Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go in numbers. Chapter 20 and 21. Only two chapters today. Wanted to keep these two chapters together. We actually got a good chunk of chapters tomorrow. Like I've said a couple of times, the amount of reading isn't the same every day. But that's because we want to keep things kind of thematically as organized as possible. We don't want to cut things off at weird points in the narrative. So numbers, chapter 20 and 21 is what we're going to dive into today. If you've done the reading, let's dive in. If you haven't done the reading, pause this video. Stop the audio. Don't listen, don't watch. We don't want to spoil it for you. We want to add to the value of what you are reading. All right? Our context clues, nerdy nuggets, and timeless truths may get all mixed in. Today, two things that we are going to tackle is why is Moses not allowed to go into the promised Land? All right, like, for real, growing up as a Christian, this is probably top five questions that has, like, irked me particularly. It's funny because, like, this really bothers my wife, Tia. She's like, I just don't get it, man. Moses wasn't that bad. Like. And I've heard all kinds of things. The most common thing that I've heard is that the rock that Moses hits represents Jesus. And because Moses struck Jesus, that he is not allowed to enter into the promised land. And I just think that's a very problematic interpretation. That is not an interpretation that I would preach or teach. Because if you remember all the way back in Exodus, actually God who. Who said, hey, I'm going to stand in front of the mountain, you strike it like, essentially, the people should be punished, and we believe that Jesus was punished for our transgressions. So to somehow say that Moses adding to the sufferings of Christ, like that stuff, I just think that that is odd theology and odd interpretation. I am going to offer what is an answer that I am happy with. Let's give some context, okay? Some context clues. Now, this is not immediately apparent. It's funny, in. In my Bible, I've got notes here right next to numbers, chapter 20, okay? I've got a little note there, and there's no chance you can see the note that I have there. But here's what my little note says, that this is 38 years later. All right? So the Bible isn't gonna explicitly let you know this, but a lot of time has passed by, so much so that the. In that the generation that needs to die off is nearly died off. And the way that we know that, verse one of chapter 20, the very, very end of verse one, it says, Miriam died there and was buried there. So Moses's generation is dying. And later on in the next chapter, Aaron's gonna die. All right? So homies is dropping like flies, okay? So that's like just context. Here's the second piece of context. A new generation is now grumbling and complaining. Okay? This is not the original generation that came out of Egypt. These are their kids. The Bible's not going to explicitly say that. There's overwhelming amount of clues that let us lead us to that. Without that context, it just feels like the people of Israel are complaining again. But you kind of need to know, ah, no. 38 years have gone by. Remember, they're going to wander for 40. So they're two years away from going into the promised land, and there's an entire generation that is on the brink of. Of dying off. All right? Just waiting for a couple last stragglers to kick the bucket so that everybody can go into the promised land. This may be dark humor, but, you know, imagine just waiting around for that last guy, just that last guy to die. You know, it's like, man, Grandpa Jack, just. Just go ahead, trip Grandpa, you know, so we can go into the promised land. Anyway. Hashtag dark humor. Anyway. Okay, so that's context. Now let's get into some nerdy nuggets. Okay? Let's talk through, like. Okay. Cause we're trying to. This is the question we're trying to answer. Why is Moses punished so severely? Why is Moses not going to be allowed into the land? Seems like a severe punishment for. For hitting a rock as opposed to speaking to the rock. Pretty severe punishment. Doesn't feel like the punishment fits the crime. I got a bunch of clues for us. Clue number one. Miriam has died. Moses's sister is dead. And it's a new generation that hasn't grown up with Moses sister. We have to remember that Moses sister is dead. So, okay, I don't want to get ahead of myself. So that's a massive part of this whole story, is that the story starts with Moses sister who is dead. Okay? So Moses may not be his normal self. Moses may be mourning the death of his sister. It seems like Moses sister being dead is a big part of just the emotional scenario here. All right, clue number two. They quarrel with Moses, and they say, if only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Now, remember, their parents generation used to say, if only we had died in Egypt. That's not what this new generation is saying. This new generation is saying, if only we had died when our brothers died. I want you to read in between the lines, they're saying, we got siblings who have died, too, Moses. So clue number actually, clue number one is it's a new generation. 38 years have gone by. Clue number two. Miriam is dead. Clue number three. The people are talking. This new generation is talking. And their verbiage is not, we want to go back to Egypt. Their verbiage is Bro Korah's rebellion. Like, they're looking back at the wilderness journeys, and they're like, hey, man, we've all lost family. We've all lost siblings. Clue number four. They're complaining about the food in the wilderness. And here's what they say. It has no Grain or figs or grapevines or pomegranates. Wait a second. When. When their parents described the food that they wanted, they talked about the food that was in Egypt, food that they used to have. This new generation in, talking about no Egyptian food. All of these things are things that the spies brought back from the land of Canaan. They're like, wait a second. This wilderness doesn't have figs, grape vines, pomegranates. They're like, we want the milk and honey. Okay? They're not craving the food they used to have. They're craving the food that's been promised to them. The food that Jacob. Sorry. That Caleb and Joshua. I combine their names, Joshua and Caleb is Jacob. You know, so they're. They're craving the food that Joshua and Caleb and the other 10 spies brought back from the land. That's another clue. Clue number five. The Lord says to Moses, okay, take the staff. Now, what is the staff? The staff is the one that butted to prove that Aaron was actually the rightful high priest in the response to Korah's rebellion. Key word there. The staff is a symbol to help people to remember, not to rebel against God. So God is saying to Moses, grab the staff. Next clue. Clue number six. Moses says to the people, listen, you rebels. So now, thus, a symbol that's supposed to remind us of rebellion is there that God tells Moses to bring. And now Moses is using the word rebels. And here's what he says. Must we bring you water out of this rock? Uh oh, Moses. Moses is not able to bring water. God's the one that's going to bring water. And here's the last one. Clue number seven. Seven clues here. Numbers. Chapter 20, verse one tells us that they are at the desert of Zin. Now, for anyone who may not remember this, this is the exact place that the spy set out to go into the land of Canaan 38 years ago. So they are now back at the desert of Zin. So we're supposed to have the pomegranates, the figs, the grapevines. The desert of Zin is supposed to make us be thinking about what happened 38 years ago. And here's what I think is happening. What I think is happening is that Moses wants to stay here and mourn for his sister Miriam. But the people, this new generation is eager to get into the land. They're eager to obey God. But Moses doesn't want to move on. He wants to stay here and he wants to mourn. Anytime there's mourning, it means you're not moving. Okay? A mourning process means that you stay and you. And you actually mourn when Aaron dies. Okay? Get this. Chapter 20. The very last verse, verse 29. And when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, all the Israelites mourn for him 30 days, okay? Which means they're not moving for 30 days. There's no reference of the people stopping to mourn for Miriam. And I think Moses wants to mourn for his sister Miriam. This is why the community is saying, we got brothers that have died, too, man. We've had siblings that have died, too. We've all lost people out here in this wilderness. And you, Moses, are making decisions with your emotions and not with the wisdom that God's given you. You're not obeying God. Moses, we want to eat figs. We want pomegranates. We want grapes. We want that food we had 38 years ago. That was from Canaan. And we are ready to do what God's called us to do. And you want us to wait in the wilderness, and you want us to mourn for your sister, and we don't want to do that. So the people are grumbling and complaining. And so why does God say, get the staff? The staff is supposed to show who's in rebellion and who's not and who's in rebellion. In this story, Moses is in rebellion. The people are not wrong. It is Moses who is wrong. And because Moses does not want to lead the people into the Promised Land, God's not going to let him into the Promised Land, okay? If you don't want to go into the Promised Land at the time where I'm telling you to go, then you're not fit to go. Because a leader always has to want the vision more than the people that they're leading. And for Moses, he's got more in his hindsight than he's got in his foresight. He, at this point, is mourning the things that he's lost. And every leader gets to a place where instead of dreaming about the things to come, they start mourning the things that they've lost. And a leader has really lost sight of the vision that God's shown them when they are counting the things that they've lost more than they are excited about what's to come. It's easy to leave Miriam to leave her grave site in the. In the past, when you're full of vision for the future. But I think Moses has gotten down to the end of his rope. Like, I don't think he's full of vision. I don't think that he's equipped to actually lead the people into Canaan. And there's proof the people want to go to Canaan more than he wants to go to Canaan. Now, in the midrash, there's this Jewish tradition that actually the rock that Moses hits is Miriam's tombstone. Okay? And that water comes from it. Now, that's not in the text. It would take me, who way too long to, like, argue that point or to really, like, lay out the claims of that point. But Miriam's death is a detail in this story that I think gets overlooked a lot. So I just gave you a ton of nerdy nuggets. All those clues that I gave you, all seven of those clues. Those are all nerdy nuggets. The context that I gave you was that it's 38 years later and it's a new generation. And then the seven clues were all nerdy nuggets. Bible nerds. I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into and that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head to crushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. What's the timeless truth? The timeless truth here is that Moses is not disqualified because of lust or embezzling money. He's not disqualified because of any of the things that we warn people against in current ministry culture. He's not disqualified because of infidelity. He's not disqualified for any of the things that I think we focus on in a modern church ministry context. He is disqualified for not being emotionally aware and for not being emotionally mature. He's disqualified because he's experienced a lot of emotional pain and hasn't processed that pain in a way that has been healthy. Moses is disqualified not because of anything that I think we equip people to guard against. You know, even if I reflect on the advice that I've been given as someone who's been in ministry for decades, hey, man, just don't cheat on your wife and you'll be all right. As if that's the only sin. That may be the only sin that people would cause people to not want to follow me anymore. But that's not the only sin that would cause God to say that you have been disqualified from the prize, that you've caused other people to run after. Emotional health and emotional depth is actually the thing that is the thing that ends Moses career. Not infidelity, not. It's emotional problems. And I think a lot of times, especially if you come from a Pentecostal background, that we don't like to do the work of navigating our own souls and becoming emotion, unlocking the full spectrum of our emotions. Moses wants to mourn. And instead of just saying that, he takes his frustrations out on the people. And by taking his frustrations out on the people, he ends up doing something that disqualifies him from walking into the promised land. So if you ask me, why is it that Moses is not able to go into the promised land, I would tell you. Well, it's because he wants to mourn the death of his sister. And the people that he's leading want the vision more than he wants the vision. And whenever the people want the vision more than the leader wants the vision, that's never going to happen. That means they need a new leader. That means they need a leader who wants the vision more than they want the vision. Because only a leader who wants the vision more than the people want the vision have what it takes to actually get the people into the vision. That God has spoken for the people and to the leader. So Moses disqualifies himself from going into the land because he refuses to go into the land. He actually gets what he asked for, okay? He wants to sit there and mourn for Miriam. The people want to get it moving, get it going. And that's just not what he wants. He's not in an emotional place to do that. And what he ends up doing is pride and arrogance come up. Okay? Cause what Happens is trauma stirs stuff up in us. And what happens is, ow, you rebels. Must we bring water out of this rock? It's almost this entitled attitude when leaders feel like, man, I've given everything to the ministry. Now it's like the normal demands of people begin to be overwhelming, and you get to a place in leadership where you feel entitled. And now God has to correct and rebuke and punish when leaders get to that point. All right, here's the last little nugget. Here's a timeless truth. Water gushed out in the community and the livestock drank. That's verse 11. There's a lot of times where people think that because ministry was effective, God must be okay with me. And that's not true. God could have rejected a leader. But because God loves his people, God will still deliver water. You could be in sin. You could be cheating on your wife. You could be doing all kinds of stuff. You could be living a mess of a life and still preach. And people get ministered to and people get saved, and there's miracles. The people, people in the Bible are gonna come to Jesus and say, I did miracles in your name. Jesus is gonna say, get away from me. Never knew you so effective. Ministry is not the litmus test for whether or not God approves of a leader. Ministry is effective because God loves his people and he'll use anybody as a conduit of love for his people. God loves his people. So the reason that the sermon was good is not cause God approves of you. It's because God loves his people and God wants to minister to his people. And that's a timeless truth. And every minister better remember that I have to be emotionally healthy and I can't believe my own hype. God is not approving of me. God's approval of me has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the ministry. And then, last thing, we're gonna get a bronze serpent. Now, this is a fascinating story. Uh, we're gonna get this towards the end of chapter 21 or the middle of chapter 21, we're gonna get a bronze serpent. Now what happens? The people grumble, they complain, fiery serpents come and bite em, which is really God lifting his head to protection. The serpents were all always there. It's just that they were being protected by Yahweh. So God lifts his head to protect. And this is passive wrath of God, not the active wrath of God. And then God says to Moses, hey, put a snake on a pole and anyone who looks at it will be healed. And what's the meaning of that. Here's the meaning. Obedience brings healing. There's a bunch of people who thought to themselves, that don't make no sense. Why would looking at that bring healing? And those people didn't get healed. There's nothing magical about the serpent or the pole or looking at it. The thing that works is obedience. Obedience works. And so don't try to overcomplicate things. If God says something, do it. Because obedience works. There's nothing magical about the serpent, the pole, or the looking at it. And Jesus is going to use this in the New Testament and said in the same way that Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man will be lifted up. And what do I need to do in order to be saved? I need to look at the cross. What do I see when I look at the cross? I see that that should be me. And I see that Jesus took my place. And I see the love of God poured out. And I see the wrath of God poured out. And when I behold it, I become what I behold. So I should look at the cross. I should look at Jesus. And by looking at the cross, it tells me everything I need to know. And by beholding it, it sparks belief in me. And so all the people of Israel needed to do is behold. And when we behold the cross, it tells us a story. That's our timeless truth. Okay, so I gave you a good set of context clues, I gave a ton of nerdy nuggets, and we actually did multiple timeless truths today. So, all right, tomorrow we've got day one 22, and it's going to be a good one. We're going to talk about Balaam and his donkey, and I think it's going to be good. We're trekking. We're making our way through the wilderness. Hey, if you're on a streak, don't mess it up. If you're not on a streak, any day is a good day to start a streak. All you need is two days in a row to start a streak. I am so, so, so proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we keep making our way through the wilderness. I love you. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at the Bible Department. Com. We'll see you back here tomorrow.