I would just say that God moves
in mysterious ways because I was due to preach at Ripley on Thursday
and I had a text upon my spirit and then I couldn't go there
and then I was to preach at Bromley on Saturday and I thought well
I will preach from that text then and I wasn't able to go
yesterday. So I now have the same text to
preach to you from this morning. And we pray that in these things
we may see the good hand of God. Now the particular words of my
spirit which I'll read, and I'll just read a few verses around
it, but the particular words of my spirit are in the 10th
chapter of Numbers and part of verse 29. That's the 10th chapter of Numbers
and part of verse 29. And Moses said, come with us
and we will do thee good. The actual paragraph which relates
to this, I'll just read from the beginning of verse 29. And
Moses said unto Hobad, the son of Rigule, the Midianite, Moses'
father-in-law, we are journeying unto the place which the Lord
said, I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we will
do thee good, for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. 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 for as much as thou knowest how we are to encamp
in the wilderness, and thou mayest be so be to us instead of ours. 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. So although it doesn't specifically
say so, it would appear from this that Chabad in fact did
go with the Israelites. And it's a wonderful statement
to realize that here was Chabad, who was of course the brother-in-law
of Moses, and he was a Midianite, and he'd obviously come and was
speaking and seeing Moses and of course Moses would have been
familiar with him as we know he spent 40 years with his father-in-law
and keeping the sheep and so he would have been familiar with
Chobad but the time came obviously when Chobad had come after many
years and had now visited the Israelites on their journeys.
And it would seem probably they hadn't been very long, just over
two years or so, on their journey. They'd already turned their back
upon God, and God had already told them they were going to
therefore spend 40 years traversing the wilderness. But nonetheless,
The great blessing was that God was with them. Because as Moses
said, we are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said,
I will give it you, come there with us and we will do thee good
for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. So there was
a wonderful promise that God was with them, with Israel, he
would be with them and also he would take them safe on their
journey And as we know, bring them safe at last to the land
of Canaan. And we know that God's words,
God's promises do not fail. What God says comes to pass.
And so it was a wonderful invitation that Moses here gave to his brother-in-law
in these words, come now with us and we will do thee good. Well, there are, as we can perhaps
put ourselves in Hobab's shoes and think, well, you know, what
is the benefit? These people don't seem to have
had much favor since they came out of Egypt. You know, why should
I go with them? And yet, you see, Moses told
him there was this tremendous benefit that God was with them. And surely that should be our
greatest concern today, in our lives, to know that God is with
us. And therefore, if the Lord gives
us a gracious invitation like this, as he says, come now with
us and we will do thee good. What was the position? The situation
was, here was Chobab basically outside the camp of Israel. There were all the Israelites
inside the camp of Israel. And as we read together in this
chapter, there were very clear instructions how they were to
encamp. It wasn't a haphazard situation. They were directed, some on the
north, some on the south, some on the east, and some on the
west. A very clear direction as to where they were to encamp. And also, very clearly, when
they were to move, God was to direct them. And it was a very
clear sign, a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud
by day. So again, the journey they were to go on wasn't going
to be a haphazard journey. It was going to be a very clear
journey, a journey only God was new and only God was to direct
them in. But they were commanded to go
on that journey. And so there was the decision
really for Chobad. Was he to stay outside of the
camp? Or was he to join with Israel
inside the camp and to enjoy the blessings of God? Well, really, the picture we
have is very easy for us to understand, it's very lucid, but we also
need to apply it to ourselves today. And when I say that, I
mean this. Are we, outside the camp, outside
the Church of God, or are we inside the Church of God, inside
the camp of God? Now, there may be that question. The Lord may perhaps put that
question to us, and it may be like this, come now with us,
and we will do thee good. And this of course has a spiritual
reference. It was really only spiritual
reference to this man that is brother-in-law Habab. It was
really a spiritual reference and you and I today should be
concerned and perhaps very concerned that we follow the invitations
of Almighty God and that we do not turn away from them. Perhaps
initially we may have said oh I'm not going to do that Just
like Hobart did here when he said, I will not go. I'm not
going. I don't want to go with the Israelites.
I don't want to go with them. I want to carry on, perhaps,
where I've been. And I know the land, and I know
the situation, and I know the benefits of that. But you see,
Moses then pointed out to him, the better benefits are being
found with Israel. And so it is, the better benefits
for us today are being found with Israel. You may say, well,
what are some of those benefits? Well, it's important, isn't it,
that we do know there are benefits being with the Church of God
rather than being outside of the Church of God. Well, in this
case, of course, here we have with Israel, the great blessing
was that the Lord was in the midst. He was within the midst. And that was very evident because
of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. And he was central. We read about the camps, they
were all equally divided really, round about. The central part,
which of course was the tabernacle. And in the tabernacle was the
holy place and the most holy place where was the ark of the
covenant and the mercy seat and that's where God came and dwelt
with Israel. What a very wonderful position
the Israelites had to know that God was with them and God was
in the midst. And surely that is important
for us today. to know that we are with the
company of God's people, that we are clearly going with them,
and that we're not being left outside the camp. You see, those
who were outside, and we know there were so many, we read of
them of course, the Amalekites, etc., the Hivites, the Jebusites,
they were all around, the Moabites, there were lots of them, but
they were not part of Israel, and they were not within the
camp. And they were outside. And they were not blessed by
God. Generally, we know there was the odd occasion, but generally
speaking, they were not. It was the Israel of God. Those
whom the Lord had determined to bless, had determined to favour. And we know they were rebellious
lot. And we know they turned against God very often. But we
also know that God favoured them. That God blessed them abundantly. even though they were often in
opposition to the commands and directions of Almighty God. And so here was the benefit then,
first of all, of God being in the midst. And the truth is today,
in our position, in the Church of God, Jesus is in the midst. And surely that is a very weighty
and important consideration, to not therefore be left outside
the camp, outside the church, but to hear the gracious invitation
that is given. And it's very, they're warm words,
aren't they? Come thou with us and we will
do thee good. What a blessing that is to know
that the Lord will do us good, not only in this life, but also
bring a safe home to glory. So there is much significance
with such a statement as this. Now, not only was there the evidence
of Jesus in the midst, there was also the many sacrifices
which were offered in the tabernacle. And they would have been observed
by the Israelites by the smoke that ascended. And there were
many sacrifices, and there was always the continual burnt offering
morning and evening. So as the Israelites looked towards
the tabernacle, they would have always observed smoke ascending. And that smoke was ascending
as a sweet savour unto Almighty God. So again, they were doubly
reminded of the presence of the Lord in the midst. Not only by
his presence in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire,
but also the evidence of that smoke ascending and as an acceptable
sacrifice unto God. And what did it signify? Well,
it signified usually two things. First of all, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. And secondly, forgiveness of
sin. What a good thing then, to be
reminded of that. You see, without the camp, in
the world, are we reminded of the things of God, the important
things of God, the precious things of God? There's many things to
distract us. Well, of course, even in the
camp, even in the church, of course we have our own minds,
are there to distract us, but nonetheless there was the evidence
of this wonderful favour of God to the Israelites. And so then
we might think of this as the being in the church, we see and
we realise the presence of God in the times of worship, and
we're blessed to hear the prayers of the brethren, which are sent
up as a sweet savour unto Almighty God. Outside of the church, outside
of the camp, this is not a benefit. We will never find spiritual
blessing in the world. You never will. Never think you
will. But there is great blessing to
be found in the Church of God. And then of course, there was
the blessed conversation in the Church of God. And we should
always recognize the importance of that. First of all, the Israelites
would have been able to recall God's wonderful deliverances
and to remind one another of those wonderful scenes which
they observed when they were in Egypt. The amazing miracles
which came to pass. Clearly it was God's working. And then they came to the Red
Sea. An impossible situation. The
Red Sea before them. The Egyptians behind them. How
were they to be delivered? God appeared. My friends, that's
the same today in our spiritual lives. We may seem to be at an
impasse. That means an impossible situation. But Israel saw God arise. And my friends, we today still
see God arise. So there were these Israelites
in the camp being able to remind each other of the wonderful blessings
of God. And not only, of course, coming
over the Red Sea, but then see how the Lord instructed them
and how he came down on Mount Sinai. And what a fearful time
that was. What a frightening time it was
for those Israelites. And what an evidence of the power
of God. they had no need ever to doubt
the power of God. And so he then, and again he
instructed Moses of course with the wonderful words of instruction
to erect the tabernacle, the wonderful Ten Commandments he'd
given to Israel, all these blessings you see. The Israelites knew
and were able to converse about Well, it was the Word of God,
it was the work of God, and it was to be heard and to listen
to and to rejoice in. And it's the same today in the
Church of God. I know, perhaps sadly, there's
not the spiritual conversation that there should be, but we
pray it may be more and more. And there may be that heavenly
conversation. There is nothing better to draw
us to God than heavenly conversation. That is, to hear what God has
done for one another's soul. Also, of course, what God does
in Providence, as he'd done to Israel in bringing them out of
Egypt. And you see, there's much to
speak about. And what a good thing when it
is spoken about. And so as we think of the Lord's
words here to Hobab through Moses, come thou with us and we will
show thee good. It was the good work of God. What a blessing then to see that. And of course it didn't stop
there, did it? There was the evidence of the
tabernacle. and all that it contained. Well,
no doubt it was to a large extent mysterious, but nonetheless it
was very clearly ordained by Almighty God. And it wasn't just
something that Moses thought about, God instructed him very
clearly. And he instructed the Israelites
very clearly. And when they made everything
according to the pattern that God had given them, they came
and brought it to Moses so that he could inspect it and make
sure that it was all in order. So we see then the wonderful
account in the Word of God. And these Israelites, they would
have been very aware of it and of course the Lord ordained that
certain tribes, certain sections should have a particular work
to do in the ordering of the tabernacle, in taking it down
and re-erecting it and also of course in the making of it in
the first place. And the glorious scene which
it depicted in the veil and of course the wonderful golden Holy
of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant Ten Commandments placed
inside. And there was of course then
the bowl of manna, a jar of manna placed there, and Aaron's rod
that budded. There were all these wonderful
evidences of God's favour and God's blessing. They were all
to be spoken about and considered to elevate Almighty God. And this was confined to Israel. What a blessing then. Surely
then, this invitation was a wonderful one, wasn't it? To Hobart. Come
thou with us. Come thou with us. And we will
show thee good. We will do thee good. You see,
it was through the work of the Holy Spirit they would receive
the blessing of God. And we will do thee good. Well today, do we seek The goodness
of God. Do we seek the favour of God? And are we without the camp? Is the Lord speaking to us in
this way? Come thou with us and we will do thee good. It's a
gracious word, isn't it? I mean, Chabad didn't deserve
it. He wasn't an Israelite. He was
a Midianite. And yet you see the Lord sovereignly
came to him through Moses. And the Lord today comes to his
people sovereignly. We don't deserve it. What a wonderful
blessing if God has come and spoken to our hearts, to
our souls, such a word as this. Come thou with us. Come and join to the Church of
God. Come in, within the camp, and
not stay outside. Although perhaps our initial
consideration is, no, we don't want to do that. What a blessing
when it is further spelt out, the blessings of this situation,
so that we may then understand what it is as Moses says, And
it shall be, if thou wilt go with us, yea, it shall be, that
what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we
do unto thee. And Israel were blessed with
the goodness of the Lord, weren't they? And my friends, all his
people are blessed with the goodness of the Lord. And none of us can
ever say we deserve it. And perhaps naturally, well I'm
sure naturally, we don't want to be tied as it were to the
Church of God. We want to keep our freedom.
We want to remain outside so that we don't have to carry out
the commands and ordinances the Lord sets before us and let us
just remember that in the Old Testament and in Israel's case
they had many, many commands and many ordinances and ceremonies
which they were to keep very, very rigorously and without any
exception and they weren't allowed to say well that doesn't matter
and well that doesn't matter. They had to keep them regularly
in the right time scale and in accordance with the commands
that God had given to them. And yet, you see, there was blessing
in these ordinances, because what did they do? Without exception,
they directed them to the great God. That's the blessing. Now, outside of the camp, the
things of the world do not did not direct those who were outside
to the Lord God sometimes they'd heard of the great things God
had done for them but it didn't attract them and they weren't
part of the family but bless God if you and I hear the blessed
word of God calling us this was a call wasn't it come now with
us my friends God still calls his people today. Let us not
then reject the gracious invitation. We may not want to accept it. We may not want to partake of
it. We may think, well, I don't think
I want to carry out those rules and difficult situations which
the Word of God commands us to do. And of course in New Testament
time it really references just two things and that's believers
baptism and of course the Lord's Supper and we should not put
them off and we should not think well they're not very relevant
you know sometimes we think well of course I've got a good excuse
because there we have that thief on the cross he was never baptized
and he never partook of the Lord's Supper but we should remember
that it was not possible for him to do so. And nobody should
ever hide under that position. You should never think, well,
of course I can hold up the dying thief. You can't. You can't really. And you see, the great blessing
of the people here, these Israelites, was that they were blessed with
the favour of God. The Lord went before them. The
Lord didn't lead them to their own devices. He led them about
by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. They
were in the camp, they weren't outside. They were in the camp
and the Lord led them about and instructed them. He kept them
as the apple of his eye. That's what, of course, is the
word spoken to Jacob, but it was to all Israel. And what a
wonderful thing it is to have the word of the Lord directing
us in this situation to show us the things that we should
remember. Remember his ordinances, remember
his great work, and to be able to speak of his great work And
going back then to the erection of the tabernacle, and all those
things which were done there, they all had a reference to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They all had a reference to the
Saviour. What a good scene it was. What
a good position it was, to have that with them, to remind them
of the favour of God. And so today, as we I found in
the Church of God, you know, the blessing of being united
in church fellowship is the gospel freedom. The gospel freedom. You may say, well, what is that?
Well, Peter speaks about it in the third chapter of his first
epistle. And it's this, the answer of
a good conscience. The answer of a good conscience
is very valuable, and it's very blessed. And it's very wonderful
to be united with the people of God. And again, let us not
think that we deserve to be, we don't. What a wonderful blessing
if the Lord invites us. Come there with us and we will
do thee good. And that's not something that
you're going to just pass away. Oh no, it's an eternal blessing
because they are We understand and we are taught the things
of God. You may say, well, of course, I can learn all those things
as I am. Well, of course we can. But you
see, the Lord God has a specific direction. He had a specific direction to
Israel of old. And we shouldn't think, therefore,
that when we come to the New Testament, those directions are
ditched and God doesn't give any direction today. Of course
he does. And what a blessing it is to
be found walking in the gracious commands of Almighty God. Now,
it is significant that Israel, the Israelites, and you can read
this in the 15th chapter of Numbers, I won't turn up to it now, but
the 15th chapter, and it speaks there of the children of Israel
doing something to remind them of the truths of God, the commands
of God. And that was, they were to put
a border of blue at the border of their garments. You may of
course know that the Israelites and of course the people of the
East, they didn't wear trousers, they just wore usually tunics
or dresses and the general thing was that the woman's dress was
a bit longer than the men's and therefore round the bottom, round
the hem of their garments, they put this ribbon of blue So all
the people would be having these garments and they would have
this ribbon of blue as they were walking about. And therefore
it couldn't be missed, could it? What was it? It was to remind
the people of Israel of what God has said. It's a good thing,
isn't it? To have such a thing like that.
Well of course we don't do it ourselves nowadays, but it's
good because there in the camp, Therefore, all these Reliants
would be dressed like this and have this ribbon of blue around
their garments so that the people would be reminded of the ordinances
and the commands and the directions of Almighty God and to not turn
away from it. And of course, it didn't occur
outside the camp. It only occurred inside the camp. And again, if we think of that
in a spiritual way well inside the camp there is there should
be that godly walk and that godly conversation that turning away
from the poor things of time because if we are outside the
camp we don't have any ties as it were and we go on our way
and we give license to do this and we give license to do that
we think well that's all right of course I can do this freely
well you can but That's not the answer of a good conscience,
is it? And I'm sure many of us know what that's been like in
our lives. What a mercy if God comes in
his sovereign will and power and speaks to us and directs
us to do that which is good and right for his honour and for
his glory. You know, Zachariah gives us
an encouraging word in the 8th chapter of Zachariah we read
these words. And in the 23rd verse, the last
verse, he says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days
it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all
languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt
of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have
heard that God is with you. That's a great blessing, isn't
it? to go with the people of God, to not be left outside the
camp, but to go with the people of God. And of course, as I mentioned,
there was the tabernacle in the midst of the Israelite camp,
so that everybody could be reminded of the Lord himself. And what
do we have today? Jesus in the midst, in the midst
of the Church of God. What a blessing therefore to
meditate and to speak of what He has done. You see they only
had faith to look forward to the coming of the Messiah. We
today have sight to read the Word of God and to look back
and to see the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the
Saviour and to see what occurred. The glorious Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, he came into this world, made himself of no
reputation. Not what the natural Israelite
expected, but nonetheless spiritual Israelite did. Because we're
told, Abraham saw my day and was glad. we now look back to
that day and are you glad, am I glad of that glorious day when
the Saviour was born in that manger of Bethlehem, born to
save our souls, born to redeem us. Do we have then a blessed
hope that it was his life and death that redeemed our souls,
in paying the price for all our sins, you see again in the camp
the Israelites had to carry out their sacrifices again and again,
signifying their sin and the need for forgiveness. And we
today need again and again to look to Calvary, to look to the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have that blessed confirmation
that our sins were taken away through what the Saviour did.
There is, you see, a blessed analogy with the Old Testament
and the New. And to us today is revealed the
fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. How much we have
to thank God for, how much we have to speak about, how much
we have to tell about what the Lord Jesus has done for our souls,
and to join with the Church of God. You see, the Church of God
rejoices outside the camp. The people don't understand.
The people of the world don't appreciate. They think we're
mad. They don't understand that we've
been blessed with sovereign grace and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
to believe that we are saved through his death. And that he
now is risen from the dead, a conqueror over sin, death, hell and the
grave. And our hope is based on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. The world doesn't understand
that, but the Church of God does. And they rejoice. And there is
a coming together. And there is a praising God for
what he's done. praising God for his wonderful
mercy, of his tremendous love in saving such a vile sinner
and calling us by his grace. Oh, there's much to glorify our
God. There's much to praise our God.
And so, let us ponder, let us think upon these words this morning. Not often read this chapter,
Some of you may never have read it before. I don't know. You
may never have read it. You may never have known such
a little word existed. But it does. And it's a powerful
word. And it's a word directed to all
of God's people. Come thou with us and we will
do thee good. My friends, you and I need to
receive good from the hand of our God. What a blessing it is
to have such a glorious invitation. Here with Chobad, an outsider,
and we're all outsiders until the Lord comes and the Lord calls
us. What a blessing then, today, if by His grace we've heard the
sovereign call of God. to our very souls. Very humbling. We never deserved it. Very wonderful. We never deserved it. So amazing. We never deserved it. Yet to
think that Almighty God has caused us to hear His voice like He
did. He singled out Chobab from the
millions around that Moses was directed to speak to. Come thou
with us and we will do thee good. May we hear God's voice and be
blessed to prove it true. Amen.