Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign45.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. If you have a Bible, would you open it up to the book of numbers? And we're going to be in chapter 12 this morning. And I just want to ask you a question that probably. You don't need to answer this one out loud. Okay.
[00:00:27] Have you ever had a leader, a boss, that you felt you could do a better job than them?
[00:00:39] We're gonna go with.
[00:00:41] We're gonna go with. Yes.
[00:00:45] So what did you do? What did you do with that thought?
[00:00:49] Did you talk to other teammates, kind of put them down, and at the same time, maybe elevate yourself a little bit? Did you start to build some teams? Did you start to talk in ways that maybe were not the most appropriate?
[00:01:06] Maybe. Did you support them? Did you come alongside them and realize that you had strengths and they had weaknesses and you're good for each other and maybe God brought you to them to kind of elevate them and help them in some of the. Some of their weaknesses? So, like, what are you supposed to do with these thoughts and these feelings, especially, like, if they're true, because, let's be honest, some of you could do a better job than your boss right now.
[00:01:33] So here's a biblical principle that we really need in these moments.
[00:01:37] It is God who promotes, and it is God who demotes in ministry, in governments, in business, in personal finances.
[00:01:51] I want to just give you, like, the tip of the iceberg of some scripture that kind of drive this point home. So Daniel, chapter 2, verse 21. He, God, removes kings and sets up kings. Daniel 4, 17. The Most High Rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men. Psalm 75, verse 6.
[00:02:13] No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt themselves. It is God who judges. He brings one down, he exalts another. First Samuel, chapter 2, verse 7. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. And some of you are thinking, I would love a seat of honor. I see this position that someone else has, and I want it. And the Lord's like, listen, at the end of the day, it's my responsibility to make sure you get the promotion or the transition or the new thing that you want. I'm over this. John 19:11. Jesus says this to Pilate. He says, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. Try saying that to your boss at work tomorrow.
[00:03:05] It is God who raises up leaders. Even in pagan nations. It is God who brings down the proud. Never in your timeframe, but at the right moment. It's God who promotes the humble. It is God who demotes, and it is God who promotes. This doesn't mean that we don't have any responsibility in the matter. We do. But at the end of the day, if you start to just look back over your life, you see the providential hand of God overseeing your life and finances and jobs and promotions and even sometimes demotions. So with this in mind, I want to set up the context of numbers chapter 12. So if you've been with us last couple of weeks, you've seen that the Israelites have a perpetual problem with grace and with complaining. One of the things we asked you to do was to look inside of your heart and say, God is this spirit in me. Because the Lord particularly despises a spirit of grumbling and complaining. So we saw is that the grumbling and complaining was really deeply offensive and personal to God.
[00:04:09] They did not appreciate God's leadership. They didn't appreciate Moses leadership. They got to a point where they said, it would have been better for us to go back to Egypt. And their ingratitude was exhausted to the Lord and to Moses. And you can understand why this is personal to God.
[00:04:26] Every one of their requests previously, he responded to and provided generously.
[00:04:33] He gave them a clear vision of where they're going and how they're going to get there.
[00:04:38] He freed them from actual, like the worst kind of slavery. They'd been stuck for 400 years, set them free. And for the first time in four centuries, these people have the opportunity for real hope and a real future where their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will not be abused by slave and task masters.
[00:04:59] And this grumbling spirit started with the rabble on the outskirts of the camp of Israel. But it made its way in. And it made its way in until it. Until it infected even the Levites and the priests. And we get to numbers chapter 12. And now it is making its way to the upper leadership team of the nation of Israel. And here's the deal. God, his patience is done.
[00:05:23] Mercy is over.
[00:05:24] You grumble, you complain, you get judgment. The nation knows this.
[00:05:29] But what if we do it in private, when no one's listening?
[00:05:33] Numbers chapter 12, verse 1 says this.
[00:05:36] Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the cushite woman who he married. In case you were wondering what kind of woman it was, it says it again. For he had married a cushite woman. Some important details to know, because what verse one does kind of sets up like the rest of chapter 12. So number one, Moses, Aaron and Miriam, they're all siblings. Miriam is the oldest sibling. Aaron is the middle child. Woe is me. And then Moses is the youngest child. Number two, Miriam and Aaron were also profoundly influential leaders in Israel. So Aaron was the high priest, which means he was responsible for all the sacrifices, all the corporate worship. It was a huge job to be the high priest. And we also see that Miriam was a prophetess, spoke for God to the people, and she had a leadership role. Micah, chapter six, verse four. Here's how it describes this trifecta of leadership. Says this. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam. All right, third, Moses, foreign wife is revealing some pretty serious heart issues. If you go back to the book of Exodus, Moses had a wife. Her name was Zipporah. She was not Jewish. She was a Midianite.
[00:06:59] We don't know what happened to her. She could be dead. This could be her. The jury's kind of out. But here's the most important part of this.
[00:07:08] Moses, older sister and older brother are pretty much over this foreign woman having Moses's ear, having access to his heart and influencing him. And they're. They're pretty much done with this woman. In general, number four, Moses, siblings seem to be preparing some sort of rebellion or coup against Moses. The text says that they spoke against Moses. And the idea here is that this is happening in private. It's a conversation between Miriam and between Aaron. And the goal is to basically begin the beginnings of some kind of rebellion or coup. We don't know where it's gonna go, but here's what we see.
[00:07:53] The presenting issue on the surface is the kushite woman.
[00:07:59] But I wanna be clear, she's not the actual issue. If you ever had somebody upset with you about something, but the thing is not actually the thing, it's about the thing behind the thing.
[00:08:08] And that's what's going on here. And verse two is going to show us the thing behind the thing.
[00:08:12] Verse 2 says. And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Of course not.
[00:08:21] Has he not spoken through us also?
[00:08:26] So we learned something striking about Their anger at Moses, It's a cover story for the real problem, which is jealousy.
[00:08:38] They wanted Moses platform.
[00:08:41] They wanted Moses influence.
[00:08:44] They wanted to feel important and to be clear. Again, it's not like they don't have powerful influence. Again, Aaron is the high priest.
[00:08:56] Miriam is a prophetess. They are part of the threefold trifecta of leadership over the nation of Israel. Now, I want to maybe just put this in some context. So, like, maybe you're like, yeah, but there's gotta be something else going on behind the scenes that have maybe pushed Miriam and Aaron to this. To this place of rebellion against Moses. Okay, fine. So I'm sure, like, chapter 11 is fresh on your brain, but in case it's not, do you know what happened in chapter 11?
[00:09:22] Moses goes before God.
[00:09:25] He is absolutely exhausted in leadership from leading these impetuous children. And he says to him, essentially, mercy, kill me. End my life now. I don't want this. They're terrible human beings. I didn't ask for this. Take my life. I can't do this. So God doesn't kill him and says, I'm gonna give you 70 leaders who are gonna come alongside and lead with you to take the burden off of you so you don't have to do this alone. Well, this actually has huge implications for Miriam and for Aaron, because it used to be just the three of them.
[00:09:58] Now it's the three of them and 70.
[00:10:01] And now their voice is being diluted. But not just that. In chapter 11, we start to see that there's this young man named Joshua who is Moses assistant.
[00:10:10] And Joshua has Moses ear. And so they're like, now there's this Joshua guy, and Joshua has Moses ear. And then there's this cushy woman. They're just done. They're like, this foreign woman has his ear, by the way. This is like normal. Like, if you're married to somebody, they're going to influence you. And so, like, they're like, all of our influence is being diluted. And Moses is the guy who goes out and he's the guy in the front who gets all the glory. What about us?
[00:10:38] Don't we deserve some of this?
[00:10:40] And so let's just diagnose this. I mean, their jealousy, it is so pathetically obvious, but they can't see it.
[00:10:52] So if we're to diagnosis, speaking against is the fruit, but jealousy is the root.
[00:11:00] Speaking against this is all the symptom of the core issue here, which is jealousy.
[00:11:05] And if you've been reading the Bible a little bit, and by the time it gets numbers. Sibling jealousy is a really bad thing.
[00:11:13] It actually goes back to the very first siblings with Cain and Abel. And this jealousy cause one to kill the other. But it wasn't just them. It was Jacob and Esau. It was Isaac and Ishmael. It was Rachel and Leah. It was Joseph and his brothers. So, like, this theme of sibling rivalry is thick throughout the entire Torah. And here we are again.
[00:11:38] Now, I left out the last five words of verse two, and I want to show you these.
[00:11:44] Says this, and the Lord heard it.
[00:11:49] And Miriam and Aaron are about to learn a pretty important lesson about Yahweh. You would hope they would have known this, but in case they hadn't, they're going to know it for sure.
[00:11:59] The things we do in private are never hidden from the Lord and God's. For Miriam, especially in Aaron, God's scope of knowledge isn't limited to what he can hear in the temple.
[00:12:16] God is profoundly aware of everything that happens in the temple and outside of the temple, publicly and privately.
[00:12:26] Now, this is a moment where you might just kind of step back and be like, all right, can we just assume for a minute in almost every conflict you're ever going to be in, it is rarely ever. There are exceptions. It's rarely 100% one person's fault and 0% another person's soul. Right?
[00:12:42] Even if you're like, you might be the 1%. I've just never seen anybody perfectly, sinlessly, flawlessly respond to a conflict, do the right thing in the right way at the right time. Always perfectly ever. Okay? It's like, very, very rare. Okay?
[00:12:54] But just in case, maybe you're an Israelite and you're gonna start to get wind of this conflict that happens between Moses and his siblings. They might be like, yeah, but, like, was he all, like, taunting them like Joseph and his brothers? And like, well, I have access to the face of God, and I get a personal thing. And I.
[00:13:11] And you could imagine, like, I'm the youngest of four brothers, and if I pulled a Joseph, I mean, I don't know what they would have done to me. They would have just beat me up, right? And so, like, you get it. You know what I mean? And so the nation of Israel might be wondering, let's be straight. What did Moses actually do really behind the scenes? And what verse three does is it shuts down this entire concern. And verse three is a striking verse, but it kind of sets responsibility where responsibility needs to be said. It says this.
[00:13:40] Now, the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. By the way, do you guys know who the primary author of the Torah was? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Who is Moses? Right. And so either Moses wrote this about himself, or we also see some sections where it seems like Joshua would kind of fill in the blanks, wrote about his death, et cetera. I imagine Joshua got ahold of this and was like, Moses is too meek to just say the truth. And so I'm gonna let all generations know that there was nobody on planet Earth more meek than Moses.
[00:14:16] To be meek, it's to be humble, to be afflicted, to be bowed down. So the word is referring to a person who is not self promoting, who trusts God under pressure and is gentle, especially in leadership. Now, there's a whole lot more we're gonna say about meekness in a bit, but the text wants you to know this is not Moses fault. He wasn't like Joseph. He didn't do something to antagonize his siblings.
[00:14:51] Responsibility for the rebellion they started to plan falls solely on Miriam and Aaron. Now look at verse four. I want you to notice a specific word here.
[00:15:00] Suddenly, okay, Verse four. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam, come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out. So it appears the way the text is written, that Aaron and Miriam are having this conversation, speaking against Moses, beginning to plan things that are not good. Moses has no idea what's happening. And suddenly, while this is happening, the audible voice of God chimes in. I don't know, but y'. All.
[00:15:33] Like, I'm trying to imagine his tone. And I feel like it's a stern parent who just like caught you getting in trouble. That's what's going through my brain here. And so like, you can just kind of feel the tension, like, whoa. Oh, they come out, they walk over. You don't know what's going to happen. Moses is like, why are we here? But kind of not so secretly, I think Miriam and Aaron know exactly what is about to happen. Verse 5. The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. So the idea is that three of them are there and then two step forward, but all of them are going to hear what is about to come out of the Lord's mouth.
[00:16:15] Now, Moses doesn't appear to know what's happening, but God's going to tell him.
[00:16:20] Verse 6. And he said, hear My words.
[00:16:25] If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream.
[00:16:35] Not so with my servant Moses. I love this line. He is faithful in all my house.
[00:16:46] Okay, Miriam, you are a prophetess.
[00:16:50] Have you not kind of figured out that there's a difference between the way I talk to you and the way I talk to Moses?
[00:16:57] Have you not, like, put two and two together? Like, did I call you to the top of a mountain? Did I give you the ten Commandments? Did I show up to you in a burning bush? Do I audibly speak to you? Have you not quite figured out that you and he aren't the same?
[00:17:10] That our relationship is actually a little bit different?
[00:17:15] Now?
[00:17:16] There's a theme that, if you've been paying attention, is emerging in numbers. And the theme is pretty striking.
[00:17:23] When sin overtakes us, it could be complaining, grumbling, envy, whatever.
[00:17:28] We lose all sense of reality.
[00:17:32] We forget the most basic truths and things that are just solid and factual.
[00:17:38] Like, we tend to overestimate ourselves and then demonize others. We tend to just get obsessive about ourselves and forget just kind of reality right in front of us. And apparently Miriam, blinded by her envy, and Aaron, blinded by his envy, are just forgetting the fact that, like, have you considered that, I don't know, maybe Moses is the one I called and I have a different relationship with him. And so verse eight, he goes deeper to this. The Lord says with him, moses, I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles.
[00:18:06] And he beholds the form of the Lord.
[00:18:10] Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
[00:18:17] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.
[00:18:25] What could you say if you were Miriam or Aaron?
[00:18:30] This is like a mic drop moment.
[00:18:33] This is, you got caught in the act, you're guilty.
[00:18:38] You can come up with any excuse that you want.
[00:18:41] But I already know there's nothing that you can say that can justify going against my friend Moses.
[00:18:48] And so they say, nothing. The Lord disappears.
[00:18:52] And this is just hard to watch. Now, we said this earlier, but I just want to draw your attention to this again.
[00:18:59] Remember when we said Moses in chapter 11 was just like, God, kill me, mercy, kill me.
[00:19:06] One of the insights you get into Moses is that he was overwhelmed. He was in a fairly dark place.
[00:19:12] The weight and the burden of leading this nation was just far too much for him.
[00:19:18] It would be fair to say this wasn't Moses like most healthy moment.
[00:19:22] And then right on the heels of him being already discouraged, he now experiences betrayal, not just from his closest team members, but from his very own blood brother and blood sister.
[00:19:35] Verse 10. When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow.
[00:19:42] And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And so leprosy is a visual, visible representation of the sin that is inside of them. And so now what was internal death is now being visible for everyone to see. What was on the inside, God is now showing on the outside. Verse 11.
[00:20:04] Aaron said to Moses, o my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb.
[00:20:23] So this is, like, all happening very quickly. So you got just put yourself in Moses shoes.
[00:20:29] One moment, he's just doing whatever he does in his tent. He's called out. He finds out immediately that his brother and his sister are throwing some kind of coup or planning a coup or rebellion against him. And then all of a sudden, his sister has leprosy, which means she's unclean, and she's gotta go to the outer parts of the tent where he's probably never gonna see her again. And all of this is happening real time. Aaron is like, oh, my gosh, what have we done? I'm so sorry. Please forgive us. Like, please, like, help, please. And Moses, like, this is all happening in a matter of seconds.
[00:21:00] And so whatever's inside of Moses is going to come out.
[00:21:03] You're going to get a look at the real man.
[00:21:07] And what you're going to get a look into is what meekness actually looks like.
[00:21:13] Verse 13.
[00:21:14] Moses cried to the Lord, oh, God, please heal her, please.
[00:21:23] There's a bunch of Hebrew words for crying out, et cetera. And this is a word that refers to desperate, anguished, emotional cries for help.
[00:21:34] It's used in the context where there is deep need or urgency.
[00:21:40] And so this is a moment where what is inside of Moses comes out. Now, a couple things about Moses. Number one, Moses does not seem to be threatened whatsoever by Miriam and by Aaron. Like, one of the questions that I would have is, like, okay, if I'm going to forgive you and if God's going to heal you, how do I know that you're not going to do this again? And here's what we see with Moses. He is just so unbelievably secure in his leadership, knowing that it is God who promotes and it's God who demotes, like, the security he has in his position is shocking.
[00:22:17] The second thing here, Moses is not vengeful toward Miriam and Aaron. Like, in this moment, I might be tempted to be like, I'm sorry, you're throwing a coup.
[00:22:28] You're gonna get whatever you deserve. Like, that might be the instinct impulse of probably most every single one of us. But his instinct is not vengeance, but it is forgiveness. And pleading with the Lord on behalf of his sister to help her.
[00:22:45] Moses is also not unforgiving. And this is what you see with meek men and women.
[00:22:51] You find that they understand all too well their own sin and the lavish forgiveness God has bestowed upon them. And so when it comes time for them to lavish it back in moments where somebody is genuinely asking for it, what you find is that meek people are okay to give forgiveness in these circumstances. Okay, so you've heard it said, meekness is not weakness. And this is a fact somehow in our cultural moment, meekness for most people in their brains means soft spoken, effeminate, or easily beaten up. That's how most people think about it.
[00:23:30] I love this definition of meekness. Meekness is strength under control. So let me give you a few illustrations of what true meekness might look like.
[00:23:41] True meekness is like when a skinny guy goes and spits on a large guy the size of an NFL linebacker and says really dumb, mean things to them. And the big guy who's like an NFL linebacker could in a moment crush this little skinny guy without even thinking about it. But instead, he smiles, he walks away, and he tells Jesus, you got this guy. I trust you.
[00:24:11] He has all the strength to do everything he needs, but he understands that this person is going to be better off in the Lord's hands than in his own. Meanness is when you don't react to that jerk at school or in your workplace who, it feels like, never leaves you alone because not so secretly, you know how terrible their home life is.
[00:24:37] And you know, they're just acting out all the pain that they have in their own life. And so you take it, you know, you draw some boundaries, but you don't respond in sin. And you pray for them and you say, God, would you please show Jesus through me?
[00:24:52] Or, here's one.
[00:24:54] Meekness is when that person is jealous of you, maybe at work, maybe at school, maybe on a sports team, and they try to drag you down so they can elevate themselves.
[00:25:09] And one of the things you know in these moments is like, you could defend yourself, but defending yourself is really challenging because sometimes the only way to defend yourself is to sin. By speaking negatively about somebody else. And so you're kind of just left in this position. Like, one sin doesn't make another sin better.
[00:25:24] And so you're stuck there just shutting your mouth. And you could say things. You could actually tell as much as you wanted to. But you decide, you know what, Lord, I'm going to give this over to you. I'm going to let you deal with them in your time and at your pace. I want you to listen in the New Testament to how Peter describes the meekness of Jesus. First, Peter 2, 23 says this. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
[00:25:51] Would Jesus, by the way, have been just to revile the people reviling him? Yeah, you and I can't do that because we're not God and we're gonna sin and are reviling. But, like, honestly, Jesus could have had some really hard words with them and they all would have been true, and they all would have been the right thing to say, but he kept his mouth shut. Then it says this. When he suffered, he did not threaten. He would have been just to be like, do you know who I am? I could send you to hell right now for all of eternity. And in fact, I will. If you don't stop now, I'm going to make you go to hell forever. He could have done that, and he would have been right and true. Do you realize I'm coming back a second time to judge the living and the dead?
[00:26:27] Do you want to be found guilty? He could have threatened and threatened, says this, but he didn't do any of these things, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
[00:26:40] And there's this picture of meekness.
[00:26:43] It has nothing to do with being weak, empathetic, and effeminate.
[00:26:46] It has to do with having an incredible strength that you keep under control because you know that the Lord is a better executor of justice and vengeance than you ever could be. A meek person could easily defend themselves if needed, but they truly believe that God can do it better.
[00:27:07] When you meet a truly meek person, you should know this. They weren't just born this way.
[00:27:13] This is probably a person who learned the hard way by defending themselves and then making a whole bunch of mistakes in the process, and then learning to trust the Lord's leadership, protection over their life.
[00:27:25] Look at verse 14.
[00:27:28] The Lord said to Moses, if her father had spit in her face, should she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days.
[00:27:41] And after that she may be brought in Again. And so this is a little bit weird to us, but in ancient Near Eastern culture, if you had a child who dishonored the father or the mother publicly, then one of the requirements was that the father could spit in her face and she would be cast out for seven days as a public punishment of dishonor. Now, in our context and culture, that would be considered abusive. In ancient Near Eastern culture, cultures of honor, that was not considered that way. Now, God didn't literally spit in her face, but here's what effectively is happening.
[00:28:12] This woman has dishonored you, Moses, and your leadership. She's dishonored me and my leadership. And if I were her dad, she would deserve this punishment. So, seven days, you publicly cast her out, out beyond the tents with the other lepers, and at the end of seven days, I will heal her.
[00:28:36] When you and I pursue something out of jealousy or selfish ambition, the Lord will often give you the opposite of what you asked for.
[00:28:50] Miriam wanted influence, and she would be influential, but in all the wrong ways.
[00:28:59] Miriam would now become not an influential leader, but a perpetual and living reminder for all the nation of Israel of what not to do amongst gods.
[00:29:10] In fact, this is like the last time Miriam gets brought up and then she comes up again by name in the book of Deuteronomy. And now Miriam is a warning. Here's a Deuteronomy 24, verse 9 says, Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt. So she got her notoriety, but she got it all in the backwards way that she wanted it. Instead of being an influential leader, she is now a warning of what not to do amongst God's people. What she did shamefully in secret, God exposed publicly for all to see, to show it for what it was.
[00:29:47] You might say, well, that's not fair.
[00:29:50] When you enter into leadership and you do these kind of things, then the discipline is more public. This is the nature of it. And Miriam knew this, and Aaron knew this. And here's the question you should be asking, what about Aaron? Like, why didn't Aaron get punished? Well, there's a couple reasons why in verse one, we can see in the text that Miriam is likely the instigator of this rebellion or this coup, this speaking against.
[00:30:16] And here's what you see, that Miriam is listed first, but also the verb to speak against, it's feminine. It points you back intentionally to Miriam as being the primary instigator. And here's what's so sad about Aaron. If you've paid attention to the life of Aaron a little bit. Here's what you know about him. He is a spineless, weak man like Moses goes under the mountain. He's up there for a little longer than expected. And so by the time he freaks out, he's like, I don't know what's happening. And we should probably build a golden calf and everybody can worship the gods of Egypt. And you're like, aaron, stand up for what is true and what is right. And now he's in a situation with his older sister, but it's my older sister, and I just buckled under the pressure. Aaron, I'm sure you have a million excuses. Aaron is lucky, lucky to even still be the High priest Israel. Look at verse 15.
[00:31:02] So Miriam was shot outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.
[00:31:12] Now, this former leader of the people of Israel has now been humbled and put into her place as somebody who attempted a coup, failed, was exposed by the Lord, and hopefully, God willing, she was brought back into the family. But we don't actually know anything about her after this moment. The Lord doesn't bring her up again except as a warning.
[00:31:33] 3. So what's number one? We, as believers in Jesus, rest in the positions that we are promoted to.
[00:31:45] There's a little nuance Here in numbers 12 that's easy to miss. And I want to show you this.
[00:31:51] Moses or not Moses, Aaron aspired to be a prophet, but Moses was not called to be a prophet. Moses was called to be a priest.
[00:32:00] And there's a significant difference between a priest and a prophet. The prophet speaks to the people for God, the priest speaks to God for the people.
[00:32:11] And the prophet typically has a little bit more of a public notoriety and role.
[00:32:16] And one of the things with Aaron that that really got him is he wanted a responsibility, a role, a position, an influence that God didn't have for him.
[00:32:28] And so he started this process with his sister to take things into his own hands. But at the end of the day, if the Lord doesn't want you in that position, you. And I don't want to be in the position.
[00:32:40] I don't ever want to be in a position of leadership at work or a church or anywhere without the Lord's blessing. And I definitely don't want to have to sin against someone else in order to get the position that I so desperately want out of my own idolatry.
[00:32:56] Here's a question for all of us ambitious folk. Some of you would not identify as ambitious. I think deep Down. Most of us are.
[00:33:04] Do you primarily want to be influential or faithful?
[00:33:11] Most leaders, we have the desire to do something great.
[00:33:15] We want our name to reverberate through generations. We want our great grandchildren to tell our story. In fact, 10 generations down, in fact, none of us can actually name our grandfather or grandmother 10 generations behind us for the most part.
[00:33:32] In our desire for greatness and influence, we have to understand that our propensity to sin against others to get it is high.
[00:33:43] And there's something about the meek. The meek step back and they rest in God's agenda and timeline.
[00:33:53] If we're not careful, we can pursue influence over faithfulness. But what is the Lord looking for?
[00:34:02] He's looking for faithfulness.
[00:34:04] There is a better way than self promotion, degrading others through envy and jealousy. There is a better way to be promoted. And that better way is to be faithful where God has put you, and to allow the right people at the right place to move you to the positions that God wants for you. Now, for some of you, you have the freedom to go to a spiritual leader or a supervisor or boss and tell them your desires for promotion. Awesome. Speak your mind if you have the freedom. But if you have to sin against someone else to get the thing you want, I don't think you should expect the Lord's blessing in this process.
[00:34:43] So at number two, don't worry yourself too much with jealous people.
[00:34:50] The Lord will deal with them in his own way at the right time. And when jealous people get into your orbit and they have other issues that are presenting issues, and you know, jealousy is the course, you just don't defend yourself.
[00:35:06] It is. I said this earlier and I want to be redundant. It is almost impossible to defend yourself without sinning by speaking and slandering someone else.
[00:35:17] One of the realities that Moses is learning first, firsthand. And I was thinking through this, so what from the perspective, if Moses could get up and say a couple things to us, what would he say? I think he would look at us and say, don't worry yourself with them.
[00:35:28] Because even before you knew, it happened. Like, even from the time when they were conspiring behind your back, right when they were talking trash about you to a friend or to your boss or whatever it is. Like the Lord already knew it and he was already dealing with it. There's nothing that happens to you when you find out that the Lord wasn't already aware of and working behind the scenes. So don't worry yourself with them. They'll do what they do. You rest in the Lord's protection.
[00:35:54] And at the right time, if the Lord asks you to do something, sure, but here's what I love about Moses. Before Moses spoke, he went to the Lord and asked his insight. And so when Moses did go do things and have to do hard things for the people, he would do it with the permission of God, because he went to him and said, God as a leader, what do you want me to do?
[00:36:13] The result of all of this experience is that Moses would leave and lead, knowing that God sees everything always, and God is working behind the scenes for his good. Moses would stand up and he would look at you and say, whatever has happened to you, if you are in a position where somebody is speaking negatively of you, the Lord sees and he is working it out. Let him deal with it.
[00:36:42] Number three, where is God calling you to repent in your personal life, in your family and. Or in your church family?
[00:36:53] Take a good hard look inside of your own heart.
[00:36:57] Because this message at the end of the day isn't about other people.
[00:37:01] At the end of the day, we want to come back and say, God, let Israel be a mirror to our own heart. Every one of us have a strong propensity for envy and jealousy.
[00:37:10] But let's take a good hard look at your parents, your spouse. Yes, people do envy their spouses.
[00:37:18] Your co workers, your pastor or spiritual leader, your friends, your boss, and most dangerously, your siblings.
[00:37:33] And ask the Holy Spirit, is there even just a little bit of a growing envy in my heart towards anyone in my life?
[00:37:44] Because the Lord does not want that for you.
[00:37:49] The Lord wants for you and I, not envy.
[00:37:52] That causes us to put others down and to promote ourselves and to be frustrated with people over how God has blessed them in their life. No, what the Lord wants is a personal contentment and a rest in what God has for you in this season at this time.
[00:38:08] And so maybe like, you're just like, wow, I did not quite realize. But my friends or my parents or my spouse or my sibling or my boss, like, I'm actually angry at them because they have the thing, the position, the role, the responsibility that I want.
[00:38:27] And this is an opportunity. I'm gonna give you the secret sauce to overcoming this kind of stuff. And you'll probably hear me say this every single week.
[00:38:36] The secret sauce to overcoming this is confession.
[00:38:41] But here's where we mess up confession.
[00:38:43] We go, God, I'm sorry, and we stop there.
[00:38:48] Here's the deal.
[00:38:50] If you have acted in a way that has harmed another person, you don't just confess vertically. We Confess horizontally.
[00:38:59] And there might be some people where you have to call them and say, I have been envious.
[00:39:04] I have spoken against you.
[00:39:07] Now I'm going to tell you a little secret.
[00:39:10] When you go to someone in your orbit and you say to them, I've been envious of you 8 out of 10 times, Pastor Math, but take me to the bank on this.
[00:39:21] They're going to say, I know, because we're not subtle with envy. It comes out in passive aggressive comments, eye rolls, critical comments.
[00:39:36] I wish I could. If only I had fill in the blank.
[00:39:40] And here's the deal.
[00:39:43] No one's going to walk up to you and say, are you envious of me? Because then in your defensiveness, if you are envious, you're going to go, what are you prideful? What do you think? Everything's about you.
[00:39:52] So we're all smart enough not to call out envy of someone towards our certain life circumstance.
[00:39:58] But if you are, chances are they're aware of it.
[00:40:03] And chances are they're gonna be more than happy to say thank you.
[00:40:08] I love that. I forgive you. Let's reset and hey, am I doing things to rub this in your face? How can I honor you in this process? You'll be struck at the power of confession vertically and confession horizontally if you are not a believer.
[00:40:29] The way to overcome this is literally exactly the same. But I want to shift this a little bit. The answer is confession.
[00:40:36] But the first thing you need to do is confess to God and confess Christ as your Lord. So, like, as a Christian, we've already confessed Christ as Lord, we've already become a follower of Jesus. We've already told him, I believe in your life, death and resurrection. We have been reconciled to God. We've been adopted into his family. So, like, when we go talk to God, we are talking to God as a child talks to their dad or to their mother. We are talking to a child that is secure and safe in the relationship. But if you have never, ever come to Christ, you don't have the relationship to run to him. And the way you enter into a relationship is confession of your sin and confession of Christ as your God and Savior. And this is just like such great news. Like, if you're here and you're like, okay, I'm a grumbler. Like two weeks ago, you got me. I'm a complainer. I accuse God, I'm envious. Like, I see all of these things inside of me. Like, what great news that the God of the universe wants to forgive you and wants to forgive you so thoroughly that they would adopt you as a son or daughter and give you access to everything that is theirs for the rest of eternity.
[00:41:40] Not a bad gig, if you ask me.
[00:41:42] And so what God asks is, number one, confess your sins to him and confess your belief that Jesus Christ is your God and that he died for your sins and was raised again from the dead. And the best news on the planet is that any person who confesses their sin and believes and confesses Christ as their God. God's promise is forgiveness, adoption into his family.
[00:42:05] And he will give you the Holy Spirit to help you overcome. And then guess what? He's probably gonna tell you all those people you sinned against. Now it's time to go apologize. So beware when you come to Christ and confess your sin to him, he is next gonna ask you to go make things right with the people that you have harmed. Why? Because he hates you. Because he loves you. Because that is a pathway to actual freedom and overcoming Amenville Church Father, thank you that we get to celebrate communion now and we just get to be reminded that when we have trusted in Christ, our sins were covered once and for all and forever. Thank you.
[00:42:45] Even when we repent of envy and jealousy, Lord, we know that it will probably creep back up again later. And so just thank you that your mercies are new every day. Thank you that your grace just abounds. Thank you for your willingness to forgive us no matter how many times we sin and fall short of your holy standard.
[00:43:04] We thank you for the security of being sons and daughters when we trust in Christ.
[00:43:11] I thank you for the example of Moses and whatever was done to him or around him, his just confidence in you, his meekness that you've got it under control, that you love him, that you see him. And Lord, I pray for each one of us, God, whether we are the one envying or we are the one being envied, Lord, that you see us and you give us everything we need to respond in a way that brings you glory. I pray that you would continually show us the parts of our hearts that maybe we have been avoiding looking at. Help us to become more like Christ.
[00:43:48] Remind us of your forgiveness and the power that you have to transform us. We thank you for this. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.
