REFINANCING YOUR THOUGHTS VERSUS ACTION — A STORY WELL TOLD IN NUMBERS

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Last week, Michael said something so important and thought provoking that I knew we must make its message the centerpiece of one of these weekly studies. This fact is not a surprise. What, however, was surprising and a clear affirmation of what he had said, was that the very next sequential chapter in our Old Testament Book of Numbers’ story was, very providentially, about just exactly what Michael had said.

 

What Michael said is strong tea:

 

“Too often, we keep going to church to refinance our thoughts, when what God wants is to see us put into action those thoughts which we are learning there.”

 

This central theme is where the Bible, and  specifically, the eleventh chapter of Numbers, is taking us today. It comes with a promise. If we will take it to heart, it will be life changing.

 

The message of this chapter starts immediately, right out of the gate:

 

“Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD…”

(Numbers 11:1) NIV

 

What was the context for this verse?

 

The scene is this. The Israelites, now two years into their journey from slavery in Egypt, are on the move with a singular destination —. the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey, the prize of prizes promised by God, Himself, to their ancestors, Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

 

How are they traveling? Are they by themselves navigating the way on their own? Hardly! God is personally leading them with Moses as His spokesman.

 

What instructions had God given as to how these people were to be treated? God had told Moses to,

 

“…carry them in his arms, as a nurse carries a baby.”

(Numbers 11:12) NIV

 

How tender God wanted their treatment to be, how loving.

 

What had these Israelites left behind? They had in their rear view mirror a nightmarish existence in Egypt where they had been slaves, people oppressed, beaten, mistreated for 400 years.

 

And yet, as we enter chapter eleven, of all impossible things, these Israelites were complaining! They were free, babied…and complaining!

 

As Michael says, they were living church, for they were in the direct presence of God. Yet, their actions, were continuous complaints.

 

What were they complaining about?

 

“…the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt AT NO COST —. also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!…We were better off in Egypt!” (Manna was the perfect food abundantly provided by God).

(emphasis added)

Numbers 11:4-6,18) NIV

 

Seriously! The Egyptian food was at no cost! We guess not…unless one counts that they were slaves with no rights of any kind or that they were beaten and denigrated at every turn! At no cost?

 

Now, they longed for those “good old days.” How we are all cut from the same fabric. Do we not enjoy seasons of bliss with God, as Michael spoke of, and still continue to longingly look back to the past?  Is it possible for us to sit in church, engage in prayer and still complain of the hardship du jour? Both possible and likely!

 

As Michael said, we “keep going to church to refinance our thoughts,” but our actions don’t reflect it. We complain and, consequently, sadden the God Who is doing everything to bring us to the Promised Land, both in this life and in the world to come.

 

And in our Scriptural verses for this week, did the Israelites corner the market on complaints? Not in the least. Moses joined in fully:

 

“He asked the LORD, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put this burden of all these people on me?…I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. IF THIS IS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO TREAT ME, PLEASE GO AHEAD AND KILL ME…”

(emphasis added)

(Numbers 11:11, 14-15) NIV

 

Really? God is delivering these former slaves and a former shepherd to Heaven on Earth, the Promised Land, and two million of them want to return to slavery in Egypt and Moses wants God to kill him! The time they had spent in the church of that era, the Tabernacle where God was in residence, had not translated into faithful action.

 

God quickly responded to both the Israelites and to Moses.

 

As to the Israelites, He flooded their world with their desired meat. —  in the form of quail:

 

“Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month. —  until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it  —. because you have rejected the LORD who is among you…”

(Numbers 11:18-20) NIV

 

Oh, the cost of God among us in church and in every aspect of our lives and the lack of effect of this on our actions, on how we conduct our lives! The Israelites very world was centered on their church, the Tabernacle, but they acted in such a way as to reject God.

 

What Michael said bears repeating:

 

“You keep going to church to refinance your thoughts, when what counts are your actions!”

 

With regard to Moses’ complaints, God said,

 

“Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. HAVE THEM COME TO THE TENT OF MEETING…I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

(emphasis added)

(Numbers 11:16-17)

 

It is key that we notice that these seventy elders met with God in the tent of meeting, a church-like setting for that time.

 

“Then the LORD came down…and he took some of the power of the Spirit…and put it on the elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied —. BUT DID NOT DO SO AGAIN.”

(emphasis added)

(Numbers 11:25) NIV

 

What is this! Those IN THE TENT OF MEETING WITH GOD prophesied once and that was it? Their continued ACTIONS did not reflect what they had learned in church, so to speak.

 

End of point? End of story? Not at all! Our friends, God’s about to use His holy word to drive home His point a thousand times harder:

 

“However, TWO MEN, whose names were Eldad and Medad, HAD REMAINED IN THE CAMP. THEY WERE LISTED AMONG THE ELDERS, BUT DID NOT GO OUT TO THE TENT.

 

And what did these two who had not been in this church setting do? Here comes the apex of the lesson.

 

“YET THE SPIRIT RESTED ON THEM AND THEY PROPHESIED IN THE CAMP. A young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’

Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, ‘Moses, my lord, STOP THEM!’

But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I WISH THAT ALL THE LORD’S PEOPLE WERE PROPHETS AND THE LORD WOULD PUT HIS SPIRIT ON THEM!”

(emphasis added)

Numbers 11:26-29) NIV

 

The point of the story: We can warm a church pew every time the doors are open. We can receive the Spirit while doing so. But if we don’t prophesy IN THE CAMP, in the world OUTSIDE that church building, we are not putting into action what we learned inside the four walls of that building.

 

Isn’t this the general complaint against the Church today? Lots of pew warming that doesn’t make its way outside. Rock Harbor Church, Costa Mesa, California, has a sign only visible as one is LEAVING church. It says, “Church starts now.”

 

Michael gets it so right:

 

“People keep going to Church to refinance their thoughts. Instead put them into action!”

 

How this all brings to mind the great “To Be or Not to Be Soliloquy” from “Hamlet:”

 

“And enterprises of great pith and moment,

With this regard their currents turn away,

And lose the name of action.”

 

Isn’t God saying, in His powerful word of Numbers, to take outside the tent in which the Israelites and Moses gathered and in which we gather today, the action preached inside.

 

Also, those elders OUTSIDE the tent altogether, who are Spirit filled, are the best of them all. They are among the people. By being “in the camp,” they are in the true arena.

 

Some then, wanted to judge them! Moses put a quick stop to that! Some, today, would judge them. For the sake of God and the holy word studied today, let us never be among such judges. It is a certainty that if we are applying action in our own walk, we will have neither time nor inclination to judge anyone in the camp, for surely, they are in the Kingdom. Moses applauded these two men. We would do well to follow suit.