From Unclean to Clean
You probably have noticed the title for this new sermon series. Numbers: Where Every Person Counts. Ultimately, this is something we want for ourselves probably more than anything else. We want to count. We want our lives to matter. We want to be relevant.
On television I saw a trailer for the new Rambo movie. Take a deep breath.I am not recommending that anyone go and see "Rambo"! In the promo, Rambo has a bow and arrow drawn and the tip of the arrow is touching the nose of some evil man (probably a communist or something). The guy is about to be killed and Rambo says to him, "Live for something, or die for nothing."
Our biggest fear is dying for nothing. It's being forgotten. So much of our energy is spent trying to make our lives count. "I want to be first chair in the band. I want to be on first string. I want to be the star athlete, the record holder, the valedictorian, the top of my class, the smartest, the richest, the best looking, the funniest, the coolest, the manager, the CEO, the president, and the powerful."
So much energy is spent trying to make our lives count. If people depend upon me, I matter. If people call me, talk about me, have my picture on their wall, see me on television, or see my name in the paper, I am important.Truth be told, we feel invisible. We don’t feel that we count.
This is why I love the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers is filled with lists of people who had the opportunity of a lifetime. This was their moment in history. Finally they could stand and be counted. Their lives could truly matter!
In Numbersthe Israelitesmatter to God.
A few years earlier theIsraelites were slaves in Egypt, working for Pharaoh’s glory, building temples, and building a kingdom that is no more. But God rescued them from that forgettable life. He called them out of Egypt and was delivering them into a land all their own. The future was bright. There was hope. There was purpose. Instead of dying for nothing back in Egypt, now they had something to live for.
Friends, this same opportunity has been afforded us in Christ. We too can make our lives count. Consider 1 Peter 2:9-12 (NIV). "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."
Why was God calling the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt? Why has God called the Christian out of darkness? It right there in 1 Peter 2:12. So that people may see our good deeds and glorify God. Do you want your life to count? Do you want your life to matter? Do you want to be relevant? Do you want to use your life to help people notice God? Then make your life about God, not about you.
Here is the problem with the Church today. When people look at the Church they don’t see a reflection of God. They see a reflection of themselves. They don’t see a, "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God." They see a compromised people, a disgraced priesthood, an unholy nation, and a people belonging to the world. They see a people walking in darkness, a people confused about the light, and a people who have lost their righteous identity. They see a church embracing her sinful desires, an action-less church, and a church morally ambivalent about God’s glory.
Relevance is impossible without holiness.
Relevance. We hear this word all the time. We are always trying to become more relevant with less holiness. Friends, we are relevant to the degree that our lives magnify the holiness of God.
God was calling the Israelites out of the world for a purpose. God wanted his holy character to be reflected among his people in their inner lives as well as in their outer lives. Holiness was to be their total commitment.
What is God’s greatest fear? It's to be forgotten, to become irrelevant, to not matter, or to not count in our lives. What’s God’s greatest fear? It's to think that Christ died for nothing and that his people have chosen to live their lives for nothing. May it never be! In Numbers 5 God’s people were in danger of losing relevance due to compromise of the holiness in their lives.
Compromise number one: Physical purity.
Numbers 5:1-3 (NIV) says, "The LORD said to Moses, 'Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.' " The Israelites did this. They sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses.
There were occasions when an individual’s condition threatened the health of the whole Israelite community. A person might have an infectious skin disease like leprosy.She might have had a sexually transmitted disease. Or she may have come in contact with a dead body or dead animal. In these instances they were to be sent outside and away from the camp.
I was looking at our nursery policy for infants. When a child has a fever, a cough, a rash, nasal discharges, and other maladies, what happens? The child is physically separated from the others. The child is sent outside the camp (nursery) so as not to spread germs.
This physical separation in the Israelite community served a dual purpose. Purpose number one was to protect the physical health of the whole community. Purposenumber twowas to provide an object lesson on purity. You’ve heard the old adage, "One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch."
Sometimes physical separation is necessary to maintain purity. Thisis true for physical purity and it is true for moral purity. The health of the whole cannot be compromised for the sake of one. That one is sent outside the camp, not to be destroyed, but to be brought to wholeness. We’d never intentionally let a disease infect people. Why let an attitude, a behavior, a habit, or a belief infect others?
Compromisenumber two: Relational purity.
Numbers 5:5-10 (NIV) says, "The LORD said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: ‘When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged. But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for him. All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him. Each man’s sacred gifts are his own, but what he gives to the priest will belong to the priest.' "
Wherever two or more sinful people are gathered, what happens? There is conflict. There is relational breakdown andpeople wrong one another. If these wrongs go unchecked, people take justice into their own hands. "He hurt me, so I’m going to hurt him just a little more."
We Christians often have a distorted view of grace. Grace doesn’t mean no consequences and no restitution. Consequences are our best teachers. Spare a person responsibility forhis sins and you retard his moral development. Spare a person responsibility and he will keep on hurting people and will keep on leaving a trail of destruction. Anger and violencewill escalate. Chaos will ensue.
Here is God’s approach to holiness. It's sacrificial restitution. One of the most loving things you can do is tomake someone responsible for the damagehecauses. Stop payinghis bail. Helphim see the effects ofhis sinful choices and decisions. Havehim face those he has hurt and pay restitution forhis wrongs.He'll stop sinning.
Compromise number three: Marital purity.
Numbers 5:11-15 (NIV) tells us, "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering..."
An obvious area of compromise relates to marriage. Divorce is as common among God’s people as it is out there in the world. In these verses a man suspects his wife of having an adulterous affair. Feelings of anger, jealousy, and resentment are aroused. A real mess.
Typically, a spouse in this circumstance will take matters intohis own hands.He fliesoff the handle and levels accusations. Anyone who has been through divorce knows that things get ugly fast. We’ve seen how each person builds her alliances—turning child against father, mother against daughter, and relatives against relatives. IsWorld WarIIthe only option?
In these versesthe spouse is being instructed to seek an objective party and to seek out priestly intervention. A priest can help sort out the facts, probe the conscience of each party, outline a productive course of action, offer spiritual counsel, and initiate church discipline. Marital conflict is bad enough. Why let the whole community also be torn apart? Seek godly counsel. Seek godly intervention.
Compromisenumberfour: Sexual purity.
Numbers 5:29-31 (NIV) says, "This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and defiles herself while married to her husband, or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before theLORD and is to apply this entire law to her. The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin."
Should a person be guilty of sexual immorality, the party was to bear the full consequences ofher sin.She was to have the whole law applied toher situation. But there is something else that was to be done, and it is politically incorrect to mention it in our culture: public condemnation.
The community was to speak with one voice against sexual sin. Notice in Numbers 5:15 the purpose of the husband's offering for jealousy. It was to bring the wife’s sin out of darkness, into light. Sin thrives in the darkness. But expose it to God’s word and it will be seen for what it is. Others will be protected and will avoid the same error.
Relevance is more holiness and more of God’s character reflected in our lives—not less. We cannot allow sin to prosper in our midst. Sinful influences must be physically isolated. Sacrificial restitution must be made. Priestly intervention must be pursued. The community must speak with one voice condemning that which dishonors God.