SEMESTER 3
435 – Israel in the Desert – After the Law
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY III LESSON # 35
ISRAEL IN THE DESERT (AFTER THE LAW)
In preparation for this lesson read Exodus 32-35
and Numbers 21:1-9. Also, read lesson 35 in MAJOR BIBLE EVENTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
INTRODUCTION:
1. This lesson might well be entitled Human Depravity, for these people are the personification of it.
2. Human philosophy is that evil doings flow out of oppression, poverty, ignorance, etc.
3. Herein lies the basic flaw in most modern psychology; i.e., that bad circumstances cause bad conduct.
4. Conversely, the truth is that bad hearts cause bad conduct, which creates bad circumstances.
Illustration: (on tape) the ignorance, sin, social degradation, crime, etc., in our society today.
5. The point of this lesson is simply that neither instruction, provision, security, nor even the obvious presence of God begets decent conduct, it takes the new birth.
I. ISRAEL’S SELF-APPRAISAL (EX. 19:8
)
1. They saw themselves as disposed to do God’s will.
2. They saw themselves as capable of doing God’s will.
3. I expect that this foolishness resulted from their misconception of God.
II. ISRAEL’S CONCEPT AND PERCEPTION OF GOD
1. They accepted God’s actions casually, rather than standing in awe and gratitude.
III: All of the miracles they have seen up until now.
2. They have seen all of this without perceiving their own inadequacy and ungodliness.
3. They have seen all of this without perceiving that God is an infinite, holy and omnipresent Spirit.
4. In their darkened and vile hearts, He still may be a planet, or an insect, or a living animal, or a golden calf.
5. The Lord states this natural depravity in Mat. 11:25-27.
III. THE CONDUCT THAT ISRAEL’S SIN PRODUCES
1. The title of point number 3 implies rightly that sin is a state of the heart, before it is an act.
2. The natural consequences of this state have been seen already in Israel’s past conduct. They are further revealed in:
i. The request for gods (idols). (Ex. 32:1)
ii. Accepting a golden calf as their deliverer. (Ex. 32:4)
iii. Worshiping this man-made image. (Ex. 32:5-6)
iv. Dancing naked in their idolatrous ecstasy. (Ex. 32:25)
3. Moses breaking the tables of stone shows us the hopelessness of man’s state under divine law.
4. Man’s heart was “only evil” before the flood and after the flood.
5. Likewise man is a lawbreaker before he has the law and after he receives it.
IV. ISRAEL FROM SINAI TO JORDAN
1. The attitude of their heart after the law, is seen in their murmuring in Num. 21:4-9.
i. They spake against God and Moses. (verse 5)
ii. They voiced unbelief, “brought us up to die.” (verse 5)
iii. They complained of lack of provision. (verse 5)
iv. They stated their contempt for what they had. (verse 5)
2. This reveals the terrible state of the evil heart of unbelief, (Heb. 3:12) and groups them with all natural men, (Rom. 1:21) and shows them to be “unthankful, unholy.”
3. Again, be assured this does not reveal failure in God’s law, but reveals the purpose He had in giving it. (Rom. 3:19-22)