Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Yesterday, I left you with Moses… waiting. Do you remember what Moses was waiting for?
Moses had sent 12 trusted leaders of the Israelite people as scouts into the land they believed God had led them to.
Now they waited while these 12 men spent 40 days scouting out the land. Upon their return, their report shocked Moses and the people. While yes, the land was beautiful and inviting, the scouts reported that the people living there “are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large…” (Numbers 13:28)
Now we must remember what these Israelites had already experienced as the 10 powerful plagues God sent pulverized Egypt; the water tunnel God collapsed upon them destroyed Pharaoh’s army; in the desert God had provided water from solid rock and a daily bread delivery from heaven; and these 1 million people had spent nearly a full year at Mt Sinai with God learning about His Supremacy, His Sovereignty, His limitless attributes.
Certainly, God had more than proven His capability and capacity for accomplishing anything He desired including protecting and providing for these 1 million people. But anxiety, fear, and worry are very powerful emotions which can lead a person, a family, even a whole nation of people to think irrationally and dismiss everything they have learned about God and God’s reliability!
TWO of those 12 scouts stood up and refuted the doom report of the other 10. Caleb and Joshua urged the people to remember all God had done over the past year and called them to believe the same God would fulfill HIS promise leading them into this Land of Promise and helping them claim it.
But the other 10 scouts shouted down Joshua and Caleb and panic swept through the camp causing the people to reject Moses and call for a new leader who would take them back to Egypt! (Numbers 14:1-4)
The remainder of Numbers 14 is a watershed experience for the nation of Israel, for the God who had brought them thus far, responded to their rebellion with justice judgment in three ways:
1. Those 10 doomsday scouts would die before that day was over! (Num. 14:36-38)
2. The entire panic-stricken nation of 1 million Israelites, whom God had delivered from slavery and supplied in the desert, would wander 40 years in the desert, until every man, age 20 or older who had been counted in the census, would die in the desert! (Num. 14:34)
3. Joshua and Caleb, because of their great faith in God and their courage to call the people to trust God would be protected by God through the ensuing 40 years. They would survive, they would thrive, and they would lead their families into that God provided land. (Num. 14:30)
From that place of radical rebellion and rejection of God, the people, whom God had rescued from Egyptian slavery, were led by God back out into the desert to live in slavery to their own rebellion, for the next 40 years!
Sadly, this rebellious heart seemed to take deep root in these Israelites and surfaced often during those years of wandering, each time resulting in God teaching them important lessons with discipline! The remainder of the book of Numbers is the sad story of God attempting to love and lead His people despite their hard-hearted refusal to live the Covenant they had made with God at Mt Sinai. (Ex. 24:7,8)
The Numbers story is the all too frequent reflection of the story of our entire human race. We depend upon God for our daily, even hourly survival, yet we demand control of our own lives, refusing God’s invitation that we trust the God who created us, who sustains our lives, who knows us better than we know ourselves and who can see the future as clearly as if it was this moment.
Why do we do that my friends? Why do we insist on our independence from God knowing the further away from God we live, the more our lives will follow a self-destructive path? Of course it is the rebellious, prideful, self-focused sinful nature we are all born with and that sinful nature will always seek to draw us far away from God, both in this life and for all eternity!
As those 40 years of desert wandering neared conclusion, with almost all of the older, rebellious generation having died in the desert, Numbers 32 shows us yet another evidence of the ever-growing hard heartedness of these ungrateful Israelites.
The tribes of Reuben, Gad and 1/2 the tribe of Manasseh requested of Moses that they be permitted to NOT enter the Land of God’s Promise but instead make their permanent home on the East side of the Jordan river, in the land of the Amorites! (Num. 32:1-7) This selfish request and Moses’ reluctant agreement to it separated the nation of Israel even before the next generation of Israelites finally trusted God enough to follow Joshua into the Land of God’s Promise!
While the book of Numbers begins with such hope, such exciting potential as the cloud of God’s Presence hovering over the Tabernacle, led God’s people away from Sinai toward the Promised Land, the story of Numbers is sadly one great disappointment after another as the people fall so frequently into grumbling, refusal to trust God and failure to honor the Covenant of Faith they and God had made together.
It’s a great challenge to us, my friends, to look closely at the track record of our lives and our relationship with God. Are we more like Joshua & Caleb or the 10 ungrateful, fearful scouts? What influence have our lives of faith or fear had on our families and friends? If God has disciplined us for our sinfulness or faithlessness, how have we responded…in anger or growth? When God has opened doors of opportunity and invited us forward have we resisted or actually requested an exemption, to be allowed to remain where we are, or chart our own path forward without God?
Oh my, so much to learn from the story of Numbers and there are more summary notes and discussion questions in the Grand Narrative link below. As always, I’ve sought to find a worship song that will lift our hearts to God in worship, and on Monday we’ll step from Numbers into Deuteronomy and Moses’ farewell messages! They are powerful and I’ll meet you there…
Today’s Scripture: Numbers 14-36.
Choose below to read or listen.
Numbers 14-21
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Numbers 22-29
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Numbers 30-36
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“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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