Numbers chapter 21 verses 10 through 20. These are God's words. Now the children of Israel moved on and camped in Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Ej Abarim in the wilderness, which is east of Moab toward the sunrise. From there they moved and camped in the valley of Zareb. From there they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnan, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites. For the Arnan is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Wahab in Sufah, the brooks of the Arnan, and the slope of the brooks that reaches to the dwelling of Ar, and lies on the border of Moab. From there they went to Be'er, which is the well where Yahweh said to Moses, gather the people together and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, spring up a well, all of you sing to it. The well the leaders sank, dug by the nation's nobles, by the lawgiver with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Matanah, and from Matanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth in the valley that is in the country of Moab to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the wasteland. Amen. Thus ends the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. We look to him to add his blessing to the preaching of it. I need all the children who can count to help us in the introduction of the sermon. There's an important thing that I think we need to notice, that the Holy Spirit wants us to notice by way of counting. And that is to count all of the stops that the people of God make in this passage. They start in a place, and we won't count the place that they begin, because the place that they begin is where they were discouraged on the way, and they had to have the bronze serpent to save them from God's judging them by the poisonous spikes. So we won't count the starting place. Tin says, now the children of Israel moved on and camped in Oboth. Okay, so Oboth. That's one. And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Ege-Aberin. Okay, difficult to say, easier to count. That's two. In the wilderness, which is east of Moab, towards the sunrise. From there, they moved and camped in the Valley of Zerut. OK, so now we're up to three. From there, they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites. OK, so the other side of the Arnon makes four. OK, there it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Wahab and Shufa, the brooks of the Arnim, and the slope of the brooks that reaches to the dwelling of Ar and lies on the border of Moab. Just quoting from another book, so we won't count that. They're still at Arnim. From there, they went to Be'er, which is five. Thank you. I had started to lose count. I'm glad we have children helping me by mouthing or holding fingers. Be'er is five, which is the well where Yahweh said to Moses, et cetera. And from the wilderness, which is Be'er in the wilderness. I skipped down to verse 18 there, you can see. They went to, I skipped a song, Matanah. Okay, so Matanah makes six. From Matanah to Nahaliel, seven, thank you. From Nahaliel to Baboth, That's eight. And from Bab Moth in the valley that is in the country of Mamab to the top of Pisgah. So that's nine. Nine, which looks down on the wasteland or the desert. I think actually that's the word Negev there. So the south, the southern part of the promised land. If you were reading this from the promised land and you heard Pesach, well, you'd also know that that's where Moses got to see the promised land before he died. But when it said that he looked down on the Negev, that was the name of the southern area of the Judean hill country. You wouldn't hear wasteland. You would hear a piece of the promised land. So very different. Feeling, very different connotation at the end of verse 20, I think, if we translate it that way. All right, so how many did we have? We had nine stops. And it's not usual for the pastor in the introduction to the sermon to ask you to kind of participate and to do that, but we needed to slow down a little bit. Often when we're reading the Bible, God does things for us to help us slow down so that we will think and things will sink in. Now I know at least one, of you little scholars who not too many weeks ago went through a unit adding zero to numbers or adding numbers to zero. And you discovered, of course, you knew immediately at the beginning of the first lesson, it's obvious that it doesn't change the number. Nine is the number of stops. Zero is the number of times in those nine stops that we saw, that we see in this passage, Israel complain or grumble. They obviously got thirsty at one point because at one of the stops, God provides them water. has Moses gather Israel to give them water. And Moses does what he says and God gives them water. And they write a song about it. So it's not that they didn't have the problems that they had before. But zero is the number of complaints, or grumblings, or rebelling against God's servant, or any of those things that we've seen Israel continually do throughout the time since they left Egypt. They remember they didn't even get to Sinai before they had started their complaining and grumbling. And so there is something wonderful here. And it is the work of God and his people. We see that it's a gracious work in the first place. We see it's a historical work in the second place. And we see that it's a praiseworthy work in the third place. First, it's a gracious work. We just had these nine stops with no judgment-inducing incidents among the people of God, and it's really a glorious miracle by the time we get to this point. Think of all the things that God had given Israel that had not produced a streak like this of faithfulness and submission and contentment and obedience to him. They had seen the mighty hand with which he judged Egypt. And they had seen the mighty hand with which he delivered them, not only sparing their firstborn in the tenth plague, but brought them out of Egypt. And then when Egypt chased them, and God had led them, remember, on purpose to the place where they were pinned against the sea by the armies of Egypt, God had delivered them through the sea, and then he used the same sea through which he had saved them and made them to walk on dry land to drown the Egyptian army. And there's a parallel at that point that we'll get to in the third part, the praiseworthy work in verses 16 through 18. Well, they had seen God do miracle after miracle. And then God had given them his means. He had made a covenant with them, gathered them to himself at Sinai, thundered his own voice From the top of the mountain, which he made to shake and smoke and burn with fire, he had showed them his holiness and his glory. He had communicated to them, showed them that they were his own people. And he was their very own God. And he used that sort of language when he says, I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and then in the second commandment. Yahweh your God is a jealous God. The third commandment, the name of Yahweh your God. The fourth commandment of the Sabbath of Yahweh your God. The fifth commandment, the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. And so they had his miracles and they had his covenant and they had the means of his grace. He had given them his word. He gave them the tabernacle with the ways of drawing near. You remember the different offerings, and always remember that word offering means to draw near. It's a way that God gives his people to draw near to himself. And the ascension, to draw near to him by ascending, even as Jesus, of course, is our ascension and has ascended, And the tribute, bringing Jesus in hand, what's commonly called the brain offering, and the peace, another way of coming here. And so they had all of these means. And in addition to the miracles and God's revealing himself to them, manifesting himself to them, and the means that God provided, he'd also given them misery. Every time they sinned against him, he had disciplined them. Well, not every time. At multiple points when they had sinned greatly against them, he disciplined them severely. He judged them severely. And despite all those things, we still hadn't seen them walk faithfully with the Lord for any extended period of time. And praise God, that's a great help to us because many of us have seen wonders that God has done in our lives even, or in the lives of people near us, in addition to the wonders that we see throughout the Bible and that we know of throughout church history. Many of us have known that we belong to God and he belongs to us, he's taken us to be his very own people. Many of us have had the means of his grace His day, His worship, in that worship, His Word read and sung and prayed and preached, praying itself and preaching, the preaching of His Word. We've had His means and we've even had the misery. He has not treated us like we're illegitimate children. He's treated us as true sons, true children, and we have done things and we have gotten our swaths. in different ways that he brings pain and difficulty to our lives. And he has at those times gotten our attention. And we have either known as soon as it came, what God was trying to get our attention about, or we've just been going on in our own way so ignorantly and willfully that he's gotten our attention and we've had to stop and say, now, what will the Lord do? What is the Lord calling me to repent of? Is there something that I don't see? And despite all of those things, how often we find ourselves saying with Paul at the end of Romans 7, the things that I hate, I keep doing. And the things that I want to do, I keep on failing to do. I keep on not doing. And so one of the things that God immediately gives us to see, he gives us this setup with all of the things in the life of Israel thus far that have not produced something like this nine-stop streak, at least not that he's told us of, and he gives us the payoff. The thing that has produced this was not the miracles, and it was not by itself even the means or the work or the covenant. or the chastening that leaves one thing that could have produced this. God's almighty gracious work. God himself has to do the work in the soul of his people. And that means that ordinary faithfulness is the fruit of extraordinary grace. And so for us, on the one hand, that means that God, the God of extraordinary grace, is our hope when we see how we have continued to stumble after all that God has done for us and done to us. We still have that hope in Him, but when we go through a season, When we plod faithfully for a few hours or days or weeks, that we would look back and we would be grateful to God that this has not been, I finally got it. This has not been the stuff is finally working, but it has been a season of God working by his almighty power in his covenant love to keep us faithful for a few days or weeks or months or years. I think some of us have felt this inherently, that every once in a while we get to the end of the day and we obviously haven't been sinless, there's much that we're confessing, and yet God has given us an ordinarily faithful day, and we lay our heads down on the pillow, and if we're understanding what has just happened in that day of the history of our lives, our hearts rise with thankfulness to the God. who kept us from evil and lead us into temptation. And he delivered us from the evil in those temptations. There's not just the daily bread. There's the daily grace. And so there's glorious grace in ordinary blotting. So that's the first thing God shows us here about his work, that it is a gracious work. The second thing is that it is a historical work. It feels like an odd interruption in verses 14 and 15, especially since you and I don't have a copy of the book of the words of Yahweh. Modern-day commentators speculate, whatever, maybe in God's mercy to us, he will at some point allow the archaeologists to dig up a jar that's been sealed for a couple thousand years, and there will be something in it that identifies itself as the Book of the Wars of Galway, and we'll read in it, Wahab and Sufah, and the Brooks of the Arnhem, the Slope of the Brooks, it reaches to the dwelling of Ar and lies on the border of Moab. You know who knew what the Book of the Wars of Yahweh was? The people of God who first received the Book of Numbers from the pen of Moses. There was someone, maybe it was an Israelite, maybe it was someone from another one of the nations, an historian who had just taken note of these extraordinary and amazing things that These Hebrews, who were nobodies, had done and written something called the Book of the Words of Yahweh. But here the Bible quotes from that book. Now, that does not show, regardless of what the unbelieving and rebellious commentators love to say, that Moses was dependent upon other histories. No. Moses is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The reason we know that these nine stops were historical events is because God says so in Numbers chapter 21. God says so in the Bible. God wants his people to see and to know and be convinced that the historical factuality, the historicity of his work is important. Because God is real and he has really done this work. It is important that Jesus, God the Son, historically became a man. and lived his righteous life and died his death on the cross, and that as a historical fact, as you remember, Paul says is attested by 500 witnesses, most of whom were alive at the time that 1 Corinthians 15 were written. Why did Paul say that? Was 1 Corinthians somehow validated by these 500 witnesses? Of course not. Was the resurrection somehow valid? No, the resurrection was validated, authenticated by God telling them about it in his word. It was valid and authentic because it actually happened. And the way they knew it was true was because God had said so in his word. But you see how God comes to us who are weak in our faith. And we often struggle with unbelief. And even though we should, out of submission to God and acceptance of his word, we should accept whatever his word says as the highest degree of authentication. Yet he, knowing our weakness, comes and he says, see, Tacitus also says this, and Josephus also says this. And then he allows some arrogant, mostly Germans, but there are liberal Americans among them as well in the 1800s to take all of these names and events and places that are in the Bible and say, see, we have no historical record of these things. invented nonsense. This is religious myth. And then for the next 150 years, many archaeologists, some of them in God's ironic and just providence German, not all, but archaeologists for 150 years, end up digging up the insignias and the capstones and the documents, et cetera, that tell all these names of these places and these events that the liberals have said, usually the Bible isn't true because history doesn't record that. And it turns out history does. But it's also for us, isn't it? So that we will remember that it is important that God's work is historical work. He is and he has actually done these things. And so of course they were supposed to know and believe this on account of God giving it to them by the pen of Moses. But the Holy Spirit here emphasizes to us the necessity, the importance of believing that this is history. that this is historically factual, and so is all of God's work. One of the reasons why it's so important is because your life right now is history, and it's historically factual, and you are not to interact with God as if he is some combination of religious ideas and feelings that men have come up with. or even a combination of religious ideas and feelings that he has somehow mysteriously communicated to you. No, God is. He has existence inherent in himself. When you answer your catechism question, what is God? Remember that that first thing in which he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in is his being. He is, and your worshiping with Him is to be an actual interaction with Him. The idea that God is addressing us in His Word, and especially in the preaching, or that He is listening to us as we pray, these are not just religious fantasies, these are historical facts. Remember from last week's morning sermon passage, how Jesus was warning those who were playing at religion. Do not play at interacting with God. Do not play at worship. Do not play at faith. Interact with Him who is. You know, present history is history just as much as past history. It is historical. It is real. It is true. And you are to really and truly interact with the God who is and who is working even now. You know, future history is just as factual as past history, especially when God has told you what that future history is. It's not in any more doubt than past history. It's just as certain. It just hasn't happened yet. So that you have, for instance, in Romans 8, that wonderful statement, those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. But there are a bunch of foreknown people and predestined people who are not yet called. They haven't been born yet. Well, bless the Lord, Terry's. And there are a bunch of justified people in this room who I love you, but not yet glorified. And yet, God can say it. It's past tense. Why? Because that which he has decided to do, and that which he has told us he will most certainly do, is as factual a history, even though it's future history, as if it had already occurred. So God's work is a historical work. God's work in his people is a gracious work. It's a historical work. It's also a praiseworthy work. From there, they went to Be'er, which is the well where Yahweh said to Moses, gather the people together and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, spring up oh well. Now we don't know, it's probably not the same place as in chapter 20, verse eight and eight through 10. You remember when the people were grumbling about water in the wilderness at Zin at Kadesh? And Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, gather the congregation together and speak to the rock and so forth. And then verse 10 of chapter 20, and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And they were supposed to speak to the rock in front of the people. Why? So that God could be hallowed. before the eyes of Israel so that they could see how God was taking care of them and loving them and providing water for them, even though they had grumbled, even though they deserved wrath. And Moses gave them wrath instead of displaying God's mercy to their wrath, you remember. And that's why Moses and Aaron couldn't enter the land in chapter 20, verse 12. Because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. And so again, God didn't just provide water. He says, gather the people together and I will give them water. Why? Because the people were supposed to see more than water. The people were supposed to see the God of power and the God of mercy providing for them. And that's what they saw. He said to Moses, gather the people together and I will give them water. It doesn't even tell us about them drawing from the well, and behold, there was water, and there was enough for the people, and there was enough for their animals. It doesn't give anyone that information. It just says, that's the well where Yahweh said to Moses, gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song. because the main thing was for the people to be gathered to behold the grace of God and then the people to sing and praise in response to the grace of God. And this is where we said earlier, remember, when God had drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, let me read you from the end of Exodus 14 and into Exodus 15, thus Israel saw the great work which Yahweh had done in Egypt. So the people feared Yahweh and believed Yahweh and his servant Moses. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh and spoke, saying, I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. And in that case, it gives us the entire song through verse 18, and then in verse 20 of Exodus 15, you remember Miriam leads the women of Israel. Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. And it doesn't give us the rest of the song. So here, when we have, then Israel sang this song, what we're to remember is God has not just provided water for them, he has provided praise for them. He has provided the knowledge of himself as their deliverer, who loves them and redeems them. Just as God had not merely provided for them safety from the pursuing Egyptian army, he had provided praise for them. so that they would sing of the triumphs of Yahweh who has triumphed gloriously and cast the horse and rider into the sea. And that probably indicates that what we have in these few lines in verses 17 through 18 are not the whole song. That this is just the opening lines of a more extended song that is real new at the time and that we don't know now. You see, God doesn't just intend to make you a survivor. He doesn't just deliver you so that you will have survived your trouble or survived your danger. God's work intends to make you a worshiper. He's gathered you here so that you would see by faith that God saves you, so that you would know that by His grace we should respond with praise. By grace, in this passage, the people rightly responded with a song. Now, why to sing? Well, when you sing together, there is an identifying with one another and a unifying with one another. There's something about song that we even hear God talk about, doesn't he, in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, admonishing one another. There is a unity and a fellowship in singing together that is of a different quality, and often of a deeper quality, than merely talking together or chatting together. We know that God uses song to make the words of Christ dwell more richly in our hearts. And we know that not only in the nation of Israel, but many cultures use song for an event like this in order to imprint it upon the memory. the histories of the nations were often sung. They're given not just in prose, but in poetry, so that it is retained better. And that's one of the reasons God gives us psalms. Psalm 78, for instance, and there was, There was another text that slipped my mind just now that said a very similar thing in the catechism class today. In Psalm 78, verse 7, here's this long song about the wilderness wanderings that God has given his people to sing. In fact, 78a in the Trinity Psalter hymnal is the longest song in any of our books. Well, why that song? verses five through seven. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, his praiseworthy works. because his communicating to us his glory and his praise and his work is one of the ways that he graciously works in us and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. a generation that did not set its heart right and whose spirit was not faithful to God. God wants us not only to see that his work is gracious, that he works by his power in our hearts to produce life and faith and faithfulness, not only that his work is historical, That the same God who did those things then is the one with whom we are interacting now, who is working on us and in our lives now. But to see that his work is praiseworthy. That as he works in our lives, we would respond with praise and song. Not just with our voice, but with your soul. that you would identify with him and with his people as you sing his praise together with one another, that his word would dwell richly in your heart as you sing it, and that this would be what holds before us and the means by which we communicate to the generations to come the wonderful works of God that we might hope in him. and not wander and not rebel, but rather keep his commandments. Praise God for setting before us in this passage, throughout his word, in so many of his songs, his gracious and historical and praiseworthy work. Let's pray. how interesting it is and the way that your spirit has used some of its interesting characteristics to call our attention to important doctrine that you're communicating to us here. Help us, Lord, to deal truly, genuinely with you, not to think that faithfulness in our life is gonna come in any other way, but to look to you to work in us by your grace to produce it. Bless your means, employ them. You have appointed the means of your grace. Honor those means that you have appointed by using them. But we pray, Lord, that it would be you who use them, and that when we see you doing so, you would enlarge our hearts and loosen our lips to sing your praise. Grant these things, we ask, in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus, the sweet psalmist of Israel, who is great David's greater Son, and your Son from all eternity, our Savior. We ask it in his name.