Sermon and video for 19th Sunday after Pentecost
2024 Pentecost 19
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
James 5:1-20
Mark 9:38-50
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
In the course of our three-year lectionary, the book of Numbers is only used three times. Numbers 6 and 21 are the other two readings. So, I offer a quick overview of the book of Numbers because even in our devotional readings, I suspect we may not draw deeply from this particular book.
The book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Old Testament and is a part of the Old Testament we call the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible. They are written by the prophet and law-giver Moses. The book of Numbers records the travels of Israel from Mount Sinai to the plains of Moab where they camp along the Jordan River. The book is framed by a census of God’s people at Sinai and on the plains of Moab. The book of Numbers does not record many dates for the episodes that it records, however, the incident that is described in our reading today does have a date. This is the second celebration of the Passover. One year has passed since leaving Egypt in 1446BC, and now, in 1445BC Israel is still at Mount Sinai. They have not yet moved on. In a month from this episode, they will begin to make their way to the promised land.
You may recall that Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years before entering the promised land. The reason for that delayed entry has not yet happened. The reason for the delayed entry is because spies had been sent into Canaan, the pagan name for the Promised Land. The report of the spies frightened the people of Israel and they collectively lost faith. Moses, nor Joshua, lost faith but a lot of others did. So, the LORD declared that the majority of the current generation needed to die in the wilderness while the new generation was catechized more firmly into the faith and they were disciplined into obedience and trust in the LORD.
The devastating state of affairs that came after the spies’ report and the announcement that they were going to stay in the wilderness at least for a generation has not yet happened. What we encounter today in Numbers 11 is a different sorry state of affairs.
Israel was in Egypt for over four hundred years. Even as slaves they could count on any number of things being the same. There was the familiar landscape, the changing of the seasons, the variety of food, there was the stability of living in one place. Change is almost always difficult. But the way in which the people were remembering the past and comparing it to the present was not a mere discontentment about their current unpleasantness. The remembrance of the past led to a resentment about their new situation. And a complete forgetting about the awful life they had as slaves. No freedom. No rights. No personal ownership. Their life was of no value to their owners. Work led nowhere. Pure drudgery. They were owned, which meant that owners could separate children from parents or separate all the family in a sale of their slaves, if it suited them economically. Let us not forget that when Moses was born, it was decreed that all male babies were supposed to be killed. That is a horrible state of existence. And, they dare to complain about the lack of variety of food without a hint of gratitude for the fact that they had been rescued from slavery by the hand of God and since then God has provided for their every need.
On top of that, they were so fixated on their present discomfort and on the supposed “abundance” of the past life in Egypt that they did not even bother to think of the future that the LORD had promised them.
Their sin lay in their lack of faith in the LORD that made their escape possible and who gave them a future that they would not otherwise have. They turned their back on God’s generosity and His promises for their future. Because of their lack of faith, they also turned away from the hope that God offers. They turned away from their trust in God for what comes next. If God can bring them through the Red Sea and provide manna in the desert, surely God can lead them into the Promised Land. When they turned away from faith in God, they lost any ability to observe or express gratitude for the way that their lives were preserved and are being preserved in the present moment.
Sadly, the people’s downward spiral affected Moses. He was overburdened. He became disaffected with the LORD. Even he started to complain. Instead of asking for help, he accused God of mistreating him.
The Good News that leaps out of this sad state of affairs is that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Instead of destroying them all, or simply leaving them all to their own devices and their inevitable end, the LORD provides answers to complaints. He chooses to receive these as prayers. For the ungrateful he provides meat to sustain the people. For the discouraged and frustrated Moses, the LORD provides a new system for managing the people. The Spirit that was upon Moses was also placed on 72 others. The LORD included those that were selected by Moses and were around the tent of meeting as well as the two men that were still back in the camp that Moses had overlooked. Eldad and Medad were selected by the LORD for leadership and responsibility by God. For the LORD sees capabilities where men do not.
The Lord is indeed gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love. He chooses to not hold the people’s lack of faith against them. He does enact a judgment upon them. He also forgives them. He chooses to not be insulted by Moses’ lack of imagination and creativity. He chooses to not even scold Moses for not simply asking for help rather than making all those accusations against Him. The LORD forgives Moses. The LORD provides an answer and a change.
This act of grace, mercy, and love serves to points us toward the coming of Jesus Christ. Reading these texts, I am reminded of the position of the LORD in relation to His chosen people. The LORD makes his presence known to Israel by the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of fire by day. He wants it known to all that He is close by. But, Moses, and only Moses, communicates directly with the LORD God. While the LORD is close, there is always a space of separation between God and His people. There are rules that must be obeyed. Do not touch the mountain. Do not touch the ark of the covenant. Do not go into the Holy of holies unless you are selected and you have gone through the appropriate rituals of preparation.
In Jesus, the sense of separation collapses. God’s holiness and presence is always near His people, but in Jesus, born of Mary, God and man are together. Two natures, holy and human, are in one man’s body. Jesus, born of Mary, grows up in a household and has family all around him. When the time comes for Jesus to be baptized and begin his ministry and slowly make His way to the cross, Jesus has people around him almost all the time. There are the twelve, and then there are the rest who follow, come and go, and those who provide for their needs and provide hospitality.
Even though our sin is up close and personal with our God, even though our very sinful nature is an offense against God’s goodness, He chooses to be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Despite our arrogance and foolishness and hard heartedness and lack of gratitude, he chooses to love us anyway.
We see this in the promise of Christ that the LORD gave to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, we see it in Noah’s ark, we see it in the Exodus, we see it in the prophets who are raised up to speak God’s Word of repentance and grace, and we see it in Jesus. For Jesus is born for us so that he may die on the cross for us. Jesus takes all of our sin upon himself, he bears what Moses could not possibly have imagined to bear, and he dies a death we should die, so that through faith, we receive His forgiveness declared upon us.
The Lord’s grace, mercy, and steadfast love, move us to gratitude. For the LORD declares that we are worth saving. And He promises us an everlasting future with Him in His eternal home.
Thanks be to God!
The peace of Christ which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment