|
by Rev. Dr. David R. Mains
Text: Numbers 16:41-50 
Sermon in a Sentence: If present trends continue unchecked, the devil’s grip on our nation will grow tighter and tighter. That’s why the faithful of this generation must take seriously their role of intervening for our children and grandchildren.
It must have been an awful time to be alive. Of all the generations to have been a part of, this would’ve been one of the worst. If you did your assigned Scripture reading this past week, you probably can guess what I’m talking about.
We are in a Spiritual Adventure called The Remarkable Revelation: Sensing His Presence While Watching for His Return. This is Sunday Four of eight, and, yes, you can still purchase an Adventure Journal. You can get that plus the small book most everyone is reading and talking about, called The Day That Changed America at (share details).
Rather than starting your journal work at Day 1, I would suggest that you pick up where the rest of the congregation is, at Day 22, or Sunday 4. In addition, start immediately reading the seven chapters of the Bob Fraley book as soon as you are able.
Spiritual Adventures are times for accelerated, measurable and lasting growth in your Christian life.
After Israel’s twelve spies explored the land of Canaan, the general populace chose to identify with the majority report. Essentially that was, “It’s as wonderful a place as we were told, but the people are powerful and we’ll never defeat them.” Numbers 13:33 (quote) “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Here’s chapter 14, verses 1 through 4: 
“That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’”
By this time the Lord had heard enough complaining, and He made an emphatic decree that everyone 20 years old or more would never ever enter this good land that He had sworn to make their home. The only exceptions were Joshua and Caleb, whose minority report said, “We should go for it!” God speaks in verses 31 and 32. Listen:
“As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you—your bodies will fall in this desert.”
What an awful position to be in. A desert isn’t a pleasant place to live out all the rest of your days. And what a discouraging situation, when you know you’re basically just marking time until you die.
Trying to make adjustments, the people decided to make amends by going to war on their own, but it didn’t work, and they were soundly beaten.
Instead of then choosing to live their lives for the benefit of their children and grandchildren, their proverbial pattern of grumbling resumes. That’s when we get the account most of you read in Numbers 16 about the rebellion of Korah. I’ll pick up the ongoing narrative following that rebellion with verse 41 and the passage you were to have read yesterday:
“The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ‘You have killed the LORD’s people,’ they said.
But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get away from the assembly so I can put an end to them at once.’ And they fell facedown.
Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started.’ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.”
I find myself deeply moved by this dramatic scene of grey-haired, wrinkled old Aaron running in his priestly robes, censer in hand, to strategically position himself between the people and the plague.
These are the rebellious whiners who time and again had spoken against both he and his brother Moses. In fact, these are the exact same men and women who had gotten Aaron in trouble back in Exodus 32. That’s when Moses supposedly took too long coming down from the mountain when he met with God, so they talked Aaron into making them a golden calf like they had learned to worship back in Egypt. What a fiasco that was. The High Priest knew he never wanted to make a mistake like that again.
Now he was nervously rescuing them. There he was, all sweaty with censer or firepan in hand. Its flame had come directly from the sacred altar and had ignited the special incense that made atonement for this mutinous generation. Thousands had already succumbed, but that was just a fraction of the huge number that would surely have died had Aaron not acted so quickly. The truth is, the entire remaining adult population of Israel owed their very lives to this bearded old gentleman.
Earlier I was reading from Numbers chapter 16. In Numbers 20, Moses will take his brother Aaron and climb Mt. Hor along with Aaron’s son. There Moses will remove Aaron’s priestly garments and put them on Eleazar. Verses 28-29:
“And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, and when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.”
By this time most of you have read Bob Fraley’s short book, The Day That Changed America. His intent is not to say that his conclusion is for certain the identity of that frightening beast in Revelation 13 that some future day will make life miserable for all believers. God alone knows the identity of that superpower. It is not unreasonable, however, to write that this beast could well be what (quote) “Christian America” someday becomes. If you haven’t read his book, once again, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Like our Adventure title, I would say what he has written is a remarkable revelation.
My message today can be summed up as follows: If present trends continue unchecked, the devil’s grip on our nation will grow tighter and tighter. That’s why the faithful of this generation must take seriously their role of intervening for our children and grandchildren.
Once again, if present trends continue unchecked, the devil’s grip on our nation will grow tighter and tighter. Resaid, unless some incredibly powerful force challenges what the enemy is doing, capitulation to his schemes is inevitable.
Is there a restraining element capable of doing that? Yes, there is. That would be a heaven-sent revival that would sweep through the church and spill over into the non-church world as well.
“Viv” words are all life-related. Vivid means “full of life.” Someone who is vivacious is a lively person. “Viva!” is a call “To life!”
The “viv” in the middle of revival tells you that the word is about life. The prefix “re” means “again.” So it’s “again-life,” or life coming back again. When a person has fainted your hope is that he or she can be revived. In similar fashion, when the church, generally speaking, appears to have fainted, the hope is that it can be revived.
The suffix “al” means “pertaining to,” so revival literally means “that which pertains to life coming back again” or “to live again.” If housing starts are down and construction and sales suddenly start moving again, there’s been a revival in the housing market. In theatre, when an old play is dusted off and re-mounted, it’s called a revival of that production.
In a special way, however, the word revival has always belonged first and foremost to the church. There it refers to a time when the people of God show evidences of a new way of living in the very presence of the Lord, with incredibly powerful results.
Even the most awesome revival in the history of the American church, however, won’t necessarily save this nation from where she will probably end up. My guess is that the history of America will be similar to the history of Israel in Scripture. The start was on a high note. But the delights that accompanied that beginning were not understood by the next generations. They got their eyes off of the one doing the blessing and onto what they were being blessed with, and that began a downward trend.
End of Short Preview for Sermon #4 | 
