Last week we talked about the importance of spending time meeting with God. The more time you spend with God the more intimacy you build with him. The more time you spend with God the more powerful and effective you’ll be in whatever you choose to give your life, energy, and time to as God directs you.
But, did you also know that when you grow in your intimacy with God, you also make yourself vulnerable as well? Wait, what? You might be thinking, “I thought the closer we got to God the more protected we were. I thought if I walked close with God, he would protect me from bad things and hard things. I thought if a person followed Jesus closely bad things won’t happen to good people.”
Not so! In fact, if you have determined to invest your life in God and cultivate an intimacy with the Almighty, you’re actually asking for it.
Some have called this the “Peril Principle.” Peril is defined as “exposure to risk of being injured; danger.” So peril speaks of risk or threat of injury, not the certainty of injury. For example, if you sail a 16’ sailboat on the ocean you will face the peril of shipwreck. You might not wreck, but the threat is pretty high that you will face problems. If you drive fast during heavy rainstorm you face the peril of an accident. It doesn’t mean you WILL have an accident, but the chance is greater.
In our text today from Moses’ life and leadership I want to help us
understand a reality: THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO WALK CLOSELY WITH GOD BECOME THE TARGET OF THE ENEMY.
So, for example, if you have been seeking to make changes in your life and begin to follow God and begin to trust his directions in your life, and you have been endeavoring to establish a quiet time like we talked about last week, and you have been growing in your intimacy with God, then let
Grappling with Grumblers Dillon Barber: August 22nd Text: Exodus 11-14
Big Idea: Following Jesus is perilous, but God is our deliver!
me assure you….the forces of hell have received word of this and have taken notice! Don’t be surprised by how the enemy might come after you to discourage, deter, or destroy you. Aren’t you glad you came to church today? It’s burdensome, I know, but it’s the truth.
Years ago, I was preaching a series on stewardship and God’s call on each of our lives to give the first ten percent of what God has allowed us to earn to him as a starting place for our generosity and gratefulness to him. After the second or third message, a big strong man in his early 40’s approaches me at the front. He was dead serious, and he said, “I can’t do what you’re asking me to do.” And I quickly clarified, “I’m not asking…it’s God who is asking.” But he said, “I refuse to do that again.” I said,
“Again?” He said, “oh ya…last time I determined to practice tithing…so much bad crap happened to my wife and I. It was so rough; I couldn’t take it. So, I’m never gonna do that again.”
Now, it’s true: faithful followers of Jesus will likely face increased traps and challenges from the enemy. You don’t have to fall into them or be overcome by them, but know you will likely face them.
2 Timothy 3:12 says, “2 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”
This is a kind of “reality check” promise in the Bible. It says that if you determine to live in a godly way, you will face challenges intended to discourage you and dissuade you from continuing on.
The Apostle Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 5, “8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
You see the enemy preys most greedily on the godly. If you are always compromising your Christian walk, then you’re not really a target. But, if you are living faithfully and walking in obedience, then you will encounter the flaming arrows of the enemy. Everyone who chooses to walk with God walks right into the crucible. The tests will come. In many ways, it’s a universal principle. I’ve heard faithful Jesus lovers talk about it over the years. If you determine to live a godly life, the Peril Principle says the enemy will make you a target.
Feeling a little discouraged by that truth? DON’T BE. Our powerful hope and assurance is also true. “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” Our enemy is not too much for our great God. He will fight for you. He will provide you and fill you with everything you need for life and godliness.
A kind of counter truth to the Peril Principle is Psalm 4:3, “Know that
the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” In other words, every man or woman who follows Jesus has been set apart and is under God’s special care. And when those
pressured times come and the attacks rush at you, you can call out to God and this Psalm promises he hears you. Don’t doubt it. He will hear.
He will answer.
Moses serves as the perfect example of what I’m talking about this
morning. When you walk close with God, you live with the very real threat of enemy attack and discouraging events occurring in your life. And the closer you walk, the deeper the peril. Moses knows exactly what this is about. How did this godly man face these inevitable perils?
Today we pop out of Exodus and learn of some different facets of Moses’
life and experiences as a leader in the history book of Israel called,
Numbers. In Numbers 10 the people are at Mt. Sinai, where we left them last week. They were getting their heads around God’s laws and decrees he had just given them, and they were in process on constructing the Tabernacle design he gave to them. At this point they are now prepping to leave the Sinai area and proceed to the land of Canaan, the land God
was giving them as their final home. Moses intends to lead them there.
But, first the perils…
“11 On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. 17 Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the Gershonites and Merarites, who carried it, set out.”
The tabernacle was a portable worship center; a tent structure of canvas supported by poles, ropes, and stakes that could be taken down and moved easily. When the Israelites settled into a new area, they would set up the Tabernacle in the center of the camp. And when God would move them on, they would take it down and move it to the next place where God’s presence would lead them.
Now you’d think that after all the nation of Israel had seen God do in Egypt, and on Mt. Sinai, and having received the Ten Commandments written by God’s own hand, that they’d all be 100% stoked to enter the Promise Land. But not so fast.
Any larger group who wants to march forward for God also attracts a minority, smaller group who doesn’t demonstrate the same enthusiasm for moving forward. Our text today calls them “the rabble.”
In the Hebrew the word means, “vagabonds, rabble, riff raff. “ These 1 folks were the “carnal corral.” The word indicates that they were non-2 Israelites who had attached themselves to the nation as they moved along. In Exodus 12:38 God calls them the “mixed multitude.” They were a particular thorn in Moses’ side. Look at 11:1-6.
Rabble Rumblings
Charles L. Feinberg, “140 ף ַס ָא,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 1
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 60.
Swindoll, Moses. 287.
2
Grumblers love to grumble. They complain and God throws down some heat to set them back. But, they don’t stop there. They complain about the food that God has been graciously dropping in front of them. Their belly aching went on and on and Moses experienced his first peril. The peril of discouragement and depression.
The Peril of Discouragement and Depression
It doesn’t take long when you’re hearing constant complaining that you begin to get really discouraged and depressed. It can suck the will to keep going right out of you. Moses heard this rag tag bunch complain and grumble so much I bet he wanted to gag.
Verse 10 tells us, “10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.” Meaning he was very upset and visibly so and audibly so. 3 Basically, Moses was probably exasperated and annoyed at their
groaning. I can imagine Moses walking up and down those lines of tents, listening to the constant complaining…griping…whining…crying…
frowns and long faces one after another. Wagging heads and grim countenances. And after a while he just feels like screaming, “ahhhhh…
enough!”
Exasperated, notice how Moses blurts out his feelings to God. Look at verses 11-15
11 He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?
What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth?
Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an
infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy
Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA:
3
Logos Bible SoTware, 2003), 775.
for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
I’m sure we can all pretty much identify with Moses at this point. Moses hit his “Popeye Moment”: I stands all I can stands, and I can’t stands no
more! You’ve been there, right? Most of us have hit those moments at one point or another. We have high aspirations or big desires, but a few voices… a few squeaky wheels… a few rabble… are like a ball and chain.
You’ve invested heart and soul into a venture or a dream and a few voices and negative attitudes clog up the works and slow your progress. And over time, their complaining and grumbling becomes like a dripping faucet working to unnerve us.
Heres’ a truism. As soon as a group, a movement, or a business gets large enough, the rabble will show up or rear their heads. When that Sunday School class you’re teaching, that small group you’re leading, or that team you’re building increases in size, sooner or later you’ll get rabble.
There are rabble found most everywhere: in classrooms, in work groups, in seminaries and colleges, and you know it… in churches.
I’ve known guys who got so tired of the rabble in their church that they went and started a new church. And guess what? Yep, not long and there was rabble there too. So no matter what you are putting your hand to or investing your efforts in, sooner or later, there will be rabble.
And if you focus on confronting the rabble, you’ll likely stay discouraged.
That’s what happened to Moses. He heard weeping behind one too many tent flaps and finally cried out, “Lord, take my life.” That’s the ultimate expression of depression. A peril brought on by a vocal minority.
Right on the heels of this first peril came the second. That’s often how it works for those determined to walk with God. Some say they come in threes. And usually, they come one right after another. Moses’ 2nd Peril
began with these words in verse 26: “But two men had remained in the camp….”
What’s the problem here? We learn in this section that Moses had 70 elders of the people to come out and stand by the tent of meeting. God had appointed these seventy men to help Moses carry the load. But when they called roll, two of these men didn’t show up. One was named Eldad, and the other Medad. They weren’t really rebels. We’re not told why they didn’t come out to the tent meeting. What we do see is that the Spirit of God rested on them…and they prophesied within the camp, along with the others who were out at the tent meeting outside the camp.
But a young man in the camp, not knowing what was going on, heard them prophesying and he scurried to tell Moses. Joshua, Moses’ aide also heard them and called on Moses to stop them. What’s happening here? These young men and Joshua were jealous for Moses’ role. Let’s call this peril the peril of jealousy and indispensability.
The Peril of Jealousy and Indispensability
They protested, “Moses, prophesying is your job. You’re the prophet. If anyone is going to prophesy, you ought to be the one who does it.
Moses, they are trying to steal your thunder. They are trying to edge in on your authority.” Joshua basically says, “Moses, you can’t let them get away with that. Demand that they stop.”
I love Moses’ response. He’s way more mature and humble than that. He responds without a hint of jealously. In fact, it’s his desire that everyone have the Spirit and be able to prophesy. No turf protection here. No worry about role or job security here. No selfish grasping for power here.
No insecurity.
If anyone could have claimed he was indispensable to the organization or to the mission, it would have been Moses. But, he refuses to make that claim. When the peril of jealously confronts Moses, he overcomes it.
The Peril of Jealousy will confront you if you are investing yourself in any sort of business venture, or career pursuit, or ministry mission.
Somewhere along the line it’s likely you’ll face the peril of jealousy.
Someone around you will plant the seeds of jealousy in your heart that will tempt you to feel indispensable.
When it happens, you’ll subtly become critical of those around you who could be viewed as threats to your role or your position. “What’s she doing up there giving that presentation? I could give that way better.” Or
“Hope someone is watching that guy, he’s positioning himself to take over.” “I better make sure everyone knows I’m the leader.” Ever felt those thoughts creep in? These are the words of petty jealousy and proud indispensability.
Here’s the reality! Everyone can afford to step down if God is on the throne. Some of the most jealous, suspicious people around are
Christians who have lost sight that God sets up leaders and takes them down. God gives you the job you have, and he can take it away just as easy. When we forget that each of us is dispensable and that God is on his throne watching over our lives and our futures, we fall prey to the peril of jealously.
Nobody is indispensable, except the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the head.
He’s the preeminent One. He’s the founder. He’s in first place. And when he moves one and brings in another, or demotes one and sets up
another, he calls the shots. That is his sovereign right.
Moses passed this peril with flying colors, but there are other perils coming his way. His next peril will be the peril of being misunderstood and misrepresented. Look at 12:1.
The Peril of being Misunderstood and Misrepresented
This peril is deeply wounding. Miriam and Aaron are family— Moses’ sister and brother. It’s one thing to be trashed by the public, but it’s a whole other thing to be trashed by family, by your very own siblings.
Now, it’s true God had forbidden the Israelites from marrying a
Canaanite, but Moses had married a Cushite. There was no prohibition of that by God. Their real issue here was Moses had not turned to them to seek their counsel. They considered themselves indispensable members of the inner circle. They got miffed when Moses made a decision without consulting them. So, they tried to lift their value and justify their complaint by claiming that God had spoken through them just as much as Moses.
Problem: God heard them make that claim. God heard them gossiping and misrepresenting Moses who had made the decision to marry a Cushite woman. A marriage they would have never approved of. And they felt justified offering their judgement on Moses for that decision.
But, God immediate calls them out. Gulp!! Look at Numbers 12:4-9.
God made it clear, he had a unique relationship with Moses. No one will take his place. And just to remind them of this important correction, God left a sign of his judgment on their sin. Miriam becomes leprous and Aaron cries out to Moses to pray for her healing.
Now, notice what Moses does. He could have refused to pray for her, but he doesn’t refuse. What humility! Even though she had spoken harshly against him, Moses agrees to pray to God for healing. God graciously agrees but requires her to wait for 7 days before realizing her healing.
The account of his peril reminds us that Jesus followers never have to get defensive and seek to defend themselves. God runs your defense for you. At some point in life, you will be misrepresented. You will be misunderstood. But when that happens, don’t try to address all the slanderous things said about you. Let God be your defense.
With the peril of being misunderstood and misrepresented behind him, the Peril of being ignored and rejected was next in line.
The Peril of being Ignored and Rejected
When the Israelites came to the threshold of that land of Canaan…the land God had promised to give them, Numbers 13 tells us they sent spies in to scout out the land. The report came back that the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey and huge crops of grapes and other fruits which they brought back as exhibit A. Everyone was stoked about this report.
But then the other shoe dropped. The scouts reported the people are big and strong like giants and they scared the spies out of their wits. That piece of news really freaked the people of Israel out. Caleb and Joshua, two of the 12 spies, argued loudly that God would enable them to
overcome and that the Israelite nation should press on and trust God. But Numbers 14:1-4 tells us how the people responded.
There it is: the Peril of being ignored and rejected. They didn’t want Canaan. They didn’t want Moses. They wanted to go back to the chains instead of facing those giants in Canaan. The people were ready to stone their leaders, that’s how serious their passion was for full scale retreat.
The violent, heart-breaking, grossly unfair behavior of the people in this critical moment set Moses up for the fourth and final peril. The peril of resentment and revenge.
The Peril of Resentment and Revenge
To me, Moses had every right to say, “Lord…zap them! Just take them out God.” But instead, it’s God who initiates the revenge. Look at 14:10-12 Now, that had to be a tempting proposition. Let’s hit restart. Smite those grumblers and whiners and start fresh with a new nation. True
confessions…I would have been super tempted to say, “Ya God go for it…you know best.” Let me take Joshua and Caleb with me, and you can bury the rest.
But that was not Moses’ response. Instead this humble servant basically argues against the idea. “Your reputation is at stake here God. The
Egyptians will hear about it and what will the nations say if you kill them now after all you’ve brought them through?”
No resentment, no revenge. Doesn’t even seem to be annoyed by the strong passionate rejection. Man…that’s maturity. Humility enables you to see the bigger picture in the midst of conflict. Moses actually defends the stiff-necked people and asks the Lord to withhold his judgment against them. And the Lord agrees.
When someone shoots arrows of rejection at you, it’s easy to allow this peril of resentment and revenge eat at you like acid. It’s so tempting to take matters into your own hands. But Moses models a different
response. Let God handle it. Let God be your defender. You stay close to him, keep your head down, and keep serving him.
[Transition] – All these perils give us some important reminders to help us as we seek to follow hard after God and serve him with our whole hearts.
1. Being a Christian does not insure a trouble-free life.
Rewarding life? Meaningful life? Yes! A thousand times yes! But, it’s never easy. And man, please be aware as you step into service for God and be sober as you seek to follow God faithfully in your life and serve his
mission in the world, because a whole realm of difficulty likely awaits you.
And if you’re thin-skinned, please realize keeping your heart soft, and letting your hide toughen is a painful process. But, we need to do it.
2. Being a Christian is often endangered.
Maybe it’s an overstatement, but it has been said, the life of the Apostles was like the path of a bleeding hare making its way across the snowy hills
—just a trail of blood. If you’re looking for a safe, secure, no hassle sort of existence, the narrow road winding into the steep hills of godliness will likely discourage you and cause you to question yourself.
I know many Christians, myself included at times, who start to think they are doing something wrong or God’s doing something wrong when they
endure hard times in life. But, we have to remind ourselves our enemy is real and he really hates what we’re living for when we follow Jesus. So, as Peter says, “Don’t be surprised when you encounter trials of various
kinds.”
3. Following God is always eventful.
If you want to break the boredom syndrome, commit yourself to Jesus and follow hard after him. Life will start coming at you fast. You will
become empowered and impassioned and the battle will heat up. People on the front lines are never asleep. They are always in the fray. It’s terribly eventful when your life is being spent for Jesus.
Again, Psalm 34:19 says, “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all....”
Just think about it this way…when you pursue Jesus and you live for him and serve him, all hell will break loose in one way or another. BUT all heaven will come to your rescue and fight the battles for you.
You could go back to “Egypt” and the mundane life of slavery to all
manner of other things ruling your life. But when you’re living for Jesus…
it’s never boring.
It’s the only way to live this one life we have.
