Insight for Living

Speaker 1

Strong leaders need thick skin. That can help when you're the recipient of verbal attacks. After all, harsh criticism and constant complaining can throw a leader into a downward spiral.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll finds wisdom in the Old Testament book of Numbers. Moses, the celebrated leader of Israel, was taking verbal hits from his people. They'd grown weary of their time in the wilderness, and the whining was wearing him down.

Let's pick up the story in Numbers, chapter 11. Chuck titled his message, "Grumblings Against a Godly Leader."

Speaker 2

Look at verse 26. Two men had remained in the camp. Now that doesn't mean much to you unless you think. Remember that Moses has said, all of you come out of the camp and get together under your heads. There are 70 men that he had appointed under God to carry the load. And there were two men that didn't come out. The name of one was Eldad. The name of the other was Medad. The spirit rested upon them. That's important. These weren't rebels. They were led by the spirit of God to stay in the camp. And it says in verse 26, they prophesied in the camp.

So a young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. Meaning what? Well, that's Moses' job. He's the prophet. And if anybody's going to prophesy, let Moses do it. That is, that's the way that young man saw it. And he said, he's kind of a tattler. He said, Moses, a couple of fellows are not getting with the program. And of all things, they're in there doing your job.

Look at the next verse, Joshua. Yeah, that's the same one. The book bears his name. The son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, answered and said, Moses, my lord, restrain them. Now what's the problem? Well, it's the peril of jealousy and indispensability. They were jealous for Moses' role and they thought, Moses, you can't let them get away with that. You're the prophet. What's Eldad and Medad doing in there? I wonder if they were twins with names like that. What are they doing in there? Prophesying, that's your job. And Joshua says, hey, Moses, put a stop to it.

Let me show you how broad-shouldered Moses is. Look at the next verse. It's just great. Moses said to them, are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. Wow, talk about unselfish! There wasn't an ounce of jealousy in that man of God. Now you would think, wow, since Moses passed that test, man, that was it. No, as a matter of fact, chapter 12 introduces a third test.

Let me give you the peril, and then let's look at the passage. It gets better as you work your way through these perils. The third one is the peril of being misunderstood and misrepresented. Now that happened to Moses. It is very possible that Moses' wife Zipporah died and he married another woman who is described in verse one of chapter 12 as a Cushite. Look at the response to this choice that Moses made. Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses. Why? Because of the Cushite woman whom he had married.

Now this troubles some who read this. Because God stood in Moses' defense, and yet he didn't marry an Israelite. Wait a minute. The Lord had specifically declared an Israelite was never to marry a Canaanite. But she was a Cushite. Look at what they said. Verse 2. Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Underscore only. That's the slander. Has he not spoken through us as well? And the Lord heard it? Uh oh. In every slander, there is a gossiper and a gossipee. And between the two is the Lord. And before the gossipee ever hears the comment, the Lord has intercepted what was said.

They misunderstood and they misrepresented this man of God who made a decision regarding a wife that they couldn't understand. And because they couldn't, and in all honesty, because they weren't promoted in the process, they tucked their thumbs under their suspenders and pranced around saying, look, we are authorities, just like Moses. Now verse 3 sets the stage. Moses was very humble, more than any man on the face of the earth.

Verse 4. Suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, you three come out to the tent of meeting. When I read that, a funny little chill runs up and down my back. Can you imagine? Just remember those days when you were in school and you got a note to go to the principal's office. Remember that? Oh man, you'd look for the first fire escape. You just couldn't believe you were to go to the principal's office. God said, you three come to my office. Well, Moses had nothing to lose. He just was delighted to go back in the Lord's presence. But not Miriam and Aaron. You will notice they came out. You bet they did. When the Lord said come, they came.

And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent. And he called Aaron and Miriam. When they came forward, he said, hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my household. With him I speak mouth to mouth. Isn't that beautiful? I have a unique relationship with my servant. And no one will take his place. He will die and pass on. But there will be no one else in this camp as long as he is alive with whom I have a mouth to mouth relationship. Leave him alone.

Now look further. Verse 10. When the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam. Behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, O my Lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. Oh, do not let her be like one dead. Verse 13. Moses cried out to the Lord saying, O God, heal her. What humility! Moses had been slandered by his sister, but when he saw her leprous, he said, God, heal her body.

Now look at God's response. Verse 14. The only time you read such a statement from God. If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame? Seven days. Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp. And afterward she may be received. Let this chastisement run a course of one week. And so Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days. And the people did not move on until she was received again.

That's a chapter that describes how God protects the godly person. You don't have to run your own defense. God runs the defense for you. You will be misrepresented. You will be misunderstood. Don't try to cover all of those slanderous things said against you. Let me say something else while I'm on the subject. Interesting to me that he was slandered because of an area of privacy. Who he married was his own business. The whole area of the domestic life seems to be the area of scandal fed upon by the rabble, especially among the godly.

It's interesting to me that God never does tell us why he married her. But I take it, since God defended his decision, that Moses and God had talked about it. And he chose the man God. He chose the woman. God would have him have. And they couldn't understand it. And so they put him down. You be exceedingly careful about what you say regarding the privacy areas of people of God. If you do not know the facts and they trouble you, you talk to them one on one or you say nothing. They have nothing to hide.

I'm appalled at what is said regarding individuals that people marry. I won't call his name, but one of the saints of the last generation lost his wife, and after a few years of being alone, he married a woman several years younger than himself, in fact many years. And some old biddy came up to him and said to him, the nerve. How could you have the nerve to marry somebody that much younger than you? And in his gravel voice he said, listen, honey, I'd rather smell perfume than liniment any day. I love that answer. Oh, wow. I wish I knew what the woman said by. She probably didn't say anything. What a fabulous answer. Who wants to smell liniment when you can smell perfume?

Wow. You just be sure you've got God's woman or you've got God's man, and forget it, because invariably there will be those who will pick on you because of your choice. Same applies to your kids. Just go right on. Somebody said, maturity is moving from a soft skin and a tough heart to a tough skin and a soft heart. I like that. Don't let your heart get hard, but let your skin get tough. You'll never amount to much as a godly man or woman if you've got thin skin.

There's a fourth peril. Oh, they came to the land of Canaan, or almost there, and God told them to spy out the land. Verse 2 of chapter 13. And he sent them out, verse 3, from the wilderness of Paran. And they began to spy out the land. Look at 13:25. When they returned from spying out the land at the end of 40 days, they came to Moses and Aaron. Now here they are having come back from those 40 days of looking at the land of Canaan which God had promised. And they told them. Verse 27 we went into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey. This is its fruit. And they display these beautiful examples of fruit from the land of Canaan. Wow, it was beautiful. And Moses' heart beat faster because he could see the people going into the land and taking it as God had promised.

But they didn't. Verse 28. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. And moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Who are the Anakim descendants? They're the giants. They are a people of giants. And we were going along. And all of a sudden we came upon these giants. Oh, we've been running ever since back to you guys to tell you about it.

We had a couple in our church up in New England who were our interns. And the guy was about 6'5" and his wife was about 6'1". And when she was in high heels, wow, they were really up there, you know, sort of jump center for the Bruins type of thing. And one afternoon after church when she was all dressed up and he was too, they went into this grocery store and they were going to get a few things before Sunday lunch. And they were pushing this cart down the aisle. And here he was, and here she was. And all of a sudden this little kid came tooling around the corner and running down an aisle, and he came upon these two. And he looked at him and he said, giants. And he took off in the other direction.

Oh, that's crazy. That's what happened here, man. We were going through the land, and all of a sudden these giants came. Oh, man, Moses' heart went right down to the bottom. Don't listen to these guys about the giants. We've got a giant God who can take us right into the land. But they didn't listen. Look at chapter 14, verse 4. Look at this verse. They said to one another, let's appoint another leader and go back to Egypt. This is the peril of being ignored and rejected. They didn't want the land. They wanted to go back to that secure carnal area of Egypt. Because to go into the land means you've got to face the giants.

Now you might think, well, now, they really didn't mean that. Oh, no. Look at verse 10. They looked at Moses and Aaron. All the congregation said to stone them with stones. Get rid of them. They don't do things our way. Get rid of them. This can lead to the last peril, the peril of resentment and revenge. Boy, what a chance for Moses to say, Lord, zap them. Look at verse 11. The Lord said to Moses, how long will the people spurn me? How long will they not believe in me? Verse 12. I'll smite them with pestilence. I'll destroy them literally. And Moses said to the Lord, great idea, no? That's what I would have said. But Moses said to the Lord, oh, but your testimony is at stake. The Egyptians will hear about it. And, oh, what will we say?

And Moses in the last part of this chapter, you read it. We can't because of time. Moses defended them and said, Lord, don't do that. And God didn't. No resentment, no revenge. I'll tell you, when you're shot at as a godly person, it will be the peril of resentment and revenge that will eat at you like an acid. Many a man of God in a pulpit turns the pulpit into a hammer, fighting his battles against the rabble filled with resentment and revenge. Look, leave that with God. He did deal with them, but Moses didn't.

Let me give you three things to remember. The godly life is never easy. Rewarding, yes. Fulfilling, yes, but it's never easy. You think twice before you think of the Christian ministry. You think twice before you think of a Christian school where you fulfill complete commitments in your area of life. Because there's a whole realm of difficulty connected with that.

Second, the godly life is often endangered. Someone said the life of the apostles was like a bleeding hare making his way over the snowy hills, a wounded rabbit, just a trail of blood. The godly life is often endangered. Third, the godly life is always eventful. Tell you, if you really want to break the boredom syndrome, commit yourself to Jesus Christ. Most exciting things take place. You can't believe you will become effective, empowered from heaven, and the battle will rage. You never find people on the front lines going to sleep. They're in the fray. The battle's going on. It's terribly eventful when your life counts for Christ.

Psalm 34 says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Isn't that great? I can promise you one thing. If your walk with Christ is consistent, all hell will break loose, but all heaven will come to your rescue. It's the only way to live.

Our Father, we love you with all the love we can muster, but we cannot out love you. We find security in your strength and in your acceptance. We are so grateful that you know these perils, every one of them. And you take delight in meeting our needs as they come with great anticipation. With enthusiasm, we look forward to tomorrow, where we live that gospel, where we live that life that we've heard about today.

We realize that the forces of hell work against us. But the power of heaven comes to our rescue tonight. Above and beyond all the enemy and all the attacks, we give you our life afresh and anew with confidence that there is no giant worth even a passing worry. We love you, and as one in the bond of love, we go together out of this place with rejoicing, considering ourselves worthy that we might live this world that hates you, a life that continually convicts those who are without Christ.

Help us, our Father, as we emulate the Savior to be so dedicated and devoted to him that the heart is warm and soft, the skin is tough, and our minds are fixed on you. In the loving name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Speaker 1

This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll is our Bible teacher and he titled today's message "Grumblings Against a Godly Leader." Keep listening because Chuck has prepared an important closing comment just for the Insight for Living family. That's coming up in just a moment.

But first, did you know that every message in the Moses series is paired with a Searching the Scriptures Bible Study? This is an exclusive spiral bound workbook prepared by Insight for Living. All 20 of Chuck's sermons in the series are included so you can dig into the Book of Exodus on your own.

In addition to the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study for Moses, you're also invited to purchase all 20 sermons on audio CD. The complete collection is in stock and ready to send your way. For these two resources, the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study workbook and the audio CDs for Chuck's study on Moses, just go to insight.org or call us at 800-772-888.

And now, here's Chuck.

Speaker 3

As I look back over the years, I can remember being in only two different deserts. They were thousands of miles from each other. One was the Mojave Desert, and that's the one you go through when you make a trip to or out of the state of California. And the other, of course, would be the desert of Judea, often called the wilderness. We're talking so much desert there that you don't even see a green scrub brush, just a little plant growing here or there. It's all gravel and sand and rock.

What you long for in deserts is an oasis, a place to quench your thirst, a place to find relief and some shade from a few unusual and rare palm trees. Insightful Living is an oasis in this desert-like world in which we live. We receive mail from people all around the world, literally, and they speak of our being a refuge in a time of storm, our being a hope for them in their hopeless situation. Some have even used the word "oasis" as they turn to us for relief, to find a reason to go on, as I often refer to it, to find hope in a hopeless generation. We intend to be that as long as we exist.

And so that means I need to assure you of this: I am here for the long term. I'm not going anywhere else. We have a backlog of messages that go over 50 years of preaching. You've heard some of them; some of them you haven't. We're looking forward to putting together a new series of messages for you to find hope, to gain that sense of reason to go on, that purpose in this purposeless era, to find joy in a joyless society. We want to be all of that and more for all of you. I've never been more sincere in saying something.

As I close these remarks, I want to acknowledge that the year 2024 has not been without its challenges. You're aware of some of them, and you're unaware of many of them that we've gone through. But what will help us the most is your prayer support. As you call on the Lord to minister through our words as they are broadcast, as they come over various means of ministry, lives are touched, hearts are changed, the lost are saved, marriages are recovered, and families are brought back together after being fractured.

Your financial support is equally important. I want to urge you to think seriously about what the Lord would have you personally give so that the ministry of Insightful Living could go right on without a moment's break. Your support gives us the reason to press on, to plan ahead, to put those series together, and to make it available to all who listen.

And don't forget, by the way, to pray for those who've never come to Christ, that the year 2025 would be their year of conversion, their road to Damascus, their life change. I love you so much, and I thank you for all you mean to us. I count on you to stand with us during the end of this year as you support us with your generosity. Thank you. Sincerely.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Chuck. All of us here at Insight for Living are deeply grateful for your generosity. As we approach the deadline of December 31st, we invite you to give a year-end gift to Insight for Living. No matter the size, God will use your contribution to reach men and women around the world with His love and grace.

Call us at 800-772-8888, or you can give through our secure website at insight.org. If you prefer to send a check in the mail, just address your envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, TX 75034. Again, that's Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, TX 75034. Our phone number again is 800-772-8888, and online, go to insight.org.

I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll presents a festive Christmas message complemented with majestic music this Friday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Grumblings Against a Godly Leader," was copyrighted in 1976, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1998, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved. Worldwide duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.