Numbers chapter 17. I don't want
so much to comment on this, but I want to finish a lesson that
we've looked at the last couple of weeks concerning Aaron's priesthood. You remember, and we'll go back
over this in just a few minutes, but you remember when Korah was
trying to take the priesthood from Aaron and set himself up
in it. And what happened and what came
out of that, the Lord destroyed many of them. 14,700 people died
as a result of that. And this is the conclusion of
that incident that took place. The Lord is going to confirm
Aaron in the priesthood before the eyes of this people. And this is concerning here in
the 17th chapter. the book of Numbers, but I just
want to read it to you. It is very fascinating, a miraculous
way the Lord had a confirming errant priesthood before him.
Let's just read it. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take every one
of them a rod, according to the house of their fathers, of all
their princes, according to the house of their fathers, twelve
rods. Write thou every man's name upon
his rod. Now, these rods could be a staff. Sometimes they call the staff
a rod. Moses always carried his rod
with him. Sometimes they're staffs. They're just an old, dried stick. Sometimes they were actual limb
or stick they cut off of trees. But whether it was an old, dried
rod or whatever it was, The twelfth princess of the twelve tribes
of Israel was to bring their rods. Verse 3, And thou shalt
write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi, for one rod shall be
for the head of the house of their fathers. And thou shalt
lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the
testimony, where I will meet with you." Now, you remember
where that is, don't you? You go into the most holy place,
and there was the testimony. That was the ark where Moses
put the Ten Commandments and put over the top of it the golden
mercy seat. That's where they were to lay
these probably dried rods. And it shall come to pass that
the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom, and I will make
to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby
they murmur against you. That's what the Lord said, I'm
going to do. You lay these sticks up. They're the mercy seat. And one of them is going to blossom.
And that's the one that I choose as the high priest. And when
you see what I'm going to do, it's going to stop your mouth
from your murmuring against Aaron, my high priest. Verse 6. And Moses spake unto the children
of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece,
for each prince one, According to their father's houses, twelve
rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid
up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness." Now,
Moses was a man of faith, wasn't he? He knew that when the Lord
says, You do this, and I'm going to settle the issue, he told
them, Let the Lord settle this issue once and for all. We'll
take these old dried rods, these sticks, we'll lay them up in
there by the mercy seat, and we'll let God settle this once
and for all. So he put the rods in there,
they walked out and left them. In verse 8, And it came to pass
on the morrow, Moses went to the tabernacle of witness, and,
behold, the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi was budded
and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds."
Now that's amazing isn't it? One out one night, just one night. An old dried stick is what most
people think it was. All of them was an old dried
stick. And not only was it so fascinating that it happened
from old sticks, but it happened overnight. Had all of these buds
on it, all these blossoms on it, and all these almonds on
this old dry stick. And Moses brought out all the
rods from before the Lord unto the children of Israel, and they
looked. That word means to discern. It
means to take heed. They gazed upon it. They looked
at it. They examined it. And can't you
imagine what they felt like? They felt about that high. I
imagine when Aaron said, all you guys bring your sticks, that
boy, they came with confidence, had their pretty rods, and thinking,
man, I get to compete with Aaron. What's going to happen to my
rod? I am somebody. I'm a prince. But I tell you,
they changed their mind now, didn't they? They got here, Moses
handed the rods out, and they looked at them and examined them,
and theirs were as barren as an old dried stick. That took
some confidence out of them, didn't it? That vain confidence
out of them. And they looked at Aaron's rod
and there it was with buds all over it, blossoms and almonds.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before
the testimony to be kept for a token against these rebels.
And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that
they die And Moses did so as the Lord commanded him, so did
he. That's how he proved. That's
how he proved. The man's rod that buds and blossoms
and brings forth fruit, that's the man that I've chosen to be
your high priest. And he said, Moses, you take
this and you put it in the ark and you're going to keep it there.
If anybody's got any questions, you just show it to them. Here's
the man that I've chosen. And you know something? Now,
here's what flesh is. Here's what unbelief is. They
went from saying, we want a part in this priesthood. We're just
as good as anybody else. And we want to share with Aaron. We can come into God's presence.
They went from saying that to saying what we find here in verse
12. And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold,
we die, we perish, we are all going to perish. Whosoever cometh
anywhere near the tabernacle of the Lord, he shall die. Shall
we be consumed with dying? Isn't that the way unbelief is?
It goes from presumption to blatant no confidence at all. Ain't that
the way it is? Unbelief, somebody said, can
ask 10,000 questions, but it can't reach one conclusion. The
Lord did not show them this to make them believe He's going
to kill them. He showed them this for their good, that they
now realized they'd have a high priest between them and God,
and that would stop their murmuring. Putting herself in the priesthood.
Boy, that's the way unbelief is, ain't it? It goes from presumption
to utter despair. God worked a wonderful miracle,
didn't he? Wonderful miracle. Then you go
on in chapter 18, if you want to read it sometimes, and the
Lord turns right around and says, Now Aaron, this is what I've
done for you. I've established you in this
priesthood before their eyes. Now you be careful what you do.
Because if iniquity is done in your priesthood now, You're going
to have to bear the blame for it. You've got to bear the blame
for it. They ain't going to bother you
anymore. They're not going to be able to take your priesthood.
Now, you and your kids better be careful. Boy, that was a burden,
wasn't it? That's a burden. That's why Hebrews 9 tells us
these sacrifices were imposed on them. The care of taking care
of all these sacrifices and representing the people, it was imposed on
them under the time of repetition. Restitution of all things. It
was an imposition. It was a burden to them. But here is what I want to concentrate
on just for a few minutes. I want to remind you and go back
in chapter 16 to remember why this confirmation was necessary
to begin with. I want you to look at 16 and
verse 10 again. This is not so much of reiterating
anything, but I want to take another look at this and see
here why it was so necessary for God to confirm Aaron's priesthood
before their eyes. He thought it was so necessary
that he did this great miracle to stop their murmurings and
complaints. It was essential that Aaron's priesthood continue
among this people. Look here in chapter 16 and read
verse 10 with me again. Now, this is Korah. He was of
the tribe of Levi, the same tribe that Aaron was from. And in verse
10 he says, Moses said this to Korah, And he hath brought thee
near to him, Korah, and all your brethren, the sons of Levi, with
thee, and seek you the priesthood also? And look over here in verse
19. And Korah gathered all the congregation
together against them, against Moses and against Aaron, until
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory
of the Lord appeared before all the congregation. Now, he was
serious about taking this priesthood. I don't know, I'm not for sure
if he wanted to just put him out of the priesthood, Or if
he wanted him to just share the priesthood with him. But he had
little esteem for Aaron and his priesthood. But here is a question
that I want us to deal with just for a few minutes. If he succeeded in dethroning
Aaron from his priesthood, then on what ground would Korah and
all of those that were with him and the whole congregation On
what grounds would they approach unto God and be accepted of Him
and obtain favor with God? On what grounds? Well, he tells
us here, look in chapter 16 and look in verse 3. Here's the grounds
upon which Korah and most of the congregation hoped to be
accepted. Look in chapter 16 and verse
3. And they gathered themselves, Korah and these princes, they
gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron,
and said unto them, You take too much upon you. Sin, all the
congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is
among them. Wherefore then lift you up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord." Now, what's wrong with
this statement? That's a false assumption. And
here's the false assumption. The whole congregation is holy. Well, they weren't, were they?
The Lord had already told Moses. He had already made this statement
concerning them. These are a stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart people. He had threatened to overthrow
them. He had threatened to destroy
them different times, hadn't he? That's a false assumption. Look in chapter 14 and look in
verse 11. 14 and verse 11. Look at this. And
the Lord said unto Moses, you find it in chapter 14, verse
11. The Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke
me? How long will it be, or they
believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them,
I will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit them, and I will
make of thee a greater and mightier nation than they." They weren't
a holy people. And what Korah was saying, this
is a holy people. And God is among us, and we're
tired of Moses dictating to us how we come to God. When to move
or when not to move. And we want to come to God on
our own, and we don't want to have to go through Aaron. We want a relationship with God
on our own. We're able to do that because
we're holy and God's among us and He wants us to have this
relationship with Him. But we're hindered. We're hindered
by having to go through somebody else. We're hindered having to
wait until He offers a sacrifice for us. So we want to go into
God's presence ourselves. And that's the grounds upon which
he wanted a relationship with God. We're holy. We're all holy. We're all good people. And this
is what God wants. He's good and He's kind and He
wants us to have this relationship with Him. That was what God said,
wasn't it? That wasn't what He said. As
far as God dwelling among them, the only way He could was by
Aaron's priesthood. Listen to Exodus chapter 25.
I think we looked at this in one of our former studies. When
the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel to bring all
the material to them to build the tabernacle, all the curtains,
the materials to make the curtains, the materials to make Aaron's
clothes, and the precious stones for the breastplate. He told
them to bring all these materials and donate it. In Exodus 25 verse
8, listen to this, "...and let them make me a sanctuary that
I may dwell among them." Make me a sanctuary so I can dwell
among them. And then in chapter 44 and verse
45 of that same chapter, listen to this, "...I will sanctify
the tabernacle of the congregation, I will sanctify the altar, I
will sanctify also Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in
the priest's office, and I will dwell among the children of Israel,
and I will be their God." Now, if you remove the tabernacle,
God will not dwell among the children of Israel. If you remove
Aaron, you might as well remove the tabernacle. Because Aaron
was the only one that was allowed to go in there to minister. And if you removed Aaron from
his ministry, from his priesthood, then you know something? You've
lost God. You've lost God. Because this
is the only way God would dwell among them, was through the Aaronic
priesthood. The priesthood of Aaron. What happens to Korah's ground
of acceptance? If Aaron is removed, what happens
to Korah's ground of acceptance and fellowship and his relationship
with God? It falls down. It comes crumbling
down. He has no grounds of acceptance. He has no grounds of fellowship
because His perception was that he was holy, and that this is
what God wanted. And I tell you one thing, if
Aaron had been overthrown here, they would have found out pretty
quick. They had no favor with God. Look here at what happened.
We looked at this last week, and we looked at it again in
chapter 16 and verse 44. Look at this. He may have thought that God
wanted fellowship with him, but I tell you what, apart from the
priesthood of Aaron, God contemplated nothing towards this people but
wrath. Now, that is so, isn't it? The
only thing that kept the wrath of God from this people and brought
the presence of God to dwell among them was Aaron's priesthood. Let me read this again to you.
We covered this last week, but look at it in verse 44 again.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get up from among this
congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell
upon their faces, Aaron and Moses did. And Moses said unto Aaron,
Take a censer. and put fire therein from off
the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation,
and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from
the Lord, the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded,
and ran as of the midst of the congregation. And behold, the
plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense, and made
an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead
and the living, and the plague was stayed." Now let me ask you
a question. Why didn't Moses run in among
the people? Why didn't Moses take his mighty
rod and run in between the dead and the living and stay the plague? Why didn't he do that? He wasn't
a priest, was he? But I tell you, he had a mighty
rod. Look what he did down in Egypt. He stretched out that
rod over the waters and they turned to blood. He stretched
it out over the land and frogs came up in their ovens and beds.
He stretched it out over the Red Sea and the waters parted.
That was a mighty rod, a powerful rod in his hand. But you know
something? It wasn't power that children
of Israel needed. They needed an atonement. Moses'
mighty rod would not have stayed the plague. Only the atonement
could stay the plague. And who could offer that atonement? Aaron. Aaron. It wasn't the power of God. And
I say this in the sense that we're looking at it now. It wasn't
the power of God. It wasn't that strength of God
that would preserve the children of Israel and keep them as a
nation. It was the priesthood of Aaron.
That's all the thing that would preserve them and keep them. God can speak and create a world. And he can uphold it by the word
of his power. But you know something, brothers
and sisters, when it comes to staying in the judgment of God
and the wrath of God, it's not the power of God, it's not the
creating power of God that does it. It's not atonement. And the only thing that could
preserve this people and let them come into God's presence,
and God into their presence was not even Moses and his mighty
rod, but it was Aaron standing in their midst with that atoning
censure in his hand. That's it, ain't it? It wasn't
so much the power of God that was going to get these people
through the wilderness. They needed the power of God, but
this was what was going to get them through the wilderness.
Grace. Mercy. And that grace and mercy
was to come through this atonement. And the only one that could offer
this atonement was Aaron, God's high priest. And the only one
that could do them any good and establish a relationship between
them and God and bring God into their presence and accept them
and them come into God's presence and say, this is my God, was
Aaron. and his priesthood, the very
one in their ignorance and rebellion they were trying to overthrow.
And establish a relationship with God based upon the false
presumption that I am a holy person. And God will surely have
a relationship with me. He will surely fellowship with
me. No wonder God wrought such a
great miracle before the eyes of this people. to establish
this man and his priesthood. Because he knew if they ever
overthrew Aaron, God would never come into their presence again
but in wrath. There is no relationship, there
is no acceptance with God for this nation but through Aaron
and his atoning work. Now you can preach the gospel
out of that and never mention the name of Christ, can't you?
Where's your heart at? Don't you see Christ in this?
You don't even have to mention His name. I just bet you anything
Moses preached a lot of great messages out of these examples
and pictures and shadows. And he didn't know the name of
Jesus. God's praise. But those who believed
that He was coming, they saw Him just like you're seeing Him
in this. I was out west somewhere, out
in the northwest a few years ago. It's been quite some time
ago. I came up on, I don't know, two
or three different people at sort of different times while
I was out there. I was awakened into this, and
I never even thought anything about this. And I was asking
someone else about it, and they said, yeah, that group exists.
It was a growing group at that time. I was talking to one, and
I think I ran into another, and they was talking about establishing
a relationship with God. And their message was to tell people To establish. You need to establish a relationship
with God. And I talked to somebody about
this, and I said, you know, I've met this guy, and I've talked
with him about this, and this is what he was talking about.
He said, oh yeah, it's growing. It's big. That's their message.
To establish a relationship with God. And here's what the ground
was. Here's what I remember about
those people. Here's what this is. Here's basically,
I'm paraphrasing, but here's basically what this is. Nobody's
perfect. But we're basically good people. And God loves us just as we are. And He wants to be involved in
our daily lives. He has a great plan for each
of us. And He can help us in our finances,
in our health, in our family, so accept God into your life
and let Him guide you and grow and cultivate this relationship
with Him. That sounds real good, doesn't
it? Sounds good to the natural man. What's missing? Where's the media? Where's the
atonement? Who's the high priest? Cultivate a relationship with
God? There is one God, and He's holy. He's of two pure eyes to look
upon sin. He can't justify iniquity. He'll
punish it. If He marks iniquity, who can
stand? One God and one mediator. between God and man. And he's
not just an example, is he? He's sure not a martyr. And when
Paul said he's the mediator, he never stopped there. Which
gave himself a ransom. We have to have a mediator who
gave himself a ransom. We cannot cultivate a relationship
with God apart from a mediator who offered himself a ransom. Cultivate a relationship. Listen to these passages of Scripture.
I've brought you some Scripture down. Listen to this. In Ephesians
chapter 2, you'll find a couple of these. Paul said, Now in Christ
Jesus, You who sometimes were a far off. That's the way we're
barred, isn't it? A far off. We're dead dog Gentiles.
We weren't barred seeking God. We weren't barred loving God,
knowing God. We were barred a far off. But
now we're made nigh. How? By the blood of Christ. This is what he went on to say.
Through Him. We have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. Access. Access. The only way
God can dwell among us and in us and us have a fatherly and
son relationship with Him is through this one access. Our faithful high priest. Listen
to Romans 5, 1 and 2. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also
we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What do we need? Grace. It is essential for us, isn't
it? We have access. through Jesus Christ into this
grace. Listen to Hebrews 7, 24, 25. But this man, because he
continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able
also to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him,
seeing he ever liveth, to make intercessions for them. See that? We come to God one
way, and we are saved because we have a mediator that makes
intercession to God for us. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19.
Listen to this one. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter the holiest, how? By the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath made for us through the veil,
that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the
house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith." Listen to Hebrews 13. Jesus also, that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the
gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the count, bearing his reproach By Him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." Everything
by Him. By Him. God will be a Father
to us. And we can be His children. We
can have a wonderful relationship. But I tell you, it's through
Jesus Christ, the one priest. If he's ever overthrown in the
apprehension of men, if he's ever overthrown in the message,
and the message ceases to be preached, then God's not going
to dwell among anybody. He won't do it. He's too holy.
His wrath will come. His wrath will consume everybody
that Jesus Christ is not standing between them and the plague and
the wrath of God. Boy, he seemed like a dry old
stick when he was here, didn't he? His barn, he grew up before
him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He had no
place to lay his head, had no farm nor comeliness. There's
no beauty about him. He was despised and rejected
of men. They crucified Him and put Him
in the tomb. And they said, that's the end of that man. We can get
on about our business now. Even His own disciples said,
we thought it was Him. What a mistake we've made. But
you know something? He blossomed. Did He not? Oh, God brought that lifeless
body from the tomb. Raised Him from the dead by His
Spirit. And you know something? The only
life that is to be had is in that man. Everybody else, look
at us, we're as dry as we can be. And everybody else is just
like us. Catholicism has established them a priesthood, they're just
as dry as the rest of us. They can do no more for a lost
sinner than you and I can. They can't give life. They can't
bear fruit. They can't do anything. Life
comes from that One who lived and died and rose again by the
power of God. And if you and I ever bear any
fruit, do you know where it comes from? Him. Him. Abide in Me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
Me." In Him is our fruit found, isn't it? Because God has blessed
Him. He is God's High Priest. He is
God's High Priest. And I love to trust Him, don't
you? I look to Him, I tell you what, I'm like old John Bunyan
sometimes, if I had 10,000 gallons of blood, I'd trust Him with
all of it. Why? Because God trusts him. If God
trusts him, bud, you can trust him. I ain't got no other hope
of having any kind of relationship with God but in Jesus Christ. Of being accepted and obtaining
God's favor and grace and mercy to get me through this devil-filled,
cursed world. But what comes from the heart
of Jesus Christ the Lord? He's God's priest. He's God's
high priest. And I tell you, There's still
a lot of mouths bragging, still a lot of mouths wanting part
in it. They want to take part of it. God will stop their mouth
someday. He'll stop their mouth.