Be the One Who Resolves Problems in the Church and Save the 237 Nations (Numbers 20:1-13)
I hope that the grace of God will be upon all of you with the grace of Numbers 20. The book of Numbers talks about the time period of preparation before entering into the land of Canaan. What is it that they must prepare? Of course, it is their faith, and they have to prepare the distribution for which land each tribe will inherit once they enter.
In that process, in Numbers 20:1, the whole Israelite community arrived in the Desert of Zin. There, they stayed at Kadesh and Moses’ older sister Miriam died and was buried. It says in Numbers 20:2, that because there was no water, the Israealite community began to oppose Moses and Aaron. I haven’t been to this area personally, but when I look at all the videos, it looks like a very bare land, even the mountains look dusty and the sun is shining so hard and there’s nowhere to hide from the sun’s rays. At least when they were in Egypt, they had a lot of good things they could see with their eyes, but in the wilderness, it was absolutely barren; they had nothing to rely on, and God was leading them in the wilderness in this way.
The way they used to live in the past was that they would enjoy and save up all the good things they saw with their eyes, but there was nothing like that out there. Just like in the beginning of the coronavirus, all the markets were running out of essentials like rice and water, because we need water to live. They were passing through the Desert of Zin and there was no water there, and they didn’t even have any trees from which they could eat fruit, and not only are there people but they had livestock as well, and because they were so thirsty, there was no one who could help them, so they began to oppose Moses and Aaron.
In Numbers 20:3, they’re feeling they’re on the brink of death as they quarreled with Moses, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord!” They say, “We should’ve died with them so that we don’t have to die such a pitiful death now.” The first thing they thought about was that Moses led the Israelites. When people face an urgent situation, their natural, first instinct is to cast blame or make excuses like, “I’m going to die because of you,” that’s human nature.
Human beings, as soon as we depart from our faith, will return to their nature. As soon as Adam sinned, he was spiritually dead, so the first words he said was, “It was the woman you put here that gave me the fruit,” and the woman blamed the serpent. In reality, it’s correct because the husband was following the words of the wife, and it was a fact that the serpent did tell the wife, and it was also a fact that Moses did lead the Israelites, and the first way that human beings react is not with lies, but they take the facts and speak facts.
THey don’t mention any of the context surrounding the issue, but they said, “If we hadn’t left Egypt, we wouldn’t be facing these problems.” They’re saying, “If it weren’t for you, we would not be like this” Then from Moses’ perspective, how should you react? It was true that Moses led them out, but if Moses were to respond with his faith, would he be able to communicate with them?
If he just talks back to the Israelites, “Look, you guys asked the LORD to help you and the LORD used me to bring you out of Egypt,” they would just keep talking back and forth, but these are most people’s thoughts and emotions. In Numbers 20:4, “Why did you bring the LORD’s community into the desert so that we and our livestock should die here?” These words may be correct, and it’s true that Moses led them out, and it’s true that they’re in the desert with no water, so it’s true that they might die.
In Numbers 20:5, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to take us to a terrible place?” They are speaking of the facts and are placing the blame upon Moses and Aaron. “Why did you bring us to this terrible place, this place that has no water and nothing to rely on? There’s no grain or anything to harvest or plant, or figs, grapevines or pomegranates and there’s no water to drink.” In the past, at least they had these things, but their suffering was completely different.
If the Israelites were to take their arguments to the courts, they would win because they are speaking the facts they’re going to fight with words that are correct; they are not speaking of things that do not exist, they are taking out all of the surrounding contexts and they’re speaking of the facts that exist, and these are the words that kill people.
This is the same thing politicians do nowadays. They cut away the beginning contexts and only talk about the present facts that are presented now, instead of, “you guys are the one who cried out to the LORD because of the suffering,” you’re just talking about how much you suffer now. If there were any people among them who had faith and prayer, they could save everyone else. It is possible that, if there was someone who had faith among the crowds, they could speak the words of truth and change the entire atmosphere.
Anybody can point out the problems, isn’t that right? If anything, people might create their own problems because they cut away the context, before and after. But God is able to solve all problems. We need people who stand on that side. That is the one who is aligned with God’s will. It doesn’t matter how smart or factual the words you say are, if they don’t acknowledge the facts of the spiritual background,then even if it is okay from the world’s perspective, it is not okay from God’s perspective.
It’s important to not be someone who talks about problems in order to create problems or make them worse, but instead, to be someone who solves problems. The one who acknowledges that only God can solve this is someone with faith.
In Numbers 20:6, Moses and Aaron went from the Assembly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them, it means they were praying. Numbers 20:7, then the LORD gives them their answer, “Take the staff, and you and your brother gather the assembly together. Speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community, so they and their livestock can drink.” The Jewish people still believe in this rock. It’s a rock so it still exists at this time.
Numbers 20:9, so Moses took the staff in the LORD’s presence, just as the LORD commanded him, he and Aaron gathered the assembly together to the rock and said, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out from this rock?” Moses was typically not someone like this, but in this odd moment, he could not control his emotions.
Lately, there are a lot of anger management problems arising, there are many people with anger management issues nowadays. Until this point, except for the time he broke the tablets with the Ten Commandments, Moses had not lost his patience with his people, whether he was enduring it with faith or with humanism, but I think at this time, his emotions were wearing thin.
Numbers 20:11, then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out and the community and the livestock drank. The same context was written in Exodus 17, it says the LORD was standing at the rock with them.
Exodus 17:6, “I will stand there before the rock and Horeb. Strike the rock and the water will come out.” 1 Corinthians 3:3-5 says this rock is Jesus Christ. Verse 4, They drank the same spiritual drink and they drank from the rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” Why would a rock be Christ? It’s just a rock, isn’t that right? Then that means Christ should remain as a rock in Israel, but they drank from this spiritual rock, they drank the spiritual drink.
Exodus 17:6 says Jesus stood before the rock, so Christ was standing upon that rock. In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ came to the earth in the form of a human, and it’s possible that, at that rock, He was standing there, invisibly. It means He was with them, there. The rock itself doesn’t mean anything, but it means that here, God was with them.
Even though Jesus Christ was with them on that rock there, Moses couldn’t control his emotions and says, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water from out of this rock?” In Numbers 20:12, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “You did not trust in Me,” simply put, “You had disbelief about me,” and the reason is because they did not honor God as holy in the sight of the Israelites.
God is standing upon that rock and God is the one who will bring the water gushing from the rock and God uses Moses as His mouthpiece, and yet, Moses stands before the Israelited and says, “Must we bring you water out of this rock?” Moses is not the one bringing water out of the rock, but the LORD is doing it and guiding Moses but he denounced God like that. That’s what it means in Numbers 20:12 where God says, “You did not honor Me as holy.”
“All you have to do is do what is told of you, but why do you race forwards to block the glory of God? As a result of this, you will not bring this community into the land; they will not set foot into Canaan.” Does God have to be so severe after just one mistake? The land of Canaan is not something that can be resolved with a lack of faith, in particular, if the leader has unbelief, then all the Israelites will lose their battles. The LORD is the One Who is fighting the battles, but if the leader were to act as if he is leading the battle, then they will lose. That’s why God told Moses and Aaron, “You will not step foot into Canaan,” and the people of IsraelIsrael also cannot step foot in the land of Cannan because of their disbelief.
They say a lot of things about the land of Canaan, and we’re going to talk about this in the pulpit message as well, but they say that, “The land of Cannan is like their rest or Sabbath.” There are some people who give messages by saying, “The land of Cannan represents heaven and if you have disbelief, you cannot go into heaven.” Our denomination says that the land of Cannan represents world evangelization that will be carried out so rest, heaven, world evangelization are the ways most people preach about Canaan. The land of Canaan is not world evangelism, it was a time schedule back then, it was true they had to conquer the unbelief and the culture of Canaan, and at that time period, that was world evangelization. But if you interpret “the land of Canaan” as heaven, it means that if you have disbelief in the wilderness, you’re not going to have salvation, so it also means that Moses and Aaron did not have salvation. On the other hand, what happens when you interpret the land of Cannan as the rest that takes out darkness in the heart? You lose the rest of missions and evangelism.
We have to fight the cultural war. We have to gain the rest that comes from winning over the idolatrous culture but people have often heard such words, they would have heard the sermons from their previous church, or they would have looked for and found the messages they wanted to hear through YouTube, but if you do that, it’s possible you may not receive the correct guidance of God’s Word.
You always have to be able to understand the Word of God with the present reality. The land of Canaan means “rest,” that’s true, and sometimes that rest is found when you fight the spiritual battle of disbelief in your own heart, but you also have to fight the spiritual battle with the culture of idolatry in your field in order for you to gain spiritual rest, therefore, if you lose hold of missions and evangelism, you will always be stuck in yourself. If you live like that, then even though we’re created to go out into the world to fulfill God’s plan, we’ll go out into the world losing hold of our direction.
Moses and Aaron were not people who lacked faith, but what God is saying here is that disbelief cannot be it.” You cannot find faith with unbelief. We must go out into the world to restore the peace that comes from the kingdom of God with missions and evangelism and that’s not possible with disbelief. I believe this is a very important content.
What happens if, instead of doing that, you focus all of your attention on your personal healing? You’re going to go to heaven, completely disconnected from healing and from fighting the spiritual darkness of the world, and you’re only going to be focused on yourself, and that’s why your walk of faith will not work out because the direction is misaligned, then you’re going to suffer in the world.
God gave you the power of the filling of the holy spirit to go out to change and save the world, but if you’re always focused on yourself, healing, and spirituality, you’re not aligned with God. Without a doubt, God gave us the command to change the culture of the world and the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God, but you live your life irrelevant of that. Then, the way you’re going to live your life is in constant fear, because you’re not going to be able to get along with the world very well. Then, you’re going to change into the people who are only in the church. The Kingdom of God has to be established outside of the world but because you’re not able to do that, people just gather inside the church.
They’re always going to be conflicted and afflicted because they think when they go out into the world they’re not allowed to drink or smoke or do strange things, even though they do so they’ll be afflicted just like the monks who go up into the mountains, they’re afflicted by themselves. Sanctification is rightful, of course, if you go from being centered on yourself into believing in Jesus Christ, then rightfully, you will change internally. But if sanctification becomes your goal, who is going to save the world? Who is going to save the land of Canaan? God says to go and make disciples of all nations, but who will go?
That’s why people say, “Just the missionaries go, we’ll just give you the money so you just go ,” they think that’s missions, and that’s correct, too, but the place you are in is also your mission field. “God has trained my faith and has given me the healing and sanctification so I can change the spiritual culture of the field I am in but I have no sense of that.” Then the longer you live your walk of faith, the more things are not being resolved. Some people who have a little bit of resolution in their lives will have some faith they can pray and receive answers, so they receive healing and give offering for missions and that’s a little bit of healing, and that in itself is no small feat, but if the fact that we have to change the culture of the world doesn’t go into you by the grace of the as the covenant,then what’s going to happen?
It’s the same as you saying you don’t know the spiritual things. The forces of darkness are moving currently in your field, and it means you have no concept of the spiritual things. And it means the same thing the fact that you’re losing hold of worship and prayer in your field. At the very least, you’re still aligned with the church, so at least you’re receiving grace in your walk of faith, and that’s no small feat, either. Even that is a small percentage of people.
But the thing that God desires is for the church to save the world. In order to save the world, I must stand at the forefront of resolving the problems in the church, first. If there’s a problem in the church, and someone is either avoiding it or just sitting there and saying, “This is a problem, a problem!” but not praying for it. They are unnecessary people.For example, if it’s hard for us to look at the projector, don’t just talk about it but buy a new one. That’s what I’m saying right now, this is the reason you work. I’m saying it’s not right for you to say, “Oh, what kind of church has this bad of a projector?” Then you just do it, be the one to resolve the problem.
For example, “Why is the church so messy?” don’t say words like that, anyone could say words like that, then you go put on some slippers and fix it. “The church doesn’t even feed us,” Then you buy some food. That’s what I’m saying, but instead, you’re not resiling anything and you criticize and you don’t even have power. God is the One Who solves problems, and you must be the person to resolve the problems.
If we’re doing Temple Construction, be the one who resolves the problem. “How could we do this?” Anyone can say that, anyone could be apathetic, everyone is, but this is the reason God has prepared the blessings. Even this is a big work and you must also be the one who resolves the problems in your region.
There are people who are suffering in your region, and if you don’t care about them, but you only care about yourself and your church, that’s not right. There’s no one who can give the answers to the problems in your region except you, so that’s why you must be the one to give the answer to the problem in your region, and be the person who saves this one nation, because that’s God’s plan for me.
What does this mean? Anyone can complain that we don’t have water. As soon as you go back to your family, everyone says that this is a problem. Concentrate on resolving that problem, stake your life on the side that resolves these problems. Stop saying, “We lack this, we lack that,” but stake your life on resolving that lacking. In today’s Bible verse, even Moses was saying nosnesens and God stopped him from going into Cannan.
God is the One doing the work, so prophecy God’ word. It doesn’t matter if people are like this or that, God is the One Who will deal with them accordingly. For people who are doing ministry, they really need to listen carefully. There are some times when things will be unfair. There are some times when they say, “These problems came into my family because of the minister,” and the more you hear these words, the angrier you may get, but God is going to give the answer, so only speak of that. There’s no reason for you to use your temper or emotions to say this or that.
Finally, Numbers 20:13, “There were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD, where He was proved holy among them.” What does “proved holy” mean? It means He revealed to the Israelites that He was the One Who allowed the water to gush from the rock, and Moses was actually impeding that. You should not block the glory of God like Moses did with his emotions, and that’s such a big thing that Moses did, that it resulted in him not being able to go into Canaan.
Just like the Word we received during the North American Business Evangelism Conference, let us be the ones who concentrate on resolving the problems. There is never a time when God uses the one who speaks of the problems, because God is the One Who is standing on the rock, and He wants you to resolve the problems. If you instead exalt yourself, you’ve already received your reward. Because you’re doing this to exalt yourself, there’s no reward for you in heaven. But the reason we serve the church and the world in a silent, noiseless way, is because God is watching. The reason we don’t say this or that is because God already knows. The reason why you do this, even if no one acknowledges or recognizes you is because God knows. The reason you’re able to do this even if you’re not given a position is because God knows. People who do anything so they can receive recognition will be contested when people don’t acknowledge them. Then, because that person is doing the work to be acknowledged by people, they have already received the reward of their actions, and it doesn’ t matter how much they do, they will have no reward before God, should we live a life like that?
The reward and the crown of heaven is waiting for you, you are racing heavenwards towards the goal for which God called you. You live so diligently. But there’s nothing remaining for you because you did all that for the earth. Because the goal you’re racing towards is money, even if your volunteer work is to gain more money, you have received your reward. But the goal towards which I race in a very silent, noiseless way, is to race for the reward Christ has for me, then there’s no reason to reveal myself, and the more you know the truth, the less you will reveal yourself.
If people do acknowledge you, it doesn’t really affect you this way or that way, but if people do acknowledge you, it doesn’t weaken you, either. If someone is looking for recognition and if someone Is tested when they’re not recognized, there is no reward for them in heaven, don’t you think that’s such a foolish life? Out of the members of the Early Church, there were a few names who were revealed in the Bible, but many of them were not. To come out every morning for early morning prayer to pray for the members of the church is no small feat. It’s easy for you to pray for yourself or to request prayers for your children, but not anybody can come out and pray for the members of the church. So, praying for the members of the church is no small feat. It’s not for you, it’s for the members of the church, and we’re told to pray for the members of the church, and God will not remain still.
There’s nothing that’s free, the Bible tells us that whatever we do for the Lord may give us persecution on the earth, but we will receive multiple-fold blessings in heaven. Therefore, our walk of faith isn’t something we calculate with our brain and do before people, but we do it before God who is invisible, that is the one who is a disciple of Christ. If someone wants to reveal themselves or stand before people, that’s not a disciple of Christ, and even if that person does do something, it doesn’t even matter. Make it so that your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand is doing, then if it does know, that is just giving itself is your reward.
After this Bible passage, they go into the valley of Edom, and they say, “We will pay you for safe passage,” but they say, “No.” The people of Edom are the descendants of Esau. Esau is the older brother of Jacob, he who lost hold of the covenant. So it’s the same bloodline but they are the ones who block God’s work, and that’s later on in this chapter.
After that, there’s the death of Aaron. Moses is called by the Lord a little bit later. So, it’s a time schedule where all the first generation are called to the Lord. It is the time schedule for God to raise up the second generation at the same time. May you and I be the ones who reveal the fact that God is the answer that resolves the problems in our church, our region and our nation.
Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given to us. God, may I be the one who resolves the problems of the church, region and the nation, and to become concentrated on the oneness of the church.
Let us pray for missions. There was a message posted on the AMC Kakaotalk group. It was about Yonas, he is a missionary in Ethiopia. He’s doing great works, he’s going into the Muslim territories and he is doing missions and raising disciples on his own, Though we are also helping him financially and materially, let us also support him in prayer, and for those who come to early morning prayer, we are always praying for him and his missions.
There’s also a Nigerian young adult who is training with a missionary in Kenya now, and he’s also doing ministry to Nigerians who are scattered throughout the world such as, New York and Nigeria as well, and he ultimately wants to return to Nigeria to save his nation, so let us pray for all the mission fields connected to our church at this time.
So let us also pray for Tracy, the RU opening lecture is this Sunday, and she will join the evangelism disciple class, so that she can receive training, please support her with prayer, and there’s also Senior Deaconess Song, who translated for me when I do messages with the South Americans sometimes, let us pray for her to be raised up as an interpreter. The flow of the message really has to be relayed and aligned, so please pray so that the accurate word may be relayed to her. So let’s pray right now for all the multiethnic people who are within the church and are related to the church.
If you look on the intercessory prayer list, there’s Christine Lee. She is 3 months pregnant now, so please pray for her. She came to our church a few times before the coronavirus and she works at Genwa. Let us also pray for Deacon Jay and Deaconess Jeannie Kwon and their family so that we can do the multiethnic missions with the remnants, and also for Jeannie Kwon’s daughter Jessica as well, she will be giving birth in September so let’s pray for them. These are children who are a mix of Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese, so we have to raise them up for world evangelization to happen more quickly, so the thing we must do is pray. RIght now, the time schedule is to pray, and your mission is to pray for the people in the church.
According to the time schedule, everyone is different, so praying for the remnants and multiethnic people coming to the church is your mission now. Let us pray.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of people of God who desire to stand on the side of resolving problems and saving the world, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.