Theme: Being a Community, Reaching the Community Title: God Values Faith (Part 2) Numbers 14:1-12 Aim: Recognize the value of faith & the danger of

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1 Theme: Being a Community, Reaching the Community Title: God Values Faith (Part 2) Numbers 14:1-12 Aim: Recognize the value of faith & the danger of unbelief. Intro: Everyone wants to be believed & trusted. It hurts when someone doesn t trust you, tho you are telling the truth &/or making a promise you intend to keep. But trust has to be established & earned. We shouldn t be too upset when those who don t really know us or haven t seen our trustworthiness are somewhat skeptical. We know we have to prove our trustworthiness by keeping promises, obeying parents, carrying out work that we re supposed to do, etc. But if we have shown that we are reliable, keep promises, & can be trusted, then it s frustrating to not be trusted, believed. If you have experienced that frustration, just imagine how God must feel when we don t trust Him. Theme: Being a community, reaching the community. A true community of faith will value most what God values most: His glory, unity, & as we began to establish last week, faith. God highly values faith 1 st & foremost faith in His Son, Jesus, which brings us into relationship w/god & establishes God as our Father, who wants to be trusted by His children in all/for all of life. From the beginning, relationship w/god has been about faith. Hebrews 11, which has been called the Faith Chapter or the Hall of Faith, recalls for us the faith of OT characters we look to as examples. Vs5 tells us of Enoch (Gen.5) who walked w/god, by faith. He believed God & was taken up so he should not see death Vs7 speaks of Noah who believed God s warning of events as yet unseen (the flood which destroyed the world & all life not hidden in the ark) & so he built the ark. Several vss tell us of Abraham, who believed God & obeyed Him when He said Go, and he went out not knowing where he was going. He offered up Isaac when God said to, because he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead We read in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed the Lord (when God promised to multiple his offspring & make him the father of a multitude of nations) & (God) counted it to him as righteousness. That s the same for you/me also. If we will believe God s promise of redemption thru His Son, we are justified by our faith, credited w/the righteousness of Christ. In vs23ff we read of Moses. By faith Moses refused to be 1

2 called the son of Pharaoh s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated w/the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. By faith Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt as God delivered them. Hebrews 29:11 tells us that By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians were drowned. So there were times when Israel, w/strong leadership, trusted God & expressed their faith thru obedience to God. However, the Exodus was not one of those times. During the Exodus, the people of Israel struggled w/believing God & too often rebelled against Him w/unbelief & disobedience. Remember when they grumbled against Moses & Aaron & God when they could not find fresh water? It was only 3 days after they had crossed the Red Sea by God s mighty miracle of parting the waters. The water they found was bitter/poisonous. And the people grumbled. God provided a tree/log which they threw into the water & it became sweet. Shortly after that miraculous provision they were led to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water. But then they grumbled complained/murmured, w/the sense of obstinacy against Moses & Aaron (& God) because they didn t have enough to eat. Grumbled instead of prayed. God fed them manna in the morning & quail at night. Even then, they didn t believe God, because many collected more than they could eat & it rotted by the next day. When Moses went up Mt. Sinai to receive the tablets of the Law from God s hand, he wasn t gone long before the people persuaded Aaron to make them a golden calf so they could worship. We don t know what has happened to Moses & we need a god we can see but who won t scare us. God would have destroyed the whole nation were it not for Moses intercession. But the last straw was snapped when the people refused to trust God & obey Him by going into the Promised Land. Numbers 14:1-12 is our text, but 1 st a little background. It was right at 2 yrs since they left Egypt, including the 1yr, 1mo, 1 week they stayed at Mt. Sinai, when the Israelites arrived at Kadesh Barnea, the place from where they would cross into the land of Canaan. You may remember that God directed Moses to send out spies, 1 from each tribe, to make reconnaissance, exploring the land. They found it just as God had said it was a fertile land, flowing w/milk & honey, a perfect land to settle in as a people. 2

3 But they also found what was to their thinking a people who were strong & many & large, & 10 of the 12 spies reported We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. The land through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, & all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim [Giants] & we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, & so we seemed to them (13:31-33). Caleb & Joshua, the 2 spies in the minority, tried to quiet the people & reason w/them. Caleb implored them, Let us go up at once & occupy [the land], for we are well able to overcome it. That brings us to our text Numbers 14:1-12 [READ]. The people wouldn t hear it from Caleb & Joshua, but accepted the majority report (which goes to prove the majority is not necessarily right). They raised a loud cry wailed, & wept thru the night. The Hebrew word indicates that they sobbed on one another s shoulders & grumbled against Moses & Aaron (& God). If only we had stayed in Egypt & died there! Why, why is God bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives & children will become prey to the inhabitants of the land. Wouldn t it be better to turn around & go back to Egypt? They even discussed appointing another leader to take them back! This after they had witnessed God s plagues against Egypt, the most powerful nation in that part of the world at the time; after they themselves crossed the Red Sea as on dry land; after God s multiple provisions of food & water & protection. Moses & Aaron fell on their faces before the people; Caleb & Joshua tore their clothes & tried to persuade the people. It s a great land, & if God delights in us takes pleasure in us He will bring us into the land & give it to us which meant leading them in victory over the Canaanites. Don t rebel against the Lord. Don t fear the people. Instead of our children being their prey, they will be bread for us (our prey their possessions will feed us). God has removed their protection & He is w/us! The people wanted to stone Moses & Aaron & Caleb & Joshua to death, but the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel a visible phenomenon protecting His servants. Then God said, How long will this people despise spurn, hate Me? Unbelief is in essence despising God! How long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all signs that I have 3

4 done among them? I will strike them w/the pestilence & disinherit them, & I will make of you a nation greater & mightier than they. He would have destroyed the nation & started over w/moses, if Moses had not interceded. Moses did intercede for the people. If You kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard Your fame will say, It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that He swore to give to them that He has killed them in the wilderness (vs15-16). Moses implored God to remember mercy & pardon the iniquity of the people, & God pardoned them! However, what God said next may have left the people wishing He had destroyed them quickly. As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in My hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, & of all of your number 20 yrs old & upward not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb & Joshua But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, & they shall know the land that you have rejected your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 yrs & shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness (vs28-33). God told Moses to turn the people back toward the Red Sea. They would wander in the wilderness for 40 yrs & a new generation would enter the Promised Land & find that the people of the land were afraid & that God would keep His promise to give them the land. God highly values faith believing Him to keep His promises, to be faithful, to display His power. Disbelief questions & doubts God s character. Think about how God presented Himself to the Israelites: Yahweh I am that I am (Ex.3:14); El Shaddai God Almighty (Ex.6:3), promising to deliver them; Jehovah-Rapha God who heals (Ex.15:26); God who would bless & keep & make His face shine upon them & be gracious to them & give them peace (Num.6:24-26). But they did not believe Him to be who He said He was & rebelled against Him & did not obey Him, giving into fear because they did not trust Him. Understand again that to disbelieve God is in essence to despise Him, deny who He is. None of us would admit to that, but if we re not trusting God w/our lives day to day, we re denying that He is faithful, trustworthy. Then can He be trusted to save us thru the atoning work of Christ. To give way to fear is 4

5 to deny who God is & that He can be trusted. To give way to sin is to disbelieve God, to not trust Him to be able to satisfy us. To grumble against God is to express unbelief. God can handle our doubt, struggle, & grappling w/fear, but instead of grumbling we ought to pray. Jehoshaphat was afraid when the allied armies of 3 nations came upon them. But he pointed the people to God as he set his face to seek the Lord proclaimed a fast & prayed for God to be faithful: Oh God, will You not execute judgement against this great horde we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You (II Chron.20). Trust in God! W/your families, w/your future, w/your every day. Hold on to Him & trust. He does know what He s doing. He will keep His promises. When it doesn t seem it s working, hold on to Him. He will be glorified & pleased to be faithful. Our trusting God is a witness to the world around us, pointing them to Christ. We ll reach the community as we live out our faith in God for everything. 5