Address—Steve Stewart
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If we start the meeting this afternoon with number 79 and the appendix.
Our great High Priestess.
He has lost my hands of all.
For us is going to live.
In everything.
Who? I'm here to go everything.
Bring down God's grace and bless me, I will take it round.
Me.
This word before us, and is thy word. We thank thee.
For God the Holy Spirit, who is alone able to open its pages to our understanding and make its impress upon our hearts to feed us and sustain us. And we thank thee for thy beloved Son, our Shepherd, our great High Priest, whoever lives for us on high. And we pray for thy blessing, our God and our Father, we know it's Thy delight to bless.
To feed thy children.
Encourage thy Saints.
To bring us into.
The enjoyment of thyself and my beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to meet our needs in the wilderness path. And so we just commit this time to thee with Thanksgiving and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Like to turn to three New Testament verses and justice read them.
Starting with Romans chapter 5.
And then we'll look at a portion in the book of Numbers, Romans.
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Chapter 5.
Just to continue a thought that.
Was taken up in the reading.
On salvation.
Romans 5 and.
Verse 10.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
First, Peter.
And chapter.
4.
First Peter 4.
And verse 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved?
Where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear?
Hebrews, Chapter 7.
Verse 24.
But this man, because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable.
Priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost.
I come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth, to make intercession for them. Verse 28. For the law maketh men, high priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which was, since the law maketh the sun.
Who is consecrated forevermore? Like to look back at?
Numbers and the 20th chapter.
Peter, we read, says And if the righteous.
Scarcely be saved, and when we think of salvation in the way that it was brought before us in the previous meeting, is not just the salvation of our souls.
But a salvation day by day, his deliverance is keeping a salvation that.
Is going to bring us safely all the way to heaven and we look at the forces arrayed against us.
And Satan's power and in this world around us and all its enticements. And if we look within.
Perhaps the worst of all.
How are we ever going to get through to the end if the righteous scarcely be saved, but he's able, he ever lives to make intercession for us? Our great High Priest is the one by whom alone our souls hold on their course. We're saved by his life, by the fact that he's living on high in his intercession and his advocacy.
At the right hand of God and we're passing through a wilderness scene and this chapter is going to bring before us a wilderness scene of the children of Israel in their journey to Canaan. Most of the history of Israel as to their wilderness journey really is given in the last few years.
Of that journey, most of it takes place right towards the end and this is one of those cases.
Just to share a little something with you. Keep my composure, alright?
Umm.
I guess it would be almost this time last year, low past probably, so not quite a year down in Vestal. We stood on a hillside up in Cherry Valley north of Vestal and a little cemetery and it was cold and windy, snowy I think on snow on the ground. And there we.
Buried the dear brother and the Lord. I didn't even know that little cemetery is there, just down the hill.
From his house, perhaps right on their family property where they'd raise their children and grown up. And there was that little cemetery and it seemed so cold and kind of forlorn and just bitter.
And at the beginning of the year, we've been at another cemetery.
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And a little graveside service and there were two little girls that.
Were buried there.
There.
And again it was, I remember, kind of rainy umbrellas out and cold seems so dreary.
And.
In the middle of the year, another dear brother.
Lord took him, and we buried him as well.
The wilderness is marked by death.
It's a scene of death. A year began with death. It ended with death.
There was death in the middle.
And justice looking to the Lord at the end of that year.
There were other trials, trials, you know, each one of us have in family, trials in our personal lives, and perhaps most difficult of all, trials in the assembly.
And look to the Lord for a little help apportioned something.
To sustain the soul. And this is where he directed. So what I want to share with you today is what the Lord gave me. You know, in those three events I mentioned there in that little cemetery in Cherry Valley, a brother opened the word of God.
When was blowing, he had to hold the pages and he read those wonderful scriptures in First Thessalonians 4 about the Lord Jesus coming descending from heaven.
With a shroud and we looked on to that moment we expect.
To take place at anytime when the Lord will come and raise all his own and will be caught up to be with them. We have the comfort of the Scriptures. And at that little cemetery at the beginning of the year we had Romans Chapter 11. All things are well. I'm just going to read it. Sorry, I'm not going to be able to quote it.
From him, and to him, and through him.
All things.
Verse 36 were of him, and through him, and to him are all.
Thanks to whom be glory forever. Amen. Those little ones were from Him. They went to Him and would get through all the trial.
Through him, through him, and we had the comfort of the scriptures again and in between.
We read together at that other funeral I mentioned of the Lord Jesus, the grave of Lazarus.
And of his sympathy of the.
The Lord's own thoughts is to the awfulness of sin and its impress on this world and its results in the life of His One, those He loved, and those tears that fell from human eyes and came down.
Human cheeks, but they came from the heart of God.
And we have not in high priests, which cannot be touched with a feeling.
Of our infirmities.
These lives for us, he's going to bring us all the way.
Through and safely home.
But it's a wilderness scene that we pass through.
And we're going to read this scene. It begins with death. It ends with death.
And I trust will see his provision for us through it.
Numbers 20 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zen in the first month, and the people abode, and Kadish and Miriam died there, and was buried there, and there was no water for the congregation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, And the people ***** with Moses, and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our brethren had died before the Lord.
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And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us into unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces.
And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod.
And gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock.
So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, And he said unto them, Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smoked the rock twice.
And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, Because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
Verse 22 And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadish, and came unto Mount Horan. The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and Mount Hor by the coast of the land of Edom sang, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel.
Because he rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eliezer his son, and bring them up unto Mount Horror, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded, and they went up into Mount Horror in the sight of all the congregation in Moses stripped Aaron of his garments.
And put them upon Eleazar's son. And Aaron died there in the top of the mount.
And Moses and Eliezer came down from the mount.
There's a death at the beginning, death at the end.
Of this journey.
From this place called Kadish.
To horror.
The death of a prophetess.
And then the death of the priests, the high priest.
Aren't we glad our great High priest ever liveth to make intercession for us? He hath an unchangeable priesthood because he ever liveth, raised from the dead to die no more. But here, Miriam, she dies, and we remember her from the beginning of their journey, as they after they crossed the Red Sea, how she LED the praises.
Of the children of Israel, the sweet singer of Israel. And she led their praises, and she had her timbrel. And now here at the end those hands are folded in death, that timbrel is dropped, those lips are sealed, and no one can open them.
That song is gone and how is it sometimes?
With you and I, does the journey get long and weary? That song that we had when we were first saved. The joys that we knew.
Perhaps at one time seem evaporated and gone.
And it's replaced.
Instead of the praises of the Lord, the complaints of the heart.
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And so we see her death and then we see the complaints.
Of the people come out.
Oh, it's a place of no.
Water. No water in that place.
And.
These people of God.
The children of Israel, they gathered themselves together in their complaints against Moses and Aaron, and they showed with them. They rebelled. Their complaining, their discontent, their dissatisfied. There's death in their families, there's death in their circumstances.
Everything seems without resource and to natural eye the path of faith seems resourceless.
And they say and they add at the end, and there's no, neither is there any water to drink in verse 5. This is not the generation that came out of Egypt.
The generation that came out of Egypt looked back and said we remember the flesh pots, We remember the leeks and the onions and how we sat around the flesh pots and ate freely. They didn't do much setting. They were slaves. You know, it's amazing how our memories looking back at the good old days sort of changed, don't they? No, they were scrubbing, scrambling for straw to make brick. They weren't sitting around. But you know, that was their complaint they look back to.
Egypt. These had never known Egypt.
This is a generation that had grown up in the wilderness, and what had they heard from the time they were young?
They had heard of the promised blessings of the land that they were going to go to. They had heard of what portion was theirs and.
Trust and courage to look on to it. And so that's what they refer to in their complaint. This is no place of seed or figs or all these things you've been promising. Where's the joy? Where's the blessings? Where's all the things you're talking about?
This isn't any place of that.
All you know, our hearts can be the same. We can talk about the blessings.
That are ours in Christ and maybe there's no real enjoyment of them. The circumstances that we pass through become so burdensome, the trials and we just look around and it seems resourceless. It seems without blessing and the heart is deceitful above all things.
And desperately wicked. And it rose up in complaint really against God.
Well, Moses and Aaron, in the face of that, they go to the place where the Lord would meet with them, the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they fall on their faces, a good place to be.
Fall on their faces before the Lord. And how is the Lord going to meet these circumstances? The glory of the Lord appeared unto them.
Well, what is the Lord going to do? Is he going to smite these rebels? Is he going to?
Do away with them. Just had enough. 38 years of this.
It's enough. The next generation comes up, they're no better than the first same old thing.
That's not how he's going to meet it.
His glory appears, but I say here to me it speaks of the glory of his grace, not a word of reproach, not a word of reproach as to this complaining, murmuring people. But he says, Take the rock, and gather thou the assembly together, and says, Go speak ye to the rock, and it would give its water.
Well, that rock. Let's look back at Exodus.
Where we.
First find it, think it's the 17th chapter.
Again we spine the same complaint, but again with that first generation.
And there was number water to drink in verse one. And they tried with Moses.
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And accuse him of.
Killing us and our children, you know the ones in our chapter, they said it would have been better if we died with our brethren before the Lord. Wish you ever heard anybody say that? Wish I was dead. Things are so bad. Just wish I was dead. Wish I was dead. I've heard that before.
We say no, you don't, but that comes out of the heart, doesn't it? And they're complaining in that same way.
And the Lord tells Moses to take in verse 5.
Um to go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, where with us modest the river, take in thine hand, and go, Behold, I will stand before thee thereupon the rock and horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it and the people, that the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel.
And the name of that place, and he called the name of that place Mastha and Mariba, because of the chiding of the children.
Of Israel because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not?
Just like to also read a scripture.
In Psalms I think it's 78th Psalm.
Psalm 70 and 78 and verse.
15.
He claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of.
The great depths he brought the streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to rundown like rivers. Verse 20 Behold, he smote the rock at the waters gushed out.
This is a beautiful picture.
And Moses taking his rod and smiting that rock, and the waters flowing out, it is a beautiful picture of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross to meet us in our deepest need. He went to that cross, and there the rod of Jehovah was lifted up upon him. And smote him there. And the judgment that you and I deserve.
Fell upon him stroke upon stroke.
As we sing that song, at times his bosom bore the storm for me.
That's what it took for God to bring you and I into blessing.
That his son would be made sin in Calvary's cross.
And he clave the rock in the wilderness, and out of the depths gushed forth those waters of streams of refreshment. And out of the depths of the heart of God came that blessing that flowed from Calvary's cross, and at what immense cost smitten.
And those hours of darkness, the blessing flowed forth, His precious blood shed upon that cross for you and me. All that was at the beginning, that rod that was taken was Moses rod, wherewith he smote the waters of the Red Sea, rod of judgment, a rod of power and a rod of authority. And it smoked that rock. He smote it once, oh the Lord Jesus.
Was smitten once at Calvary's cross.
He's never going to go through that again. It's over, It's past. The judgment's gone.
The wrath was exhausted upon him at Calvary's cross. There's nothing left, nothing but the free and for us unmerited favor of God that flows from that work. That was the rock, and you know that rock we read of again in First Corinthians chapter 10.
Let's look at that.
One Corinthians 10.
Speaking of the children of Israel and the wilderness in verse four. And it all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Can we mistake the type at all? Not at all. At rock was Christ. No, we find that that rock followed them through the wilderness and everywhere they went, just like the pillar of cloud.
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By day in the pillar of fire, by night, that rock followed them through the wilderness with its streams of refreshment and supply.
And the very death of Christ.
Is that which not only has saved us, but which is the basis on which we are continued to be fed and refreshed as we go through the wilderness way. Those streams of refreshing flow to us a day by day from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is that rock.
The other thing we might want to look at now too is the other.
Article that's mentioned by God to Moses and Aaron.
He says take the rod, take the rod. We'll have to look back a few pages.
To understand what that rod is, it's not the rod we read of in Exodus 17. That was Moses rod. This is a different rod.
And let's look back just briefly at Chapter 16 of Numbers.
We find there that.
Cora and his company, Dathan and Abiram as well, rise up against Moses and Aaron, and rebellion rise up against that high priest that God had set. And Hebrews tells us that no one takes that honor to themselves except he that is called of God. Aaron was called of God to that place, and chosen but.
Jason in a by room core and his company, they rise up and they seek to take it for themselves. Not called by God at all.
And we know what happened. The earth opened its mouth and it swallowed up. Those rebels and others were consumed with fire that came out from God.
They had taken and made censors and thought that they could take part of the priesthood. There was.
They exalted themselves to that place and there was nothing left but their sensors afterwards.
Well, having seen all that, you would think that the children of Israel would have taken in the solemn lesson that had been played out before them. They fled from the cry of those who went down into the earth.
Went down into the pit, but now they come. In verse 41, on the Morrow, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people.
Of the Lord.
And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the Tabernacle of the congregation, and behold.
The cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses and Aaron came before the Tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them.
As in a moment, and they fell on their faces. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censor, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put it put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. And Aaron took his Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation. Behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put incense.
Put on incense and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.
God would have consumed them all in a moment all He would have been glorified in his justice.
In His Holiness.
But his name would not have been fully declared because he's not just a God of justice and holiness.
But he is the God of love and grace to and Moses without a command, but just with divine instinct. He tells Aaron quickly put incense on a sensor and get into the congregation and he obeys. And he runs in there, that cloud of incense, and it was put on the coals of fire from the altar where the burnt offering had gone up before God. And it speaks of a sweet incense, a sweet savour of Christ person ever ascending before the throne of God.
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As the result of his finished work on Calvary's cross and he made an atonement for the people, he stood between the living and the dead, and the living owed their lives to the fact that God's high priest stood between them and the dead.
You're here today, and I'm here today because our great High priest ever lives to make intercession for us. You and I could not take one step in the path of faith.
Except he is there.
Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us.
God showed that day they were indebted.
To that priesthood that they had rebelled against.
For their very lives.
Oh, how much the Lord bears with us.
I think murmuring, complaining is one of those weeds that gets in my heart so easily.
Well, the Lord says I'm going to settle this.
I'm going to settle this.
And in chapter 17, he says, Now you take all the heads of the people, Moses.
Take one man to represent every tribe, and Moses will represent.
Levi.
And every man brings a rod.
A stick.
And Aaron would bring one too. Take Aaron's rod and lay it up before the Lord.
And the Tabernacle of the congregation. And that was done. And in the morning, it says in verse 8, Moses went into the Tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron. For the House of Levi was butted, and brought forth buds and blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and they looked.
And took every man.
Is wrought.
There those sticks were brought out.
Dead, sapless, lifeless sticks. Except one.
And not only budded, it bloomed, and it bore fruit. Beautiful.
Oh, it speaks of that.
Changeless Priesthood of Christ founded on Calvary's work.
It's lifeout of death, and he alone can bring lifeout of this dead wilderness that we pass through.
And he ever lives to make intercession. It was a living rod, wasn't it? And a fruitful one too. Oh, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. What fruit has been brought forth in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and now ascended? There is high priestly work founded on his death and resurrection it bears.
Fruit and you know there was not another rod.
Before the eyes of God, Ever after this not one.
He had one rod alone that was before him, not even Moses rod.
Just one errands and he says bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels. And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die. Nah, isn't that interesting? Thou shalt quite take away not the murmurs, but take away their murmurings. Oh, the rod of authority.
They're out of power, they're out of judgment, Can take away murmurs.
With a stroke.
But this budded rod alone could take away the murmurings.
Not the rod of judgment.
A rod of priestly grace. All rod speaks of authority, of power, emblematic of the office of the one who holds it. But this rod was clothed with priestly grace.
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Living.
And so it was laid up before the Lord.
And then we come to our chapter, the Lord says to Moses.
Says take the rod.
It's not a question of which rod. There wasn't another rod in front of him. There was not another rod before his eyes ever after, but the rod of Aaron. It's the only one it could be. He says take the rod and he says go speak to the rock.
Don't smite it. He doesn't say don't smite it. He just says go speak to it. Go speak to it. All that rod is Christ.
And priestly grace on high interceding for us. That rock is Christ at one who was smitten for us. And whoever refreshes us in Hebrews chapter 4, there's two things in the wilderness that are brought before us that we need at the end of that chapter. One is the Word of God, and the other is the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's prophet and He's priest. He's the one who ministers and feeds us and Christian ministry.
Just like the priesthood of all. Just like Aaron's rod is called by the Apostle Paul.
Grace several times over, in Ephesians and in Romans and in Colossians, and Peter calls it grace. Christian ministry is founded upon the same principle of grace. Why? Because it's His grace that would feed our souls.
It's His grace that would sustain his people and if He gives gifts to do that, it's grace and whatever ability gives its grace, His love and His grace towards us.
And so he says, take the rod and speak to the rock.
When the trials of the wilderness press in.
We have a resource.
And the Lord would say to us.
Take the rod.
They hold of that rod and mighty intercession. That's for us, which alone can keep us. And speak to the rock. Oh, you can go to the Lord any time, no matter how deep the distress, no matter how difficult the way the resource is there. Speak to the rock. Speak to Him. He wants to bless you. He wants your blessing. He'll sustain you through all that you might pass through here.
He can be touched, and is touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
And so they go. With that, Rod blossomed.
Almonds. Beautiful, tender.
And he goes to the rock.
And he gathers all the congregation.
But he doesn't speak to the rock.
He speaks to the congregation.
And he says, Here, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?
And he smote the rock.
Twice with his rock.
Moses took his rod of judgment.
And can you not?
And I know you've been there, pressed out of measure at times. And he took that rod and he did to that rock perhaps what he would have liked to have done to those rebels. And they were.
I smoke it twice.
Flesh profiteth nothing.
Turn back to little count earlier numbers.
Moses that day spoiled one of the most beautiful types of Christ in the Old Testament Scripture. That smitten rock smitten for us at Calvary's cross. He'll never die again. He'll never need to be smitten again for us. And he spoiled it when he smote that rock the second time.
I mean, the second time since Exodus, he smote it twice at that occasion. But the second occasion, there's another difficult time and perhaps these things may come into our lives earlier.
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In Book of Numbers.
Well.
Excuse me, it's Leviticus Chapter 9.
Leviticus 9 There are two Suns.
Of Aaron, Nadab and Abayu. Excuse me, Chapter 10.
Leviticus can.
And they put fire on.
In their sensors fire that wasn't from the altar and it's called strange fire which the Lord had commanded them not they put incense on it.
And they were off doing things, you might say in a religious way, but it wasn't according to the word of God. And it dishonored God and the freshness of the institution of that priesthood. And they were smitten of God. They went out of fire from the Lord and devoured them. They died before the Lord. Moses says unto Aaron in verse six, and to his other two sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend.
Your clothes, lest you die.
You know when difficulties come in.
The family, and often it can things can come in that involve the assembly to.
Things that are so trying. This man lost two sons in one moment.
Moses says don't uncover your head.
Don't rend your garment. You know the first thing we want to do.
When difficult things come in, want to try and figure out how we're going to handle this? Don't uncover your head. What's the covered head speak of all we know from First Corinthians. It speaks of subjection.
Don't get out of the place of subjection to the Lord and His Word.
Don't uncover your head and try and handle it out of your own thoughts. Just bow to the word of God.
Be subject to the Word. Oh, we try and uncover our heads, handle it our own way, out of our own thoughts and not according to the word of God. When these difficulties come in and what happens, it doesn't work.
And then the flesh comes out. Rent, not your garment. The flesh comes out, the garment gets rent, and the ugliness of the flesh is exposed.
Things are said, things are done.
And you know, once the flesh has been exposed, our brethren don't forget the view and we can sew up the garment, but the scars still there, Christian character, the garment is spoiled. And maybe there's repentance and there's restoration with the scars there, and that character has been spoiled.
Let's not uncover our heads or rend our garments.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
Raw Moses.
38 years.
Or more a born with the children of Israel.
So I have to care for them 38 years and this rebellion was just more.
Than he could take.
Yee reebles.
Must we fetch you water out of this rock?
Instead of speaking to the rock and glorifying the Lord.
Because it was his purpose in grace to meet the need of that day, to take that rod by which alone the murmurings could be taken away, the grace of our great High Priest and speaking to him.
He took the rod of judgment, and he smelt that rock.
And he dishonored the Lord. He didn't sanctify the Lord and the glory of his grace in front of those people.
He didn't show the people what God's heart was towards them. He sanctified himself that those things that so vexed him. And nothing tries us, dear ones, I think more than when God's people go on in a wrong way, in a disobedient way, and difficulties come in the assembly and it just tries us, I think in a way.
00:50:07
Beyond almost anything else.
And unable to rise above that evil, he seeks to shield himself from it and exalt himself, and says, Ye rebels must weep at you. Water out of this rock. Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. The Lord said, My Father gave it to you. Must we fetch you water out of that rock? He takes a very gift of God, the water that God intended to give to refresh his people, and he exalted himself.
And he's a based.
Instead of exalting God.
It says in the 106 Psalm.
It didn't go well for Moses, for their sake, he spiked unadvisedly with his lips.
Brother, we need to go and take hold of that high priestly grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and speak to Him when those trials come in. He's for his people, Moses says in the 33rd chapter, Deuteronomy, after this incident is long past, he said yeah, he loved the people. He knew better. He knew the Lord loved the people. Moses loved them. But so tried and vexed in these circumstances.
He broke down under it, and you and I will too.
Unless we speak to the rock.
Unless we take hold of that High Priestly grace and lean on His intercession for us by that alone, our souls will hold on their course.
While the Lord tells them you can't take the children into the land, children of Israel.
No, Moses rod could never take them in anyway. They could never take them in one rod alone. And it's only our Lord Jesus, high priestly work that's going to bring us safely home to glory. Not only are we saved by His life, but we're saved all, as we often say, He's in all the way home, Savior to salvation. That's going to bring us right into the Father's house, and not one will be missing.
Not one.
He's going to bring us all there well.
Two things go hand in hand in our lives through the wilderness journey, God's grace and God's government.
He loves us too much.
To let us get away with things that are not good for us.
To be just passed over.
He's faithful in his discipline. There's grace mixed with it.
But they had not sanctified the Lord. He was sanctified, it says, in the eyes of the children of Israel. Why? Because the water gushed out in spite of Moses and Aaron's failure.
And so at the end of the chapter, we find that Aaron is taken up to the top of Mount Horror.
Oh, this was his brother.
This was his brother, his brother who had said those many years before to the Lord. I can't speak. I I can't talk to Pharaoh. I'll find somebody else. And Lord says no, you go. He says no, no, find somebody else. Lord finally says to him, OK, you can have Aaron and now with his own hands.
He has to take those garments off, Aaron.
The lessons in the government of God, and who teacheth like Him.
Can come home to us in such a way. They teach us lessons so deeply, so thoroughly.
In a way that none other could teach with his own hands, he has to take those garments off his brother and put them on Eliezer's son.
And Aaron died there before the Lord.
And Mount Hore.
I want to turn to another portion.
Connection with the government of God and the grace of God.
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I think it's Deuteronomy last chapter, yes.
Wonderful thing about the government of God and his discipline and our lives.
It's always mixed with grace. If we receive it from His hand, we'll enjoy the fact that it's mixed with His grace.
Not only Aaron, but Moses couldn't enter the land, bring the children of Israel in, and so on the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, we find that the time comes that Moses is going to die as well.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab and to the top of Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh.
All the land of Judah unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, and the city of palm trees. Beautiful.
It's not the city of the curse here, it's the city of palm trees. Whenever it's Jericho spoken over to the city of palm trees, it's in connection with being part of Israel's inheritance, the city of palm trees.
Unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abram.
And unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Grace and government, I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes. That's his grace thou shalt not go over. That's his government.
So Moses the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
Do you bury them in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth Fiore? But no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim. There's natural force abated.
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, verse 10. And there rose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, and the Lord knew face to face.
Verse 12 And then all that mighty hand, and in all that great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
There on the top of that mountain, he had pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord finally said to him, Moses, don't speak to me anymore of this matter. He pleaded with the Lord to go in.
The Lord said don't speak to me anymore, it's settled.
But it is grace He took Moses and company with himself, and He got a view of that land and all its length and breadth and depth and height of you that none other of the children of Israel ever had of that promised land in all its detail. You know, time means nothing with the Lord. Perhaps it was a few moments of human time, but He showed them everything, every detail.
He got to see it, and who was his guide? I don't want to make it sound light and call it a tour guide because that would just seem kind of crass, but who is his guide to show him all those details? It was the Lord himself saying, see this, see that? I want to show you this, I want to show you that, and he took him through.
And who knew that land better than the Lord? And he shows him every detail of it. And company with the Lord, we count it a privilege to go on some place and the tour guide just takes me or you or a couple of us, sort of a big crowd and just personally shows personally showed every detail to him. And there he is hand in hand with the Lord, so to speak, viewing that land. And on the top of that mount, he was standing there in the presence of the Lord, and he died.
Before the Lord, according to the word of the Lord, His death was like his life. That the Lord leaves you here as your death going to be like your life. It was according to the word of the Lord, and He went right from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord.
Oh, he left the body behind, but there was no change in a certain sense in this state of soul. He went from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord. If the Lord should call us, and death will I go from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord.
You did.
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There wasn't anyone, there was not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses.
Whom the Lord knew face to face.
He came.
To whom none can be compared.
For though Moses was a great man, yet he was but a man, and man is vanity.
For the law came by Moses.
The grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
We sing, take time just to think.
From Him 76 Rise my soul, I God directly stranger hands no more impede pass so on His hand protects the strength that as the captive freed is the wilderness before thee, desert land where drought abides, heavenly springs shall there restore thee fresh from God's exhaustless tides. Start from verse 3.
I divine surrounds, I know.
In all, strange hill still rain.
Going.
To stand, go and win the rain.
Without God and broadly.
Stranger.
Strangers.
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On the ground.
Our God and our Father, we ask thy blessing on that.