I'd like your attention back
to Numbers chapter 12. The title of my message this
morning is Jealousy, Envy, and Entitlement. Jealousy, Envy,
and Entitlement. In Romans chapter 9, our Lord sets forth the glorious
doctrine of electing grace of his love for some and of his
hatred for others. And in that book, he defends
the doctrine of election against numerous objections spouted by
humanity. Now the gist of the objections
is that election is not fair, that it makes God unrighteous,
And that if it is so, then God cannot hold those who are not
elect accountable for their sins, because they say, who has resisted
his will? Do I this, the Lord replied,
that humanity is but clay in the potter's hands. And the clay
has no say in what manner the potter decides to use it. For
it is made of one lump, vessels unto honor, and vessels under
dishonor, vessels made to destroy, and vessels made to redound to
the glory of His grace out of the very same one. And you and I, as we live on
this earth, are that clay in the potter's hands, and we will glorify His grace,
or we will glorify His wrath, but we will glorify God. Whatever the complaint may be,
it is summed up in the ridiculous notion that humanity is entitled
to have some say in the matter of God's choice. They won't allow
that among themselves, so they don't want to allow it
for God. This sense of entitlement leads
to jealousy. Jealousy, which is the notion
that you have no right to what is mine. Then envy, which is
the notion that I should have a right to what you have. And then finally, entitlement. That God is obligated to give
to me what he gives to you. That he ought not to reach you
in indifference then he treats me. The fact is you and I are entitled
to what we have earned. And scripture says the wages
of sin is death. That is what we've earned. An
eternal death. We see this sense of entitlement
in this passage of scripture when Miriam and Aaron spoke against
Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. And
their complaint was found in verse 2 when they said, hath
the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? He the only one that God
spoke unto. We're prophets also. Miriam was
a prophet. She was a prophetess. It says
so in Exodus 16, it says so in Micah that the Lord delivered
Israel by Aaron and Moses and Miriam. And Miriam. So she was a prophetess. But
her and Aaron, and probably, I don't know who was the instigator,
but she was the only one that was truly chastised, so I expect
she was the instigator of the whole thing. She had this sense of entitlement. This passage is about a dispute
that Aaron and Miriam have with Moses. Moses is not seen to be
part of the dispute, but rather the target of it. Verse 3 certainly
implies that Moses was not too much concerned with these two,
in whatever or however petty their argument might be. In fact,
we don't have a word from Moses until they pleads for the life
of Miriam. And that is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, meek and lowly. On the cross, he looked at those
that had nailed him there and said, Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do. The fact is, in all of this,
we do not see Moses speaking in against these two, or even
defending himself in any way. But the Lord is our defense.
The Lord is our defense and the Lord comes to the defense of
Moses and acts in wrath against Miriam. Her name means rebellion. That's
what the name Miriam means. But also, the Greek use of the
word Miriam is Mary. But her name means rebellion
and as I thought about that, I thought of Rahab the harlot. She's called Rahab the harlot
all the way through Scripture. She was in the lineage of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Rahab, the harlot was. She's Rahab, who
was God's chosen one to guard those spies that went into Israel,
let down that crimson cord for them to escape upon. She was
the one whom God had chosen. She was Rahab, the progenitor
of the Lord Jesus Christ as a seed of woman. Blessed was she. and she was a harlot. And here
we have Miriam, who's a prophetess, who is accounted along with Aaron
and Moses as prophets of God, and yet we find her speaking out against the one
that God speaks to, and that is Moses. Now there are several
ideas, if you read commentaries, there are several ideas about
what this dispute was. Most commentators and Jewish
writers lean upon the idea that Miriam was upset and stirred,
and stirred up Aaron because Moses had acted alone in choosing
the 70 elders that would rule with him. That's found in chapter
11. But it was God who said to Moses, choose out 70 elders. Moses was just obeying God. Now
maybe that's so. But whatever it is, it certainly
implied that Miriam and Aaron wanted a part in something They
felt themselves entitled to have some standing as Moses had. And to their thinking, what he
did on his own, whatever it was, they believed that they were
entitled to have something to do with it. This is the plague
of humanity concerning God. This is the plague of humanity.
Our flesh, our carnal nature, our old man still wants to have
something to do with God's business. We want to insert ourselves and
stick our fingers in it when they don't belong. Our Lord tells Miriam and Aaron,
through the writings of Moses, that Moses was the meekest of
men. The meekest of men. And this
reference to Moses' meekness in verse 3 is to give us some
understanding about the crime committed in verse 2. If he was
the meekest of men, why in the world would they say these things
against him? First, being the meek man, there
was no cause to speak against him. He had done him no harm
in what he had done. He had followed the Lord. Secondly,
being the meekest of men, there was no possibility that Moses
was guilty of holding anything over their heads. When you're
meek, you ain't got nobody to look down on. You're at the bottom
of the rung yourself. No possibility was guilty of
holding anything or even disrespecting them in any way, but they felt
disrespected because of what they felt about themselves. Their
declaration that they too were prophets, as if they had been
left out, would only hold water if Moses had somehow made them
feel less than what they were, but there's no indication of
that whatsoever. Our Lord said, He's the meekest of men. He's
the meekest of men. He didn't make them feel inferior.
This could not have been the case because God inspired it
to be rewritten by Moses that He was the meekest of men. And
whatever the dispute was, it was solely on the shoulders of
Miriam and Aaron and a matter of their own perception, which
always gets us in trouble. Some writers suggest that Miriam
felt that the Ethiopian wife of Moses was having too much
influence over Moses. Maybe she was in on the choosing
of the 70, but there's no indication of that in scripture whatsoever. Moses didn't do that, but Aaron
and Miriam feigned, as often men who feel entitled do and
want a higher position, they feigned that they had fear for
the people. You won't get an issue going
today. You listen to what the politicians speak today. They
talk about the fear that's going on. You make the people fear. Legislation, presidential edicts
are coming down because people fear. And it sounds like you're
really concerned, but you're not concerned. You're concerned
about yourself. They wanted to have some say so, as Moses did,
who God had appointed leader of this people. Now I think it's
safe to say from their own words that they wanted to have some
part of what Moses did. Being also prophets, they felt
that God would speak to them just as he spoke to Moses, showing
that they felt entitled to an equal footing of choice with
that of Moses. That's what they felt. And it's
important to note that God does not address the dispute in his
reaction to them, but rather their presumption of equality
with Moses. But as all things in the law
and the prophets speak of Christ, so this is a picture of some
aspect of Christ and his work. And it's a very big aspect. Moses
here is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is compared to the Lord Jesus
Christ in Hebrews, taking this very same verse in verse 7. When
the Lord said of Moses, My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful
in all mine house. And when Paul wanted to show
the distinction between Moses and Christ, but using Moses as
a type of Christ, he quoted this passage of Scripture from Numbers
chapter 12. In Hebrews chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3, in verse
5 it says, And Moses verily was faithful in all his house. That's
almost word for word what the Lord said. whose house are we
if we hold fast, excuse me, as a servant for a testimony of
those things which are spoken after of Jesus Christ. But Christ
as a son of his own house, whose house are we if we hold fast
with the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
Moses was a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion always will have its
jealous zealots who speak as if their words were equal with
God's. A lot of that going on today.
We have a lot of people saying, God told me this and God told
me that. Saw a little cartoon the other
day on Facebook where this fella got down on his knees and said,
God speak to me. Cloud opened up and God handed
him a Bible. There you go. You've got it. God has spoken. God has spoken. But men talk about God speaking
to them. And I used to use the term, well,
God, I believe God led me. I used to say that, but some
people would think there was some credence to what I was about
to say. But you either believe what I say or you don't. Because
Paul said after 30 some years of preaching, some believed and
some didn't. And that's just how it is. But I used to say
things like that. to kind of add some credence. You notice
I don't say those things anymore. God led me. I'm not sure of that. I like what old Barnard said.
No, Scott Richardson one time said, God or somebody led me
to this. God or somebody. But men talked that way. In fact,
religion today is, for the most part, is based on what we would
call extra-biblical revelation. They have a word from God. It
doesn't have anything to do with what the Bible says. It doesn't even
match up with what the scriptures say. Old D.J. Ward, you said no matter what
text you take from the scriptures, hold it up and throw the Bible
at it and see where it fits. If it don't fit, you've taken the text all
wrong. Miriam and Aaron were zealous. And they were jealous. And they
were envious. And they felt themselves entitled. Men today will claim words from
God and have people, silly people, in advantage. Putting themselves
even above the Son of God is the revelation of God. If you
tell somebody the Word of God and they say, I don't believe
that, what are they saying? I have a better idea. I'm smarter than God. I
have a word that's more important than God. That's what they're
saying. They don't believe that. What
do they believe? They believe themselves. They believe themselves. And that's what Miriam did. And
that's what Aaron did. They, like Miriam, rebellious
in heart, claim to be prophets too, like Christ, and therefore
worthy to share the honor of salvation, exalting their own
will, their choice, and their decision. When our Lord spoke
of those in 2 Thessalonians who would be in the church and acting
as if they were God, you say, I don't know anybody that's called
themselves God. I heard some fella the other day, one of these false
teachers, say that we're all Christ's. This was a preacher
on TV that was pretty popular. He wasn't talking about it in
the possessive sense, he was talking about it in the personal sense.
We're all Savior's, and that's what men believe. They believe
that. But our Lord, when He was talking
about this in 2 Thessalonians 2, He said this in verse 3 and
4. He says, let no man deceive you. By any means, for that day shall
not come, except there come a falling away first, that is, the leaving
of the truth. Having said they loved it, they
turned from it, like a dog returns to his woman and a pig to his
waller. Except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition. Everybody wants to put that after
Antichrist. That's every one of us by nature. We're the man
of sin. We're Adam by nature. We are born with the taint. of
his sin. And these are said to him who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshipped, or so that he sitteth in the temple
of God, that is the church of God, showing himself that he
is God. You say, I don't know anybody that does that. I know
tons of people that do that. Everybody who says they're saved
by their free will rather than God's will is doing that. They're
saying, I'm God, and he's not. Because he said he saves people
by his will. That's what he says in his book. And for a man to say otherwise,
he's saying, I'm God. He puts himself in the church
of God, in the temple of God, and says, I'm God. Maybe not
in those words, but in the action and the words that he does speak.
God has said this. This is my son, speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I am well pleased, completely satisfied
by his work, by his substitution. You hear what he has to say. You hear him. Our rule of practice and doctrine
in the church is not some confession that some people put together
a long time ago, some confession of faith. Our rule and practice
is this book. what God has said. This is my
son, he said. But they say we have a right
to be heard too. That's what Miriam and Aaron
said. We have a right to be heard too.
But God makes it clear, painfully clear, that though he speaks
to his prophets in dreams and visions, and he did. Ezekiel
had the wheel within a wheel. Jeremiah had the red horse. Jeremiah
had the Ezekiel had the Valley of Dry Bones. John had the whole
revelation on the Isle of Patmos. He speaks to his prophets in
visions. But he says, I want you to understand,
Miriam and Aaron, I will speak to you in visions and in dreams. That's how he did. In times past,
God spoke to the fathers by the prophets. In these last days,
He has spoken to us by His Son. But in those days, He spoke to
those prophets in dreams and visions. But even that became
used by false prophets to say, well, I have a dream. I dreamed
a dream. And our Lord says, let him that
hath a dream tell his dream. Let him preach my word faithfully. But he spoke to them in a dream
and in a vision. But he says, I don't speak to
my servant Moses like that. I speak to my servant Moses face-to-face,
or mouth-to-mouth. Look at verse 6. And he said,
Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision, and
will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth-to-mouth,
even apparently. That means openly. And not in
dark speeches, I'll speak to his understanding. And in the
similitude of the Lord. Now that's an interesting little
phrase. He said, when I speak to Moses, when I speak to you,
you're asleep in a dream. When I speak to Moses, he sees
me. The pre-incarnate manifestation
of the Lord Jesus Christ called a Christophany. A manifestation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the word similitude
means. I speak to Him face to face.
And He sees me as the image of the invisible God. The Lord is saying to these two arid
ones that Moses indeed is He who speaks for God. Just as he
said of his son, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,
hear him, I speak with him face to face. How is the glory of
God revealed in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ? What was the
dispute that Miriam had with Moses? The first verse states
it pretty clearly. Though this is also about the
70 elders, I think that Moses shows it is more profound and
pointed here. And the Lord seems to, if you
read this chapter in line with chapters 8, 9, and 10, and 11,
and then read 13, 14, and 15, you'll find this one strangely
seems out of place. There doesn't seem to be a chronology
to it with the others. And also that it's not talking
about what is being addressed here in these several chapters. It seems to just stand out. And
there's a reason for that. And the reason is this becomes
very important for us to understand concerning the doctrine of divine
election. It is the Lord who inspires these
words and he draws attention to a particular thing to teach
a particular truth. And this has to do with the doctrine
of divine election. This is about Moses' choice of
a bride. Moses being a type of Christ,
his bride being a type of the church. That was their problem. That's
what they said. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because
of the Ethiopian woman who had married. For he had married an
Ethiopian woman. He had married an Ethiopian woman.
A lot of people put, say, a great deal of emphasis on the fact
that she was an Ethiopian woman endeavoring to play some kind
of race card here, but that's not even so. This is not another
wife than the one he got in Midian. This is Zipporah, his wife. She's a Cushite, and Cushite
was part of Midian, and it was aligned with Ethiopia, and often
was called, those Midianites were often called Ethiopians. Back then, Ethiopia was a great
power in the world. Ain't like it is today. But back then it was. Great,
huge, edifices, science, wondrous things went on in Ethiopia. You
read Ethiopian history, if you can find some books dedicated
to that, you'll find that these were amazing people in Ethiopia. Remember Candace, the Ethiopian
queen, came to see Solomon. Not Candace, but Sheba. The queen of Sheba came to see
Solomon. Candace was the queen of the
Ethiopian eunuch who was saved as he was reading Isaiah chapter
53 when Philip preached the gospel to her. But these were great
people, so our idea of Ethiopia is dark and pagan and backwards
and poor and poverty stricken. They weren't that way at one
time. They were right alongside with Egypt as far as a great
nation upon the face of the earth. But they said he married an Ethiopian
woman. Why would that bother them? Not the color of her skin, if
you know the Those descendants of Abraham, both Arab and Jew,
all have dark skin. And the ones who live in the
deserts have much more dark skins than the ones who live in the
city. It wasn't the color of her skin. The issue was that
the wife that Moses had chosen was not a daughter of Abraham. She was a Jinnah. and therefore a dog to them,
and an uncircumcised, and unchosen, and unwashed, and unclean. Not a part of Israel's elect,
yet chosen by Moses, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the manner in which Miriam
spoke, it is evident that she felt that she should have had
some input into this matter. And by such a suggestion, there
is an intimation that she might have made a better choice. But
this is the thing. This had taken place long before Miriam even
knew about it. She'd been married a long time
before that. So the issue then becomes more clear. This is not
really about this. It's about something else. It's
about whom Christ chooses to be his bride. whom Christ has
chosen to be his bride. He's not chosen who religion
thinks he should, should choose. He's chosen what the world considered
the off-scouring of the universe. She felt, I could have made a
better choice. Don't people feel that way? I'll tell you that
the doctrine of grace is so despised in this world because of the
kind of people that believe it, the kind of people who are saved
by it. Not good people. Miriam the rebel. Rahab the harlot. That's the
kind of people he said. She represents the notion Miriam
does that salvation is for good folk, religious folk, not dogs,
not vile, not pagans, but rather the meritorious. But Christ put
such words to a side. He laid them in the dust as he
lived on this earth. He called the best of the bunch,
a bunch of vipers and snakes. Whited walls, whited sepulchers
full of dead man bone, clean on the outside but filthy on
the inside. That's what he said to those.
He said to those Pharisees that mocked him for eating with sinners,
I didn't come to save you, I didn't come to call you, I come to call
sinners to repentance. Throughout his ministry on earth,
the religious people didn't stand a chance against the Lord Jesus
Christ. They asked him many questions until he answered them with the
Word of God and he says they dare not ask him any more questions. He had nothing to do with those
religious folks, because they had a better idea. They had a
better idea. When they ate, they sat down
and suffered with the best and the brightest and the most religious
people they knew, and they all had grace before they ate. And they look over here, and
Jesus Christ is sitting down with the worst and the vilest
of humanity, and it offends them. When that whore washed our Lord's
feet with her tears, and wiped His feet with the hair of her
head, and kissed His feet, and continued kissing His feet, they
said what their choice would have been. They said if He knew
what this woman was, what kind of prophecy He said, He don't
know who He's doing there. What kind of person is that?
This is what the problem is with Miriam. What kind of person is
this? He done split up the lineage
line here. He doesn't got a Gentile in the
fix and in the mix. Religion will never approve of
Christ choosing who he would save. They'll never agree with
that. And further, religion will never
approve of one whom he's chosen. Because Scripture says he just
doesn't choose good people. He just doesn't. If you're good,
First of all, you're deluded. You're not good. Because there's
none good, no, not one. There's none that's righteous.
There's none that doeth good upon the face of the earth. But our
Lord, through Paul, said to the Corinthian church. Now remember,
the Corinthian church had every kind of miscreant you could ever
imagine in a church. Stuff going on there we can't
even imagine. We'd be embarrassed to talk about in public. Our
Lord puts it quite openly in the book of Corinthians. He says,
here's who God chose. Now see, I think it was old B.B.
Caldwell says, if you can't find yourself in this book, it ain't
your book. So here I'm going to read a resume of those whom
God has chosen to salvage. See if you can find yourself
somewhere here. If you can't, you're in trouble. Now the Lord
says, for you see your calling, brethren, 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 26. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh That only says not
many wise men, but if you take that conversely, it means many
wise men are not chosen. Not many wise are chosen. Not
many mighty. There's a few, but most mighty
are because they trust in their own might. Not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish
things. The fools. The stupid. That's whom God has chosen. The
foolish things of the world, and he's did it so the wise will
look at it and scratch their head. He's did it so the religionist
will look at this old wretched whore washing his feet and say,
what kind of person? Don't he realize what kind of
person is touching him? Don't your master realize what kind
of people he's eating with? That's their perception of this.
That's how they think. Many of them say, why did you
marry that Ethiopian woman? I have an issue with that. He's
chosen the foolish things that confound the wise, and God has
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty. Oh, we're super Christians. We're real strong
Christians. I haven't met one yet. If you're
a child of God, the first thing you'll admit is your absolute
and total weakness about everything. And when you're weak, you know
you're strong in Jesus Christ because you'll depend on Him. the mighty things of the world.
Look at the weak things of the world and they say Christianity
is just a crutch. I'm telling you it's two crutches
and a wheelchair. If you want to be that way. And
the base things, common things. When I was a boy one of the worst
things anybody thought of you was common. Well it ain't just
What a prejudiced statement that is. Have you ever thought about
that? How prejudiced that is? He just commented, saying, I'm
uncommon. I'm uncommon. Like that song that was replied
to, the song, They're Coming to Take Me Away, back in the
60s or 70s, I think it was, about them being taken away, the men
on the side of a fellow made a road, and other sources, they
can't take me away, I'm normal. I often reply to that on, That's
not looking at me, I'm normal. Common. Dirty. Low life. Common. The base things of the world. Things which are despised. God chose them. That's what he
said. Yea, and things which are not.
That means things that are nothing. Things that are nothing, to bring
to naught things that are. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. The election were left up to
us. And this is us, even as children of God today. Now you think about
this. The election to salvation were
left up to us. Folks we don't care for would
be up the proverbial creek, sand, spout. People we don't like, we wouldn't
have nothing to do with them. People that hated us, we'd never
have anything to do with them. People that despised our name,
we'd never have anything to do with them. People that wanted
to kill us, we'd never have anything to do with them. And that's exactly
who God saved. The carnal mind is empty against
God, is not subject to the things of God, and indeed can be, it
hates God. Wanted to kill God. Take this man from us. We shall
not have this man reign over us. That's who God saved. That's who God chose to salvation
from all eternity. The truth about man is that he
will not abide the truth of God's choice, just as Miriam would
abide the fact of Moses' choice. He will not abide election and
salvation because he desperately wants to be involved in this. Now, God don't only speak by
Christ, He speaks by me too. People want to have a part in
that election, so they come up with all these silly little theological
ruses that have become standard fare off the lips of puppeteers
of this age. Men say, well, God looked down
through history and saw who would believe, and that's the ones
he chose. That's highway robbery. That's taking credit for something
he didn't do. Makes God a thief. Theological play produces it
all the way on. Or like the monarch of Montreat
over here. Heard him say one time, God cast
a vote in your favor. Satan cast a vote
against you, and you cast the deciding vote. That's his view
of election. So he said, well that's that guy over in Monterey.
Billy G. You know him. Fraud. He said, well that's hard to
say. Well just listen. Go to your
YouTube and crank it up on your computer and listen to the interview
with Robert Shuler he had wherein he said, and this may be a little
paraphrase but it's pretty close to a quote. You don't have to
believe in Christ to be saved. Now that he actually said, that's
a quote. But he says, as long as you walk in the light you
have and do the best you can, you'll go to heaven. That's what
he said. Is that the truth? No, that's
a lie. That's just as big a lie as you
can make. He says, here's what I know about
election. God casts a vote in your favor
and Satan cast a vote in your favor, now the deciding vote
is up to you. Bo Barnard said, the only problem with that thinking
is that when that election was held, you weren't old enough
to vote. Because that election was held
before the foundation of the world. Our Lord looked at His
disciple, He said this plainly as He could. These twelve men
that He had walked along by the sea of His customs, He said,
Levi, come on with me. And Matthew followed Him. He
walked out by the sea and said, Peter, Come on, come on with
me. I'll make you fishermen." And
they all followed him. And he made it important for
them to understand. He says, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. And your fruit
shall come forth and it shall remain. I have chosen you. And
he went on to say, the reason the world hates you is because
I chose you. John 15. You have not chosen me. I have
chosen you. Case closed. These are the words
of Jesus Christ. Not the words of some theologian
or some idiot that stands in the pulpit. This is the words
of Jesus. You have not chosen me. I have chosen you. And Miriam
learned that such thinking brought about dire
consequences. She was made leprous. She was made leprous. God called
them in and said, Moses, Miriam, Abram, come here. Come up to
the door of the tabernacle. And he descended from that cloud
that was there. The Israelites didn't move until
the cloud moved. And he said, I have someone against
thee, Miriam. He spoke against my servant,
Moses. claiming that you ought to have
what he has, claiming that you ought to have a say-so in his
life, claiming that you are the same as he is. You're not. Moses
is a type of my son, Jesus Christ. You're not. You're a type of
a sinner saved by grace, but you certainly ain't a type of
Jesus Christ. And so God said, because of what
you've done, Miriam, I'm going to make you leprous. And as soon
as you know that she was not called a leper, but rather that
she was afflicted with leprosy and called leprous. And the reason
for this is that Miriam was a child of God. She was a prophetess,
according to Exodus 15, 20 and Micah 6. So this is a warning
to believers, isn't it? That our flesh, our old man,
will ever think that he can interject himself into God's business Part
of us will do that the rest of our lives. That old man. And we can't stop it. Here, leprosy
is not seen in the sense of a state of being, that being a pariah,
being an outcast, and having to throw dust in the air and
cry, unclean, unclean, or putting a cloth across your mouth because
your breath is like death. That's what Isaiah meant when
he said, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people
of unclean lips. Leprosy is a condition here,
a malady, a disease. Miriam is not called
a leper. Miriam is one who's afflicted
with leprosy, and there's that difference. You see, a malady
and a condition can be treated, and the treatment that she gets
is the bitter medicine of chastisement, and it's always painful no matter
how it comes. Note how the leprosy is described
in verse 10. That's important. Because if
you read in Leviticus chapter 13, also chapter 17, you'll find
how the priest is to deal with the leper. If the leper comes before the
priest and wants to be declared clean, if he has just a little
pimple, the first showings of leprosy, he's pronounced unclean. Just a little, just a bump. he's
cast out of the camp but if he comes in covered with
leprosy from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet and
his skin has become pale and crusty so it looks white as snow
then because he is consumed with leprosy from head to toe the
high priest can pronounce him clean You say, well, that don't
seem to make sense. I'll tell you what it does. If
you come to Christ with just a pimple, you say, will you fix this little
problem for me? Will you come into my heart and
make things kind of right? You know, I've got a little problem
with seeing. I've got a pimple. The higher priest is going to
send you away. You're unclean. But if you come to Christ Fall
down before Him and say, I'm leprous from head to toe. Ain't
a clean thing in me. Ain't no hope for me. I'm a goner.
The high priest will pronounce you clean. That's what the Scripture says.
Leviticus chapter 13, if you want to turn there, just one
book back. Leviticus chapter 13. Verse 13 says, Then the priest
shall consider, and behold, if the leprosy hath covered all
his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.
It's all turned white. It is clean. It is clean. What a thing. That just goes
against everything you think ought to be that way. But it's
about how the sinner comes to Christ. This old leper, he comes
to Christ. I mean, he come to the high priest
and he just bowed down and the high priest looked at him. He
said, boy, you're covered from top to bottom. You're okay. Go home. You're clean. That's the language. Look at
verse 17. The priest shall see him, and behold, if the plague
be turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean
that hath the plague. He is clean. He is clean. Our Lord said to the children
of Israel who were plagued with the leprosy of sin, because leprosy
is a picture of sin. Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though you're a leper, That's
not an issue. Your sins are scarred. I'm going
to declare you to have leprosy from the top of your head to
the bottom of your feet, and I'm going to say you're clean.
Though your sins be as scarred, they shall be, they, not you,
they, shall be white as snow, a clear reference to the leprosy. Poor old Miriam, she was a human
being, and she erred. She sinned. She was God's child. She had been presumptuous, that's
what our Lord said. David said, keep back thy servant
from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression. The beauty of this for Miriam is she was
brought by God's chastisement to the estate where she could
be pronounced clean. All she needs is for the great
high priest to intercede for her. And Moses, being a type
of the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, interceded
for her and she was healed. And instead of being thrown out
of camp altogether, the Lord counted her leprosy and what
she did, or rather her sin as spitting in his face, but not
worthy of death. not worthy of being an outcast.
He said, well, if you spit in your daddy's face, they'd put
you out of camp for seven days. So we'll put her out of camp
for seven days. And then when the clouds began to move, Miriam
came back into the family and they all went home. Here's what
you and I need, because I'll guarantee you this, if the day
lasts another 23 hours, our old flesh will somewhere during that
time try to interfere and get into God's business. We'll feel
entitled. We'll feel jealousy and envy.
Because it's a part of the human condition. It is. Come as the leper. Covered from
top to foot. Top from the head to the bottom
of the feet. Come. Now high priest, we're
naturally clean. This is a warning, not only to
unbelievers, this is a warning to believers. May we take it
to heart. Father, help us, Lord, to trust
You. Count on You to fix our thing,
fix our vision, set our affection on things above and not on things
of this earth. Help us, Lord, to have You for our defense and
trust You as our defense and not defend ourselves. We pray
this in the name of Jesus Christ and for His glory. Amen. All
right.