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Good morning friends, today we will read together, one of the most significant chapters in the Bible. The events of this chapter shape a significant period in the history of Israel.
Yesterday, we stood among the people who anxiously welcomed back the 12 leaders, who had been sent by Moses into the land, to which God had promised, He would lead these 2 million runaway slaves. The leader-spies had spent 40 days traveling all around Canaan, what is today Israel, amazed at it’s beauty, it’s bounty, but also its developed infrastructure. They saw many cities with high walls, and large open fields producing wonderful agriculture. They were excited by it’s potential, but intimidated…they were slaves, after-all. Runaway slaves who had spent more than a year experiencing the miracles of God, but slaves none the less.
You may remember 10 of those leaders gave a fearful report and told Moses it would be foolish to try and invade the land. They were afraid of sure defeat. Caleb, on the other hand, stood as one, lone, courageous voice, calling the people to remember the power of God they had experienced, and urging the people to find their courage in God. He was shut down by 10 leaders who refused to see life as he, Moses and Joshua did.
Chapter 14 of Numbers is heartbreaking. It opens with this report of the panic which spread like wildfire across the tent city… “That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron saying ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to each other, ‘we should chose a leader and GO BACK to Egypt?”
Does it sound familiar my friends? It should. This mantra of “choose a different leader and go back to Egypt” has been shouted before by these ungrateful, fearful, faithless people, who have experienced more miracles, in a shorter period of time, than any group of people on earth in human history.
They said this same thing as they stood on the shoreline of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army charging toward them, remember Exodus 14:12? They said the same thing when Moses was up Mount Sinai for 40 days and they built a golden calf, remember Exodus 32? And yet, in little more than a year, it’s difficult to list all the major, history making miracles, of God’s deliverance and life-saving provision, they have experienced. So may I ask us… what’s your diagnosis of the condition of their hearts? Why do they so quickly fall into the pit of despair, when all around them, is the tangible evidence of the Presence and Power of God?
Those are important questions my friends…because there’s not much difference between these runaway slaves and most people on earth, is there? Down deep inside we are all skeptical about God. We all have very short memories about God’s work in our lives. We all have very short fuses when it comes to worry or fear or discouragement, and isn’t it true that you and I have to work at keeping our attitudes positive, our hopes high, our gratitude fresh. That’s why I’ve chosen this little phrase “walking with Jesus”…because it’s a daily, step by step, lifestyle, which very easily is derailed, undermined, and can be overwhelmed by the storms of life.
One little phrase which God spoke to Moses in the cloud up that mountain, and then Moses wrote for people of all time, in all places…, fits perfectly into this Numbers 14 moment…do you remember? ‘Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.” (Exodus 23:2)
Four men, and only four, are recorded as having the courage to stand in the face of the rapidly rising tide of panic, in Numbers 14. Moses and Aaron assumed a posture of humble worship before God… face down on the ground, before the “Tent of Meeting”, in submission to God’s Majestic Sovereignty…waiting to hear God’s response.
If you follow the story of this wandering refugee city, you’ll find Moses and Aaron in that same place, with that face-down posture, often, as they lay prostrate between rebellious, fearful, faithless people and Holy God. May I ask a question? In our day, with America in a near panic, running headlong AWAY from God, how often do you and I take the same prayer posture with God, on behalf of our extended families, our communities, even our nation?
Joshua and Caleb, however took a different approach, in response to the panic. Look at vs. 6-9 “Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, ‘The land we passed through is exceedingly good. IF the LORD is pleased with us, HE will lead us into that land…and He will give it to us. Only, do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”
Do I hear a shout of AMEN from those of you reading this? YES, what Joshua & Caleb said was true…but there is no evidence anyone applauded and stood with them. Instead this phrase…“The whole assembly talked about stoning them.”
As you put yourself into the story my friends, does it feel very familiar? Does it sound like the CNN or MSNBC is blaring on the TV? The America you and I are living in today is largely opposed to God, God’s truth, God’s people, and God’s ways. Everywhere we look…schools, business, entertainment, athletics, politics, news media… in loud voice, America is shouting “GOD…GET OUT, we don’t want YOU here!” Am I right my friends? So what is the proper and most helpful response we, God’s people, can offer?
I’m reading a new book, sent to me by a friend. “The Church In Babylon” by Erwin Lutzer. He was Pastor of Moody Church in downtown Chicago for 35 years. You remember Chicago has, for some time, held the dubious award as the city in America with the highest homicide rate? This new book compares life in America today, with what it was like for the Hebrew exiles, living in Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, in 586 BC, and dragged them as prisoners of war, 800 miles to Babylon, not far from modern day Baghdad, Iraq. I urge you to consider picking up this book.
Now the rest of Numbers 14 is very, very important. In this place, Kadesh Barnea, perhaps one days walk from the Jordan river and the promised land, these 2 million people and 10 of their leaders, in apparent unison said “NO” to God, and His offer of the Promised Land. They said NO to God and His leadership. They said NO to God’s ways, and the future God was trying to lead them into. And God’s response is profound justice. It’s hard to read, but God’s patience had run out. Yes, there is a limit to God’s patience!
Listen…“The LORD replied…as surely as I live…not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert, but who disobeyed me and tested me 10 times…will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated ME with contempt will see it… I will do the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall, everyone of you, 20 years old or more, who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against Me.” (14:21-29)
So that was the first, of several judgments announced by God. Every adult man and woman who had personally experienced the great miracles of God in the plagues which freed them from Egypt; the Red Sea opening and closing on Pharaoh’s army; the water from the rock at Rephidim; the daily provision of manna and even quail in the desert, the almost one year at Mount Sinai and the Cloud of God’s Presence by day and night leading them… all those adults who had disregarded these miracles and rejected God, would eventually die in the desert, never seeing the Promised Land. Look closely my friends… it’s a spiritual picture for the entire human race. You and I know the wonderful promise of John 3:16. But this is John 3:36 which says: “Whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son of God will not see life for God’s wrath remains on them.”
God’s second statement of judgement was this: “As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring THEM in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you – your bodies will fall in the desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years, one year for each of the 40 days you explored the land – you will suffer for your sins…” (14:31-35)
A 40 year sentence of waiting to die. We understand that, as it’s not unusual for us to hear of prison inmates who have spent a lifetime in prison, waiting to die for their crimes. But look closely here friends, there’s something else. As this rebellious refugee city would wander around in the hot desert for 40 years, it wasn’t just the adults who were suffering, it was also their children! We’ve seen that life principle before. We live our lives in the shadow and with the consequences of our parents decisions years ago! Can you imagine what it was like for the children and eventually grandchildren, suffering endless desert wandering, knowing the hopeful future of the promised land would only be theirs, when the last of this faithless generation was dead and buried, in that desert sand?
Finally, there was one more important judgement that day. You’ll see it in vs. 36-38 “So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against the LORD, by spreading a bad report… these men… were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh survived.” I can’t tell you what the plague was… perhaps brain aneurysm or heart attack, or blood clot in the lung, but I can assure you, nightfall had not come, and those 10 leaders were lying dead under the sand, buried as rebellious leaders! My friends, God’s Word and God’s history makes it clear… leadership of God’s people is a high and holy calling, and failure comes with a high price.
With the judgments of God pronounced, the future for these 2 million runaway slaves was now clear, desperate and dark. But let’s end with this light of hope. You notice God promised that both Caleb and Joshua were being honored by Him. They would survive the desert and they would enter the promised land with the next generation, because their faith and confidence in God had not wavered! Listen to this…“…because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.“ (14:24)
You may remember Joshua was chosen by God to follow Moses as leader of God’s people, and the book of Joshua in the Bible, is the story of Joshua leading the next generation, 40 years later, across the Jordan river and into the promised land. And for Caleb, may I just leave you today with this wonderful glimpse into the moment God’s promise was fulfilled?
You’ll find it in Joshua 14. For several years Joshua has been leading the conquest of the promised land, and on this day Caleb comes before him to claim his land inheritance. “Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh said to him ‘ You konw what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the LORD, sent me to explore the land. And I brought him back a report, according to my convictions…. I followed my God wholeheartedly…Now, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive these 45 years… so here I am today, 85 years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out… now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day… Then Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him Hebron as his inheritance…” (14:6-14).You remember Hebron, right friends, the burial place of Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob & Leah! Oh what an honor for faithful Caleb.
And the very last verse of Joshua 14…“Then the land had rest from war.”
Oh my dear friends… so many important lessons for us in Numbers 14. May I urge you to take your time in reading it… pray for America and your family, as you read this powerful but painful chapter.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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