Numbers
Num_1:3
Too Young?
Here Moses numbers the congregation of the children of Israel and those he numbered were "from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel." The list began with those who are twenty years old. Though they were young they were able. 2Ti_2:2 says that we should commit to men who are faithful and able. By the time these young men were twenty years old they were able to go forth to war. They must have be trained and prepared by someone. They were not novices. (1Ti_3:6) Most of the time we don't start training our young men until they are 20, but by that time they should be ready and able to go forth to war.
Challenge to Leaders, Pastors, Parents, Teachers: Train young people so that by the age of twenty they are ready for the Lord's army.
Challenge to Young People: Get trained and ready so that you can go into battle young and give of the strength of your youth in service to God. Some people may say that you are "too young", but just remember that if you are not too young to go into physical warfare then you are not too young to go into spiritual warfare.
See also: 1Ti_4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. TRS
Num_11:1
Complaining is a common disease among all people but seems especially prevalent among missionaries. Our God is looking for a thankful people. People who realize what a privilege it is to serve God. Things maybe different on the mission field where God called you but He knew that when He called you and He wants you to be thankful for what He is doing in your life. Complaining will soon kill your spirit and the spirit of all those around you. You are definitely getting more and better than you deserve.
The Sin of Complaining or Murmuring
1Co_10:1-11
Num_14:1-4,11-12
I. It is an attitude
a. Resentment=We think that someone has done us wrong
b. Dissatisfaction=We do not receive what we want
c. We aren’t happy
d. We accuse others of having done something wrong
II. Complaining is like giving praise to Satan
a. We are commanded to give thanks to God 1Th_5:18
b. We are commanded not worry but to pray and give thanks Phi_4:6
c. Our praise and gratefulness is a sacrifice to God Heb_13:15
d. What happens when we do the opposite of praising and giving thanks and start to complain and murmur against God?
III. Our Accusations
a. We are not satisfied with our salary Luk_3:14 or with what we have Heb_13:5 or the food and clothes that He has given us 1Ti_6:8 or our country’s government
b. We are not satisfied with our spiritual leaders
c. We are not satisfied with our mate
d. We are not satisfied with our children
IV. How do we fix the problem
a. First recognize it as a sin Phi_2:14
b. Confess our sins
c. Learn to measure what we do have Phi_4:11
d. Meditate on the good Phi_4:8
e. Learn to thank God and others
WAG
Num_11:14
No pastor, missionary, or leader can bear all the people in his ministry. God fully intended for you to train other men to help you. That is what happens in Act_6:1 when the apostles choose men to help them. That is what happens when Moses later chooses men to divide his responsibility. Also Eph_4:11-12 we are taught to train men and women to do the ministry. Get out from under so much burden. Train some people to help you. You are not a success until you have made another a success. WAG
Num_11:16-17 God told Moses to gather 70 men. He told Moses that He would take of Moses' spirit and put it on them so that they could help bear the burden of the people since Moses had already acknowledged that he could not bear the people alone. Num_11:14 If from the early days of Moses ministry we see that he couldn't bear the burden alone why is it that we do not take the time to consider that God's work today requires that we train men to do the work. Discipleship Mat_28:18-20 is just a repeat of what God told Moses to do. If you are to have a successful ministry and really reach and impact the world you will have to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry for the edification of the body or church. Eph_4:11-12 Commit now to train men and women to carry the load with you so that we can more effectively reach the world with the gospel message. WAG
Num_13:1
Possessing the land!
Numbers 13-14
I. Get a Strategy
a. Leaders or rulers were to go spy out the land
b. See the need
c. See the blessings that they would get once they obeyed God
i. Fruit of the land
ii. See their possession Numbers 13:2
d. The church has been given a strategy
i. Go into all the world
ii. Train men in how to do the work II Timothy 2:2
iii. Acts 19
II. The Sin of the People
a. Seeing the enemy and not God
b. Seeing with human eyes and not eyes of faith
c. Making excuses
d. Doubting God
e. Rebelling against God and his will for them
f. Rejected or refused what God had prepared for them
g. Murmured against the man of God
h. The church commits the same sin today
i. Makes excuses
ii. See the enemy and the problems
iii. Afraid to risk themselves on the promise of God
III. Signs God had given them that He was able Numbers 14:11
a. The whole world heard once before
IV. A different Spirit
a. Obeying completely
b. Believing God and his promises
c. Victory in his heart
d. Stood alone
WAG
Num_14:21. The earth will be filled with His glory He says. He is angry, Moses has warned God that people are watching Him and will say that He couldn't take care of His people if He destroys them. God hears the prayer of Moses but immediately replies: the world will be filled with His glory. He earnestly desires that the world be filled with His glory yet the church that claims to love and worship Him seems unconcerned about something He so desires. The church is more preoccupied with making sure the members are happy and comfortable. Most of our church plans are internal. What is good for us but not so much what does He want and what about the world He loves so much and has sent us to preach to. WAG
Num_14:40. He is the God of the second chance but not always. The people have heard the message of Moses. They know that they are going to die and that their children are going to waste 40 years of their lives. They repent. Surely God will give them a second chance but He doesn't. You can sin away your day of grace. You can lose it and even do great harm to your family. Listen, obey, and believe. Be careful to stay close to the Lord and be ready and able to go where He wants when He wants. We do not want to lose His power, His hand, and His blessing on our lives and ministry. WAG
Num_16:28. There must be something about our ministry that says God sent me. Things must happen that are beyond our power and ability: they will not allow you to train them unless they see the hand of God on your life. What is there about you and your ministry that can only be explained by supernatural power. WAG
Num_17:5
God has a way of marking His man and making it clear who He is calling into the ministry. Make sure that you know that God's hand is on you. Make sure that you are serving Him where He wants and the way He wants. It is His ministry. Too many of us choose to be what He has not chosen us to be. WAG
Num_22:20
If we insist enough we can get God to let us do what we want to do instead of what He wants us to do. Balaam is a sad story. He is a good man. He wants to serve God but here he is trying to get God to allow him to do what God has already said that He doesn't want Balaam doing. I wonder how many times we use God's will as an excuse. I wonder how many times we push God to allow us to do what we want to do even when in the deepest parts of our heart we know that it is not what He wants us to do. Let us be careful to move slowly and be sure that He goes before us. Let us be careful in our eagerness not to be doing what we want but what He wants us to do and in the way that He wants it done. WAG
Num_22:32
God told him to go. He asked in prayer and got permission but the angel of the Lord say that the way Balaam is going is perverse before him. This passage should scream at us about the need to know for sure what God wants us to do. He had prayed but sometimes praying is an excuse. Maybe we should dig in the Word more so that we could pray intelligently. If I know that it is not His will then I shouldn't even ask. If I pray without the Word I will not know what His will is. I am afraid that it has become very popular to pray ignorantly today. God is not a genie that we ask favors of. He is the God of the universe who we should obey. We find His will in what He has written. WAG
Num_22:34
Balaam says look if what I am doing displeases you I will get me back again just a few verses after God has told him that his way is perverse. How ignorant can we be. How stuck can we get on what we want to do without any real concern for what God wants. We must learn to be sensitive to the Lord and His leading or we to will be like Balaam and have a donkey that knows more of God's will than we do. WAG
Num_24:3
The sad thing in this story is that Balaam had to wait so long to get his eyes open. He had prayed. He had preached or attempted to. He had been in the ministry. He even had a donkey teaching him before his eyes were opened.
How long do we need to be in the ministry until we realize how important it is to fulfill the wishes of our Commander in Chief. The Great C0mmission is His heartbeat yet our churches are off prophesying about everything else. At best World Evangelism is one of our ministries but not the center of our ministry and our goal. Our churches have not learned the discipleship principles found in this Great Commission. Mat_28:18-20. Will it be too late for a lost world before our eyes are opened. Will be preach and pray about everything else while we forget the majority of the world? Will we continue a self centered ministry until He sends and angel to cause our donkey to crush our leg or will we let the Scriptures open our eyes? WAG
Num_30:2
Commitment! What a strong word! Many people have a real problem with their level of commitment. Since much of what we do as Christians today revolves around how it makes me feel we often will flippantly commit to God to do something that will be forgotten in the coming moments. Some of our commitments do not last from the altar to the church door. God expected a man to keep his word. We are not to lightly promise things. Jesus said that our yea should mean yea and our nay nay. Mat_5:37. The Psalmist said that we should swear to our own hurt and change not. Psa_15:4 That requires maturity and character but we will never reach the gospel message until God's people can be all of that. We must put our hand to the plow and not look back. Luk_9:62 WAG | 
