The Promise is Yours by Faith

Scripture: Numbers 13-14

INTRODUCTION:  How does God lead a rebellious people?  In Numbers chapters 13 and 14, we have recorded for our instruction how God deals redemptively with His covenant people from the time of their departure from the southern end of the Sinai PeninsulaJordan RiverTransjordan) and the preparing of the Israelites for the invasion of Canaan.

( to their triumphal conquest of the Promised Land.  The Book of Numbers opens with Moses subjugating the eastern side of the

It is a remarkable story of repeated failure in faith on the part of these recently emancipated slaves.  They are delivered by the miracle-working power of God. They miraculously see the plagues God brings upon the Egyptians, they are constantly accompanied by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night symbolizing Jehovah’s presence with them, they see the Red Sea open up and God provides a way to escape the deadly assault of the Egyptian Army as God makes a dry path through the sea and then Israel watches as a wall of water returns and drowns the Egyptian Army. They see the provision of food and water. Yet in spite of all of the evidence, they are given to repeated relapses into distrust, self-pity, and rebellion in the face of any problem or crisis.

Numbers thus addressed a people who were a sorry excuse for an army of the Lord. Indeed they were materialistic, self-centered warriors who lost courage in almost every challenge to their faith and complained bitterly in the face of any testing that came their way.  They lamented that God had drawn them “into destruction” in the desert and that their innocent, helpless children would die with them in the wilderness or be slaughtered by their pagan foes unless they turned in disgrace to the land of their oppressors.

This morning we will see how God promised to grant victory and complete conquest to those very children whose death the doubters had dolefully predicted.  The difference in their military effectiveness would result not from their increase in numbers but from the increase in their faith and the quality of their obedience to the commands of God and to the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ chosen successor.

Seeing how this new generation of promise facing the challenge of settling the land of promise after the history of their parent’s rebellion is a story that instructs us in our church in 2009. Basic decisions faced the Israelite nation.  Important options lay before them in their day, and similar decisions face us in our day. Their options were:

1.      They could accept the status quo and stay in the wilderness and try to establish life without accepting the risk of entering the unknown Promised Land. (passivity)

2.      They could retreat to the security of the past even though it meant eternal subjugation to foreign powers and forfeiture of God’s promises. (backsliding)

3.     They could continue complaining and fighting among themselves for leadership positions, power and prestige without facing the task God had given them.  (settle for lukewarmness, Rev, 4:16

)

4.      They could try to set up their own isolated religious community, following leaders, rituals, and worship patterns they invented rather than what God had commanded.  This way they could avoid the contamination of the world and the challenge of obeying God. (legalism and isolationism)

5.      They could find the faith to cut themselves  free from the pattern of their fathers, search God’s will as revealed in His inspired Word, and cross into the Promised Land, depending on God to fulfill His promises and committed to becoming the people God always had wanted them to be  (Consecration)

  Matt 6:33KingdomGod and His   

of ) But seek you first the

  righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

(1 Cor.10:11) These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warning for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

I.                  GOD’S PROMISED BLESSINGS CAN BE RECEIVED ONLY BY A PEOPLE OF FAITH (13:1-33).

After a short traverse of the wilderness Moses and his people arrive at the edge of the Promised Land. God tells Moses to call for the leaders of each of the tribes of IsraelLand of Canaan for forty days (always a prudent thing to do before a military campaign). Moses needs to know about their fortifications, the inhabitants, agricultural productivity, water sources, and weather. This is the kind of a mission I loved during my military years.  They left from Kadesh Barnea and the itinerary of the twelve scouts included the old city of HebroncaveMachpelahNegev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the

where Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob were buried. When they returned with their report forty days later they staged a much-anticipated “show and tell” for the people. Pomegranates, figs, and a gargantuan cluster of grapes that took two scouts to carry on a pole attested to the superior agriculture of the region. It was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey!  But rather than climaxing their report with the astounding agricultural possibilities in accordance with Moses’ instructions ten of the scouts slide over the agricultural aspects and start blabbering about the size of the people who inhabited the land and the large fortified cities.  They painted a very bleak picture. “The Amalekites live in the of , near the , except, of course, Levi. They are given the mission of being a reconnaissance party to “spy out” the

Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” All of this makes sense if they discount the presence of God.  They were the servants of the most High God, but they forgot to put the “God Factor” into their equation. 

Furthermore, the ten scouts distorted their reports—they were told by Moses to survey the hill country which was sparsely settled at this time and, contrary to their instructions they reconnoitered the large towns and fudged their report that the whole land was teaming with people and that they were the antediluvian huge people that peopled the earth before Noah’s flood.

     Only Caleb and Joshua gave faithful reports and urged the people to be positive and take the land God promised to them. The people rallied for a short time until they were out shouted by the mob that believed the ten cowardly scouts who tweaked the facts and exaggerated the reasons—not to occupy the LandPromise.

of

With dogged determination, Caleb, who was born a slave in Egypt.

, (and his name meant “dog”) continued to stand up for the truth about the Promised Land. He could not understand how, if God had set them free, were they now facing a promise that was not obtainable

 Did God Lie?

Most Israelites of Caleb’s generation never did quite get the hang of what freedom was all about. They think freedom is milk and honey and that Moses is supposed to lead them quickly and comfortably into paradise.  But when obstacles loom on the horizon, their freedom becomes chaos and they miss their unadventurous life of slavery because they are still slaves at heart.

Freedom is not free!!!

 likewise,

the mission:

of our church

·        To win people to Christ

·        To help Christians grow

·        To help people who hurt.

will never be done without:

1.     The leadership of Christ through:

·        His indwelling Spirit

·        Godly instruction of His Word

2.      The Faith to engage in the Hard Work.

The promise is before us but we must reach out and seize it by faith.

Those who really trust in the Lord can claim the motto of the French WWI hero Marshal Ferdinand Foch: “There are no hopeless situations; there are only men and women who have grown hopeless about them.”

  Yes there are obstacles.

 An elderly Christian woman once prayed,

“Lord, if you furnish the grace, I’ll furnish the grit.”

 This is the attitude we need to embrace.

They shrunk away from the mission God gave them.  Moses and Aaron lay prostrate before them.

II.               FAITH FOCUSES ON GOD’S PRESENCE, NOT THE TASK AHEAD (14: 1—9).

Persuaded by the negative scouts (13:31CanaanEgyptIsraelCanaanUnited States of AmericaFolks we need to learn to practice the presence of God.  All that we are and what our forefathers have fought for will come to naught if we follow the way of the flesh and not the Spirit.  The protection of God will be lifted from the United States2:13). In the church this means programs without God’s anointing and church officers who do not walk with God.

if we continue to “build broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. at the present. Does adversity seem to be increasing? What are our sins?  has arrived.  Think about what we are experiencing in the to receive (14:3-4). With Moses and Aaron prostrate (14:5) apparently in a position of silent petition to God, Joshua and Caleb take over the defense. Their argument that the “protection”  (cf Isa 30:2-3) of the people of Canaan is gone may allude to God’s promise to Abraham: “In the fourth generation your descendents will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen 15:16). If so, Joshua and Caleb are saying God’s protective mercy on the inhabitants of the land (referred to as Amorites in Gen. 15) and the time for , the Israelites conclude that the Lord is their enemy and their best option is to mutiny against Moses and return to -33) that it is hopeless to attempt to conquer

III.           REBELLION BRINGS PUNISHMENT,

 INTERCESSION LEADS TO FORGIVENESS (14:10-38).

God is ready to annihilate the whole rebellious nation, but Moses intercedes for them in two ways:

1.     He says that God’s reputation will suffer if he destroys them.

2.     God had promised to be patient and forgiving.

The first argument had been used previously with success in Ex. 32:12.

So God imposes lesser punishments, some of which are ironic: (self-fulfilling prophecies turned on their rebellious heads.)

·        The people will die in the wilderness as they wished.

·        Yet their children will enter the land contrary to their fear

·        The people will be allowed to journey in the direction of EgyptRed Seaas they wished, but only to die on the way.

) (the way to the

·        Some by the sword as they feared.

·        They seek to take the land (in the flesh) but fail.

·        The scouts who gave a discouraging skewed report are killed in a plague, though the people in general are spared.

·        But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained alive; of those men who went to spy lout the land.

IV.            OBEDIENCE INVOLVES FOLLOWING GOD, NOT TESTING HIM (14:39They tested God (10) times

-45). 

·        The people cannot escape punishment by performing the original command, since God is not with them.

 Forty days of spying out the land and giving a false report. >>>>Forty years of wandering in the desert.

CONCLUSION:  Epidemics of Attitude.  Just a short time before the scouts return to the main camp at Kadesh (from the Hebrew root (qds), referring to holiness, the Israelites are a well organized army of the Lord cooperating together and bound for the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Now they turn into a mutinous mob, and even those they have honored and trusted turn on them. How can there be such a radical shift in the attitude of so many people, apparently all at once? 

TIPPING POINT—THREE CHARACTERISTICS:

1.     Contagiousness.

2.     Little causes can have big effects.

3.     Change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment.

·        epidemics can rise or fall in one dramatic moment - the “Tipping Point.”

How do we protect ourselves and others from negative tipping points, such as giving in to temptation and strife, and rather, promote positive ones, such as to whole-heartedly follow the Lord?

·        Foster a healthy influence on others, especially with regard to attitudes or attitude-shaping pieces of information that can be passed on without control from one person to another (e.g., avoiding gossip, slander, paranoia, or sensationalism) When tempted to gossip, stop and say to yourself, “Are they part of the problem, or part of the solution? If not then it is none of their business.”

·        Critics influence you, no matter how compelling they look.  Don’t allow them to lead you into making damaging choices.

·        Keep things in perspective and don’t run or jump just because all the other “lemmings” do.

·        Be aware of spiritual, social, intellectual, and emotional environments that provide fertile ground for sudden change, whether for better or for worse.

·        Maintain personal anchor points of faith and ethics to hang on to when everything else seems to be shifting fast.

·        When nothing is moving, let alone tipping in a positive direction, it is easy to tip into frustration.

·        Follow God all the way, in spite of distractions like giants, fortified obstacles and other tribulations.  Prepare for victory of biblical proportions.