Word of Salvation – April 2014

 

Numbers 33 – A SPIRITUAL TRAVEL DIARY

By Rev. John Westendorp

(Sermon 33 in a series on Numbers)

Scripture Reading: Numbers 33:1-15 & 48-56.

Singing: Book of Worship 337 / 441 / 136a / 407

 

Introd: Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor company didn’t have a very good opinion of history.

Ford said: “History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition.
We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam
is the history we made today.” (Chicago Tribune, May 25th, 1916)

Many of us share Henry Ford’s view of history… we don’t have a high opinion of history.

And yet all of us practice history with some seriousness. Let me give you some examples.

A man once said to his marriage counsellor: “Every time we have an argument my wife gets historical.”
The Counsellor said, “Historical…? Don’t you mean hysterical?”
He said, “No! I mean historical. She keeps on bringing up all this stuff from the past.”
That lady was into history… even if it was only the history of her husband’s faults.

I’ve just finished a long-term project that has taken up many spare-time hours.
I’ve scanned into my computer many boxes full of old family slides.
I did that because I found that my children appreciate that bit of family history.
Some of those scanned pictures are now appearing on their Facebook pages.

Speaking of Facebook, many people today share their holiday pictures on Facebook.
Why? Because history is important to them… it has precious memories for them.
And they want to share those memories with others as well.
So their pictorial travel diary is recorded on Facebook to be seen by all their friends.

We are all into history in some way or other.
And here in Numbers 33 we have history. It’s Israel’s ‘travel diary’ from Egypt to Canaan.
It’s as if this is Israel’s Facebook collection of 42 photos of where they stopped on their journey.

A] GOD’S PURPOSE IN A SPIRITUAL TRAVEL DIARY.

1. In many ways this chapter tests our patience. This is not the most exciting chapter in the Bible.

I don’t think anyone here really regretted that we skipped a whole 32 verses this morning.

All those place names… some almost unpronounceable. That tests our patience and our interest.

We might also find that this tests our approach and our application.
How do we come at these verses… and how do we apply them to ourselves today?
Just a long list of 42 Hebrew place names on the trip from Egypt and Canaan.
Is it possible that Henry Ford is right? Forget history. Just skip this chapter.

The trouble is that we will then have to skip over huge slabs of Scripture. So much of it is history.
And we then have another problem: we believe this is the Word of God.
Paul said to Timothy: All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for us.
So this too is God’s divinely inspired Word… and it is supposed to speak to us today.
So how do we get a handle on this and how do we apply this to our own lives?

The key to those questions is found in the opening verses: It’s about salvation.
This list begins with Israel leaving Egypt while the Egyptians are burying their firstborn sons.
This is about deliverance… about salvation… but salvation is a process.

It begins in Egypt… but the process doesn’t finish until Israel enters Canaan.
And that’s relevant – because for us Christians too salvation is a process with many steps.
That process began with our conversion but it won’t end till our glorification when Jesus comes.

2. Please notice that this “spiritual travel diary” of Israel wasn’t Moses’ idea.

Verse 1 tells us that at the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages of Israel’s journey.

This “travel diary of salvation” is God’s idea.
That immediately reinforces for us that this too… this list of 42 places… is God’s Word.
But it leaves us with the question: Why did God include this in the Bible?
I want to suggest a number of different answers to that question.

For one thing… this spiritual travel diary serves the same purpose as your photo albums.
It’s for the same reason that I took lots of slides of our family when the kids were growing up.
It’s so that our family would not forget those precious moments.
So many situations in life pass by so quickly and we forget so soon.
But those photos help to cement into our memories some wonderful times.
Of course also some sad and difficult times.
There are pictures of funerals as well as weddings in that album.

More importantly our photo albums show our children events that they were not even conscious of.
Their baby photos. Perhaps photos of grandparents that they never knew.
Those pictures make them aware that this is nevertheless their story… their history.
So too there was a new generation of Israelites growing up who hadn’t been there.
But they could read their family story in Numbers 33.

In that sense history helps us with our sense of corporate identity… our communal sense of belonging.
It’s a little bit like an Aussie I knew years ago whose ancestors were convicts.
He didn’t say: “My ancestors came to Australia on the First Fleet.”
But he said: “We came to Australia on the First Fleet.”
There was a sense in which he owned that history as his story.

That’s why God has Moses record this travel diary of Israel.
To remind the present generation of those passing moments at each of those places.
But also to give the younger generation an understanding of who they were as a people.
It was so that they might own this as their story.

3. The actual details of this travel diary are interesting.

It is not an exhaustive list… some places mentioned elsewhere are not in this list.

And there are many in the list that do not occur anywhere else in the Bible.

But why are there 42 places listed when we know the list could have been longer?
It seems that because of the omissions this number is quite intentional.
Some commentators have highlighted here the symbolism of numbers in the Bible.
In the Bible numbers are often profoundly important.
For example: the number 7 is the number of fullness… it’s God’s number.

If that’s the case then 42 stopping places would give us six groups of seven names.
Or six periods of seven… as if it represented six out of the seven days of the week.
If that’s the case then the symbolism becomes very meaningful.

Because the next period… the seventh group would be their Sabbath.
And that period would correspond to them being in the Promised Land.
So it’s as if we have the whole process of their salvation mapped out for us.
It begins with their deliverance in Egypt.
It proceeds through these six groups of seven periods.
Which will climax in the fullness of time – the seventh period – within the promised land.

In this way God would then be highlighting the perfection of His process of salvation.

The God who begins our salvation will, in the fullness of time, also complete it.

B] THREE KINDS OF TRAVEL STOPS ON THE JOURNEY.

1. I mentioned before that your photo album will most likely have happy pictures and sad pictures.

And that’s true here too.
Some of the places mentioned were high points of Israel’s spiritual journey.
They were glorious reminders of God’s faithfulness along the way.
They showed the new generation that their God was a truly wonderful and gracious God.
So there are some very specific stages in the journey that are a sheer delight.

There is for example the starting point of their spiritual journey: Egypt.
God had done his awesome wonders and devastated the land with plagues.
They had celebrated the Passover… a lamb had taken the place of their firstborn sons.
So their actual deliverance started the journey off on an incredible high.
And that speaks to us today. Christ is our Passover Lamb… our substitute.
He paid the price for our deliverance… our journey faith journey begins with that.

Their travel diary mentions that they passed through the sea… as God parted the waters.
Paul speaks of that as a kind of baptism: they were baptised into Moses and into the sea.
So too our spiritual travel dairy includes our baptism.
It’s another high point in our faith journey.

In verse 9 there is that wonderful oasis in the desert called Elim.
It’s the wonderful place of rest and refreshment, with twelve springs and seventy palm trees.
And so too our spiritual journey often has wonderful moments where God refreshes us.

Verse 40 mentions their victory over king Arad – the story is told in Numbers chapter 21.
And it’s good to look back at our history and be encouraged by moments of victory.
How God takes a situation of great difficulty or threat and turn it into a great success.

2. But the trouble is that there is that other category of places in this list too;

Just as in your photo albums you will have sad photos… pictures of difficult times.
And we have very mixed feelings about those pictures.
In a way we would rather not go there… just leave them in a box and let them gather dust.
There are negative places that I would rather not revisit.

And yet those difficult stopping places in this chapter have their own lessons.
Here in Numbers 35 they are places of grumbling and rebellion.
They contain lessons of warning… that God is not to be messed with.

But there is something wonderful about the way these negative places are mentioned.
It’s marvellous how the sin that happened there is passed over in silence.
And that is so typical of the Lord our God.
He does not excuse sin and rebellion against Him… He deals with it and judges it.
But after it has been dealt with and He has pardoned us… He forgets it.

We see that so beautifully in this chapter.
In vs.8 we read about Marah where the water was bitter; but it’s silent about Israel grumbling.
Rephidim is mentioned in vs.14… and it says that there was no water to drink there.
But it doesn’t mention that on that occasion they almost stoned Moses because of it.
God dealt with those sins… and now it’s as if they never even happened.

In vs.16 we read of Kibroth-Hattaavah but Israel’s rebellion there is not even hinted at.
In vs.36 we read of Kadesh, where even Moses got it wrong.
These were the low points in Israel’s journey… and yet God in grace removes their sin.
The negative things in your spiritual journey that you confessed He no longer holds against you.

3. So we’ve got a travel diary with high points and low points.

There’s the joyful pictures and the sad pictures… history has both.

But in your collection of photos you most likely also have a third category of pictures.

There will also be very ordinary everyday snapshots that are not really significant.
And so too we have places listed here where nothing important happened.
They are so ordinary that they are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible either.

In fact… as I read the 42 stopping place in this chapter it seems those places are in a majority.
Unknown places where nothing noteworthy happened. So why are they included?
Probably because that’s a good picture of life.
For most of us… in most of our days… life is reasonably uneventful.
There wasn’t a birthday or anniversary… and there was no major disaster or tragedy.
‘Just a routine day where we did stuff that we always do. Most of life is like that.

And yet… those days too are lived out under the guiding hand of God.
In those days too God’s providence is just as real as in the extraordinary days.
Iain Duguid has a lovely illustration of that in his devotional commentary on Numbers.
He pictures you driving down the highway in your car one afternoon.
All of a sudden an oncoming car crosses the line to overtake another car.
He’s heading straight for you and disaster is about to strike.
Then just at the last moment he swerves back and a collision is narrowly avoided.

You immediately thank God for His providence in sparing you from death.
But why don’t we thank God for the hundreds of other times we drove down that road.
Because it was God’s providence on those occasions too that kept you from danger.
God’s providence that protects you in boring ways…
is just as real as His providence saving you in spectacular ways.

The fact is that each of those uneventful places in Numbers 33 brought them a step closer to Canaan.

C] GOD’S PURPOSES FOR HIS PEOPLE’S JOURNEY.

1. In this chapter we’re also told what the purpose is of this journey.

The journey has a very specific purpose… and that purpose is God… and His glory and honour.

Modern Christians should take note of that.
When I listen to many Christians today… and sometimes preachers too…
I get the uncomfortable idea that people think that the journey is all about us.
And it isn’t. It’s about God.

The purpose is not just that we will have an enjoyable and comfortable trip.
The purpose is not even that we’ll arrive safe in heaven one day.
The purpose of the spiritual journey of the believer is the glory and the honour of God.

We notice that, as we read in this chapter of Numbers, a real concern for authentic Biblical religion.
God is concerned that people everywhere know Him as the only true God.
We could even say that God’s purpose for the spiritual journey is a holy war for His glory.

The journey itself certainly had moments of peace and rest but it also involved many battles.
There was that lovely restful Oasis of Elim.
But there are also several battles fought throughout the book of Numbers.
The same is true when it comes to the wonderful destination at the end of the journey.
There will be the promised rest in that glorious land of milk and honey.
But the battles of conquest will keep them busy for many years yet.

2. This central concern for the glory and honour of God comes out clearly in the opening verses.

We see right there where the journey begins in Egypt.
The purpose was God’s deliverance of His people from slavery.
He liberated this people from the slavery of Egypt and brought them out by His power.

But notice how that is spoken of in vs.4.
It speaks of Israel’s deliverance as also being a judgment on the gods of Egypt.
Egypt worshipped many gods. Theirs was an extremely polytheistic religion.
So the exodus was not only a judgment on Pharaoh but also on Egyptian religion.

Some have tried to show how this worked in the case of the ten plagues.
They argue that each plague was an attack against a specific Egyptian god.
For example: the water turned to blood defeated the mighty Nile which was seen as a god.
It’s quite a fascinating study but there is a more important point.

The main point is that Egypt’s many gods are powerless before Yahweh’s might.
At the end of the day, Israel’s God wins.
All of Egypt – including its religion – is powerless before Him.

So God is not only concerned about the deliverance of His people.
He is concerned that all the false gods of Egypt have robbed Him of His glory.
So the Exodus vindicates the honour and glory of God.
This is the one true God who alone is to be worshiped and glorified.

3. This goal of the journey comes out especially at the end of the chapter.

God is bringing Israel into the promised land for a very specific purpose.
The purpose is certainly to give Israel that land of milk and honey.
He wants them to enjoy a land in which they can rest from their wilderness wanderings.

But… God also spells out their task to purify the land of Canaanite religion.
They must destroy all their carved images and their cast idols and destroy their high places.
They are even to drive the inhabitants out of the land so as not to be contaminated by them.

The reason is not just that Canaanite religion was false religion.
But it was false religion of the worst sort.
It involved child sacrifice and temple prostitution.
And God did not want His people to be drawn into their practices.
So theirs is to be a holy war against those perverse Canaanite gods.

Here is truth that runs right through the Scriptures: our journey is a warfare for God’s glory.
God saves a people for Himself… but He wants those people to worship Him and Him alone.
We are redeemed from sin… saved by Jesus… but it is so as to worship the one true God.
God does not want us to get sucked into falsehood that will take us away from Him.

Israel are warned here that if they do not clean up the land of Canaan there will be trouble.
Canaanites who remain will become barbs in their eyes and thorns in their sides,
God’s demands are radical. He alone is to be worshipped.
But those radical demands are for our well-being so that we will not be hurt.
Because the practice of false religion is always to our detriment.

Unfortunately Israel were not wholehearted in obeying these commands.
Later in Joshua we get a list of various Canaanite groups that were not driven out.
So in the centuries that followed Israel was repeatedly led astray to worship pagan idols.
Today – thru Jesus – we are on a spiritual journey.
But we must be wholehearted in our service of Him. It’s Christ alone.
Let’s then go into this week in loyal service of Him who gave His life for us. Amen.