Here are some cool bits from early in Numbers. People are dedicated to the Lord and being formed into His people. At the same time, Moses and Aaron are being formed into High Priests – the men that will represent God to the people and vice versa.
Speaking the Truth in Love
The other day a few of us were talking about “speaking the truth in love”. We, of course, were trying to correct a guy that was not doing that. It was a tough conversation because I think the guy was holding onto truth tighter than he was holding onto love. The challenge for me during that conversation was to hold on to truth AND love at the same time. It’s easy to hate a hateful person, but that would put me in league with the hateful person out of hate. I wanted to be in league with him because we are both in Christ.
Later in the day, I looked up that verse. We always quote “speak the truth in love” but what is its context? What else goes with that saying? It turns out a LOT.
The opening of Ephesians 4 is about unity. Paul urges the Ephesian church, from prison, to do whatever they can to maintain the unity of the Holy Spirit by being at peace with each other. It is by humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love that this happens.
That is probably the first red flag. We achieve unity through humility. The further we get away from humility, the further away we will be from unity. At the last supper, when Jesus was addressing the disciples who had spent part of the meal arguing who was the most important, He told them that “all men will know you are my disciples” by their love for one another. Love and unity go hand in hand because you can’t love each other and be fighting.
How about this part:
[11] And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
(Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV)
I have heard ‘prophets’ and ‘teachers’ say before that they are ‘just telling the truth.’ I can agree with them. All too often, though, they are speaking the truth without love. Considering the high stakes of Christian unity and the Body of Christ, you would think that truth would not have so killed off love in the Church.
Love is bearing with others. Love is considering that you don’t have to tell your brother where he is wrong, but you can instead teach by your own lifestyle and loving conversation instead of the truth grenade. Jesus did yell at the scribes and the Pharisees, but that was after a long series of loving face to face conversations.
Prophets and evangelists (good news tellers) are given to build up the body of Christ. This building up doesn’t happen by chopping off the sick parts and denying friendship with the parts that don’t look like us. Think of how the human body works. If a part is sick or injured or just plain wrong, the body sends white blood cells, antibodies, extra blood and oxygen, platelets, etc until the wound is healed. What if that is how we responded with truth?
What would happen if we held on to truth (which is Christ) and increased our love? What if we increased our love even more for those that we disagree with, or are even our enemies? That is one of Christ’s most compelling teachings and that fits right in line with these things from Paul and Christ’s words of forgiveness from the cross.
[15] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
(Ephesians 4:15–16 ESV)
Leaving Room for God or Bumping Him Out of Vengence
Romans 12:19-21 NET
19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
If we repay, or take justice into our own hands, we risk becoming the oppressor. We risk beating the evil of our enemy by being more severe or untrue or unjust than they were. When that happens, we take away the room for God's justice, because He always takes the side of the persecuted or oppressed underdog.
1 Corinthians 6:7
To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
He is saying that it would be better to be defeated than to risk man-made justice that threw dirt on God's face.
How many times do you get in a fight (maybe this just happens between husbands and wives?) and afterwards you see that it was an argument over less than $10? After the fact, don't you ever think "Man, I would totally pay $20 for peace and reconciliation right now!"
Romans 12:19-21 NET
19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
WCAGLS Session 6: Bob Goff
Session 6 Bob Goff
"I'm emotionally incontinent!"
Getting our signals wrong. In Uganda, our american motion for hello is Ugandan for "Follow Me!"
Stalkers find out all kinds of information about people they don't spend time with.
"I was stalking Jesus, and it was freaking both of us out!"
1 John 3:16 – we should lay down our lives for each other…let us not love with words and speech, but with words and truth!
- Who are you?
- What do you want?
If you get the answer to those two questions right, you'll be a great leader.
Moving from agreeing from Jesus to DOING STUFF.
He built a chapel for his daughter and his son in law! They built it together.
You guys can do a lot of things! Let's tease out the thing that Jesus made you to do.
Live a life worthy of the calling that you received! you, not me, not your brother.
Like a polaroid, you have to wait and give it time to develop. Sometimes as leaders we want to jump in and do stuff for people and keep them from developing.
This guy is so freaking intense.
If we weren't afraid, we would all do all of the stuff God gives us to do and it would be awesome.
He acted like a wax museum statue and two little old ladies came up and tugged on his beard. He stayed still so that he wouldn't kill them. He was a poser. He was acting.
Life is like an interrobang. It's an exclamation and a question all at once.
Bob adopts this 8 year old kid from Uganda so he could have surgery in the US.
This guy's stories are to awesome to take notes.
Every Thursday he quits something. He is continually making margins for Jesus to step into.
God wants to show off. DO STUFF and watch and see what God does!
Lazira prison was made for 200 inmates, but it holds 3,000 people.
The guy that maimed Charlie told Bob that he needed forgiveness. "I am going to die in this prison, I need to be forgiven." and Kabi, the most evil man you can imagine, became a Christian. He is now reading the Bible and wants to do what it says.
Kabi stood up and preached the gospel to 3,000 men on death row.
Then he baptized 3/4 of them with a cup of water.
Then he forgave Bob, who got him busted and landed into prison for a life sentence.
Ok, that was the best talk yet.
Hating on your Lifeguard
In Numbers 12, there is a pretty common biblical event:
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman).
They said, “Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard it.
Some people that have been helped out A LOT start grumbling against the one that helped them. Aaron and Miriam have been a part of the deliverance of all of Israel. Miriam was the lead worship singer when they crossed through the Red Sea. Aaron was Moses’ right hand man throughout all of the plagues! And now they are looking at Moses and coveting his glory.
As they grumble against Moses, they take part in an almost eternal bout of jealousy. Cain & Abel, Satan & God, the sons of Isaac, the sons of David, Jesus’ disciples, the various apostles that travel around after Jesus’ death, the list goes on.
Sometimes in the amazing event of backstabbing, God guides the anointed one that He has made the lead to be the savior of the ones that grumble against him. Sometimes, however, He lets the grumblers win.
And sometimes, He does both.
Jacob’s 12 sons (ok, 10 of them) were jealous against Joseph. They rebelled against him, and then YEARS later it turned out that HE saved THEM. Jesus DIED and then a few days later everyone realized that DYING was the WHOLE POINT of what He was doing!
The real profound thing here is that God truly shows His nature in His people when He saves the enemies through the victim of the griping. Moses could easily write off Aaron and Miriam and let them be miserable in their jealousy, but God wanted to show them how Moses was different than they were.
Any grumbler would wish evil on their enemy. Miriam would obviously be happy if she got more power OR if Moses got less. But when God’s presence leaves them and she’s covered with disease, she and Aaron aren’t the ones crying out to God to fix it.
Numbers 12:11-13
11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!
12 Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb!” 13 Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.”
Moses is the one they ask for help.
Moses is the one they ask to fix it.
God just explained to them how Moses is different, but showing is better than telling. Aaron and Miriam want to put their enemies down because jealousy is self-seeking. Moses is seeking the good of those that speak against him, because he knows that whatever he is is from God, and not from himself.
After this, Miriam owes Moses her life. He stepped in on her behalf. Moses ALSO has gained the respect of Miriam, as one that is the better man, one that would have compassion on his enemies,
just like God.