The Book of Numbers presents critical lessons about the consequences of poor choices and the importance of spiritual discipline. In this episode, we explore how the Israelites' lack of trust in God led to their wandering in the wilderness, emphasizing that our personal spiritual journeys can mirror these experiences. We discuss the significance of recognizing the patterns of impatience and grumbling that can hinder our growth and lead to significant consequences. Additionally, we highlight the role of spiritual disciplines in helping us navigate life’s challenges and maintain our commitment to God. Join me as we delve into these themes and reflect on how they apply to our lives today.

Takeaways:

1. The Book of Numbers serves as a pivotal lesson about trusting God through our spiritual journeys.
2. God's covenant with His people highlights the importance of obedience and its consequences.
3. Impatience often leads to poor decisions, as illustrated by the Israelites' golden calf incident.
4. Spiritual disciplines are essential for personal growth and overcoming sin in our lives.
5. The pattern of sinning, repenting, and facing consequences is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.
6. God's faithfulness persists even amidst our failures, reminding us of His unconditional love.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

The transcript for this podcast is A.I. generated and though it has all the content, sometimes has odd breaks, spelling, and spacing.

For an almost exact copy of the text, go to the www.Bible805.com site for downloadable NOTES or to the www.Bible805Academy.com for downloadable and editable Notes, Discussion Guide, Audio and Video files, plus the original PowerPoints—for your personal study or all you need to teach the lesson.

Here is the transcript:

Welcome to through the Bible in chronological order from Bible 805 and Yvonne Prehn. This podcast is a somewhat unique and, I trust, a helpful historical and thematic commentary on the readings in the Bible.

It's not a verse by verse study, but one that I pray you'll find thoughtful and challenging.

New episodes are released each Wednesday and today our lesson is the Book of Numbers, the bad choices, tragic consequences, and how spiritual disciplines can help us avoid them more than history. This book has helpful lessons for our personal spiritual journey.

Here's what Ray Stedman said about the Book of Numbers "If you read the Old Testament as nothing but a history of ancient events concerning people who've long since disappeared, it'll be the dullest, most boring reading you can find.

However, if you read it as a picture of what is happening in your life, vividly displayed in terms of these people of old, you will find it Fascinating reading indeed. First Corinthians 10 tells us that these stories were recorded for us so that we don't make the same mistakes."

Bible commentators through the years have likened the stories from the Exodus to the Promised Land as a picture of the Christian life from our salvation to Christian maturity.

Numbers is the book that is often used to illustrate this as it exemplifies what happens if we don't trust God on our journey and how he continues to love and care for us anyway. So let's now get into the Book of Numbers and look at it a little more closely.

The Beginning and Importance of Numbers the book begins by telling us that it starts the first day of the second month in the second year since the Children of Israel left Egypt. A lot has happened during this time, and the book itself is a very pivotal one, a crossroads in the history of Israel.

It's pivotal because it illustrates forcefully how even though a people and a person can be saved if they do not trust God and live obediently, their life can be a wilderness of wandering around in circles.

Now, it may be a literal wilderness as it was for the children of Israel, or it can be an emotional and spiritual one that many people wander in today. But regardless, we don't want to do that.

So let's look carefully at numbers and applications from it, and I trust that as we do that you'll find significant lessons for how we can live the purposeful and meaningful life that Jesus planned for us. Now to review. First of all, let's look back at the Exodus. It was one of the most extraordinary events of biblical and human history.

People who were slaves for over 400 years were freed from the control of one of the most powerful nations on earth. After God's demonstrations of his power in the plagues and finally in the death of the firstborn.

That was followed by further deliverance from Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea. The Exodus is often used as a picture of our salvation, where we were rescued from a life as slaves to sin and were now alive to God.

But we're not home yet, not in our promised land of heaven. And they weren't home either. God was preparing them and us for an eternal destiny. I don't think we consider it enough.

But let's keep that in mind as we go through this book, that a great destiny promised land ahead of us doesn't mean that we're going to have an easy journey to get there. Now, after Egypt, they travel until they arrive at Mount Sinai. That is where they will receive God's laws.

Once we're delivered, we need to know how God wants us to live and how to worship him. We don't know how to do this on our own. We don't naturally know what will please God.

God also reminds them of the covenant agreement between God and his people. Now, the covenant that he gives to them is a continuation of the one given to Abraham.

When God called him out of Ur, the Chaldees promised to give him the land and that through his people, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Now here is how giving the covenant is recorded for this new generation of God's people.

In Exodus 19:1:8, it says, on the very first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt, on that very day, they came to the desert of Sinai.

Then Moses went up to God and the Lord called him from the mountain and said, this is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now, if you obey me fully, keep my covenant, then out of all of the nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.

So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together. Now listen to this. This is what they say. We will everything the Lord has said.

So Moses brought their answer back to God. God gave them the conditions of obedience and they promised to obey. God continues with more promises.

In summary, God also promised that his angel would lead them and that God would wipe out their enemies, that he would hand the land over to them, and that God would send terror ahead of them to frighten their enemies. Now keep in mind they were promised victory long before the battles. God said, this is what I'm going to do.

Once again, the people responded two times. Everything the Lord says we will do. Everything the Lord says we will do.

Now remember this as the rest of the entire Old Testament happens the way it does, because the people didn't do what they promised. This is the pattern of covenants during those times.

The powerful ruler goes over the history of what he has done, makes promises, and the people promise to obey. But keep in mind, a covenant wasn't just sort of a free for all, just off the cuff promises, whatever.

It was a serious and binding agreement with consequences. And if it was broken. Now, an application to all of us. We are so quick to accept God's promises, but how easily we forget our obligations.

Especially if we think God doesn't do what we want when we want it. Now let's look at how this impatience worked out for the Israelites. God goes up on the mountain for more instructions.

This is an immediate test to see if they will do what they promised. And remember, they promised to follow God. But the people get impatient. They think Moses is taking too long. Application note here.

This is so important. Some, if not most, of the greatest sins we see in the Bible and often in our lives are because we get impatient for God to act.

We'll see that again and again in the Bible, as we do in our lives. We do well to get used to the reality that God always takes longer than we want. He just does. That's just how things go.

But that is part of a test of trust that never ends. In this instance, because they couldn't wait for Moses return, they construct a golden calf and worship it. That did not go well.

Moses comes down, breaks the tablets of the law, grinds the golden calf into powder and makes the people drink it. Now God also sends a plague that kills 3,000 people. They sin, they complain, God forgives.

This pattern continues for two years while they build the tabernacle and learn God's laws. Now, in spite of all their complaining and sin, they arrive finally at the border of the promised land. God has done all he said he would do.

They have no reason to doubt that he will continue to keep his word. 12 Spies are sent in to check out the land. When they return, their report starts out this.

We went into the land which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is the fruit. If only they continued trusting God, based again on his repeated promises. And don't forget, he brought them out of Egypt.

He killed Pharaoh's army, but he didn't stop there. He continues to promise that he was giving them the land, that he would conquer it for them.

They would have all they wanted to eat a land of their own, rest from their wandering in the desert. But that didn't happen, despite Caleb and Joshua reminding the people what God would do. Here is their response.

But the other said, we can't attack those people. They're way stronger than we are. Yes, of course they are. But they're not stronger than God.

But moving right along, they spread scary rumors among the people of Israel. They said, we scouted out the land from one end to the other. It's a huge land that swallows people whole. Everything we saw was huge.

Why, even we even saw the Nephilim, the giants. The enact giants come from the Nephilim. Along them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.

Their times of grumbling, of not trusting God, caught up with them. And God had had enough. God threatened to destroy them on the spot, but Moses intervened and they were forgiven. But the consequences stood.

The Lord replied, I have forgiven them as you ask. But how long will this wicked company grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.

So tell them, as surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say. In this wilderness, your bodies will fall, every one of you, 20 years old or more that was counted in the census. And who has grumbled against me?

Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home. Except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of nun. For 40 years, one year for each of the 40 days you explored the land.

You will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community which is banded together against me.

They will meet their end in this wilderness. There they will die. Now, there are many applications to consider here.

Little sins, because they're really not so little, like grumbling, can set up a pattern in our lives that is difficult to break. And the cumulative results can have big and unexpected consequences.

At their core, any kind of grumbling, complaining or whining expresses a lack of trust in God. The children of Israel were promised certain things.

In this instance, God had repeatedly told them he would take them into the land and that they would conquer their enemies.

He did not promise an easy journey or gourmet meals along the way, and that they'd all like and that they'd all like the leadership decisions their God appointed leaders made. But he did promise that he would conquer their enemies and bring them into the land. And they didn't believe him.

Now, just one little comment about the manna before we go on. I was thinking about this and I thought, now why did God give them such a boring diet for 40 years?

If he could send a manna, couldn't have sent them other food as well. But then I realized they weren't supposed to eat manna for 40 years. It was supposed to be just a temporary provision.

They were promised a land, as God said, flowing with milk and honey, a rich, productive land where grapes were so huge they had to carry a bunch of them back on a pole. That's what God planned for them and that's the land that the spies saw.

But unfortunately they had little to eat but manna for 40 years because they didn't trust God. We need to be thankful for what we have now and not complain like a whiny, petulant child.

Until God gives us what we think we deserve, we must train ourselves to be thankful and content for God's current provisions. Because if we aren't thankful now, we may not get additional blessings that he's planned for us later.

What we consider a little sin or a bad spiritual habit can grow into a major transgression and it can have major consequences, as shown in the story of Israel in numbers. After God pronounced judgment on them, they said, we're sorry, we're sorry. And they tried to go into the land on their own and they failed.

The very sad truth is that though God always forgives when we ask for it, he does not always remove the consequences of sin. Sometimes I'm sorry doesn't work. Sometimes there are no do overs. And sometimes people don't learn from their mistakes.

This pattern of sin, saying sorry and not meaning it, will continue through the entire Old Testament and is ultimately why judgment will come when Israel is completely removed from the land they work so hard to get into. As they wander, though, God continues to take care of them and they continue to sin.

There's a rebellion against Moses and the earth opens up and swallows the rebels Korah, Dathan and Abiram. More grumbling continues. Snakes are sent to afflict them. Moses lifts up the snake and all who look at it are saved.

This incident becomes a picture of Jesus in the image of healing. The very odd story of Balaam and his talking donkey takes place. Balaam was sent to only say what God told him to say instead of a curse.

He prophesied blessings and protection for Israel. But later, he encourages sin with the Moabite women and he was finally destroyed along with them.

Sadly, this pattern of not trusting God can happen to anyone. Troubles will always come, but we choose our response at any time, regardless of our age or circumstances.

Previous trials don't give you a pass so that you don't have current ones. This is a real important warning. Once again, in numbers 20, the people didn't have water to drink.

They're out there wandering around, and after many years of wandering, of seeing God care for their needs. Do they look with anticipation for what God will do to meet this one once again? Nope.

They quarrelled with Moses and said, if only we died when our brothers fell before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness? That we and our livestock should just die here?

Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? There's no grain or figs or grapes or pomegranates and there's no water to drink.

Once again, though, God is gracious and he tells Moses and Aaron to gather the people and speak to the rock and water will flow out. They gather the people, but this time it's Moses. He's angry and he says, listen, you rebels, Must we bring you water out of this rock?

And he takes his staff and he strikes the rock. God is merciful and gives the people water. Moses, though, was fed up with their complaining. And in response he dishonored and he disobeyed God.

The consequences of that bad decision to react in anger, what happened is that God then punishes Moses by not allowing him to enter the Promised Land. It seems like an incredibly harsh judgment, but here are some things that I hope we learn from it. Some applications.

As mentioned earlier, we are never too old or too mature in our Christian lives, nor have we suffered too much, according to us, to be past challenges and trials, temptations to sin. We are never in a position where there won't be consequences for sinful actions.

Some people think they can do things or get away with things because of age or the position they're in. And they may for a time. But no one ultimately gets away with sin or hurting others. Some more essential applications.

It will serve us well to root out character flaws as early as possible, or at whatever time we can in life when we recognize them. So we don't age or find ourselves in a situation where we simply react, where we don't automatically react sinfully.

Based on previous patterns, let's change them while we can. But Moses, it seems, didn't do that. He killed a man in anger when he was young.

Some of his actions as he got older, though they may have been what we might call righteous anger, were certainly actions of anger. Making the Israelites drink the water with the powdered remains of the golden calf doesn't seem God commanded him to do that. That comes to mind.

He would quickly accuse Aaron and other people of sin. Anger, it seems, was a continuing issue for him. Now he's older and he's obviously tired and he's fed up with their complaining.

And so he reacts from a well of untamed anger with the result of really grave consequences. CS Lewis has a quote that applies here, and this has been a personal challenge to me again and again.

He says, if there are rats in the cellar, you're most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding.

In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill tempered man. It only shows me what an ill tempered man I am.

We must continuously work on killing the rats in the cellars of our hearts, such as reacting with anger, feeling God owes us resentments, etc. All those things. So our actions and words when we're under stress and not in control will flow from a pure heart that is at peace and trust God.

We know it is never a valid excuse to say we're tired or stressed or whatever. And so it's okay for us to sin. We know we need to stop reacting. The question is, how do we do that? How do we change the besetting sins in our life?

Big and little things we want to change but seem to have no power over. Let's talk now about the value of spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual disciplines are often defined as practices we can cultivate in our Christian lives to help us deal with sin that we cannot conquer directly. As such, they often seem like practices, especially things like fasting, solitude, meditation, etc.

Or something only for the super spiritual or some sort of spiritual magic that you know. For example, if we fast for two weeks, automatically you'll Rid yourself of anger and.

And if we think these sort of wrong things about them, we'll ignore them and just stumble along. But let's look at them more closely.

I'm going to now give you a very brief survey of a very complex subject, and I do recommend that you do additional study and reading on this topic. There are two classic books that I can recommend.

Richard Foster's the Celebration of Discipline, and probably one of the very, very best books out on it ever. Although it's a little. It's a little tough going, is the Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard that is just absolutely so good.

The one, though, that I recommend the most and that is so practical and so good is Donald S. Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Very easy to understand, very clear, very step by step, and I really cannot recommend it enough.

A more contemporary take on them is Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. And if you're younger, if you're new to this whole topic, I would recommend that it's also very, very good.

Now, to begin with, change the idea of spiritual disciplines from a negative to a more positive one.

When we do these things, it's a joyful thing, it's not a burdensome thing. It seems like the spiritual disciplines when we first encounter them, might be difficult, but it's much easier than the end result.

The end result of living a life of instant gratification and sin results in chaos and spiritual death. And Proverbs reminds us that the way of the transgressor is hard.

Anybody who's had a hangover from a night of partying or the fallout of a broken relationship by giving into meanness or anger can verify that a bit of self control would have had a much more positive result. Or as the children of Israel found out, when they didn't trust God, yes, they would have to fight when they went into the land.

But what's so sad is, as you go through the Book of Numbers, they still had battles. But instead of fighting in the land God promised, they fought in a desert, ate little but manna, and wandered around in circles for 40 years.

So what should we do? Perhaps change the label from spiritual discipline to spiritual habits.

They are, in practice, the underlying habits of life that will enable God to totally change your heart. And from that your behavior will change, as John Mark Comer does in his book where he talks about a rule of life.

By learning to rearrange our days, he says, we can follow the way of Jesus, we can be with him, we can become like him and do as he did from the futility of willpower. And I won't do that. I just won't do that.

Think of the idea of training as an athlete would they don't sit there and say to themselves, I'm not going to eat too much. I'm not going to be a couch potato. I'm not. They do positive things.

An athlete also doesn't just decide one day to sign up for a marathon and win the race by determining to do it. He or she trains for years sometimes to do it.

Diet, sleep, working out, running, using a coach, lots of time alone, training hard prior to the big race. Now, what are some areas of training for us spiritually? There are traditional lists of spiritual disciplines and habits.

Pick any one of them to work on. Again, reading these books and more study is highly recommended. In his book, Dallas Willard has two lists.

He talks about the disciplines of solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice. He also talks about the disciplines of study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission.

Whatever you choose to practice, be sure you ground it in God's Word, as any of them can be incompletely understood or misused. Also, you might as a beginner, consider the Navigator's wheel Illustration. This helped form really unbreakable habits in my life.

And for those of you that are listening to the podcast, it's just a circle, a wheel, and then it has four spokes that all join with Christ in the center. And the wheel is what describes a obedient Christian. And the four spokes are the Word of God, prayer, fellowship, and witnessing.

You build those things into your life and you've got a great start.

One little thing that I learned too early on that has been so helpful to me is to help me to remember to do my daily Bible reading is just that little saying. No Bible, no breakfast. And I've made that a pattern of my life for decades and it has served me well.

Now practicing these daily habits will make a huge difference in your life. Another quote from C.S. Lewis where he says, good and evil both increase at compound interest.

That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which a Few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.

An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is a loss of a ridge or railway line or a bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. The example of Israel in numbers is a dreary one of making bad decisions of what probably seemed to many little sins of grumbling and complaining.

But they allowed them to grow into the rebellion of not trusting God to take them into the promised land. This little sin, fully grown, led to the consequences of wandering in the desert for 40 years until they died.

In contrast, practice spiritual disciplines and habits.

Grow in your trust in God and the lifestyle actions that reflect it, so that in your daily walk and when the big tests come, you'll respond in ways that are for your good and God's glory. A moment to commend you all that are listening to this that are reading through the Bible because you're already doing this.

If you're involved in reading through the Bible in a year chronologically, you are in the process of one of the most valuable spiritual disciplines ever. And you've completed some of the hardest parts of the Bible that many Christians don't read in their entire lives and to their laws.

They do not understand the rest of the Bible because they don't have that foundation. Next, we're going to read Deuteronomy, the last of the Pentateuch, which makes up of course, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses.

I trust you've learned much from these books and will continue to as we continue through the Bible. You've developed the discipline of daily Bible reading and plan to keep doing it for the rest of your earthly pilgrimage.

But take a minute now to celebrate how far you've come on this journey. The end of their story isn't just punishment, but an example of God's grace.

Because despite all their doubting, grumbling and sin, despite the consequences and just punishment for their sin, God remained faithful to his covenant. They had food and water. Their clothes and shoes did not wear out during their 40 years of wandering.

Even more, though they continuously broke faith with Him, God kept His promises to bring them into the promised land. In our lesson on Deuteronomy, we'll hear four final sermons from Moses as they get ready to cross over into that land.

And one last encouragement to us that no matter how much or how little progress we make again from CS Lewis, no amount of falls will really undo us. If we keep picking ourselves up each time, we shall of course be very muddied and tattered children by the time we reach home.

But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard.

No matter how we stumble on our journey from salvation to the promised land, no matter how many bad choices we make and the consequences we suffer, we will be welcomed home and into our eternal destiny. That's all for now.

For notes from this lesson, related resources and links to teaching materials, go to www.bible805.com in closing, I'm Yvonne Pryn, your fellow pilgrim, writer and teacher for Jesus, and I'd like to close with this benediction.

May you know the invitation of God to move from confusion to clarity, from wandering to rest, from loneliness to knowing you are loved, from turmoil to peace, from wherever you are on your spiritual journey to a growing knowledge of God's word and in your personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.