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[0:00] is where we're going to be at this evening, Numbers chapter 20. And we're going to be in verses 14 to the end of the chapter, which gets us down to verse 29. Numbers chapter 20, verses 14 through 29.

[0:13] Just to kind of remind you where we're at so that we can take it in context, we remember that the first 13 verses of Numbers 20 show us the sin of Moses and Aaron.

[0:24] If you remember in particular, it has to do with the waters of Meribah. And it is the second time in which the Lord chose to bring forth water from the rock. But this time in particular, Moses was commanded to take the rod of Aaron and to stand before the congregation and to speak to the rock.

[0:41] He took the rod of Aaron, went and spoke to the congregation, and then struck the rock twice with his rod. And the water came forth graciously. God provided for the nation. But God then declared that Moses and Aaron, neither one, would go into the promised land because they did not treat him as holy in the presence of God or in the presence of the people.

[1:00] And really treating him as holy would be just completely obeying him and trusting that his word would be sufficient for the need of the people. And here we see that God's prophetic fulfillment that no Israelite over 20 years old would enter into the promised land, including Moses and Aaron and Miriam, are really being fulfilled right before us.

[1:24] Chapter 20 really is a sad chapter in that it begins with the death of Miriam, and it ends with the death of Aaron. So Moses here, in a span of really four months, has to conduct two funerals, one of his sister and then of his brother.

[1:40] And it's just a further reminder that what God has declared will come about. So we're going to pick it up in Numbers 20, starting in verse 14, and we're going to read to the end of the chapter in verse 29.

[1:50] So before we get into it, let's just open up with a word of prayer. Lord, we're so thankful for just having the opportunity. God, just what a glorious opportunity it is to come and to gather together, just to continue to look at your word and, Lord, to be refreshed and renewed by it.

[2:06] Lord, to have a greater sense of awareness of who you are and all that you are doing. And I pray, Lord, that that sense of awareness would be a motivating factor for our life. It would be that which leads us to walk faithfully and obediently to all that you've commanded us to do.

[2:22] Lord, we just ask that you would speak to us tonight, Lord. Show us your word. Declare the truth to us through the power and presence of your spirit. And, Lord, may we be attentive. And, Lord, may we be responsive.

[2:33] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. The word of God says, from Kadesh. If you remember, there in the first verse of chapter 20, they are back at Kadesh.

[2:45] Kadesh Barnea would be the place of rebellion. That is where they went. God told them to go into the promised land. They decided to send forth some spies. And they decided maybe we shouldn't go.

[2:56] So they've been wandering around for 38 years. And now they're back at Kadesh. And it says in chapter 20, verse 1, that it was the first month. So the first month of the 40th year.

[3:09] It's fitting to take all that in context. And then it tells us in verse 14, From Kadesh, Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom. Thus your brother Israel has said, You know all the hardship that has befallen us, that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time.

[3:26] And the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. But when we cried out to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt. Now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory.

[3:38] Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field nor vineyard. We will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway, not turning to the right or the left, until we pass through your territory.

[3:53] Edom, however, said to him, You shall not pass through us, or I will come out with a sword against you. Again the sons of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway. And if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, then I will pay its price.

[4:07] Let me only pass through on my feet, nothing else. But he said, You shall not pass through. And Edom came out against him with a heavy force and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory.

[4:20] So Israel turned away from him. Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation came to Mount Hor. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron will be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah.

[4:42] Take Aaron and his son Eleazar, and bring them up to Mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.

[4:54] So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded. And they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And after Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountaintop.

[5:07] Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days. Numbers chapter 20, verses 14 through 29.

[5:19] I want you to see this evening. The purpose of God moving forward. The purpose of God moving forward. We have to look at and to study the wilderness times, or the movement of God's people, in light of what we have read and studied in the book of Exodus.

[5:39] And that is that God brought them out in order to bring them in. That recurrent theme. He brought them out of Egyptian enslavement in order to bring them into the promised land of Canaan.

[5:51] God had a purpose for delivering his people. Now that's important, because the deliverances of God are always according to the purpose of God. God delivers us from sin and sets us free from the captivity which we have been subjected to in slavery to Satan, for the intended purpose of bringing us into his presence.

[6:11] We are not set free just to be free. He has not redeemed us that we may be forgiven. We are forgiven that we may enter into his presence. The purpose of God in leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt was in order to bring them into the land of Canaan.

[6:30] And this coincides with the promise that God had given to Abraham. That his people would inhabit that land in which he was sojourning. So we see here God had a purpose for delivering his people.

[6:43] Yet in the midst of that purpose, people fell. The nation sins and even the leaders of the nation sin. And they fall. And we see that there at the beginning of chapter 20.

[6:54] But what just amazes us in scripture is that though men fail and their sin seems to hamper, or seems to cause to stumble the purposes of God, it never stops them.

[7:08] God's intended purpose always moves forward. We see this in the very beginning of the pages of scripture. That Adam and Eve were created for a purpose, right?

[7:20] To walk in fellowship with God. Eve saw the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and took of the fruit and ate it, and gave it to her husband who was with her. And their sin seemed to have stopped the purpose of God.

[7:33] Yet when we read the remainder of scripture, we see that there was a lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world were laid. So before man had ever chosen to sin, God had already ordained that there would be a lamb that was slain for the sin of man, which has not yet been committed.

[7:50] So the purpose of God moves through the failing of man, or the failures in the sin of man, for his intended plans, his intended calling.

[8:02] And what we see here in this chapter moving forward, is that God's purposes keep moving forward. How easy it would be when Moses and Aaron, Moses especially, the most humble of all people alive, the leader of God's people, the one who had interceded on behalf of the nation multiple times, the one who had been on the mount 80 days, and been in the presence of God, the one who had declared, show me your glory, O Lord, and had seen literally what we would call like the backside of God's glory passing by him.

[8:31] He had been hid in the cleft of the rock. How easy it would be to come to the point that when he fails, we would think the story would end. But it doesn't. Because it's not about Moses.

[8:43] Right? It's about God's purpose moving forward. And we see this here in the text before us. And I want you to just see a number of things from this text. And we don't focus on man, but we just see how God moves forward through man, not necessarily in spite of man, but through man for his glory.

[9:03] Because we have to glorify God for this. Number one, we see this request, a request that is made. And it says now, that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom.

[9:14] And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, because they are camping on the edge of the territory of Edom. If you go to the back of your Bible, and you have those maps in the back of your Bible, and you would see on those maps, and I'm eventually going to do this.

[9:25] I know I always say it. I'll put a map up behind me, and I never do it, and I probably should, because it gives us a little bit better understanding. If you're looking at the map, you have Egypt over here, and they have left Egypt, right?

[9:36] They've crossed the Red Sea, or the Reed Sea, as some would call it. They go a little bit south, and they go through the wilderness, and they come to Kadesh. And here is the Mediterranean Sea, the land of Judah, or the land of Canaan is over here.

[9:47] You have the Jordan River, and you have the Dead Sea down here. And they're kind of down below the Dead Sea, in a region we would call the Araba. And they're there on the territory of Edom. Edom covered this vast area of desolate land, that was well fortified.

[10:02] But along the territory of Edom, there was this road called the King's Highway. And the King's Highway would have been a trade route, that people would have left Egypt, and went into that, and made their way eventually over to Mesopotamia.

[10:14] Because the more east you went, you would eventually end there. It was a trade route, and it would have been an ideal route to take. Because especially traversing through Edom, there was one place in particular, in which you had to go through a narrow pass.

[10:27] And there were a mountain on this side, and a mountain on this side, and there was a very narrow path, that you had to go through. So Moses here, very wisely, issues this request. And he says, My brother, Edom.

[10:40] Now, why is he referring to that? Because Edom, the Edomites, are the descendants of Esau. Esau. Jacob and Esau. The twins, they were together.

[10:52] Remember that? Esau, the hairy man who was the hunter. Jacob, the kind and gentle man. The Bible says, complete man. The man who was perfect. And it was, you know, the tender of the flock, and tender of the ground.

[11:03] Jacob and Esau. Jacob, who would become Israel. And then he would go, and he would, you know, he would send all these people before him, his entourage before him, to try to soften this meeting, that he would have with his brother Esau, whom he had stolen his birthright, and then he had stolen his blessing.

[11:17] Because Jacob means sub-planar. Well, the Edomites, are the descendants of Esau. And here, now, Abraham says, well, hey, we're not Abraham, Moses says, we're all the descendants of Abraham, and we're all the descendants of the same lineage.

[11:35] Maybe, I can cry out to him, because we are kinsmen, and he will let us pass through. So Moses makes this request. Why does Moses make this request? Moses makes this request, because this is the path of least resistance.

[11:49] It is the easiest way, to get to the other side, of the Jordan River, where God has called them to be. And let's just be honest. Every one of us, would rather go the easy way.

[12:03] And it seems to be, this is a straight path. I mean, there's a highway, right? There's a trade route, right there. God has provided us a way, we could just go right down the road.

[12:14] And this is a road, which we can traverse on, and we'll get there in no time. Literally, if you look at a map, you have Kadesh over here, where they need to go, is over here, and it's like this straight line across. It's like, it's a no brainer.

[12:25] Why don't we just ask Edom, if we can walk straight across? Now what he's asking is, somewhere between the neighborhood, of two to three million people, can come through his land. Okay, so it's not like, it's just a company of small people, right?

[12:39] It's two to three million people. And the reason he makes this request, is because that was probably, a very wise move. Some say, that what Moses had learned, in the halls of Egyptian court, applied to him, in his leadership, and then even in his interactions, with the other nations around him.

[12:53] By this time, historically, the nation of Israel, has already defeated, a number of other smaller kingdoms, in the land, in which they have went through. I mean, they are now, in the 40th year, of their wonderings.

[13:06] They have already defeated, other people. Their reputation, would have preceded them. As a matter of fact, we see, that when the spies, go in to spy out Jericho, right? When the walls of Jericho, go tumbling down. When the spies go in, the harlot, right?

[13:19] Rahab the harlot, tells them, we have heard about you, and the kingdoms, which you have destroyed, and how the people, melt like wax before you. And the fear of God, was already descending, upon people. Yet Moses says, let's ask permission.

[13:31] Let's see, if we can go through there. So we see, that it is desiring, of God's people, to always, go the easiest way. And there's nothing, wrong with that. But Moses says, if we have to go there, let's just go the easiest way we can.

[13:46] Perhaps we can go, the king's highway. But this request, was met with, the second thing, which is resistance. Because Edom says, no, it's not going to happen. You're not going to do it. And so Moses, sends a request, a second time, and he says, no, it's not going to happen.

[14:00] As a matter of fact, Edom says the first time, you're not coming through our land. If you come through our land, I will meet you with the sword. Moses says, well, let's ask him again, and let's add a little bit to it. Because what did Moses say? We will not drink from your water. We will not step in your vineyards.

[14:11] We will not even get off the road. We'll just walk straight through the road. The second request, Moses said, if we happen to drink water, we will pay the price for the water. Because that was, that was a tax that was levied in that land.

[14:22] If you look at the region, it's very desolate. So water was a major resource. I mean, the dead sea's up there, but you can't live off that. So water is a major commodity, and you would sell the rights to that water.

[14:33] And he says, hey, we'll pay the price. We will not get out. We'll walk on our feet. We won't even ride our animals. We're just going to go down the easy path. Edom says, no, it's not going to happen. And he showed up with a mighty hand and a great army behind him.

[14:46] He resisted it. Now this brings us to one of those great biblical realities here that Edom seems to always oppose the movement of God's people. I had a question from the Logos discipleship days that the group, the teenagers that were with us this last Wednesday night, immediately before I came in Wednesday night, and we did the Bible study.

[15:07] I had sat down for probably about 45 minutes or an hour and did a question and answer time with them. And one of the questions that asked me is, what did God have against Esau? What did God have against Esau? And the reference there was to the book of Malachi where it says, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

[15:22] And the question that just makes men scratch their head is, what in the world did God have against Esau? Because when we read the historical account in the book of Genesis, the Bible tells us that God chose the younger one, Jacob.

[15:33] And then Paul reminds us in the book of Romans that before they were born, God chose Jacob over Esau. And then Malachi shows us that Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated. And people say, well, what did God have against Esau?

[15:45] And, you know, I'm not going to get into all the answer here, but what we need to understand is don't be so amazed that God didn't choose Esau. We need to stand amazed at the fact that God chose anybody because Jacob didn't deserve to be chosen either.

[15:56] Right? Jacob is sub-planter. He is just as bad as Esau. He didn't deserve to be chosen, but the fact that God did choose one of them is an amazing thing. But really, if we want a greater context for it, because the Bible is always the best interpretation of the Bible, the book of Hebrews tells us in the 12th chapter that Esau was a godless and immoral man.

[16:20] And evidently, that heritage was passed down to his descendants, which are the Edomites. Because more than once, they oppose the people of God. As a matter of fact, there's a small book, one chapter.

[16:34] It's one of the minor prophets that's in the Old Testament that the whole reason is there is to declare God's judgment upon the Edomites. It's the book of Obadiah. Obadiah is there to declare God's judgment upon the Edomites because when the Jewish people were attacked, Edom mocked them and would not let them seek refuge in their presence.

[16:52] And God makes this declaration in the book of Obadiah, though you dwell in your lofty places and you think none can remove you, I will remove you and knock you off of your heights. You know what God does historically?

[17:04] The Edomites lived securely in this place in which people had to ask permission to go through. After a number of years, guess what? They were defeated. They were knocked off that lofty place.

[17:16] They could no longer defend that narrow gap that they had always defended, though they had a tower on each side. God allowed an army to come in. Though they opposed him, though they rebelled against him, though they never sought to follow him.

[17:26] And the whole, in context, the book of Malachi says, I have loved Jacob and I have hated Esau. And you say, why is it even there? Because God is declaring his love to his people and showing them that as they rebuild the nation, his favor is resting upon them.

[17:39] And Esau, the Edomites, were trying to rebuild theirs after ruin, but the favor of God was not resting upon them and it was not succeeding. What we see here is the resistance of the people who oppose. And it's the application to us is, every time the purpose of God moves forward, there will always be an enemy who resisted.

[17:57] Always. There's always resistance. Because just like God always has his man, so Satan always has his as well. Right?

[18:08] There's always the godless and immoral who will resist that movement. And though Moses was trying to take the path of least resistance, it seems like the resistance met him head on when Edom said, no, you're not coming through.

[18:20] And this led to the third thing that is a redirection. It says there, right there in verse 21, thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.

[18:31] Now if you look at a map, you'll see that they not only had to turn away, but they had to go to the southernmost tip of the Araba desert. They had to go to the extreme, out of the way, and go down all the way to the southern part and then come all the way back and around.

[18:45] They had to go all the way around Edom. Now what is telling one commentator, and I can't remember who it is, said this, the first time they went to Kadesh Barnea, the people refused to go into the promised land and after their sin of rebellion, they thought that they could move the easy way into the promised land and they were defeated.

[19:03] Remember that? They went before the Amalekites and Moses said, God's not with you. This was in Numbers 14 and God's not there and they thought, oh, we're going to go take the promised land on our own strength. They wanted to go the easy way.

[19:13] God said, turn around and go the other way. They said, no, we're going to go this way and then they were chased a hundred miles away by the Amalekites who were before them. Here, Moses and Aaron's sin and their lack of faith in what God has declared is now going to cause a redirection for the entire nation again.

[19:31] They cannot walk straight through. Now they have to go all the way around because while sin does not stop the purpose of God, quite often it redirects the people of God and causes them to go around the long way.

[19:43] And here we see that the journey is not going to be easy. They're not going to get to walk on King's Highway by the way. They don't get to travel the trade route. They have to make their own path and they have to walk through the wilderness on their own feet and they have to go in a direction which is definitely not the one they would have chosen because there is an enemy there named Edom, sure, but also because there was sin in the camp in Moses and Aaron and God is not going to allow them to pass through with ease.

[20:10] And evidently four months had transpired because this brings us Numbers 33 tells us that they got to Mount Hor which was on the edge of the land of Edom so right before they went south and it was the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year and they got there it tells us in verse 22 now they set out from Kadesh and the sons of Israel the whole congregation came to Mount Hor so they were at Kadesh on the first day of the first month they were at Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year and here we see the fourth thing that there is a reminder because while they are here God says to Moses and Aaron it's time for Aaron to go he reminds them of the consequences of sin it says Aaron's days are over it had been four months since their sin at Meribah it had been 38 years since the nation's sin of Kadesh Barnea and this 38 year death march had reminded them daily almost of the consequences of their rebellion that people were dying and that God had declared that none of them would enter into the promised land because of their lack of faith and because of their lack of trusting in what God had declared to them and now Moses and Aaron have done the very same thing they have failed to trust completely in what God had declared for them to do and decided that they would do it their own way because when God gives us a clear leading and clear direction it is not becoming of us to choose how we need to do that but rather we ought to do exactly what it is

[21:41] God has commanded us to so now they are reminded here because it says then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom saying Aaron will be gathered to his people now in the death of Aaron we see something in particular it seems as if it is the same wording that we have of Abraham Isaac and Jacob it's the same wording of gathering to his people it is not one of doom and destruction right so it's not one that seems to imply his sin led to his eternal state of being removed from the presence of God rather it is one looking forward to being in the presence of God in particular but him suffering in this life not being allowed to go into the promised land but yet gaining eternal life being in the presence of God that's just a picture of God's grace and mercy because it says he will be gathered to his people which is always a wording of God gathering his people to himself for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah so here is the reminder sin has consequences though the purposes of God continue to move forward and though

[22:45] God will fulfill exactly everything he has declared he will fulfill though he will bring his people into the promised land and even though there are enemies which oppose his purposes and his plans it may take what we seem to think a little bit longer to get there God will bring it to pass no matter how much men fails in their sin and no matter how much the world resists in their animosity towards his people what God has declared will come about but man cannot sin and get away with it sin has consequences for the wages of sin is death even among the believer by the way we need to go ahead and declare that because Paul himself said to the church at Corinth which is really just a case study of God's grace and mercy because he refers to the church at Corinth as the saints and he calls them saints this is something that I love to always remind us of the church at Corinth is probably one of the worst churches you will ever meet not only in scripture but in you know history we don't even need to sit here and get into all the details of what was going on in the church at

[23:54] Corinth one thing that we can say is there's a man who took his father's wife you know for himself right and then that's just kind of the case study of women that doesn't seem right and there's a lot of things going on a lot of immorality going on there and Paul refers to them as saints but then he talks to the saints there in first Corinthians chapter 11 and he tells them that a number of the saints fall asleep and falling asleep is a reference to just like this being gathered to their people it is a reference of dying for the believer it's not an eternal death right it's not being eternally separate from God's presence it is falling asleep in this life and he is reminding them that a number of the saints were falling asleep because they were taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner so even Paul is declaring sin has consequences even though the purposes of God in particular the church of Corinth the purpose was their eternal salvation that came about yet there was an end brought to this life because of their sin consequences and we are reminded throughout scripture that sin does not go unchecked and Abraham and

[25:00] Moses though they are moving forward and though they are seeing God lead his people and though there has to be some anticipation because they are finally really not just walking around in circles anymore now they are finally going forward to the place where God is going to bring them in God reminds them Aaron you're not going in they'll get all the way to the border Moses will take them there but he has to stop there and he will be reminded he can't go in so we see this here this reminder that the sin of Aaron will keep him from going into the promised land but the fifth and final thing is there's also a replacement because the purposes and the plans of God move forward what God has decreed will come about what God has decreed will come about I think it was Charles Wesley said they bury the workmen but the work continues on that God does not limit his purposes and his plans to one person in particular because it is really dependent upon him and he tells

[26:08] Moses and Aaron that Aaron will die for his sins but he tells them to take along with him Aaron's son Eleazar I referenced it this morning right he said take with you Aaron's son Eleazar the three of you go up in the mountain inside of all the people they go up to the mountain they go up on the height of Mount Hor and they're there by the way nobody really knows where this mountain is there's some people who declare I think there was actually a temple built called the tomb of Aaron up on one of the mountains right there on the edge of Edom and it's not referred to as Mount Hor and that's just speculation we really don't know nobody knows exactly where that's at and that's okay right we also don't know nobody knows where Moses's body is either and that's okay because it's not really about Aaron right it's not really about Moses it's not really about any of them it's about what God is doing so what God does he tells him to go up there and he says and strip Aaron of his clothing that is his priestly garments right he would have had the headpiece he would have had the the breast piece that would have went across with the twelve stones he'd have the things on the shoulders he'd had the gold chain he'd had the tunic he'd had all those things the urine and thumbing would all been in there he says strip him of his priestly garments and put them on

[27:10] Eleazar why because the priesthood did not rest upon one person at that time in particular did not rest upon Aaron the priesthood was something that rests upon the purpose and plan of God and God was going to continue that work on in someone else namely Eleazar the third born son of Aaron because his first two have already died because they offered strange fire remember that they offered strange fire and the fire of the Lord came out and consumed them even their sin did not stop God's purpose is moving forward now we know ultimately as we saw this morning and I know that was just a very more educational message I understand this morning it was deep text and I appreciate your patience as we made our way through Hebrews chapter 7 but we saw that God's purpose in Melchizedek finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ but God's purpose for the nation of Israel did not stop just because Aaron sinned and his purpose for the nation of Israel did not stop just because Aaron could not go in because God had a replacement God had someone else to fill that shoe God had someone else to fill that shoe now this is both an encouraging and a humbling thing an encouraging and a humbling thing a couple of years ago Carrie and I went to Billy Graham up at the Billy Graham training center the cove in

[28:33] Asheville North Carolina maybe you remember it was just a couple years ago now and we were up there and we were up there for a pastor's renewal retreat and it's an amazing gift at the Billy Graham training center was doing it does and we were there and Jim Henry maybe you remember Jim Henry Jim Henry pastor to Rivers Baptist Church many many many years ago when it was still two Rivers Baptist Church and he pastors down in Florida now and he was there and he was preaching that week or that three days when he was there and one of the very first things he told pastors and he's kind of encouraging but also humbling here's a man with many many years of ministry under his belt he looked at all this group of pastors he said pastors wear your church lightly and he said that because he said God's put you in a place to continue moving forward his work it's not your work it's his work and when you're no longer there his work will continue through someone else and what he was doing was encouraging pastors not to think it was all about themselves but also not to assume too much responsibility thinking that it all depended upon themselves he said it's his work what God is doing will continue on it will move on and we see this in

[29:42] Aaron it is both encouraging because though Aaron sins and stops the work does not stop the work does not cease God has someone else in mind it is humbling because we understand that Eliezer is going to die and someone else is just going to come in right so our encouragement is to live this life now fulfilling the purposes God has called us to do for his glory understanding that whatever that purpose is mine just happens to be preaching yours is something totally different or maybe it's in particular with it but that purpose is just as glorious as any other purpose whatever God has so determined to do to you you have this life to do it in but what God has determined to do will be done right the world does not stop if we fail to fulfill our purpose as Aaron did God will bring it about through someone else God's purpose moves forward this is why I have no doubt I have no doubt that everything God has declared that will come about will absolutely come about our sin will not stop it our resistance will not hinder it our rebellion will not cause it to falter so it is very becoming and beneficial of us to join in on it what God has declared will come about we have the glorious opportunity to be those who take part in his purpose for his glory and we see here that through all of this though the leaders who should have led them faithfully have fallen what God has declared still moves forward he's still bringing them in bringing them in for his glory and through his leading and we see that in numbers chapter 20 verses 14 through 29 the purposes of

[31:42] God continue to move forward let's pray I know we're not going to have a song tonight of the dismissal but we're going to pray and we'll ask the Lord to continue to pour his blessing out upon us and then we will be dismissed so let's pray together Lord I'm so thankful for this evening I'm so thankful that we have this opportunity to come together to look at your word Lord to be encouraged by it to be reminded of your faithfulness Lord we admit that there are so many times where we stumble we fall and Lord we understand those failures and those fallings come with tragic consequences at times so we pray that you would help us to have the humility and a willingness to walk faithfully with you Lord forgive us where we have fallen forgive us where we have failed but Lord we rejoice in your faithfulness we rejoice in the things that you have purpose and and designed to do Lord that those things will come about Lord may we be your people who take pleasure and glory and having a part in fulfilling your calling and purposes in this life and

[32:44]  Lord may it be the motivating factor of our life and it be for your sake and yours alone may it not be of us may it not be for our recognition but Lord may it be for the world rejoicing of who you are Lord thank you for your word thank you for you this day that you have given us Lord we pray your blessings now as we leave this place Lord I pray you rest your hand upon each one Lord help us to serve as your ambassadors in the world that you've put us in the rest of this day and the week looking forward Lord may we be your representatives shining the light of the gospel in the world that you have called us to thank you for the opportunity oh God and may you continue to use us and may you be pleased and glorified through all we do we ask it all in Jesus name amen you