. Paul is highlighting ultimately the biggest break in all of humanity.
This special person comes that's different. And he's providing something that is different for everyone else. And of course, we know that as Jesus Christ Himself. One of the ones that I love is this one when Jesus heals the blind man in the temple. And then the Pharisees get all upset at him for being healed.
And they go and they start interrogating him, and he says, Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Again, citing the break. in what is the accepted pattern of life. And he says, We're supposed to pay attention to that.
And so, this is where breaks come into play and where patterns come into play. And so, I have two suggestions as you're reading your Bible, at whatever level you read it, whether you're pushing through to read it through in a year or whether you're just taking time and reading a little section every day, which I highly recommend, by the way, it's life-changing. Look for the patterns. And look for the pattern breaks. When something looks a little different, stop and say, why is that a little different?
and start going through. Or when things get repeated. Ask yourself, why are they repeated? And as you read, you're going to discover things that you would never think to see.
So, as again, the class I taught this last fall was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. I'm just going to point out a couple things there. In Exodus, we know that's where the ten plagues in Egypt come in, right? The ten plagues. But have you ever caught that only one plague?
required the Israelites to do something to avoid it. Nine plagues. They don't have to do anything. They just don't deal with any of the issues. But the last one, now they have to do a lot of stuff.
And it says, God's pointing out to us readers and to the Israelites back then.
Something big is going on here. You need to pay attention. And it's out of that, just kind of as a Spoiler alert, that's where Passover comes out of. And so if you read that, catch why is that such a big deal? And we're going to be in numbers today.
And then in Deuteronomy, there is a pattern. I've heard so many times the Old Testament is just about law and a legal system, and everybody breaks it, and nobody can obey it, and so God's angry with everybody. And yet, one of the most used words in the entire book of Deuteronomy is the word love. When you read through Deuteronomy, mark them. and just see if you can see what's going on in there.
And so, as we look through, we see a lot of patterns. We see God is great, like He's big, like the song, My God is So Big, So Strong, and So Mighty. Like, there's nothing my God cannot do. God is great, and that's pretty evident there. God is holy.
And when I say the word holy, I don't mean the way we like to think about it as obedient, perfect, never messes up. The word holy in the Hebrew is set apart. God is set apart from creation, He is different. He's in outside of creation. And he is not bound.
by the terms that sit inside creation. Um God's in charge. That's pretty clear. And God always wins. Like, when people go up and say, no, I don't like it, let's duke it out, God.
Yeah, that doesn't go well. for people. But then there are other patterns in there, and one is that God loves. And yet it's one that gets missed a lot. as you start reading what seems to be just rules all over the place or different interactions.
And then the big one is God is seeking a relationship. That's ultimately the overall pattern. of those first five books. And yet, just like the Jews did for thousands of years, it's easy to miss that. Unless we're looking.
Unless we're looking. And so that leads us to the pattern That I was following through as I was going through the Exodus and the wandering in the desert for 40 years that the Israelites did when they left Egypt. And what I'm seeing over and over again is this pattern here, and it's as simple like this: God is leading them. Right, you've got the pillar of fire at night, you've got the pillar of cloud during the day, follow this way, and then when he stops, the camp stops, and when he moves, the camp goes. And what happens is Israel is continually getting set.
upset at the way God Leads. The Israelites don't like it. It's like God We're hungry. We want some food. We're tired of this bread.
We want some meats, right? And the Israelites rebel. They get real nasty. And we're done following you. We want to go back to Egypt.
And you get a lot of that. And then God disciplines them. in one way or another until they basically say We give, we give. You win. And then the cycle repeats.
because everything just stays on the surface. It's just like God says it, we either say okay. Or we say no way. And that's what they do. And it's out of this cycle that you get.
The thirty-seven years of wandering in the desert.
So, as we look in Numbers 21, that's where we're going to be.
So, if you haven't turned there, go ahead. Um I'm reading through through numbers and I'm just seeing this and you just It's easy to just want to shake your head and say you had it right there and you blew it. and miss the fact that I do that all the time. When I have it right there and I blow it. And then I see this break in the pattern.
that just like it was pretty awe-inspiring to me when I caught it this last fall. had had read through it a lot lot of times and not caught it before. And so let me kind of show you a little bit of that. I'm going to just put this map up here. As you're if you're not there yet, get to numbers twenty-one because we're going to read through the whole thing.
Okay, here's kind of a map of that Middle East. Egypt's there to the to the west. They leave Egypt, they get down to Mount Sinai, which is down there in the middle towards the bottom. And they get there actually fairly quick. And that's where they get the Ten Commandments and all of that.
And then when Numbers picks up, is when they're leaving there. and heading up to the promised land. And that's where they're going to go. And by the time they get there and send the spies through the promised land and they get back. In numbers.
The spies come back and say, it's a land of milk and honey. But there are giants in there. We stand no chance. God's messed us up. We need to go back to Egypt.
How dare God do this? And they have a massive rebellion. And God says, I'm done.
Okay. This generation that came out of Egypt, you're not going to get the promised land now. I'm going to give it to your kids and grandkids. And then that's where the 37 years. comes and we're towards the end of the thirty-seven years.
When we hit Uh numbers 21.
So with that In mind, let's go ahead and read through. I might make a few comments in there, but then we're going to kind of break it down. afterwards.
So Numbers 21, starting in verse 1. When the Canaanite, the king of Ered, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel. Was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captives.
So, when the new generation is on board, and the Israelites now are getting ready. to head back to the promised land. They're going by this place named Erid. and this guy attacks.
So Israel It says, He fought against Israel, took some of them captive, and Israel vowed a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction. And the Lord heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction.
So the name of the place was called Hana. Horma. And then from there, they continue the journey, and we get to verse 4 from Mount Hor. they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way, and the people spoke against God and against Moses.
Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. For we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
Pray to the Lord. that he take away the serpents from us.
So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live.
So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. And as they continued the journey, And the people of Israel set out and camped in Oboth. And they set out from Oboth and camped at Ira Abarim. in the wilderness that is opposite Moab towards the sunrise.
From there they set out and camped in the valley of Zared. And from there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, Wahab and Sufa and the valleys of the Arnon and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seed of our. and leans to the border of Moab.
So what Moses is saying there is that As he's writing this down for future people to read, he's saying, Hey, all we did was follow the route that even this song and this other book. spoke about. And that's all it is. like weird about obviously we don't have that book to read. But they did, whoever was reading this back then.
And from there they continued to bear, that is the the well of which the Lord said to Moses, Gather the people together so that I may give them water. Beer in the Hebrew is a well.
So don't get sidetracked there. Gather the people together so that I may give them water. Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well, sing to it. the well that the princes made, that the nobles of the people dug, with the sceptre and with their staffs. And from the wilderness they went on to Matinah, And from Matina to Nahalio.
And from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab, by the top of Pisgah, that looks down on the desert. Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your territory.
But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jehaz and fought against Israel. And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok. as far as the Amorites, for the border of the Amorites wi or Ammonites. for the border of the Ammonites was strong.
And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who had fought. against the former king of Moab. and taken all his land out of his hand. As far as the R known.
Therefore the ballad singers say, Come to Heshbon, let it be built, let the city of Sion be established. For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sion. It devoured our of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab, you are undone, O people of Kemosh. He has made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives to an Amorite king Sihon.
So we overthrew them, Heshmon as far as Dibbon perished, and we laid waste as far as Nophah. Fire spread as far as Medibah.
So again, we are given another song. that is written elsewhere. The ballads are singing it in all the taverns and the inns or wherever they sing these type of things. What this song is being recorded here to tell us is that Sihon wasn't a great guy. He went after another country, Moab, conquered a bunch of it, took those cities, and this is talking about how big Sion was, and yet Israel just came through and defeated Sion when Sion tried to attack.
them. And that's just a data piece for the original readers and their kids and grandkids, etc. To remember, oh, yeah, I've heard that song before. Ooh, they weren't great guys, and yet. God gave us a victory.
And so that's what's supposed to be pulled out of there. Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites, and Moses sent to spy out Jazzer, and they captured its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at But the LORD said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.
So they defeated him and his sons and all his people until he had no survivors left and they possessed. his land. And that's Quite a text. A longer text, and it's in a text like that that it's easy just to read through and just chalk it up as history. And Yet, as I'm reading through and saying I'm not allowed to do that because I'm teaching a class on this.
I'm looking and catching things, but then something really hits me. In this text, And that's the break in the pattern I want to show you. Because I believe that this text was specifically. organized To correct some bad perceptions that people have about God. Particularly, the Israelites of that day.
The things, the type of perceptions about God that would keep them in that cycle. Of capitulation, rebellion, repentance, capitulation, rebellion, repentance. And to help them, as they're getting ready to go into the promised land, break. the cycle. And it's a cycle that people have and deal with today.
Whether you're a Christian, whether you're not a Christian, we have the cycles. Because of bad perceptions about God that will keep us in a rut. And so I want to walk through here and look at that.
So here's kind of a map that shows: I'm borrowing these from the cadets class, or fifth, and sixth grade class.
So if you took cadets, then you had Bible geography. And so you get to learn a lot of this stuff. In fact, they're going to be doing that this summer. Fun, fun. And so you got the squiggly lines just kind of showing there.
The 37 years of wanderings, and then it's time to head to the promised land. And we're going to cross over the Jordan River from the east to the west. And so we've got to get over there. But we're not allowed to go through Edom, and we're not allowed to go through Moab, so they have to go the long way around. And you can see there where Erid is up there on the left side of the Dead Sea, and where Mount Hor is.
Um And here comes the battle with Ered.
So as we get in here, there's a couple of things that may be easy to miss. Um if you're not reading the broader context. And the one is at the very end of chapter 20. Aaron the high priest dies. and he's buried in Mount Hor.
Now you can see where Mount Hor is on there. Right? When they have the battle with Erod, that has to happen before. Aaron dies at Mount Hor. What you have is you have a story inserted.
Dischronologically Yeah. for a big word there. meant to stand out and say, whoa.
Something's going on here that I want you to catch. As you read through. that we have a lesson to teach as we're getting close. And so what do we have with this battle of Arid that is purposely put here to organize a teaching thought moving through?
Well, let's Think about it. Arid. A tax. And he takes captives. Israel asks for help.
With a bride. A promise of obedience, a contractual relationship. If you will do this for us, God. We'll do this for you. It's as simple as that, just a simple story.
And yet it's meant to stick out to us. Why? What is going on here?
Well, the wrong perception here is that God needs to be bribed. And yet, how often have we done that? When I was a little kid, I remember just praying to God and say, God, if you make me rich, I promise to always give you a little bit of money and to work at the church. Right. If you'll make me rich, right?
Like this idea I can bribe God. With promises, or God, if oh my goodness, everything has just gone cattywampus. I'd love Brian to use that four-syllable word, right? Cattywampus. And I need help, and you cry out to God: if you will just fix this problem, God, I promise never to sin again.
Right. These are the transactional type of relationships that so many people have when they view God because they're viewing Him through our lens. And this is here. Eric comes, hey God, if you do this, we promise that we will. Give you all the goods.
If we beat him, if you just help us beat them.
Well That's what happens. God is merciful. He does that. And they do fulfill his brow. But let me tell you something.
God doesn't need to be bribed. We're supposed to catch that, especially as the text continues. God wants a relationship, not a transaction. This is part Of the teaching thing that I see in this text in Numbers 21, and that is that. Moses, as you guys are getting ready to go, we need to correct the way you think about God and interact with God.
The first one, do you realize you try to bribe him? Like you try to act with God like in this transaction idea where you give God something, then He'll give you something, or usually it's God, if you'll give me something, then I promise to give you something back. Yeah. That's not how God works. That's one of the reasons why you keep getting in trouble.
and keep doing this cycle. God does not. need to be bribed. And then we get to this bigger story. You would think they would be real excited for the victory, that that might change things.
But no, now we come to the fiery serpent story, right? And as they're having to go all the way, the long way around Edom. They get to this place where they start complaining and get rebellious. They say, what are you doing, God? We're tired of following you.
Why do we have to take the long way around? That doesn't make sense. And while we're at it, we're sick of this food. This manna, it's getting old. And where's the water, God?
We don't like that. You took us the wrong way. There's no water here. You don't care about us. Come on, God.
Why are you letting me go through this trouble? Why are you letting this happen and that happen? I thought you things were okay. I thought you cared. Why didn't you just leave us in Egypt?
Ooh, there's a poker. When are you going to earn our devotion? And we have our attitude change now. To win you will do this for me. Then I'll do something for you.
You see the flip? We're now into the you old me and I'm gonna manipulate you. and manipulate your emotions. to make you give me what I think you should out of guilt. And that's the attitude.
And God doesn't like that at all. And neither do you. Like what relationship works well? when it's built on manipulation. Where's the love?
Where's the care? Where's the I love to do for you? When it's I don't have a choice because you just let me know I'm the bad guy if I don't. Right? And so God sends the fiery serpents.
Try again. We have sinned. They come out.
Okay, after they're dying. because of their rebellious attitude. In fact, they do a lot of times what we do when we recognize that we've done wrong. They actually don't go to God, they're scared. They're ashamed.
They go to Moses and say, Moses, will you go to God for us? Will you tell them that we sinned? Will you speak to the Lord on our behalf? Will you ask for relief? Basically, they're crying, Uncle, and they're ashamed that they even got this far.
Okay, why? Because God He's not going to be manipulated. That's another wrong perception. of a relationship with God, that God must be manipulated. Heavy, healthy relationships.
are never Don't. on manipulation. They're not. And especially a relationship with God. And yet again.
I can think of many times in my own life, especially when I'm feeling low and things stink. That I want God to know that I think He's letting me down. Mm-hmm.
Now God doesn't mind, certainly, that you would come and say, God, things stink. How much longer do I have to go through this? That's an honest relationship question. Right? But when you say, God, things stink, how dare you?
You are failing on your end of the relationship bargain.
Okay, now we're in a different realm. And yet, So many people walk away from God and walk away from faith. Because they try to interact with God through manipulation. and then it doesn't work. And that is the wrong way.
to have a relationship with God. Remember, like I said earlier, one of the big patterns of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, what we call sometimes the law, even the word even though the word Torah means instruction. Um is that we're missing the desire for a relationship and we're only dealing in contract.
Well We're not done yet. on misperceptions. We get this interesting section of the text where it now says they go here, they go here, they go here, they go here, they go here, they're just journeying along. And uh It doesn't really give us much else, except for it's almost like Moses, like, well, this is kind of boring. Let me throw in this song.
that backs up where they went, right? And he does that. And he wants you to kind of get almost in ho-hum, okay. you know, as you're trying to pronounce the names of the places they go. And then He has this point.
There's two points actually that are going to come out of this. You've got the whole hum. of traveling, you know. Of toleration, right? God must be tolerated.
It's like, okay, God, we're going to follow you. We learned our lessons. We don't want any more fiery serpents. Right. We'll keep our mouths shut.
Yeah. Okay God, I guess we have no choice. We'll do what you say.
Now it's more of Just Slavery, really. Duty. you know, rules don't mess up. Don't disobey the rules. God, you win.
Kind of the shovel is fee, I guess, if I have to. Right. Right? And uh We now are operating in obedience, maybe. but an obedience of toleration.
Yeah. And we're supposed to kind of see this here. as they're doing it. The place to place to place to place to place, the thing that's supposed to kind of stick out, or at least sticks out to me, is that they're not complaining as they're going all these multiple places. And that's that that's what I catch as I reading.
Through there. And I'm supposed to realize they're getting closer, but tolerance is not love. But it helps when you are doing correct.
Okay, this is what Paul might call the letter of the law that is a tutor. to get us a teacher to get us to a relationship with Christ. But it's not a relationship. And it's not for them either. God must be tolerated.
No. No, tolerance is not love. We're looking for a relationship. We're looking for a relationship. And it's in this, this drudgery of movement.
that a little tiny piece is inserted. Right in the middle. Right in the middle. And it's about this well. The swell.
And The new. God initiates the engagement. Pretty much what you get is you're tracking through numbers. Is God's leading through the fire, leading through the clouds, telling them, go here, go there, and they're just following. But now, all of a sudden, God says, Hey, Moses, I want you to stop.
Stop everybody, bring them all in. I've noticed they're a little thirsty. And I want to give them some water.
Okay. It's in that Finally, we're done trying to bribe God. We're done. trying to manipulate God. We're just following along, okay, we have no other choice.
And God says, Hey, you know what, guys? L let me give you something. Right. And God provides his reasoning. He gives them water because they're thirsty.
Israel responds. In the first song. that they've sung. since the parting of the Red Sea, at least in the text. 37 years before.
Again, a break in the pattern. What's going on? In the song, it's a full engagement. All the leaders got together, and God showed us where to get this well, and we got the well together as one people. Unity.
And they celebrate, they sing, spring up, oh well, splish, splash, splish, splash. Anybody know that song? Right. Right? And they do that.
Thank you. Thank you. And what sticks out is, actually, God, you care. And this is the correct perception we're supposed to have of God, and the one that we're supposed to take out of this text: God is good. Like he really is.
Like, it's not God holding back good. It's key people. pushing good away because they won't interact with God. In the nature and character of God, they try to do it through the nature and character of fallen people. Where bribery and manipulation and toleration are the rules of the day.
But God, no. When you deal with me You're dealing with True. Good. True good. And so when we look at that, we see how true good actually sits there.
And out of the nowhere comes this good, this revelation of good. And when you think about it in your own lives, You can probably think of times where that's hit you as well. where good has actually hit you. In God working for your good. In fact, just even coming here today.
It's God working in you for good. to be around good people, to hear a good message about him and that he cares about you and he wants you in a relationship. And then out of that comes our next right perspective.
Okay, because we get into this. At first, I thought, no, this seems to be like a change of pace now when we get to these battles. And then the more I thought about it, the more I realized: no, I think that's actually supposed to sit here. In this section of the text, because the next story afterward is the one with Balak and Balaam and the talking donkey and all that stuff, which is a very different context. And so here, I looked in it and then I think...
I I see what you're doing, God. I do. You're giving them the land of Heshbon. And you're giving them the land of Bation. In other words, they're getting the very first.
Pieces of property that they can call their own. It's like buying your first house. Right? Or getting your first car. Right.
You're finally getting something that is yours. Because a good God loves to give good gifts. He does. He does, but he does not like you to think that you earned them or he owes them to you. then it's not a gift.
He doesn't want to give you something and call it a gift if you're paying for it. No, he just loves to give good gifts. In fact, as you get to the beginning of Deuteronomy, Moses says, let's think about exactly how that worked out. When God said, Behold, I've begun to give Sion and his land over to you. Begin to take possession that you may occupy his land.
And then with Og, the Lord said, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and all his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites. who lived at Heshman.
So the LORD our God gave into our hand og also. Give, give, give, give. Because a good God loves to give good gifts. And this is when it hit me. Why they're there.
Heshbon and Bashan were not part of the promised land. They were extra gifts. Like, you can read a lot of generic descriptions of the promised land. But when you read where the spies were supposed to go, when you read the reason why they were coming to the edge of the Jordan River to cross into the Promised Land. you actually see that that God is giving them even more than just what he promised.
to give them. And so he does. And he has. The Israelites, he brings the military, the army, down to the Israelites to attack. He doesn't even make them go invade these two areas.
They come down. Israel defeats them. The rest of the people do what they would always do in any context like that. They flee. and then leave the land empty and Israel's able just to walk right on in.
And that's what they do. Here you go, guys. It's because I'm good. You're finally realizing I'm good and I love you guys. And I just want to give you something.
Nice. I want to give you something nice. And so when you look there, you can see the promised land in their mind as they're getting ready to go in is everything on the west side of that Jordan River. Dead Sea, Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, until it goes up to Mount Hermon. And that's kind of the promised land on the left in this context.
and then it gets expanded all of a sudden. to the east side. Lot of land there. A lot of the land there. I can't help but think of this verse whenever I think about God-giving gifts.
James 1:16 to 18. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow. Did it change?
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And what the author there is saying is when you receive or see a good gift, don't be so quick to call it coincidence. Say recognize where it really comes from. Especially those who have engaged the Lord in relationship. That's why he's talking about that first fruits part.
When you, as a follower of Jesus, receive good things, or good things seem to work out. Say praise the Lord. Mm-hmm.
Because he is the one ultimately looking out for me, whether I realize it or not. And there are things in my life. Where I just look at and just say, Wow. That's really cool. Thank you, Lord.
I was not looking for that. And there are other times where I need help and I say, Lord, will you please help me? Preaching a message on a Sunday in front of a whole bunch of people. Like, help me, Lord. And then God is good.
And he helps me out. And when you uh are just you're wondering like Lord. How is this nasty, smelly, disobedient? good for nothing child ever going to grow into anything great. Say, Lord.
Help me. I don't know how to parent this kid. And then Lo and behold, they turn out pretty good. Mm-hmm.
Praise the Lord. Yeah. Good gifts come from God. And if you think about what Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Why would that not be applied to God himself?
And why wouldn't he be the greatest giver of all? Like, like, why? And yet, when we think about God, our default. is really low. It really is.
It's like God demands, and I have to give, and then God might do something. That's such a low view of God. Let me tell you, if I had that kind of view. Of my wife, I would have never gotten married. You think about that.
But that wasn't my view of my life. Like somehow I gotta do, do, do, do if I'm gonna get anything from my wife in a relationship. No, I had such expectations of I'm gonna finally have someone that actually cares about me and loves me and can look through my ugliness and things like that. Like like we gotta lose our low view of God. We need to find a natural default to a correct perception of God is good and He loves to give good gifts.
That's when we're going to learn to fall in love. With God and this was the wow so I'm walking through here And it just keeps building and building. I'm like, where is this? Why do we even have this well story in here? And I keep looking through, and then I catch, you know what?
Arod's not anywhere near Mount Hor, it's way north. This has to be inserted. And then I'm looking through, and I'm finding other things, and I'm like, There's a really good message here for me personally. to take in and I need to be reminded of it. And that's where we went.
And so that brings me to two primary facts that we take out of a message like this. And the first one is this. We need to remember that our natural default to say God is not good is is bad. We need to lose that. Because that is the very thing that led to sin in this world in the first place.
When Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, they've got everything and it's good and there's no nastiness at all. And God says, you can eat from any tree. You don't even have to do anything for it to grow fruit. Just leave that one alone. You're not ready for it yet.
And they're good, they're happy until someone says, Hey. What about that tree? Satan comes in. Oh, we're not supposed to eat of that one right now. Oh.
Well, God Dude, He's not a very good God. He's holding something back from you. You should have it and you should have it now. How dare he say you can't be like him? He doesn't have your best interests at heart.
Oh, I think you're right. That's an awfully good-looking tree with a lot of good-looking fruit, and boy, I'd love to be like God. Like, why would I want to have to rely on him for stuff? Then I can rely on me. Chop And boom.
There we are. And we just see this. Wash. Rinse, repeat. of a cycle of life, challenging whether God is good.
What we need to do is remember that second fact that God has already proven. That he is good. He already has over and over again, with the greatest proof of all, the sacrifice of his own son.
so that we can have a relationship with him. Like, like, that's good when he cares that much that he'll make that sacrifice for sinful, ugly me. Like, he's already proven that he's that good. And then, as I look at my life, I can see good after good after good after good if I'm willing just to look at it instead of dwelling on all the things I don't like. I can even look at things that I didn't like.
And look back now in my hindsight of 2020 vision. and say, you know what, that actually was a good thing for me in the long run. Right. And then we can respond one of two ways. The wrong response is to continue in our low view of God and explain away his gifts.
Really, that's a lie. That's living a lie. When we say God does not give good gifts. That's what we're doing. We're living a lie.
And what comes out of that is we get into that cycle of submission, rebellion, toleration. We get more cynical about God, we start to entrench ourselves. Our opinions about God, this is what the Bible calls hardening of heart. Interesting that it's these guys in the wilderness wandering around that the author of Hebrews says, Don't harden your heart like they did. Right.
We become self-justifying in our anti-God attitude until it can take us all the way to the point, like the end of Malachi 3 talks about, where we call evil good and good evil and say God is actually an author of evil instead of an author of good. Boy, that's blasphemous. It is, and then that it, when we're there, we're at that place of ready, final rejection of God. We'd rather stay in our lie. and all the benefits that come from that.
Yeah. Or we can respond correctly. We can lean into God because he is good and truly cares for and loves. Me. He does.
Does he?
Well, when I'm honest in my view. Yeah, I can see that. In fact, I see it again, and then I see it again. And so, as I move that direction, I get a better route through the trials of life because I'm hopeful now. Because I know God's good.
He doesn't let me sit in a trial forever. He takes me to the other side. Of his good grace and teaches me what he wants me to teach me. And things are always better there. This growing faith and love and trust in my Savior has he continues to show me he's good, as he continues to give me good gifts, even when I want to be blinded by the negative.
I get to discover a constant relational companion who will always listen. and who always cares. He's just a prayer way. All right. and I get a better recognition of the goodness of God and His good gifts.
And then finally, and this is the big one, I get to change how I relate to God. My obligation or my perceived obligation moves to opportunity. This is the one thing that the Israelites struggled with for Yeah. All the way up to the time of Christ, and why they looked at the Old Testament as just a bunch of rules and regulations, hoops to jump through.
so that God won't squash you. Right? And then on the other side, when you realize, no, it's a love relationship. That's not what those things are. These are ways God lets you know that He likes to be loved.
And then you find an opportunity. in very simple things to show God that you love him. Because he loves you so much. and has shown you that already. Yeah.
So as we close... I want to challenge you back with. the verse that we read early on. after the announcement.
So taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. And if you find yourself in a place where you want to or you need prayer, After the song, come on down. We have people that will be down here to pray with you. to encourage you.
If you have any questions, just catch me or someone else that uh is wandering around and just ask 'em. What's going on? get out of a life of negativity. How can I jump into a life of of trusting in and recognizing God's goodness. And uh Make today the day where you move in a right response.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. for your good character. In there. that you have chosen not to remove it from us.
but instead have chosen to display it over and over again. We thank you for your generosity, and we thank you for your love, and we ask. that you would help us move forward into the next steps. of a great relationship with you. Pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
