Insight for Living

Speaker 1

Moses deserves our utmost respect as the iconic leader of the Hebrew nation. He was dedicated and determined, but not without his flaws. For example, Moses struggled with self-confidence, and at one point, his discouragement spiraled into depression.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from the Old Testament book of Numbers and recounts a time when Moses' weaknesses were exposed. The people of Israel were restless, and his emotional outbursts were triggered, it seems, when his followers became disgruntled.

Chuck titled today's message "Grumblings Against a Godly Leader."

Speaker 2

Tonight I want to talk with you about one of the mysteries of godliness, and it has to do with the whole area of perils that accompany a close walk with God. Last Sunday night, I talked about the importance of spending time with the Lord. Tonight, I want to talk about the problem you create when you do that. You determine to spend time with God and to walk with Him. You're asking for it. You move into a perilous realm. You begin to experience what we could call the peril principle.

To begin with, let me define what we mean by peril and then let me amplify it so that you understand exactly what target we are shooting for tonight. If you were to check Webster to define peril, here's what you would read: exposure to the risk of being injured. Danger. When we speak of peril, we're not speaking of something that inevitably happens or something that has happened. We're speaking of the threat of something that could happen. And if it does happen, you will be injured.

For example, if you like to sail and you have a small vessel that you put out to sea and it gets into the ocean, you face the peril of shipwreck. It doesn't mean that you will be shipwrecked; it means that the peril is very present. If you drive too fast on a rain-slick highway in the middle of a rainstorm, you face the peril of a car accident. It doesn't mean you will have an accident; it means that the chances are great. You run the risk of an accident. You like to play football and you go out for the team. You face the peril of a torn knee ligament or a broken bone in your body. It doesn't mean you will get a broken bone, but it means that you face the peril of such.

Now, the axiom that I want to develop from Moses' life, and to begin with, from some passages of scripture before Moses' life, is that those who determine to walk with God become the target of the enemy. Last Sunday night, some of you made a decision, and it was perhaps the most significant decision of the year for you. In your own way, you framed a promise to God that said, in effect, "Lord, I want to spend time with you consistently. I want to meet with you, and I want my life to be a life that is godly, a life that honors Jesus Christ." Because you made that commitment and the enemy heard it, I can assure you, you are the target of enemy attack. You face a series of perils that could lead to some phase of injury in your spiritual life.

Now, the great hope we have is that the one in us is greater than the one in the world. We don't face such a formidable enemy that we cannot fight or stand firm and secure. But when you walk close with God, you live with the very real threat or the risk of enemy attack. The closer you walk, the deeper the penetration. Let me show you from the New Testament some scriptures.

1st and 2nd Timothy, chapter 3. You'll be comforted to know that there are some scriptures that give help, and we're going to see some. But I want to be realistic with you and say that if you made such a decision recently, you're facing inevitable traps. You need not fall into any of them, but they will come. Second Timothy 3:12 states, "And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Look at it again. The Amplified Bible says, "All who are determined to live a devoted godly life will meet persecution," that is, will be made to suffer because of their stand.

Now, that's a strange promise, but it is a promise. Usually, promises are encouraging. This promise we could call realistic. You determine to live godly; you will face the test that will put your decision on the stand. Look at another in 1st Peter, chapter 5, verse 8: "Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world."

The verses begin with another promise. Strange as it may seem, it is a promise. Your adversary is like a roaring lion looking for prey, and he seems to prey most upon the godly. If you compromise in your walk, you're not really a target of the enemy. You are already halfway in his camp. But if you determine to stand alone and against the tide, the majority opinion of wherever you may spend your life, the majority opinion, it seems, among the world, is always in keeping with the world's lifestyle. You determine to live according to biblical standards. Be sure that your enemy is seeking to devour you. You will live under the gun.

Someone put it this way: whoever desires to walk with God walks right into the crucible. You will live veritably in a crucible. The tests will come. Some of you could stand to your feet and say, "You know, I made a decision very recently, and I really thought that from that time on things would get better. But as a matter of fact, they've gotten worse." I had a man tell me that he made a decision the likes of which he had never made in his Christian life. He was going to walk with God regardless. He happens to be in sales, and he said, "Almost from the day those words left my lips, I have been in one, what I would call, a peril. One peril after another, one test after another, living constantly under the gun of enemy attack."

In the last service, we had some friends from Zaire visit with us. I didn't even know they were here. When I came in just before this service started and was ready to come in, I was told they were nearby. So I walked over in the other room and sat down with them, and they said, "This message was for us." I didn't know that. I really thought it was for me because the preparation seemed as though it was tailor-made for my needs. But they said, "That is exactly where we have been," and they've been thousands of miles away in Zaire. So you see, it's a universal principle. You determine to live godly, and the peril principle says the enemy will make you his target.

Now let me give you some hope. Look at Psalm number four. This is what I would call reinforcement for the battle. The supply line never runs short with God. When His godly followers are in need, He is there to supply the reinforcement. As you do battle, He will provide the needs. Psalm 43 states, "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man, the godly woman, for himself." When you determine to be a godly person, not just a run-of-the-mill, mediocre Christian, accepting Christ as a fire escape, but when you determine that you are going to count for Christ as a godly man, godly young person, godly woman, you become the object of God's special attention. He says He sets you apart for Himself. And the verse goes on to add, "The Lord hears when I call to Him."

Now they fit together. The godly often have a need for calling upon God when these perils come. And He says, "I am here, and I will answer. I will hear what you have to say." Now the case study is Moses in Numbers 10. So let's turn back there and let's find this godly man facing the perils of a godly walk.

Now you might wonder, why are we in Numbers when the last Sunday we were together, we were way over in Exodus? Well, remember, we're not studying Exodus; we're studying the life of Moses. From the last study in Exodus with Moses to the chapter we're in tonight, Numbers 10, the people of God are at Mount Sinai, building a tabernacle, getting their heads together regarding the law of God. Moses is pretty much living a life among them of leadership chronologically. As they leave Sinai, we find them in Numbers 10 on their way to Canaan.

So we have overlooked the book of Leviticus, which is a series of directions on tabernacle worship. Important as they are, they don't relate to my study of the life of Moses. We're into Moses' life as he leads the people on to Canaan. Take a moment and look at the map on the back of the outline, will you? Let's just get oriented geographically before we biographically study Moses. Look at the middle of the map: Sinai Peninsula. At the base of the Sinai Peninsula, where the arrows no longer are going south but turn back north, you find Mount Sinai. A very small note there: Mount Sinai or Horeb.

Now, that's where they have been for a period of time, receiving the law and building the tabernacle. Then they move in a northeasterly direction up toward the wilderness of Paran. Notice that on the map, on up into the wilderness of Zinnia. If you travel northward, there's an arrow that goes out all alone there, pointing toward Canaan. Now, you may want to write it in if you're not familiar with the story. That's the Promised Land. That's their destination.

Now, those of you who know the story remember that when the people of God got to the southern edge of Canaan, they looked and didn't believe that they could take that land. God judged that generation in unbelief, and they went around in a circle. That's why you see an arrow making a circle in the middle of this map. For 40 years, they went around in a circle until that old generation of unbelievers died off, unbelieving as it regards to the promise of God. Then, when that new generation was born and began to be raised, they moved into that new land of Canaan, and it became their possession.

Now, where we are is from Mount Sinai up toward Canaan. We're along the way. Now, Numbers chapter 10. We've got that together. Let's discover the perils of godly Moses. Now remember, Moses had lived for 40 years in Egypt, and then he made a decision in the flesh. He killed an Egyptian and he tried to handle the Exodus his own way, remember? God said, "No way," and He judged Moses and sent him to the desert. For 40 more years, he lived in the desert, learning the principles of godliness. He was in the school of self-discovery. While there, he committed himself without reservation to the Lord God.

Then the burning bush came, and Moses stood before God, tried every way in the world to get out of it, and finally accepted the commission. From that point on, Moses walks with God, makes a few bungles along the way, but for the most part, his life is a godly life, and he faces the perils with these people. Look at verse 11 of chapter 10. "It came about in the second year, in the second month, on the 20th of the month that the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony. The sons of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai. Then the clouds settled down in the wilderness of Paran." We just saw that on the map.

Verse 17: "The tabernacle was taken down. The sons of Gershon, the sons of Merari, were carrying the tabernacle. They set out." What does that mean? Well, the tabernacle was a portable house of worship. It was made up of tents; it was made up of posts that could be dismantled, taken down, folded up, and carried on the shoulders on the backs of the people of God. So when they came to a place and put down their camp, they set up that tabernacle. When the cloud moved on, they put the tabernacle back together and carried it further. Then they opened it back up again. Sounds like an army maneuver, doesn't it? Just as soon as you get it all together, they say, "Pitch the tent." So you put it back together and carry it on. It's precisely the way it was for the people of God.

Now, you would think that these people who had just seen the law of God written with His own fingers, just built this shiny, golden, beautiful piece of construction from God's own mind, that there would be 100% excitement in moving to the land of Canaan. But you know, there wasn't. There's always a group of people that don't want to walk with God, who hang around a larger group of people that do want to walk with God. You found that true. They're called in scripture, the rabble.

Look at chapter 11, for example. Here we have these people on their way to Canaan, and all of a sudden we've got a group that doesn't want to square away. Verse 1: "Now the people became like those who complain of adversity." A characteristic of the rabble is grumbling. So these people are grumbling in the hearing of the Lord. The Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. They cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out.

Verse 4: "And the rabble." Here's the crowd. You know what the Hebrew word means? Riff-raff. Isn't that interesting? God really knows how to tag a certain group, doesn't He? The carnal chorale would be another way to put it. In this camp of thousands of Israelites, there was a segment made up of a mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the people of God, who were constantly a thorn in Moses' side. God called them back in Exodus 12:38, the mixed multitude; here He calls them the rabble.

Look at what they said. They had greedy desires, and they wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. Now our appetite is gone. I want to say that's what you get for eating stuff like that. No wonder it's gone. There's nothing at all to look at except this manna." And it's sort of a "meh" manna morning, noon, and night. Let me tell you, you can hear that kind of stuff only so long. Even though you may be very godly, you face the peril here it is, of discouragement and depression.

That's the first peril. You want to walk with God, but you're with a few people that don't. And they're invariably vocal, invariably petty, invariably small. They don't want to square away. They want to go their way, and they're always looking back to how great things used to be. Howard Hendricks says those good old times are what created these bad new times that we're having these days. It's incredible, isn't it? We're always looking back to the good old times. These are good new times. But the rabble never knows that.

And so Moses heard them gripe and gripe and gripe. Verse 10: "Put yourself in the sandals of Moses for a moment." Picture this. Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families. Can't you see Moses walking up and down those tents, and one tent after another? There's complaining, there's griping, there's crying. Before long, he wears down each man in the doorway of his tent. The anger of the Lord was kindled, and Moses was— the Hebrew word says displeased. He was discouraged, depressed.

Now, I wish I could say that Moses passed all these perils with flying colors. He did four out of five. But here's the one that he just didn't handle. I identify with him. I understand. Moses wanted so much for those people to see the God he had seen in that burning bush and to trust that cloud that moved unerringly right toward Canaan. But they didn't. He wanted them to love the manna and to have that heavenly appetite that enjoys a heavenly food. But they didn't. And so he became depressed.

Now you're going to read the words in verses 11 to 15 that are going to surprise you. They came from Moses. They are the words of a discouraged man. Moses said to the Lord, "Why hast thou been so hard on thy servant? Why have I not found favor in thy sight that thou hast laid the burden of all this people on me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Did I bring them forth that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries an infant?' Where am I to get the meat to give to these people, for they weep before me saying, 'Give us meat?' I alone am not able to carry this people. It's too burdensome for me. So if thou art going to deal thus with me, kill me at once. Oh, man, he's really low, isn't he? If I found favor in your sight, don't let me see my wretchedness."

Speaker 1

You're listening to Insight for Living, and we're just getting started with this story that unfolds in the Book of Numbers. Chuck Swindoll titled his message Grumblings against a Godly Leader. Stay with us because Chuck stopped by the studio to share a special update with our listening family. That's coming up in just a moment.

But first, as you're ready to discover more timeless wisdom from the life of Moses, we invite you to encounter the book of Exodus on your own. It's filled with fascinating stories of conflict and resolution, and each one tells us more about the character and faithfulness of God.

To spark your imagination and help you dig deeper on your own, Chuck asked his creative team to produce what we call our Searching the Scriptures Bible Studies. It's a journal of sorts that's spiral bound and lays flat on your table or your lap. In this Bible Study workbook for Moses, you'll be guided through the same method that Chuck uses for studying the Bible.

We'd love to send you the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook today. To purchase a copy for our study on Moses, go to insight.org/workbooks or call us at 800-772-8888.

Speaker 3

And now here's Chuck. December 31st might be the most important date in the history of Insight for Living Ministries because that's the date we close the books on our Insight for Living ministry through the year 2024. I'm serious here when I say at no other time in my lifetime am I sensing the urgency for our message for the entire world in which we live.

Pause for a moment and think back, just back over this year. We easily remember a contentious presidential campaign. We also remember a horrendous attack against Israel and Ukraine during that period of time. And the world at large seems to be in chaos with terrorists and the fear of terrorism even here in these United States. All the while, it seems that our world at large is dismissing God entirely. There's an embracing of the woke mentality and a full denial among many that God even matters or that Christ has anything to say for our times in which we live.

Insightful Living has a different ministry, a different message, and we think that message needs to be heard. And so now it's time to step up and declare what we know to be true. That His Word is reliable, life-giving, and is able to change lives no matter how deep they have departed from Him. He's there for them, and our message takes Christ to where they are and offers them the hope they long for.

All of this to say that our times are certainly volatile. No one knows what a day will bring forth. And especially during this era, we at Insightful Living know exactly where we stand. We stand on the written word of God that presents the truth of the living Word, Jesus Christ, for us to be there and to make that message available to people.

We need support, and I won't hesitate to say we need your support. Your willingness to stand with us financially will make all the difference in the world as we step into this new year. Thank you in advance for your love for this ministry and for your generosity in supporting us.

Speaker 1

We are deeply grateful for every member of our listening family and all those who support Insight for Living. As Chuck said a moment ago, we're approaching the conclusion to another ministry year. The goals for December are daunting. And so as you measure the impact of Insight for Living on your life, please follow God's leading and give whatever amount he places on your heart.

To give a special end of year donation today, you can address your envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, TX 75034. Again, that's Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 750. To give a contribution online, just go to insight.org/donate or call us at 800-772-8888.

Ever grow weary of criticism? So did Moses. I'm Bill Meyer urging you to hear Chuck Swindoll's encouraging message tomorrow on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Gremlins Against a Godly Leader," was copyrighted in 1976, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1998, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.