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Numbers 27 | In the Wilderness

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Listen to this week’s sermon, In the Wilderness preached by Rev. Benjamin Kandt from Numbers 25:15-23.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to 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 Newcity Orlando.com.

Gina Fickett:

Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination. Holy Spirit, open our hearts to hear your word, and through your word, create in our hearts a home for your presence that we might live for the glory of the Father and the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Today's scripture reading is from Numbers 27, beginning in verse 12. The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abiram and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was. Because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zinn, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes. These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zinn. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eliezer the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey, and he shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eliezer the priest and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses. This is God's word.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

And let's go. Numbers 27, verse 12 says this. This word Abarim means in Hebrew, regions beyond. So I think it is a it's a literal mountain, it also has some metaphorical meaning to it. See, in this moment, the Lord is telling Moses to go up on this mountain and to look out. What's he looking out at? The culmination of his life's work. Everything Moses has done, his entire life up to this moment, is this climbing up of the Mount of Abarim to look out at the promised land. And what does he see? He sees glory. He sees the thing he was made for, every sacrifice, every sleepless night, every step in the weary wilderness was for this moment, and he's just now beginning to see it with his own two eyes. And what does the Lord say? Look at Numbers 27, 13. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people. That's a Hebrew idiom for death. You will die, as your brother Aaron was. Because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zen, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes. You see, the Lord's saying, Moses, your journey is done. It ends here. Moses at this threshold. He can view the land, but he will not enter the land. Is this cruelty? No, it's reality. You see, we have eternity in our hearts, but mortality in our bones. And that causes us to ache. And the Bible puts a word to that feeling, that ache. It's called groaning. We have mortality in our bones because, like a branch cut off from a tree, anyone who turns away from the Lord, death is the consequence, the natural result. But we have eternity in our hearts because we know that we are unending spiritual beings who have an endless life or endless death unfolding before us. And so as Moses is glimpsing this, he's taught by the Lord how to handle this groaning. Some of you are in here like, what if I don't really buy into this whole eternity thing? That's okay. You still want your life to last and to matter beyond your death. You still have a concern to leave the world better for the next generation than how you found it. That's almost everybody has that desire. And so there's this ache in us for our lives to matter beyond our lives. That's where we find ourselves in the text. God's giving Moses a vision of a life that lasts. You see, because Miriam, his sister, has died, Aaron has died, Moses will die. What's next? Well, Israel needs a new generation of leadership. And so as we're grappling with our mortality in light of eternity, what do we do? The psychologist Eric Erickson says that we have a choice between what he calls generativity or stagnation. You see, generativity is when you find a sense of purpose in your life by living in such a way that you're guiding the next generation. This is through parenting or mentoring or creativity or building institutions. The alternative to generativity is what he calls stagnation, which is when we become self-absorbed and live for our trips and our toys. You see, every adult is gonna, if you live long enough, you're gonna face the question: will my life serve the next generation or only myself? That's a question Moses has faced here. And so here's my point. If you live for what lasts, you will disciple the next generation. If you live for what lasts, you will disciple the next generation. So I want to talk about this. I want to talk about generational discipleship using one of my favorite frameworks for the stages of life, because it's simple, and I'm a simple man. This is from Ronald Rollheiser. He says, your life is really three stages. The first stage is the struggle to get your life together, then the struggle to give your life away, and then the struggle to give your death away. And we see all three of those things in our text. So, with that, the struggle to get your life together. Look at verse 15 with me. This actually is in your worship God as well. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation. As Moses is looking over his life and he's facing his death, what does he do? He prays. That's not surprising to us at this point because Moses, if he's anything, he's a man of prayer. We've seen that throughout the whole book of Numbers thus far. But he does something in particular here that I want to point out. Moses uses a name for God, Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh. No one else in Scripture calls God that. Moses only uses it one other time in Numbers chapter 16. We actually saw that text together. Why does that matter? Well, we nickname our friends, our spouses, our kids. We name things that we have intimacy with, people that we have intimacy with, that we have a close connection with. And Moses does that with the Lord. Do you do that with the Lord? Do you have ways that you term and name God in the secret place? Do you have a history in God where you have ways of speaking to and with God that are unique to you? Moses did. And he names God in light of Moses' own need. You see this phrase, the God of the spirits of all flesh, is really heightening this fact that God is over the spirits of people, that inner realm where your thoughts and your desires and your will and your choices, where all of that exists. And so when Moses needs God to appoint a man that can lead the congregation, he needs God, the searcher of hearts, the one who knows the spirits of all flesh, to designate who that man might be. Jesus also had a name for God in prayer, Abba Father. Nobody else before Jesus had ever called God Abba Father in the scriptures. You see, when you're in a moment of need, you need to name God properly in prayer. That's what Moses and Jesus both teach us. And so what does Moses actually pray for? Look at verse 16. He says this Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation. Moses is asking God to raise up the next generation of leadership. That's what he's asking for. Because Moses knows that there are things that he will never do because they're not his to do. Things that Moses desires to do. He wants to lead them across the Jordan into the promised land, and the Lord said, No, that's not your job to do. You see, because God has planned obsolescence built into his strategy. He intends for his leaders to, as Nicholas von Dinsendorf once said, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten. And that's okay with him. He's doing that with Moses here. And we actually, in Numbers 8, there's this really obscure little law in there that I particularly like. In Numbers 8, the Levites begin serving in the tabernacle at age 25. And then it says that they are done at age 50. They're to retire at age 50. And really it says, if you read the margins, it says that they're supposed to move to Florida and spend their golden years collecting seashells on the beach. No, it's not what it says. In fact, the text in Numbers 8, 26 explicitly says the 50-year-olds are supposed to retire from serving in the tabernacle in order to serve their brothers and guard them. What a beautiful picture. God hardwired, designed into his ministry that you start ministry at 25, you labor until you're 50. When you're 50, you're not done. You're not sidelined. You use your best years to pour into the 25-year-olds. You're supposed to serve them and to guard them. Listen, there's young people in this room right now who need nothing more than somebody who's older than them to look at them and say, I see you. You matter. I'm here for you. I want to guard you. I want to care for you. I'm concerned about your well-being and your flourishing. And that interaction might set them on a trajectory that they wouldn't have had otherwise. God is brilliant in his design to plan obsolescence into the way that he leads in the world. He doesn't need anybody. Moses, if there was anybody, God would exalt as the highest leader among his people, it's Moses, and Moses is dying. And his time is over, and he better have raised up the next generation. And so I'm convinced that since one of the primary, maybe the primary strategies of the devil is that the devil is always trying to destroy God's design, I think this is one of the reasons for the distrust between generations. Let me make that plain. The cynicism in okay, boomer might just be demonic. That's what I'm saying. Because where else is the younger generation going to learn how to go out and to come in, except for from the generation before them? And that's what we see in Numbers 27, 17. Look at this. This is the kind of man Moses is praying for. The man who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. Here is what where we get to the heart of what it means to get your life together. Now you might have passed by this, but I'm inviting you from now on, whenever you see that pairing of going out and coming in in your Bible to underline it. It's a theme in Scripture. It's one of those subtleties that Scripture has that if once you know, you know. And so what's happening here is not something incidental, it's not just a mere saying. This is actually integral to life with God, this rhythm of going out and coming in back and forth. And it's so important, permit me, I'm going to show you a bunch of scripture to prove my point. This is like 30% of the texts that I have on this topic of going out and coming in. Look with me at Deuteronomy 31. Should be on the screen behind me. Moses said, I'm 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. Joshua 14, I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going out and coming. Verse Samuel 18, but all Israel and Judah loved David. Why do they love David? For he went out and came in before them. Second Chronicles 1, Solomon, the son of David, is trying to figure out how am I going to be king over Israel? And he asks the Lord, give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and to come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. Now we get to the New Testament, and Jesus Himself says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Acts 1 21, this is how you know who an apostle is. It's so so one of the men who accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Last one, Acts 9 28. So Paul went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. Wow, that was a lot. I'm done. What's the big deal? This pattern of going out and coming in. What's the significance of it? Well, in the Garden of Eden, it was to walk with God and to work the garden. For Old Testament kings, it was worship and warfare. For older saints, they used to call it the contemplative life and the active life. For the Benedictine months, they used to call it aura et labora, prayer and work. In theology proper, it's the imminent trinity and the economic trinity. That was for my nerds in here. For us here at New City, we call it communion with God and commission for the world. It's this rhythmic nature, breathing in, breathing out, that sustains our very life. Some of y'all are like, come on, preacher, make it plain. What are you actually saying here? Listen, this is what I'm saying. Do you have daily and weekly habits that fill you up so that you can pour your life out? Does the rhythm of your life sustain your life? That's what I'm talking about here. It's why we make such a big deal about the common rhythm. Because we really believe from scripture and from history and from personal experience that scripture, prayer, worship, and rest enable you to feast, fast, listen, and bless. You see, there's rhythms of life that aren't a checklist. It's a way to abide in Jesus so that you can show up with love, joy, and peace in the rest of life. And to properly lead Israel, you needed to be the kind of person who knew how to come in and meet with the true and living God so that you could go out and face the world. It's life with God for the life of the world. It's abiding in Jesus so that you are fully alive for your nine to five. This is what this rhythm is of coming in and going out. It's so integral to what it means to walk before God in the world that it gets repeated so many times in Scripture. This is the struggle to get your life together. But then we see the struggle to give your life away. Look at verse 18 with me. So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Why Joshua? Well, because Moses discipled Joshua. If you've been paying attention from Exodus basically up until now, Joshua's a shoe-in. You're like, oh, we know who this guy needs to be. I love Moses' humility. Like he's been developing Joshua for 40 years, and he's like, Lord, you do the work here. Appoint a man over the congregation. And the Lord has to go, dude, we both know who it's going to be. It's Joshua, the son of nun. Why? Well, because Moses knew how to live for what lasts. He knew how to make disciples of the next generation. And so he's been doing that. He took Joshua as a young buck under his wing. Apologize for the mixed metaphor. The Bible does it too, so I feel permission to do that. You see, Joshua comes under the wing of Moses and he teaches him. He disciples him from the moment they pass through the Red Sea, as far as we know, all the way up until Moses dies. It's a 40-year discipleship journey for him. I want to look at a few moments in those 40 years. Right after Israel comes through the Red Sea, they're faced with their first real external threat, the Amalekites. And what does Moses do? He says, Joshua takes some men and go down there in war against the Amalekites. And what does Moses do? He stands up on a vantage point where he can see the battlefield and he lifts his hand in prayer for Joshua. And he's got Aaron and Ben Hur, a couple other old dudes on his sides, and they're holding his arms up because he can't do an arm press for very long. And he's praying for the young gun down on the battlefield. I hope you see where I'm going. We need this. The younger generation needs the older generation to lift their hands in prayer for them as they go out into the world to extend the kingdom of light into the domain of darkness. This is what Joshua had. He had the comfort and the confidence of knowing Moses had his back. He could go out and face what was in front of him. It's a beautiful picture of generational discipleship. And there's even this moment when the Lord says to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua. You see, younger men and women need to be reminded of victory, especially in the moments of their defeat. The Lord knew that. He knew Moses needed to do that for Joshua, and you need it as well. The second story I want to point out is when Moses invites Joshua into his communion with God. There's two points in the Exodus story. Exodus 24, there's this powerful moment when the people stay at the foot of the mountain, the elders go partway up, Joshua alone accompanies Moses a little further, but only Moses entered into the glory cloud, into the very presence of God. But notice who got to go with him? Joshua. You see, Moses showed Joshua what it looked like to commune with the living God. Moses would go into the tent of meeting. Guess who would stand at the door? Joshua. Moses, when he was interceding for the people of Israel who failed in their idolatry in Exodus 32 with the golden calf, Moses goes in to plead with the Lord on their behalf. Guess who's watching and listening? Joshua. You see, the younger generation needs to learn from the older generation what does it mean to draw on life in God through communion with God? Moses taught Joshua how to come in and to go out. Third moment I want to draw your attention to is when they needed to raise up spies in Numbers 13 to send into the promised land. Guess who goes? Joshua. It's a powerful moment because the reality of this is that Moses must have known that Joshua got to do something he would never get to do. Moses sent Joshua into the promised land. Only Joshua and Caleb come back and give the proper report. The Lord's on our side. We can do this. Where did Joshua learn that face? From Moses. Because Moses discipled Joshua. Because Moses got his life together so he could give his life away. But not only that, Moses also got his life together to give his life away in such a way that the Lord could say in verse 18, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eliezer, the priest, and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. It's such a gift when the younger generation receives public acknowledgement and recognition from the older generation. Few things more strengthening than that. You want a good return on investment? You want some ROI? Pour into the next generation. Because you're going to die. That's the point of the text. You're going the way of Moses and me and everybody else in planet Earth. Invest in the next generation. You get some good ROI. That's what the scriptures are pointing are pointing out to us. Verse 21. And ye shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him but by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in. You notice this. Now he speaks. Because spiritual leadership is about integrity. Joshua has the integrity, he comes in and goes out. And so therefore he can tell the congregation when to come in and go out. And both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation. You see, by the time we read, reach Numbers 27, Joshua is a man in whom is the Spirit, because Moses had spent decades of his life giving his life away to him. And now Moses has to give his death away. Look at verse 22. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eliezer, the priest, and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses. You see, Joshua is the next generation leader, and he has a big task. He's got to lead the people of God into the promised land. And so in Deuteronomy 3.28, it says this but charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him. He needs to be charged, he needs to be encouraged, he needs to be strengthened in order to do these things from Moses, from the previous generation. For he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see. This is crazy because this is Moses' calling being fulfilled through another man. This is the great desire of Moses' heart. Maybe it's number one to for God to show me your glory. That's probably number one. Number two was I want to go to the promised land. 120 years of Moses' existence is to get into the promised land and he doesn't get to go, but the young buck gets to go. And we get no hint of jealousy or bitterness or resentment from Moses. Only strength and encouragement. Why? Because discipling the next generation is like spiritual parenting. It takes the maturity of a father or a mother, a spiritual father or a mother, in order to do this. One of the, I believe he was a Stoic philosopher named Cicero said it like this only to a son does a man say to another man, I hope you surpass me in every way in all things. Moses believed that about Joshua. The next generation needs you to believe that about them. I hope you surpass me in every way and in all things. This generational mindset is the only way to live for what lasts. Often looks like helping the next generation go where you couldn't possibly go. That's why in Joshua 4 it says this on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life. Mission accomplished. You see, Moses is teaching us what to do when we face the limits of our own lives. It's to raise up those who will stand where we cannot. And so if you live for what lasts, you will make disciples of the next generation by struggling to get your life together, giving your life away, and even giving your death away. And let me close by pointing out how the gospel addresses some of the top objections I hear whenever I preach on this. Some of you are like, dude, this is your heart song. It is. I really believe in this. Objection number one, I don't feel qualified to disciple anyone. Maybe that's true, actually. Someone once said, When you're born, you look like your parents, when you die, you look like your decisions. I like that. But some of us have made some bad decisions and we live with regret and we think, How could I possibly show anybody else what it looks like to walk with Jesus? Well, in verses 18 and 23, there's this language of speaking of this laying on of hands. And in the story of Scripture, there's only two times you do that. You lay on hands for blessing or for curse. You see, the patriarchs, when they were blessing their sons in Genesis, they would lay their hands. And in the Levitical law, when any worshiper brings an animal for sacrifice, they would lay their hands on its head and confess their sins over that animal, conferring their sins and the due curse that those sins deserve to that animal to die in its place. The heart of the gospel is that Jesus Christ had your sins, your mistakes, your failures, your regrets, those things that keep you up at night, those things that make you disqualified to pour into the next generation, those were transferred to Christ on the cross, and he died in your place for those sins if you belong to Him. That good news means that it's all of grace or it's not at all. It means no one is qualified. That might be the primary qualification. Maybe actually the number one thing the next generation needs to learn from you is a lifestyle of repentance. Like the older generation looking at the younger generation and saying, hey, listen, I've gone down that path. It doesn't end well. You still have time to kind of turn back. And this is how I did it. This is what it could look like. It's why in our premarital counseling, we always tell the mentor couples, share some of your failures with the newlyweds. Because they probably won't remember any of the cool things that they learn in the books and whatnot. They will learn that from your failures. Like, I can't believe you did that. And then they do it and they go, wow, I can't believe they did that too. I'm so glad. Feel refreshed. You see, because one of the primary things people need is not your righteousness, but your repentance. The world doesn't know how to repent. You can't learn that from a podcast or a blog. You gotta learn repentance incarnate from another human being. And so the number two thing I hear is I don't know who to disciple. This one's easy. Do what Moses did. Ask the Lord. Just say, Lord. That's what he did in verses 15 through 17. Three of the verses of our text is Moses just prayed. Just ask the Lord, would you give me somebody? This is what Jesus prays for in John 17. He says, I'm praying not only for them. The disciples that Jesus made, but also through all of those who would believe in them, believe in me through their word. Jesus cares more about this than you do, than I do. Ask him. I don't know who to disciple, ask him. The third thing I hear the most is no one discipled me, so how am I supposed to know how? I get it. That's a real thing. Our joy as pastors is to equip you to disciple the next generation. It's our joy, truly. So that's one way I would respond to that. The other thing I'd say is notice the simple framework of coming in and going out. What does your life with God for the life of the world look like? So, what I'm not saying is they only need to learn how to study the Bible and pray. They absolutely need that. They also need to know how do you balance a budget and how do you show up to work on time? Because it's coming in and it's going out. It's all of life. It's not just this weird secular sacred divide where some of life matters to God and the rest is just, you know, whatever. Discipleship is for all of life. And so, what does it look like for you to come in and to go out? That's what you offer to the next generation. The fourth, and maybe the most difficult one I hear is my schedule is insane. Where am I going to find time for this? I've said before that the number one discipleship difficulty here for New City, it's not addiction. It's not bitterness and gossip. It's not, I mean, fill in the blanks, but political divisiveness, it's busyness. It's busyness. And so as I come to this, I'm thinking, man, we need a sermon series on this. I've got three bullet points. It's not enough. I get it. But here's what I'd say Ronnie Ware was an Australian palliative care worker who spent the last, she spent eight years working with patients in the last three to twelve weeks of their life. And during this time, she witnessed consistent patterns in the regrets that they expressed. And these were diverse patients from various backgrounds. And the number two most common regret that was expressed was I wish I hadn't worked so hard. So listen, if one of the reasons for your busyness is that you prioritize productivity over people, maybe just consider what that might look like to change. Maybe just take a 10%, a 1% movement towards discipling the next generation, putting that as a big rock in your jar as you consider your schedule for the next year. I know that doesn't address all that there is to say about it, but the last one I want to point out is people will say, Well, I'm discipling my own kids. 100%, you absolutely should do that. That's permission to play. That's one of the most important things you can do. Discipling the next generation starts with your kids. But here's the only issue with that is that research has shown that 12 to 20 year olds need parents, I'm sorry, adults, their parents' age, in order to corroborate what you've been doing in your house for the first 12 years of their life. Let me make that plain. So now we do have cool, fun 20-something year olds that are serving in our with our young adults, with our students, middle and high school students. They're amazing. We also have aged 40s and 50-year-olds who we love deeply and are so valued, uh, who serve in student community as well. Why? Because the thing that sixth through 12th graders need, they need their parents to live an authentic lifestyle before Jesus, and they need that corroborated by other crazy people who think Jesus is the purpose of their life. And if you only disciple your nuclear family, who's gonna be there for all of those other kids? Who's gonna be there for the fatherless and the motherless? And so disciple your kids, it matters. It's just not the extent of what passing on the faith to the next generation looks like. And so, listen, in all of this, Jesus has come in and gone out before us. The name Jesus is the same name as Joshua. In Hebrew, they both mean Yahweh saves. And so Jesus is the true Joshua. He is the one that goes into the promised land before us. He is the one that goes before us, taking our mortality, resurrecting it, and placing it in eternity. So we actually have hope beyond death. And Jesus comes down in order to be among us. He came down from the heavenly sanctuary in the presence of God. He came out to meet with us in order to bring us back in. That's a significant movement. But before he went back up to heaven, he used language very similar to verses 19 and 20 in our text. He commissioned us by investing some of his authority in us so that we would go to make disciples of all nations so that they might obey Jesus. It's all the same language that we see here. And so if the gospel does not just have a geographical expansion, but a generational expansion. Say that differently. If the gospel is to go to the ends of the earth, it must go to the end of time. And the only way that that happens is to live for what lasts by making disciples of the next generation. Let's pray. Spirit of God, you alone can empower us to do this work. Wherever we feel. Maybe some of us are comforted and encouraged, others of us are confronted. I pray, Spirit of God, that you would lead us. That you would lead us from here. So that we might live for what lasts beyond our life. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we always do, we