Awesome Hands – Part 130: “Denied by Edom”

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Awesome Hands – part 130

Denied by Edom

February 9, 2018

 

Many times in our lives we find ourselves in need. Whether it is for the basic needs of life like food and shelter, or for those times where we need a helping hand, the Lord has created in us a capacity to always need one another.

He uses this capacity to cause us to look toward one another for help, and how we act or react shows us where our hearts and minds are towards our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This is also true for the general population of people around us who may not be apart of the household of faith yet.

Our study today finds us with the children of Israel being denied access to a resource that would have made their travels and lives a lot easier. Being denied, the Israelites “turn away” from Edom.

The answer is no

 

Our verses for consideration today are found in Numbers 20. We are going to be picking up form where we left off last week. Moses has just struck the rock, instead of speaking to it, thus denying himself passage to the promised land.

Numbers 20:14  And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Numbers 20:15  How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
Numbers 20:16  And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:
Numbers 20:17  Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.
Numbers 20:18  And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.
Numbers 20:19  And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
Numbers 20:20  And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.
Numbers 20:21  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

The children of Israel are in a strange land, which is not their land, and they are trying to get to where they have been promised by the Lord. Sound familiar?

Along the way, they hearken to their family for help on this journey.  The family of course were their kin folk the Edomites. Edom was founded by Esau, and the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob.

No doubt, Moses was appealing to this family connection when he asks the king of Edom for passage while mentioning to Esau about their “travail”. After all, aren’t family supposed to help family? Well, this would not be the case for Edom helping the Israelites.

There is a particular part of these appeal of Moses to the Edomites that reveals to us a lot about how we are received in the world and specifically by our families. Our Christian families are especially important to note in this story.

Numbers 20:16  And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

If you remember the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, it was Moses who was used to go to the Pharaoh. It was Moses who has been used to intercede with the Lord so that His will was made known to the people. Yet, we are told clearly that “an angel has brought us forth out of Egypt”.

Here are some more complimentary verses to help us understand this discrepancy.

Exodus 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

Exodus 32:34  Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

Acts 7:34  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Acts 7:35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

From these verses it is apparent that Moses was speaking with an angel of God who spoke on behalf of God. We are not left to wonder who this angel of God is.

1 Corinthians 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1 Corinthians 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1 Corinthians 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1 Corinthians 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

If that doesn’t make it any clearer, I will read from John to see if that sheds any light on the subject.

John 5:31  If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
John 5:32  There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
John 5:33  Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
John 5:34  But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
John 5:35  He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
John 5:36  But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
John 5:37  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
John 5:38  And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

Jesus Christ was sent to do the will and works of God the Father. These works bear witness that Jesus is who He says He is. Jesus finishes this section of John by telling these Jews, who wanted to kill Him, that they do not have his word abiding in them.

Just before Jesus says this, we see whom it is Jesus is speaking with and sent to at this time.

John 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
John 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
John 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

I want to be crystal clear in what I am saying, and how Moses petitioning the king of Edom to let the Israelites pass through the land, is just like us being sent into the world to do the same thing. We just want passage through this wretched world we live in.

Jesus just proclaimed something that will cause us to be mocked and hated by all men for his names sake.

“ ‘He’ …. said also that God was His Father, making himself EQUAL with God”.

Yes, my own flesh bulks at that comment. Why? Because if Jesus claims to be the Son of God, and was killed for making Himself equal with God, then I too must be doing the same exact thing when I proclaim to be the son of God? Right?

1 John 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

1 John 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

When I proclaim to be equal with God, what I am proclaiming is that I have been adopted into the family of God as a son. This hope in me proclaims that I do not know what I shall be when I resurrect, but NOW I am a son of God. This hope purifies me.

Taking this concept back to Moses and the king of Edom, who is it we will continue to go to war with while in this life and age if it is not with our own family?

Of course I am speaking about our physical families, but knowing that we are all children of God, and that everyone will come to know this as the Truth eventually, it is beneficial for me to realize that all men will hate me because the “mind” of men is in EVERYONE! The old man in all of man will hate the NEW MAN in ME and You!

That is how all men will hate us.

Our lives and our walks are very simple in concept, but very hard to walk out. It was quite a simple concept that Moses was to take the Israelites to the promised land.

If they had taken a “straight” path, approximated to be 250 miles along the sandy coast, they would have went directly to enemy territory in Philistia. They didn’t go through the Sinai Peninsula which would have probably baked them all since it is a plateau.

Instead, they went south down a coastal plain and then onto many stops along the way. All told, they wondered in the wilderness for 40 years.

This tells us much of how our walk will go with the Lord and with those He places in our lives.  We go on a harder and more round about path to the Lord in living our lives with the hope in us that I spoke of before.

The “obvious” and easiest path is the one that is wide. The path that is narrow is the one much less traveled. On most journeys we take, we want comfort and surety. We certainly to not want stress and uncertainty.

We don’t like the unknown and we have a fear of it. Instead of doing something new that many have never tried, we would rather go back to what we know, Egypt in this case of the Israelites.

We need to accept these truths because, like it or not, when we go to our brother Edom, we are going to be rejected.

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Mark 12:10  And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:

Luke 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater              than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
Luke 7:29  And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
Luke 7:30  But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

You and I will be rejected, just as the people of God were, because we 1) claim to be God’s people, His sons, and 2) claim to be as He is in this world.

We cannot be accepted because being sons to the King of kings, makes us all kings, and that means there is a kingdom we are all apart of.

Luke 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luke 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:22  And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
Luke 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luke 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
Luke 17:25  But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
Luke 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luke 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Moses and the Israelites pleaded with the king of Edom to allow them to simply just pass through his land. They wouldn’t use anything of value and they would go via the kings highway. The kings highway is just another way to say the public road.

Numbers 20:18  And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.
Numbers 20:19  And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
Numbers 20:20  And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

When we clarify with our friends, family, loves ones and others that we simply just want to move along and be no burden to them or others, they then get even more aggressive in our attempts to be less intrusive to them.

In other words, the more we desire to have PEACE, they want to make war with the new man IN US.

Numbers 20:21  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

Our hearts and minds are no very different from those who experienced this happening to them all that time ago. Eventually, we will see where the hearts and minds of our loved ones are and then it will be time for us to turn away from them.

There is no cruelty in this, but it is simply what needs to be done. We simply turn and go away and in a different direction than our family and friends.

This will be used as an occasion against them however, as the Lord will not forget this behavior being perpetrated against His name in and on you.

We see this played out in other parts of scripture, but the message for today is to except these things to befall you as the sons of God from those whom you’d least except it to come from.

Do good to all men, especially to those of the household of Faith, and rejoice in the hope that has been given to you.

Galatians 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Galatians 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

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