Address—W. Smith
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Will you please turn with me to Numbers Chapter 11 or we might read the 33rd verse of the previous chapter, Numbers 10 verse 33. And the departed from the mount of the Lord, 3 days journey and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days journey to search out a resting place for them.
And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by day when they went out of the camp.
They came to pass when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let an enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when arrested he said, Return, O Lord, under the many thousands of Israel. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. The Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled in the fire of the Lord burnt among them.
And consumed them. They were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
And the people cried unto Moses, And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.
And he called the name of the place Tabara, because the fire the Lord burnt among them.
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic.
But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manner before our eyes.
And the manner was as coriander seed, the color thereof is a color of beddellium. And the people went about and gathered and grounded in mills, or beaded in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and make cakes of it. And the taste of it was as a taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the Manor fell upon it.
Will possibly refer to the other parts of the chapter. We won't take time to read them now.
Children of Israel at this time have just been something a little over a year out of Egypt.
In the land of Egypt.
They saw the hand of the power of God upon their enemies.
They saw the salvation of the Lord.
In the Red Sea.
And coming out of the Red Sea, they sang unto the Lord.
How that he had triumphed gloriously.
And they have spent some months.
At Mount Sinai.
Where the Lord made His presence manifest to them, they saw the power of God.
They manifested or His presence was manifested to them, as we know, in the Mount and in the giving of the Law.
God had made himself very much known to his people.
But now we find them leaving the mount of the Lord.
And going on in their journey through their wilderness.
We find that God went before them.
Guiding them, the presence of the Lord was still with them and very much in evidence.
But oh, how hard is a heart.
Of man.
In three months time.
We find here that the people become a murmuring class of people.
How sad it is.
When the people of God begin complaining after the ways of God with them.
But you know, the children of Israel were not any different from you and me.
And how well we know it, if we're honest in our hearts, that we are just the same.
How many times we've seen the blessing of God and His gracious dealings with us?
And how soon we forget it.
And we start complaining as to our pathway.
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How it becomes burdensome to us?
The people began to complain.
It displays the Lord.
We've been hearing much in these meetings.
Of how God has blessed us.
How he has sustained us.
And how God desires to have a people separated to Himself. He's made every provision for it.
For us down here in this scene and his word is getting marked out the path for us.
And yet how much we complain as to our path, but now we find.
Touch very briefly on these points. We'll look at another chapter in a few moments.
We find here that the people.
Were not completely separated.
From that with which they were mixed up in Egypt.
As we know that when the children of Israel left Egypt, there was a mixed multitude that came with them.
There were those which did not belong amongst the people of God.
But they accompanied the people of God and partook.
Of their blessings.
I trust there's none like that here in this company.
We're speaking to those who are the Lords and we trust that there are none here who go.
As a Christian, As a child of God.
But is not one of the people of God?
We find there is a mixed multitude.
That started.
Complaining.
And manifesting the lust.
For those things of Egypt.
You know, it's only the flesh that desires the things of this world, for Egypt is a picture of this world.
Hello dear fellow Christian.
If we're going to go on the path of faith, may we go on in the path of faith and not look back to those things from which we have been saved.
They fell a lusting desiring.
The things of Egypt.
They forgot that there were slaves in Egypt. They forgot that they had been under *******.
Under cruel taskmasters.
The only thought of those things which would satisfy.
Their natural hunger.
They say now our soul is dried up, dried away.
They couldn't find anything.
In their journeys to satisfy the natural heart.
No, I don't believe we need to speak of the manner particularly. We know that it's a picture. It's a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one upon whom we may feed and never hunger.
He spoke himself, as we know I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And it was that food. It was angels food.
As we find in the Psalms that was given to the children of Israel.
They had had it through their journeys up to this time.
They say our soul is dried away.
There is nothing at all beside this manner before our eyes. Oh, how soon they got tired of the manner.
And you know, if we get our eyes on the things around us and thirst after the things of this world, how that Christ is going to lose.
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His attraction for us? We'll lose our appetites for Christ.
We find in the 16th chapter of the Book of Exodus.
How that the Manor?
Was like coriander seed, it was white.
And his taste was as wafers made with honey.
The very sweetness of Christ.
In it.
And what a delightful thing God had given to his people.
And how precious for you and me to be able to feed upon Christ.
We've been feeding upon him these last days.
And we trust that each one here has had and a precious time in feeding upon Christ.
But you know there is in this world at the present time.
Amongst those who don't value Christ as possibly we should.
And they seek to alter.
That which God has given us of Christ to change the character.
And so the children of Israel, they went about to change the manner. They got tired of the manner as God had given it to them.
And so they.
When they gathered it, they grounded in mills.
They beat it in a mortar. They baked it in pounds.
And the taste was changed.
It was no longer sweet as honey, no longer like wafers made with honey.
But it had the taste of oil.
Oh, how different.
And how Christ?
When the sweetness of Christ is tampered with.
When we get something else before our eyes and seek to alter that which God has presented to us in His Word of His own beloved Son.
Oh, how it changes it, and we soon become tired of it.
But to know that is what happens when we get our eyes off of Christ.
Now we find in the rest of the chapter of how it infects others.
We find here how that it affected that man of God, Moses himself.
Moses becomes discouraged.
And so Moses himself complaints to God.
He complained about the burden of carrying all this people.
So in the 12Th verse he says to God.
Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten ever thou should have say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth a second child unto the land, which thou swift unto their fathers.
Should I have flesh to give unto all these people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
Moses himself.
Forgot for the moment that it was the Lord Himself.
Who is bringing up this people from Egypt and who had promised to bring them into the land of Canaan?
Moses himself.
Becomes discouraged.
And you know, dear fellow Christians, when we get our eyes off of Christ.
It affects others too, not only ourselves, not only do we lose the joy.
Of being in communion with the Lord.
But others are affected by it.
Although we may not.
Allow our hearts and our minds to be turned away from Christ to the things of this world, because this world is going to be burned up and all that is in it.
But may we have our minds set on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
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Now let's turn to the 21St chapter of this same book.
Now we might say before we read in it.
That here many years have passed.
From that time we've just been Speaking of.
In the 11Th chapter of Numbers.
The people have been out of Egypt possibly a year and three months.
Now they're about to enter into the land of Canaan.
Some 30 years or more, possibly 3536 years of past.
From the previous chapter.
Miriam has died. Aaron has died.
Yes.
And those that came out of Egypt.
That generation is gone.
They've all died.
God, the Lord had told them. They would wander through the desert, through the wilderness, until those that came out of Egypt 20 years old and upward would die. The carcasses would lie in the wilderness.
But their children would enter into the land of Canaan.
Now there's a new generation come up.
And we have in the company here before us.
At least.
2 generations.
So if what we have been seeing in the 11Th chapter speaks of those of us who are older.
This 21St chapter.
Speak to those who are younger as well.
Verse 4. Numbers 21.
And they journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. The soul of the people is much discouraged because of the Way.
And the people speak against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, neither is there any water.
And our soul loatheth this light bread, the.
The Larsen fiery serpents among the people, and the bitter people, and much people of Israel dined.
Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee.
Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord Senator Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and shall come to pass at everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole.
And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld a serpent of brass, he lived.
And the children of Israel set forward and pitched the noble.
The second generation of the Children of Israel.
Were no different from their parents.
Or Solomon is.
And how poorly we learn the wilderness lessons.
Those that have gone before us have been through these exercises.
And how little we learn.
From the ways of God, with those that have gone before us.
They have seen now, through many, many years, the faithfulness of God.
He fed them all these years with the manna.
He has given them water out of the rock.
And we know that rock was Christ.
They've had refreshment along the way.
And God has sustained that people miraculously through a desert.
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They hadn't planted any crops.
No.
They hadn't done anything for their own sustenance.
But God took care of that numerous people.
Millions of people in the desert.
Going through it, wandering through the desert. God sustained them in their flocks all the way through.
Oh, how good is our God?
To sustain his people, you and I.
Are sustained by the Power and by the Mercy.
Of our God.
How good he is to us.
And now we find that the people.
Are discouraged by the way they just gained a notable victory over their enemies.
The first three verses of this chapter tell us of how they had gained the victory over the Canaanites.
They had looked to the Lord.
And he gave them to victory over their enemies.
And now they're discouraged again.
Oh well, little we remember the goodness and grace of our God to us as we go through this scene. And what difficulties come if the way seems long to us, how we complain about it.
There are much discouraged because of the way.
And you know, I believe was remarked in these meetings.
That discouragement.
And the lack.
Of desire for Christ. These two things go together.
They were discouraged by the way they loathed the Manor.
Oh, you know, we can't get along without Christ.
We can never go through this scene.
If it were not for the goodness and the high priestly work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter tells us that the righteous are with difficulty saved.
The path for us is so difficult that if we're not for the high priestly work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We could never get through this scene in our pathway onto glory. He sustains us every moment of the way.
All they find the hand of the Lord upon them.
And you know when we get our eyes off of Christ.
In the governmental ways of God, he allows us to go through trial difficulties. We've been Speaking of these things the last two days.
About the garden.
Brings us through these things in order to preserve us, to sustain us in the path of faith.
The Lord sent fiery serpents among them.
You know, we use this passage often in the Gospel, and rightly so, and our Lord Jesus Christ referred to this very incident, is speaking to Nicodemus.
But I believe that it has an application to you and me.
As the people of God.
What is? It will restore us and our souls to God.
Always to go back to Calvary.
To go back to that which was a foundation.
Of our life as being born again.
Oh, it's the work of Calvary, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.
That has brought us into relationship with God as His people.
And so the Lord.
Bring before the people.
The picture of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He sent fiery serpents among them.
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And they have to confess their failure. They confess to God.
How that they have sinned?
Oh, how is good to own, to confess our sins, to keep short accounts with God? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And so we find here that beautiful the wonderful picture.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross.
The serpent of brass.
Lifted up.
Reminding them.
Reminding you and me.
Of the fact.
That all our blessings come through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are reminded of it here this morning.
We have, through the grace of God, the wonderful privilege of remembering.
Of calling to mind.
The work of our Lord Jesus Christ Christ suffered for us.
But just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
We know that the work of Calvary was that was glorified goddess to the question of sin.
But our precious to our souls to know that the work of Calvary.
Was in order that He might bring us the unjust, He might bring us to God.
Have you ever thought of it in that way, that it was to bring us to God, we who were dead in trespasses and sins, candidates for the lack of fire?
But the work of Christ suffering the just for the unjust to bring us to God, and it meant him going into death for us.
Yes, he had to go into death for us, being put to death in the flesh, but oh God has quickened him in the Spirit.
And now the Lord Jesus, whom you and I have remembered this morning in his death.
We don't remember him as a dead savior. We remember him and his death. But he's, he's living. He's up on high in the glory now.
Blessed fact that is a glorified man at the right hand of God.
Well, the people in tight are brought to that very place.
To the death of Christ.
And now have you been brought to that place?
They were enabled by the grace of God to go on in their journey.
So the last verse that we read brings us to the point.
Where they set forward again.
And Festan Oboe.
Now, there's a great deal of which we could speak of in the rest of this chapter, but it won't. We'll leave time for someone else.
But I might just say this that oboe.
Dreams before us.
The refreshing.
The refreshing water.
That comes to having been brought.
Into the place of remembrance of what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
For oboe means water skins that was carried the water for the people along the way.
Refreshment for them as they go on, by the way.
So may we, each those of us who are older.
And another generation coming up, as we see.
May we each go on in faithfulness.
Lord Jesus Christ, not to become discouraged by the way, but to remember that our God is able and will keep us through the whole journey.