Satisfied with God’s Call

I often like to remind us that we don't want to rush to applications so quickly when we're in a passage that we skip over the important Bible truths. But I kind of feel like I almost broke my own rule in the study guide because I packed it full of application, didn't I? So I hope you'll excuse me for that. But I think today that we can do justice to both. We can focus on the important Bible truths and we can also focus on the application. In fact, I even titled this chapter, Satisfied with God's Call. God makes his own choices as to who ministers in what way in his kingdom. And these are two Bible truths that stand out in the wilderness way, that Moses was chosen by God to be a type of Christ as a deliverer, as an intercessor, and as a leader. And this lesson tells us also that Aaron was chosen by the Lord to be a type of Christ in his role as the high priest. And those are important Bible truths for us to understand. Only Jesus makes atonement for our sins in the heavenly tabernacle by his own sacrifice because we have sinned against a holy God. And in this passage, it's only Aaron who was to operate in that same role in the wilderness tabernacle. It was not to be performed by just anyone. It was Aaron and ultimately his sons because Aaron wouldn't live forever. And so that was to be passed down. And so Bible truth is the exclusive role of Jesus Christ as our mediator and high priest is something that we need to understand. Now, not everyone will agree with that. And even not everyone who calls themselves a Christian will embrace that idea that is only through Jesus's sacrifice that we can approach God. Some people would echo the words of Korah, the whole congregation is holy, every one of them. But that is a grave error, if you'll pardon my pun. The events that we're going to study in number 16 and 17 could have happened just about any time in the wilderness journey. We don't know, we're not given a time marker, but it's a huge volume. And so that kind of gives us a clue, it's pretty important when we see something described in detail. I want us to remember a couple of things that the Hebrew name for this book of numbers was literally in the wilderness, remember that? And in the wilderness, we've grown accustomed to a lot of grumbling and a lot of complaining. Mostly it's been against Moses, but now it's also going to be against Aaron too. There's an awful lot of drama. You studied three chapters, we won't be able to read all of that verse by verse. We don't have the time, but I'll start with the first three verses. So we're in Numbers chapter 16, we'll read the first three verses and go from there. It says,

And we'll stop there. You remember that when we find complaining and rebelling, especially among God's people, we've discovered there's often a stated reason out front and a hidden reason behind it. Do you remember when Aaron and Miriam were grumbling against Moses here just a couple of chapters ago, there was a stated reasons like that wife of yours. And the hidden reason behind it was they were jealous of Moses's ministry. Well, I feel like the same thing is happening here. The public complaint was that Moses and Aaron were running things, they'd gone too far. But what is the hidden complaint behind it? The hidden complaint was that Korah was not satisfied with his place in life. He was not satisfied with what he had been given to do. Remember, let's review what the tasks of his clan were. Korah was of the Kohathites, and they were given the task of carrying all of the furniture and the elements inside the tabernacle from one location to the next when the cloud picked up and moved and took it somewhere else. That was their task. Korah apparently wasn't satisfied with that. He didn't want to serve the priests in that way. He wanted to be a priest. Now you can look at any situation two ways. The Korah and the men with him could have looked at their task as if they were saying all they want from us is our muscle. That's all we get to do is just we have to grind it out, load up this stuff, carry it from one location to the next. What kind of a life is that? Or they could have said of all the congregation of Israel, God has selected us to live near the tabernacle and we carry the Ark of the Covenant on our shoulders. We carry the inner elements, the utensils, the sacred objects of the tabernacle. We carry it ourselves from one location to another. Isn't it fascinating what perspective does? A lack of satisfaction in our place in life will breed discontent, grumbling, complaining and take us to emotional and relational places we don't want to go. So Moses had to deal with these two groups that were rebelling against him. Korah's company who were of the Levites, and then these Reubenites, these other men that you listed. Reubenites, Reuben was the first born. So these guys, they had two separate issues, but it didn't matter because you saw in your study guide that they lived in close proximity to one another, and they probably got each other stirred up. And once people get stirred up, doesn't matter what they're complaining about because they'll just run with their own thing. But there was the two different groups. So first to Korah and his company. In verse four, it says, when Moses heard it, he fell on his face and he said to Korah and all his company, in the morning the Lord will show who is his, who's holy and he will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses, he will bring near to him. In other words, if you want the job of the priest, go ahead, put fire incense in those censors, and we'll just see what happens. We'll let the Lord decide what's going to happen here. But first he gave him a warning. I love this in verse seven. Aaron had said, or Moses said, you told us that Aaron and I have gone too far. He says in verse seven, you have gone too far, you sons of Levi. Verse eight, Moses said to Korah, here now, you sons of Levi. This is a, he's appealing to them. I love this passage. He said, is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? And would you seek the priesthood also? In other words, how much does it take to satisfy you? How much do you need? Is it too small a thing what you've already been given? In verse 11, he reminds them, it's against the Lord that you and your company have gathered. What is Aaron that you grumble against him? This isn't about Aaron. This is about your dissatisfaction with the Lord. Well, then to the Reubenites, Moses sent for them, but they wouldn't come see him. They wouldn't come. They said, no, we're not going to come. I think we'll just hide behind our cell phones and text you right here and complain that way. And so that's what they did. Without seeing him face to face, they just told him all their complaints. And they said, well, you took us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, meaning Egypt, and you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey. Look where you've left us right here in the wilderness to die. And you've made yourself a prince over us. Interesting. Moses was heartbroken and livid. And he's talking to God and he says to the Lord as if the Lord doesn't know. He goes, I haven't taken one donkey from these people. I haven't harmed them. And I just feel like God was saying, I know, I know, I know what it's like. Because it is a terrible, it is a hurtful thing when you have given yourself over to a life of service and sacrifice. Like Moses has done. He could have lived a different life. But he gave his life to follow God's call, to serve this nation. And instead of respecting them, they accused him and they abused him. And in that, he is a type of Jesus Christ. who also sacrificed his life with his father in the heavenlies to come and serve people who responded, how? Abused him and accused him. So I feel like God would say to Moses right there, I know, I know all about it. Well, as the narrative goes, these two groups are judged for their rebellion, which was actually against God. First, the Reubenites, the ground opened up, swallowed them whole. But did you notice God's mercy in judgment as you studied that? I want to point that out. There was a warning given to them to change their minds before that judgment came. And I'll read it for you in verse 26. They had an opportunity to repent, which means to turn around and go the other way. Moses told the congregation, depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins. And so it says they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. We don't know who got away, but apparently some of them got away. Who had an opportunity to repent right here? Everyone. Everyone had the opportunity, and that is the nature of God. I like to think that this other guy that was named in the first verses on O-N, I like to think he repented because he's never talked about again. And I just like to roll through that in my mind and say, you know what? He repented. He thought differently. He listened to Moses and he said, um, this isn't going to be good. I am getting away from them. It doesn't tell us that. That's just up in my head. That's how the movie plays out up here. But isn't it interesting that as people were, if people were to read this passage, people without the spirit of Christ, they would blame God for his harshness here. They would blame him for how he dealt with people. And in reality, it was the people that sinned against a holy God. It was they that were rebelling, and it was God that was giving them the grace and the opportunity to repent and to change their mind. An opportunity like, what's that show? Is it Who Wants to be a Millionaire? You know, Final Answer. Like God was saying, okay, you got about 30 seconds here for your final answer. You know, because this is, they were warned. And they had an opportunity to change their mind and repent. And God doesn't hold back his justice forever. There is judgment. Well, the guys with the censors, okay, it says in verse 35, fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. So I guess that didn't work out for them. And just like the 10 spies from last week, the punishment was limited to those involved in the rebellion. God knows how to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. And then God gave this interesting directive to Aaron's son. And he told him, gather up all those censors, hammer them down, and make a covering for the altar. It's going to be a sign and a reminder for the people of Israel that no outsider who is not of the descendants of Aaron should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his company. So each time they approached the altar to bring their offering, it was covered. And this was a reminder to them that God made a choice as to who would serve him in this way. And this was affirmation number one. We're going to have three affirmations of Aaron's work as the high priest, as a type of Christ at the altar of God, and only Aaron. This was the first one, this sign over the altar. God gave a specific pattern for everything related to the wilderness tabernacle, which facilitated his presence with Israel. And more importantly, these things facilitate our ability to approach him in the heavenly tabernacle, which the writer to the Hebrews explains in depth for us. And we went there a little bit in our study guide to understand that this earthly tabernacle was to be a picture for us of what we experience now in the heavenlies. Jesus is the only one who can approach God today with the necessary atonement to make our nearness to God a possibility. And Aaron was the only one that was selected in that day. For the unfolding story of redemption to hold its integrity and make sense, it was important at this time that God say, no, this is the way I wanted the tabernacle to be expressed for all generations. And it needed to hold that picture. All right, then we come to affirmation number two of Aaron when he intercedes with the plague. Look at verse 41. It says, on the next day, I can hardly believe this, you guys. The very next day, all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. Unbelievable, isn't it? They not only refuse to obey and honor Aaron and Moses, but they actually blame them for what just happened. And of course, the Lord heard it. And Moses knows the character of the Lord well enough at this point to go, this isn't going to be good. And so he tells Aaron, he goes, quickly, verse 46, take your censer, put fire on it from the altar, carry it quickly to the congregation, make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. So Aaron did as Moses said. And we find we finish this part in verse 48. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. These are really hard chapters, but I feel like I say that every week. They are really sobering things. But we see that God is no longer treating his children like they're babies. That day has passed. He's treating them now as sons. And there are certain characteristics embedded in their character that God will not allow to stay there. He is going to get it out of their character, certain propensities that they have, destructive habits that they have developed in their thinking. And God is bringing correction on that. Now he's already dealt with Aaron. And I love this part of the stories. I love following Aaron's life, because you know what happened, the event with the golden calf, right? And so Israel says, we don't think Moses is coming back. We need a God. And Aaron just followed along and made this golden calf. And so right at that point, we may have thrown him into a certain category in our minds and said, just cross that guy off the ministry. This is never going to work out, right? And then he gets with his sister and the big grumbling, rebelling against Moses. And again, God brought swift judgment. And again there, we would have said, see, I told you, cross him off. He's no good. But God doesn't do that. God hangs with people. God continues to discipline people. And God gives people room to change. And you know what? We need to give people room to change. That's super hard to do, especially when someone has rebelled against us or done something against us, to hold with an open hand and say, let's give them some room here and see how they respond. Aaron responded to the ministry of the Lord. I am not saying every person in your life does. I'm not making this universal. I'm just saying here is a Bible truth that I think sometimes is useful for us to let people change and not cross them off. The other Bible truth is that God disciplines his kids. He hasn't always brought swift judgment on Israel, but now he did. And sometimes it seems like God just breaks in on history and brings swift and decisive and flamboyant judgment. He did it to King David. Remember Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, where the church was young and it was an example? I feel like there are times when it will be a warning and an example to others that God brings some swift judgment. And isn't that what the Apostle Paul has been telling us in Corinthians? These things happened as examples for us. And so God sometimes breaks in and brings this amazing and swift judgment. But what about us? What about you and me? I haven't had very many friends swallowed up lately or fire break out or plagues, and yet I suspect we're not completely innocent. I suspect that we still have some of these effects going on in our lives. We've already talked about our propensity for grumbling and complaining, which makes trouble for our horizontal relationships, even though the problem stems from a vertical problem. And so now we're looking at We're confronting the temptation toward dissatisfaction with what God has given us to do in the kingdom. For some people, it's a desire for greatness and authority like the disciples. You know, Jesus, we're sort of wondering who's gonna sit right next to you in the kingdom. You know, they had definitely had a desire for that greatness. For some people, it's a desire for independence. We don't want to release control. You know, we don't want to rank under in any way. For some, it's a need to be noticed or noticed more than others around us. Dissatisfaction seems to bloom most in our lives when we give into comparison. We can often be quite satisfied until our gaze looks at someone else and we say, wow, I wish I could do that instead. And don't you think that was Korah's problem? I think Korah would have been quite content hand-carrying the sacred objects of the tabernacle until he looked at the priests and went, well, now wait a minute. That looks a whole lot better to me. And often we are not discontent until we look at others. Now, on day one, I gave you that activity about, I drew a lane, a highway in the study guide and the activity was to write down what has God put in your lane to accomplish? Because you guys, if we're born again, we are now God's servants. We are now his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he prepared beforehand that we should do. What are those good works that he has identified for you? And I think that that's a real good visual for us to put those boundaries on it, which we'll end with that. But here's the question. Have you been tempted to think about the things in your lane as being too routine, too insignificant, or too difficult? Have you been tempted to look at the women in the lanes on either side of you and see what they're doing and say, well, I sure wish I had been given that to do. That looks a lot more fun than what's in my lane. And when we do that, when our gaze is over there, what happens with our forward motion? We stumble because we don't see what's right in front of us. And in our own lane, there can be some difficulties. There can be some potholes. There can be some boulders. There can be a jungle that suddenly appears that we need to cut down or we're gonna get tangled up. And so we need to stay focused on what God has given us to do. Korah's problem, I think, leaned toward he was despising the routine. You know, I think Moses' response, back up to verse nine, I think his response to Korah, his warning to Korah is very sober and very good, and I wanna sort of translate it and what it can mean to us. When he said to Korah, is it too small a thing that God has taken you to do these things? And so we can say the same thing. Is it too small a thing that God drew you by his spirit to know you, to know him, excuse me, that he saved you, he delivered you from your sins, that he has given you his word, the daily manna, that he has given you of his spirit so that you do have an intercessor, a high priest in heaven, and you can draw near, you can approach him? Is it too small a thing that he made you his workmanship, that he has given you gifts, he has given you tasks to do? Is that all too small of a thing for us? It's a good way to look at it. I love that passage, and it is sobering as we just kind of take it in and think about that. So how can I be satisfied with God's call? How can I avoid the Korah syndrome? In your study guide, at one point I took you to 2 Timothy chapter four, verse five, and I'll put it on the screen in a minute, but I wanna preface it because this is the apostle Paul talking to young Timothy. And a few verses earlier, as this section begins, this is what he says to Timothy. Verse one says this, I charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ who is the judge of the living and the dead. Doesn't that run parallel to what we're talking about? The judge of the living and the dead, I charge you. And now this is what the apostle Paul is charging Timothy with. I'm putting this on from the NLT. On the screen, I made it in bullet points, but it is word for word, because I want you to see it in three parts. Paul is charging him, but you should keep a clear mind in every situation, number one. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord, number two, it will come. And work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. Clear mind, there'll be suffering, but focus on the ministry God has given you. I feel like these are three good pieces of advice to keep us from the temptation to compare and to become dissatisfied. Now, I'm gonna show you this in another translation, and I'll beg your forgiveness first, because I probably only take us to the message once every two or three years. And this is the day, so don't think badly of me, but here's what it says in the message. It's not a translation, what do you call it? Paraphrase. It says, keep your eye on what you're doing. Now think about girls, our lane. Think about what we talked about, running in your own lane. Keep your eye on what you're doing. Accept the hard times along with the good. Oh, that is such a terrible thing to say, but it is the truth. There will be bumps, there will be trouble. And the advice is just accept the bad with the good. It's part of what's going on. And I love how this is stated. Keep the message alive, do a thorough job as God's servant. Do a thorough job as God's servant. You guys, we have to be reminded, we're not just living our life just for ourself. We are now God's servants. We have accepted that exchange, that forgiveness of sins. We now belong to him. We are God's servants, so do a thorough job as God's servant. He decides where we live. He decides what he allows into our life. Our job is to be satisfied with our call. Quickly, we need to get back to our lesson. There's one more affirmation of Aaron at Aaron's ministry that is just awesome. And it's in chapter 17, and I wanna summarize chapter 17 for us, just in case Israel missed the point in all of the drama that was going on, the fires and the plagues and the ground and all that kind of stuff. The Lord is giving an object lesson where it's gonna be made very clear. And I love this object lesson. Moses tells everyone, all the tribes of Israel, now take, I want one staff from every tribe, put your name on it, and we're gonna put them in the tent of meeting overnight. Now, in our day, we have staffs and canes and things made of all kinds of different, we have graphite, we have aluminum, we have everything. But in this day, a staff was one thing only. It was a dead branch, trunk, it was a piece of wood. And it was dead so that it held its form and it was immovable. We want to build our homes out of dried wood, right? We don't want it moving and changing. So a staff was a once organic, once living dead thing. So they write all their names on it. And verse five says, the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease for me the grumblings of the people of Israel. And then in verse eight, on the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and it bore ripe almonds. A staff is a symbol of authority and leadership and only one staff was resurrected back to life. It budded, it blossomed and it bore almonds. That is a life that is in that staff. It was resurrected, it went in a dead staff just like all the rest and it came out a living staff. Now, who does that remind you of? Isn't that a beautiful picture? And what did God say to do with that? Keep it, keep that in the ark of the testimony so that you'll know this. So they were to be watching for a high priest that would come in the order of Aaron. So finally, to wrap up our lesson, we went to Numbers chapter 18 and we considered all the implications that God was reminding them of the priesthood and the Levites. And just sort of to summarize that, God said again, Aaron and his sons shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary. In other words, they would have the risk involved in it. Keeping guard over the tent and meeting for all the service of the tent that no outsider shall come near. And we were told that the Levites were given as a gift to the priests. Now based on what just happened in some of these chapters, you sort of wonder how much they appreciated that gift. But nonetheless, the Levites were to be, were gifted to the priests to enable them to do the work that they needed to do. And all of them, the priests and the Levites, all of them were to have no inheritance in the land that they were going to. God said, I am your inheritance. Well, if they were to have no inheritance, no land, how in the world were they supposed to eat, make a living, farm, raise crops? I mean, they were to be fed by the people of Israel themselves. When all the people brought in their tithes and their sacrifices, that is when the Levites got the first fruits from the people of Israel. They were dependent, that was the word I was looking for, they were to be dependent on Israel. And the priests were to be dependent on the Levites. So the Levites had of the first fruits, the tithe from the people, and then they were to turn around and tithe to the priests. So it was a very interdependent relationship, which may have been a scary thing. Wouldn't you rather earn your own living? You wanna be dependent on people that have a character like this? And I want us to just consider for a minute that many people have an interesting lot in life, an interesting lane to run in. And I wonder for a minute if Korah thought of that when he wanted the job of the priests. We often don't, do we? As we look at someone else's lane, we often don't see the difficulties in it. But everybody has some difficulties. I wonder if some of the Levites wanted to be priests. If some of the priests or some of the priest's wife wanted to say, can we just be from the tribe of Dan? Like I think that that would be, you know? It's common for us to just think it's better somewhere else. And so it's good for us to remember that in our modern life, that not everyone's life around us is as it appears to be. All right, we're gonna bring this all to a closing. We all need to come to a place of satisfaction. I close this study guide with Psalm 16, verses 5 and 6, which I love. And I want to put those here on the screen for you, and I wanna read that together. David says in his prayer, Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup. You've made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely, I have a delightful inheritance. That is a prayer of satisfaction. I wonder if he felt that when he said it, or I wonder if he said it so that he would feel it. I don't know when that was written. But you know what? Sometimes we just have to say things so that we will feel it, right? And I love how this talks about, and I think I got this out of the NIV maybe, but I love the boundary lines because again, it gives us that image of our lane in life. So a couple of final questions that we ask. Am I, like David, satisfied with my portion and my cup? Do my boundary lines in my life mean that I'm not gonna have something that somebody else does have? Do my boundary lines mean that I might have to depend on God in some ways in a greater way than the other person does? But do my boundary lines mean that I might get to do something that someone else doesn't? These are my boundary lines, and God has chosen, and God knows what is best for me. And so I think that that is one of the best lessons we can take from these verses. Satisfied with God's call, I'm his servant, he gives gifts, he gives tasks. I need to be satisfied with what he's given me to do. Accept the good times with the bad, and just move forward. Father God, help us to live in that, Lord. Help us, Lord, to get to the place where we can echo the words of David here. And just look up to you and say, Lord, you know what is right. You know what is best. And our boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. And Lord, show us how to keep our eyes focused on what you've given us. Accept the good with the bad. And Lord, how to do a thorough job of the work that you've given us to do. Make sure that we're always pointing people to Jesus. This is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.