Numbers chapter 26, these are the words of God. And it came to pass after the plague that Yahweh spoke to Moses and Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, saying, take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel from 20 years old and above by their father's houses, all who are able to go to war in Israel. So Moses and Elias are the priests who spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, a cross from Jericho saying, take a census of all the people. From 20 years old and above, Justice Yahweh commanded Moses and the children of Israel, who came out of the land of Egypt. Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, the children of Reuben were. Of Hanak, the family of the Hanakites. Of Pelu, the family of the Pelewites. Of Hetzer, the family of the Hetzernites. Of Carmi, the family of the Carmites. These are the families of the Reubenites. Those who are numbered of them were 43,730. And the son of Pelu was Eliab, and the sons of Eliab were Emmanuel, Dathan, and Abiram. These are the Dathan and Nabirim, representatives of the congregation, who contended against Moses and Aaron, the company of Korah, when they contended against Yahweh. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah. When that company died and the fire devoured 250 men, they became a sign. Nevertheless, the children of Korah did not die. The sons of Simeon, according to their families, were of Nebuel, the family of the Nebulites, of Yamin, the family of the Geminites, of Yahin, the family of the Jachinites, of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites, of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites. These are the families of the Simeonites, 22,200. The sons of Gad, according to their families, were of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites, of Haggai, the family of the Haggais, of Shuni, the family of the Shunites, of Osni, the family of the Osnites, of Eri, the family of the Erites, of Arad, the family of the Aradites, of Oreli, the family of the Arolites. These are the families of the sons of Ged, according to those who were numbered then, 40,500. The sons of Judah were Ur and Onan. And Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Judah, according to their families, were of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites, of Peretz, the family of the Parxites, of Zerah, the family of the Zerites. And the sons of Peretz were of Hetzrin, the family of the Hetzrinites, of Hamul, the family of the Hamilites. These are the families of Judah, according to those who are numbered to them, 76,500. The sons of Issachar, according to their families, were of Tola, the family of the Polites, of Pua, the family of the Punites, of Yeshu, the family of the Yeshuites, of Shimran, the family of the Shimranites. These are the families of Issachar, according to those who are numbered of them, 64,300. The sons of Zebulun, according to their families, were of Sered, the family of the Sardites, of Elon, the family of the Ilanites, of Yathliel, the family of the Lyacolites. These are the families of the Zebulonites, according to those who were numbered then, 60,500. The sons of Joseph, according to their families, by Manasseh and Ephraim, were the sons of Manasseh. of Mechir, the family of the Mechirites, and Mechir got Gilead, of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites. These are the sons of Gilead, of Geaser, the family of the Geaserites, of Helak, the family of the Helakites, of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites, of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites, of Shemitah, the family of the Shemitaites, of Hefer, the family of the Heferites. Now, Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, had no sons but daughters. And the names of the daughters of Zalopheth were Mala, Noah, Hoghla, Melchah, and Tirzah. These are the families of Manasseh. Those who are numbered in them were 52,700. These are the sons of Ephraim, according to their families, of Shuthela, the family of the Shuthelites, of Bakr, the family of the Baha'is, of Tehan, the family of the Tehanites, and these are the sons of Shutella of Iran, the family of the Aaronites. These are the families of the sons of Ephraim, according to those who were numbered then, 32,500. These are the sons of Joseph, according to their families. The sons of Benjamin, according to their families, were of Bela, the family of the Belaites, of Ashtel, the family of the Ashtelites, of Ahirum, the family of the Ahirumites, of Shufim, the family of the Shufimites, of Hufim, the family of the Hufimites. And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman, of Ard, the family of the Ardites, and of Naaman, the family of the Naamites. These are the sons of Benjamin, according to their families. And those who are numbered of them were 45,600. These are the sons of Dan, according to their families. Of Shuhem, the family of the Shuhemites. These are the families of Dan, according to their families. All the families of the Shuhemites, according to those who are numbered of them, were 64,400. The sons of Asher, according to their families, were of Yimna, the family of the Yimnites, of Yesui, the family of the Yesuites, of Berea, the family of the Bereites, of the sons of Berea of Heber, the family of the Heberites, of Malkiel, the family of the Malkielites, and the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah. These are the families of the sons of Asher. According to those who were numbered then, 53,400. The sons of Naphtali, according to their families, were of Yathil, the family of the Yatholites, of Gedi, the family of the Gedonites, of Gezer, the family of the Gezerites, of Shilom, the family of the Shilomites. These are the families of Naphtali, according to their families. And those who are numbered of them were 45,400. These are those who are numbered of the children of Israel. 601,730. Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, to these the land shall be divided as an inheritance according to the number of names. To a large tribe we shall give a larger inheritance. To a small tribe we shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance according to those who are numbered of them. But the land shall be divided by lot. They shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. According to the lot, their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller. And these are those who are numbered of the Levites according to their families. of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites, of Kohat, the family of the Kohatites, and Merari, the family of the Merarites. These are the families of the Levites, the family of the Libanites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Molites, the family of the Mushites, and the family of the Korathites. And Kohat begot Amran. The name of Amran's wife was Yalkabed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt and to Amran She bore Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam. To Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered profane fire for Yahweh. Now those who were numbered of them were 23,000, every male from a month old and above. for they were not numbered among the other children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given to them among the children of Israel. These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eliazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, across from Jericho. But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For Yahweh had said of them, they shall surely die in the wilderness. So there was not left a man of them except Caleb, the son of Zephutah, and Joshua, the son of Nun. So far, the reading of God's inspired and errant word Israel are about to cross the Jordan, about to enter into the promised land proper, the main body of the promised land. And as they do so, they're going to be facing battles. And ordinarily, when you're facing a battle, you number your strength. You plan to go to war. It's an illustration even that the scripture uses for counting the cost. That before you go to war, you count the number of those who are with you. But as they do so, as the Holy Spirit gives us the count here, he's doing so in a way that reminds us of a biblical truth. As soon as I began to say that, some of you were probably thinking. but wasn't the reason that Israel wouldn't ordinarily take a census, wasn't the reason that it was wrong for David, for instance, to take a census, because the strength of God's people and their viability for war was not tallied by the number of warriors that they had among the men, but that they had the one true and living God. as their great warrior, with a capital W. And yes, that's true, especially God's bearing us to one another and getting us into the book of Joshua, we will see just how much God displays the truth of that. That one with God is always in the majority, as we sometimes say. Or that if God is for us, it actually doesn't matter if the whole world of men and devils is against us. For what can they do against the Almighty? And so Israel are about to go into the land, and the Lord gives them a fresh start. He numbers them. as they are about to enter the land, just as he numbered them when they had just come out of Egypt. And what we find is how gloriously, how fully and gloriously the grace of God has sovereignly overruled everything that they have done to provoke them. and all of the hardship that is part of living in the wilderness for 40 years, and all of the enmity and hostility of men, the sovereign, overruling grace of God is the first thing that we see. And we see that even just in the numbers, 601,730. If you turn back to the first census, you would find that the number there is 603,550. A little bit of math, and there is a difference of 1,820, less than a rounding error. And that, even though the number is taken immediately after this flag, in which 24,000 fell. And God gives us the numbers in part so that we can see how completely he had replaced that generation that fell by their own unbelief, the sovereignly overruling grace of God. You never need to worry about the future of the church and grieve for the presence of the church at times and in places and grieve for the consequences of it. But you never need to worry about the future of the church, the coming of the kingdom, how it goes with the spread of the gospel and the reign of our Lord Jesus. All the more now that our prophet, priest, and king sits in our own flesh and blood upon the throne of glory. Never has the plan of God's redemption been in danger of being derailed, even when it has been small, even when his people have been very wicked and have provoked him and he chastened them severely. It has sometimes hung by a thread, but as we have said in the past, That thread is the purpose of God, the glory of Christ, in whom he has purposed those things. And it is okay for the plan of God to sometimes hang by a thread if that thread has the infinite tensile strength. of the purposes of the Lord and his faithfulness, of the glory of the Lord Jesus, in whom God has purposed and promised, and by whom now God has obtained that which is promised, and from whom and by his Spirit now he is applying that which has been accomplished, that which has been obtained. So that is the great theme of Numbers 26 as a whole. It takes long enough that if we were to indulge the silliness and foolishness and wickedness of our flesh, we would think we're doing our read a chapter a day plan and we come to this one and we think 65 verses, that would take me a whole eight and a half minutes to read out loud. But bless God, it is so much more than that. There are 601,730 lives represented in this generation, and many millions more if you count not just the wives and the children, but even the multiple generations that proceed. God is reigning in all of history to bring about his plan of redemption. And even though God sovereignly overrules all things by his grace, the sins of men are still serious and still have serious consequences. Yes, eternally so. so that a man who is found outside of Christ in the last day, if you do not come to faith in Jesus Christ, you will perish in your sins. And the sovereign overruling grace of God for his church as a whole will be an order to you, rather than a happiness to you in the last day. But there are also consequences in the near term, in your generation. for your family whom the Lord has given you, whom the Lord has taught you to love, and that family that ought to come from you, that you hope would come from you, that you pray for and labor for and spend your life for. Your sins do not only have dreadful consequences in your own immediate life and what you will experience in this world. They have dreadful consequences for multiple generations. And that shouldn't matter to us. This is one of the places where the Bible teaches us that multi-generational sort of thinking. As these generations are recounted, and as it were, there are all of those missing people from this census. because one or another of their ancestors were wiped out in their wickedness before they could father children. And so the Lord teaches us things. This is why there are so many wealthy Dutch Reformed people in Northwest Iowa and in Iowa where I had previously ministered. They had a biblical, multi-generational approach to the spiritual life of their family, but even to the earthly life of their family. The winters there are miserable. The fields had never been used, it was prairie They were full, of course, full of stones that had to be removed and the ground had to be worked. And there was a generation or two of Dutch Reformed folks who knew that their life expectancy would be small, would be in the 30s, and would be in the 40s. because of the winters, and because there was not wood for building houses, and their first houses were made of sod, and they would try to get by in those winters, and because of the hardness of the work, that they belong to the Lord. They were here in this life for the service of the Lord, and they have learned from their Bibles to spend themselves for the sake of Christ's church, and especially their own families that would come down from them. And they were willing to live a short life knowing the quality of the dirt that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would now have with stones removed and houses built and the soil now tilled. And they can do, in the Iowa dirt, with nothing but hog manure to fertilize it, corn on corn on corn on corn, and they get over 300 bushels of manure every year. Now, it's not wise to do that. You eventually deplete the soil. But there is a multi-generational approach to life, and earthly things, and even more in spiritual things. that the Bible teaches us. And sadly, we who do not even think about the consequences, do not have a serious enough regard for the consequences of our sin in our own life, are unaccustomed to thinking about what we might be doing to the generations that instrumentally would have come from us, or might yet come from us. And so the Lord gives us several examples and he very specifically says in the first of those examples here in verses 9 through 11, talking about Jathan and Abiram and Korah. These became a sign. They became a sign at the end of verse 10. This is teaching us the same thing as 1 Corinthians 10, which talks about this generation that came out of Egypt, and they were baptized into Moses as they passed through the sea, and they ate the same spiritual food, and drank from the same spiritual rock, and that rock was Christ. And there the apostle says, all these things came upon them, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And so you have the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 saying, don't come to Numbers 26 and say, interesting multi-generational thinking and the consequences of the sin that wiped out these generations of people that were missing in various places or that would have otherwise been there in various places. in this genealogy. But now that we're in the New Testament, we no longer think multi-generationally or covenantally in the church. We're free to do whatever we want. It was exactly that free-to-do-whatever-we-want mindset that the apostle was battling against in 1 Corinthians 10, that we would not do whatever we want, that whether we ate or drank or whatever we do, he concludes that chapter with that we would do all for the glory of God, that we wouldn't settle for permissible or settle for good enough, but that we would live as those who belong to Christ and who have learned the lessons from what came upon this particular generation that is before us in Numbers 26. So that was Deith, and Abiram, and Korah, as it was earlier in the, we might call it, we've seen that one, the regulative principle of ecclesiology. that the Lord is the one who calls, and the Lord is the one who ordains. And we don't, we don't operate in the church as a democracy. This is why by congregationalism, you mean things are decided by congregational votes. You've got a serious problem with the Bible. Jesus, or the church, is a monarchy, has a king, and you don't have things decided by congregational votes in the New Testament. Now, we do some congregational voting for recognizing and communicating things like we'll see in a couple weeks, Lord willing, in the ordination and installation service, when, The apostles say, choose from among you, and they give the qualifications and the congregations that's before them, the candidates. But when the hands are laid upon them, that's saying that it's the Holy Spirit who has called these. That's, when the hands are laid upon them, it's saying it's the Holy Spirit who has called them, and it's the Holy Spirit who will equip them. And we must receive those whom God gives us in this biblical manner, as ordained by him, and not wish that we could be represented on the session or on the diaconate. No, you don't want a representative democracy. These are Dathan and Abiram, representatives of the congregation. It says in verse nine, the only one who represents us unto God had to suffer the wrath of God and die for it. And so we must not be representatives of men when we are in office in the church. And we must not desire that the officers would represent us, but rather serve God according to their calling. And then Ur and Onan, these were sons of Judah, verse 19, who committed sexual immorality. They violated marital purity, and the result was that the Lord killed them. They had a brother who was wicked, and the Lord killed him for his wickedness. And then they added that, and they are the ones who are named here. And the Lord kills them. There's a multi-generational impact of not keeping the marriage pure. not being pure in that area of life. It leads to death, it leads to hell. We've been hearing that in Proverbs. We're going to keep hearing that. The Lord addresses it multiple times, but it destroys generations. And you need look no further than what has happened in our culture in the last several generations of what violating God's word about marital purity does to the generations that come from those who do so. This is the great wickedness. If you want to talk about reparations, than those who are squandering and destroying their own lives and the lives of the generations that come from them should owe reparations to their parents and their grandparents who stayed married and brought up their children and taught them the fear of the Lord. And so there's serious sin in offending God and rebellion within his church and violating marital purity. There's serious sin in offering God our own worship, worship that is foreign to him or strange to him, worship that he did not command or ask for. That's what Nadab and Abihu or Nadab and Abihu did. as we have them particularly highlighted for us in verse 61. They died when they offered profane fire, strange fire, which God did not command. You remember back in Leviticus chapter 10. The multi-generational importance of the regulative principle of worship. How many generations in the church are lost and destroyed? And how often those who lose their children and their grandchildren, how often do they ask, could it be because we have violated the second commandment? Is that not in God's law, in his own summary of the moral law given to his people, the commandment in which he says he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation? When he names those who worship in their old way, who devise from their mind the way of worship, he calls them then that hate me. It may not be so mysterious or so difficult a thing to figure out. Why is it that generations of Christian children grow up and abandon the faith, or generations of reformed, and we have to put that one in quotes, children grow up and abandon the faith? Might it not be because we worship according to the principle of Nadab and Abihu and the Lord who is faithful to his word brings the threat contained in the second commandment to bear? And how sad that the question is rarely even asked. But here it is highlighted in this genealogy 50% of Aaron's family was wiped out before they bore children. The most important family, arguably, from Judah is going to come the Christ according to the flesh. But at least in the present functioning of the nation of Israel, the most important family in all of Israel, and 50% of them, are wiped out here, are missing, or would otherwise have been here, except for that sin. These things came upon them, but they were written down for our instruction. And don't forget, as you conclude the chapter, there's an entire generation that's missing here, isn't there? Those 20 years old and above, when they came out, and so 40 years added to that 20, There are in Israel no one except, at this point, Moses, Caleb, and Joshua. There are no men above 60 years old in all of Israel. Other than Caleb and Joshua, Moses is literally more than twice the age of any of the men of Israel, as Numbers 26 is written and as the census is being taken. they would have known and felt the absence of that generation that had fallen in the wilderness. And they are to be a lesson to us. Not only does verse 10 tell us that they're given as a sign, you have Psalm 78, Psalm 95, warning against committing the same unbelief and falling by the same sorts of sins that proceed from unbelief. 1 Corinthians 10, which we, which we referred to earlier in the sermon, Hebrews 3 and 4. which when we were thinking about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, we thought about in the morning sermon last Lord's Day, Jude verse four, about the generation that came out of Egypt that the Lord punished, killing them in the wilderness, which we have recently had in many other places in the scripture. Rejoice over the overruling grace of God. That where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. That's the main theme here. But never use it as an excuse for sin or to think that sin is a small thing or even that it has small consequences. It has severe and grievous consequences. But praise God, why is his sovereign grace overruling the consequences of sin? And the answer is because he is determined to give us an inheritance that is appropriate to our circumstances. Now, if you're a small tribe entering the land of Canaan, then that means you get a small inheritance. Simeon had the smallest inheritance because they were the smallest by far. If you're a large tribe, you get a large inheritance. The Levites, however, didn't get any inheritance. Why? Because the Lord was their inheritance. And so they were smaller even than the Simeonites. I know their number is a little larger. But don't miss that the Levites are not numbered from 20 years old and above. The Levites are numbered from one month old and above. And so they may have a couple hundred on Simeon here. But really, they are the smallest by far. Well, they're also the richest. because they have the Lord as their inheritance. And you who have Christ, you receive an inheritance that is according to Christ. God himself is the inheritance of the Lord Jesus. That's why when we are joint heirs with the Lord Jesus, our great high priest, provided that we suffer with him for a little while so that we may be glorified together with him, as Romans 8 says, the Lord himself is our inheritance. And so there is a theme here at the end of the chapter of God providing inheritance. That's what he's about to do as a whole, as they enter the land, as they cross over from the plains, from the plains of the Jordan and crossed over into Jericho, or into the promised land across Jericho. The Lord is determined to take us as his children and to give himself to us as our inheritance. And so let us come, let us inherit with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, When you hear His voice, do not go astray in your hearts. Look to God to mix your hearing with faith so that it will come out in your life. So that it will come out in humble submission to authority that the Lord has set over us. So that it will come out in as treating the purity of marriage as important, and the sin against that as harmful, not only for us, but for many generations. So that our faith, our hearing being mixed with faith, will come out in our worshiping God joyously. according to only how he has given us to do so, especially since the way that he has given us to do so in the New Testament is directly through his son, our Lord Jesus. Let us inherit the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us do good to our children and the generations to come by trusting in this God whose grace overrules and walking by his word. Amen, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this census that you have presented with us here, and genealogy to some extent. Thank you for giving us, in your word, the history of your dealing with your people. Grant that when we see Your grace, we would be strengthened. Your providence and your power, we would be strengthened and confident in you. Grant that when we see the sins of your people that have dreadful consequences, that we would be preserved from that sin, that your spirit would use it to warn us off. of the wickedness of our own hearts, lest we sin against you and sin against ourselves and sin against your church and sin against our families and the generations that would come from them. Don't let us do such a thing, O God. but grant that even as we wait upon you to give yourself to us as our inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would walk according to your word, according to your will, by your spirit applying Christ to us, which we ask in his name.