King James Bible Study – [And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Mark 8:34]
Date: Thursday, February 29, 2024
Chapters: Numbers Chapters 12-13
Message: Fear God And Not Man
Hello My Friend,
As I was reading the chapters for today, this passage came to mind, [Matthew 23:3-5 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. 4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,]
We are going to witness a lot of things as Christians, but the important thing to remember is that we follow Christ and not religion, and definitely not men. Mind you that we do need fellowship and instruction from God fearing men and women to assist us in our walk with God, but we need to make sure that they are true Christians, [1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.]
We learned yesterday that after being camped at Mount Sinai for almost a year and it being a little over two years since they left Egypt that the people were starting to get a little agitated about the trip. First, they complained about only having manna to eat, then Moses complained about having to deal with them all by himself. Of course, God, dealt with them and even gave Moses some help, but that was only the beginning. As we continue in the reading of Numbers, we find more complaining, this time Miriam and Aaron were complaining about Moses and his being married to a woman who was not an Israelite.
[Numbers 12:1-5 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.]
[Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men] It is strange to hear Moses speak in third person here, but it was God who described him as such. Now, Moses, was not suggesting that he was sinless, he knew he had anger issues and that would become his greatest downfall, but he also knew that God knew him. It does not matter what people think of us, what matters is what God thinks of us, [Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.]
[Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation.] I find two things interesting here, one; they were all in the tabernacle, and two; it is no wonder why Moses was seen as being very meek, he had not idea that Aaron and Miriam were talking or more like gossiping about him. This proves two things; one; God, did not exclude women as so many believe He does, and two; God, hears everything and He will defend His faithful, [Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.]
Can you imagine being called out by God? Well, that is exactly what He did, and he let them know how upset He was at their gossiping about him, [Numbers 12:6-10 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. 10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.]
[With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently,] [Apparently; Obvious; plain; evident; That may be seen, or easily seen; visible to the eye; within sight or view.] It truly was plain in the sight of the people that Moses had a relationship with God that no one ever saw. He did not speak to Moses in those dreams and visions like He did to so many. Likewise, He did not speak to Moses through prophets like He did so many, He spoke to Him directly. Well, God, does the same thing with those whom accept His Son as their Saviour. It takes a meek and humble person to go to Jesus and confess that they are a sinner in order to earn His favor. When they do, He will speak with them mouth to mouth, [James 4:8-10 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.]
[And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle;] God, was so angry that he not only turned Miriam leprous, He removed Himself from the Tabernacle. Now, we can wonder why God only cast the leprosy on Miriam, but there is no wonder as to why He removed Himself from their presence. There are two reasons actually; One; God, cannot and will not stand in the presence of anyone who has not repented of their sin, even if they are saved. And two; they severed their relationship with God by slandering His servant. Now, as for Aaron, he did humble himself and confess his sin, literally begging God to forgive him and not let Miriam die in her sin.
[Numbers 12:11-14 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. 13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.]
[Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.] Not this time, Moses, God, was not going to repent on this one, the entire congregation was going to know that it was not in their best interest to slander the man of God. For seven days she had to be put out of the camp and separate herself from among the people. Even if we are saved, God, will not tolerate any kind of slander toward His people, especially those who are His undersheperd’s. Now, if the man of God is actually doing things that displease God, then He will deal with them, [Jeremiah 23:11-12 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.]
[If her father had but spit in her face,] Well, God, gave His answer as to why He one; cast the leprosy on her, and two; would not heal her right away. Spitting in someone’s face (and they still do this today), was and act of detest toward the one who offended them. God, was deeply offended by the way they were slandering Moses, he could have very well kept Miriam that way, but He did not. Even those who are faithful to God can do things to offend Him and rightfully He does send judgment, but His mercy is great in that His judgments are only temporal, [Hebrews 12:11-13 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.]
Now, after the people waited for seven days awaiting Miriam to be cured, they moved forward, and camped just across the Jordon to the promise land. It was there that God had Moses send twelve men, one from each tribe to search out the land and check it out to see what they were walking into.
[Numbers 13:2-4,6,8,11,17-18 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. 11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: 18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;]
[Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh,] I find it interesting that Manasseh was only listed as being of the tribe of Joseph when Joshua was as well, being of the tribe of Ephraim. One explanation could be that Manasseh was his firstborn even though it was prophesied that Ephraim’s tribe would be more prominent, [Genesis 48:20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.]
The more suitable explanation would be that when Jacob blessed his sons before he died, he stated that Ephraim and Manasseh were just as one of his sons, [Genesis 48:5-6 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. 6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.]
We would learn later on that this was not necessarily what God wanted them to do, He wanted them to just cross over, but He answered their request to send some people to search out the land before they all went in. The persons chosen to be employed in this service were likely chosen by the people, and now, they were there, and from the look of things it was a pretty incredible sight.
[Numbers 13:22-24 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.]
[And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron;] Do you recall how Abraham chose Canaan in the first place? [Genesis 13:10-12 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.]
Now, fast forward six hundred years and look how beautiful it became. The land of Canaan was actually quite small, my own state is larger, and while God’s, gifts may come in small packages, they are always the best that He has to offer, the greatest of all is that we receive Jesus, [1 Peter 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,]
[with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff;] I always laugh at this because it reminds me of the fools who try to say that food has gotten larger in size today due to climate change as opposed to the size it was when it first came into existence. Obviously they have no clue who God is and that He is capable of making a grape the size of a watermelon if He wanted to, [Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.]
Now, the spies spent forty days on the land and returned with their report, and at first, they got them all excited to learn of what was there, [Numbers 13:27-29 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.]
[and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.] Now, you would have thought that with the beauty of the land and what they had seen that they would be exited to tell the people and cross over, but they were not. In fact, they discouraged them, except for Caleb, he tried to reason with them, [Numbers 13:30-32 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.]
[And Caleb stilled the people before Moses,] Caleb, tried to convince them that there was no need to fear them because of all that they had gotten through so far, nevertheless, they would not listen to him. The same thing applies to us today, we are the children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ, we need to stop living in fear! Stop living in sin! Stop being judge! And go get what God has promised us, right now. This is no time to be idle, this is no time to live in fear, this is no time to judge other Christians, this is the time to get moving and do what God has commanded us to do, [Luke 12:4-5 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.]
[And they brought up an evil report of the land…a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof;] All the ten who gave their evil report could see was how big the men were, they could not see just how big our God is, and incidentally, He was not their God otherwise, they would have had the faith of Caleb. While we do need some fear, we must never let that fear hold us back, otherwise, we may lose out on the blessings as we will learn tomorrow, [Psalms 118:4-6 Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever. 5 I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. 6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?]
Jesus Christ Revealed/Magnified: [Numbers 12:8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?]
Today’s Prayer: God, It is Your desire that we stay faithful to Your teachings, and just keep things simple. Scripture gives many examples of those who knew to do right, but chose to do wrong. The consequences of their wrong actions brought upon death, loss, and emotional pain, not only for themselves, but those around them. Lord, lead us and guide us, teach us to trust You in everything that You allow in our lives, help us to avoid the traps that catch us off guard, and to stand firm in our faith, even when we have set backs. Let us keep a fringe upon our heart so that we are always reminded that it is better to trust in Your understanding an not our own. Keep our eyes on You so that we do not fall nor bring anyone else down by not following You in the first place. I ask these in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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