In The Wilderness: Two Kinds of Sorrow

How we greet one another in the body of Christ really matters. I don't know if you're aware, but sometimes this may be the only time during the week that somebody's touched by somebody else or greeted by name. One of the ways we're trying to make sure we are a welcoming community is to take these and fill them out and pass them down your row. If you're new in particular, please give us your contact information. We do love to welcome you into our church community.

We're going to be in the book of Numbers again today, and I have some heavy lifting for you all. It's our practice to read God's Word out loud together. We're going to read sections from Numbers chapters sixteen and seventeen—one continuous story. I've tried to chop it up a little bit so you're not reading really long passages, but you can do this. I know you can.

If you'll join your voices with me, we'll read from the bulletin or up on the screen behind me together.

Now Korah son of Ishar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, 250 prominent Israelite men who were leaders of the community and representatives in the assembly, rebelled against Moses. They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, "You have gone too far. Everyone in the entire community is holy and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the Lord's assembly?"

When Moses heard this, he fell face down. Then he said to Korah and his followers, "Tomorrow morning, the Lord will reveal who belongs to him, who is set apart, and the one he will let come near him. He will let the one he chooses come near him. Korah, you and all your followers are to do this: Take firepans and tomorrow place fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord. Then the man who the Lord chooses will be the one to depart. It is you Levites who have gone too far."

Each man took his firepan, placed fire in it, put incense on it, and stood at the entrance to the tent of meeting along with Moses and Aaron. After Korah assembled the whole community against them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Separate yourselves from this community so that I may consume them instantly."

But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, "God, God who gives breath to all, when one man sins, will you vent your wrath on the whole community?"

Just as he finished speaking all these words, the ground beneath them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, all Korah's people and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly. At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought, "The earth may swallow us too." Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense.

The Lord instructed Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and take one staff from each tribe, from each ancestral tribe—12 staffs from all the leaders of their tribes. Write each man's name on his staff. Write Aaron's name on Levi's staff because there will be one staff for the heads of each tribe. Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony where I meet with you. The staff of the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of the Israelites' complaints that they have been making about you."

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of them gave him a staff, one for each of the leaders of their tribes—12 staffs in all. Aaron's staff was among them. Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

The next day, Moses entered the tent of the testimony and saw that Aaron's staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, formed buds, blossomed, and produced almonds. Moses then brought out all the staffs from the Lord's presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff.

The Lord told Moses, "Put Aaron's staff back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels so that you may put an end to their complaints before me, or else they will die." So Moses did as the Lord commanded him.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. — Numbers 16-17

This is a really tough passage, so I'm going to lead us in prayer. If you would join me.

Father, we pray your word is a light, and Lord, we pray that you would help us as we open your word. Would you open our hearts? Help us to understand what's here. Lord, help us to apply it to ourselves. Help us to grow in our love for you and our longing to be more like Christ. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Back in 2007, there was a court case in the Nebraska state courts that made national news, and it didn't make national news because it was a lawsuit.

I mean, there's lawsuits that happen all across our country all the time. It didn't make news because somebody was suing somebody else. That happens all the time. It made news because of who was the defendant in this case. So Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers sued the defendant God in Omaha, Nebraska State Court. Now, what was unique in this court case, of course, is the reasons behind this and they actually ruled this as in order because God being omnipresent is personally present in Douglas County, Nebraska.

So here's what Chambers was suing God for: reckless behavior, terrorist activities, catastrophic events including fearsome floods, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, and general failure to stop death, destruction, and terrorization of millions of people on Earth. This was the case. In 2008, it was thrown out because the judge said there was no address where we can deliver the papers to. We don't have an address to deliver the papers to, and Chambers countered this by saying, God is omniscient. He knows this is going on. We can proceed.

So all this was really a publicity stunt. This Nebraska state senator wanted to make the point that anybody in the state of Nebraska could sue anybody else. But it's a very interesting read that very much parallels what's going on in the passage that we read together. Suing God, putting God on trial.

Understanding What's Really Happening

Now, this is a really complicated passage and what is being said is not what is being meant in a lot of the words here. So we're going to walk through this in detail and I want to help you understand what's actually going on here because what's really happening is Korah and the Levites—think deacons of the people of Israel, people in charge of the Tabernacle, setting up and taking down, doing all the sacrifices. These people are putting God on trial. That's what's happening here.

So, before we jump into the details of this story, let me remind you the background because this is really important. If you don't get this, you won't understand what's happening. Remember, God had rescued his people, Israel, out of bondage in Egypt. He took them out into the desert, delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians, and brought them to the base of Mount Sinai. That's where He gave them the law. He constituted them as His people and then He says, "I'm going to take you to the promised land." So this probably two million people are on this track that should have taken ten to twenty days—two weeks—to make it into the promised land.

And as they come, this is right before this passage, they come up to the edge of the promised land. God says, "Send some scouts. See what it looks like." They send the scouts—12 scouts in, one from each tribe. They go spy out the land, and everybody comes back with the first part of the report the same. All of them said, "Amazing land, flowing with milk and honey, God's abundance all over this place. It's wonderful."

But then after that, there's a split. The majority report is, "This land is filled with giants. No way we can take this land." The minority report, two of them say, "Are you kidding me? We saw what God did in Egypt. This is no big deal. Let's go into the land."

The people though side with the majority and the people of Israel are like, "We don't want to go into this land." And God, right before this passage, says, "Okay, not going to make you go in. You can go wander in the desert for forty years—one for each day that the spies went in and spied out this land." And in doing so, this is God's discipline on the community. And the hope is maybe the next generation—these people's kids—will have faith where their parents did not.

So that's all the backdrop to this story. It's highly relevant to what's happening here where Korah assembles 250 people and they come together and they put God on trial.

The Fake Argument and the Real Argument

Now, there's a fake argument in this passage and there's a real argument in this passage because what Korah says here sounds really kind of good. You know, like, "Don't we all have the Holy Spirit? Aren't we all holy? Moses, why are you putting yourself up to be the leader?" It seems to be about Moses's leadership but that's not what's going on here at all.

Notice the language. What do they say to Moses? "Moses, this time, you've gone too far." Moses eventually said that back to them. "Levites, this time, you've gone too far." But in reality, this is what Korah is saying: "God, you've gone too far."

Now, I want you to think about the position that Korah is in and the people of Israel are in. I mean, can you imagine this discipline from God? Forty more years. Forty years in this desert wasteland and you're not going to go in. I mean, I just want to have a little empathy for these people—like, this is really hard news. Forty years of wandering around, forty years of figuring this out. And this is why Korah is like, "God, this time, you've gone too far."

Now, if you want to try to develop a rebellion maybe in your workplace this week or in your home or maybe in your neighborhood, you can take some good notes here from Korah because Korah is a great politician. You can always run a political campaign in our country on this slogan: we need change. And don't be very specific about what you mean by change because everybody's like, oh yeah, change, right. I'm all about change. And that's what Korah essentially is doing here. We need change.

This is what Korah does—he dresses up the problem. This is about leadership, but it's really about God. Korah is angry and he's sad. The people of Israel are angry and they're sad. And this passage really shows us: what do we do with our grief? What do we do with our grief that's particularly related to God's discipline in our lives?

Discipline, Not Punishment

Now, reminder: this is what we learn in the New Testament. Discipline is part of the Christian life. This is one of the ways that we see how God treats us as His own children. Hebrews chapter 12 outlines this for us.

My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and corrects every son he receives. Endure hardship as discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, which all receive, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we all had human fathers discipline us and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit even more to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them. But he does it for our benefit so that we can share in his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it. — Hebrews 12

I want you to hear the words there: discipline, not punishment. This is a hard teaching and I want to be really upfront with you. This is a hard sermon to give. I know it's a hard one to hear. That God treats his people as part of his family, as his children.

Part of what this passage is saying is: nobody disciplines somebody who's not their kid. If somebody—if you, those who have children—if somebody disciplines your kid, you get really upset about this because they're not their kid. They're your kid. Parents discipline their kids, strangers don't. Right? So God is saying, I'm treating you as my own children.

And there's a difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment has to do with stopping behavior. Discipline has to do with correcting the heart. Punishment is "I'll show you, I'll give you something to cry about, right? You're going to pay for this." Discipline is "I love you and it hurts me to do this, but I can't let you keep going down this self-destructive path." To a child in the moment, it probably feels the same. Like, I can't tell the difference between punishment and discipline. I just don't like it, right? But they are worlds apart in terms of their intention and their outcomes.

God disciplines those he loves. He intervenes. He disrupts. Discipline is a family word and I want you to remember, this isn't karma. This isn't God out there keeping score and he's going to get you for all the things you did. He's not taking notes and keeping a chart. God disciplines his people throughout this whole book of Numbers. He's after their heart. This is what we've seen throughout the book of Numbers. God is about taking Egypt out of the hearts of his people, teaching them to listen to him, teaching them to trust him.

So what this whole "you're going to spend forty more years in the desert" is about is not "oh, I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget." This is God saying, "Let me give you an opportunity again. Let me give you another opportunity for you to learn to listen to me. I'm gonna give you another opportunity to learn to follow me. I'm gonna give you another opportunity to learn to trust me even where you think, don't I know what I'm doing? I don't know where I'm taking you. I'm totally in charge. You can trust me."

But just like discipline with our children, God's people have one or two responses to God's discipline. Either humility and soft hearts or anger, the fist, hard hearts. This is just like what we see with our own children and our families. We had one kid in our family who when we were going to discipline this kid, he would collapse to the ground and I swear his weight would double instantly. Anyway, it was like he became this pile of goo and I could not pry him up off the floor. Right.

And you know, we all have hearts that respond to discipline in either one of two ways: soft heart or hard heart. Now here's what's going on with Korah. This is what's happening in this passage—which kind of grief will God's people respond to the discipline with? Let me show you.

The Jewish rabbis connect this passage really closely to one in Deuteronomy chapter 14, and they do so because of the name Korah. The K-R-H—a lot of Hebrew words are three consonants. So Korah's name, K-R-H, is only repeated in one other place in all the Bible: Kareha, K-R-H-H. The Jewish rabbis, particularly Rabbi David Foreman, who's a current one, say these two passages are closely connected. Now I know you've never heard of Kareha. I hadn't either before I started doing this sermon. Kareha refers to a Moabite grieving ritual. It was responding to death with self-inflicted wounding. And this is what God says about Kareha in His word in Deuteronomy chapter 14. Let me show you.

Deuteronomy 14:1 — "You are sons of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or make a bald spot on your head on behalf of the dead, for you are holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be His own possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth."

The Moabite ritual was self-inflicted self-mutilation, self-loathing. It was self-harm either by cutting yourself like people do today or by literally taking a part of your hair and rubbing it until it all came out. And God says, don't do this. You don't do this in grief. We don't turn inward in self-destructive grief. Why? Because you're the people of the Lord. You're holy to me.

Two Kinds of Grief

See, this is what's going on behind this passage. God says there are two kinds of grief: a kind of grief that turns toward God with a soft heart and a kind of grief that turns away from God in self-destructive behavior.

This is a super important comparison that's throughout the Bible. Let me give you another example of this. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul's writing to this little church at Corinth, and he's referring to a letter that he sent them—a letter that's now disappeared. We don't have a copy of it. He's challenging them about some areas of disobedience in their community. And in 2 Corinthians 7, he highlights how they responded so well to this, and he uses these two categories I want to show you: worldly grief or godly grief.

"Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death. For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you. What a desire to clear yourselves! What indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you've shown yourselves to be pure in this manner." — 2 Corinthians 7

He's saying, I confronted you and you had two choices. Worldly grief turns away from God with a hard heart, but godly grief turns toward God right here, and we see all these things. What repentance? What desire to clear God's name? What desire to make things right with one another? What a desire for God's justice and holiness? That's what's revealed in a soft heart that turns toward the Lord in His discipline. This is what godly grief looks like.

And so the question for us always—we're walking through a season of hardship, we're walking through a season where we're dealing with consequences that came from our own decisions—is: Do I have a hard heart? Do I have a soft heart? Do I have a hard heart that turns away from God in self-loathing, self-hatred, even self-destruction? Or do I have a soft heart that turns toward the Lord? You get the distinction.

So let me just test you real quick. If you're paying attention, Korah's response—godly grief or worldly grief? Right, it's worldly grief. He's turning away from the Lord. And so God gives them a very vivid picture. This is really disturbing—of what happens in worldly grief. Remember, the book of Leviticus is God giving them the audio. He's telling them all the stuff. But the book of Numbers is like video. God shows them in a very public, very jolting, vivid way what happens with godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

What does this look like? What happens to Korah's followers? It's an incredible act of de-creation. The ground opens up and swallows them alive. They're swallowed up into the ground. This is a vivid picture of how worldly grief brings death. That's what's being shown them.

By contrast, what we saw in the last part of this passage is how godly grief ends up. Remember, here's Moses.

Moses says, go to all the people, all the tribes, take one of the walking sticks of one of the leaders of each tribe. This is a bizarre story, right? Take one of the walking sticks of each of them, write their name on it, and stick it in the tabernacle overnight. Let's see what happens. And you read what happens. It's a weird story, right? One of the staffs, one of the walking sticks blossoms flowers, almond buds. This is what comes out of the staff of Aaron, the high priest, Moses's brother.

And what's being held up to us is like Aaron is a picture for the people. He's showing them of godly grief. Remember, Aaron also had sinned against the Lord. Aaron also had repented. Aaron also was told, you're going to die in the desert. You're not going to make it into the promised land. And Aaron here submits to the Lord's discipline in his life. So what's shown for the people is, here's the staff—bizarro world—but the staff blossoms. This is what godly grief does. It leads to life. It leads to life.

Now, I know probably if I asked you all right now, "How do you like the sermon so far?" you'd be like, "I don't like this sermon." And to tell you the truth, this is a hard sermon to preach. It's a hard thing to talk about—this whole like God disciplines his children. There's still consequences for sin. All this godly sorrow, worldly sorrow stuff. Does anyone really want to talk about this? No, we want a God who just forgives us and moves on and everything's okay.

So, why are we talking about this? Doesn't Jesus forgive our sin? Don't we talk about all that all the time? What is all this this morning, Bradford? What is going on, right? So, let me address those. Those are great questions. And Numbers answers them. Numbers answers them.

When one man sins, will you vent your wrath on the whole community? — Numbers 16:22

In other words, God, are you going to punish us all for Korah? This is unbelievable what's happened. You're going to do that? And the answer is no. No, I'm not. God's not going to do that. He's not going to punish them for the sin of one man. In fact, God is going to do the opposite. Let's think about this.

So, when one man is righteous, when one man is righteous, will you declare his righteousness on the whole community? Will God do that? Will God declare on the basis of one man being righteous, his righteousness on the whole community? Class, will he? Yes. Yes, he will. This is what we read happens right at the cross, right? The righteousness of Jesus is imputed, is counted as yours if you believe. God counts the righteousness of one man for the whole community.

He doesn't destroy the whole community on the basis of one person's sin. This is why—and this is so important. I hope you hear this this morning—this is why we can have such incredible confidence that God always forgives our sins when we ask him. Because God, on the basis of Jesus's righteousness, always counts sinners as righteous in his sight. That's why you cannot sin away God's love for you or his grace for you.

This is why we as Christians can take confidence. We can always tell one another and we can always tell our children, you know what? You haven't used it all up yet. There's still more. There's still more grace. There's still more mercy. God is not done with us. He's not impatient with us and he is not sick of us. Hallelujah.

But forgiveness doesn't wipe out consequences for sin. It doesn't cancel out God's discipline. We want God to sort of forgive us and make all the consequences go away. We don't want to have to walk through hard times where God is disciplining us and teaching us to trust Him and teaching us to be obedient. And when we do so, there's always the same question: Is my heart going to turn toward the Lord as a soft heart? Or am I going to turn away from the Lord with a hard heart?

A Question for Your Heart

This is the really hard question for every person this morning, and only you and the Holy Spirit can answer this for you. Do you have a soft heart to the Lord? Or do you have a hard heart? Do you have a heart that is turned toward him or turned away?

What are you walking in today? Current struggles, current hardships and sufferings, some of which are consequences of your own sin and choices, that God is allowing you to walk through so that you learn to turn toward him.

We have a bunch of boys, and I remember years ago, one of our kids in particular was just a dumb crook. He just didn't get away with much and he always was getting caught. Were any of you all like this? Like your brothers and sisters always seem to get away with stuff and you were always getting caught. Anybody? Anybody like this? Nobody honest here this morning, okay.

So I mean, I find in families there's some people who get away with stuff and some people who really don't, and this kid kept getting caught over and over again. I was like, man, and I told him this in all seriousness: the Lord must really love you. I mean, the Lord is being kind to you because it's better to be a dumb crook, right? The Lord is giving you opportunities to see your own heart. He's giving you opportunities. Every time you're caught, you're shown, you're exposed. Every time that happens, the Lord is pursuing you, giving you an opportunity to turn toward him with a soft heart over and over.

And this is the thing: will we respond with godly grief that blossoms into something beautiful, or will we respond in worldly grief that leads to death?

The Flowering Staff in the Ark

Here's the rest of the story. Can I tell you the rest of the story? You know what happens to this flowering walking stick that belonged to Aaron? What do they do with it? Well, they take it and they put it inside the Ark of the Covenant. And inside the ark of the covenant, we know later on, this is what's in there: the ten commandments, a little bit of manna—the miracle food God fed the people—and the flowering staff of Aaron. It's like the most giant memory box ever, right? Like, this is what God is doing in this, and it's an opportunity for the people to remember. It reminds them over and over again of God's provision, God's gift of his law, and his goodness to always forgive and walk with them even in the consequences of their sin. God is good with them.

To remember. You know, almond trees—I've read—are some of the first blossoms that come out in Israel in the spring. We're watching our spring happen early this year, right? We're seeing all the buds open and all the blossoms. Well, almond trees are the first ones in Israel to blossom, and one of the commentators as I was studying for this said: you know, there's something about the early Easter morning when Jesus was resurrected from the dead. He said there was a smell of almond blossoms in the air. A reminder, a hyperlink back to this passage, right? This is what's going on. On the day of resurrection, the almond—this is what turning toward the Lord within our sin looks like. This is what our Jesus came and made a way for.

Breaking Generational Patterns

What happens to Korah and his family? I mean, it sounds like they're all destroyed here, right? Doesn't it sound like they all get swallowed alive? That when one man dies, will you vent your wrath on the whole community? Doesn't sound like that's what happens? But that's not how it goes down. Actually, later in Numbers we find out—in Numbers 26—the sons of Korah didn't die. This family line kept going on, and God broke in this family patterns of generational sin.

You know, my wife pointed this out to me. I had forgotten this, but of course, the sons of Korah wrote all these Psalms. Eleven of the Psalms in our Psalter come from the sons of Korah, and we've made sure to sing a bunch of those this morning. A lot of the songs we sang this morning all come straight from the words of Korah's descendants. And what we see in this is that the family of Korah didn't follow the sin of grandpa Korah.

Do you know what generational sins are? They're sort of pet sins that are handed down from one generation to the next. Maybe your family has patterns of lying or exaggerating the truth. Maybe there's addiction in your family. Maybe there's patterns of anger, abuse. But one of the things we can take heart from this story is God is able. God is able to break patterns of generational sin.

And listen to what the sons of Korah wrote. They talk about their tears. They talk about grief and turning toward the Lord in grief. Listen to this. We sang this earlier:

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, Lord. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while all day long people say to me, "Where's your God?" But I remember this as I pour my heart out: how I walk with the many, leading a festive procession to the house of God with joyful and thankful shouts. My soul, why are you so dejected? Why are you in so much turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my savior and my God.

I mean, isn't that beautiful? In and of itself, it's a beautiful Psalm. It's a great one we sing. I love that. But do you see what else is hidden in this? This is a picture of God's power to break generational patterns of sin because the grandkids didn't do what grandpa did. They didn't turn inward away from the living God in self-destructive, hardheartedness. They turned toward the Lord.

And the call for us is to do the same: to turn toward the Lord in all the things that are going on with you right now. To turn toward him with a soft heart. To trust that actually, even in the hard things we're walking in.

He knows what he's doing. Last story, a couple summers ago, a lady at the North Carolina Shore saw a ranger who looked like he was abusing a sea turtle. We all know that sea turtles come up and lay their eggs on the beach, and this ranger had seen one of the sea turtles heading the wrong direction after laying their eggs—heading up into the dunes instead of back down to the water.

So the ranger brought his pickup truck and got several other people to help him flip the turtle onto its back, put chains around the turtle's back flippers, and dragged the turtle upside down on its back, back to the water. Then he flipped it right side up, and the turtle swam off.

I'm sure the turtle hated this, right? What in the world is happening to you? My entire world has been flipped upside down. I'm going to a place I didn't want to go, being dragged by somebody I don't even know.

And I'm sure that's what is happening for many of you right now. You maybe feel like your life has been flipped upside down, like you're being dragged somewhere you don't want to go. You may be filled with confusion like the sea turtle. I thought we were headed the wrong way. And yet what God is taking you to is life.

See, God sometimes makes us lie down and God sometimes flips us upside down in order to help us be able to listen to him and follow him and turn to him with soft hearts. Can you trust the Lord today? Can you trust him in his goodness even in the hard places, even in places of discipline, in times of correction, when you're walking out stuff that you didn't plan on, you're flipped up on your back, you don't know which way is up—can you trust him? Can you turn toward him?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer

Let's pray together. Lord, this is a hard word, and Your word tells us things that we don't want to hear so many times. Father, I pray for my brothers and my sisters. Lord, I pray for what I pray for myself—that we would have soft hearts toward You, that we would not have rebellious hearts that turn away from the living God but turn toward You in trust, in repentance, in belief.

Lord, we thank You for this picture of how You're also able to break generational sin in our lives. We pray, Father, for faith to be able to follow You at what You say and to trust You even when we can't see where we're going. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's stand and respond to God's word together in song.