280: Ron Houben - Exhortation: Rules and Boundaries

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1. 0:13

   Welcome to Good Chris Selfie and talks. I’m Levi. And I’m Chris. And I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you’re about to listen to. And now, let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Welcome to the Good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast. This is Brother Brian.

2. 0:55

   This week’s talk is an exhortation that was given by Brother Ron Hoopin at the Pakuranga Ecclesia in New Zealand. We’ve actually had a number of requests for more material by Brother Ron, so this one stood up pretty well on its own. But if there are other uplifting talks that you would recommend, we would love to hear about them. And as always, we are forever.

3. 1:25

   We’re grateful to our community worldwide for the mutual support and encouragement that these recommended talks bring and the feedback that we can share with one another on our walk to the Kingdom. The excerpt is called Rules and Boundaries and the premise is how sometimes breaking or changing or finding the exception to the rules actually helps us to discover the true principle behind the rule.

4. 1:59

   And then the main story that the exhortation revolves around is the Numbers 21 account that Jesus referenced to Nicodemus when he said Just as Moses lifted up the servant serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up and whoever believes on him will be saved. Well, when examining the story, you see how problematic the aspects of this account were.

5. 2:30

   It was outside the Tabernacle. It was separate from any priestly duty, as well as making a graven image of a creature that they were forbidden to. But yet all the people had to do is to have faith that if they simply looked, they’d be healed. How can this be reconciled? There’s some really cool tidbits regarding the staff of Moses and ultimately a fantastic walk off point about lifting up Christ in our own lives, but I will leave that for you to discover. So as always, we hope that this strengthens your faith and brightens your day.

6. 3:17

   Brother Ron Hubin Rules and boundaries. So thank you very much the Robert for choosing that praise the Lord item because it’s probably going to be the crux of the expectation in the end the take home point I guess to see less of me and to see more of you or in the words of John the Baptist, I must decrease, he must increase.

7. 3:44

   So first of all just a a quick thank you to this Ecclesia in so many ways for supporting us to be able to go to Pakistan recently. Your encouragement and support through your prayers and your encouragement financially helped us to enjoy a wonderful experience in Pakistan. This is one of four Bible weeks, 4 consecutive Bible weeks that go on in Pakistan. So quite an experience and and I know it was very valuable. So just to thank you for that.

8. 4:24

   So a number of years ago in Fang and Ray, somebody mysteriously left an article on Brother Ray’s desk at work. He didn’t know where it came from, but this article was an interesting article which Ray read and then passed it on to me to read. And the article was called Wells and Fences. And since that time I’ve used the cracks of the idea of this article a number of times because it was a very well written article.

9. 5:02

   And the idea quickly behind this article was that, you know, in New Zealand we’re used to farming or shepherding or or herding cattle by means of keeping control, by putting them in fences and moving them to different paddocks. But in Outback farming or shepherding or even in the land of Israel, Outback shepherding, you couldn’t have fences because in order to find food or the animal, the cattle or the sheep, you had to cover a lot of mileage.

10. 5:35

    So how do you keep control without fences? Well, the answer is the well. And like the story of the Lord is my shepherd the idea that the shepherd follow the the sheep follow the shepherd because they trust the shepherd and hear his voice, but they also trust in what the shepherd leads them to, the provision of life. He leads me beside Quiet Waters.

11. 6:00

    And the concept behind this is the difference between law and grace is that of course law was about governing with rules and governing with fences. Everybody likes rules, don’t they? And And you need rules for children in particular because you need boundaries. But the difference between grace and while Christ came to teach is that the law or or the principle of grace is dynamic, It’s even moving forward. The problem with the fence is like this picture. She tend to navigate to the edge of the boundary all the time. And as humans, when we have a boundary, we tend to be the same.

12. 6:45

    We’ll push the limits of that boundary. And it can get annoying, can’t it? Because sometimes you’ve got these rules and when somebody does this, that can be really annoying, isn’t it? Like somebody, this guy’s pushed the boundaries because there’s rules and there’s lines here and and and this man’s taken up four car parks. And that is like terribly inconsiderate. Because behind this, of course, is there’s a principle is that maybe somebody had to park 2 kilometers down the street who was disabled and could now no longer park close to the shop and had to walk 2 kilometers because some guy took up four car parks.

13. 7:30

    What Jesus came along is he taught the principle of compassion and care. And when you understand the principle, that’s when all of a sudden you get this idea where when you understand the principle and care for somebody else, take away the lines and people will suddenly say, ah, let’s pack as close as possible because you understand the principle behind it, the principle of love.

14. 7:59

    Now, of course, in our meeting we have a few people that push the boundaries a little bit on the lines they get. They get rather close, don’t they, to the lines. Some of these cars you might recognize. There’s other ones that actually really sort of crossover the boundary. And well, they even have sign writing on their car, so it can’t really be hidden as to who they are. And you may identify some of these. So these are really starting to push the boundaries of the rules, really starting to push the boundaries of the rules, really starting to push the boundaries of the rules. close, but not close enough.

15. 8:48

    Of course, this one’s got an exemption. He’s permitted to have an extra car spot, so that one’s allowed. This one’s really crossing the boundaries, isn’t it? And then of course there’s this, which really has no sense whatsoever, a total breaking of all the rules. But sometimes breaking the rules, or changing the rules or finding the exception to the rule helps us to discover the true principle behind the rule. Now the Bible’s full of these.

16. 9:25

    You get these stories. For instance, Jesus talks about the Sabbath and he says, did not David go in and partake of the show, breed on the Sabbath, which it’s not lawful to do. So Jesus highlights an exemption. And when you see an exemption, go back and look carefully, because you’ll find a greater principle, a greater principle to the rule which overrides the rule.

17. 9:53

    It is the story of Hezekiah’s Passover. So Hezekiah had a Passover in the second month instead of the first month, and he prayed that God would accept the overriding principle of why he did this. One of the greatest stories of an exception to the rule is the story of Nicodemus, which we’ve just read in John Chapter 3. And this was such a confronting story for this man because when it came to rules, this man had a lot of them. It was all about rules.

18. 10:27

    Nicodemus, it says, was a teacher, a ruler of the Jews. In fact, in the Greek it’s quite specific. He was the teacher and many believed that meant he was like the third ranking official within the Sanhedrin and he was known as the Didascalos, the teacher. And as such he was responsible for accurately disseminating the law of Moses. And what they had was they called the mitzvah, which was the Jewish counting of all the laws in the law of Moses. So Nicodemus’s favorite number was 613. That’s his favorite number because there was 613 rules laws that Nicodemus was responsible for keeping. So when Jesus came and talked to Nicodemus, he really challenged everything that Nicodemus stood for. Nicodemus was a man of God.

19. 11:30

    He stood for trying to uphold the law in all its righteousness. And so when you get into this conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, you see something really confronting. Jesus says to Nicodemus, you can’t even see the Kingdom of God unless you’re going to be born again, Nicodemus says, How can that be? I don’t understand this. What are you talking about?

20. 11:53

    This seems so confusing It makes no sense. How can you be born again? Now, Nicodemus wasn’t a fool. He was a very clever man. And I believe Nicodemus knew the principle of proselytes who had to be born again and seen as, you know, like a gentile would have to go through and be washed and be born again as an adopted son in Israel.

21. 12:18

    Understood that. But when Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, it’s very confronting. What are you saying, what Jesus was saying? Well, sometimes you have to actually take away everything that you know and start from the beginning. You have to be born of water and born of spirit. And then Jesus says, well, if you think that’s confronting Nicodemus, then this one’s really going to do your hidden think about this. This is one of the greatest exceptions that you can see in the story of the Old Testament.

22. 12:57

    As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Whoever believes on him Now where are the rules in that? You know, like Jesus are saying it’s not about the rules, Nicodemus. This is an act of faith. What’s the exceptions? So when you look at this story, and we’re going to go back to it in numbers, Chapter 21, because I think it’s worthwhile, as we consider the power of the emblems before us, the power of the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, this was a confronting story. It was definitely exception to the rules. There’s a lot of things that are going on here that don’t make sense now.

23. 13:44

    It seems like a simple thing to do. Why can’t we just look up? If you look at that serpent on a pole, you’re going to be saved. You know the story of course, just quickly they came. They they came into an area of land and they had a big whinge because they were hungry and they were thirsty And they said we want some more food and we’re sick of this manner. And God got angry with them.

24. 14:11

    And a whole of snakes suddenly started coming and attacking people and these snakes started biting people. When they bit them, all of a sudden they started dying, had respiratory problems, And then God said to Moses, go and get a serpent, forge a serpent. So he had to go and forge a serpent, put it on a pole and lift it up and put it in front of the people. Anyone that’s been bitten, all they have to do is look at that. Now if you’re in amongst the children of Israel, there’s a lot of things going on here that is like, hang on a second, I don’t understand.

25. 14:48

    This does not make sense one every example under the law for when somebody transgressed and needed to go through the process of being forgiven, they had to bring an offering. They had to bring a sacrifice to the Tabernacle. This is outside the Tabernacle. This is no mention of any sacrifice. They’re not having to do anything. They’re not having to find an animal. A priest isn’t doing anything.

26. 15:18

    And not only that, this doesn’t make sense now. God says you shall not make the likeness of any creature. It’s the second commandment. You shall not make the image of the likeness of any creature that crawls on the earth or that flies in the air and worship it. So if you were in the children of Israel at the moment this is confronting, this doesn’t make sense. It’s outside the law.

27. 15:46

    It’s all gone wrong and do you know what’s just happened in Numbers chapter 22? Things have happened. Aaron has died. They’ve just had a month long state funeral. The high priest of Israel has died. And the story also just before that is that of Moses striking the rock and God saying to Moses you will not enter the land because you’ve done this, because you’ve not glorified me. So now think about this in the light of the children of Israel. You know what?

28. 16:25

    Aaron’s died. Moses. He’s not on God’s good side. I think he’s lost the plot. What? What’s he doing? Putting a serpent on a pole? This is outside the law. And what have we got to do? Look at that and be saved. How’s this going to work? An enormous test of faith. The other reason It’s a test of faith.

29. 16:50

    No, there’s a there’s a there’s a movie recently called Don’t Look Up. This is this is the story of don’t look down because because when they’re being bitten by snakes all around their feet, the lesson of this is don’t look down. You fix your eyes up and and don’t look down. Now that’s a challenge when snakes are biting your feet because you’re sitting there terrified and you imagine a father with his kids saying, dad, dad, dad, they’re snakes. And they’re saying to the kids, don’t look down, just look there, look there.

30. 17:26

    So this was a, this was a huge challenge. And we need to kind of explain it a little bit as to why many people died, but why many people had faith to do exactly what Moses said and why this exception actually explains the rule. Well, first of all, in the story of the Egyptians of where they had come out of every Egyptian pharaoh, every leader of Egypt carried with him a sceptre.

31. 18:03

    And you’ll see the image of the sceptre has a fork on the bottom. You know what that was for snakes. That was for snakes. And you’ll find that the history is most of the Pharaohs had exactly this type of sceptre on the bottom to deal with snakes and and they had different images on their head.

32. 18:26

    And the greatest of all the Egyptian gods, rather sun God had a serpent wrapped around the sun on his head. So the picture of the serpent and the sceptre always donated donate denoted the authority of the Pharaoh that the gods of Egypt were empowering the Pharaoh. That’s why he carried the sceptre. The gods of Egypt worked through this and God the gods had given him this power. When God called Moses Exodus Chapter 4, Moses already had a staff and we know Moses was shepherd, so he was shepherding. But there is a question, a theory that this may have actually been because Moses was brought up in the House of Pharaoh.

33. 19:22

    This may have been one of the things that he carried out of Egypt, a star that was an Egyptian * and he carried it with him. And in Exodus chapter 4, Moses said to God, how am I going to be able to how is the people going to be able to know that you’ve sent me?

34. 19:42

    And God said to Moses, what have you got in your hand? And Moses said a * and he says we’ll throw it on the ground. The Moses threw the staff on the ground. And what did it become? Snake. And he says pick it back up again. He picked it back up again and it became a star.

35. 20:02

    There was a snake on the ground and a staff in his hand and that was amazing. And of course the first miracle that all the children of Israel would have known about is the power of this rod, the staff in Moses hand. Because Moses is told to go into the House of Pharaoh and he throws this staff down and becomes a snake.

36. 20:27

    It was a common Egyptian trick to be able to do this. Apparently. What you could do is you could get a snake and you can whack them around and whip it and the blood rushes to the head and then they become as stiff as a board. And then you could drop it down on the ground and as the blood started to flow again the snake would start to move. So the magicians could actually do this with snakes, apparently today you can still do exactly the same thing. So it wasn’t uncommon.

37. 20:50

    But what was uncommon of course is when these snakes come alive, Moses snake suddenly turned around and ate the snakes. Now that suddenly was a terrifying thing for the all the Egyptians and it demonstrated of course that God’s authority was through Moses and this was the way God was going to use it.

38. 21:08

    Now that staff, that staff in Moses hand become an amazing instrument and when it was lifted up, the enemies were defeated. You remember this story. This is the story that defeated the Amalekites with Joshua and her holding up Moses arms because he’s got the staff there. And when the staff was in the ear, the Amalekites are defeated.

39. 21:34

    When the staff started to come down, the Israelites were defeated. And so when we come back to the story of Moses, just before this event, Moses had just taken this staff and God had said to Moses speak to this rock and Moses grabbed the star. This is angry Moses. He was angry at the people and he grabbed the * and he whacked the rock. That was going to be the moment that Moses was going to lose his position of leading the children of Israel into the land from that moment, because the symbol of the star was God’s authority in Moses hand.

40. 22:19

    When Moses took the star and it says in Numbers chapter 21 that Moses said to the people he gathered the assembly. In Numbers 20, verse 10 he gathered the assembly before the rock And he says, listen you rebels, shall we bring water out of the rock for you? Shall we bring water out of the rock for you? This is now Moses acting in his own authority, and using the staff that God had given him in his own authority. And so he struck the star, the rock twice. And MO and God said to Moses, because you did not believe me and listen to me, therefore he says, you shall not bring this assembly into the land.

41. 23:14

    That becomes a powerful story. In the story of this serpent on a pole spear, the rod spoil the child. There’s a there’s there’s a a belief within the Jewish history that at the beginning of the wilderness wanderings God had told Moses to smite the rock, and at the end of the wilderness wanderings he told Moses to speak to the rock.

42. 23:42

    The difference being that at the time when at the beginning of the wilderness wanderings, the children of Israel didn’t know God. They were like children. They needed boundaries, they needed laws, they needed instruction and they needed discipline. And so the use of the rod at the beginning of the wilderness journey was something which Moses was instructed to do, and to use the rod in that way at the end, by after 40 years, they ought to have come to know God. I’ve spent 40 years.

43. 24:14

    God’s been with them. He’s been teaching them in the wilderness. They’ve learnt the ways of God. Yes, they’ve rebelled. But you don’t discipline an adult with a rod, you discipline a child with a rod. At least you shouldn’t have to discipline an adult with a rod. And what it says of Moses and Aaron, it says this.

44. 24:36

    He’s it says that in Psalm 77, verse 20, it says you led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. So there were two shepherds in Israel, Moses and Aaron, and they led the children of Israel like a flock through the wilderness. Interesting that in Psalm 23 we get the story of the staff and the rod.

45. 25:07

    There’s many debates as to whether Moses and Aaron’s rod was the same, but most Jewish scholars believed they were actually different, that Aaron’s rod was different to Moses star. Part of the reason why is because look where Aaron’s rod ends up. Aaron’s rod blossoms and becomes like a branch and it was put inside the ark of the testimony.

46. 25:37

    Now our staff wouldn’t fit in there unless they cut Moses staff in half. So we know what happens to Aaron’s rod, but what happens to Moses rod or staff? And I’m going to suggest to you, and this is hypothesis, you never hear of Moses staff from this time forward. I believe Moses staff was used for the hanging of the serpent on a pole because his responsibility with that staff had just been taken from him. And then God says to Moses, I want you to take a serpent and I want you to put it on a staff and lift it up. And the word that’s used for Moses staff is like a banner. It’s a It’s not referring to the object, It’s referring to the action to lift it like a banner, Nissan, like a like a flag that waves in the wind.

47. 26:34

    Put it high so everyone can see. And here’s our expectation. God is teaching us that he can deal with the serpents, not us. And the way God deals with the serpent, of course, like an eagle, he takes it away from his battleground. He lifts it up away from the battleground. The serpent’s powerful on the ground.

48. 26:59

    It’s pretty useless in the ear. And when Jesus turns to Nicodemus and says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That’s used four times in John’s gospel and every time it’s referring to the action of Jesus being lifted up. And the word that’s used is actually the same word used to exalt somebody to make someone like a king.

49. 27:30

    But all four times it’s used of Jesus crucifixion. It’s kind of the inglorious glorification. He’s going to be glorified above all in the most inglorious way, the most horrific way to be lifted up. And he says if as the Son of Man must be lifted up like Moses lifted up the surf and in the wilderness so that anyone, anyone who looks can be saved from the serpent.

50. 28:07

    You know the that phrase lifting up is used in one other place in the Old Testament and the Septuagint. It’s worth having a quick look Isaiah chapter 52 as we bring this expectation to a close. Isaiah chapter 52.

51. 28:31

    It says, Behold, my servant and verse 13 shall act wisely, and he shall be high and lifted up, and he shall be exalted. In the Greek that’s the same word that’s used of Jesus and John’s Gospel four times. The Son of Man must be lifted up, as many were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, This form beyond that of a child, children of mankind.

52. 29:01

    And he shall sprinkle many nations and kings shall shut their mouths at him For that which has not been told them they shall see. And that which they have not heard, they shall suddenly understand this incredible principle that Jesus is talking about in terms of God’s means of salvation. So Nicodemus was going to be intimately involved with the story of this crucifixion.

53. 29:28

    Because remember, it’s Nicodemus that actually carries Jesus down from the cross. So it might have taken him three years to understand what Jesus meant. What do you mean? The Son of Man must be lifted up, He says. When the Son of Man is lifted up, I’ll draw all men unto me. And Nicodemus went with Joseph Arimathea, and he took a dead body down from a pole.

54. 29:54

    And Nicodemus literally carried that body down from the cross. So he understood the words of Jesus more than anything. Here’s the lesson for all of us as we come to the emblems.

55. 30:10

    We need to lift Jesus as high as we can in our lives. Do you lift Jesus high? Here’s the challenge for the week ahead. Can you lift Jesus higher? Can you lift Jesus higher in your own life? Can you lift Jesus higher in the life for somebody else whilst obscuring somebody from seeing Jesus?

56. 30:36

    Maybe it’s us. Maybe we’re in the way and we’re blocking someone’s view. He must increase. I must decrease. So we need to lift Jesus higher in our lives and the lives of the other people. And the way we do that is we bring ourselves lower. Our final quote as we come to the emblems Romans chapter 5, verse 21. So that just as sin reigned unto death, so also grace will reign through righteousness unto eternal life. Thank you for listening to the good Chris Adelphian Talks Podcast.

57. 31:35

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58. 31:52

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59. 32:25

    God bless and talk to you next week.