THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME Numbers 14:26-45 The people of Israel are just outside of Canaan so close to the Promised Land that Moses sends out spies to go check it out. What are they going to be up against? What does it look like? Is it truly flowing with milk and honey as God has said it was? What s important to know here is that God is doing this for their benefit. In Numbers 13:1-2 God actually tells Moses to do this to send out men to explore the land. And God does this for their benefit because He already knows right? Check it out see what you think visually understand what I am giving to you! And so twelve spies head out, including Joshua and Caleb, and they go all over the place during the next 40 days and find an abundance of fruit but also they find an abundance of large meaty people. So much so that when they return and give their report of findings - they say that they look like mere grasshoppers against the beefyness of those living in this land. And it s because of this, it s because of the people they see, that we then get this divided report on advancing upon and taking the land. They all agree that the land has the produce that was promised but then the majority of the group say that if they attack they will all be gonners. That these people are so big and strong, and they themselves are so weak and small, that it will be an annihilation of the people of Israel. And no matter how much Caleb and Joshua try to sway them to OBEY GOD and listen to what God has said and remember all that the Lord has done the people don t listen to them. They re scared. That, to me is where I get stuck. How? How is this possible? The gift of the Promised Land, the promise of God to bring you to this land flowing with milk and honey and goodness and blessings a place where you will not only be protected but you will prosper a place you will call home and they don t want to take it? But then things actually get worse. God punishes those spies who led the people astray, tells the people that they are going to wander in the desert and that none of them will see this fertile promised land and all of this, somehow, proves to the nation that, Oh yeah God is good and he ll protect us! and so they decide to, yet again, disobey God and take things into their own hands again! They head up the hill to go to war and they are flattened. Moses even warns them! DON T GO UP THE LORD IS NOT WITH YOU! But they disregard him (again) and sure enough the Amalekites and Canaanites come down and beat them back.
I don t get it. I would do anything to have this kind of interaction with God right now! Oh, you want me to go here God? Sure I will Oh, God wants to see me has something to say? Perfect (Knocking on his door ) Whatch-you need Lord? It s so interesting to me how God works. Because, to me there is a really good and simple way to fix all this grumbling and bickering and complaining if God simply would have popped in encouraged them then popped out. Right? That would work for me! - Guys it s me God. You got this. I HAVE THIS. Just go. I ve given them to you. You will not die. I am God. Peace out. Like you d think if that happened that the whole nation would go, Yes! Viva la Israel!! (OK probably not that). But some sign, affirmation to encourage the group. Then they go in grumbling stops people dine on figs and grapes and honey all are happy! But the thing is God has already done this numerous times. Right? From showing his power and dedication with the plagues, to the parting of the sea, dwelling and leading them as a pillar of smoke, God s presence in the ark, the ground opening up and swallowing those who oppose God like honestly how much more proof of God s loyalty, power, protection, and guidance does one need!? What s crazy is even the Egyptians have heard of these people and how the Lord is with them! (Numb 14:13-16). Why is it that people that are outside of the Israelites seem to have more fear and knowledge of the Lord then his own people? So really we re left with the question of would it matter? Would it matter if the voice of God rang in through the PA system in the tents telling them what to do? Would that have made a difference in their lives? Unfortunately probably not. Because time and time again he s done just that (in one form or another) and yet here they are. At some point no amount of hand-holding or guidance is going to help. At some point one simply needs to understand that sometimes even the clearest writing on the wall is not comfort enough to move forward with trust and faith. And that should hit home for you and I? For me it stings because I often have conversations with people about how much easier it would be if God clearly wrote the plan on the wall. Or maybe like that financial planning commercial on TV that ran for a few years where the people felt in disarray then met with their planner and as they left the building there was this clear red arrow line that showed them where to go. If God
could do that for me clearly showing the path so that I knew where to go.that d be great. Then I wouldn t wander as much as I do. Then I wouldn t WONDER as much as I do. Then I wouldn t probably get into as much trouble as I do, or question God as much as I do, or whine and beg and moan as much as I do. You d think that this relationship with God would be much easier if he simply listened to me right? But then again that then defeats the point doesn t it? Where would trust and faith and belief be if it were that easy? The truth I think even if God DID do that for me I still would probably find something to whine and moan about. God I m tired of all this manna can t we have some steak? Or bacon? Please say bacon. I think we need to understand that this wandering happened not because God was trying to break them down or toy with them but because they brought it all on themselves. Again, a constant theme throughout scripture of how God is trying to fix and help and deal with the things we do but we re not making it easy on him or ourselves. It s simply the fact that we have this constant ability to trust people and inability to trust God. And we kind of knew this was coming. Even if you don t know the story and the wanderings in the desert you get a feeling like this was going to happen eventually. At the beginning of chapter 14 you get the people grumbling against Moses AND Aaron asking for a new leader. Someone who would turn them around and take them back to Egypt. After all God has done, after all that Moses and Aaron have done and been through they are stuck in the rut of the past. Not only forgetting how bad it was but so deep in this trench that they ve failed to see how good it has been and how beautiful it will be. If they would just continue to listen and obey and trust God. And that there is why we come back to this story so much. Even though this is their story and actions we see ourselves in it as well because this is our story too as followers of God who constantly find themselves in this same rut of faithlessness. These stories serve as reminders of ancient events but also as examples for us to learn from. Because the truth of it is we struggle with our own journey right? A journey similar to the Israelites. We are all on this journey from the slavery of sin to the freedom and blessings of Christ a freedom experienced now as well as to come. Just as the Israelites were given possession of goodness and blessings and prosperity we too have that offering, through Christ. And we know this so why do we find ourselves
often times complaining as to what he has done and is doing? Why do we find ourselves at the opposite side of thankfulness for what we have? Because we too struggle with trust and faith. We too struggle with the beauty and goodness and provisions of God even when they re dangling in front of us. For some reason we have a blindness, at times, in our faith and walk with God. And that, to me is what this text is truly about. It s not about the wanderings that they will endure but it s about the journey we are on the journey the Israelites were on. A journey of trust and faith and understanding all that God has done, is doing, and will do. And the Israelites are posed with a question as they hear the report from the spies it s a question that you and I are posed with every day as well: Do you trust him? On this journey he is bringing you on and through do you trust him? I think if we simply focus on the events we lose the larger picture. This is a story of deliverance from one place through the events of another and on our way to what is promised. That s a journey we re on as well right? There s an analogy here that I hope helps in working through this text and this journey for us. Egypt = Sin Egypt, and the slave-like conditions becomes a tie in to you and I and how we have become slaves to sin. Day in and day out we are beaten and broken down by sin. Each day we are whipped and chained and shackled by sin. Sin has had such a hold on us telling us what to do and not to do that when we do begin the wanderings in the desert we begin to feel that the sin-life wasn t so bad. Egypt wasn t so bad. But it was, and is. There is no life in sin. There is no freedom in sin. One is bound and pulled down low and broken not healed. Nothing about Egypt was good nothing about sin is good. That and we must remember that just as Egypt never was meant to be neither is sin. And so God called his children out of Egypt and into a relationship, a journey with him. And so God too calls us his children out of SIN and into a relationship, a journey with him. Wanderings = Life
And then as a believer, on this journey out of sin, we start to see that in Christ God has delivered us. He has pulled us away from sin and yet that sin is still a constant call in our lives. And so on this journey of life while we begin to know God and believe in him and be strengthened in him and trust him we still find that we wander a lot. As the Israelites did so do we. We declare that we have faith in God during this journey but it s really limited. We often find it easier to have faith in me than him. We often want things now instead of later and work to do it now instead of waiting for God to actually give it to us when we are ready for it. Really, for me there is a line that in our text today that sums it all up for me. It s a line we all know, agree to but struggle with each and every day. Verse 41: Why are you disobeying the Lord s command? This will not succeed! That s the reality we live into each and every day. But it s through these wanderings, these trials, tribulations, valleys and peaks, rollercoasters of faith that we begin to be refined in our faith. Honest in our words. Truthful in our actions. God uses our wanderings to remind us who he is and all that he is done and it just so happens that the whole time in the desert that we need that whole time to learn more about him and how we trust, and not trust him in what he s doing. It s a constant journey of discovering who we are in light of who God is and what he has done. It s a journey of listening, obeying, responding and then being sanctified each and every day as we get closer and closer to that Promised Land. Promised Land = Life with Christ forever This this place with Christ, this living with Him and each other for eternity where life is good and plentiful and food is abundant and it is flowing with milk and honey (unfortunately not bacon) is not Canaan but the New Heaven and New Earth. But unlike all those people who wandered for 40 years and never got to be in it we will. Unfortunately we eventually see that even in the land of Canaan things don t go right and that s because Canaan never was the end-all. Because death still had a hold. Sin was still was prevalent. Christ had not come to restore and renew. It was all a process as it is for us.
We live into the reality of knowing what life is like when we disobey God. We all feel it, and see it every day. But we also all live into the reality that we know this is a process for us, that each day we are learning, but each day brings us closer to the Promised Land. We also know the bigger picture that the Israelites didn t that we aren t aimlessly wandering we re actually being sanctified and made holy. That this life isn t about you and me stumbling around as we try to climb into the blessings of God because we ve already received it. We know where it is. We know what it cost for us to receive it right? What we re just need to remember from time to time is to trust God as he works it all out in our lives and the lives of others. Understanding that it s all being done in his time not ours. Amen?