BEMA Episode Link: 30: Lead with Your Voice
Episode Length: 46:15
Published Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 01:00:00 -0700
Session 1
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings wrap up the discussion of the desert and the book of Numbers with the story of Moses striking the rock and subsequently having his entrance to the Promised Land denied.

Lead with Your Voice Presentation (PDF)

Discussion Video for BEMA 30

Transcript for BEMA 30

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

Notes on 233: Introducing the Team – Striking the Rock w/ Josh Bossé

Transcript

0:01 [Music] 0:06 this is the Bema podcast with Marty Solomon i’m his co-host Brent Billings today we wrap up our time in the desert 0:12 and the book of numbers with the story of moses striking the rock and subsequently having his entrance to the 0:17 promised land denied yes we got some review to do today uh we’ll do it briefly got some other stuff to cover 0:24 today but um we talked about the preface genesis 1-11 big ideas who is god who is man 0:31 what is the world and what is god doing in the world we met the family of god in the introduction genesis 12 through 50. 0:36 we took a look at what it means when we take these big ideas and we start to apply it to 0:42 to an actual group of people what does it look like when people actually start to live these ideas out uh they’re 0:47 perfectly placed for a partnership and that’s what god does and that sets up the narrative when we talk about this 0:52 tale of two kingdoms and we got empire all throughout our hit our history like 0:58 kind of the way that i believe the vi the bible is uh inviting us to view the world 1:03 is through a lens of these competing narratives these two dominant narratives one of 1:08 empire and one of shalom uh this narrative of empire is always a narrative of force of 1:14 of we might say stick after our last few desert images uh it’s a narrative of 1:19 fear it’s a particular kind of power it’s uh comfort it’s leisure it’s luxury it’s fame it’s security uh maybe most 1:28 importantly it’s self-preservation and against this narrative which is always being told in our world 1:34 both internally and externally in our hearts and the world around us we also have this other narrative 1:39 that god invites us to trust god invites us to believe with all of our heart soul and might 1:45 would be the right narrative and that is a narrative of shalom and it’s a narrative that’s about self-sacrifice instead of 1:51 self-preservation instead of fear it’s a narrative of trust 1:57 instead of a power of force it’s a power of 2:04 invitation instead of coercing you’re inviting people instead of a stick you’re using your voice 2:11 these are the two narratives that we have just competing with each other 2:16 and so that starts in the book of exodus and we see god rescue his people in the story of the passover we see god lead 2:21 them to mount sinai where there’s a marriage ceremony and the whole rest of the book ends up being about this 2:27 tabernacle this tabernacle which is if we were to use that marriage imagery it’s the honeymoon suite 2:32 if we were to talk about it from a more literary perspective we would say it’s a retelling of genesis one through three 2:37 um if it uh if we looked at it like as a functional part of the narrative um then 2:43 this is about uh where the priests work because god told israel when they were 2:48 at mount sinai if you will marry me if you will enter into this relationship you will be for me a kingdom of priest 2:54 so the whole earth is mine you’ll be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and so that raises a question what does 3:00 it mean to be a priest in god’s kingdom and what does it mean that god would want a whole kingdom of priests these are 3:06 newer ideas that this rescued group of slaves out of egypt needs needs some guidance 3:13 on what what exactly that will look like when they live it out so god gives them the book leviticus and 3:19 this whole book of leviticus is this manual for priesthood it teaches you how to be a priest like the literal priests it 3:26 teaches them how to do their job but it also teaches us as israelites how to do our job as priests 3:33 and so there’s a section on atonement there’s a section on uh priesthood we call it the priest sandwich 3:39 with how to live in the middle of these two bookends of priesthood because that’s what our call is god 3:45 tells us how to party uh god tells us how to take care of the oppressed and that led us into the book of numbers 3:50 and instead of going through kind of all the stuff book of numbers got a lot of i’ll call it stuff a lot of stuff in the 3:57 book of numbers there are there’s census details there’s offerings that are 4:02 brought for the tabernacle there’s kind of getting the whole tabernacle set up and people getting ready to launch out and 4:08 and travel through the desert there’s all these lists uh there’s also a bunch of stories and we’re going to kind of cover those as we 4:14 go today we’re going to uh we’ve spent our time in the desert as they spent their time we called numbers 4:20 the desert honeymoon um and we’ve kind of spent our own time in the desert for the last four podcasts 4:26 talking about the images of the desert so now uh we are going to wrap up the book of numbers we 4:33 will turn our sights to deuteronomy next week and then wrap up session one 4:38 it’s been a good ride it’s been great torah so let’s wrap up numbers 4:44 today this desert honeymoon period if you’ve been in our discussion groups we issued a haga project um 4:51 which if you remember our last toga project about zipporah and the circumcision in exodus four 4:57 a haggar project is where we issue some kind of brain teaser some scriptural conundrum that we give our students to 5:04 wrestle with for the weeks leading up to the podcast so this is that podcast for those that 5:09 got to do that in class this is where we’re going to resolve that latest to god the god that we threw 5:14 out there was why does moses not get into the promised land 5:20 it’s a it’s a story that we have our answers i know what i was taught in bible college 5:25 i know what i was taught in sunday school but we have these ideas it seems to tell us 5:31 but it doesn’t seem to be very satisfying i mean here’s this god that all 5:36 throughout torah we have learned is full of love full of grace full of mercy and 5:42 forgiveness abounding in love and uh and all of a sudden the greatest 5:48 leader in jewish history we might say barring jesus except jesus maybe the second greatest leader in 5:54 jewish history uh doesn’t get in like there’s no forgiveness for him there’s no second 5:59 chances because he can’t follow instructions the whole thing just seems a little wacky and the rabbis have said 6:06 the same thing they’ve said it can’t be there’s got to be more to the story going on here so um to get started i’ll 6:12 just talk about the three that get tossed around quite a bit um let’s start with the one that i dislike the most 6:19 which is uh that moses hit the rock twice i don’t even know why that’s a 6:24 explanation i’ve heard it before it’s okay to be a little bit angry but if you’re really angry then 6:30 we’ve crossed a line at that point yeah like if it was wrong to hit the rock then it’s wrong and hit the rock the 6:35 first time like hitting it twice doesn’t seem to there must be something about hitting the rock twice we might look at that 6:41 today um but that that that explanation just ain’t cutting it for me at all um the 6:46 other explanation that uh has been told to me is he didn’t uh god told him to speak to the rock but he hid it 6:54 now i think that’s going to be a big part of our discussion today i think that’s absolutely at play uh in what’s going on here but that being the 7:01 explanation of why moses is not allowed to enter the promised land because he couldn’t follow instructions 7:08 uh i just have a hard time going well yeah of course that makes sense no it doesn’t that doesn’t make sense at all that god wouldn’t let him into the 7:14 promised land for simply having a bad listening day uh no forgiveness for moshe 7:20 um that’s rough especially considering what everyone else with moses has been doing right 7:26 right yeah okay just wait here i’ll be back don’t don’t go uh 7:32 making any gods while i’m away right right there’s forgiveness for the golden calf 7:38 not for moses not being able to follow instructions yeah it just doesn’t fit this doesn’t fit um 7:43 so the third uh answer the one that i was given uh in bible college i and i’ve liked it for years um 7:49 but i don’t like it it is uh it’s that moses and aaron or maybe just moses or however you want to do that they took 7:56 credit uh for god uh god brought water and they they told the people in in the chapter 8:03 must we bring forth water from this rock and i was told in bible college they took credit and god comes to them he 8:09 says well he didn’t you didn’t show me as holy and so you took credit for what i did you stole my thunder 8:16 and that’s why you’re not and while while that almost starts to get close like it almost starts to 8:22 scratch the surface of okay well i guess that could be a big deal i’m still not sure it’s a big enough 8:28 deal to keep moses out of the promised land and satisfy that need of an explanation inside of me 8:34 but maybe but the bigger problem i have is that the text doesn’t let us do that do you have 8:40 the verse there Brent i think it’s verse 8 and chapter yeah i’m actually going to start in verse 7 just to make sure we’re 8:46 completely clear so starting verse 7 the lord said to moses take the staff and 8:51 you and your brother aaron gather the assembly together speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out 8:57 its water you will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink all right read 9:02 that last sentence one more time you will bring water out of the rock for the community okay who does god said will 9:08 bring water out of the rock well i mean the lord said to moses right correct so god 9:13 he’s just saying what god said and god said you will bring forth water from the rock now of course god’s bringing forth the water from the rock but in his words 9:20 god says if you do this you will bring forth water so and by moses and area and saying must we bring forth there isn’t 9:27 they’re not going against anything that god said that’s not what’s going on here in this story so while i like that explanation for for so long i as i’ve 9:34 studied the story i’ve realized i can’t i can’t like it so let’s go back let’s let’s try to 9:40 unpack this problem by going all the way back to the start of uh moshe’s life and we we gave you a presentation for this 9:46 uh not a whole lot to it few slides but it might be helpful i remember my washington state group saying it was 9:52 very helpful when we wrote it on the whiteboard so i figured hey let’s do it here um but i want to walk through moses’s 9:58 life so uh we meet moses exodus one through the first part of two we meet moses in egypt 10:06 uh born to this egyptian or not egyptian i’m starting to mess this story up right 10:11 off the bat moses is born to this uh israelite mother uh they’re down in egypt the babies there’s an order an edict 10:19 from paro that they have to kill all the male children so she knows this baby’s fate and she 10:26 hides the child and then puts the child uh in a basket of reeds and ark and 10:32 sends it on its way and moses gets raised by who and whose household by pharaoh’s daughter right 10:40 for pharaoh’s household yeah pharaoh pharaoh’s daughter finds a wonderful midrash about that but no time today uh 10:45 but pharaoh’s daughter finds the child and um uh actually it’s just such a good midrash i 10:51 can’t leave it alone so the midrash teaches uh she’s out there and the hebrew in the bible in the text 10:58 uh the the word for a handmaiden is the same word for your your hand 11:06 so when it says that she sends her her different translation state different she sends her servant to go get the 11:12 child she see she sees or hears the child in the basket and she says go get that 11:18 the midrash teaches that the servant actually uh resisted and said i won’t 11:23 because your father has this edict like to kill all the male children i’m not going to go against your father 11:30 and so it says her hand in the midrash like stretch armstrong like her hand reached out 11:37 and took the child and brought it in because she was acting in absolute defiance to 11:43 depart so i just love that mid-rush anyway so she finds this baby in this basket and he ends up being raised in 11:50 pharaoh’s household pharaoh who we would say maybe after our time in the desert we would talk about pharaoh in reference 11:56 to the stick this is the same pharaoh that always has that the stick of authority as we saw in 12:02 rey’s videos always with this stick raised up above his enemies this is the 12:08 household that moses gets raised in now do you remember the very next story that we run into moses with 12:14 he’s a little bit older uh when he’s killing the egyptian yeah yeah so we have this uh 12:20 this altercation and this uh it’s a weird way to talk about slave master being a slave but the slave master is 12:27 beating this israelite slave and moses uh kills the egyptian buries them in the sand 12:33 ends up being a major problem that this is who moses is when we meet him he 12:39 is this israelite who has been raised in the narrative of of para the narrative 12:44 of stick and so he he nakas or in some of the hebrew 12:50 manuscripts that we have but he he necas in our hebrew text 12:55 strikes to kill he smites this egyptian this is the method that he has he has pharaoh’s method but we also 13:03 see that he has god’s heart he has a heart that hears the cry of the 13:09 oppressed he sees the egyptian beating the israelite and so he has the heart of god but he 13:14 has the methods of pharaoh he wants to do the right thing but he uses his stick 13:21 maybe literally maybe metaphorically he uses violence to accomplish his purposes 13:26 this is where we meet moses is where his story begins and of course that means at the age of 40 which i always have to 13:31 remind myself of his age here like he’s not a young guy he’s not a young kid he’s not a punk 16 year old 13:37 40 year old guy leaves egypt goes to midian where he meets jethro 13:45 and exodus the second part of exodus 2 through chapter 3 moses is then shaped as a shepherd in the desert so all those 13:51 images we just spent time studying now they kind of become a part of this moses story like moses spends another 40 years 13:59 so he spent 40 years in pharaoh under that narrative and now he’s got to spend 40 years in the desert 14:06 under god’s narrative god teaching him how to lead not as a pharaoh but god teaching him how to lead as a 14:13 shepherd using a different kind of stick using an absolute different kind of stick so these sticks become 14:19 uh representative of the two authorities the two narratives empire and shalom 14:24 which is what happens exodus four through fourteen is gonna basically the whole story the passover is really a battle of the sticks i mean the whole 14:31 story is set up when they go down and uh and moses throws his staff on the ground 14:36 and what happens Brent turns into a sneak all right and then the magicians we don’t know how many there are but there’s multiple plural they throw their 14:42 stabs on the ground same thing same thing turned into a snake and then and then moses staff eats the others right 14:50 not snakes right we’ve done that chat before it doesn’t actually say moses says snake eats the other snakes it says 14:55 that moses says stick in the hebrew eats their sticks 15:01 and i don’t know if that literally is what happened i don’t believe that at all i believe it’s probably snakes but the author definitely wants you to catch 15:07 like this is not make no mistake this is not about snakes this is about sticks this is about whose 15:13 narrative uh whose method who has real power 15:19 and so that’s we see in the story of the passover and moses is learning um moses is 15:25 learning how to use god’s authority in fact i find it interesting uh the very first plague 15:31 which was the plague of what uh blood in the nile yeah yeah we got this blood in the nile uh plague number one answering 15:38 what god tells moses to do is to take his stick and naka and there’s that word again 15:44 strike to kill the egyptian god so it’s like it’s like god is trying to teach moses how to use the parts of him 15:52 that are deeply ingrained for his purposes but we’re watching moses go on this journey from being raised in 15:59 pharaoh’s household to now being shaped in the desert and now god’s like okay are you going to trust my word are you 16:05 going to trust my authority are you going to use my stick for my purposes my methods are you going to use it for 16:12 yours and that’s what we see in the story the passover he’s learning and that continues exodus 15 through 18 16:19 the three tests in the desert on the way to sinai moses is learning all these lessons on leadership 16:25 like god’s already shaped him for 40 years in the desert as a shepherd but now god is still shaping him as a leader 16:32 how do you take these lessons that you’ve learned as a shepherd and how do you apply them to leadership and so 16:37 through these tests god keeps teaching him like the the mara the bitter water 16:43 god says take this twig take this branch not the stick i don’t want you to be confused that the power’s on the stick 16:50 the power’s not in the stick the power isn’t what the stick represents so take that branch or take that twig and throw 16:55 it into the well uh and maybe it was just practical maybe god didn’t want to throw a staff down the well that might make a you know it 17:01 seems to be a good decision i mean he’s been carrying around for a few decades he’s probably somewhat attached to it 17:06 probably doesn’t want to go in after that who knows uh but god says yeah don’t use that use this and then the water becomes he’s 17:12 learning through this the tale of the sticks he’s learning all these lessons on 17:17 leadership i mean the next lesson that we saw was when they were at redeem and this was the will you love me with all 17:24 of your soul your nephesh uh the second test and this is where they put god to the 17:29 test and said unless you give us water uh we’re not going we’re not going any 17:34 further and so god if you remember god uh told him to take his staff and walk in 17:41 front of the people and we’re going to go to mount horeb seven eleven thirteen miles away 17:48 um and we’re we’re going to uh i’m gonna stand before you at the rock 17:54 and you’re going to strike me in front of all the elders in essence and pitcher and metaphor 17:59 i know that people deserve to be hit but you come hit me because i want to teach you about what it means to lead 18:06 so these were all like lessons on leadership and they were all involved i mean think about the third test so third 18:11 test while they were at rademas when they were attacked by the who the americans the maokai and what does moses do during the battle he holds up his 18:17 staff his staff like every one of these tests like moses is being taught about leadership with the support of others 18:24 with the support of others absolutely and it’s all coming through this narrative about sticks like is it 18:29 pharaoh’s stick is that where real power lies or as in is it in god’s voice is it in the god 18:35 who lies behind the stick and so this is this is the journey that moses has been on so we 18:40 have the book of i mean we have the building of the tabernacle and the rest of exodus we have the book of leviticus and then when we get back into the story 18:46 in the book of numbers um here the people are numbers 10 through 12 10 11 and 12 18:53 are these stories about complaints and rebellion um you’ve got 18:59 you’ve got miriam and aaron who want to cop a fit about who moses is and 19:05 the authority he gets and this and that and that doesn’t go well but you can imagine this probably takes 19:11 its toll on moses uh numbers 13 and 14. um 19:17 this is where the spies go out and uh they bring back this report 19:22 the midrash teaches that they even knew that the report they were giving was slanted uh 19:30 because the people were so afraid there’s a couple passages not just this one in numbers but uh passage in deuteronomy really 19:37 seems to imply that when they come back like they know the land is great but they know that the people don’t want to 19:43 hear a good report and so they give this this this report of fear 19:50 we can’t go in there and then and then they and then god says well because you decided you don’t want to trust me 19:56 you’ll wander in the desert for 40 years but then they try to change their mind they rebel against that god tells them do not go up and fight it’s too late for 20:03 that and they try to go up and fight anyway like this whole there’s just like rebellion rebellion rebellion numbers 15 20:08 16 17 18 and more complaints more rebellion uh korra dathan and 20:15 uh i’m there the the rebellion of korach and uh 20:21 these people just like uh just like how this is taking its toll 20:26 on uh on on moshe and then we finally arrive 20:31 uh numbers 19 is this very interesting story about how to cleanse something after 20:38 coming in contact with a dead body which is interesting because numbers 20 begins with the death of meriam 20:45 so if you don’t mind Brent how about we jump over the numbers 20 and how about you start doing some reading for us in 20:50 the first month the whole israelite community arrived at the desert of zinn and they stayed at kadesh okay so what’s 20:57 this place’s name zin desert of zin and the place’s name kadesh kadesh okay interesting all right there miriam died 21:04 and was buried now there was no water for the community and the people gathered in opposition to 21:09 moshe and aharon they quarreled with moshe and said if only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the lord 21:16 why did you bring the lord’s community into this wilderness that we in our livestock should die here why did you bring us up out of egypt to this 21:22 terrible place it has no grain or figs grapevines or pomegranates and there’s no water to 21:28 drink okay we’ll stop there um so miriam dies and it’s interesting that 21:34 the very next thing that happens is people start complaining about water the midrash teaches 21:39 that miriam was the one who was responsible for bringing the water to the people 21:45 in fact the whole story the midrash goes something like this all the way back in exodus 17 21:52 when moses struck the rock the first time when he was kind of striking god so to speak the elders took the rock that 21:58 the water was coming out of and they pulled it out of the ground and they put it on a cart 22:03 and they took that cart with them all throughout the desert and everywhere they went the rock followed them and whenever they needed water miriam would 22:11 simply come out and speak to the rock and the rock would give its water just like 22:16 i i can’t tell you how many times i’ve told that mid rush that’s like people think man that’s the dumbest that is the dumbest mid rush like that 22:23 for sure didn’t happen uh and and we should have brought one of 22:28 those on the trip yeah no kidding the portable rock um 22:33 now what’s interesting though a little side note uh do you have first corinthians 10 22:38 first few verses of the chapter it’s interesting to see what paul says here listen to this for i do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers and 22:44 sisters that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea 22:50 they were all baptized into moshe in the cloud and in the sea they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same 22:56 spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was christ so they drank from 23:03 the rock that went with them in the greek and that rock was christ so i find it 23:09 interesting that paul makes an obvious allusion to this midrash not that he believes it in a literal sense but he 23:15 eludes this midrash and says yeah you know that rock that we talk about in the midrash well that rock was jesus uh that 23:21 went with them so it’s just kind of funny how we we we hear some of these mid-rush we’re like that’s so ludicrous only to find that in fact our own new 23:28 testament alludes to the same story it gives credence to the sometimes people critique my use of the midrash and 23:35 the new testament is always uh looking back to the mid-rush so i think it’s important for me to do that as well um 23:41 but nevertheless i find it interesting because uh how many times do you think they complained about water Brent in the text 23:48 in the text yeah a couple times at least yeah it seems like it’s pretty often in fact it’s we 23:55 think it’s pretty often right uh when i do this in class oftentimes i ask that question they’re like oh my goodness they complained every day 24:01 because that’s what i was taught growing up interesting in the text they only complained twice about water they complained only twice 24:08 they complained hey that’s what i was struggling with because i was like i can think of two times but it has to be so 24:13 many more right right yeah and the text they only complain twice they complain in exodus 17 and they complain here and 24:19 number is 20 which is why the midrash all of a sudden makes sense the first time they complain they get 24:24 water from the rock they then take the rock with them they have all the water they need and then when miriam dies what’s the 24:30 very next thing that happens we need water we need water it’s just this unbelie it’s like this connection this 24:36 kind of now what’s interesting here is what the text doesn’t say it says that miriam died and was buried 24:44 now what’s interesting is aaron’s going to die here shortly in the story and any hunches and what they’re going 24:50 to do for aaron when he dies um probably throw a big party or something yeah they’re going to mourn him they’re going to it’s going to be 24:55 this huge thing moses is going to die guess what i say party not in celebration but like a big event right a 25:00 big event moses is going to die what do you think they do big event yep they’re going to mourn the death of moses they’re going to mourn the death of 25:06 aaron miriam dies nothing i think there’s something happening 25:13 inside of moses throughout the book of numbers rebellion rebellion rebellion rebellion 25:18 he just lost his sister like he just lost his sister and they’re like where’s 25:24 our water going to come from i think there’s an anger brewing perhaps 25:29 uh in the in moshe’s heart but we’ll see we’ll see what happens you’re gonna go ahead and keep reading where we left off 25:35 uh let’s see where we verse six so moshe and aharon went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell 25:42 face down and the glory of the lord appeared to them the lord said to moshe take the staff and you and your brother 25:47 ahron gather the assembly together speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water you will bring 25:53 water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink so moshe took the staff from the lord’s 25:59 presence just as he commanded him he and aharon gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and moshe 26:05 said to them listen you rebels must we bring you water out of this rock then moshe raised his arm and struck the 26:12 rock twice with his staff water gushed out and the community and their livestock drink 26:17 but the lord said to moshe and not her own because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight 26:22 of the israelites you will not bring this community into the land i give them these were the waters of meribah where 26:28 the israelites quarreled with the lord and where he was proved wholly among them okay so what was this place called 26:36 kadesh called kadesh but didn’t it just say it was meribah the waters of marava very interesting so 26:42 this place is called miraba but it’s also called kadesh it’s got like two names that’s weird i wonder if that’s happened before it’s kind of a weird 26:49 thing it’s unusual but let’s talk about this in terms of tests if we were to if you remember the three tests going up to 26:55 mount sinai there was the test of the bitter water at mara there was the test of uh your soul at redeem or or 27:04 deuteronomy calls massah um two names well there’s that but there’s even more um i would actually 27:11 have to double check that to make sure that massage is linked to the same uh refidem location i i caught myself saying more than i 27:18 should until i’m sure of myself and then the third test was the amalekites so 27:25 we know that what we’re struggling here with is not uh not the third test but i if i were to take this story in 27:32 numbers 20 and say well we’re kind of being tested again here is it more test number one 27:38 or test number two so let’s review these Brent first test was a test of the what the water okay the bitter water and the 27:45 test of your heart your love the lord you’ve got with all your heart right so we said the heart was the seat of the 27:51 what uh the will the will like it was your desire to your your desire your 27:56 voluntary worship your desire to follow so our first test was a test of the will 28:03 the second test was a test of the the soul the soul the fish which was really 28:09 what was that a reference to uh the i don’t know like who you are 28:15 your whole life your essence exactly so you’re an affection like your whole self 28:20 uh so is this more a a if the people let me let me phrase it 28:26 this way if the people are in sin and rebellion here and that’s an if but if they are 28:34 is this a test number one or a test number two is this a problem with the 28:41 will or is this a problem of the soul are they saying to god 28:47 god we’re just struggling to what was the deuteronomy quote Brent can you remember of test number one man does 28:53 not man does not eat on bread alone yeah man does not live on bread alone is this a man does not live on bread alone issue 29:01 or is this a do not test the lord your god issue 29:06 i feel like it could be both and it’s tricky because what does moses call the 29:12 people uh you rebels yeah what was the word there in the hebrew who i don’t know it 29:17 was amara of amara you mara you rebels which might if i’m listening to that 29:23 what were the waters mara means bitter it can also mean defiant rebellion uh if you take a you take a 29:31 son who is mara in the book of leviticus and you stone him to death um capital punishment for a mara 29:39 but it’s also the same word for the waters at mara so that was test number what was mara 29:45 test number is test one so there are some illusions here that i’m thinking well maybe it’s test number one the problem is 29:52 as was there any links to test number like everything in this let’s before we talk about test number 29:58 two uh i personally feel like this is test number one all the way 30:03 nobody here is testing the lord nobody here is they’re simply having a 30:09 hard time waiting on every word miriam dies they’re thirsty 30:14 they’re having a test of the heart issue they’re having a test number one problem and i can tell you it doesn’t take long 30:20 to get thirsty in the desert it doesn’t take long so this is a will you wait on every word 30:25 if you remember the mara what was waiting just around the corner the 12 springs and 70 palm trees right 30:30 like the lesson here could be you need to trust that god has you there’s always something around the bend 30:37 your shepherd always knows where he’s leading you you need to trust what god wants to teach his people here is a test 30:43 number one issue but moses keeps making this a test number two issue 30:51 which is interesting because at the very end of the story what was the second name this place got maraba meriba 30:56 but the other name is kadesh kadesh but there’s been a marabha before maraba means quarreling 31:02 any hunches where the other merobah was at sounds like test number two test number two 31:08 which is interesting because that one had two names too it was called refidem 31:14 it was also called miraba so which is it are we at the same location 31:20 no the one was that refudeem this one’s at kadesh but they’re both called miraba why does 31:26 the author say these are the waters of miraba in fact read that last verse uh of our 31:32 section here in numbers 20. these were the waters of meraba where the israelites quarreled with the lord and 31:38 where he was proved holy among them okay did the israelites quarrel with the lord in this passage 31:43 doesn’t really seem like they had a lot of conversation yeah there’s no quarreling with god who do they quarrel with moses 31:51 moses what happened the first time moses says you don’t have a problem with me 31:57 you have a problem with god so 32:02 this is the author here is saying this is about test number two 32:07 but it clearly is about test number one so what in the world is going on here well we have these two texts that have 32:13 been linked together obviously the author is trying to link this text to which story exodus 17 exodus 17. 32:21 so our secret to unlocking what’s going on here in this passage and the secret to the 32:26 hagap project lies somewhere in exodus 17 it’s our key so let’s see here if i were to jump back 32:33 to exodus 17 let’s read um 32:38 and we’re gonna have to you know the answer to this so we’re gonna have to play this up for our listeners a little bit 32:44 but let’s see here let’s start reading 32:49 exodus 17 verse 5 through 7. the lord answered moshe go 32:56 out in front of the people take with you some of the elders of israel and take in your hand the staff with which you 33:02 struck the nile and go i will stand there before you by the rocket horeb strike the rock and water will come out 33:09 of it for the people to drink so moshe did this in the sight of the eldest of israel and he called the place 33:14 masa and maraba because the israelites quarreled and because they tested the lord saying is 33:20 the lord among us or not all right so i was writing the massa quote so a little hesitant there there it is 33:26 right there and that’s right good vindication all right uh let’s read that one more time read that exact same 33:33 in fact we don’t have to read seven just read five and six one more time the lord answered moshe go out in front of the 33:39 people take with you some of the elders of israel and take your taking your hand the staff with which you struck the nile 33:45 and go i will stand there before you by the rock at horeb strike the rock and 33:51 water will come out of it for the people to drink so moses did this in the sight of the elders of israel 33:56 all right so now let’s go back to numbers 20 and read 34:02 versus let’s see 9 and 10 34:08 and 11. so moshe took the staff from the lord’s presence just as he commanded him he and aharon gathered the assembly 34:15 together in front of the rock and moses said to them listen you rebels must we bring you water out of this rock then 34:21 moshe raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff water gushed out and the community and their livestock 34:27 drank all right so for most of our listeners i’m just going to pause here and wonder wonder because they can’t tell me 34:33 i’m going to wonder if they saw anything in there if anything there is a hebrew phrase 34:39 just staring at us that was incred incredibly important to the first story 34:45 but i’m betting for 90 or maybe even more of our listeners they probably didn’t catch it so i’m going to go back 34:51 you stay in numbers i’m going to go back to exodus 17 we’ll read these two passages together all right let’s see here i’m going to go 34:57 back to exodus 17. the lord answered moshe go out in front 35:02 of the people take with you some of the elders of israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the nile 35:09 and go i will stand there before you at the rock at horeb naka the rock and water will come out of 35:16 it for the people to drink so moshe did this in the sight of the elders of israel now read yours 35:21 so moshe took the staff from the lord’s presence just as he commanded him he and aharon gathered the assembly together in 35:27 front of the rock and moses said to them listen you rebels must we bring you water out of this rock then moshe raised 35:33 his arm and naka the rock twice with his staff water gushed out in the community in their livestock drink 35:40 yeah i wonder if he might cut it a second time wish i could wish i could hear their voices 35:45 screaming at the podcast saying i know i know but i’m sure there are some that 35:52 didn’t so i’m going to go back to exodus 17 we’re going to try to unpack this a little bit one more time last time i promise 35:57 the lord answered moshe go out in front of the people take with you some of the elders of israel and take in your hand 36:04 the staff with which you struck the nile and go i will stand there before you by the 36:09 rock at horeb strike the rock and the water will come out of it for the people 36:15 to drink so moshe did this in the sight of the elders of israel now Brent if we were to go back to that story 36:21 what was kind of one of the big contextual things we had to unpack about that uh was there a phrase that had 36:27 particular importance to that teaching well god’s standing in in front of moses right and so we talked about the hebrew 36:33 word panim and how it refer when it’s used in this way the only way that it can be 36:38 translated and understood is if you remember my awesome drawing remember my awesome stick drawing i had 36:45 of stick figure bearded moses yeah that was pretty great actually it looked like he had like a duck bill or 36:50 something like that yeah but there was stick figure moses and then there was mount sinai and then if you remember there was this 36:56 presence of god thing that was in between because the only way that you can translate and understand panim in 37:03 this usage is that there’s moses and there’s mount sinai and between them 37:09 is god and so in order to strike the mountain 37:14 to naka and i’ll see throughout this whole journey moses has been learning about nikah let’s use your nikah and the 37:21 right i’m going to teach you what it means to be a leader i’m going to teach you how to no longer use nikah as your 37:28 weapon in fact we’re going to turn nikah on ourselves as leaders we’re going to we’re going to take the blow so god says 37:34 you strike the mountain and in so you’re striking me and i’m gonna take the blow on behalf of the people 37:41 okay so now let’s go back to numbers 20. so moshe took the staff from the lord’s presence just as he commanded him 37:47 he and aharon gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and moses said to them listen you rebels must we 37:53 bring you water out of this rock then moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with a staff water gushed out and 37:59 the community in their livestock drink okay now i’m hoping maybe a bunch more people cut it but that same phrase is 38:06 present here in this exact same sentence he and aaron gathered the assembly together 38:13 in front of the rock and moses said to them listen you rebels 38:18 must same exact hebrew phrase as what we found in exodus 17 the story that this 38:24 author says is what this this story is linked to these two stories go hand in 38:29 hand the author says because there’s a lesson here that moses completely drops the ball my personal belief is the 38:37 reason that we’re told he strikes he naka’s the rock he strikes to kill 38:44 the rock well that doesn’t make any sense the first time it did because he was striking to kill god god told him to nikah 38:51 god told him to strike to kill me strike to kill the rock 38:56 but here well if it’s just the rock that doesn’t make any sense but if moshe lined the people up between 39:05 him and the rock and then strikes to kill twice 39:11 i wonder uh my belief personally my opinion is that moshe killed two people that day 39:18 his anger his frustration his rage all of this stuff building up 39:25 and i there’s like a part of me that doesn’t want to do that at all because this is like moshe we’re talking about here but 39:30 on some level i have to have an explanation for what did moshe do that made god go 39:37 no if that’s where we’re at after 120 years 39:42 40 years when he left egypt 40 years in the desert as a shepherd 40 39:48 years with the people of israel and if that’s where we’re at after 120 years if that’s the kind of lead if you’re 39:54 going to resort to your pharaoh stick i can’t let you be the guy that leads 40:00 him into the promised land that can’t be how we build our story and so i’ll let you see it i’ll bury 40:06 your body like there’s it’s not there is not a poor ending to moses’s story in fact i wish i could have his epitaph at 40:12 the end of the book of deuteronomy we’ll talk about that next week i wish i could have my tombstone say what moses has said 40:18 but if there’s a reason and a justification for not making into the promised land i mean here is here is god saying moses 40:26 i want you and here’s what’s interesting when god says in numbers i’ll read it because you did not trust me enough 40:33 to honor me as holy the word for honor there is actually demonstrate in the hebrew 40:40 because you did not show or demonstrate me as holy in the sight of the 40:45 israelites you will not bring this community into the land i will get them god says you 40:50 had an opportunity to show the people me 40:56 you could have spoken to the rock and used your voice and promoted the narrative of shalom and 41:03 instead you resorted to the narrative of empire oh moshe and all of that right after we 41:09 just went through this big thing about how to live and how to be a priest oh like this is critical 41:15 like oh i can’t no we can’t you won’t be the guy joshua yahshua will be the guy 41:23 but man this is the stuff you didn’t demonstrate me as holy 41:28 um and then that last sentence all of a sudden makes sense these were the waters of miraba where the israelites quarreled 41:35 with the lord and where he was proved holy among them well back in exodus 17 he was proved holy 41:42 and remember holy means what Brent set apart set apart different like the thing that we always say sets god apart and 41:49 makes him different is his what his love his love his grace that’s what makes him different that’s what god 41:55 wanted to show him in exodus 17 and he did by having moses strike him and this is what god wants moses to show the 42:02 people now in this moment too he drops the ball um 42:07 so justice and if we have any if we really want to wrap up the book of numbers like if we have any doubt that 42:13 this is what this story is about what’s the very next group of stories to come after this Brent 42:18 in numbers yes not the very very next one there’s a couple things but the next big block of 42:23 stories that we’re all familiar with uh the stories of balaam right so the very next thing to come up after this big 42:30 story the big lessons there’s a few things as they go from here to here in moab and whatnot 42:36 and a rod and a bronze snake but the really big next narrative punch is going to be the story of balaam 42:42 the story of a donkey using its voice it’s almost like god’s saying if you people aren’t going to use your 42:48 voice for my narrative i’m going to open up the mouth of a donkey and have him use his voice like that’s 42:55 how committed to voice god is um moshe isn’t going to use his voice so 43:00 the next story is is balaam’s donkey is um i mean that this is the lesson of the 43:06 desert what is that passage about the rocks crying out is that the same kind of thing oh i get you could i’m trying 43:12 to think i’m trying to wrestle with that as you say that would be habakkuk um referring to the stones of the temple 43:17 this is what jesus quotes the triumphal entry um if if these people don’t cry out the very stones will cry out 43:25 um uh boy i’ve never even thought about that but yeah god is god is a 43:31 a god of the ears he wants us to be people of the ears and he wants us to get really used to learning about his voice 43:39 and voice voice voice this is so hard i remember when i learned this moses lesson 43:45 uh i remember i learned it from ray um at least at least the main gist of it the 43:50 first part of it and i remember the day i sat in church and i i heard him talk i give a lecture 43:56 on that and i went oh do i have to learn that as a leader 44:01 because i like to lead with a stick it’s easier it’s more efficient 44:06 it gets the job done and uh uh god has had to teach me over the last decade 44:14 um how to lead with voice and how to trust trust that god’s got this trust that i 44:20 don’t have to be god here i can let god be god i just need to show god as holy i 44:26 need to demonstrate him as different i need to demonstrate him as loving 44:31 and i need to lead with my voice i’m assuming there’s probably a lot of us out here listening uh some of my 44:37 listeners um we need to learn how to lead with our voice better uh some of us might be employers or 44:43 people in charge or a boss or a teacher or we have these how 44:49 you use your authority uh tells one narrative or the other it will either tell the narrative of empire 44:55 or it will tell the narrative of kingdom of shalom and um so 45:02 anyway moving uh lesson for me when i learned it uh i want to be 45:07 i want to be more like that i feel like we had a lot of star wars references today you know let’s talk about rebels 45:13 yeah a lot of fear intentional but uh fear leading to anger and hate yeah it’s 45:18 suffering oh man oh man i’m glad i didn’t catch that as it came out because that would have 45:24 definitely come out i didn’t i didn’t want to i didn’t want to derail anything but you know i i couldn’t we couldn’t close it down 45:31 without pointing it out it’s just perfect it’s perfect fear leads to anger 45:36 anger leads to hate uh all right well if you live on the police join us for discussion groups in 45:42 moscow on tuesday or in pullman on wednesday you can check out other discussion groups around the country 45:48 on the website as well if you want to get a hold of Marty you can find him on twitter @MartySolomon i’m on twitter @eibcb 45:54 and you can find more details about the show at bemadiscipleship.com thanks for joining us on the Bema podcast and we’ll talk to you again soon 46:00 [Music] 46:12 may the fourth be with you Marty

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