Numbers 16:41-50

But on the next day, all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, take your censer and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. So Aaron took it, as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living. And the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting when the plague was stopped.

So we're just gonna dive in right immediately, dive right in immediately. And so the main point for today is to trust our great high priest and in his atonement. So trust in our great high priest and his atonement. So tonight, the type, the genre of scripture that we're gonna be reading is an Old Testament narrative. So before I give the points, I'm gonna give us two questions to help us think through this text. And so the first question is this. What does this story teach us about God and about man? What does this story teach us about God and about man? And second is how do we read this story in light of Christ's fulfillment? How do we read this story in light of Christ's fulfillment?

And so our first two points, first two points are judgment and atonement. They're gonna correspond to that first question. We're gonna answer the first question there. Judgment and atonement. And our third point, fulfillment, is going to answer our third question. So fulfillment is our third point.

Judgment

So point one, judgment. So first let's get ourselves situated in the storyline of the Bible. God has redeemed his people Israel from Exodus. He has given them his covenant at Mount Sinai. He has promised them a promised land in Canaan. And yet at this point in the book of Numbers, number 16, the current generation of Israel has already been denied access to the promised land. They've been promised that they would die before they would get to enter it. And so now they're beginning their process of wandering before that happens.

And so one sin that we're going to see highlighted in this passage at center stage is grumbling. And so in order to see what they're grumbling about at first, let's go to some context. Earlier in the chapter, number 16, we hear of a story called Korah's Rebellion. It's where Korah and several other Israelites lead a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. They grumble, as we see in our passage today, but they also grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

And so tonight when we read that the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, Again, this should give us pause and shock and say, wait, we don't want this to happen again. Because in Korah's rebellion, God brought judgment in an all-inducing display of power where he swallowed up the rebellious people into the earth and rained down fire from heaven. And in tonight's passage, we see again that they are grumbling. They first grumble against God's perfect judgment against the Korah rebellion. They're saying that God killed his own people wrongly. Well, God's perfect judgment, God's judgment is perfect. They're grumbling against that.

Well, second, they're also grumbling against God's appointed mediators. And we read earlier in this chapter, in verse 11, that grumbling against Moses and Aaron is actually grumbling against Yahweh because they're grumbling against God's appointed prophet and high priest.

And so we see in the chapter that grumbling is not merely just angry words, but in the eyes of God, it's gross idolatry. They're looking at God and claiming that he is someone who he is not. He's a God who has promised things to Israel. He has given them signs and wonders to testify to those promises, and yet Israel is questioning God and his faithful character.

And so what does this teach us about man? Well, Israel, not just Israel, but man, we are an idolatrous people. Man is idolatrous. We worship things that are other than God. We want a God who we can control with our hands, and we want to worship that rather than God for who he truly is. Also in our hearts, we hate God. And this was shown at the cross most fully. For God not only appointed a mediator, but came down to be the mediator. And yet Israel, and by extension all of us, we stood and looked at him and mocked and scorned him. And I mean, I can confess and all of us should confess that ashamed we heard our mocking voice call out among the scoffers.

And so what is God's response to this idolatry in this passage? Well, first it's his presence. His glory came down upon the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, but this presence was not a blessing to Israel in this point. Instead, his presence was more like the presence of a fire near dried leaves. It was destruction. It was death. And so God brought judgment upon Israel in a plague.

And so this plague actually teaches us a couple things about God and his judgment and justice. So the first thing is that his judgment is not arbitrary. We find that in Numbers 8, God appoints the Levites to atone for the sins of Israel so that plague might not come upon them. And in Numbers 11, he brings plague upon the Israelites who are grumbling for food as they're eating their quail. In Numbers 14, when the 10 spies sent their faithless report to the congregation of Israel, he struck them down with plague. It's not out of his passions or fits of rage, God doesn't have those, but it's out of his holy character that he brings judgment upon his people. And the second thing that we learn about his judgment is that the penalty is death. Our sin deserves death. From Genesis 2, Adam was promised death if he sinned. And that is the right punishment for sin. Not only death physically, that didn't come immediately for Adam, but also separation for God. And ultimately, eternal separation from him forever in hell.

Atonement

However, we see in this passage that death came to Israel in huge amounts, 14,700. But God made promises to Israel not to destroy them. He would continue. He promised them the land, even if it would not this generation, but to the next. And so how does he solve this problem of death coming upon them? And that's where we get to point to atonement. Atonement. So we might have heard the word atonement a lot, and maybe it's a familiar word, but I'd just like to give a quick definition just so we're clear. So atonement is cleansing through sacrifice. That's a simple way to put it, cleansing through sacrifice. And so atonement for sin is when our sin is washed away through sacrifice.

So how does atonement happen in this passage? Well, we see that Moses tells Aaron to take an offering, so take fire from the altar, which was from a previous sacrifice, put it on a censer, which is like a sort of pan that they put fire upon, and put incense on it, and then present it to the Lord, to present it to Yahweh as an atonement. And so Aaron did this, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the wrath of God was satisfied, the plague Ended.

So what does this teach about man? Well, first, man needs cleansing. Man needs cleansing. He needs atonement for his sin. And what does this teach about God? Well, first, again, he's not arbitrary in his judgment. He's not like the pagan gods who are bloodthirsty and just take pleasure in seeing death. Instead, God is merciful. Aaron's atonement is not opposed to God, but God appointed Aaron into that office that he might bring atonement to his people, that he might intercede on behalf of Israel. And so God is merciful in this atonement.

But there's another problem. And it's that this atonement wasn't full and complete. We read later in Numbers 25 that further atonement was needed. for a plague that came upon the people when they committed sexual immorality and idolatry with Moabite women. And so, and also, the high priest also had to offer atonement every year, year after year, for the people of Israel.

A true and better high priest

And this leads us to point three, fulfillment. There is a true and better atonement now, given and presented by a true and better high priest, who is Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. And he's presenting his perfect once for all sacrifice to his father at his right hand, which is the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. And this atonement is not limited in that way, but it cleanses of all our sin, past, present, and future.

And in the final judgment, Jesus will stand between the dead and the living. And so if you're not a Christian today, know that Christ's atonement does not apply to your sin. Your sin has not been washed away. And if you continue in unbelief, in the final judgment, you will be counted among the dead. And so trust in Christ. Trust in the great high priest and his atonement that you might be among the living.

And if you're a Christian, know that Jesus, our great high priest, on that final judgment day, he will plead for us. Though the verdict is guilty, Christ will say, I've taken that judgment upon myself. This one is mine. He will be among the living. So trust in Christ and his atonement.

Do we have grumbling in our lives?

But brothers and sisters, there's another thing I want to talk about, and that's because our sins have already been atoned for, How much greater should this warning about grumbling be to us? Israel's sin and Israel's example of grumbling should confront us because we are actually a people with regenerate hearts. And so, look to our lives. Do we have grumbling in our lives? Do we grumble about our circumstances, our jobs, our responsibilities, do we grumble about other people in our lives, our children, our families, our spouses, our friends, our coworkers, our bosses, maybe even our elders, our leaders? Do we grumble against God? Because if we do, what we are actually saying in our hearts is that I wish God had given me A different family. I wish God had given me a different marriage. I wish God had given me a different life. I wish God were actually a different God. Her grumbling shows us clearly that our satisfaction does not come through the one true God, but through the idols of our heart. Feeling the weight of this condemnation, I mean, it's something we should all feel. We all have idols in our heart that we see. Just remember this, trust in our great high priest and his atonement.

Yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is why he presents his sacrifice. This is why he died, because we are sinful, because of our idolatry. Trust in him.

And also, there might be other times we might be tempted to grumble And I know there's been a lot of suffering these past couple of weeks. I mean, for all of us, suffering is promised. And so maybe you're going through right now maybe a broken marriage, maybe other broken relationships that need reconciliation, maybe unwanted singleness, maybe barrenness of the womb, maybe a major diagnosis of a life-threatening disease, either in you or your family. Maybe you're going through chronic pain. If you've lost a loved one, maybe you've lost even a child. Maybe you're waiting for one of your wayward children to come back. Or maybe you've suffered greatly from evils that others have inflicted upon you. Or maybe you're even suffering now.

And under the weight of these things, sometimes we can't help but say, how do I not grumble? How do I not grumble when things are so bad? And I plead to you, my answer to this question is trust in our great high priest's atonement. Not only does he cleanse our sin, but he allows us to draw near, to approach boldly the throne of grace. We can pour out our hearts before our God and he will listen. He listens to us in our suffering. Christ came down, he became like us. He suffered. that he might sympathize with us. And now he bends his ear to us. He hears your cries of agony. He hears your weeping. He hears your mourning. And he will not cast you out.

Forsake your grumbling and bring your hardships, sufferings, your anxieties, your worries, everything to him. Trust in our great high priest and his atonement.

Trusted in her God

And so as we close tonight, I wanna point out an example of a Christian who entered great suffering, but trusted in her God. And so I'm referring to Helen Rosevere, who became a Christian as a medical student in England. She committed actually really early to going to the mission field. And in her words, she said she would become a missionary no matter the cost. And great was that cost. She became a medical missionary to the Congo, and in 1964, it fell into civil war. She was captured, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, assaulted, and on this day 61 years ago, October 29th, 1964, she was brutally raped. How could How could God allow this to happen to someone who laid down her life for his sake? And she cried the same thing. She cried out to her God. But in the worst of her suffering, I'll put it in her words, she said,

I believe the words that God spoke to me, although I didn't hear them as words, were, can you thank me for trusting you with this, even if I never tell you why?

And her faith was strong. She said that she could.

Oh Lord, might we have such faith as Dr. Rosevere. Might we trust in our great high priest and his atonement rather than grumbling. May we trust in him.

Let's pray. Father, we praise you for your justice and your mercy. Father, we praise you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross. And we thank you that he's at your right hand, our great high priest, interceding for us, who pleads his blood, allowing us to draw near to you.

Father, would you help us trust in our great high priest and his atonement? Father, we confess our grumbling to you. We confess that idols, the idols in our heart, Lord, help us to look to Christ, who is at your right hand.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.