Let's turn back here now to Numbers
11. Numbers 11. We begin reading here in verse
10. It says, Then Moses heard the
people weep throughout their families, every man in the door
of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled greatly, and Moses also was displeased. There were some
in the congregation in Israel that just simply did not believe
God. And as they complained in their
unbelief, unbelief began to sweep through that whole congregation. We're talking a large congregation,
600,000 people. And that unbelief just swept
it. In verse 4 it says, The mixed multitude that was among them
fell a lusting. They started complaining. Verse
4 says, And then the children of Israel also wept again. Then
verse 10 says, Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their
families. Every man in the door of his
tent. And Moses also fell into unbelief. Unbelief had taken
the whole congregation. It had taken the whole congregation.
And the murmuring of those unbelievers greatly, greatly kindled the
anger of the Lord. One, because they were despising
the Lord. They were saying they wanted
flesh rather than the manna from heaven. And two, because by their
murmuring, by their complaining, they were sowing discord among
brethren. And God hates those that sow
discord among brethren. One thing Moses did that was
far greater than what the members in the congregation were doing
is he at least made his complaint to the Lord rather than to men.
Unbelief is best taken to our Savior in prayer. It's good to
go to the Lord and say, Lord, I believe help thou mine unbelief,
because otherwise unbelief will feed the unbelief of our fellow
brethren, and it will cause division. So Moses made his complaint to
the Lord. And his two chief complaints
were these. In verse 13 he says, Whence should
I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto
me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. And then his second
was this, verse 14, I'm not able to bear all these people along
because it's too heavy for me. And so the Lord promised Moses
to give him help, that he'd give him help with his two chief complaints. Now Moses, notice here, Moses
asked first for flesh to appease the people, and secondly for
help to relieve his own burden. That shows us something that
Moses' heart was for the good of his brethren more than for
his own relief. But the Lord answers Moses and
promises to give Moses relief in the order of importance. Look
here, verse 16. First the Lord told Moses, Gather
unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest
to be elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring
them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand
there with thee. These were faithful men. These
were men who God had already called by His grace. They were
men who had proven faithful. God said, and I'll come down
and talk with thee there and I'll take of the Spirit which
is upon thee and put it upon them and they'll bear the burden
of the people with thee that thou bear it not thyself alone.
He wasn't going to remove the Spirit from Moses. He was just
going to give them the same Holy Spirit that he had given to Moses
so that they could help bear the burden and preach and prophesy. And then secondly, the Lord said,
verse 18, And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against
Amor, and you shall eat flesh. For you have wept in the ears
of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it
was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give
you flesh, and you shall eat, he said. He said, Not one day,
not two days, not five days, not ten days, not twenty days,
but a whole month, until it come out your nostrils, and it be
loathsome unto you, because you have despised the Lord which
is among you. and have wept before him, saying, Why came forth we
out of Egypt? Now the Lord promised Moses he'd
perform a spiritual miracle in giving those 70 elders his spirit,
and he promised that he'd do a temporal miracle in feeding
that multitude with flesh. Moses didn't doubt God could
do the spiritual miracle. But he had trouble with the temporal
miracle. That's what he had trouble with. Look here, verse 21. Moses
said, the people among who I am are 600,000 footmen. There's 600,000 people here.
And he's rounding off, brethren. There was more than that. Four
or five thousand, according to numbers. He's rounding it down. He said, and you've said I'll
give them flesh that they may eat a whole month. Shall the
flocks of the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or
shall the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to
suffice them? You see, Moses is in unbelief with all the rest
of the congregation. So the Lord asked Moses this
question, verse 23. The Lord said unto Moses, Is
the Lord's hand waxed short? Try to picture God's hand stretched
out and it not being quite long enough to reach to his people.
God says, is that what you think, Moses? Is the Lord's hand waxed
short? And note this word waxed. It
signifies that Moses once thought the Lord's hand was mighty to
save, but now it had shrunk. You think my hand has shrunk,
Moses? Is the Lord's hand waxed short?
Now that's the question we're going to answer from this passage.
Is the Lord's hand waxed short? And I'm going to show you. We're
going to see through this whole passage. This is our main point. We're going to see this through
the whole passage. What Isaiah 59 1 declares. It says, Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot say, neither his
ear heavy, that it cannot hear. Now first of all, first thing
we see here is God's hand is not whacked short to reserve
mercy for His child of grace. His hand is not short to reserve
mercy for His child of grace. The Lord said this about the
ungrateful unbelievers. He said this is what they were
doing in verse 20. Look there in verse 20. He said that they
were that you have despised the Lord which is among you." You've
despised the Lord. You've wept before Him saying,
why came we forth out of Egypt? And then back up there in verse
10 it says, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly
about this. Now, it's easy to understand Moses troubles here. This great burden that was on
him. This is very easy to understand. Moses is one sinful man leading
600,000 people. Mamas, daddies. Moses had 600,000 children he's
trying to take care of. 600,000. But were Moses' words, let me
ask you this, was Moses' words to God less full of sin and less
full of unbelief or was he worthy of anything less than God's anger
than those people? Moses accused God of afflicting
him and of not showing him favor. Look here in verse 11. Moses
said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?
Why have you afflicted me? And wherefore have I not found
favour in thy sight that thou layest the burden of all this
people upon me?" That was great favour. If the Lord afflicts
us, that's great grace. And if He lays a burden on us
and gives us a privilege to lead His people or to do anything
in His house, that is a great privilege. When Moses was so
overcome, he went so far as to say this in verse 15, If thou
deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand. If I found
favor in your sight, let me not see my wretchedness. Brethren,
Moses did the same thing as the unbelieving rebels did in Israel. He did the same thing. Those
whom God was angry with, Those unbelievers are an example of
what Moses, and me and you, and every other sinner is. It's an
example of what we will do if left to ourselves. And the judgment
God pours out on them, on those unbelievers, consuming them in
fire. The judgment he pours out on
them is the justice that you and I, believer, is the justice
that we deserve because of our sin. And yet I want you to listen
to God's answer to Moses. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel.
Look at verse 18, And say thou unto the people, Separate yourselves
against tomorrow and you'll eat flesh. You'll eat flesh. You see what's missing? Not a
single word about Moses' unbelief. Not a single word about his own
unkind words to the Lord. Not a single word about the shameful
things that Moses just said. God answered in a most kind and
tender manner, declaring he'll give Moses the two things that
he needed to relieve him of his burden. And even when Moses doubted
God's ability to give the flesh, look at how the Lord answered
him. He simply asked him this question, is the Lord's hand
whacked short? You see, God provided a blessing
for Moses and he judged the others. Why? Why did he do that? It wasn't
because Moses deserved better. Far from it. The only difference between Moses
and those unbelieving rebels is that God chose to be gracious
to Moses before the foundation of the world. That's the only
difference between you who believe and any other sinner in this
world. That's the only difference. Christ stood as Moses' surety.
Christ stood there as Moses sure did. Look here in verse 12. Moses
said to God, Have I conceived all these people? Have I begotten
them that thou shouldst say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom as
a nursing father, Beareth the sucking child into the land which
thou swarest unto their fathers? That's what Moses was praying
to God. Aren't you thankful we have somebody
between us and God? While Moses said that, Christ
stood between Moses and God the Father. And He said, Father,
I've conceived this child. I've forgotten Moses. I'm carrying
him in my bosom as a nursing father. This is my sucking child. Father, I'll bring him unto the
land that you swear unto his father Abraham. Father, I'll
take all his sins Not just the sins he's committing right here
in this moment. I'll take all his sins throughout all his life. And I'll take them, and I'll
bear them, and I'll stand before you, and I'll bear the fiery
wrath of your judgment, Father. You pour it all out on me. Just
let my child go free. And God the Father said, Oh,
my child has prayed such a good prayer. He's asked the best thing
that could ever be asked. And for the sake of my Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to show Him mercy. I'm going
to show Him mercy. I'm going to show Moses mercy.
Oh brethren, praise Christ Jesus for God's
unchanging indestructible grace. Despite our unbelief, despite
the murmurings in our hearts again against God, God's ear
is not heavy to hear Christ our Lord instead of us. And His arm's not too short to
reserve mercy for His child of grace, for Christ's sake. It's
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions
fail not. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So you see,
first of all, His hand is not whacked short to reserve mercy
for His child. He does that for Christ's sake.
Here's the second thing. God's hand is not short to overcome
our unbelief and turn it into faith. We've seen this time and
again that when God questions a sinner, when He asks a sinner
a question, it's to convict that child of his sin. That's why
God asks a question. We've seen that through this
whole series of questions. So He says to Moses right here
in verse 23, The Lord said unto Moses, It's the Lord's hand whacked
short. When that Spirit of God accompanied
that question, Moses must have heard something like this, When
I slew a lamb in the place of all the firstborn in Israel,
and I passed over you when I saw the blood, then you believed
My hand was mighty to save? Brethren, when God brought you
to see Christ Jesus, took the sin of His people and He died
in your room and your stead, And He makes you to see that
He satisfied His own justice and redeemed you, and that because
of His blood, because He gave you faith in His blood, God's
going to pass over you because He sees the blood of Christ.
When He revealed that in your heart, His hand appeared mighty
to save, didn't it? Well, is His hand whacked short?
I hear it coming to Moses and say, Moses, when I delivered
you over that Red Sea, divided that Red Sea, and I baptized
you in the Red Sea unto Moses, and you went across that Red
Sea, and then I drowned Pharaoh and all your enemies in that
Red Sea, then you thought my hand was mighty to save? Brethren,
when God opened our eyes and made us to see that Christ conquered
Satan, sin, death, and hell for us, His hand appeared mighty
to save? Is His hand white short that
He can't save? Moses, when you came to those
bitter waters of Marah, and I said, Moses, there's a tree standing
here, been here the whole time, that you just ain't seen. Cut
him down, and throw him into that bitter water, and it'll
be made sweet unto you. And when I did that, and you
drank those waters, and they were just as sweet to your taste,
then my hand appeared mighty to save. Brethren, every time we've come
to a trial, every time we've come to affliction, and God has
turned our attention and showed us Christ Jesus, who was cut
down in our room instead, and He's thrown Christ into those
bitter waters, every single time He's done it, He's made those
waters so sweet to our taste, and His hand appeared mighty
to save them, as His hand whacked short. Moses, just yesterday,
just yesterday when I was consuming those rebels in the outermost
part of this camp and you had faith to come and pray to me
then and because you interceded for me for the sake of Christ
and for my people, I stopped my fire and I didn't consume
them all, then my hand appeared mighty to save. Brethren, just
last night when He spoke into our hearts and He made us to
overflow with joy, His hand appeared mighty to save. Has it whacked
short by this morning? Brethren, you see the power of
unbelief. It's great power. The power of unbelief is great.
It's great. It's great. God performed all
these mighty works and Moses saw all of them. He's forgotten
all these works God has done and he did it quickly. Quickly. From just that time before when
he's prayed to God and God stopped that fire till this time right
here, Moses has forgot everything. Forgot everything. Unbelief is
far too powerful for me and you. We can't overcome it. A sinner
dead in his sins can't overcome it and a believer that's regenerated
when we're still in his flesh, brethren, we can't overcome our
unbelief either. It's impossible. With man it's impossible, but
it's not impossible with God, thankfully. God's hand is mighty
to turn our dead unbelief into living faith again. Look here
in verse 23. This is what he said to Moses,
Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto
thee or not. You know what happens when God
says, Thou shalt see now? You see. That's what happened. That's what happened to Moses.
That's what happened to Moses. But it says, you're going to
see whether or not my... It didn't matter when he said,
now you shall see. Moses saw. You know how I know
he did? Look at verse 24. Moses went out, told the people
the words of the Lord, and gathered the 70 men of the elders of the
people and set them round about the tabernacle. We saw this last
week with Joshua. Years later there when Lord told
him you're going to conquer this city by going around it, Joshua
blowing a trumpet, holding up the ark. Joshua believed him. You know how you know? He went
and told the people what the Lord told him. That's what Moses
did. By grace are you saved through
faith and that's not of yourself. It's the gift of God. And you
know something else, brethren? It's not just the gift of God
in the first hour you believe. It's the gift of God in every
hour you believe. Every hour. Now behold in this
miracle of God's grace that he's able to turn his child from unbelief
to faith. You think he's going to have
any problem doing the rest of this that he's promised? You
think he's going to have any problems? His hand's going to
be short that he can't do what he said he's going to do? Not
at all. He's going to do it all. So first,
his hand is not short to reserve mercy for his child. Secondly,
his hand's not short to overcome our unbelief and turn it to faith.
And then look at this third thing. God's hand is mighty to provide
pastors after his own heart. Look at verse 25. And the Lord
came down in a cloud. Who do we see that cloud was
before? It's Christ. Anytime God does something for
his people, he's doing it through Christ. The Lord came down in
a cloud and spake unto him and took of the spirit that was upon
Moses and gave it unto the seventy elders. And it came to pass that
when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease. Now I said to you, He didn't
take His Spirit off Moses, He just gave them the Spirit that
He had given to Moses. And it didn't diminish God one
iota to do that. Of His fullness we receive grace. But the Lord promised, He promised,
God promised to give pastors after His own heart. And He's
still doing that. He said, I'll give you pastors
according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. And he said in Jeremiah 23, 4,
And I'll set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the Lord. Now that's God's promise. He
said in Isaiah 30, 20, Though the Lord give you the bread of
adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be
removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy
teachers. Look at Ephesians 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. Christ is the man who is God
and has head over his church. He's giving his church pastors
according to his heart. Look here in Ephesians 4.11.
Ephesians 4.10 says the same one that descended is the one
that ascended above all. And he says then in verse 4.11,
or he says, look there, verse 10, that he might fill all things.
And here's what he means by that. And he gave some apostles. and
some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors in nature. That's
what Christ is doing. And he's going to continue to
do this till a set time. Look here at verse 13. Till we
all, all God's elect, come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, and here's
what it means by that, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. That is, until every member of
Christ's body is called and his body is full. He's going to keep
providing pastors until he's called the last elect child.
He's going to do that. And if God's written a man's
name, He's going to provide pastors. And if God has written a man's
name down and ordained him for that work, it don't matter where
he is, God's going to find him and the Spirit's going to arrest
that man and rest on him and he's going to preach the gospel.
Look here in verse 26. There remain two of the men in
the camp The name of the one was Eldad, the name of the other
Medad, and the Spirit rested upon them. And they were of them
that were written. They were of these 70 men that
were written. But they went not out unto the
tabernacle. When Moses called the others,
I don't know why they don't tell us, but they didn't go. They
didn't go with the others. But they prophesied in the camp.
The Spirit rested on them. Their names were written. Their
names were written and therefore God called them to this work.
Nothing hinders the Holy Spirit from finding his child and arresting
them by resting on them. Nothing does. Nothing does. Another
example is Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul.
He was on his way to Damascus to arrest believers and instead
Christ arrested him. Christ arrested him. Paul said,
you've heard my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it, and I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my father. But when it pleased God, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, he
said, He said, from eternity back there, He wrote my name
down and separated me for this work. When I was in my mother's
womb, before I ever came forth, God had ordained me to be a preacher
of the gospel to the Gentiles. And He said, and when it pleased
Him to call me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. He turned me from flesh and blood.
He called me, and when He called me, Paul said, I went to preaching
the gospel. When it was reported to Moses,
they came back there to Moses and they said, these two men
are out there preaching in the camp. And Joshua, just defending
Moses, you know, he said, Moses forbid them. They're not here
with us. They're not in our camp. They
didn't come to the tabernacle. They're out there in the camp
preaching. Stop them. Verse 29, And Moses
said unto him, Envious thou for my sake, Are you envious of these
fellows because of me? Would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit
upon them. For after all the Lord's hand is not short that
he can't provide pastors after his own heart. And that's good
news for congregations that don't have a pastor that's seeking
one. This congregation was at one time. Sure was. That's good news. If Christ is
pleased to give them a pastor, it's been ordained since the
foundation of the world. They're going to have it. They're
going to have him. He's going to give them one. If he's willing,
if he's ordained it, they will. And if he hasn't, they can try
all they want to try to establish a work and establish one. It
ain't going to happen. If he don't build the house,
it won't be built. If he don't provide the pastor, they won't
be provided. But he said he will, brethren. That ought to fill
us with joy, and we ought to join with those congregations,
as Christ said. And he said, Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he'll send forth laborers into
his harvest. He's able. He's able. Alright,
so he's able to reserve mercy for his child, he's able to turn
our unbelief to faith, he's able to give pastors after his own
heart. Here's the fourth thing. The Lord's hand is able to provide
his people temporal blessings in this earth. Now look here,
verse 31. There went forth a wind from
the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall
by the camp. As it were, a day's journey on
this side and as it were, a day's journey on the other side ran
all the way around the camp. And as it were, two cubits high
upon the face of the earth. Two cubits high on the face of
the earth. Men have talked about how could they be stacked at
two cubits high. I think they just flew up there and died.
That's what I think. I don't even think the men had to kill
them. I think they flew up there and died. This was what Moses
had more trouble believing than the spiritual blessing. Why is it, brethren, that we
have more trouble believing God can do temporal things? Why do
we have trouble believing that? God is the power of every law
of the universe. From gravity to weightlessness,
He's the power of it. He's the power of every force
and every element in this universe. From the slightest wind to the
power of the sun. God's the power of every creature.
He is the health of the healthy. He's the power of nourishment
that makes you eat and your body get something from it. He turns
man's heart and his mind whithersoever he will. That's what the Lord
does. So why is it, brethren, why do
we have trouble thinking that, you know, greater than all of
those things combined is God's power to forgive all His elect
children of our sins because of the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's greater than all those
other things. Greater than temporal miracles
is God's power to create spiritual life within a dead sinner. greater
than any temporal miracle is God's power to raise the dead
and make our vile bodies fashion like unto His glorious body by
the power whereby He's able to subdue all things unto Himself. If the Lord can do these greater
spiritual miracles, He can certainly do the lesser temporal miracles.
That's what Christ said when He healed that man that had the
palsy, or when He absolved him of his sins and forgave him of
his sins, and then made him get up and walk. He said this. He
said, whether it's easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee,
or to say, Arise and walk. And you know what a man's going
to say. A man's going to say, Well, it's
easier just to say, Your sins are forgiven. That's a lot easier. No, it's not. It is for a man
with his collar on backwards because he don't have any power
to do anything. But it's not easy for God to do it. It cost
him his son to be able to do it. It cost Christ his blood
to be able to do it. And Christ said, But that you
may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive
sins. Then he said to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up
thy bed, and go unto thy house. And he arose and departed unto
his house. To forgive sins takes a far greater work and power
than to heal bodily disease. And therefore, since Christ is
able to forgive our sins, He's able to provide us whatever temporal
thing He pleases. Brethren, do you believe God
took human flesh and built a sinless life? Do you believe that God
went to the cross and took all our sins and paid the wages of
sin, which is death, and delivered us from the curse of the law? Do you believe that He was able
to send His gospel to you and create life in you and give you
faith and repentance and bring you to believe upon Him? Do you
believe He was able to keep you by His grace? I know you believe
it, brethren, because I see you rejoicing when I preach it. So
then let it be settled right here and right now for every
believing, born-again, elect child of God, that God, who provided
his only begotten Son, who laid down his life for each one of
us here now that believe by his grace, how shall he not with
him freely give us every other thing, every other lesser thing? That's no problem for him. God's
even able to use our enemies to do it. Look here in verse
32. The people stood up all that day, and all that night, and
all the next day, and they gathered the quails. He that gathered
least gathered ten homers, and they spread them all abroad for
themselves round about the camp. They cleaned them quails, and
they salted them, and they laid them all out there to dry out
in the sun. Man, we're going to have quails
to eat from here on out. We got meat to eat now, boys.
We don't have to ever touch that manna again. And most of them that did the
gathering, God killed them and they left it to Moses and Joshua
and Caleb. God's able to use our enemies
to provide for us. Here's the fifth thing. God's
hand is not short to pour out judgment on His enemies and restore
peace in His congregation. Look here in verse 33. While
the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the
wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord
smote the people with a very great plague, and He called the
name of that place Kibreth-Hadavah, because there they buried the
people that lusted. God gave them what they lusted
for, not for their profit, brethren. This wasn't a blessing to them,
to those unbelievers. He gave it to them as reprobate
men who He had turned over to their lusts. You can read Psalm
106, Psalm 78, it'll tell you this. They weren't estranged
from their lusts. He didn't give them repentance
from their lusts. When they saw them quails falling, they went
out gathering those quails up, hand in fist. That's a man let
go by God. They doubted that hand of power
to provide for them and that very hand let them go and turned
them over to themselves. And they went out there and then
he justly poured out judgment upon them and smote them, killed
them. That was all just due to their
own rebellion against God. And then after they gathered
all that up, He slew the fattest of them with judgment and buried
them out of His sight. And then look what He did. After
He did that, after He did that, now look what He did. He moved
His people on to a better place. We read before, they didn't move
unless the cloud moved. They didn't move unless the ark
moved. Now they're moving. Look here, verse 35. That's the
Lord moving them. And the people journeyed from
the graves of lust unto Hazaroth. You know what that word means?
Settlement. Settlement. They moved from these
graves of lust, lusting in all the congregation in unbelief
and turmoil and division and discord, not believing God. By
God's power, He moved them from there where they abode settled. They were settled. They were
settled. That's what the word means. Settled.
As Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story.
His hand is not short that it cannot save, neither His ear
heavy that it cannot hear. But His hand is mighty to deliver
all His people from the graze of lust, from our unbelief, to
abide settled in His grace, by His grace, in faith in Christ. He's able to do that. We don't
have anything to worry about. We're in a big hand, brethren.
A big hand. Amen. Brother Eric, if you could...