Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

We’ll read verses 1-14. 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness.

Now these things happened as examples for us, and we should not crave evil things as they also craved. And do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man. And God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

We’re going to conclude this afternoon our series of talks on lust. Hopefully we’ll actually get the time right and maybe we’ll be back in the morning. Who knows? Next week the plan is to do a summation of the seven deadly sins and the deformation of society. And then the following week talk about the reformation of society.

So it isn’t quite the end of the series, but it is the end of the talks on lust. The outline you’ve got today and the passage we used maybe would have been a real good outline for a series of four or five talks on lust. We chose a little different method. We started, as you remember, with Romans 1, that downward spiral that’s depicted in Romans 1 of people who reject God and don’t give him thanks. They’re turned over to various lusts, many times sexual lusts that end up with homosexuality. But we pointed out that’s a warning to us because it’s really a progression of a failure to control lust in one’s life and a failure to be thankful to God.

We then talked about lust in marriage and how even though we’re married to our mates, we still ought not to be lustful toward them and that we shouldn’t do that. Christian marriage is different than pagan marriage and the physical side of Christian marriage should be characterized in a different fashion than pagan marriage. And then for the last couple of weeks, we looked at the book of Proverbs to see some warnings there and how much warning there is to avoid sexual sin in that book as well as false wisdom.

The passage we’re going to look at now really, as I said, could have been used as an outline for a series of four or five on lust. What we’re going to do this afternoon is kind of widen the thing out a little bit and kind of remove it from just sexual lust. There’s lust for power, lust for other things in this text as we’ll see. And although it does sort of bleed into the covetous or envy area, I think that it would be proper to talk about it in the sense of lust because that’s what this passage seems to do.

So we’re going to kind of look at a little broader example from this text.

You remember this text. We’ve talked about it several times when we’re talking about communion. And of course, we use a portion of this text in several of our communion liturgies as well. It fits in with that. What he is doing is he’s warning the Corinthians in the greater context here that even though they’ve been baptized and even though they may have a supper, a Lord’s supper or what they think is a Lord’s supper every week, they may have those sacramental privileges, but still they should be very careful because so did the people in the wilderness, the church in the wilderness. And yet that church fell with many of them God was not well pleased and they perished. You know that means most of them as it turns out. So it’s a warning passage here and it’s specifically phrased in the context of warning about lust.

I thought it was interesting reflecting on this morning as we were singing the opening hymn and again thinking of the concept that we’re an army that God has gathered to himself. You remember we said last week in Numbers 6 where the benediction is found. The benediction we use at the end of our first half of our service every Sunday. That benediction is the placing of God’s authority and power and blessing upon the convocated host who are arrayed in army sort of fashion. So it’s a reminder we go out marching. Well, they didn’t march right. That was in Numbers 6.

We’re going to look at four examples, inspired examples of why we shouldn’t be lustful and how lust manifests itself from the army of God, the church of God in the wilderness and their failings. It’s a very temporary example to us because these things are after all written for our instruction upon when the ends of the ages have come.

Now this word example that’s found in this text in 1 Corinthians 10, these things were examples for us. That word can be translated type and is the same essential root meaning or the same word from which the English word type comes. The Greek word is *typos* and so it’s an inspired example from God. These things really happened. Of course, it’s not as if they’re just stories made up, but they’re inspired examples to us or types, if you want to use that word, to warn us about particular things.

He says specifically that they were given to the intent that we should not lust after evil things. Lenski in his commentary on this says that Christians are after all the goal of all past history. And so these examples really happened to the Old Testament community. You’ll see in the Psalm that we’re going to quote. There were examples to the Old Testament church as well after the wilderness wanderings. The Psalms codified them in a second form in terms of temple worship to be used to remember these examples. The first century church, the Corinthians had these examples brought up in front of them and we read them in our scriptures this morning. So they’re examples to us as well. They’re examples throughout history. And history is as Lenski said, the goal of history is Christian development and the spread of the kingdom. And so these things are quite important for us contemporaneously.

Now he says here that it’s to the end that we shouldn’t lust after evil things. Without getting into the grammar, the concept of lust is really stressed in this particular verse in the grammatical structure. And so he’s really stressing that the problem with these examples he’s going to list is lust. This inordinate desire, a craving, being preoccupied with a craving to the end that it makes you do things you shouldn’t do. And he says that this lust is after evil things.

Now for the sake of the outline I have used the term strange things and we looked at those four examples. We’ve got strange gods, we’ve got strange women, we have strange food and then strange power.

Now the concept of a god is not a bad thing in and of itself. Women aren’t bad things in and of themselves. And the sexual relationship in marriage is not a bad thing. And food is not a bad thing. And power and authority is not a bad thing. The thing that makes them evil for those who are lustful after them is that they are particularly prohibited things. Remember we said that in one sense the strange woman for you if you’re a man is anybody except your own wife. You’ve got privileges with her that you don’t share with any other woman and vice versa.

And so the word strange in the Old Testament means relationally in regard to something else. And so the laws of consanguinity, one flesh laws in the Old Testament said that anybody outside the family was a strange person for you and in case your husband died. Well, I’m using that concept in this case as well to sort of give us a picture of how to hang this text together for ourselves. These things are all okay. To worship a god is okay in and of itself. But to worship idols, false gods, is prohibited. Okay? The only one God we’re to worship is the God who is the only true God, Yahweh. These other things are also prohibited or strange things in that sense. And so, what makes them evil is the fact that they’re forbidden things by God.

I’ve categorized them and I’m going to change the category as we get to the end a little bit. I’m going to put a little different outline to this thing, if you will. But I’ve listed them as four separate instances that are listed after that general admonition in verse 6 to not crave prohibited or evil things. I’ve given you four verses there because he then lists four examples. I think what he does is actually list a summary example of the first and then three specific examples, but we’ll get to that at the end of the text.

**The first example: the golden calf incident in Exodus 32, lust and strange gods.**

Verse 7, and he’s warning us here, don’t engage in lust after evil things. Neither be ye idolaters as some of them were. Okay? Idols that were, as it is written, the people sat down, eat, and drank, and rose up to play. Now, he’s quoting there from the Septuagint version of Exodus 32. And so this is a specific quote. We know very well what the holy inspired example is for this problem because he quotes from the text itself. The example is Exodus 32.

When Moses had gone up to receive the Ten Commandments from God, he was up there a while. The people said, “Well, we don’t know what’s happened to him.” And they tell Aaron, “You go make us a calf.” You might want to turn to Exodus 32 right now. We’ll look at each of these four incidents. And the first one is Exodus 32, and the next three will be from the book of Numbers.

Exodus 32 beginning at verse one. Actually Exodus 32 they say well we know what happened to this Moses fell and they go to Aaron and they say make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses we don’t know what happened to him. And Aaron in verse two says, “Take all the gold rings from off the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” Interesting that earrings are worn on sons there. Apparently, no prohibition against that. Well, in any event, Aaron then takes these gold things, makes them up, heats them up, makes a molten calf out of them. And then in verse four, he says, “This is your God, O Israel, who has brought you up from the land of Egypt.” And Aaron saw that he, when he saw this, he built an altar before it and made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow should be a feast of the Lord.” The next day, they rise early. They offer burnt offerings. They bring peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Now, there’s been a lot of discussion of the golden calf incident, and as I said, you’ll pardon me for going kind of quick here, but actually we this would be a good outline for four sermons on each of these specific instances. We’re going to try to do an overview of them, so we won’t cover all the details. Having said that, this incident, of course, is well commented on in settings, but I don’t want to go beyond the scope of the text here. And the sin that is going on in Exodus 32 is idolatry. They are rejecting the God who had delivered them and instead they’re creating another god. But there’s some inspired comment on this text found in other places of scripture that help us understand how scripture interprets this particular rebellion.

By the way, we won’t stop to look at some of the details. It would be great to spend a lot of time on each of these instances, but we just don’t have the time. In Acts 7:39, we read, “To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again to Egypt, saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him.” And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices unto the idol. And here’s the kicker. In rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

And so in Acts 7, the inspired commentary on the book of Exodus there that we have says that the sin of these people was that they rejected God and instead they turned and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Now rejoicing is not wrong. I’m not going to get into the specific events of what had happened, the golden calf incident. There may have been things other than what the text indicates to us, but we know this: to eat and drink and to rise up to play is not in and of itself wrong.

Now, if there was sexual immorality in that play, there was. But the word used in the Old Testament does not necessarily imply sexual immorality. It’s the very same word for rejoice. They got up to rejoice. Rejoice before this golden calf. We are told to rejoice in Deuteronomy 14 in the presence of God. And so to eat and drink and to rise up is really a picture of what? It’s a picture of communion and the agape feast that is not wrong. But they were having communion with a calf and they were rejoicing not before the God who had delivered them but before the creature of their own hands.

And the essential element here in the warning against idolatry is do not turn away from the God who has delivered us to creatures made by our own hands. They rejoiced in the work of their own hands. Idolatry really in its essence here then is taking the glory away from God and attributing it to something that we make. They made the calf. Now, Aaron tried to say in defense of himself to Moses, he said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I got these earrings, I got this gold, I threw it in the pot, and what do you know? A calf came out.’ But the scriptures are clear that Aaron intended to make a calf out of it, as did the people.

You know, it’s almost like you can see I don’t know, pretty comic insult there saying, “Hey, what did I know? A calf came out of the thing, you know,” but that’s not really true. It says here they changed. They moved away from the glory of God and instead glorified those things that were made with their own hands.

I think that the reason why this is summarized in Corinthians passage is because remember that their problem has to do with the supper. The supper shows their division amongst themselves. He tells them later on that you’re not really having the Lord’s supper. And he warns them against having suppers with idols or with demonic forces. And so he’s using the eating, drinking, and rejoicing side because that meets their particular element. But the basic problem is idolatry.

Now there’s one other passage of scripture we’re going to be looking at, and that’s in Psalm 106. So, you might just want to put a marker or something in Psalm 106 because each of these instances have a reference to Psalm 106, and in this particular instance, it’s verse 19 and following of Psalm 106. You can either turn there or you can just listen to me read.

Psalm 106:19 and following. They made a calf in Horeb worshiped a molten image. And listen to this. This is what they did in Egypt or after they came out of Egypt in the wilderness. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. Now that’s the verse that Paul quotes in Romans 1. They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for corruptible things, things that made with human hands, creepy crawly things. And this is what he’s talking about. Romans 1 is a picture of what happened to these people in the wilderness and what is a warning to us not to happen to us when we move away from giving glory to God and giving glory instead to what we have created with our hands.

We have given up the only glory that we have because this verse says it exchange their glory. The only glory we have is the God who has delivered us who is totally glorious. And idolatry refuses to acknowledge God and instead looks to our own works to deliver us to lead us and to guide us. Now that’s important. We’ll be going back to that in a couple of minutes here.

**But let’s move on to the second illustration: lust and strange women. The Baal Peor incident.**

This is in Numbers 25. You might turn there. Numbers 25. Verse 8 of our text in 1 Corinthians says, “Neither let us commit fornication.” A broad word including all sexual immorality. Commit fornication is some of them committed and fell in one day three and 20,000. Now some people get this mixed up with the golden calf incident because they think that was sexually immoral matter. It was not. It was essentially an idolatrous matter. And while this refers to another matter that has combinations of idolatry and sexual sin, it very distinctly in Numbers 25 points out the sexual sin involved. And we know that’s the reference because that’s where 23,000 fell.

Actually, 24,000 is the count given in the Old Testament. Paul rounds it down instead of rounding it up. So he uses 23,000 but it’s the same incident.

In Numbers 25, we read of the Baal Peor incident and the setting for this remember we’ve talked about Balaam in the past and Balaam tried to curse God’s people and God wouldn’t let him do it. So here right after that incident the Baal Peor incident occurs in Numbers chapter 25.

While Israel remained at Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. So immediately there’s a sexual connotation put on this. For they invited the people to the sacrifices and then and their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Now see Paul uses this example again of the Corinthians because again there’s eating and drinking going on and he’s warning them about their feast and some of the implications of it.

Verse three, Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor and the Lord was angry against Israel. The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them.”

And this is where Phinehas comes in. Verse 7. In verse 6, one of the sons of Israel comes and brings up to his relatives a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and all the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel when they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of the meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through the body.

So what’s going on at the Baal Peor incident is these men of Israel, God’s army, are lusting after strange women. They have cravings for these women and that leads them into idolatry in terms of Baal Peor. Now, notice the immediate judgment from Phinehas in a very graphic way upon a couple that are themselves involved in fornication. So, very quickly the judgment of God comes against them and we’ll see that pattern in the next couple instances as well.

That’s Numbers 25.

And the warning there is to avoid, as we’ve talked about for a lot these last few weeks, a craving for strange women. Now, it’s interesting that in terms of the judgment against this sin, in Hosea 9, 10 and following, we see a reference to judgment against this sort of sin. And he mentions specifically Baal Peor. And that’s why I bring it up, and I’ll just sort of paraphrase it for you. He says in Hosea 9, I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your father as the first ripe of the fig tree at her at her first time. But they went to Baal Peor and separated themselves unto that shame and their abominations were according as they loved as they lusted essentially. They desire they had bad cravings. They joined themselves to Baal Peor and as a result they also were idolatrous.

God is saying here as for Ephraim their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall be there not be a man left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

How does God judge, he says in Hosea 9, the sort of sexual sin that the Baal Peor incident points out to us? Why he judges it in manner with what they’re doing. They have turned away from sin, the sexual relationship that’s given to God to raise children for him and they instead now end up raising children for murderers. He cuts them off in terms of conception and then he cuts off whatever children are born. So the judgment fits the crime. The judgment fits the crime. It goes on in Hosea 9 to talk about that.

It’s interesting that there was a cleric and philosopher named Abelard whose dates were 1079 to 1142 living in 12th century Paris and he went and instructed people in their homes and he went to the home of a rich man or a man who had a young daughter the adolescent child had sex with his daughter fell into sin that way with evil cravings he gave into them she had a child. The her the man in charge of the house in which she lived wanted Abelard to go into a marriage with her but she talked Abelard out of it saying that your career and your calling is more important than this.

Abelard agreed. They gave the child to somebody else, another relative. And Abelard and this young girl continued their dalliances as it were in secret. The girl’s mentor, the man in charge of the girl and tried to raise her up in a proper fashion was so enraged at Abelard and Abelard is a famous philosopher and cleric, so enraged at them that he hired some thugs and really through these thugs got judgment meted out on Abelard. He was castrated. He was castrated.

And I want to read you from Abelard’s diary how he saw this castration. He said, “I felt thinking how great had been my renown and in how easy and base away this had been brought low and utterly destroyed. How by a just judgment of God I had been afflicted in that part of my body by which I had sinned. How just was the betrayal by which he whom I had I had first betrayed paid me back. How my rivals exalt me such a fair retribution. How great would be the sorrow and lasting grief which my mutilation would cause my parents and friends. With what speed the news of this extraordinary mark of disgrace would spread throughout the world. What course could I follow? How could I face the public to be pointed at by all with a finger of scorn to be insulted by every tongue and to become a monstrosity and a spectacle to all the world?”

And indeed that’s just what happened. This famous man, tremendously gifted of God, as this piece of writing should demonstrate to you, spent the rest of his life as a victim of innuendo, gossip, plots against his life and against this person for the rest of his life. Abelard had thrown it all away because he failed to heed this admonition from scripture to avoid those sort of cravings. Sometimes the judgment of God is swift and may cut us off totally as Phinehas cut off those two fornicating people. But sometimes that judgment is prolonged and a simple slip by giving in to a lustful desire in this sense is a great thing to be warned against. It can ruin a man’s life and career as it did with Abelard.

The judgment again fitting the crime.

Now I want to point out something that’s very important I think for the consideration of this particular warning against strange women and that is its connection to law. You’ll remember as I said that this incident followed Balaam’s the story of Balaam’s account in the scriptures and the book of Revelation tells us in Revelation 2:14 and following that Balaam put a stumbling block before the children of Israel and he did it by causing them to violate the laws against the sort of sexual sin that they engaged with and it tells us in scripture that Balaam and Jezebel both essentially if you want to look at it encouraged Israel to violate the first portion of the holiness code the book of Leviticus.

The holiness code is the beginning. It’s what was repeated at the council in Jerusalem in the book of Acts as binding authority upon the churches. It was a reinstatement of God’s law in the early church to quote from that beginning of what’s called the book of holiness. After the first part of Leviticus governing the priestly laws are over, it starts with a series of laws for ordinary people.

Now, the connection that I’m trying to make here is that sexual sin in this context and particularly as interpreted again by God’s holy word in Revelation 2:14 shows us that what’s going on here is a turning away from God’s law prohibiting this sort of sexual activity.

One other piece of evidence along this line, Deuteronomy 4. We’re familiar with that passage. I hope most reconstructionists are because Deuteronomy 4:7 is where it talks about how we have these great laws and all the nations of the earth will see these laws and say, “What great a nation is that has such great laws and a great God.” And it’s one of the proof texts. It’s one of the examples from scripture that shows that God’s statutes judgments for nations should be applied in the sense of a Christian nation today.

But notice this in Deuteronomy 4 that section after talking about laws and commandments and statutes, he says in verse three, “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal Peor.” He brings up the Baal Peor incident again. For all the men that follow Baal Peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that do cleave unto the Lord your God are alive, every one of you this day. Behold, I’ve taught you statutes and judgments season, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land where the you go to possess.

Then he goes on to talk about how those statutes and judgments are wise beyond measure. So in the context of a passage of scripture in Deuteronomy 4 reaffirming God’s law, his ethical restraints on people, he brings up the Baal Peor incident. Revelation 2 by showing the relationship to the holiness code shows us that Balaam subverted God’s people by rejecting by having them reject his law. And so I think that the prohibition against the cravings against sexual cravings here indicated are really more broad than what they would first appear from this section of the book of Corinthians.

This section I think tells us that we are to not reject or crave another standard from God as we’re not to crave another God as indicated by the golden calf incident. So we’re not to crave another standard by of God by rejecting his law.

You know with the idolatry thing they exchange the image of God for things made with hands. The two-step process they take away the image from God, the glory to God, and they give it instead to created things. I should have quoted from this, but in Jeremiah 2, that’s said specifically. Jeremiah 2:1 and following, he says, “Hath the nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit? Be astonished, oh ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, or be very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils. What are they? They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

They reject me. They take another idol that is no god at all and can’t hold water and can’t produce life. And the thing that’s going on here is the same thing. They reject God’s law and instead they turn to a law that instead allows them to engage in this kind of fornication.

Now, this should be a warning to men today, to the church today specifically to not crave an ethical standard apart from God’s holy written laws on in all 66 books of the Bible. And yet the church today across this nation rejects God’s ethical standard. Why? Because it wants a different standard. So it doesn’t have to obey all those supposedly restrictive laws. But what do they do when they do that? They change from the God whose law is a well of living water to idols whose law and standard are broken and produce no good in society. Lusting for strange women is really lusting for strange laws as well.

**Now let’s move on to the third example: lust and strange food. The quail incident. Numbers 11.**

Verse 9. Neither let us tempt Christ. Some of them also tempted were destroyed of serpents. Destroyed of serpents. This is an odd quotation, not odd, but yet relates specifically to Numbers 21:9. We know that because that is the only place where people tempted Christ, complained about food, and were destroyed by fiery serpents. If you’ll turn to Numbers 21, you’ll see that account. Numbers 21, okay now it’s interesting here I want you to look at verse three verse three it says the Lord hear the voice of Israel delivered up the Canaanites then they utterly destroyed them and their cities thus the name of the place is called Hormah, devoted to destruction.

So the context what we’re going to read here is that God had just given over the Canaanites unto him. They utterly destroyed them. He answered their prayers and delivered them, right? What did they do immediately? They set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient because of the journey.

Oh people, let’s remember that this incident began with impatience because of the journey. Have you gotten impatient this last week? I’ve gotten very impatient this last week dealing with the state board of education. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. Dealing with the illness that’s presently upon my family and myself. I’ve gotten impatient. I got to repent to God for that impatience. Here, it starts with them being impatient because of the journey.

What do they do? The people spoke against God and Moses. Don’t allow your impatience to grow into grumbling against God and complaining against him. But they did. They spoke against God and Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? They’ve just been delivered from the Canaanites. Why are we going to die in the wilderness? There’s no food. No water. We loathe this miserable food. We loathe the food that you have provided for us. What food did he provide for them? Heavenly manna, heavenly food for heaven’s sake. Not good enough. Not good enough.

I’ve listed some other references for you there in which they complained and grumbled and tried God in terms of food. The constant pattern in this tempting God is can God provide meat also? He gives them manna. They want quail. And you know what happens to that quail? Psalm 78 says specifically they had that craving, the craving for the forbidden item. There’s nothing wrong with quail in and of itself, but he had provided for them already. Bread and water, the water which was really out of the rock which represented Christ and bread come down from heaven symbolizing Christ. What more could they want? But they wanted more. Thank you. They wanted more. They had a craving for a forbidden thing of food other than what God had provided for them.

And you know what happened to that quail? God says he brought them that quail. Tons of all over. And some of them they put in their mouths and before they could even eat it, they died. They got sick from the stuff and started to die. God’s judgment. Just like with Phinehas, couple fornicating, wham, spear thrown. These people desiring strange food. Wham! As soon as it hits their mouth, before they can even chew it, judgment from God. And thousands of people die in that incident as well.

And here in the quintessential element of this after deliverance from the Canaanites after being provided you know life from God they complain against him and as a result God’s judgment comes upon them immediately.

Now it is important here to recognize I think that the bigger principle going on here is that the people rejected and desired a strange provision for themselves. God had provided food and drink. Now, this is different from the sexual thing we just talked about because sexual relationships are not necessary for man to live. I mean, some people are not married. They’re not called to be married. It’s not necessary. Food and drink are necessary. They’re necessary provisions for life. And God had provided for all the people in this way, but they rejected it.

And so, I think what’s going on here in this particular verse, verse 9, is he tells us not to desire or crave a providence, a provision for our life other than what God has given to us.

Now, this is a great verse to teach your children about being happy with what’s put on the table in front of them. And I’m not saying that facetiously. It is true. And it’s a great thing for people like myself to remember who complain sometimes about the food we’re given. This is God’s provision. This is what he has given us in his providence. And if we get impatient with it, we start to say we want better food or different food, think of this incident.

Because what we’re saying is we want provision for our bodies other than what God has provided. We’re rejecting his provision, that two-step action, and we’re looking for provision somewhere else in quail or some other thing. And we’re trying God. We’re we’re putting him on the trying block as it were.

Now, I could say also that this would apply in terms of provision. The other thing that God provides besides nourishment for our bodies is guarding for our bodies, houses. And again, there we’re to be we’re to be happy with the provision God makes for our physical bodies in terms of houses. Today, the world is characterized by men who crave forbidden things, not the things that are wrong in and of themselves. The more expensive house, the better food, the faster car. They have cravings for these things, the newer car. But see, God has given us some restraints in terms of indebtedness. Men have rejected those restraints, the providence of God. And so, instead, they crave after these forbidden things. And what’s the result of all that? The result of all that is a debt pyramid that will surely collapse and that sooner than later. God’s judgment will be enacted quickly against his people now as well.

And so there’s a warning here not to crave strange provision.

**And then finally, lust and strange power. The Korah rebellion, the Korah incident.**

He says in verse 10, Neither murmur ye as some of them were also murmured and were destroyed on the destroyer. Now there’s different interpretations of which particular passage this relates to, but I think that there are really two places where this murmuring against God occurred. And the only one that has a specific immediate judgment from God as the pattern has been with all the rest of these is with the Korah rebellion. So turn to Numbers 16 if you will. We’ll look at this a little bit.

Now it’s a little bit tougher to localize this particular one because they grumbled so often in the in the wilderness with God and complained against them. But as I said, I think this is the right one because it’s associated with a sudden destruction and judgment of God. Now, we’ll look at a couple of verses in a couple of minutes that tie this to some other things in the text as well. But for now, let’s look at Numbers 16 and what happens at this Korah incident.

And here I’m going to talk a little bit about the context first. In Numbers 15, verses 32 and 36 etc. 32 is the story of the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath and they bring him to Moses. What are we going to do? And the man is executed. Verse 36, God says make tassels so that people remember what I’ve told you to do and don’t let them forget these things. But if they do forget and they commit a capital crime, they’re executed. That’s the context for this. Remember that, please.

Verse one of Numbers 16. Now Korah the son of Izhar the son of Kath the son of Levi with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab and On the son of Peleth sons of Reuben took action and they rose up before Moses together with some of the sons of Israel. 250 leaders of the congregation chosen in the assembly men of renown. We got a rebellion on our hands. And they go up before Moses and they challenge the authority of Moses. And they also challenged the authority I believe and they also challenged the authority of Aaron in terms of temple worship or tabernacle worship. And so the rest of Numbers 16 recounts this incident and what occurs.

You’ll notice in verse 12 of Numbers 16 that Moses summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. He wants them to come up because he’s going to arrange a test with pans of incense burning stuff as a test to see who really is God’s authority to offer incense to him. So he orders Dathan and Abiram to come up, but they say, “We’re not going to come up. Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us?”

Now, you know, they obviously twisted the whole thing. They’ve been delivered out of a land where they were slaves and being persecuted and they’re being taken into a land of milk and honey, but they call Egypt milk and honey. That’s the extent of their rebellion against God and against his appointed authorities. And they charge the appointed authorities with lording it over them. Very important you notice that rebellious men frequently will charge authorities with lording it over them like these guys do.

There’s a rebellion going on here. Well, God judges this rebellion. You probably know the story, but in verses 24 and following, he says Moses says to the congregation, get back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And what happens? Well, what happens is the earth swallows up these men and whatever members of their family would not separate from them and they are swallowed alive into Sheol the place of the dead is what the scriptures tell us here.

You see immediate judgment again. These guys are in rebellion. They stand out in front of their tents. Whoever doesn’t separate from them, bam, these families who are rebellious and who are desiring strange power and authority are judged by God immediately. At the same time, the 250 leaders of the congregations who are with them. They’re out there with their fire pans like they were supposed to be and God zaps them and burns them up as well. 250 of them just like that. And one day in one time this all happens.

But you know what the people do the next day? They have been infected with the spirit of rebellion. And the very next day the people begin to grumble against Moses and they say, “What’s the deal here?” Verse 41. On the next day, all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, desiring strange authority, not the authority God had given them, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people.”

False accusation against leadership here. And as a result, a plague comes out. And verse 49 tells us that those who died from the plague were 14,700. And after this, Numbers 17 is the incident with Aaron’s rod. God to demonstrate again that he has given authority to Aaron in terms of the priestly worship has him gathered 12 rods and then God has Aaron’s rod miraculously to bud forth into almonds and blossoms to appear on it. Aaron’s rod blossoms and that is a metaphor in the scriptures a real incident but it’s a picture of God’s authority structure and who he gives authority to.

What was the sin of Korah? Korah desired had an intense craving for something that was forbidden to him. Is rule and authority bad? No. Know if it’s given to you by God. But when you crave rule and authority that is not given to you by God, then you follow the sin of Korah and you enter into his judgment. A desire for strange power and strange authority.

Now, it’s interesting. 2 Peter 2:9 and following, I’ll verse read verse 10. 2 Peter 2:10, he says, “Chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they self-will. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Not afraid. And that’s a picture. It shows again the correlation between people who walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness. They have these inordinate cravings and desires. But it’s not really sexual stuff that’s being talked about here. They despise government. They speak against dignities like Korah did. His lust wasn’t for sexual matters. It wasn’t overtly idolatry although it was and it wasn’t for strange food or strange women it was for strange power and so he tried to exercise that and God judged him.

Jude the entire book of Jude really has much to say about this particular example. Jude 3 talks about Sodom and Gomorrah who set forth as an example says there they went after strange flesh. Then in verse 8 of Jude says likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Same sort of stuff that’s going on in the Peter passage.

Verse 11, woe unto them, it says in the book of Jude, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gains of Korah. Perished in the gains of Korah. So see it links these instances together. Balaam Baal Peor strange women and then the gains of Korah, strange power, desire and a lust for strange authority.

And then verse 16 of Jude says, “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lust. Their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. They will seek to achieve political advantage through the use of their tongue so that they can incite rebellion against existing authorities in church and state.” And then verse 19, one final characteristic of Korah and those who are like him. These be they who separate themselves, sensual having not the spirit. Separate themselves causing division in the body politic or the body of the church.

What we see going on here is a rejection of God’s authority. And if we look at our culture today, a rejection of God’s authority in church and in state is rampant.

I said I’d talk a little bit about Salem. This fits in today with this particular passage of scripture. We went down to a state board of education meeting this past week. Richard was there and lots of homeschoolers were there, Richard Meyer. And it struck me as I left that facility that this is the sin, the sin of Korah that the state, some of the members of the state board and I believe the superintendent of public instruction Norma Paulos are falling into. Why do I say that?

There’s an ordained authority of God in the state of Oregon. He says by way of the providence that he has given us, there’s two ways to change laws in this state. The two ways to change laws are first of all through the initiative process through a vote of the people. The second way is to petition the legislature and the legislature passes laws. That’s how lawmaking occurs under God’s providence today in the state of Oregon. What is the state board doing? They are about to take an action specifically to subvert that first of those two ways, the vote of the people, an initiative process that would say you can no longer restrict home or private schools without going to a vote of the people.

They’re trying to subvert the first ordained means that God has given us for lawmaking the initiative process by an action but take an action prior to the effective date of that measure 11. That’s terrible. But even worse, these people were instructed and told that the legislature did not have this their particular rules in mind when they passed the homeschool bill in 1985. Representative Bruce Hugo, Democrat, chairman of the House Education Committee for the last three sessions of the legislature, chairman when we passed the bill in ’85 told me in a conversation prior to the state board meeting to use his name at the board and say they shouldn’t pass this rule. This is not what they intended to do at the law back then. I instructed the state board about that at the hearing. And there are other people have instructed them as well that this is not legislative intent and clearly doesn’t meet it. But you know what?

Some of these people don’t care in the state board. Why? Because they have the spirit of Korah. They see an action that they don’t like. Korah saw people were being executed for defaming God’s Sabbath day and he didn’t like it and he was going to do something about it even if he couldn’t do it lawfully and these people in Salem right now are following after the sin of Korah. They’re going to subvert God’s providential method of government in this state through ignoring the legislature, ignoring a vote of the people and instead doing stuff through administrative rule.

It’s ungodly. It’s Psalm 2 all over again. Why do the heathen rage? Why do superscript and Paul’s rage against God’s government because they have the sin of Korah in mind here. Not in mind, but in their hearts.

We’ve got to be very careful that we don’t enter into the same sin in terms of our family structure. And children, this is why it is so important for you not to speak out against your parents. That is the sin of Korah. It’s wanting a…