God’s Mercy Follows our Failures

This week, you studied three more chapters in the Wilderness Way. We had three more lessons on God's mercy, more lessons on Moses being an example of being faithful to God's call. We wanna remember that as we get saved, as we enter into God's kingdom, we no longer belong to ourselves. Now we belong to the Lord, right? He gives us gifts, he gives us tasks to accomplish in his kingdom. And this is to be done in the lane that he gives us to run in, right? And Moses continues for us here to be such an example of faithfulness. He's not perfect, we see a big blunder in this lesson this week. But yet an example of faithfulness as he finishes his course, he's coming to the end. And he is faithful through failures and victories and through life altering events, through grief, through snakes, through sorcerers, he just keeps going and going. And I love that, and I think that's something that is really foundational to our lesson, is how faithful Moses is to finish the work he's given us to do, or that God's given him to do. In addition to the fact that we see God's mercy prevalent in this passage. So our title is God's Mercy Follows Our Failures, God's Mercy Follows Everything. We're gonna start in Numbers chapter 20, verse 1 this morning. Again, we won't read the whole thing, just little bits and pieces to kind of reinforce your study. Verse 1 says,

So stop, one verse, one sentence that tells us Miriam died and she was buried. Very short thing to say, but the impact of that is completely out of proportion to how short that is. Because Miriam is Moses' big sister. And they must have had a close relationship. She was the one waiting, and when he was drawn out of the water, said I'll go get a nurse. So that Moses could spend those early years with his own mother. And you know that there was a lot being formulated, coming into him from his mother during those early years. So they've walked this whole journey together, and now she's gone. And Moses certainly is in a different emotional state. We often need to find strength ourselves to continue in our lane when we have emotions like this going on, when we're facing grief. I saw a little meme on Facebook that said, go easy, everybody's grieving. And it's true, everyone that you run into is burdened with something going on. So go easy at the grocery store, go easy wherever you're at. We don't know the other people's burdens. We wish Israel would have gone easy on Moses. But look, verse two, now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and quarreled with Moses. Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Note to self, bad form to say, I wish I would have died to someone who just lost someone. Insensitive words here, right? It just kind of hits you, verse four. Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? And this is the same sort of habitual complaining we've heard for 40 years. I thought about something when I'm talking with someone who's going through a hard time, and I don't know what to say. And I often just, I am so sorry. It won't always be like this. I say that a lot. It won't always be like this. I'm glad I didn't say that to Moses. It was always like this. Like if I had said that 38 years ago, it's like, nope, it's always like this. My lane has not changed. They kept going and going and going. And so I feel really, really bad. But again, Moses and Aaron, they fall on their faces before the Lord, and they ask God to meet the need. And in verse eight, God says,

Verse nine,

We'll stop right there. This staff, I think, is probably the staff of Moses, because it says the staff from before the Lord. And so Moses' staff that had budded came back to life, was supposed to be in the ark. So I think this is the staff that we're talking about. And so Moses takes this authoritative symbol, right, of the priest, then priest Aaron, which is also symbolic of our resurrected priest Jesus. But his words aren't authoritative. So he's holding the staff, and instead of speaking to the rock, like the Lord told him to do, out of his grief, out of his tiredness, out of his frustration, he spoke not to the rock, but he spoke to the people. And Psalm 106 says, he spoke rashly with his lips. Here's what he said in verse 10b, hear now you rebels. He's at the end of his rope. Shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and he struck the rock with his staff twice. And water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. So you end the reading there, and you're like, okay, good, God did it anyway. But we know, cuz we pulled this apart, that there's some things wrong here. God's instructions to Moses were, go get the staff, assemble the people, speak to the rock, the water will come out. Four simple things. What Moses did was, he went and got the staff, he spoke to the people, he crabbed at the people, he struck the rock, but water still came out. Why did the water still come out? Moses didn't follow the formula, because God is merciful. God's mercy, he did not want the people to perish in the wilderness. He still furnished the water for them, and for their cattle. But something was wrong with the picture. Now Moses was the one that God told him over and over again. Follow the example I give you, make it according to the pattern. Dozens of times, probably, God said, do it just this way. Why was God always telling Moses to do it this way? Because everything that was written in the past was written for our understanding. Everything that happened was going to mean something later on. And Moses was not to misrepresent, he was not to mess up the image. He was not to mess up the type of what was going on. But in this case, Moses messed it up. And so God had to bring some discipline upon he and Aaron, because he did not follow the type. It wasn't just a matter of you didn't obey, that was part of it. But part of it is, you messed up the picture. And I don't want anybody to mess up the picture. So verse 12,

However, remember, mercy triumphs over judgment, and God was still merciful to meet the need in the day, and that's important for us to see. So the rest of chapter 20 narrates for us Israel getting closer to the land of promise. They ask their cousins, the Edomites, if they can slip through their land. They said, we're not gonna drink any of your water, we're not gonna trample any of your crops. We just wanna sneak through your land and get to where we're going. It's not gonna be a problem at all, I promise you. And the king says, nope, you can't come through. And he sends out his army to reinforce his words. And so that was disappointing, but there's a bigger disappointment to come. Cuz in verse 22, they journey from Kadesh, and they come to Mount Hor. And the Lord said in verse 24,

And so they were to take Aaron, they went up to the mountain, they stripped him of his priestly garments, they put it on Eleazar. And in verse 28, it says Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, and when all the congregations saw that Aaron had perished, all the people of Israel wept for Aaron for 30 days. Now I can really sympathize with Moses here, because now in a very short amount of time, his generation is gone. Miriam has died, Aaron has now died, and he's alone in his generation. He has Joshua, and he has Eleazar, but he's old, and he's tired, and he's grieving. And I would subtitle this section right here, like, you know how there's little headings in your Bible that kind of put a title on little paragraphs and stuff? I would say, how to keep going when you don't want to. Have you ever had to keep going when you didn't want to? Absolutely. Everybody can relate to that. But that's the lesson I see here with Moses. How do you keep going when you just don't want to? And particularly here, through, Moses had just made a bad personal mistake. Have you ever made a personal mistake? Like, you blew it. You did something wrong. And now you've got to keep going. And he has to keep going through grief. And that's not anything he placed upon himself. It's just the season of his life. It is what has happened to him. But he needs to keep going. Because what? We have this lane. There's things yet to accomplish, things yet to finish. And I love this particular story, because it gives me inspiration. He is an example of how to keep going when you don't want to. I had that little thing in your study guide, Warren Wiersbe said, it's always too soon to quit. It's a good statement. But that's not going to get you moving in the morning. You can't get up in the morning and say, well, they say it's always too soon to quit. So here I go. That's just not going to, you know, that's not going to do it. We're all very different people. And what takes me through difficulties, and me through grief is probably a little bit different than what does for you. I've learned that about myself. I look around, I'm like, huh, I'm a little bit different than some other people. We're all different. But I just want to offer a few things that resonate with me. I love when the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. I love that. That is the difference. How many times have you said, how do people do this without the Lord? Right? We as believers in Jesus Christ, we don't grieve the same way that people grieve that have no hope. That is a comfort for me. It looks different on us. Do we grieve? Absolutely. Do we roll over our personal mistakes? Absolutely. But it looks different on us. And the Lord is close to those who are going through these difficulties. And that is an assurance. I will never leave you or forsake you. That is a great assurance to me. I also think that it's not so much in the answer as it is in the pursuit. As we're going through the Psalms and I see David pursuing God through his difficulties, you know, it's in that pursuit. And so that is something I would say to somebody, keep pursuing the Lord. Keep seeking him through the scriptures until something hits you that resonates with you that says, this will carry me through today. So Moses did keep going. Now, just a little side note here. I always love when we come to these points and we can bring up something that's going to help us. Side note, some things are not resolved in this life until after we die. There are some things that we will never see God's purposes fulfilled. And it's important for us to know that. Miriam, Aaron, Moses, none of them saw the fulfillment of God's promise. They did all the work. They bore all the burden to get him to the edge. None of them saw with their own eyes, as they were still had breath, the people enter into the promised land. And that's a good lesson for us. Sarah never saw Isaac and Rebecca. She had the child of promise, but she never saw it go one step further. Rebecca died before seeing Jacob's 12 sons. Joseph himself died in Egypt. However, he was smarter. Well, or we just see that it's recorded. He said, you guys, I'm going to die here, but God's going to take you. God will be faithful. God will fulfill his purposes. He promised me, he made his siblings promise, take my bones with you. When you go, take me with you. So there's a part of me that goes. He knew God would be faithful after his lifetime. Moses's mother likely perished while he was still yet considered a murderer and a fugitive. She never saw the life that he did. And the same thing is true in my life. I am certain that there will be things that won't be resolved until I'm gone. Do I continue to pray over those things? Do I continue to believe God for his purposes? Absolutely. And you do too. Yesterday morning, I was praying over some things. I said, Lord, I just need your word here. I need to hold on to something. So Isaiah 46, 11, God said, I have spoken. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will do it. I love how just short and to the point that is, you can just rattle it off. And that's the heartbeat of this. And that's what Aaron, Miriam, and Moses could have all said. God has purposed. He will do it. Nothing is going to stand in his way. All right, now we can go to the next chapter. We see more of God's mercy, and this time mercy after Israel's impatience. Numbers 21, 4. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way. And I don't blame them. Detours are a bummer. They're a legit reason to be impatient. You know, you get to a certain point, the bridge is out, and the detour says, it's okay, you can get over there. Just 26 miles around this way. You know, nobody likes that. So I understand. In verse 5, it said here, but here's what happened. Verse 5,

And certainly, the worthless food they're talking about is the manna, the bread from heaven that shows up on time, every day, free of charge, that they don't have to work for. That's the worthless food. But they're tired, and they're grumbling. In verse 6 says,

And I think the fiery describes the result of the bite. It was a very burning, suffering sort of a thing before they perished. And Israel does something for the first time that I see in this passage. They admit their sin, and they ask Moses to intercede for them. And this is a new thing for them. Verse 7 says,

Saying we have sinned is so key to life, and so wise. And I love that we have this example. And so, Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses,

All right, so the bite of these serpents caused what? It caused pain, it caused suffering, and it caused death. That was what was going on with the people. In their affliction, as they realized they were in trouble, they cried out to God for a solution. They actually cried out and said, would you take them away? But that wasn't God's solution. They cried out for a solution to the Lord, and he didn't take away the source of sin, but he gave them something else. He gave them a choice. He gave them a choice to put their faith into action, and their choice was, he told Moses, you craft this serpent, and you put it on a pole, and that will be a symbol on that pole. And anyone who looks at the lifeless, judged snake, serpent on the pole, will live. Anyone who makes the choice to do that will live, but the choice would be up to the people. The people could listen to the instructions and say, well, that's dumb. I don't think that's going to work. Let's go get some herbs out in the wilderness and try and see if we can, you know, remedy the wound that way. So they had a choice to believe that merely looking at this on the pole was going to be their salvation from the bite. We can figure it out because we're New Testament Christians, and we know all about the cross, but even if we, but even since we do that, Jesus still interpreted this for us. The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3.16. Right before John 3.16, in verse 14, Jesus says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man himself be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. And so Jesus came to be a representative of sinful man, to be judged for us, to be lifted up on the pole, lifted up on the cross, and we all have the same choice, don't we? The choice is to believe the words of God, that simply looking to the cross, saying, first of all saying, we have sinned, looking to the cross and saying, you know what, I see what God's doing there. He's giving us an opportunity for an exchange, so my sin can be exchanged. It's a beautiful picture, but you know what, no one in the wilderness could look on the serpent for someone else. Everyone had to do it themselves. No one in our lifetime can make someone else look to Jesus. They have to make the choice. They have to put faith into action and say, that is where I get relief from this peril of sin and suffering and death. Beautiful picture. I love when we can see New Testament realities played out in a different way in the Old Testament. So the remainder of chapter 21, chapter 22, begins the destruction of the nations that are already in the land, okay? And we're settling on God's mercy this week, but one Bible truth that we need to understand is there are boundaries to God's mercy. There are boundaries to God's mercy. The Bible teaches us this, but people might say, well, I just don't think that God would do such and such a thing, when the Bible shows us, in fact, doing exactly that, and that's a problem. We need to look at the Word of God and say, this is what God is like, rather than just saying, well, I think that, okay? And this is important for us to learn. We're mothers. We have children that we're talking to. We're Sunday school teachers. We have classes that we're teaching. So this part is hard, but it's important. All right, what am I talking about? Peter was the one that best summed up in 2 Peter, chapter 2. We've studied it together, but he wrote a little essay with some bullet points that shows us the boundaries of God's mercy, and I'm just going to express that to you. Peter said God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but he cast them into hell until judgment, and he said God did not spare the ancient world. He did save Noah and his family through when he brought the flood, and Peter told us that God brought swift judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, all while rescuing Lot. Now, one of the points that Peter was saying in that is that God knows how to spare the righteous when he brings judgment on the wicked, but all three of those groups met the boundary of God's mercy. God's mercy toward them had come to an end. That's what we're looking at as the people are entering into the land of promise. Since Genesis, chapter 15, God has been holding back judgment on the people groups that already exist in the land. They were wicked people that occupied Canaan. It even said the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure, so God was holding back, holding back, being merciful for centuries, but there would be a boundary to that mercy, okay? And because God did not want to place his children in a situation where their knowledge of him would become diluted and destroyed by mixing with the wickedness of the people that were in the land. Same way, mamas, you don't just set your children to go play unsupervised with known naughty children, right? Like, you either supervise or it's like, nope, that's not what we're going to do here because bad company corrupts good character, and that's sort of the principle that was going on, but yet God waited and waited and waited and waited until the boundary of his mercy had come to an end. I just want to share a few ways, just two verses where God has been expressing to them that they will completely destroy these people. Exodus 23, 33, they, talking about the nations, they shall not dwell in your land lest you make, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you. And then from Deuteronomy chapter 7, when the Lord your God gives them over to you, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Is that very difficult for our modern ears to hear? You must devote them to complete destruction, really hard. You shall not make a covenant with them and you shall show them no mercy. Why? Because they've come to the boundary of my mercy. Don't you go showing them mercy. See, we need to be on the same page, okay? And so he said, you will show them no mercy and you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eyes shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. Very difficult, but this is what the Word of God teaches. They had come to an end, the boundary line of God's mercy. Now, there's a few people groups mixed in with this that are different. They're relatives, they're cousins. We have cousins of Jacob that God has a different plan for. And I'm just going to read you some of these. It's all from Deuteronomy chapter 2. I don't think I put them all in the study guide. Edom was the land of Esau's descendants and so God said, do not contend with them. I will not give you any other land because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. Ammon had been given to Lot's descendants and God said, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession. And then Moab belonged to the other son of Lot and God said, do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession. All right, so we've got the wicked nations in Canaan that they will destroy and we've got the cousins that they will not. And this has all been laid out by God as we enter into Numbers chapter 22. It says the people of Israel set out and they camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho and Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was in great dread of the people because there were so many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. All right, stop. Moab is one of these protected cousin groups. God said don't contend with them, don't do anything bad. But what was their response when they saw they were in dread and great fear. The reason is they had completely lost connection and communication with God. Otherwise they would have known. We have nothing to fear of these people, but they were out of practice for years and years of connecting with God, communing with God. They had gotten into practice of sorcery and divination and so their understanding was gone. And I just want to say we can face a similar peril even as Christians if we enter into a season where we are out of communication with God, out of communion with God, and all of a sudden the things that we should have no fear over we are in dread of. We are greatly troubled, we worry, we fret over what might happen when if we just had that communication with God he may very well be able to tell us you don't have to worry see I've already planned this out. So even though it looks like there's an army coming against you, no worries just chill. And so it's important lesson for us to say I have to stay connected. You've probably gone through an experience when you did face something very worrisome and you just felt the bubble. You just knew God had protected you with understanding and you said yeah it looks bad but it's not going to be bad because God gave you that understanding. So we need to remember stay connected, stay communing with God. When something looks troubling you go to the word and you say Lord I need to hear your word here. I need understanding and we're going to talk next week about Balaam's words and the curses. But there's just one verse I want to point out before any of the curses begin. He prophetically says what is going to happen and it's in verse 38. Balaam the sorcerer said to Balak the king he said behold I've come to you here I am have I now any power of my own to speak anything the word that God puts in my mouth that I must speak and that is exactly what happens and I love it and Balaam himself declares well whatever God says that's what's going to happen and we often say that God's will happens in God's way and in God's time and that is a truth and we've seen that in our journey from Egypt to Sinai to now almost into the promised land that God's will is happening. in his own time, and nothing, thirst, and hunger, and armies, and rebellion, and snakes, and sorcerers, nothing has stopped God's purposes yet for the people. Have there been trials? Absolutely. Have there been delays? Yes. Has there been discipline? Yes. But nothing has stopped God's purposes. His purpose still remains. And that reminds me of the same thing that the Apostle Paul wrote to us. For I am convinced that neither life nor death, angels or demons, neither the present or future, nor any powers, heights, depths, anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God. God's will and God's purposes are moving forward. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, all these things that we can just take in and use for fuel, and I'm sure in our room there's a lot of different things going on in our minds, but Lord, we can see the faithfulness of Moses at the end of his course, and Lord, we can use that for fuel. Lord, we can see your purposes being played out, and we can use that for fuel. We can see the warnings to not lose connection with you. Lord, so much in your word, but I pray that you would allow each woman here to fulfill the purpose for which you have created her, to run her course, to finish her course with joy, Lord, and to be a faithful servant. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.