April 30 2011.

The Book of Numbers. 

Outline so far:

1) Fitting out the Nation Israel for the Wilderness March, Chapters 1-8.

A.  Order of the Camp, Chapters 1-4.

1)  First Census, Chapter 1 on 21-4-2011.

2) Standards and Positions of 12 Tribes on Wilderness March, Ch. 2 on 22-4-2011.

3) Census, Position, and Service of Levites on Wilderness March, Ch. 3 on 23-4-2011.  

4) Service of Levites about the Tabernacle, Chapter 4 on 24-4-2011 yesterday.

B. Cleansing the Camp, Chapters 5–8.

 1) Restitution and Jealousy Offering, Chapter 5 on 25-4-2011 

2) Vow of the Nazarite, Chapter 6  on 26-4-2011.

3) Gifts of the Princes, Chapter 7 on 27-4-2011.

4) Light of Lampstand and Laver for Levites, Chapter 8 yesterday.

2)  Forward March!, Chapters 9–10.

A) Passover and Covering Cloud, Chapter 9 on 29-4-2011.

B) Order of March, Chapter 10 today.

3) From Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea, Chapters 11–12.

A) Complaining and Murmuring of People Displeasing to the Lord, Chapter 11 tomorrow God willing.

B) Jealousy of Miriam and Aaron; Judgment of Miriam, Chapter 12.

Today: Numbers 10:1-36.

Theme: 1) Silver trumpets; 2) order of march.

The last preparation for the march is the instructions for making two silver trumpets. 

The wilderness march then begins in verse 11 of this chapter.

Numbers 10:1-2   "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps."

Two is the number of witness - it is in the mouth of two witnesses that a matter is established. 

These two trumpets were used to move Israel on the wilderness march.

Numbers 10:3-4   "And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee."

The blowing of one trumpet brought the princes together. 

This reminds us that there is to be a last trump for the church. 

That last trump is the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ which will be His last call.

He has sent out invitation after invitation. His final invitation to the Laodicean church is 

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). 

At the last trump, He will call His church out of the world.

That will be the last call. 

The one single trumpet, which is the voice of the Lord Jesus, will bring all true believers together. We call this the Rapture of the church.

Numbers 10:5-7   "When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm."

The trumpets were used to bring this tremendous number of people into formation for the march through the wilderness. Another use of the trumpets was to blow the alarm for war.

Numbers 10:8-10   "And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God."

These trumpets, made of silver, which is the metal of redemption, sounded the call for a redeemed people. This was the way God moved them on the wilderness march. They were used to show the people how they were to march.

Numbers 10:11-12   "And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran."

Numbers 10:29   "And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses. In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethaneel the son of Zuar. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon. And the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the tabernacle. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel. And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: and the other did set up the tabernacle for their coming. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set forward, which was the rereward of all the camps throughout their hosts: and over his host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ocran. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set forward."

They had been at Sinai for about a year -  getting the Law from God. 

The instructions for the silver trumpets have been given, and the trumpets have been made. 

Now they are blown and the children of Israel begin their wilderness march.

Let us go back to the plan of encampment which we had in chapter 2. 

Remember that the families of Levi were encamped around the tabernacle. 

Moses and Aaron were on the east side, Merari on the north, Gershon on the west, and Kohath on the south.

Then the camps of the twelve tribes were out beyond that. 

Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun were on the east; 

Dan, Ashur, and Naphtali on the north; 

Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin on the west; and 

Reuben, Simeon, and Gad on the south.

When the pillar of cloud  was s lifted. Each family packed up their things and got ready to move forward. The tabernacle was taken down and when Moses and Aaron gave the signal, blew the silver trumpets. The family of Kohath who carried the ark moved out in front. The ark lead the wilderness march.

Our Lord Jesus leads His church through the wilderness of this world. The ark is a picture of Christ Jesus.

The first trumpet put Moses and Aaron and the ark out in the front. 

Then the trumpet was blown again and Judah moved out from the east side, with Issachar and Zebulun marching under the standard of Judah. 

After them come Gershon and Merari, bearing their part of the tabernacle - they had the heavier things, such as the boards and the bars and the coverings. 

Then the trumpet was blown again and Reuben with Simeon and Gad moved out, marching under the standard of Reuben. 

Then the trumpet was blown again and the Kohathites followed them. They were carrying all the articles of furniture of the tabernacle except the ark, which has gone ahead to the front of the march. All these articles of furniture were equipped with poles and the Kohathites bore them on their shoulders. 

Then the trumpet was blown again and Ephraim moved out with Manasseh and Benjamin under his standard.

Finally, Dan moved out with Asher and Naphtali, under the standard of Dan. Bringing up the rear is the mixed multitude, folk who were part Israelite and part Egyptian. 

They didn’t know whether they should stay or go. Each one was mixed up. As a result, they were stragglers who came along on the wilderness march. The young man who blasphemed (whom we read about in Leviticus 24), had an Egyptian father and an Israelite mother, was part of this group.

Notice that the trumpet was blown seven times.

In the Book of Revelation there is the blowing of the seven trumpets. 

Those seven trumpets are connected with the children of Israel. 

The blowing of those trumpets in the Great Tribulation period will move the children of Israel from all corners of the earth back into that land.

A great many people try to associate the last trump that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:52 with the last trumpet in the Book of Revelation, and then they draw the conclusion that the church is going through the Great Tribulation period. However, that last trump which is mentioned in Corinthians  is the voice of the Son of God, which is detailed in 

1 Thessalonians 4:16   "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." 

His voice is like the voice of an archangel, like the sound of a trumpet. 

We know this because in Revelation 1:10–11 apostle John writes, 

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last …."

Whom did John see when he turned to see who had spoken to him? 

He saw the Glorified Christ, the Great High Priest. His voice like a trumpet. 

His voice will raise the dead and change the bodies of those who are living when He comes for His church. 

The trumpet sound for the church is the voice of Christ, the Son of God.

Trumpets are connected with the children of Israel. It is the trumpet that moved them on the wilderness march. 

It will be the trumpets that will bring them from the wilderness of this world back into the land.

Numbers 10:29   "And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses’ father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel."

Maybe Moses should not have done that. 

Old Hobab, the father-in-law, did not want to go along. 

He wanted to go home. 

So Moses answered him,

Numbers 10:30-32   "And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred. And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the LORD shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee. "

I don’t understand Moses.

God had made it clear to Moses that the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night would guide them and that the ark was leading them, both of which speak of Christ. He is the leader. 

Now Moses is suggesting to his own father-in-law that he needs him to lead them. 

Hobab had been raised in the desert of Midian.

He was a Midianite and he knew that area. 

He could have been a great help, but they were not to depend upon natural means. 

This old man did not know the way 

God wanted them to go.

Unfortunately, the church today is listening to the voice of the "experts," men without real spiritual discernment. 

As a result, the church is being led down the garden path in many instances.

Are you sure Christ is the Head of your church? 

Are you sure that He is leading and guiding you?

Or are you today asking some person to come and be eyes for you?

Moses made a mistake here. 

Moses could make mistakes, by the way. He was a sinner. 

The interesting thing is that he wrote this; so he recorded his own mistake.

 I’m afraid that if some of us had made these mistakes, we wouldn’t have mentioned them.

God does not cover sin. 

Many folk today wrongly think that we are to cover sin.

No,

We are to bring all sin to the cross of Chrsit and we are to acknowledge exactly the sin we are guilty of and we are to confess that sin to God firstly then if we are trukly sorry the holy Spirit of God will lead us to make right with the oersoin we have wronged because while we do not speak to another child of God in the body of Christ we are out of fellowship with Him for He and His body are One. The One who is angry with thier sister is the one who is wrong for it is anger that causes bitterness and ther Word of God tells us the we are to be careful "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled" (Hebrews 12:15). 

A little root of bitterness just like one rotten apple in a barrel spoils the others. 

We need to ask God for grace to endure whatever we are going through, and not become bitter toward the one who tells us the truth, or toward any of the consequences of our own sin. God says that when we suffer we ought not to suffer as a murderer or a gossip or for our own evil doing (see ).

God removes our sin, when we confess it. He removes it  as far as the east is from the west, remembers it no more but, sadly, the consequences of sin remains.

When a father is murdered, the children go through life without an earthly father. Their whole life style changes, for the Bread winner has been taken. When a young boy looses an eye because of someone throwing a stone at him he goes through life with only one eye and if that eye should get hurt by accident, that poor child is blind for the rest of his earthly life. 

We are to think about the consequences of our sin. 

We ought never to make light of our sin as is being done today. There are certain conditions which call for mourning and not for joy. Sin is never to be treated lightly. When I hear a Christian make light of sin, I have a notion that when nobody is looking, they are indulging in it. We are not to treat sin lightly, we are to you are to mourn over your sins. The problem today is that Christians are not mourning over their sins. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ said that we are blessed when we mourn for it is then that we shall be comforted.

The Word of God teaches us in 

Hebrews 10:26   "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins."

It is an awful thing to hear the truth and then to turn our backs upon it for it is turning our backs upon our Lord Jesus Christ who is the truth. 

That is a presumptuous sin. That was Judas’ sin. 

When we willfully continue to sin, practice sin in our lives, keep on telling lies to cover our sin, it is because we are filled with pride and we do not want others to know how bad we really are.

Satan is a deceiver and if were possible he would deceive even the elect of God.

One can fool some of the people some of the time and one can fool all of the people some of the time. 

But one cannot fool God’s children all of the time.

It just can’t be done.

When we reject the truth we reject Christ for we do not want to take responsibility for our sin and claiming to be forgiven when we have not taken responsibility for it in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ is blasphemy. It is taking His Dear Name in vain for He has clearly stated in His Inspired Word that we are to ask for forgiveness and when someone asks us to forgive them we must forgive them even up to 70 x 7 if need be. Now if we do not ask for forgiveness then the matter cannot be settled and it will have to be settled by Christ who alone knows the truth for He is our Advocate who intercedes for us, with the Father and it is the Holy Spirit of God who leads us to true repentance not the repentance that needs to be repented of, like Judas had. He was sorry that he had embarrassed himself by making such a terrible mistake, by betraying the Lord Jesus Christ and He went out and hung himself instead of turning to Christ and confessing his terrible sin to Him because it was against Christ Jesus that he had sinned.

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you" (2 Corinthians 7:10-12)

Dear reader we are to exhort one another.

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 

While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 

But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:12-18).

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come" (John 16:13).

Dear reader if you are not sure of what the truth is then many I encourage you today to ask God to reveal it to you, for He has promised to reveal all truth to us and He alone is able to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear, so just ask Him, and He will, according to His Word, when you search to know the truth, honestly, make it known unto you. That is what He has promised us.

Numbers 10:33-36   "And they departed from the mount of the LORD three 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 were on their way.

God is leading them. 

God Himself searched out the land. 

There was no need to have Moses' father-in-law to do the searching.

Numbers 10:35-36   "And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel.".

Moses had a prayer for them each morning and every evening when they were on the wilderness march.

Hallelujah!

The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again;
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E'en for his own name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear none ill,
For thou art with me; and thy rod
And staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me:
And in God's house for evermore
My dwelling place shall be.

Amen!

Tomorrow Gracious Lord Jesus Christ if You spare my life and it is in accordance with Your will in my life I want to continue with: The complaint of the people; the complaint of Moses; and God provides quail.

If I gained the world, but lost the Saviour,
Were my life worth living for a day?
Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort
In the things that soon must pass away?
If I gained the world, but had no Saviour,
Would my gain be worth the lifelong strife?
Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing
For a moment with a Christ-filled life?

Had I wealth and love in fullest measure,
And a name revered both far and near,
Yet no hope beyond, no harbor waiting,
Where my stormtossed vessel I could steer;
If I gained the world, but had no Saviour,
Who endured the cross and died for me,
Could then all the world afford a refuge,
Whither, in my anguish, I might flee?

O what emptiness!— without the Saviour
'Mid the sins and sorrows here below!
And eternity, how dark without Him!—
Only night and tears and endless woe!
What, tho' I might live without the Saviour,
When I come to die, how would it be?
O to face the valley's gloom without Him!
And without Him all eternity!

O the joy of having all in Jesus!
What a balm the broken heart to heal!
Ne'er a sin so great, but He'll forgive it,
Nor a sorrow that He does not feel!
If I have but Jesus, only Jesus,—
Nothing else in all the world beside—
O then ev'rything is mine in Jesus;
For my needs and more He will provide.

Gripping Words: Anna Olander, 1861-1939. I Thank You for Anna Father God, in Jesus Name.

Amen!

THIS PAGE UPDATED: 30-4-2011.