0:00 Good evening. If you can open up to, Numbers chapter 13, please. And as you open your Bibles there, pastor Martin, could you please open us up in prayer before we enter through God's word, please?
0:12 Heavenly father, we come to you this evening, and, we thank you for the spirit of worship that we've already sensed here tonight. And we pray that that same spirit would settle down as pastor Daniel opens your word, lord. We know that, as a preacher myself, I know that we can't do it without the Holy Spirit.
0:31 that you would come in just a powerful way. Those that know you, they would be encouraged. They would be refilled. Those that don't know you, Lord, we pray that this would be a moment when they would begin to come to know you. And for all that you do during this this bible study, for all you do tonight, we'll be faithful to give you the praise and the honor and the glory because you're worthy.
0:55 Well, if you're joining us for the first time or sporadically, we're still in the book of Numbers. We've been exploring the wilderness journey of the nation of Israel as God has elected them and pulled them out of Egypt and to bring them into the promised land for a greater purpose than what we read in the surface here. But the Apostle Paul in the New Testament points us to this book when he wants to encourage the Corinthian church to live in their own wilderness journey in a way that avoids self destruction and that, in fact, opens them up to receive greater blessing. And so as we read this, we're not reading a historical text. We're not just reading accounts of the past.
1:38 We are reading something that God wants to say to you and I tonight. In 2018, in your own walk with Christ, there are principles here for you and me. And sometimes, depending on the chapter, there is one theme that we will focus on tonight. And other times, like tonight, we have two chapters we're covering where it is so loaded with revelation that instead of really just focusing on one subject, we're gonna just retrieve different points that will ultimately build us up and convict us or comfort us depending on what God says to us. And so from Numbers chapter 10 onward, we see a downward spiral.
2:12 From one to 10, we were seeing a consistency amongst the people of God. We were seeing obedience, obedience, obedience, and then everything changed in chapter 11 with one act, one simple thing, and we all know what it was. Right? Complaining. It all started with complaint.
2:29 It all started with looking at the things that God had given them originally as a sign of his favor and blessing and even deliverance, and now it was something that they despised because it became casual and it became common. And that's a danger for you and I as we look at the things that God has done through our lives to say, you know, this is just what is this? As they said to the manna, what is this manna? And then chapter 12, it kinda gets worse, and then chapter 13, it really reaches at the bottom of the barrel here. Something happens in verse one to two that would change the entire experience for this generation of Israelites.
3:10 So we read in verse one down to verse three. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. It reads something like that, and we say, okay.
3:39 God gave a command, and this is after a great fumble from the leaders, Aaron and Miriam, for gossiping and slandering their brother and God's choice as a leader. So we go, okay. Here's another opportunity for them to forget the past and move on forward into God's blessings and promises for them. Because God commanded it. Right?
4:02 Or did he? Let me ask you this way. Was this God's idea for them to send spies into the land? Who says yes? Oh, we're gonna do this again, aren't we?
4:20 And nobody answers these these questions. Who says yes? One person. This always happens. Who says no?
4:27 Three people, and there's, like, 50 other people who haven't answered. Who believes that this is God's idea? I I see the Lord spoke to Moses. I see that God commanded them to go and send spies. So immediately from from this context, it looks like the Lord is the one who originated this concept.
4:44 Or did he? Why didn't he do it for those who said no?
4:50 Deuteronomy says, and everyone of you came near to me and said, let us send men before us. Let them search up the land for us and bring forth to us of the way by which we should go.
5:01 Ah. So in Deuteronomy's account, as Moses is Moses relapses and he kinda gives a, commentary on what happened here, he says something completely different about why the people of Israel have come to this point in chapter 13. So you have to turn your bibles to Deuteronomy chapter one verse 21 to see what Moses said. And this is why it's so vital to, again, what's the principle here, Cover the whole landscape of scripture because we get a fuller picture of what's happening in different stories that may not include these details in its immediate context. So what does it say here?
5:39 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up. Take possession as the Lord the God of your fathers has told you. So what did God say? It's ready.
5:48 It's ready for you. It's set up. Just go possess it. Conquer it. No hesitation.
5:54 No questions. But then Moses adds on. Says, do not fear or be dismayed. Verse 22. Then all of you came near me and said, let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again on the way by which we must go up and the cities into which which we shall come.
6:14 Contradiction? Do we have a contradiction in the scriptures here? We have one scripture that tells us that God told them to go. We have another scripture that says that the people were the ones that instigated and provoked this action. So how do we reconcile both things here?
6:29 How do we make sense of this? We learned something about God that if you really want something, he'll give it to you, which is a good thing if you're hungry for the right thing, and it's a bad thing if you're desiring a wrong thing. And we learned that again about them wanting to quail. We want meat. We want meat.
6:51 And God said, I've provided something already for you. No. We want meat. Do you really want meat? Yes.
6:55 We want meat. Okay. I won't give it to you for a day or two or a week or three weeks. I'll give it to you for a whole month where it comes out of your nostrils, and where it'll become something that's loathsome to you. It's it's this idea that we can so press the Lord or we can so be in rebellion and so resistant to his will that the Lord will allow us to receive what we so crave for only to realize that it was a wrong decision in the first place.
7:19 It's his active discipline sometimes when he does allow even his own people to go in our direction only to run back to him. And here we see something very similar. God had said so many times before this, the land is ready. The land is ready. I am with you.
7:32 Do not fear. Do not be dismayed. And then once they reach the border, we're gonna read on in a moment that they are literally at the border. They can see it to some degree. And they say, you know what?
7:44 Let's rally up some troops to go in and do this for us because this is a little bit more intimidating than I thought it was. God had already said it's ready, and they have come to a place where they said, I don't know if this is exactly what we thought we had in mind here. There's a powerful verse that says something to confirm this truth that this was the people's idea. You have to go to the book of Ezekiel, though. So scan through those pages and go to the chapter 20 of the book of Ezekiel verse six and see what the Lord says here in light of this incidence as well.
8:22 Ezekiel 20 verse six. This is Bible study, so we want to try to soak up as many scriptures as we can. On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt. I swore to them that I would do it into a land that I had searched out for them. God already did the spying.
8:48 God already went into the land with his own eyes, and he saw it, and he understood it. He made he made inventory. He realized this is ready. I have done all that work already. I prepared this land for you, and they didn't trust in that.
9:03 So Ezekiel tells us that God had already spied out the land, but the people, the people here, want their own way. And God said, If you really want it this way, then that's fine. Get 12 of your heads of the tribes and set them up to go into the land. Oftentimes look at this. God had already spied it out.
9:23 God had already determined how they were gonna take over, but he didn't want to, in his wisdom, give him the full picture of how it was gonna fall out pull out. In his wisdom, he knows what to reveal to his people and what not to reveal to his people, and he really just wants us to walk in faith. He just wants us to trust him in the process. If there's anything that we learn from the book of Numbers, it's this, that God leads his people moment by moment, stage by stage, a few feet at a time, a few feet at a time, and a few feet at a time. God rarely I don't think ever I see it anywhere in this where he gives the full blueprint for you to see it all before you you jump into it.
10:00 Because he knows that if we see the full picture imagine he had given them all the details of what that was gonna look like beforehand. They would be intimidated. They'd be discouraged. They'd be frightened. And so he led them step by step.
10:11 He he was working on their character. He's working on their faith, and his desire was was for them to come to this point and say, we're ready. We're ready. But, unfortunately, this desire that they had was gonna backfire on them. So from verse four down, we get a list of the names of the people who are the heads of the tribes as representatives for the nation of Israel to go out and to spy out this land.
10:37 And there's something interesting. This is why it's so important to read slow. As they're naming the list, and I found this just reading it myself here, I realized that there's a little detail that popped out on verse 16. These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and Moses called Hoshea, the son of Nun, Joshua. Anybody else read that?
10:58 Anybody else find that interesting? That the scriptures wants to tell us that Joshua was renamed. His original name was Hoshea. It was then Joshua, And so this is an invitation for us to do a little bit more of a digging to find out, since we don't know the original language, what does that mean? Why the name change?
11:17 Oftentimes when there's a name change in the scripture, it's because there's a message that God wants to bring through that person's identity or destiny that he wants to reveal to that person and through that person. And so Hoshea to Joshua. Anybody have an idea maybe why the name change or what these names mean? Isaac. Hosea is salvation.
11:44 Hosea means salvation. That's exactly right. And what does Joshua mean?
11:49 Like Yahweh saves or something.
11:51 Yeah. Yahweh saves or God is salvation. So Joshua's original name was Salvation. So if Joshua introduced himself in his original form and his original name, Hosea hey, man. I'm Salvation.
12:05 What's your name? Hey, Salvation. We need you over here. That's not a very good identity to hold. That's a lot of weight to carry.
12:14 Salvation. And even as a leader, to be known as salvation, that's a little bit more pressure than you need in life. You know what Moses does in his wisdom? Salvation, come over here. Let's Let's switch this up a little bit.
12:27 God is salvation. I think there's a wonderful picture here of the Gospel. Do you believe that you can attain salvation by your own strength? Do you believe salvation is in your own power for you to have eternal life? Is that upon how you perform?
12:44 Is that upon how you do what you need to do to make sure that God approves of you? Because God wants to flip that script, And he wants to assure you, and he wants to assure others that true salvation is of the Lord, that true grace comes from him, that any mercy, any any hint of hope for you to have eternal life is because of his goodness and not because of your effort. And as a leader, this would be really good for Joshua because Joshua doesn't even be walking around with people saying, hey, salvation. Come over here. Because you can't find salvation.
13:14 You can't find hope. You can't find anything good from a human. That's a valuable lesson even for those who are the people of God, who have put their faith in Christ. Don't put too much hope in in leaders. They're not your salvation.
13:30 God is your salvation. They're not your so source of hope. God is your source of hope. So Moses in his wisdom goes, let's flip this around. God is salvation.
13:39 So every time people look at you and every time people name you, they'll realize that God is the true source of salvation. Powerful little thing here. 17 down. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up. Now listen to what Moses is saying and how he's saying it.
13:58 Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell there are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether the trees in it or not there are trees in or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was a season of the first ripe grapes. Do you hear his tone? Do you hear what he's asking them to make inquiry of?
14:34 What's the problem with verses 17 down? Yes.
14:38 God should have already told Moses to be in here.
14:41 Exactly. God had already given the description of the land, and Moses is redefining it or is not believing it. There's a great sense of unbelief here because we know that even when Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, listen to this in Exodus three:eight. Says here, and I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land. So God already described it from Exodus three.
15:10 It's a good land. It's a broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. That's his description. Good land, broad land, flowing with milk and honey, and there are inhabitants there, but we're gonna take care of that. And Moses comes in now and says, I know God said that, or he completely dismissed it.
15:34 We we don't know what's going on exactly in Moses' mind here, but we see here that even leaders can fall into a state of unbelief. And make sure that it's it's a good land, and make sure that it's a broad land, and make sure that the people are not weak. All of those those things don't matter because God already said it's yours. It's already yours. No matter what you see or no matter what you don't see, I have told you from the beginning that this is something you will possess.
16:00 And I find something here about the human nature that we can come to a place where we once believed a certain truth of God, and because of something, and we're gonna find out what that something is, we can fall into a place of great doubt of that one truth that we once believed. What was the reason that these people here once believed in something, now have come to a place of doubt, even with Moses? What was the reason,
16:30 Senses. They've allowed their senses to interfere and to override their faith. We need to see it. We need to observe it. We need to measure it.
16:40 We need to make sense of it. We need to strategize. That's why we need to see if they're weak or strong, they have strongholds or camp. It's our responsibility. It's our wisdom.
16:50 It's how we need to figure it out that's gonna bring us into this place. And oftentimes, great truths of God, great promises of God, great blessings of God can be forfeited because we allow this to get in the way. That's what happened with Moses, and that's gonna be further confirmed when the people that went out to go spy are gonna come back and say, yeah. It's way worse than we thought it was. So this is a valuable lesson here about being careful, being careful of allowing our own senses to literally extinguish our faith.
17:25 And we think even here too that what they have believed up to this point was tested. God allowed these people to go and spy the land as a test of faith also. Fine. If you really wanna see it, if you really wanna value it, let's see what that's gonna determine about your faith in me. So go and do it.
17:43 And as they do it, they realize that this is way over their heads. And oftentimes too, you and I understand the promise of God. We might even say amen or sing those promises or those truths of God, and it's not until we are face to face with a circumstance or a promise where a test where a faith is really tested. Is that true? How many of us have had our faith faith tested only when we have faced a circumstance that demanded that faith to be put into action?
18:08 Happened so many times. I've realized in my own walk with Christ that there are certain things that the Lord has tested me on only when I was face to face with something that demanded me to put it into force. And it will happen. And it humbles you, and it humbles me, and it brings us to our knees. It brings us to a place to say, Lord, I really don't believe you.
18:30 I really don't trust in you. So we can say whatever whatever truth you see in the scripture, and then only until we we are confronted with it do we realize whether we have true faith or not. So what happens here? We scroll down. Verse 21 to verse 24, they come back with a cluster of grapes that are so large they had to put on a pole.
18:56 I mean, this is this is good. Pomegranates, figs, this is the place to be. How long did they go for? Verse 25 tells us. At the end of forty days, forty days of spying, Forty days of evaluating.
19:16 They returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them, we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Now verse 28.
19:38 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of Negeb, the Hittites, the Jebusites,
19:51 the Amorites that dwell in
19:52 the country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. Is there anything different about these men's description of the land and God's description of the land?
20:15 Yes. Because they are so overwhelmed at these little things that, you know, the people who are dwelling there, but God is over the situation.
20:23 So what I see here, and you're absolutely right, what what we see here is descriptively, it's the same thing. Land flowing with milk and honey, maybe the added detail that there's fruit in the land, grapefruit, but they're also saying that there's inhabitants of the land. Very similar description, different interpretations. You have the interpretation from the spies, and you have God's interpretation of the scene. And the people are fearful and intimidated, and God is confident and wants to give them that confidence in him.
20:56 And and this is what we have to understand from this, that you and I can be looking at one thing, and God sees the same thing, and we can totally interpret the situation a different way than God would want to. And And we've given this example in prayer meeting, and I think it fits with this. One of the prayer meetings we were talking about just for the city before we're praying for the city and how often I would drive to go to school, which is downtown. And as I was driving there, sometimes very early in the morning, you would have that sun come up and the sky is pink and orange and blue, and you would see that skyline. And oftentimes, I'd be driving just in the silence of my car going towards schools thinking to myself, Lord, we pray for the city.
21:36 We ask you for revival. We ask you for open doors for the gospel to go forth, but this city is huge. It's overwhelming. I feel like as I'm driving up to it, I'm being swallowed up by the skyline. It's just it's too much.
21:51 Then when you get into the city and you see the hordes of people, you see the crowds, you look at the office buildings, you think, How many people are in this building alone? And even if God were to move, how would it happen? I mean, would people from here come? And all these things begin to produce doubt. And then from time to time, I would have the chance to fly in.
22:11 Depending where I'm coming from, as I fly in, I love coming in from the waterside because you see the skyline to your left or to your right. And when you see that same skyline from a different perspective, you go, that's nothing. It's like my fingernail is bigger than that. God can pour out his spirit in this not just this city, 10 cities the same size can be taken up by the spirit of god in conviction. What changed the interpretation?
22:39 Perspective. Perspective. And here, I was on an earthly perspective because I was looking it from my own eyes, and then I got a little bit of a heavenly perspective. And God is way higher than we are. God is greater than we are.
22:54 I think, what does God see? How does God see it? And we pray these prayers, and sometimes we mingle it with doubt, and God looks at it and goes, You have no idea. I can flip this place upside down with just a snap of a finger. And this is the problem.
23:07 They were seeing the same thing God was seeing, but they were interpreting it. They were intimidated by it. It was a perspective issue. This was gonna cost them. So the spies, what did they see?
23:19 They they they saw the people of the land as strong, and God saw them as conquerable. The spies, they they saw these cities that were fortified and large, and God saw them as weak and small. The spies saw impossible, and God sees possible. And how true is it for us to do the same thing, And this is true not just in terms of seeing people saved. This is true in the Christian life, the sanctified life, a holy life.
23:49 Here's an example. Turn your Bibles to first Thessalonians five verse 16. First Thessalonians in the New Testament, all the teas are gathered together. Timothy, Thessalonians, Titus. First Thessalonians chapter five verse 16.
24:10 What do we see here? Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Now when you look at that, how do you interpret it?
24:31 That sounds a little poetic to me. It sounds like a standard that's a little bit too high. Maybe Paul didn't really mean always. And so we look at it, and what do we see? We see something large.
24:45 We see something fortified. We look at ourselves. We go, me, rejoice always. Me, giving thanks in all circumstances. Well, yes.
24:52 The will of the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. The same way it was the will of God for them to
24:56 go into the promised land, it's the
24:58 will of God for you to come to this place. And we look at them, we go, I don't know. You're looking at yourself. We look at them, we go, are you sure, Lord? How am I gonna get to that place?
25:09 And we look at our own strength the same way they were looking at their own strength. And God says, you have no idea. I want to bring you to this place, but we're gonna realize that the main reason why they couldn't enter into the promised land was because of unbelief. One thing, unbelief. So we look at something that we go, I like it on my coffee mug.
25:26 I don't know about my heart. Right? And we go, it's too much. Or maybe something like Romans 16 Romans six rather. Romans six verse 14.
25:40 You can turn there because it's a powerful verse. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. Now, this is not a command in Romans six fourteen. It's a promise. Many people read this verse as a command.
26:04 It's not a command. It's a promise. Sin will not have dominion over you. Not make sure sin is not that's a different command in a different part of scripture. He's saying it won't.
26:14 Why? Because you're not under law anymore. You're under grace. I don't know about that. God wants to bring you and I to this place.
26:24 Yeah. But you don't you don't know how strong and fortified these strongholds are in my life. Yeah. But that doesn't matter because God says that you will have it. You see how this plays into the new covenant context?
26:37 We read numbers and we go, that's all about land. That's historical. God says, no. It's the same principle. The same way they could not enter because of unbelief.
26:43 You and I can also not enter to these realities because of unbelief. And so the people here are trusting in their senses, and we go back to Numbers 13 verse 30. But Caleb but Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. So you have one man, and later on we're gonna find out that it was another man. Who was the other man?
27:16 Joshua. Two out of the 12 are saying, we can do it. This is possible. And he's trying to quiet them like, no. No.
27:24 No. No. No. Don't go there. You you did this a few chapters ago, and we got a lot of trouble.
27:28 Just zip it. Okay? We can conquer it. We're able to do it. We're gonna find out why they believe that in a moment.
27:36 But I see here something so discouraging but so true, and we've seen it throughout Numbers and even Exodus, is that the minority, unfortunately, seems to be the one that trusts in God's Word, not the majority. Because you look on right here in verse 31, then the men who had gone up with them said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. So you have one person here described, though it's two. We have one saying, we can do it guys. We can occupy the land.
28:07 It's possible. God is with us. That's what they say later on. God is with us. Then you have 10 others saying, nope.
28:12 They're stronger than we are. You know what that tells me? Just because the voice of the majority is louder doesn't mean they're right. The majority of an opinion or a doctrine oh, maybe I stepped on some toes there. Does not matter what doctrine it is.
28:28 Doesn't matter what it is. In in any sense, if it's not in the Bible, it does not matter what the majority says. Doesn't matter. Scripture. What did the people say?
28:40 They said we're not able to. What did the people say concerning Caleb and Joshua? God said it, so it's possible. And this is where we need to be careful. Do you know how many people slip into different things?
28:52 Beliefs about self, beliefs about God, beliefs about anything just because the majority say it. Many people. And instead of being good brains and evaluating what God says for ourselves, we take what other people say, like the Israelites have taken what the majority says, and we digest it, and we allow it to frame our mind and frame our faith, and we get ourselves in trouble. So the the principle here is just because it's majority, doesn't mean it's right. And you have the the we know this.
29:20 We've heard this so many times that even the apostle Paul steps on the scene to go, hold on. Is it in here? That's what I need to know first. And so you have what? Caleb and Joshua who stood firm, and the rest, unfortunately, were influenced by the majority.
29:39 And this is what we have to see here, that they stuck with God's word even if they were alone. Verse 32. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out saying, the land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim, and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seem to them. So again, they say, you don't understand how big they are.
30:13 You don't understand how strong they are. You don't understand what we are facing. It says, we're like grasshoppers to them. Now here here's the issue with the spies again. What's their problem in describing the the apparent dilemma here?
30:34 Perspective again. And what was the perspective on that was wrong mainly? And the way they describe themselves?
30:42 They saw themselves from the Giants.
30:45 Exactly. And what were they supposed to do? See it from God's perspective. So they allowed what they saw to interpret who they were. The giants compared to us were like grasshoppers.
31:00 But then you turn to a very special verse tucked in the book of Isaiah chapter 40, that precious chapter. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 22. And look what it says about God. Isaiah 4zero 22. Speaking about the Lord, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
31:34 You You know what it says about God? I see everyone like grasshoppers. You compare yourself to the giants. You say, we're like grasshoppers. You know how God sees
31:44 the giants? They're grasshoppers.
31:45 So, again, the the the perspective issue, they're looking at themselves in light of, as our brother said, of what the giants are see, you know, them, and he goes, no. No. No. No. You have to see how God sees everything, and God sees them as grasshoppers.
31:59 And if I'm with you, then they're grasshoppers to you. So this is the main problem again. God continually wants to renew our perspective, our mind, to be heavenly, to be in line with Him, so that no matter what you face, no matter what you see before you, you will always interpret it the way God would. Always. This is God's desire for His people because we'll fall into things like this, and we'll be paralyzed in certain moments in our walk with Christ that will rob us from so much blessing like this this generation is about to be robbed of.
32:31 And there's a second thing that I think is so valuable that they failed to realize, and they didn't realize because they didn't really trust in how God would deal with the situation. They were fearful of the people. They were fearful of those that were inhabiting Canaan, and what they failed to realize in God's wisdom as we read later on in the book of Joshua is that the people in the land were actually afraid of them. So then you have to turn to Joshua two to see this. This is with Rahab when the spies come in.
33:03 And some of you know exactly where we're going here in Joshua chapter two verse 10. Look what Rahab says when the spies come in and what it reveals about our perspective. Joshua two ten says, for we have heard how the Lord this is what she's saying. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. Oh, so they got news about the Red Sea.
33:31 Somehow, someway, somebody brought news to them. And you know what God was doing? He was preparing their hearts to be fearful so that when the Israelites would have come, they would have been terrified. They didn't see that though. Because they're they're they're trying to do it their way.
33:43 And see, God is working in the background. And we see something, we go, how is God gonna let us conquer that? And God says, you have no idea. Just step forward and trust me. Just step forward and trust me.
33:56 And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. That's later on in Numbers. And as soon as we heard it, look at the reaction, our hearts melted. And there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God, and the heavens above and on the earth beneath. People were afraid of the inhabitants of Canaan.
34:20 In fact, it was the inhabitants of Canaan that were afraid of the people. God did that work. They could not see it and so they could not trust it. Our senses, again, they get in the way. God is working in the background.
34:34 That's what Joshua tells us. So now we come to chapter 14. Something happens here in chapter 14 where it gets real ugly real quick. After the bad report of the spies, let's read in verse one, Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. Utter chaos breaks out because of these spies.
34:56 What happens? All the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, Now look at how they describe the character of God. This is where it gets real scary. Would that we would have died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness?
35:19 Now look what they say about the Lord. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? Read that slowly and see what they're actually implying here.
35:40 The first two things they've said before. Oh, it was better in Egypt. Let's die in the wilderness. Okay. But look now, they come to a place of accusation where they say, You know why God brought us out here?
35:52 So that we can die by the sword. You know why God brought us out here? Because he is going to allow our wives and our children to be prey. They are accusing God of deception. They are accusing God of playing this kind of weird thing where he took him out of bondage only to bring him into bondage and more depression and more oppression and more death.
36:21 He wanted him to die. He's just this god of tyranny and just likes to move the chess pieces as he desires only to bring harm to his, and this is a huge accusation because it's in a direct assault to the character of God. And they go a step further than that because it goes from complaining to planning. Where they say here in verse four, and they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. They said, enough is enough.
36:53 God, you've deceived us for too long. Let's get another leader, and let this leader bring us back into Egypt. They wanted a leader that could feed the rebellion. They wanted a leader that would allow them to go in their own fleshly ways. That's what they cried out for.
37:09 And what happens here? Verse five. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. So you have four guys before maybe 2,000,000 people. Four.
37:29 Saying, no, no, no, no, no. God is not like that. And look how they describe God's character. It says here in verse seven, they said to all the congregation of the people Israel, the land which we passed through the spied out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
37:50 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Do you see how they describe their enemies? They're bread for us. They're lunch to us. We can eat them up.
38:02 They're as harmless as bread, as conquerable as bread. They're ray they're just laid out there on the plate ready for us to feast on. Why? Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.
38:19 So you see one description of god, and you see a completely different description of god. Four people believed that god was for them, and you had millions who believed that God was against them. And how you and I view the faithfulness and love of God will determine how you and I face this life. Is it possible to say that there are believers who wouldn't rightly admit it but perhaps have felt this, that God really isn't for their best and for their good? I can tell you my own experience talking to different people that are afraid to ask God in prayer for certain things concerning their future because they think that God's gonna give them a lesser version of what they have in mind.
39:09 Isn't that true? I'm scared to pray in God for God to get involved with my future marriage. I'm scared to pray and ask God for my future calling and vocation. I'm scared to ask God for where I'm supposed to go next in in terms of living location. Why?
39:23 Because why? Because you feel like he's gonna give you something less than what you have planned? You think he's gonna give you a plan c, not a plan a? And so maybe somebody wouldn't rightly admit it, but they feel it, that God isn't really for me. And some people even live their Christian life where they wait for God to see them trip only so that he can just step on their neck.
39:54 I said, look how you messed up. I was waiting for that. In fact, I set this whole thing up to just see if you would mess up. It's like is it possible to think that the same way the majority of people thought that God was not for them back then is the same way many people don't think that God is for them today? Let me put it this way.
40:13 Do you believe God loves you, like, really loves you? Or do you think when he died on the cross in Christ that he provided salvation in bulk? I'm just gonna die for the whole human race. Paul didn't have that revelation. Paul did say he died for the world, but Paul said he died for me.
40:36 He gave himself up for me and loved me. Do you believe God loves you? Do you really believe that God in your life wants to lead you to his best intentions? That doesn't mean prosperity and everything goes right. It just means that he knows exactly what steps to lead you in, where you can glorify him the most, and you can know the greatest joy that you can ever imagine.
40:57 Do you believe that? And perhaps even tonight there are some people that feel stuck in their life and they feel like God has abandoned them. And you're trying to figure out what you did wrong for you to get to that place without realizing this, that even if you did something wrong, God is not intending to mess up your life even more. Realize this, that when you're in sin and when I'm in sin, even when we make that decision, that God is looking for your restoration always. You can say, how can you say that?
41:38 Because God had commanded the church that whenever somebody falls into even grievous sin, that their aim, even in church discipline, would be for that person's restoration. Now why would God command that? Because it's a reflection of his character. God doesn't wait for you to mess up and then disown you. God doesn't wait for you to make the wrong choice and then say, I knew it.
41:59 I'm gonna I'm gonna choose somebody else not to fulfill my purpose. You messed it up. That's not God's heart. The only reason why the people of Israel have come to this place where they will receive discipline is because they have continuously, in unbelief, accused God of not really being for them. And I hope that in this house we would know, not in some sloppy way, but in a true sobering heartfelt way, yes, that God is for each one of us.
42:33 He wants to lead us right. He wants us to trust him. And even when things get kinda messy and things kinda get tough, like the people, many times in their wilderness experience where there wasn't food and there wasn't water, God isn't abandoning you. God is not looking at you. God is not consumed with all his children where he forgets you and and it looks like somebody else is receiving all this blessing.
42:54 It seems like their life is just free from problems. He goes, God is definitely paying attention to them. He's not paying attention to me. Wrong. Wrong.
43:00 Wrong. God loves you and me the same way he loves Jesus Christ. Meditate on that according to John 17. And when God called you to give him your life, With that, you and I must trust that he has the best in mind. Two different groups of people that had two different opinions about the character of God.
43:37 And what happens here? In verse 10, then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Can you imagine that? God is good. God is faithful.
43:48 God will lead you. It's like, let's kill them. And it wasn't because what they said was nice and no. It was because what they said was true, and oftentimes people don't want to hear truth in their state of rebellion. And even those who are the people of God or profess to be at least.
44:08 There is a price to pay when you preach truth, disciple in truth, rebuke a friend in truth. Sometimes it doesn't turn around for the repentance. Sometimes they wanna stone you, and that's a price that we're willing to pay. Why? But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent meeting to all the people of Israel because God will defend the person who preaches truth.
44:27 Verse 11. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me? Look how personal the Lord takes it. Cause it was an assault again to his character and his faithfulness. They despise me.
44:40 And how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I've done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and dishear disinherit them. Look what he says. And I will make of you to Moses. We've seen this before.
44:53 I will make of you a greater nation, rather greater and mightier than they. So he's saying he's saying what he said in Exodus 32 when they were in a state of rebellion again with a golden calf. And God's proposition to Moses was this. Look what they've done. They're worshiping a false god, and we haven't passed step one and two here.
45:18 I'll make you a great nation. Moses doesn't even entertain the thought. Now look what God does here when he represents the truth and the offer. He doesn't just say I'll make you a great nation. He says, I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
45:35 Greater emphasis. It's pumped up a bit more. And now you read this if you're familiar with Exodus and you're thinking to yourself perhaps like, I thought I read this. Like, if I was Moses, maybe at this point I would have entertained the thought. The first time, God, we know they messed up, but you're forgiving.
45:56 You're faithful. The second time because you know what didn't happen the first time? They didn't threaten Moses to choose another leader and to stone him. This is extra personal to Moses. The first time, he was in the mountain with God, and he says, look down at that rebellious people.
46:10 He says, Lord, forgive them. They're wrong. Blot my name out of the book if you have to. The second time, they're saying the same thing in a way to God, but they're adding to it. They're saying, let's kill you, and let's choose another leader.
46:21 You know what, Lord? I think the first time was okay, but the second time, let's get rid of them. I agree with you. They've crossed the line this time. What does he do?
46:31 What does this man do? Doesn't even entertain the thought. And he has something that's anchoring even the way people treat him. There's something that's keeping him immovable. And guess what?
46:48 It's not his own reputation. It's somebody else's reputation. But Moses said to the Lord in verse 13, then the Egyptians look where Moses' mind immediately goes when he's offered this. Then the Egyptians will hear of it for you brought this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, oh, Lord, are in the midst of this people for you, oh, Lord, are seen face to face and your cloud stands over them and you go before them in a pillar pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
47:22 Now if you kill this people as one man, wow, God can kill a nation as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say it is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, that he has killed them in the wilderness. This man is completely saturated and consumed and driven by one desire. God, I care about your reputation. I care about your glory. I care about what people think and say of you.
47:53 So, Lord, I'm not thinking about myself. I'm not thinking that I could become the patriarch of this nation, that I could become the father of the faith. No, no, no. I'm concerned about what people are gonna look at you and say of you, Lord, please, for your name's sake, don't destroy them. And this is what's so important about this, that God will answer prayers like this because God did answer this prayer.
48:18 What kind of prayers? Prayers that are completely motivated for God's glory are prayers that are most likely to be answered than any other type of prayer. No matter how great something is before us, if we are motivated by God's glory for that to be answered, for something to be done, to something to be unfold, for even a miraculous intervention, if it's motivated for God's glory, God has given you his attention. And that's what we see in verse 20. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.
48:52 I'll listen to that. But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and all the wilderness and yet have put me to test these days 10 times and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. They're not gonna see it. So what's the discipline here? What's what's the chastisement that God's gonna bring upon this people?
49:19 He doesn't wipe them out as a nation, but he is going to do something. In his wisdom, he's gonna find a way where he will keep this nation, but at the same time, discipline this nation severely. And what is that way? What is he gonna do with this generation?
49:42 Kill them up. He's gonna destroy those who are how old and above? 20 years old and up, are gonna be left in the wilderness and to die in the wilderness. Do you know why they're gonna do that? Because they asked for it.
49:58 Didn't they say that earlier? They said, would we have died in the wilderness? And God says, I'll take you up on it. If you want to die in the wilderness instead of going to the promised land, we'll do it. And so he's gonna let the first generation, the older generation, wander and wander and wander until they die off.
50:17 And this is so tragic when you see it in light of verse 25 because you see how close they were to the promised land. How close. Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. They were literally on a hill where they could see it. It was right there in the valley.
50:41 They could taste it. They could sense the fragrance. The wind of the land of Canaan was brushing against their face, and God said, turn around. Go the opposite direction. Here's your discipline.
50:53 So close yet so far. It's it's really a tragic chapter in the book of Numbers. It's heartbreaking. And this is what God says. As they turn around to go the next day, he describes what this discipline will be.
51:10 And but there's some insights in here that even makes it more heartbreaking. He says in verse 30, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make them dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones who said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. Again, he's going back to what they said. Oh, you're gonna just take our wives and take our children and
51:35 make them pray. He goes, no. In fact, I'm gonna
51:36 take your children, and they're gonna dwell in the land. And your children, verse 33, shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness. So though they would not receive this impending tragic discipline, they were still going to suffer for the faithlessness of their parents. And how true is that today? How true is that today?
52:04 Because of the faithlessness, the unbelief, the rebellion of parents of an older generation who suffers in the end. Children suffer. And so many people even I've met, even young young people, youth people, many of their issues, when you really unpack and you sit down with them, you know what it comes down to? The home, mainly. And because of how they were raised, the lack of love, the lack of wisdom, the lack of discipline.
52:37 Now that's not always the case. We can't put the blame always on that because there are some faithful parents. This is not an attack on parents, but it's an observation to make that sometimes children can suffer the most because of the faithlessness of those who are watching over them. They would suffer, but they will ultimately come into the land. What a wonderful promise that they would suffer but not ultimately be cut off.
53:01 That God still can redeem those who are unfortunately under any type of supervision that did not promote the love of God. God still is their father. Verse 34, according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land. That's why he said forty years. Forty day spying?
53:17 And you could not figure out in that forty days that I'm faithful and I'm able? Then forty years in the wilderness. And this is how it ends here as we close. Those who instigated the complaint, the 10 spies, died instantly. Then you come to verse 39.
53:39 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country saying, here we are. Isn't that funny?
53:49 like, hey. It's done. You're going to the wilderness. You're gonna be disciplined. You're not seeing the land.
53:56 And they go, oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay. Okay. The next day, they're like, here we are. We'll go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.
54:04 Does that sound like honest confession? There might be sorrow there, but is it godly sorrow? Or is this sorrow driven by the fact that they knew that they were gonna forfeit the promised land? And that was the reason for their apparent repentance and not the fact that they've hurt the heart of God. Godly sorrow, worldly sorrow.
54:29 There are people who can be sorrowful in a worldly sense in which they the reason for their sorrow when they are convicted about a certain truth is not because they've offended God or hurt God or fractured their relationship with God. It's because they are missing out on different things in this life. And a godly sorrow, according to second Corinthians, a godly sorrow is necessary that leads to salvation. And here these people saying, here we are. We'll go up to the place of the Lord's promise for we have sinned.
54:56 And this is another heartbreaking scene. Why? Because there just comes a point in life where you have heard about the grace of God. And this is a truth for the non believer where it just is too late. It's too late.
55:11 God is cut off for that person to be able to receive truth. This is why we preach the gospel with such urgency because there is a time in which God will not allow you to cross because your response was too late. And if you're in here and you have not given your life to Jesus Christ wholeheartedly in true repentance and true faith, don't wait to the point where you realize that you are cut off from that opportunity only to say, now I'll give it to you. I heard somebody once say that there are people in hell wishing that they could hear the word repent one more time. I believe that's true.
55:53 It's not a truth just for a non believer. There's a truth for the believer here, even the believer. Look what Moses says in verse 41. But Moses said, why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord when that will not succeed? So here's a person who's made a mistake.
56:09 This nation has made a mistake. We've sinned against the Lord, and their apparent repentance is not repentance because they're still sinning. It's like we messed up, we disobeyed, so we're gonna disobey to obey. God's like, that doesn't work. And so again, we're not seeing a sorrow that's true, that's godly.
56:27 Why? Because they're willing to disobey. So it wasn't about their relationship with God. It was about the the the big grapes and the pomegranate and the figs that we're gonna miss out on. God says, you've completely missed it.
56:40 I wonder if it would have been different if they mourn and cried out to God for forgiveness for breaking his heart. Wonder how different it would have been. But here we see that they are in their apparent repentance just sinning even more. And Moses says you won't succeed. True repentance will lead you to turn away from sin, not to continue in sin even though you say we've sinned and we've hurt.
57:02 No. No. No. They're continuing in the state of unbelief, in the state of rebellion. But secondly, for the believer, it says here at the last part of verse 43, the Lord will not be with you.
57:20 That's why it's not gonna succeed because the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them even to Hormah. Moses says this to us, if God doesn't go with you, it won't be successful. As simple as that.
57:48 If you don't acknowledge the Lord in all of your ways, he won't make your path straight. And they've come to a place where they've assumed that they can do this without God's strength, without God's wisdom, without God's guidance, and they learn the hard way that that's not true. May we develop the habit of continually calling upon the Lord to be included in all matters of life. Because ultimately, God's hand is not on it. If his blessing is not leading it, it's gonna fail in the end.
58:19 Who ended up going into the promised land out of this generation? Joshua and another person? Caleb. Caleb. Why is that?
58:34 My servant Caleb because he has a different spirit, and his father followed me fully.
58:39 Verse 24, and that's how we're ending. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit, and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Just two requirements to enter into what God wants you and I to enter into this life concerning his blessings, his spiritual blessings, the the fullness of the Christian life, a different spirit. What does that mean? What spirit did Caleb have?
59:13 If you were to use one word to say he had a spirit of obedience, Is faith a good word maybe? Faith. He had a spirit of faith in a culture, in a surrounding, in an atmosphere, in an environment of unbelief. Here's one man with another that believed God and took him at his word. Even if nobody else wants to take this seriously, I will take this seriously.
59:40 Even if no one else wants to believe the promises of God, I will believe the promises of God. That kind of spirit, and not just that kind of spirit, but following him fully Following fully. These two things will lead you and I to greater experiences with God. What will sever it? Having a different spirit.
1:00:04 What will sever it? Following the Lord. It doesn't say following the Lord. It says not following him fully. Those are the things that the Lord wants from you and I to lead us safely.
1:00:14 Yes. In times of testing. Yes. In times of tribulation. But, ultimately, we will reach a place in this life continually where we can enjoy the blessings of God that he has ordained for us.
1:00:24 Hebrews three nineteen says, in commenting on this scripture, that they could not enter because of unbelief. One simple thing, because of unbelief. It's a heavy chapter tonight. It's not really a chapter that makes us go, Yeah, you know, it's not. I get it.
1:00:43 But it's necessary. And it's so sobering for us to realize Instead of looking at the crowd that makes us go, man, that's the majority, I believe God wants us to be the minority. It's possible for all of us to fit into that category. Would you pray with me on that? One prayer tonight as we're focusing here to close.
1:01:08 One prayer tonight. Lord, help me see things the way you see them. As simple as that. Lord, whatever I see in my life even now, impossible, frustrating, no answers, I can't come up with a solution even if you gave me all the resources in this world. Ask the Lord tonight, Lord, let me see it the way you see it, and God will give you that eye.
1:01:31 God will give you that perception. God will give you that power. As the worship team comes up as we close, father, tonight we come before you in light of Numbers chapter thirteen and fourteen. And, Lord, we realize that as heavy as this text is, we see your goodness in it. And your goodness, among so many reasons why, is that you've provided this story for us to learn from so that we would not fall into the same mistakes.
1:02:06 And Lord, our prayer tonight before you is this: help us see what you see. Help us see our sin the way you see our sin. Help us see our future the way you see our future. Help us see one another the way you want us to see one another. Lord, if there's anyone in here that might not admit plainly, but in their hearts are feeling it, that maybe you are not really for them.
1:02:36 That there's some days where you are for them, but other days that you're not for them. Well, we can we can point back to moments where you were faithful, but I can also apparently point to moments where you were faithless. Lord, that is not your will. That is not true. And Lord, we repent of that if that's in any of our hearts, Lord.
1:02:56 We ask that we would realize your goodness in all things. We ask that we would realize your love for us, Lord. As Paul prayed in Ephesians three, we need strength to even understand your love and we're asking for that strength. And so, Lord, may we be a people motivated and driven by the love of God, realizing that we can enter into your blessings because you've made a way. Lord, if there's anybody in here that does not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, would you open their eyes to see that they cannot work for salvation?
1:03:34 They are not Hosea. You want them to be a Joshua realizing that God is salvation, that God you provide salvation through Jesus Christ, that Jesus paid the price for sin. May that be true, Lord, and in that one person's heart in here that perhaps does not believe in you. Lord, may your Holy Spirit work, and we choose to worship you, Lord, tonight. If there has been complaining or murmuring this week or even in our hearts, Lord, we wanna cover it with worship tonight.
1:04:06 We wanna sing to you and say, Lord, by faith, I declare your goodness. I declare your goodness. Thank you, Lord, for your patience with us. Thank you for your long suffering. Lord, you are worthy of our obedience, oh God.
1:04:21 We look at these things and we say it's possible because Jesus made it possible. And so Lord, may there be victory of sin tonight, Lord. May there be victory over any discouragement, anything that is paralyzing somebody in fear. May all of that be conquered because we know that you are with us. In Jesus' name we pray.
