Being careful about the way we speak concerning God's people when we are offended will help us remain in the kingdom of God. Regarding this, I recommend that you consider Matthew 18:1-35, where we see that the best way to be kept in God's kingdom is to forgive others. We should not offend other saints or stumble them. Whenever we are offended or stumbled, we should be forgiving. If we know only to condemn others and have no intention of forgiving them, we will have trouble. In the church life there is the need of forgiveness.
To forgive is to forget. Suppose a particular married couple does not have the practice of forgiving and forgetting offenses. Instead of forgiving there is condemning, and instead of forgetting there is remembering. It is not likely that such a marriage will last. Even if the marriage does last, it will lack joy and happiness. If you want to have a joyful married life, you need to forgive the offenses caused by your spouse and forget them.
The church life should be a forgiving life. Concerning the Bible we should have a good memory, but concerning others' wrongdoings we should have a poor memory. This will keep us in the church life. Otherwise, we will have many negative things to say about the saints, and eventually we will forsake the church life. For the church life and in the church life, we need a forgiving spirit. Then instead of condemning the saints, we will forget their mistakes and offenses.
The blunder committed by Moses in Numbers 20 consisted in not having a positive and pleasant feeling regarding God's people. This caused him to make a serious mistake in representing God. He did not sanctify the holy God in His nature, and he did not keep God's word in His economy. My burden in this message is simply to point out the important lesson we need to learn from Moses' failure concerning the people's contending for water.
We all need to realize that the church life is very tender and touchy and that every brother and sister in the church is likewise very tender and touchy. Sometimes we offend others because we do not remember that the church life and the saints are tender and touchy. We may think that a certain brother is very good and that he could not possibly be offended by anyone. Such a brother may be good for many years, but suddenly, because he is tender and touchy, he may get offended by someone and no longer have a positive feeling about the church life. Cases like this remind us that we need to learn always to be conscious of the tenderness and touchiness of all the saints in the church life.
In chapter twenty of Numbers, God did not come in to vindicate Moses; rather, He came in to vindicate His people. This might have been a great surprise to Moses, who probably never expected God to vindicate those whom he considered rebellious. But this is exactly what God did. In this chapter He seemed to be saying, "Moses, you have rebelled against My word. My people are not wrong—you are wrong."
Through our study of chapter twenty of Numbers, we may learn how to behave when others contend with us in the church life. The people were saying to Moses, "Where can we find water? Why did you bring us out of Egypt and lead us to a place like this? This is not a place for seed, figs, vines, and pomegranates." After the people had contended with Moses in this way, he should have gone to the Lord and said, "Lord, what should I do concerning the need of Your beloved people?" In this chapter it seems that God said to Moses, "There is no need for you to do anything. Take your rod, go to the rock, and tell the rock to flow forth water so that My people and their cattle may drink." Uttering praises to the Lord, Moses then should have simply spoken to the rock, telling it to flow forth with water. If we deal with the contending of God's people in this way today, the church life will be glorious.
There is a definite connection between Numbers and 1 Corinthians. When Paul was writing the Epistle of 1 Corinthians, it is likely that he realized that the history of Israel is a type of the church life. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 he refers to the Passover, saying, "Our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed." Then, speaking of the things that happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness, he says in 10:6, "These things occurred as types of us." In verse 11 he goes on to say, "These things happened to them as types, and were written for our admonition." This clearly indicates that there are lessons for us to learn from the journeying of the children of Israel. What happened to them may also happen to us.
The lesson we need to learn from Moses' failure in Numbers 20 is that we should be very careful when we speak about God's people. We may think that we are right and that others are wrong. However, God may come in not to vindicate us but to vindicate the ones we condemn.
In 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 we see Paul's attitude regarding judging and being judged. "To me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by man's day; nor do I even examine myself...He who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who shall both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each one from God." "Man's day" in verse 3 is the present age in which man judges, in contrast to the Lord's day (1 Cor. 3:13), which will be the coming age, the kingdom age, in which the Lord will judge. Now, in the day of man, man exercises judgment, but in the day of the Lord, the Lord will exercise judgment. In the church life today, we should not condemn others but forgive them and forget their offenses. Do not keep a record in your memory of others' offenses. Remembering offenses is risky, for it may cause you to lose your birthright, to lose your right to the enjoyment of Christ as the good land.
My aim in this Life-study of Numbers is not to teach the Bible merely in a doctrinal way. I hope that from this word on Numbers 20 we all will receive some light and revelation which will help us in our present, practical Christian life and church life. From the type in this chapter, we may learn to have regard for God's nature and for His administration among His people. If we learn this lesson, we will be careful about speaking in a negative way concerning God's people.