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Numbers 9:15-23; 10:29-36 | In the Wilderness

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Listen to this week’s sermon, God is in Control preached by Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches from Numbers 9:15-23; 10:29-36.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to a sermon audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's prayer. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.

Pastor Jason Dunn:

Pray this prayer of illumination with me. Pray this prayer of illumination with me. Living God, help us to hear your word with open hearts so that we may truly understand and believe, and believing that we may follow in faithfulness and obedience, through Christ, our Lord. Amen. Remain standing for our scripture reading from the book of Numbers. Amen, remain standing for our scripture reading from the book of Numbers.

Pastor Jason Dunn:

On that day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and at the evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, and after the people of Israel set out and in the place where the cloud settled down there, the people of Israel camped At the command of the Lord. The people of Israel set out and at the command of the Lord, they camped as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle. They remained in camp and Moses said to Hobab, the son of Ruel, the Midianite, moses' father-in-law, we are setting out for the place of which the Lord said I will give it to you, come with us and we will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to Israel.

Pastor Jason Dunn:

But he said to him I will not go. I will depart to my own land and to my own kindred. And he said Please do not leave us, for you know where we should camp, in the wilderness, and you will serve us as eyes for us. And if you go, do go with us. Whatever the good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you. So they set out from the mount of the Lord, three days' journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, three days' journey to seek out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day. Whenever they set out from the camp and whenever the ark set out, moses said Arise, o Lord, and let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you flee before you. And when it rested, he said Return, o Lord, to the ten thousands of thousands of Israel. This is God's word.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

So imagine with me for a moment. Just a little over a year ago, you were a slave in Egypt. Pharaoh had oppressed your people into slavery. You were doing hard labor each and every day, to the point where God's people were crying out for deliverance. Yahweh, who had seemingly been the God of this people, seemed to be silent. But that's when a savior came on the scene.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Moses came out of the wilderness. Moses came to Pharaoh to speak God's words to Pharaoh, saying Pharaoh refused. And so you saw God fight for you. You saw him fight for you against Pharaoh, against the gods of Egypt, against the Egyptian people. You saw God lead you out of Egypt along with the people and through the Red Sea. You saw the walls of water on either side of you. As you walked through them, you sang a song of salvation when you reached the other side and the water closed in on the enemies of God. And then you came and were led up to the mountain of God's presence, mount Sinai, where you saw the cloud right, the rumblings, the earthquake. You saw the cloud right, the rumblings, the earthquake, the fire. You heard God's words speak to the people. You saw God's presence and power there on the mountain, and then Moses went up on the mountain. He received the Ten Commandments and God's instructions and he came down to the people. They built the tabernacle. And then God's presence came and dwelt in the tabernacle. The God who fought for his people in presence and power was now dwelling with his people in the tabernacle, the sanctuary of his presence that would go with them wherever they went.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

And now you are preparing to go from Sinai to the promised land, you who just a year ago were slaves in Egypt, but you can't help but to remember that slavery. And you realize you are in the wilderness, food is not guaranteed. You know that you will come across enemies. You are not a people that has a formal military to speak of the same way that others do. You have no chariots to go out into battle with, of the same way that others do. You have no chariots to go out into battle with. There's somewhat of a fear. You don't have a map right, a map to lead you wherever you should go. There's no Google Maps right. You're just trusting in the Lord to lead you where he will See. We are all lost in the wilderness without God to lead us.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 10,. He looks back on the Exodus story. He looks back on our passage and he said this was written and recorded for our benefit. Israel's story is our story. Israel had received the promises from Abraham. They were looking forward to the promised land that they had not yet received. They had not yet entered yet, but God had fought for them and delivered them and brought them to where they were. Likewise, we have God's promises, but we have not yet entered the new heavens and new earth.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

In many ways we are still in the wilderness. As Israel had God's instruction, so also we have God's instruction. We have the Word of God written in the scriptures. Jesus has given us the greatest command to love him and to love others. We have God's instruction as well, and God also dwells with us. God dwells with us where two or more are gathered in his name. He dwells in us in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit. God is with us in the church today. So Israel's story is our story, and yet we also are in the wilderness and we know this.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

You look at the world around you. The world is not as it ought to be right. We see the wars that have been raging for years and years. We just see the recent events that have happened in our nation. We see people's response to those events, right, the hatred and the vitriol. We see not only the wilderness without, but the wilderness within our hearts. Right, we know that we live in a sinful and broken world and we know that our own hearts are sinful and broken. And so I don't know what your wilderness is this morning. It could be loneliness, it could be depression, it could be an unsatisfying job, it could be that you are looking for work or job, it could be a medical diagnosis, it could be relational rupture. Whatever your wilderness is this morning, you know it, you feel it, you experience it day in and day out, and whatever wilderness you are in, only Yahweh can lead you out. And maybe you come today and you're not sure whether Yahweh exists, whether God exists, whether he's a personal, all-knowing and all-sovereign God, right. But you know what the wilderness is, you know the brokenness in your own heart and in the world, and we believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and he is the only one who can lead us back to Eden, back to what it means to live not in the wilderness, but in flourishing.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

So my main idea today is that, even though we are in the wilderness, the Lord leads his people with presence and power. So that first point is the Lord leads with presence. Go ahead and go to Numbers, chapter 9, verse 15. So I've got two points today, but I've got three sub points under this one, so there's a little subterfuge in there. All right, you got it. So Numbers 9, verse 15 says On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle the tent of testimony and at evening it was over the tabernacle, the tent of testimony and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Okay, full stop. That is incredible, Think about it. So in Exodus 40, we see that the tabernacle is set up and you know, god's people had probably built places of worship in Egypt. Right, there were slaves in Egypt building many things, and so who knows what exactly they expected. But when they built the tabernacle, god's presence came down. It was so glorious that not even Moses could come in at first. Imagine today like you know, this is not necessarily related to real events but if New City planted a church somewhere in North Orlando and we got a building and we cut the ribbon and then all of a sudden, like you know, there's just this big cloud and a fire by night, and God's glorious presence, and we couldn't even enter in. Right, that would. If you had a weak faith, you would believe in something. Right, this is God's real presence that is with them in the midst of the camp. Right, this actually happened. Exodus 40 talks about how it gives you the month, the day and the year. Right, this happened in history and so we might ask where then is his presence today?

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

In John 1, the author and the spirit through John, says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Right, god took on humanity and came down into earth. He tabernacled, so to speak, among us. Right, god's presence came down as man and dwelt among the people that he created. Right, matthew 28 talks about how Jesus, in sending out his disciples before he ascended, he says I will be with you to the end of the age. And so we know that Jesus is with his church. And then in Acts, chapter 1 and 2, we see that not only does he promise the Holy Spirit, but he sends the Spirit into them and into the church to dwell in us by faith. Right, so God. Now, he has tabernacled amongst us in history as Jesus Christ and now, by the Holy Spirit, he actually makes his home among those who are his. God's real presence is with us today.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

And so then, what is the reason for his presence, you might ask? Why would an all-knowing, sovereign God, who created all things, who saw a rebellious people, turn away from him in the world that we live in? Why would he want to come as a man, knowing what we would do to him? Why would he want to dwell in me? Right, a sinful human being, we know the sin in our hearts. Why would God want to call and dwell in me? Well, we know this. Why he wants to do this?

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

When we look at Genesis 1 and 2, right, god created man for relationship with himself. Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden. They had conversational relationship with the living God, who actively delighted them as a parent delights in his child, right? I mean it's almost impossible to imagine, because not too long later, adam would be tempted. Right, I mean it's almost impossible to imagine because not too long later, adam would be tempted. Right, he had been given instruction to guard Eden, to guard Eve, and he failed in that instruction to protect. He failed and was complicit in falling in sin, and therefore the earth became cursed, became a wilderness, and the wilderness in his heart arose as well as he turned from God. And yet God gave him a promise Somebody from your lineage would crush the head of the serpent. And what does that mean? Right, that means that somebody would defeat the lie of sin, that we can be our own God. Somebody would live righteously, would follow God's instruction and protect God's people, and of course, that would be Jesus Christ.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

But when we look at our text, in Numbers 10, verse 29, we see a reference to God's promises where Moses says we are setting out for the place of which the Lord said I will give it to you. Of which the Lord said I will give it to you. What he's referencing is God's promise to Abraham. God calls Abraham from his people and he says I will give you, I will make a people of you, I will bring you to a land, I will bring you to my place and through you, I will bring a blessing to all nations. What God's saying is I'm going to bring you back into my presence, I'm going to restore what was lost Fellowship with me in the garden, and you will walk with me in the garden once again, in fellowship. Right, this is what Israel was moving towards, to a restoration of all that is good, to leaving the wilderness behind, right. And so again the question, though what reason does he have to dwell with me? In John 3.16, the author says, as we all know, for God so loved the world that he sent his only son. In Ephesians 1, we see that we are chosen before the creation of the world to be his right. It's God's steadfast love, it's his desire to walk with us in relationship, to delight in us, by which he pursues us, and is the reason that he calls us to himself to dwell with him.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

There was a man whose name was Ivan. He was a Christian and he was imprisoned for his faith in Russia, and as he was a prisoner there, he would be taken out to be interrogated. And as he was being interrogated, oftentimes the only thing he could kind of look to comfort for was his blanket in his cell. That's all he had. And so, after being interrogated, one day he came back to his cell and was looking forward to just wrapping in his blanket, and he saw that there was actually someone in his cell wrapped in that blanket. He assumed that it was somebody who was there to probably get him to talk, to report back what he said. And so he just he couldn't stand it anymore. He knelt down in the cell and he said Lord, I can't do it anymore. He was defeated and the person wrapped up in the blanket said what do you mean? And so he said it again he's just like, I just can't do it anymore. And the person wrapped up in the blanket said Ivan, have you forgotten that the Lord is with you? And he looked and the person in the blanket was gone. And at once he got up and he rejoiced and he danced in his cell the man who couldn't walk another step a moment before.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

And the guard saw him in the morning and he said who gave you food? And Ivan said nobody gave me food. And he said so what's going on? He said my Lord is with me. The guard was like well, where is he now? And he opened his heart and he pointed at his heart and the guard said well, I'm going to shoot you and your Lord right now. And he pointed the pistol at him and Ivan said that's okay, I know that I will be in paradise when you do with my Lord. And the guard just shook his head. He reholstered his pistol and he walked away in disbelief that man would actually be released not too long after and continue to preach the gospel among the nations until he was 80 years old.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Later on he would find out that at that time that that happened, that his wife and daughter were praying for him. They were praying Isaiah 51, 14. The cowering prisoners will soon be set free. They will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. See, ivan, he was at the end of himself. There's nothing he could do. He had given, almost given up on the Lord. He was crying out and the Lord came to him, not because of what he was doing, but because of his steadfast love that God really became present to him. And so my third point we know he's really present. We know the reason for his presence. This is steadfast love. But how do we experience his presence? It's through our response.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Go ahead back and look with me at the passage In verse 17,. It reads chapter 9, 17. And whenever the cloud lifted over the tent. After that, the repetitive, just keep reading. It's the same thing over and over and over again, that phrase at the command of the Lord is repeated seven times, and that going out and resting is repeated three times, and there's a repetitiveness to it because there's a beauty to it. There's a beauty to the prose, there's a beauty to the fact that God's people were so attentive to what God was doing that they followed wherever he would go. Right Again, they didn't have. Well it actually. It kind of is like when you plug in Google Maps to a place you haven't been and you just kind of listen to it and hope it'll bring you to the right place. Except this is Yahweh, right, this is the Lord. And so, man, I lost my own way because I'm making a joke. Okay, so they are so as they are.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

So that word actually for command is the word for mouth in the Hebrew, and so this is actually God's instruction out of his mouth. It's kind of like in the New Testament, in the Gospels, when it said Jesus opened his mouth and instructed him. In the same way, god is really present with his people. He's opening his mouth and he's instructing them. He's talking to Moses face-to-face, as a man does to his friend. Moses is talking to the Levites and the Levites are giving instruction to God's people to move out quickly whenever God's presence is going forth right. And so they experienced God's presence with them. They experienced his provision for them, they experienced him fighting for them as they listened to the instruction of the Lord. Right and Jesus as well. When he finishes the Sermon on the Mount, he said blessed. Or rather, the man who does these things is like the man who builds his house on a rock. Later on, he said blessed are you if you do these things, if you follow my commands. We experience God's good presence as we listen to his instruction. We see this also in the episode with the centurion in Luke, chapter 7.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

There's a Roman centurion who sends a messenger to Jesus because his servant is dying and he's heard of Jesus. Apparently, he knows that he's good, right. He believes that he has the power to do this, and so he asks him to come heal his servant. And Jesus responds in the affirmative. He prepares to go, and then the messenger says no, you can stay. He believes that you can heal him from afar because he is a man under authority and he has people under him. He knows that when he asks someone to go, they go, and when he asks someone to come. They come and Jesus hears this and he marvels at him. He says because not anywhere in Israel has he seen such faith. And what is that faith? That faith is somebody who understands the authority that Jesus has and understands his goodness, understands that he can ask Jesus for healing and that Jesus will accomplish it by his authority.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

See, we live in a world and in the day today, where we really idolize autonomy, we idolize individualism. Of course, we should be able to determine what is good and right for us. Right, maybe we're even Christians and we have the scriptures. But we want to determine for ourselves what that looks like. We want to do it in our own way. But we see something different from Jesus. We see something different from this people, this hanging on the Lord's instruction and following wherever he should go.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

There was a young woman who also was struggling with this, this tension of you know, I have my own desires, right, and I'm really struggling with my own desires and Jesus' lordship. So she went to a mentor of hers and the mentor said okay, I'm going to write two words on this sheet of paper, I'm going to hand it back to you and I'm going to ask you just to spend 10 minutes with this later and then cross one of the words out. And so she did. She spent 10 minutes with it. She read the two words. The words were no Jesus, or rather no Lord, and as she meditated on it, she realized I can't say no to Jesus and still have him be my Lord, and he cannot be my Lord and have me say no to him. Be my Lord and have me say no to him. She realized that she could not have both. In order for Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, to experience his presence with us, we need to submit to him as Lord, and so your wilderness might look different, but God became incarnate and he's with you in that wilderness and in his goodness he wants to lead you forth and lead you out, but we must be willing to listen and to follow him in all of those areas. So we know the Lord leads his people with presence, which is my first point. My second point the Lord leads us with power.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Go ahead and turn to Numbers, chapter 10, verse 33. Verse 33 says here we see that Yahweh is Israel's warrior. They believe that the tabernacle was the footstool of God's throne, right where he was dwelling in majesty. But they also believe that the tabernacle was the chariot of the Lord. And so the chariot of the Lord went out before them because he was leading the way, he was fighting their battles for them, he was ready to go before them. And indeed we see throughout the book of Numbers, throughout the Exodus story, that God does fight their battles for them. We see the walls of Jericho come down when they enter the promised land. Right, god is Yahweh's warrior, or Yahweh is Israel's warrior, and we also see this in Psalm 68.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

David, the author of Psalm 68, psalm 68. David, the author of Psalm 68, writes, and actually almost nearly quotes our passage, and he does that in verse 1, which is right here God shall arise, he says, his enemies shall be scattered and those who hate him shall flee before him. And then in verse 7, o God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down. Rain before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel, rain in abundance. O God, you shed abroad. You restored your inheritance, the land as it languished, your flock found a dwelling in it. In your goodness, o God, you provided for the needy.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

The reason David looks back on our passage and on these events is because he knows that the same God who is warrior over Israel is the same God who is warrior and has delivered him. And we see the church sing these songs throughout the ages, because the same God is warrior over us and goes before us. But you might be asking, does he go before me? It doesn't always seem like it, right. One commentator puts it this way as the ark was among the Israelites, so is Christ among his people. And what ground of confidence the church had. Because that pledge of God's presence at the ark, we have the same and a more sure ground of confidence in Christ's incarnation. See, even though Israel was in the wilderness, god knew that it was the wilderness of their hearts that truly set them apart from him, that truly needed to be conquered. That's why Jesus Christ also arose.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Right, jesus Christ seemingly arises from heaven to become incarnate as man to the earth. Jesus Christ died and was crucified for our sins on the cross, taking upon himself the sins of all those who would believe, enduring the wrath of God and then rising from the dead. And then he would rise and ascend into heaven to reign at the right hand of God victorious, and one day we will see that reign in its fullness. And then we know in Ephesians 5, it says he rises in our hearts when we believe in him by faith. Right, so Jesus Christ answers that call of Moses to arise. God has arisen in Jesus Christ to defeat not only the wilderness in the world and in our hearts and we know that he will accomplish that in full one day but to defeat the wilderness in our hearts, to defeat the lies of Satan in our hearts, to defeat sin and death forever. But this happens again as we go with him. That's why Jesus says in Luke 9, those who would be his disciples must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. That's why he says you cannot love the world and love the Lord. You have to choose.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Cs Lewis in Mere Christianity says there is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, we also see that it's as we go in God's mission, right, it's as we follow his leading, it's as we follow him into his mission to redeem the world back to himself that he goes with us. That's why Matthew 28, 18, he says as you make disciples of all nations, as you go to these new places where it will be difficult, that I will forever be with you to the end of the age. And we see that throughout the book of Acts as well. It's as people live in obedience that they're filled with the Spirit and they're sent out in power. We see this in Corrie Ten Boom, who is the Dutch Christian who, with her family, hid Jews during the Nazi occupation.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

She was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Ravensbruck concentration camp. In her memoir the Hiding Place, corrie describes a moment when she and her sister Betsy smuggled a small Bible past the guards. They knew that if it was discovered it would be confiscated and they would be beaten or worse. As they passed through inspection, corrie felt utterly helpless. Guards were searching women right in front of them. Yet when it was their turn, the guards suddenly turned away distracted, and Corrie walked unnoticed with the Bible under her clothing. Later she reflected. God made the guards blind. The Bible was at my side, yet he kept it hidden. It was as if the Lord himself had fought for us. That moment became a powerful testimony for Corrie, but even more, God used it, as he would use that Bible to minister to countless women in that camp.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

See, jesus leads us in presence. He leads us in power. He goes before us. He has defeated death. He has defeated death for us because of the steadfast love of the Lord, and he invites us to only respond in faith and receive and then follow him as he leads us out in presence and power, follow where he goes, listen and obey his instructions, like a good parent who delights in their child and instructs them in the way that they should go, that they might have good and flourishing life. So, in conclusion, god is present with you in your wilderness. God is leading you in power. He is fighting for you. He's inviting you to listen now to what he has to say. Listen now to what he has to say.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

In Romans, chapter 8, Paul says to those that he's writing to the church in Rome that nothing can separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ no principalities, no powers, right, no one who would come after them, no persecutors, no loneliness, whatever wilderness, no medical diagnosis.

Pastoral Resident Kenneth Dyches:

Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ, because he has already gone before you, he is already with you and he's already inviting you to receive all that he has for you. Let's go ahead and pray. Yahweh, you are a good God, you are a sovereign God. You are here now. You are here by your spirit, convicting us of sin. You're here in your spirit speaking truth to our hearts. You're here in your spirit, inviting us to know you. You are here in your spirit indwelling us, reminding us that you delight in us, reminding us that you are fighting for us and that you are present to us. Lord, help us to experience your loving presence, experience your loving kindness, experiencing your steadfast love in our lives. We thank you, o Lord, that that is true. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.