A Donkey for a Moses

Let’s take our Bibles right now. And let’s open them to the Book of Numbers Chapter 20. And we’re also going to be looking at Numbers 22 as well. Numbers 20 and Numbers 22. So, we’re going look at two chapters side by side tonight. Numbers 20 numbers 22. And this is the story in 20 of Moses striking the rock right and being disqualified from the Promised Land. And then in 22 we’re going be talking about Balaam and his donkey. You might be like, “Man, how do these two stories relate to one another?” You’ll see in just a moment here.

So, remember in school where you had an assignment to compare and contrast two stories? Who remembers doing that a little bit? And so that’s what we’re going do today. We’re going to pay special attention to the first story. And then, as you hear the second story, you’re going to be asking yourself some questions. How are the events of this story different than the first one? And how are they the same? How? How are the characters in the first story behaving? What are they doing? And how are the characters in the second story behaving? What are they doing? And then ask yourself, “What’s this common theme?” You’re going to pick up on it really quick that there is a common theme.

And just like with Jesus doing His parables, you remember where He gave back-to-back stories where He told of the lost sheep, and then the next parable it was the lost coin, and then the next parable it was the lost Son? By doing those stories back-to-back-to-back, He was giving a common theme. Each one was a little bit different, but they drove home a point that Jesus was come to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to find us, right? That was the common theme.

And so when we compare numbers 20 with 22, it’s going to become clear that the Lord is driving home a point, and it’s a point we need tonight, and I believe it would be helpful. And hopefully you can pick up what that point is as we get into both stories here.

If you’re able to let stand for the reading of God’s word. Numbers 20 and we’ll jump right in here. We’re going to be reading in verses 7-12.

“[7] And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, [8] Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes…” (Notice, He said, “Speak unto the rock”) “…and it shall give forth his water. And thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So thou shalt give the congregation and their beast drink.”

And so, what did he do? Verse 9: “And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. [10] And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? [11] And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. [12] And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

They were on the edge of the promised land. Moses is 120 years old. For the past 40 years, he has been marching to the Promised Land. They are on the edge of it…and he strikes out.

With God’s help tonight, I want to bring a message I’m calling “A Donkey for a Moses.” That title will make sense in a little bit, and you’ll need to hang with me through the first story. You gotta pay attention during the first one so you’ll pick up on the theme in the second one.

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for gathering us together here tonight. We pray that you would help us, and as the song that we just heard, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross. This is the theme of this message. We need your help as we go through wilderness times of our life. We want to know how to react well and what you expect of us. Please help us in Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

So, no one wants to live in a wilderness. Some of you who go camping out there: Has anyone camped for multiple days straight? More than two days? Has anyone camped for more than a week? Whoa! Okay. For more than a month? Whoa! All right. So, camping is an interesting thing. Going in the wilderness for those of you that like it, the more power to you. But there is not a camping in enthusiast in the room who wants to camp permanently in the wilderness where there is no water, there’s no food, there’s no anything beside a tent. You don’t want to live for 40 years in the wilderness, especially when you’re used to growing up in the city. Yes, all right. I don’t care how much you like camping. No one likes that. No one likes it that much.

The book of Numbers… When you read your Bible, the book titles are not inspired of God. They are traditional titles. Where we got the title Numbers from is actually from the Greek versions of the Old Testament. But the Hebrew title for the book of Numbers is bemidbar, and it means “in the wilderness.” And that really is the theme. Yes, there’s a lot of numbers in Numbers. There’s genealogies and stuff like that. A lot of counting in the first four chapters, but most of it is Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.

And we don’t like the book of Numbers that much because it’s a very frustrating book. It’s not difficult to read; it’s that Israel is not getting anywhere. It’s like they’re walking on a treadmill and they’re expending a lot of energy, and they’re not anywhere closer to anything. They’re just stuck for 40 years. And there comes a time in every Christian’s life where you find yourself in the wilderness where you feel stuck.

And not only was Moses stuck and did he felt stuck, but he’s in this place called Kadesh. In Numbers 20:1—look up there in Numbers 20:1. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in…” What’s the word? “Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.” So, if that name rings any bells, we remember that word Kadesh, 40 years before, when the Children of Israel were first going out of Egypt. They’re all excited. We’re going to go to the Promised Land. It’s only gonna take us a couple of weeks. That’s it. They get to the edge of the promised land. They sent 12 spies. Remember the story? The Lord did not tell them to send 12 spies. They just did it on their own. And they came back with a bad report. Everyone but Caleb and Joshua. And they decided that we’re not actually going to obey God after all. And what happens? They start wandering around the wilderness for 40 years.

Now Moses is no longer 80 years old when he first started leading them. He’s a very old man. He’s 120. Okay. And they’re on the edge of the Promised Land again. They’re about to go in, but for real this time. And he has put up with these people for 40 years—their nagging and their complaining and bringing all these issues to him. I can’t believe he didn’t, like, crack under the pressure before this.

But then something happens. In verse one. We just read it. And Miriam died (in verse one). And this was Moses’ older sister. She’s the one that saved Moses in the arc of bulrushes hid him. Remember, this was that Miriam people mourned for her for weeks and weeks and weeks. This was a big deal. And he’s grieving. And in the middle of his grieving, then the children of Israel come together…and look what happens. As you know, they’re in Kadesh there on the edge of the Promised Land. And like Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja vu all over again,” right?

This is the situation. They come to him, and it says that they are “against” him. The king James says they “chode” with him, which means they contended with him. That word is sometimes used in legal contexts, like bringing a case before someone as if they’re gonna sue Moses. Or it’s sometimes it’s like a verbal fight. All of the people that he’s led for 40 years are now ganging up on him in his time of grief. When he’s 120 years old. When they’re on the edge of the Promised Land. And he’s not happy. I mean, can you blame him for hitting the rock twice? Okay, but we’re gonna see why God didn’t give him a whole lot of wiggle room here. He said, you hit the rock twice, you’re not going into the Promised Land now. After all that time, after all Moses did. But there is a reason that He didn’t let him go into that Promised Land.

We’re going to look at three characters tonight in these stories. Moses, the donkey, and then Joshua.

So beforehand, let’s take a step back. How did we get here—where Moses is at right now, no longer being able to go to the promised land? There are three stages to Moses’ life: early Moses when he’s in Egypt with Pharaoh in the palaces. He lived 40 years there. You can split up the life of Moses into three 40-year periods: the first 40 years he’s in Egypt, the second 40 years, after leaving Egypt, he spends 40 years on the backside of the desert in Midian leading sheep. And then, when he’s 80 years old, he comes back to Egypt and leads the children of Israel toward the Promised Land for another 40 years.

Let’s turn to Exodus 2 real quick. We want to pick up on what happened to early Moses—Moses, who was in Egypt. Exodus 2 in verse 11: “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. [12] And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.”

And then you don’t have to turn there, but we get we get some more filler to this story in a sermon in the Book of Acts. When Stephen recounts the story for us in Acts chapter 7, he says in verse 22. “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” We didn’t get that in Exodus and Exodus. Stephen explains that through the inspiration of Spirit, uh, he was learned in all the wisdom he was trained up. He was a smart guy, Verse 23: “And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. 24. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:” Verse 25. Here’s the key here: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.”

When Moses is 40 years old, he has the passion burning in his heart. “I’m going to lead these people out from slavery and I’m ready to go.” He was very wise. He was trained up, and in his mind, “I’m ready. I’m going to do this.” And it says that he thought by the power of his hand, he was going to lead them out. He figured out really quickly he was not able to do so. He sees this Egyptian. He’s fighting with this with this Israelite. Moses goes over there, and with his bare hands he kills this guy. Now it’s not like he should have done that, okay. But that is actually pretty impressive for someone to take someone down with their bare hands.

But Moses was not ready in his own strength and power to lead the entire population of Israel to Canaan land and go in the face of Pharaoh. So, what does he do? He gets out of there real quick, and he goes to the back side of the desert and hides. So, the thing we know here about young Moses is that you only get so far on your own power with your own wisdom in your own might.

God had a plan for him, right? And Moses knew one day with this is a burning desire in my heart, “I want to lead these people out of here.” We know God’s plan was to use Moses to lead his people out of slavery, and he had a vision for what could be in his life. But he had no instruction on how to get that done. You follow me so far? Moses acted by reflex at the time. Yeah, and it didn’t do him well. He acted in his own power with his own wisdom in his own might. He kills an Egyptian with his bare hands. But that’s all that happens. Not much. It didn’t make a dent in freeing his people.

Then you have “middle Moses,” so to speak. He is in Midian. He’s in the back side of the desert, hiding from Pharaoh for the next 40 years. And 40-year-old Moses, thought he could do it all in his own strength. And he learned very quickly he couldn’t. Now 80-year-old Moses thinks that he can’t do anything in his own strength.

Alright, go to Exodus chapter 3. Let’s see what happens 40 years later. Here’s this cocky person, right? Thinks he can lead the whole nation by himself. 40 years passes, and he has a very different idea. Different mindset. Exodus 3:1: Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. 2. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire,” Notice that he saw the angel of the Lord. He saw it, it appeared to him, and he saw the angel of the Lord Remember this fact? “…The bush burned with fire. The bush was not consumed. First three, Moses said, I will now turn aside.” Remember that phrase, too: “I will now turn aside.” “…and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 6. Moreover he said, I amthe God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 7. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;”

Now skip down into verse number 10: “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 11. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh,” Remember? That’s what he wanted to do before he wanted to free the people. Now, now look at his mindset: “…and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12. And he said, Certainly I will be with thee…” Meaning that’s all you need is me. Verse 13: “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14. And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

What does that mean? Here we see Moses knows the children of Israel will not follow some guy named Moses that they’ve never met. All right, he knows he can’t do this in his own power. All right. He’s learned his lesson. 40 years in the back side of the desert has taught him something. The Lord tells him to go in the name of “I Am.” What does that mean? In other words, “Moses, you go knowing that I am what you need. You don’t have it in you to do this great thing I’ve given you. But I am what you need.”

Exodus 3, looking down in verse 19. “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.” No, not by a mighty hand. Whose hand is he referring to? A human hand. He’s saying it doesn’t matter how mighty your hand is. Pharaoh is not going to let you go. No matter, no matter how mighty it might be, no matter how strong you are, it doesn’t matter if you can kill an Egyptian with your bare hands. It’s not gonna do you any good against Pharaoh. Verse 20: “And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.”

So, God makes clear that it’s is not the mighty hand of Moses that’s gonna convince Pharaoh. It’s God’s hand. He uses that word “God’s hand.” When Moses stretches out his hand, it’s a physical representation of the spiritual hand of God. Okay? It is not Moses. His hand is not Moses’. His staff is not Moses’ power. He is pointing to the one that’s doing all this. But it couldn’t be clearer here. Moses was to represent God, not be God. Yes. Okay. Moses understands, “I can’t do this on my own.” Moses could kill an Egyptian with his two hands, but God could kill the whole Egyptian army with one hand and one hand behind his back. Moses couldn’t do that.

Exodus 4. Let’s look down here. And then we’re gonna conclude this middle part of Moses is life. Exodus 4:10: “And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. [11] And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? [12] Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

Moses said, “I can’t talk, I can’t talk.” And the Lord says, “Look, I’m trying to teach you that it’s not you that’s doing it, and I’m gonna give you even the words to say. It doesn’t matter that you can’t talk.”

So here’s the summary here. He paid attention to what the angel of the Lord said. He turned aside after hearing the angel. And here was Moses: He was a powerless, nameless, speechless person who had been humbled and who was totally dependent on the Lord. And God said, “That’s what I want. I can use this guy because he doesn’t think he can do it.” And God brings people into the promised land, so to speak, when we depend on him.

Acts 7:38. Now Moses is in the wilderness. He’s led them out of the out of Egypt. They’ve crossed the Red Sea. Acts 7:38. This is again in the speech of Stephen the deacon: “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:” So, here on Mount Sinai, when God gave the 10 Commandments, here Moses is in the wilderness with the angel again, the Angel of the Lord. And that’s key in just a second here.

Now we’re at the edge of the Promised Land again. All right, that’s the background of Moses. That’s how we got here. Miriam has died. The people are complaining. They’re “choding” with him. They were against Moses. They ganged up on him. “If only,” they said, “If only we had died with our brothers and sisters in the wilderness.” They’re talking about the rebellion of Korah when the ground opened up and swallowed them. They’re like, “Man, we just wish the ground opened up and swallowed us.” I mean, it doesn’t make any sense, right? This is not the time to be coming to Moses with their complaints, either. The people blamed Moses for bringing them into the wilderness as if it was his idea. Okay, so the Children of Israel had blurred the lines between Moses and God. They said you brought us in the wilderness. You did this to us. You did this to us. And Moses doesn’t correct them. What he should have done was say, “No, no, no. That was God. I’m just the representative, okay? It’s not my hand. It’s not my rod. It’s not my words. It was God that did this.” He doesn’t correct them in that regard.

What does he actually do here? Okay. He did something really wrong. I mean, he lost his ticket to the Promised Land. What did he do in Numbers 27:7-12. We read this that he was to speak unto the rock. He doesn’t speak unto the rock. He hits the rock. It says he doesn’t speak to the rock. He speaks to the people. Okay? And he says, “Must we fetch you water out of the rock?”

Hey, wait. Wait a second. Isn’t it God that is giving them water out of the rock? The people had blurred the lines between who’s doing this miracle—God or Moses. And now Moses says, “You want me to bring water out of this rock?” With that little word “we” there he didn’t say, “You want to tempt God and make Him bring water on this rock?” No, no, he says “we.” Meaning, he himself blurred the lines on who got them where they were. And, I mean, you put yourself on the throne of God with the crown on your head and the Lord is not going to be very happy with you. That is not a person who is going to be in the Promised Land type living. Only people who are dependent on God get to go to the Promised Land.

With Moses right now, it is no longer the rod of God. No longer is it the hand of God. No longer is it the words of God. It’s not the actions of God. It’s Moses’ rod, Moses’ hand, Moses’ words. And so, before the people it looks an awful lot like a miracle of Moses, not a miracle of God. God is the supplier of water. God meets their needs, not Moses. So with those substitute words that Moses said, Moses is making himself a prophet of himself rather than a prophet of God.

You see how this is a problem? Okay, but you say “Okay, brother Jonathan, I’m with you so far, but somewhere before didn’t God actually tell Moses to smite the rock. What’s the problem with him hitting the rock here?” And you’re right that in Exodus 17:6, 40 years before, God has him smite the rock or hit the rock and water comes out. But there is a difference there.

In Exodus 17:6, the Lord says, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” In that situation, God says I myself, I’m going to stand before the rock. And you remember in the temple—Pastor talked about the temple in a sermon series—that the presence of God was seen like a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. And so, you can imagine during this first episode with the rock that this glory cloud is right before the rock. And you cannot mistake the fact that God is there, and he is giving you water out of the rock. You can’t mistake it. But now, 40 years later, it doesn’t say that the glory cloud is before the rock. Now, when Moses hits it without the visible representation of God, it’s very easy to conclude that “Oh, Moses is the guy that gave us the water. He can do it on his own with his own power.” Just like the magicians of Egypt, he is taking credit very subtly for the miracle of God. That’s why he lost his ticket to the Promised land, by striking the rock with his own authority in his own power, absent of the presence of God. Moses is denying the Lord’s power before are the people.

So, the Lord basically says Moses, you appointed yourself the status of God. What is the first of the 10 Commandments? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, and it is absolutely impossible to obey God and be God at the same time, right? So are we so shocked that the Lord didn’t let Moses in the Promised Land? No. The Promised Land is inhabited by people who depend on God for strength in their wilderness wanderings.

What? What did Moses do? I think we should cut them a little bit of slack. I think that stress, anger, frustration, heartache, pain and grief often cause us to revert back to the person who we used to be before we saw the burning bush. Moses goes all the way back to the guy he was back in Egypt who did things by reflex instead of absolute dependence on God.

And when we feel the pressure, sometimes instead of dependence on God, we revert back to reflex and do whatever comes naturally. Whatever’s on our mind, and that often gets us into serious trouble. It sometimes is a defining moment in our life when we are on the edge of the Promised Land, so to speak. And it’s a very difficult time with a lot of stress, a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, and you’re at a tipping point. You get to decide then, will I depend on God to see me through, or will I react by reflex? All of us will be in a wilderness of some sort.

You remember a little bit ago—this was maybe a year ago, maybe less. They had problems with the Southwest 737s. And there was in the news that something went wrong on the Boeing planes. Well, I talked to a pilot and I said, “Well, what exactly happened there?” He said, “Look, all that happened on those planes—nothing wrong with them—there was something wrong with the autopilot. The autopilot mechanism broke, and the pilots were so used to flying on autopilot that when they had to take over the manual controls again and actually like, grip the steering wheel and look at the little manual controls and everything, they froze. They forgot what they learned. It had been years of them relying on the autopilot mechanism and then finally, there’s this moment of pressure all of a sudden right away, and they had some serious problems. If you’re a pilot, you spend our hundreds of hours in the cockpit learning what the little knobs and controls are and everything to learn how to be a pilot. And after you learn all those lessons and it’s fresh on your mind, you’re depending on the instruments, not on autopilot. Then you become a commercial pilot, and a lot of what you learned you’re actually not using a whole lot of it. It’s autopilot until the moment that you get tested. And then it’s like, “Do I remember what I learned these lessons way back in Midian when I was on the back side of the desert walking with the sheep?”

You follow me here? Every single Christian will go through a wilderness with a point when the autopilot breaks. When what you do in these times defines you.

You think of John Bunyan. He wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. He was in Bedford prison I believe it was. And he’s in there in a very difficult time. His wife and his children would visit him in prison and in his in his diary or one of his books that he wrote, he said, I’m having such a hard time seeing my little baby girl who was just born before I went into prison, who is blind. And I’m seeing her through the prison gates, prison bars, and I know I can’t help her. I can’t provide for her. I can’t be there. It’s hard enough, my wife raising these kids with no support for me at all, let alone this little girl who’s blind. What am I gonna do? And he wrote that in those times, in the times where there was immense frustration and hardship for him that those were the times that he dug into the word of God and saw immense treasures. It became alive to him and instead of just disqualifying himself, so to speak, he relied on God, and Pilgrim’s Progress is, I believe, the second-best selling book of all time underneath the Bible. It has helped many people.

I think of the times that I’ve gone through some sort of wilderness experience. I keep a log of devotion notes, and it spans almost 10 years. And I look back at some of those dates, and I remember exactly what was happening during some of those dates. And those were the most precious times where I felt like God is speaking directly to me. I am getting insight from his word because you’re absolutely dependent on Him. In the wilderness times, you either decide to be absolutely dependent on Him or you go back into autopilot mode.

Okay, we gotta go real quick. Let’s go to Numbers 22. Here’s the story of the donkey. At this point, if you are the Israelites in the wilderness, you might very well be thinking, “Okay, with Moses gone, who’s going to lead us now? What are we going to do without Moses? He led us to Egypt. We need him.”

Then two chapters later, there’s this weird story of the donkey. Balaam and his donkey. Numbers 22:21: “And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. [22] And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. [23] And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.”

Here’s the donkey. She sees an angel and turns out of the way. Are some alarm bells ringing? You remember something about this? I seem to remember something about this. Balaam is a prophet. He’s also called a “seer.” Okay, here’s the irony. Because Balaam’s sights are set on doing his own thing, he’s totally blind to the presence of God in front of him. It couldn’t be any more backwards. The seer is blind, but the donkey can see. You see?

Numbers 22:27. “And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. 28. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? 29. And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. 30. And the ass said unto Balaam…”

It’s like they’re having a conversation, right?

… Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. 31. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.”

Get this: God puts words into the donkey’s mouth and the hard heart of the prophet, just like the hard heart of Pharaoh, is changed. With this conversation through the actions of the donkey, God makes His will known and accomplishes them.

Now we’ve journeyed all the way to this point. Here’s the big connector here. This donkey turns aside for the angel. [The donkey] is a powerless, nameless, speechless animal who was humble before God for the direction along the way.

You understand that God did not need Moses and God did not need a donkey. He was showing the Israelites that I can use—it’s not about the vessel that I choose. All that needs to happen is for you to humble yourself. Turn out of the way, get down on your knees and depend on Me. And I can do incredible things through you. I can do it through a donkey. The Lord was clearing up any doubt in the Israel’s minds of how God’s power works. The Lord does not need Moses. He can use a donkey for a Moses.

Living a spiritually blessed, fulfilled victorious life with an inner peace that passes all understanding cannot be achieved through working harder. It is achieved by allowing God to work through you. If we would get out of the way. You say, “Okay, brother Jonathan, I mean, let’s say I’m in the wilderness, I’m struggling, not where I ought to be. I can see the Promised Land out a little yonder, and it’s frustrating because I can’t get there. What do I do?” Here’s some practical things. Give me five minutes. All right? Whether you do or not, I’m going to take five minutes. My dad’s away, okay?

The answer is to switch off the autopilot. It’s time to depend on the instruments that you got familiarized with 40 years ago in Midian when you found the Lord. Remember? When you got saved? You humbled yourself and said, I can’t save myself. I’m depending on the Lord. But now, “40 years later,” we start depending on ourselves for everything butsalvation. That is not the victorious Promised Land type living.

All right, how do I get to the Promised Land? How do I turn the autopilot off? Number 1 is humility. You don’t want God to humble you for you. The Bible command of the New Testament is too humble yourselves before God. So, God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Not because he was proud, but to keep him from being proud. “Lest I be lifted up,” Paul didn’t make the mistake that Moses did because he was already humble. He couldn’t help but be because he had a thorn in the flesh that God gave him.

Sometimes fasting humbles you for you before God has to. What does fasting do? It makes you very aware that that you have needs that you’re not understanding. You do…that you’re a very weak person without one meal or a day’s worth of food, and you get very humble very quickly. And if you spend that time in prayer and Bible, God will show you things you didn’t see before because you are demonstrating physically that I’m depending on You. This is an outward sign. I want to hear from you. Fasting is one.

Number 2 is the mind of Christ. The illustration from the New Testament of getting the mind of Christ. How do you do that? By reading the Gospels. Just pour into them. You understand? What would Jesus do in this situation? How would He think? What would He say? How would He behave? That will transform our lives if it’s just second nature—this is what Jesus would do. This is what Jesus would say. If we know Him that well. We have four Gospels that give us what we need to know. To have the mind of Christ.

And then last, letting the Word of God control your actions. If Moses would have done that, he would have entered the Promised Land.

So, we said that there are three characters to be highlighted. Tonight, we talked about Moses. We talked about the donkey. And I said, the third character is Joshua. Numbers 27:18. “And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him…” He ordains Joshua. He takes over from Moses. Joshua. The Hebrew name is Yeshua. Joshua accomplished what Moses could not do. Moses got him to the edge, but could not get them into the Promised Land. Joshua got them through. Thousands of years later, an angel comes to Mary and says, “You’re going to name your child Jesus.” The Hebrew name is Yeshua. Joshua and Jesus did what Moses could not do. Jesus trailblazed the path to the Promised Land for us—not with our might but with His. And if we join ourselves to Him in faith, we can live the Promised Land life through the Spirit, not by working harder but by getting His mind in us and having a peace that passes all understanding.

I don’t know if you’re in a wilderness tonight, but we need to take some advice from Moses. If he were standing right here, he would say, “Look, church, if you’re going through a wilderness right now, humble yourself in the sight of God, depend upon His word for guidance, and have the mind of Christ. I hope we take this lesson with us tonight. I know it’s helping me. Please ponder this throughout the week. Let’s pray, Father. Thank you for your holy word…