A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey

Psalm 106. We've gone through it a couple of

weeks. We took a week off from it last week,

but this week we're continuing on right where

we left off. Psalm 106, verse 16. I told y 'all

Psalms 106:16

when we started Psalm 106, we were probably going

to be in it for a while because we're going to

look at some of these stories that are referenced

in detail. So we're going to go back and find

them in the Old Testament. and dig into them

in a little more depth. And we did that last

week, and we're going to do that again this week.

So we'll be in Psalm 106. We'll start in verse

16. We'll read verses 16, 17, and 18. This chapter

has to do with Israel's disobedience. The chapter

before talked about God's obedience or faithfulness

to his people. Psalm 106 talks about the unfaithfulness

of God's people toward God. And so we see some

examples of that in this psalm, and we're going

to look at another one tonight. Let's pray, and

then we'll get started. God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good word. I pray that

you would help us to understand these stories

and this passage that we're going to look at

and help us to look at our own life, dear Lord,

that maybe we can learn through what we read

tonight, God, that we don't... Look at others

and think how bad they are, but dear Lord, that

we let your word talk to us, that we can see

if there's something in here that we need to

hear. And there certainly always is in your word

if we'd listen. So let your Holy Spirit be with

us and free us from worries and distractions.

Take away any pride or fear that's within me

and help me to be able to focus and preach and

teach your word in a way that brings glory and

honor to you tonight. In Jesus' name I pray it.

Amen. All right, Psalm 106, verse 16. In the

Psalms 106:16

camp, they were envious of Moses and of Aaron,

the Lord's holy one. The earth opened up and

swallowed Dathan. It covered the assembly of

Abraham. Fire blazed throughout their assembly.

Flames consumed the wicked. Now, this is just

three little verses that talks about a pretty

interesting story. that you will find in Numbers

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 if you want to turn there. Numbers

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16. Now we won't read through all of

this chapter tonight. We're probably going to

break it up into a couple of weeks. But Numbers

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 tells us an interesting story about

a guy by the name of Korah and some others that

he gathered up to rebel against Moses. By this

point, you know, God's people were on their way

to the promised land, and God had told Moses

to send some scouts to scout out the promised

land, and they did. And the scouts that went

to scout out the promised land came back, and

almost all of them said, oh, yeah, it's a great

land, but there's people there, and they're giants,

and they're just, oh, we just can't go in and

take these people. You know, it's just, it's

too scary. We've come all this way, and there's

no way we can go in there. Well, a couple of

the folks that went in to check out the land,

Joshua and Caleb, they came back and they gave

a favorable report. They said, hey, look, this

is a beautiful land, and we have nothing to fear.

God is on our side, and so it doesn't matter

who's there. We need to go in and get this land.

Well, God was not happy with the people because

of what they had done. He was not happy that

they had... acted this way, that they had acted

out of fear, that they weren't living in obedience

to him. And God was just not happy with his people.

And as a result of that, they were going to be

forced to wander around in the wilderness for

40 years. They weren't going to be able to go

into the promised land. And so that's what we

see kind of leading up to this. And then right

before this, we see that God It gave a few commands

to Moses for the people, some things that they

needed to follow and things that they needed

to do. And then we get to Numbers chapter 16.

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

Now Moses had led the people out of Egypt. He

parted the Red Sea. God had provided for them.

They had been complaining the whole time. We

don't have enough food to eat that we want. Oh,

in Egypt we ate so good. We don't even have good

water to drink. Oh, it's so horrible. Why did

you bring us out here, Moses? It's the worst

thing ever. And they had just been complaining

and complaining and complaining the whole time.

And we talked about that the last couple of weeks

in Psalm 106. And here's another story of their

unfaithfulness to God. They're still complaining.

So by this point, the people are... tired of

Moses, that he must not be doing a very good

job. And why do we have to listen to Moses? Well,

that's what Korah said. And he got some others

along with him to start a rebellion to confront

Moses. And that's what we see in Numbers chapter

Numbers 16:1

16, verse 1. Now Korah, son of Ishar, son of

Kohath, son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram,

sons of Eliab, And On, son of Peleth, sons of

Reuben, took 250 prominent Israelite men who

were leaders of the community and representatives

in the assembly, and they rebelled against Moses.

They came together against Moses and Aaron and

told them, You have gone too far. Everyone in

the entire community is holy, and the Lord is

among them. Why then do you exalt? exalt yourselves

above the Lord's assembly. Okay, so the scene

is set. Korah, there's a few other guys here.

They gather up 250 leaders in the land, and they

go and confront Moses. And they said, let me

tell you, Moses, you have gone too far. The things

that you're doing, the way that you're leading

us, we're not pleased with this. This is not

a good way to do it. We don't want to follow

you anymore. And listen to what he said in the

middle of that verse. He says, everyone in the

entire community is holy. Well, that's a bold

statement to make. These are the same people

who have been complaining and been disobedient

to God since they left Egypt. And they're so

bold to stand before Moses and say, who are you

to tell us that we're holy? Who are you to have

all the power? We can have as much power as you.

Why can't we be the ones that lead these people,

Israel? So Korah gets this group together and

they rebel against Moses and come to him and

say, hey, look here, we're not going to follow

you anymore. Let's see what happens in verse

4. When Moses heard this, he fell face down.

Then he said to Korah and all his followers,

tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs

to him, who is set apart, and the one he will

let come near him. He will let the one he chooses

come near him. Korah, you and all your followers

are to do this. Take fire pans and tomorrow place

fire in them and put incense on them before the

Lord. Then the man the Lord chooses will be the

one who is set apart. It is you Levites who have

gone too far. So Moses hears their objection

and he says, we're going to let the Lord decide.

We'll let the Lord decide who's in the right.

We're both going to go before the Lord. We'll

see who the Lord answers, who the Lord pays attention

to, who the Lord is gracious to, and who the

Lord brings punishment to. If I'm in the wrong,

so be it. If you guys are in the right, then

so be it. Moses says, we're going to let the

Lord decide who's right and who's wrong. They

told Moses he had gone too far. He says, no,

y 'all are the ones who are in the wrong. Y 'all

are the ones who have gone too far. Verse 8.

Moses also told Korah, Now listen, Levites, isn't

it enough for you that the God of Israel has

separated you from the Israelite community to

bring you near to himself, to perform the work

at the Lord's tabernacle, and to stand before

the community to minister to them? He has brought

you near, and all your fellow Levites who are

with you, but you are seeking the priesthood

as well. Therefore, it is you and all your followers.

who have conspired against the Lord. As for Aaron,

who is he that you should complain about him?

So Moses said, look, God has put me in charge.

God has established me. He's called me. He's

called Aaron to lead you guys, to be the priest

of you guys. And you guys are not paying any

attention to what the Lord has said. And why

are you mad at Aaron? What did he do, he says.

And so Moses is not happy about what's taking

place. He's not happy about these people confronting

him. But nevertheless, the Lord is going to decide

and take care of the situation. Verse 12. Moses

sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab.

But they said, We will not come. Is it not enough

that you brought us up from a land flowing with

milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?

Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler

over us? Furthermore, you didn't bring us to

a land flowing with milk and honey or give us

an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will

you gouge out the eyes of these men? We will

not come. Now, isn't it interesting the language

that they use here? They said, look, you brought

us out of a land flowing with milk and honey

and brought us here. Wait a minute. That's what

God said about the promised land. That it was

a land flowing with milk and honey. But yet,

these people who are rebelling against God here,

they're using that same language of Egypt. They're

thinking, oh, remember back, it was so good in

Egypt. They had totally forgot that they were

enslaved. Now, certainly Egypt was blessed in

those days. Egypt was doing well. Egypt did have

a lot of resources. But the people of Israel,

they were slaves there. They didn't have freedom

there. They were enslaved in a foreign land.

And how quickly they forgot. How quickly they

forgot their situation. And now that they're

in this wilderness and in these situations that

they brought on themselves because they were

disobedient to God, and now all of a sudden their

memory of the past is a lot better than what

the past actually was. Sometimes we have a way

of doing that. Sometimes we have a way of...

of remembering things as being a little better

than they actually were when i was in in seminary

i bought this little futon that folded into a

bed and it was so i mean i said on that thing

it was so comfortable i'd use it as a couch i'd

use it as a futon and it was so comfortable and

we needed a cheap couch when we got married and

i was like hey i'm gonna get that same couch

because i remember that thing was so comfortable

and they still made it everything so i bought

the same thing and guess what it wasn't it I

said, man, this ain't as comfortable as I remember

it being. And the Israelites, they're in the

wilderness and in their mind they're thinking,

man, it was really good back in Egypt when we

were slaves and having to do all that manual

labor. It was the land flowing with milk and

honey. But it wasn't that good. It wasn't that

good at all. They had just kind of been blinded

for their current situation and their old situation.

They thought things were better than they were.

But they would be a lot better than they were

if they would just listen to God. They would

be in a land flowing with milk and honey. None

of this would have taken place if the ones who

went into the land to check it out would have

come back and said, hey, this is a great land.

If God says we need to take it, let's go in there

and take it. If they would have done that, we

would have saved a lot of ink in writing these

scriptures about them wandering in the wilderness.

But they didn't do that. And so now they're rebelling.

They want to be in a land flowing with milk and

honey, and the reason they're not is because

they're not obedient to God. And so they call

Moses out, and Moses doesn't want to have any

of it. He says, Furthermore, you didn't bring

us to a land flowing with milk and honey, or

give us an inheritance or fields and vineyards.

Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? We

will not come. Now they had a choice. They could

follow the man that God sent or not. That was

their choice. Okay, God has established this

is the way things need to be. I have somewhere

I want to send you. I want to take you to a better

place. I want to provide for you. But that's

going to require obedience of you to me. And

sadly, they were disobedient to the Lord. But

what about you and I? Maybe we look at this story

and we say, man, these foolish people. But do

we ever do the same thing? Are we ever guilty

of complaining in the same way that these folks

complain? This is their history. This is their

pattern. Like no matter what God did for them,

they just complained, complained, complained.

And every time they complained, God would bring

judgment on them. And it was pretty serious.

You may recall from the story we talked about

a couple of weeks ago where they wanted food.

Give us food, give us food, give us food. We

want food, we want meat, we want meat. Give us

meat, give us meat. And God said, you want meat,

you got meat. And he gave them meat and they

ate so much meat that it made them sick. And

they finally got what they wanted and they realized

that what they wanted was not what was best for

them. And then they turn around and they complain

and they complain. That's just scripture after

scripture. They're just complaining and rebelling

against everything that God calls them to do.

And they continually get in bad situations. And

then they fail to see that they bear some responsibility

for where they are. Do we ever do the same thing?

Do we ever complain, complain, complain, complain,

complain? Of all the things that God has done

for us, do we ever complain? Now you may say

to yourself, well yeah, but if I would have saw

the Red Sea part, I wouldn't complain. Well yeah,

you would have. Because there were hundreds of

thousands, maybe even a couple of million of

Israelites at that time that walked through a

sea, parted on dry ground, and as soon as they

get to the other side, the first thing they can

do is start complaining. about how good they

had it in Egypt and oh why did we leave Egypt

that's the first thing they do and God has been

good to us in a lot of ways and maybe we haven't

seen a sea part but man we have a thank you everybody

in here has a house they're going to go to tonight

when they leave I suspect everybody is probably

eating a meal. If you hadn't, let me know after

church. We'll get you a meal, but I suspect we're

probably all eating a meal today. We're all wearing

clothes tonight. Praise the Lord for that. That

would be really awkward if we weren't. A lot

of you have jobs or were able to work jobs and

are now retired. I mean, there's so many good

things that God has been good to us with, and

yet we still find so many ways to complain. about

things that maybe don't matter. And maybe there

are things that God wants to do in our life and

ways that God wants to lead us, ways that are

tough, things that are before us, just like it

was going to be, in a sense, it was going to

take some faith. It was going to be tough for

them to go into that promised land because it

was scary. Sometimes what's before us is scary.

But there were a couple of them that wanted to

trust in the Lord, and then there were some that

didn't, and then there were these guys that said,

Not only do we want to trust, we just want to

do away with everything that God has established

and do away with Moses and we want to do it all

ourselves. And do we ever do that? Do we ever

have that attitude that there's something before

us that maybe is scary or maybe is tough and

we're not so sure about it and we miss out on

what God wants to bless us with because we're

too afraid to just have faith and listen to him?

How many times does God give us commands and

we rebel against it? We know what the Word of

God says. We feel the conviction of the Holy

Spirit, and we know what we should do, and we

rebel against it. These people knew what they

should have done. Moses had been with them for

a while. He had just, right before this, a chapter

or two before, he'd been telling them these laws

and these commands that God had given. They were

aware of what God desired and what God required.

And they weren't just rebelling against Moses.

They were rebelling against God. And how many

times do we do the same thing? Now Moses was

the one that God had sent. He was going to be

the one that was going to deliver the people

out of slavery and lead them to the promised

land. And they were rejecting the one that God

sent. And Moses is just foreshadowing Jesus Christ.

It's foreshadowing who's to come. That whole

situation with the Israelites. And it really

happened, but... But it's also symbolic of what

was going to happen. That there was going to

be a Passover. That those who were covered in

the blood were going to be passed over. That

there would be one who would lead the people

out of slavery and into freedom. Who would lead

the people into the promised land. Moses was

foreshadowing what was going to come in Jesus

Christ. That he was going to be the one that

God was going to send. That he would be the one

to lead us out of the slavery of our sin. That

he'd be the one to lead us into the... and the

peace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he

would be the one to bring us into the promised

land. And so God has sent his one and only son.

He's the deliverer. He's the one that God has

appointed. And we have a choice to make. Are

we going to follow him or are we going to rebel

against him? Are we going to say, no, we don't

want to follow the one that God sent. We want

to do it our way. Because we don't like God's

way. We don't like the way God wants to send

us. We don't like the things God wants us to

do. We want to do it our way. And we're in a

bad place when we get to that place. And there's

plenty of people in this world that are there.

Maybe some here tonight. Maybe some listening

online. But the only way we're going to find

freedom and peace and deliverance is when we

trust in the one that God sent in Jesus Christ.

He's the one that's going to... Lead us through

whatever's before us. I don't know what's before

you. It might be scary. There may be giants before

you just as there were for those spies that went

into the promised land. Will you be one who sees

the giants and flee or will you be one that sees

the giants and say, we got this? Will you be

one that follows Jesus, the one that God sent,

or will you be one that rebels against him and

say, I don't want to live for Jesus. I want to

live for myself. Well, this crew of folks here,

They made the wrong choice. They rebelled against

Moses, and really they rebelled against God.

And we're going to see next week that they are

going to pay the consequence for that. Let's

pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for your

good words. I pray that you help us not to be

so foolish, to think back of our past, of our

sinfulness, and think that it's better than it

was. Sometimes, dear Lord, we forget how bad

things that we've done in our past are, Let us

never be drawn to our sinful desires of the past,

but to keep on pushing forward, to keep on on

the straight and narrow path. As tough as it

may be, God, sometimes that path leads us to

places that are overwhelming to us. But, dear

Lord, if your people would have just listened,

you would have took them there and took care

of them and gave them everything that they needed.

You do it to us, dear Lord, and so many times

we don't have faith and we're afraid and we turn

back. Maybe if we're honest, we... We rebel against

you, dear Lord. We know what you call us to do,

and there's something in us, God, that just we

don't want to do it. And I pray that you forgive

us of that, and I pray that you would help us

to be a people that are obedient to you, that

we would not think too highly of ourselves, dear

Lord. These folks in this story we looked at

tonight, boy, they call themselves holy, but,

dear Lord, they were so far from it. And so,

God, I pray that you help us to examine our lives.

Maybe we look at ourselves and we say, Or think

just how holy we are. But maybe, dear Lord, our

pride has blinded us and we're not as holy as

we think. So God, I pray that we would seek you

and not rebel against your word and not rebel

against the one that you sent. But that we would

seek Jesus Christ and trust him and not seek

to do it our way as these folks did, but to trust

in the one that you sent to be our deliverer.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.