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[0:00] Take your Bibles from the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 2. Just making our way through the Old Testament will be in Numbers chapter 2 tonight. Again, I'm going to ask if you'll bear with me as I read through the entire chapter, there will be some names which we have already read in Numbers chapter 1 that we will reread again tonight.

[0:18] So they're not always the easiest names to pronounce, but we will make our way through them because the Lord has ordained that they would be there. So we will make our way and we will look at them as he has put them there.

[0:30] But we will be in Numbers chapter 2 looking at the entire chapter together as we just continue to make our way through Scripture. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll just get right into the Word.

[0:41] Lord, I'm so thankful just to be gathered together tonight. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity we have of just having fun and rejoicing to be in your house. And Lord, the privilege it is of opening up your Word.

[0:54] God, what a privilege. May we never lose the wonder of being open up Scripture and seeing what it says, even in Old Testament passages that may seem distant and vague.

[1:04] Lord, we know there's such great truth there. So Lord, tonight as we make our way through Scripture, Lord, we pray that you would open our eyes up to see you and all of your glory and your splendor.

[1:17] And Lord, we would be drawn to you in a closer fellowship and a closer walk. Lord, we continue to pray for those who can't be with us. Lord, we continue to pray for those who are dealing with loss and sickness and sadness in their life.

[1:30] And Lord, we just ask that you would manifest your presence there. Lord, just be glorified and honored in all that we say and all that we do. And may it be for your name and yours only. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. Numbers chapter 2, just continuing to make our way here.

[1:45] If you remember, the first chapter of Numbers was really a census of the people of Israel. It's really the counting of the men. Okay, so it's not a census of all of the people.

[1:56] It's the counting of the men minus the tribe of Levi. We'll get to the counting of the Levites in Numbers chapter 3. And just to kind of put it back in setting, we always want to take these things in our proper context.

[2:08] Between the last chapter in the book of Exodus and the first chapter in the book of Numbers, there only amounts to a month time span. Okay? So in that month, God gave them the book of Leviticus.

[2:20] Which, if you think about it, and I know we have a hard time when we read the Old Testament, we seem to get so overwhelmed by the names, and we get so overwhelmed by all that's happening.

[2:31] And sometimes when we're reading names, we're reading the spanning of thousands of years, especially when you're in the book of Genesis. But here, God is using Moses to write the record of what's going on with his people from Exodus out.

[2:44] And so, his wilderness wanderings. And Moses sat down, many people believe, shortly before his death, right before the nation went into the Promised Land, Moses sat down and wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.

[3:00] So God opened up to him what happened in the beginning. But Moses experienced everything that happened in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Right? He was there. So he's writing from a firsthand account.

[3:11] God showed him the account of Genesis. So what goes on is they complete the tabernacle. Let's just paint this real big picture, because it's really worth seeing. God calls his people out of Egypt.

[3:22] Egyptian slavery. He's calling them out to bring them in. But to bring them in, he wants to be in covenant relationship with them. So the first stop is they stop at Mount Sinai.

[3:33] After the crossing of the Red Sea, and they stop at Mount Sinai, that's where Moses was commanded to bring them back. Right? And this is what Moses told Pharaoh. He said, God has called me to lead his people back to the mountain of God to worship him.

[3:45] Pharaoh said, well, go worship him and come back. He said, no, I can't tell you that. I don't know how long we're going to be. Their worship was going to be a lifetime worship, or it was supposed to be. So they stop at Mount Sinai, which is the same place that Moses had seen the burning bush, which was not consumed.

[3:58] God had spoke to him there. So at Mount Sinai, God's whole intended purpose for bringing them there is before he brought them into the wilderness, that is the place of correction and the place of getting Egypt out of them, in order to bring them into the promised land, he wanted to enter into a covenant relationship with them.

[4:16] Think about that. If the wilderness is a place of sanctification, then Mount Sinai is a place of really entering into a redemption relationship, redemptive relationship.

[4:28] I am your God and you are my people. Aren't you glad? By the way, just stop right there. The moment you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, he has led you out of sin, and he entered into a covenant relationship with you, and now he's going to work on you.

[4:40] That's sanctification. I'm so thankful that God calls us to his presence before he begins sanctifying us. I look back over my life as a believer, and I see the things he's taken away from me, and the things he's shaped and molded, and how he's still working.

[4:54] He's still got the chisel on me, right? Still shaping. But I'm so glad he does all that in the context of a relationship with him. Instead of him just saying, you get right, and then you and I will have a relationship.

[5:05] No, he comes to me, he builds a relationship with me, then he works on me. That's great. So that's what's going on at Mount Sinai. God calls them into a covenant, and the whole nation hears his voice, and says, all right, Moses, this is too awesome in a fearing way, right?

[5:21] This is too holy for us. Moses, you go up there. We'll stay down here. Moses goes up there, gets to Decalogue, the Ten Great Sayings, the Ten Commandments. While they're up there, they practice idolatry, right?

[5:33] They build the golden calf, because Moses is up there 40 days, and it's taking a while, so they're impatient. I don't know anybody else that's impatient, but they're impatient, and they can't wait 40 short days for Moses to come back down, so they go right into idolatrous worship, something that they were very, very, very familiar with, something that they went back to what they were used to.

[5:51] If you remember, the calf was a sacred image in Egypt, so they went back to what they were used to. Moses comes down, breaks the tablets, and then things begin to change, right? Moses goes back up, gets tablets again, but now, rather than having this free covenant relationship of God being their God and them being God's people, now they have to bridge the gap.

[6:15] They've revolted, right? So now God may come in. He shows them, build the tabernacle. Now it's going to be through a sacrificial system. Have you ever thought about that? That God intended just to be in a relationship with them without a sacrificial system, but when they sinned, now we have to have the sacrificial system.

[6:31] By the way, every time you see God's people rebel, and revolt in the Old Testament, the requirements get greater. That's something you see. Every time they fall, you'll see it here, every time, not in this, where we're at tonight, but in the book of Numbers, every time they fall, God requires more.

[6:46] They were to be a nation of priests, they sin, now they become a nation with priests. Big difference. Because now God says, only a few of you can come into my presence. So that's what happens in the book of Exodus, and they construct the tabernacle, God's presence is there, the priests, the Levites are already set aside, and then God says, for a month, he teaches them, now this is how we're going to live out this relationship.

[7:06] Here's the book of Leviticus. You're going to come to me with these sacrifices, I'm going to forgive you, I'm going to see this out here. It's grace, it's grace filled, right? Grace moves all of God. A month later, now they're ready to move.

[7:19] God says, okay, we're in a covenant relationship. The book of Numbers is them on the move. This is what it looks like. This is, many people entitled this to wilderness wanderings. As a matter of fact, in the Jewish scripture, it was entitled, in the wilderness, because this is their wilderness wanderings.

[7:33] By the way, this will show God's faithfulness and their failures. We need to always remember that. So what we see here, is God counts the men ready for battle, in Numbers 1.

[7:45] There are leaders, or 12 leaders, with Moses and Aaron. If you read Numbers 7, 8, and 9, these are the things that take place before Numbers 1.

[7:56] I know that kind of blows our mind, but it does. And in Numbers 7, these 12 men are people who gave to the tabernacle when it was completed, when it was finished. They were people who worshipped God. So God called these worshippers and givers to come now be leaders.

[8:10] We'll meet them again in just a moment. And they number the soldiers. God's preparing them to battle. Right? He's calling them to the promised land. Because you never get in to where he's bringing you without fighting the battle.

[8:25] We call that spiritual warfare. It's going to be a battleground, right? God calls us out of sin. We have now been called into the battlefield with sin. It's a battlefield each and every day.

[8:37] So he numbers the warriors, and that's what Numbers 2 is all about. It gives us the numbering of the men. And now we come to Numbers 2. Numbers 1 is the numbering of the men.

[8:47] Numbers chapter 2. In Numbers chapter 2, I want you to see, here would be the title that I give for this chapter, Order in the Camp. God is not a God of confusion, Scripture tells us. He is a God of order. All of creation works in perfect harmony, perfect order, right?

[9:03] God is a God of order. Everything works together perfectly. And here we begin to see order in the camp. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, and with the banners of their fathers' households, they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance.

[9:25] Now those who camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Judah, Nashon. By the way, that's the gentleman who is in the genealogy of Christ.

[9:37] Nashon, the son of Aminadab, and his army, even their numbered men, 74,600. Those who camp next to him shall be of the tribe of Issachar, and the leaders of the sons of Issachar, Nathanael, and the son of Zor, and his army, even their numbered men, 54,400.

[9:55] Then comes the tribe of Zebulun, and the leader of the sons of Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon, and his army, even his numbered men, 57,400. And the total of the numbered men of the camp of Judah, 186,400.

[10:08] By their armies, they shall set out first. On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Reuben, Eliezer, the son of Shador, and his army, even his numbered men, 46,500.

[10:22] Those who camp next to him shall be of the tribe of Simeon, and the leaders of the sons of Simeon, Shelomel, of the son of Zerushaddai, and his army, even their numbered men, 59,300.

[10:34] Then comes the tribe of Gad, I'm sorry, and the leader of the sons of Gad, Elisaph, and the son of Dul, and his army, even their numbered men, 45,650.

[10:47] The total of the numbered men of the camp of Reuben, 151,450, by their armies, and they shall set out second. Then the tent of meeting shall set out with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps, just as they camp, so they shall set out every man in his place by their standards.

[11:04] On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishamah, the son of Amihud, and his army, even their numbered men, 40,500.

[11:19] Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh, and the leader of the sons of Manasseh, Gamaliel, and the son of Padahazor, and his army, even their numbered men, 32,200. Then comes the tribe of Benjamin, and the leader of the sons of Benjamin, Abedan, the son of Gidani, and his army, even their numbered men, 35,400.

[11:38] The total of the numbered men of the camp of Ephraim, 108,100, by their armies, and they shall set out third. On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan, by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Dan, Ahazor, the son of Amishadai, and his army, even their numbered men, 62,700.

[11:57] Those who camp next to him shall be of the tribe of Asher, and the leader of the sons of Asher, Pajil, the son of Akron, and his army, even their numbered men, 41,500.

[12:08] Then comes the tribe of Naphtali, and the leader of the sons of Naphtali, Ahara, the son of Enon, and his army, even their numbered men, 53,400. The total of the numbered men of the camp of Dan was 157,600.

[12:23] They shall set out last, by their standards. These are the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers' households. The total of the numbered men of the camps by their armies, 603,550.

[12:35] The Levites, however, were not numbered among the sons of Israel, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Thus the sons of Israel did, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So they camped by their standards, and so they set out everyone by his family, according to his father's household.

[12:52] Numbers chapter 2. Here we see order in the camp. Really what God is showing us, if you remember, the 603,550 is the number of men who are 20 years old and upward, who are old enough to go into battle.

[13:09] When they count the Levites, that age goes very much younger, but here these numbered men are men who are 20 and over, those who are fit for battle. So probably the number we are looking at that most people give as an estimated number for the entire grouping of the nation of Israel is somewhere between two to three million people.

[13:28] It is a very, very large multitude of people. Some try to refute that claim, saying there is no way, but the only way that we can take the Bible to be true and to read these numbers is to go with that because God is speaking very literal numbers here.

[13:43] He is not trying to give us some kind of weird counting or some kind of weird construction of the original language. This is what he is saying. So we are looking at a camp that probably spans about 12 miles wide.

[13:56] It is a very, very large camp. And God is showing us, or he is instructing Moses and Aaron, how the camp shall be set up and how the camp shall set out when they move.

[14:07] When the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night decides to move from the tabernacle, this is how they were to set out. It is very telling to see that the one who leads is the tribe of Judah.

[14:18] We will get back to that later. The tribe of Judah is the largest tribe. The tribe that is at the end is the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Dan is the second largest tribe. So God put the most soldiers in the front and the second most soldiers in the rear.

[14:32] God knows what he is doing, right? He is protecting those instrumental parts. And he also has the tribes on either side between them and the Levites were gathered around with the tabernacle furnishings.

[14:43] They were carrying them. They weren't warriors. The Levites were not called to battle, right? They were called to work in worship. They were not called to battle. So those in the very center would not be those who would fight any battle.

[14:55] I want you to just to see four truths that we can glean from this. We're not going to take the passages verse by verse or anything like that. But I want you just to see four great truths from this chapter which God called for the nation to observe so that they may have order in the camp.

[15:11] And I think there are four truths that are applicable today for us also to live lives of order as God's people. Number one, we see that it is a united diversity. It is a united diversity.

[15:25] Now you say, well, it's all the same people, right? Do we need to go back and look and see how the sons of Israel came to be, right? There were four different mothers here. It is also amazing to see that God called the people to live next to in the camp, live next to those that were closest to them like all of the sons of Leah lived on the east side minus one who lived down on the south side.

[15:49] And then you have the sons of Rachel who were on the west side because Ephraim and Manasseh represented, you know, they represented Joseph and then you had Benjamin there and then you have the concubine's sons on the north side.

[16:04] So you had all the grouping intentionally put there because can't you imagine a family feud between the sons of Leah and the sons of Rachel? I mean, it just seems to be, if there was ever a divided family, God's people seem to be in the midst of a divided family.

[16:18] I mean, there was some conniving and trickery going on there quite often and we only have to go back to the book of Genesis to see that. But what you see here is you have a united diversity. God was calling his people to be one people with one God, yet he did not let that oneness blend into that everybody looked the same.

[16:38] This is important for us to say. Unity does not mean uniformity. There's a big difference, right? Being united does not necessarily mean you are uniform.

[16:51] In most major sports leagues, you have to wear a uniform and you have to look a certain way. And if you are out of uniform, you are fine. You have to wear the jersey of this kind, the pants of this kind, the socks of this kind, the cleats of this kind.

[17:06] And if you break uniform, if you want to stand out, then there is a massive fine in just about every major sports league there is. And it is when people try to break the uniformity that they get in trouble.

[17:18] God has not called his people to be a uniform people. He's called his people to be a united people. One of the greatest things and gifts we have is that God unites a very diverse group of people and allows those people to maintain their diversity.

[17:31] Because look at what it says. They are to camp, it says. The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard. There were four standards. There were four standards. That is, the four great leaders.

[17:42] You had the standard of Judah, the standard of Gad, the standard of Benjamin, and the standard of Dan. Right? So each side had its own standards. Some have tried to hypothesize. This is where we get the lion.

[17:53] Somebody said that Judah had the emblem of the lion. We don't know that. Nobody really knows. Nothing in the Bible tells us that. Jewish history says that. But nothing in Scripture does. But they all had their own standard.

[18:04] But under that standard, look at what it says. And the banners of their father's household. So if I'm under the standard of Judah, I still get to live under the banner of my father's household.

[18:18] You know what that means? I do not have to forfeit my identity to be a part of that in unity. I still get to be who I am. Even though I'm a part of something bigger than what I am.

[18:31] And when they set out, they camped according to their standards each under their father's banner. God didn't call his people to forfeit their identity just because he united them with one another.

[18:42] The beautiful thing is in Christianity. Christianity. Christianity is full of a diverse group of individuals. Not everybody worships the same. Not everybody behaves the same.

[18:53] I know we kind of, you know, we laugh about it all the time. Not everybody looks the same. Not everybody's even from the same geographical region. Not even everybody speaks with the same dialect. For those of you that will be here in the morning, you will meet Lorenzo.

[19:05] Lorenzo's an associate pastor. Lorenzo has a hard time translating into English what he does in his native language, right? He's like, I am a, he said, what do you call that in English? I'm not the big pastor.

[19:15] I'm the, I said, the associate pastor. Yeah, that's it. So their worship service looks totally different than ours, right? But that's okay because Lorenzo can still be Lorenzo and I get to still be Billy Joe even though we're united under the flag and the banner of Christ.

[19:29] That is the beauty of the gospel. And just about every world religion minus Hinduism because in Hinduism believes, in Hinduism you can be whatever you want to be however you want to be and it's okay.

[19:41] In pantheism the same way because everybody has their own little gods. But in every other world religion, major world religion you have to look like everybody else around you and you have to use the same language the same dialect and you have to have the same behaviors.

[19:53] Everybody has to look and say, I love the fact that in Christianity we still get to maintain our identity but be united with people who look different than us. That is awesome to me.

[20:05] I remember being at a Southern Baptist convention. My family and I were there two great times during the song service the worship service I remember there was one time How Great Is Our God was sung but it was sung in Spanish I didn't understand a single word of it I knew the tune right man I worshipped even though I couldn't understand it and then I remember one time there was I think it may have even been the same Southern Baptist convention they had these believers from a tribe in Africa they had come and this African tribe came and they sang and they worshipped I didn't know the beat I didn't know the tune I couldn't understand anything but I could worship with them because they were worshipping in a different language than I was even in a different manner than I was but it was great we were united in that worship why?

[20:50] because the thing that unites us is the banner of Christ it is not how we look how we behave how we act right? one of the beauties of this order in this camp is that God united the diversity of his people and he gathered them around one central theme and he gathered them around who they were this is how we have fellowship in the church not every one of us are alike and we don't always need to be alike we need to be alike on the one main thing which we're about to get to but we don't have to be identical to one another and that is great news you get to still camp under the banner of your father's house while we're living under the banner of Judah that's the beauty of it right?

[21:29] we get to be united even though we are diverse and we get to extend that this is the only place by the way that I can think of in the world the church the true church is the only place that really that is the reality most of the world is striving for that most of the world longs for that to happen but the reality is that does not happen by man focused efforts it only happens by God changed hearts and when diversity can be united then all of a sudden it becomes a testimony to the kingdom so we see a united diversity the reason there's such a united diversity here is the second thing is there is a central focus there's a central focus right?

[22:08] it says the sons of Israel shall camp each by his own standard and with the banners of his father's house so they shall camp around the tent of meeting that is the tabernacle here is the central focus they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance so they are to be going around most people believe it's kind of like a plus sign right?

[22:27] you had two over here two down here two over here two up here and they were very orderly but right in the center of that was the tent of meeting or not two it's three three three and three so you would have right in the center here the tent of meeting everything literally revolved around the tent of meeting as a matter of fact we see that the Levites they themselves camp around the tabernacle the Levites were to be a buffer zone we'll get to that later in Numbers chapter 3 but we can go ahead and put it out here because as they set out you have the two sets of tribes that set out first and then the tabernacle with the Levites that camp around it in their order and then the last two sets of tribes we have those coming out but what we see is that around the tabernacle the Levites were to camp and at the eastern side of the tabernacle which if you remember the construction of the tabernacle the door of the tabernacle was at the east right?

[23:23] so at the doorway of the tabernacle Moses and Aaron were to camp they were to be right there and the other we'll get to how the other ones camped out later but they would be a buffer zone that way the holiness of God would not destroy the sinfulness of the men and the sinfulness of men would not intrude upon the holiness of God because God put the priests in the way the priests were to be the buffer zone this should make us rejoice and celebrate because we have a great high priest who stands between us and a holy God and that great high priest is not of the tribe of Levi he's of the tribe of Judah we have a high priest who is greater than any of these who is according to the order of Melchizedek the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews and what we see here is that we would have to camp around the perimeter of God and we have to have someone who stands between us and God as Job said we need an umpire to put a hand on us and a hand on God and that person is Jesus Christ so we see here the central focus as a matter of fact that wording there in the New American Standard where it says that they should camp around the tent of meeting at a distance the wording there at a distance could also be interpreted facing it so literally they were to be facing the tabernacle everything in the camp revolved around and focused on

[24:37] God's manifest presence there's this great drawing I used to I just alluded to him earlier Brother Kenneth Swan many of you met Brother Kenneth Swan when he came and he showed the rocks he went through the rocks of the book of Revelation with you and Brother Kenneth Swan was the music leader for a long time at First Baptist Church Normandy but he also was a Sunday school teacher and Kenneth had this hanging on the wall of his Sunday school classroom there he had one of the members painted she was an artist so he had her painted very simple and what you had is a hanging that had two thrones a throne over here and a throne over here and on this hanging and I walked by so many times as a church member and as a pastor and I'll never forget it on this side on the throne there was a crown with a J it was like having Jesus on the throne and all around that throne everything was in order your work your finances your career everything was in order on this side of the drawing it had a big S for self and self was on the throne and everything was in chaos and everything was out so you know

[25:45] Jesus was kind of out here somewhere too and he used to always point to that and said whoever is on your throne however everything revolves around your life is going to dictate whether things are in order or things are in chaos if you're on the throne things are in chaos if he's on the throne everything's in order we begin to see that here in the book of Numbers when God is at central focus everything in the camp is in order you know nothing in our life falls in order until he has central place of our lives and he is the focus of our lives when he is the very center and everything is facing towards it then we do not have order without that so we see the central focus here man this is why I called you up not why I called you up here but this is how I encouraged you earlier to pay attention we see also in this passage an entrusted leadership an entrusted leadership as God introduces for us by the way it says the Lord spoke to Moses so all of this was his idea right this wasn't something that Moses and Aaron came up with this was something that God commanded them to do as God is saying this to Moses and Aaron he calls these men out again these 12 men

[26:50] Nashon and all the others who follow that are each over their respective tribe these are the men that are found in number 7 who are giving to the tabernacle and they are worshipping and they are celebrating God's faithfulness and it says of each of these men as he names them he says that these men shall be Nashon the son of Aminadab and his army even their numbered men what we see is that God didn't tell Moses and he didn't tell Aaron to get the camp in order God commanded here are the men you're going to camp around the tabernacle and let these men get things in order I'm not trying to be sexist here or anything politically incorrect but what you see is there was an entrusted leadership and God was raising up men who were worshipping him and serving him and he was entrusting them one of the faults that Moses had and we've seen it already is that Moses originally bore too much responsibility on himself and remember his father-in-law said this isn't going to work you can't do this you want to share that a little bit but what we see here is that God is raising up men around him to share that leadership and he's entrusting them these are the men and this is their army here's the men with him who will lead and God is bringing them up again

[28:09] God is a God of order and everything works according to his order that is not that is not incorrect that is not politically incorrect that's not sexist it's not anything it's just that God is calling these men out to lead and he's calling them out to fulfill their purpose and he's calling them out to bear that responsibility the task would not fall to one individual but God was spreading it abundantly above and beyond to all these individuals we have leaders even in the tribe of Levi we'll get to those later but again we are reminded that God is giving responsibility and leadership to other individuals because if we can lead in a small circle then the big picture becomes perfectly in order as Tony Evans says I know I've shared this with you before all it takes is one messed up man to ruin the world the kingdom men rising event that some of us men went to and you say well how does that happen because if you have a messed up man who's married to a wife and has children now all of a sudden you have a messed up family and if that messed up man who has messed up that family is a part of a church now you have a messed up church and if that messed up man who has messed up his family who has now messed up that church is a part of the community now you have a messed up community and in that community becomes a messed up county and that county becomes a messed up state and that messed up state becomes a messed up nation that messed up nation becomes a messed up world he said it all goes back down you got to get to the root right you got to get to the root if we handle our responsibilities in our small circles all of a sudden now the bigger picture begins to fall in order and this is what god's calling his people to do he's entrusting them he says to nashon take care of the tribe of judah right make sure the tribe of judah is ready to go he says to the leader of the sons of issachar nathanael you take care of the tribe of nathanael and this is all you have to take care that's only 54 400 men nathanael you got this right at least you're not nashon with 76 000 men and then he says to eli of the of the tribe of zebulun you only have these this is all you have to take care of and you're not you're not like moses has got to move all three million people you start at the small and then if you go down they had leaders of tens leaders of hundreds leaders of of thousands right they broke it down god was calling people to be entrusted with leadership to take over these things and to lead boldly and confidently why because they were focused on god in the center fourth and finally this order in the camp i want you to see that at least for a moment they lived in absolute obedience they lived in absolute obedience order is not possible without absolute obedience it says in verse 34 thus the sons of israel did according to all that the lord commanded moses this order this idea this was a command thus the sons of israel did according to all that the lord commanded moses so they camped by their standards so they set out everyone by his family according to his father's household right exactly what god told them to do they they did exactly what god told them to do it's amazing as we read this that that they're living in absolute obedience because what amazes us is we're not going to get very very many chapters into the book of numbers before we see that they begin to live in disobedience because it's really easy to be obedient at the base of mount sinai where you've seen god shake the mountain god speak you've seen the tabernacle erected you've seen the glory of god feel it but it's a little harder to walk in absolute obedience when you get into the wilderness and things don't always go right where you're thirsty and hungry and your feet are probably tired and and god keeps moving but the reality is is for order to be maintained one of the sad realities is is this generation

[32:13]  you remember that only two will remain only two of these 603,550 men will remain joshua and caleb and when we read the listing of the sons of the levites only none of those will remain with those 20 and over some of the younger ones will but moses and aaron they don't they won't even make it moses disobeyed right the the sin of moses he struck the rock put himself in the place of of god we'll get to that in the book of numbers what a picture it is anybody realize why moses was had all the problems yeah i said because he hit the rock but yeah but why didn't he strike the rock the first time yeah god told him to strike the rock the first time water came out the second time god told him to speak to the rock and water come out moses said he struck the rock said west we bring forth water so moses put himself in the place of god but the rock is christ christ didn't have to be struck twice he was struck once that blessings may always flow out of him moses struck him again hit him again that's that's not a reality right he was crucified once and now all i have to do is ask him not just cruci he doesn't have to be crucified again that's the sin of moses but it's easy to be obedient at the base of mount sinai it's a lot harder to be obedient in the midst of the wilderness but we see here at least for a moment they're living in absolute obedience the only way we maintain order is to live in absolute obedience where god has put us numbers chapter two let's pray and then we're going to sing again so let's pray god i thank you so much you allowed us to come tonight and lord you allowed us to open up your word and what a privilege it is just to see what it says and god to to be reminded of your splendor and your glory to be reminded of of your worth lord we pray that our lives would be lives of order lives of intentional purpose for your glory and lord that we would live according to your calling lord may all things be done as you appoint and as you call and equip us to do it lord we just give you the praise lord we we give you all the admiration and love that we can and we extend it we'll never be able to give you that which you deserve but lord we give you that which you call us to so lord we praise you and we worship you and we adore you lord we just we thank you so much for redeeming and saving us and lord may we always walk faithfully with you and we ask it all in christ's name amen amen