October 16, 2011 18th of Kingdomtide
How Great Thou Art: Wilderness Lessons
Fall Sermon Series in Numbers
Luke 9: 57-62, Numbers 11: 1-9
"Back to Egypt"
Today's message is the second in our fall sermon series in Numbers called, “How Great Thou Art: Wilderness Lessons." Today's sermon is entitled, “Back to Egypt,” and we will be talking about the subject of, turning away or the old but well known term backsliding. I hope you have been reading this week in the Old Testament book of Numbers, because today our text will be coming from the 11th chapter.
Just to bring everyone up to speed on where we are, the book of Numbers describes the 40 years that the Israelites spent wandering in the Sinai desert. In the book of Numbers we find an accounting of people, information about how they were organized, a record of their laws, and the stories of their adventures. Numbers is the fourth book of the five books of the Torah, the Jewish book of Laws.
Last week we took a look at who these people were. This huge hoard of people who had followed Moses out of slavery in Egypt, were a ragtag bunch of slaves, who had some tribal affiliations, but were not a nation or even a community. All they had ever known of God was the stories that had been handed down through the generations; stories of the God named Yahweh who had made some promises to their ancestors. And all they were fit to do after their rescue from slavery was to be slaves.
Also last week we talked about the relationship between God and these Hebrew slaves. On Mount Sinai, Moses had been given the laws that God would use in his covenant with these people. These Hebrews had made a covenant with God; they had agreed to be God's people, and God had agreed to be their God. This covenant between them and God had set them apart from all other people. And because God is holy, God's people were to be holy.
The bigger portion of the Torah is somewhat of a catalog of the laws and commands God gave the Hebrew people. The laws were the means God chose to condition them to lives of holiness. Today, because of Jesus, and the presence of God's Holy Spirit within us, the laws of God have been written on our hearts. So we are conditioned to be holy through obedience to God through the Holy Spirit.
The first 10 chapters of the book of Numbers demonstrate how the people who have been rescued from slavery were learning to trust God. Obviously as they wandered in the desert, they began to run out of food and water. Out of their legitimate need they complained, and God provided them with water and with food (manna). Yet when we get to chapter 11, something begins to happen.
Read Numbers 11:1-9
Do any of you remember those times when you were a kid, and it seemed that all you ever got for supper was the same old thing? As I recall, it would've been those summertime suppers, green beans, corn and potatoes. Mama used to call it eating out of the garden, but I called it something else. In a whiny voice, I'd say… Green beans again!
Course, my mother would say to me probably like your mother said to you if you ever whined about food, ”Just be glad you got something to eat and hush.” Reading on down in Chapter 11:15, we can see how Moses felt about the people’s complaints:
Moses said to God, “Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I conceive them?... Why have you told me to carry them around like a nursing mother…?” (Message Bible).
The people had begun to complain. Within earshot of God, they fussed about the hardships they were experiencing in the wilderness. It's too hot during the day; it's too cold during the night; all we get done all day long is gathering, gathering, gathering this manna; our work is never done.
The Bible says that God's anger began to burn, and fire began to consume the outskirts of the camp. Rebellion always seems to begin at the fringes. Immediately Moses began to pray to the Lord, and the fire died down. Remember, the people are trying to learn how to be holy, but that's not easy especially when you are conditioned to a different lifestyle.
Learning to live holy lives is more difficult for some people than it is others. A rabble (sometimes called a faction, mop, or caucus) began to complain about the food. They began to remember all the great food they had when they were in Egypt: cucumbers, melons, leaks, onion, garlic. Frankly they had begun to despise the manna that was sustaining them.
Now I know that complaining about food doesn't seem like such a big deal, but this was just the beginning. Soon people began to want to go back to Egypt. It didn't seem to matter to them that in Egypt they were slaves with cruel masters.
Next, the leadership begins to be effected as Miriam and her brother Aaron began to complain about Moses’ leadership. Eventually, the people refuse to enter the Promised Land. Their rebellion against God’s plans for them was then completely scuttled. The end result of their decision was that they were made to wander for the rest of their lives in the wilderness. (When the last one of them died, their descendants were given the opportunity to enter the Promised Land.)
When we rebel against God's plans for our lives, there are always consequences to those decisions. I believe that we all have the best of intentions when we give our lives to God. We want to be the kinds of Christians that will bring glory to God and to our Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe that we all truly want to be conditioned, to become holy and sanctified people of God.
The problem is we have within us what John Wesley called the root of sin. Our tendency is to fall away, or to backslide. Backsliding is when we “go back to Egypt.” Backsliding is when we refuse to listen to God's Holy Spirit. It is when we refuse to be obedient to the laws God has written on our own hearts.
Falling away can happen little by little, like when the Hebrews began to complain about the food they have to eat, rather than being thankful that they had food. And backsliding can be a devastating decision like the one they made about not entering the Promised Land. That rebellious decision caused them to wander for 40 years until they died. We can fall away little by little or in a big way and thus become wanderers and slaves to the world.
I have been reading a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I would like to recommend it to you if you enjoy reading history and about people who gave up their freedom and their lives on behalf of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer witnessed the falling away of the Church of Germany in the 1930s and 40s as it succumbed to the prevailing political pressure of Adolf Hitler. I am uncertain whether even today the Church of Germany has recovered from that wilderness.
You may have been following the international story about Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor in Iran, who has been commanded to recant his Christian faith or be executed. A couple weeks ago in Sunday school we discussed the ramifications of such a choice. We all speculated what we might do if we were faced with such a life and death decision. Would we fall away?
Little by little or in a big way? When we are in a rebellion, what follows is a falling away, backsliding…going back to Egypt to be enslaved again.
I want to tell you the story of a man I know. Sadly it is the story of falling away. Please understand that I pray for this man as often as I think of him. His name is not Todd. But when Todd was a young man he became involved in drugs, alcohol, and rock 'n roll.
His problems began very simply, when at the age of 12 he began sniffing glue with some of his buddies. As he began to get older, he and his friends put together a little band and began playing music together. He was the drummer of the group. The young men began to party and have fun. As it often does, one thing led to another, which in this case meant smoking a joint now and then at their practice sessions.
Soon the group began to get paying gigs, which in the beginning was a little nerve-racking. So to calm their stage fright, the boys began to pick up a few bottles of Wild Turkey to take a long. Then came the harder drugs… Todd was effected by all of the drugs and alcohol. He became addicted, which is another way of saying, enslaved.
But one day, Todd met Amy. Amy was a Christian. Her father was a Baptist minister. Todd fell in love with Amy, but he knew that Amy would never be in a committed relationship is someone like him. Todd began to think, maybe I can change.
Amy of course encouraged Todd to begin praying. So, he did. As Todd began a difficult journey out of addiction, God began to place people in his life to help him. First it was Amy, then it was specialists who helped him recover from his addictions. It was also people from the Christian community, who supported him and prayed for him, and prayed with him. It was a long journey for Todd, but every time he had a need, God sent someone to help.
Todd's health began to improve as he stopped using drugs and alcohol. He began to make new friends and new relationships with people who truly loved him. He became a Christian and he was baptized. Within a few years, God called him into the ministry. Todd married Amy and they had two sons.
Times were hard at Todd in Amy's house. Ends were difficult to bring together. But Todd had a good paying job; Amy worked also, and even though he was going to school to follow his call, they got by.
Todd also loved guns, and he had collected them for many years. But with times being tough, he had decided to get rid of some of his collection. An employee who worked with Todd was interested, and so Todd decided to take some of his guns to show them to the man at work. At break time the men went to the parking lot to look at the guns. Aed, shooting through Todd's left index finger.
It had been an accident of course, but because Todd had brought a weapon onto company property, he lost his job. He lost his insurance. His injury required surgery, and also he had to take high-powered painkillers in order to manage the pain in his injured hand.
It was then that Todd began to fall away. He began to be fearful, and he began to worry that God couldn’t or wouldn’t take care of him. The addiction he had to drugs resurfaced and pulled him back into enslavement. The more Amy tried to help, the farther Todd fell away. After he got well from his injury, he continued to drink, he continued to take drugs and he wandered farther and farther into the wilderness. As far as I know, Todd is still wandering in that place.
This is a difficult story to hear, and you may be saying to yourself, I’d never fall away from God like that. That is exactly what Todd said…he had been sold out for God. Unfortunately though, bad things happen to good people, and seeds of rebellion are planted… a little doubt, a little laziness, a little fear, a little complaining…and suddenly we’re not sure we are going to rely on God fully…we might just have to start listening to ourselves or our friends, and not so much to the Holy Spirit.
Do you really want to wander through life because of some rebellion you started against God?
Today is a good day for all of us to consider where we stand with God. When God saved us and set us apart as God's people, just as he did with the Israelites, God placed certain expectations upon us. Because God is holy, God's people must be Holy.
As we sit in the quiet this morning, I know that God's Holy Spirit is among us. Each of us are individuals, and each of us experiences our own degree of falling away, of backsliding, of going back to Egypt. The Holy Spirit is here to remind us where we stand with God, and I know that if we have fallen away…little by little or in a big way, the Holy Spirit is telling us to turn back to God.
Only you can hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Turn back to God. Forgiveness is as near to you as it has ever been. Don’t spend another moment in the wilderness…turn back to God, today. Amen.
©2011 Judy H. Eurey
