Patterns

TODAY'S READING: Num. 14, 15, 16; Mark 3

SCRIPTURE: Num. 14:1-4, 26-45
¹ That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. ² All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! ³ Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴ And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

²⁶ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. ²⁸ So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: ²⁹ In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. ³² But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. ³⁴ For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ ³⁵ I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die.”

³⁶ So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it— ³⁷ these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

³⁹ When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. ⁴⁰ Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the LORD promised.”

⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! ⁴² Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, ⁴³ for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”

⁴⁴ Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

OBSERVATION: This entire chapter describes patterns that are as common today as they were when Moses was leading the people out of Egypt. I do not know a pastor who has not had to deal with rebellious, grumbling, complaining people. Moses had the naysayers who thought they could not accomplish the will of God and take the promised land. They felt too "small" to accomplish that. Then there were the men (and their followers) who thought Moses wasn't doing the job of leading well; they thought they could do better and sowed seeds of discord and distrust of Moses among the people. It makes the job of a leader very difficult, if not impossible. In this narrative, Moses prays for God to forgive the people after the Lord states his intention to wipe them all out and start over with Moses and a handful of others. But Moses graciously intercedes for this pitiful group and God agrees to spare the majority, though the leaders of the rebellion pay with their lives. When the people are confronted with the judgment of the rebellious leaders they try to "fix" the problem by going back to do what God asked them to do in the first place. This may seem like a change of heart, but God has already told them what they need to do and they really are staying in the pattern of rebellion by attempting to go back after the fact to attack the enemies of God. They get killed in the attempt.

APPLICATION: If God has called you to be a leader in the Church, you would do well to study these passages and learn that you will constantly have people in your flock who:
1. Grumble and complain about everything you want to do as a leader.
2. Think they can do a better job than you and will try to usurp your
authority and gather followers around themselves.
3. Will speak evil of you no matter how kind your intentions and actions are
toward them.
Leaders must learn to respond as Moses did, by praying for God to forgive these people and by learning to forgive them themselves, and by not changing or compromising what God has revealed to be his will for the Church. It is also ok to pray that God would remove the grumblers and complainers in his own way, or they will continue to infect the majority of the body. The Lord says that vengeance is his and he will repay. So we leave that job to him. As for our part, we need to learn from this not to be a person who is a complainer or naysayer.

PRAYER: Father, teach your people to cooperate with you and follow the leadership you have put into place in your Church. May we all be like Joshua and Caleb, who had faith to believe that you would help them to manifest the promised visions you had given to them. May we not be a people who complain, grumble, and rebel against you or the leaders you have put into place, even when they display their human imperfections. In Jesus' Name, Amen.