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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.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 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 seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Numbers 13:30-33, ESV.
The twelve spies came back from the land with a mixed report—the land was as wonderful as promised, but the people in the land were terrifying. Then Caleb steps forward and silences the people, proclaiming, “We can take it. Let’s go get it.” Ten spies are fear-filled politicians. They follow their message, “We can never take the land,” with a sensationalized version of the report they have previously shared with Moses. There are two important lessons here for us: First, the simplicity of faith is contrasted with the complexity of faithlessness. Faith does not need a public relations team. It does not need bigger and better adjectives. It does not need polish and flair. Faith is simple. “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” As the other spies elaborate on their fear, Joshua stands with Caleb lamenting the faithlessness of the nation before them and pleading with them to trust God. Faith does not need to sensationalize the circumstances because faith is simple: it is trust in God. Second, faith should drive us to obedient action. Caleb is not just presenting an opposing viewpoint; he is calling the armies to form up and march! The reason Israel had come to this land was a promise from God that the land is theirs and God’s command to take it. Deliberations about the state of the land are irrelevant. What matters now is trust and obedience. We are at a time in history when mankind is more absorbed with the news of the day and commentary about that news than ever before. Whether it is the mainstream media, social media, or parking lot conversations, we are consumed with deliberations about current events. We lose our focus on the promise of abundant life and the command to glorify God by making disciples. Instead of simple faith, we devote ourselves to rehashing the news of the day. My prayer for us today is that we will all find a bit of Caleb and Joshua in ourselves—true devotion to simple faith and obedience. Pastor Don At the end of forty days 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 him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 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 the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” Numbers 11:25-29, ESV.
It is likely that if you know any story from the book of Numbers, it is this one. Moses sends twelve spies into the Promised Land to see what is waiting for them as they enter this gift from God. They spy it out for forty days. The report brought back by the majority is a mixed bag. The land is awesome, but the people in the land are diverse and some are terrifying. Already, without going any further into this account, there is a lesson to be learned. Most of us would agree with the statement, “Life is not always easy.” But how many of us are ready to accept that, “Receiving blessings is not always easy.” This is what is going on in our passage. Israel is just about to receive the blessing God had promised through Abraham generations prior. This land is the Promised Land where the covenant people of God will dwell as a kingdom of priests and kings under the blessing and protection of their God. The good life is right around the corner. But, when they look around that corner, even as they see the blessings that await, they also see warriors and giants. This is not an uncommon position for the people of God to find themselves in, even today. We live in the hope of the covenant blessings, but our eyes tell us that terrible obstacles stand in our way. Consider the promised peace that is ours in Christ. How many obstacles to peace have already crossed your mind today? In his letters, Paul almost always greets the churches with a reminder of God’s grace and peace. And he often tells them of the great gift they have from God through the person and work of Jesus. But at some point in his letters, he still has to address the obstacles. What are they? Without fail, they boil down to these: a lack of trust and a failure to obey. We will look further at this account in Numbers tomorrow. Today I am praying that you will not be taken aback by any obstacles but will live now in obedience to you promise-making God and move forward in faith that His promises are true. Pastor Don Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Numbers 11:26-30, ESV.
The work is too much for Moses and the people are grumbling. The Lord intervenes and tells Moses to get together seventy elders to share the load. Not only would they share the load, but the Lord would also take some of the Spirit from Moses and place it on these men so they can do the Lord’s work. Moses then holds an installation ceremony for the elders where the Spirit falls on them and they prophesy. Two of the seventy elders, Eldad and Medad, remained behind in the camp. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit falls on them, too. With the Spirit on them, they also prophesy while in the camp. Moses’s aide Joshua learns of this and takes offense, crying out, “My lord Moses, stop them.” Moses puts an end to Joshua’s protective indignation and declares, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Moses taught Joshua a particularly important lesson that we all need to learn. There is no room for pride of ownership in ministry. We may be gifted and called to some act of service to our God, but that does not prevent God from gifting others and calling others to similar work. Jealousy over ministry success is not evidence of a devotion to or a commitment to His service. It reveals a selfish heart longing for praise. How has God gifted and called you in His service? Are you answering the call? How do you react when you see someone else answering the same call, particularly if they are not doing so according to your ministry template? Do you view them as co-workers for the King or competition for a prize? I pray that you will know great contentment with your gifting and calling and be able to rejoice when you see others succeeding in that same calling. Pastor Don And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them. Numbers 11:1-3, ESV.
The people complain and God hears their grumbling. “His anger is kindled” and He responds in judgment. Moses prays to God for the people and the judgment ends. Though the situation seems pretty straightforward, there are three timeless truths to consider. First, complaining from the people of God is a wrath-worthy sin. It is a rebellious expression of dissatisfaction with God. We are presented with this reality before we are even told what the people are complaining about. The specifics are not important. Complaining, in and of itself, is sin. This was true for Israel and it is true for the church. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation” (Philippians 2:14-15). Second, intercessory prayer bears fruit. Moses prayed and the judgment was brought to a halt. We may not always see immediate fruit the way Moses did, but we are told to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Third, God is and always has been a God of mercy. The people sinned against a perfectly holy God. Moses’s prayer resulted in an end to judgment, but not because either the punishment they had suffered or Moses’s good deed of prayer balanced the scales of justice. Justice does not work that way. This passage portrays the mercy of God. “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16). I pray that today you will live satisfied with the provision of God, praying for one another, and relying on God’s grace. Pastor Don On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. Numbers 9:15-18, ESV.
What a sight this must have been! As the people of Israel went about their business in the days after being delivered from Egyptian bondage, they never lost sight of God’s presence over the tabernacle in the middle of camp as “the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.” Can you imagine it? When Mrs. Israelite was having a dreadful day because the kids were acting up, her husband had a cold and spent the entire day bemoaning his fate in the tent, and the broom handle broke, she could look and be visibly reminded that God was with her. In the wilderness, God’s people always had the sign of His presence. We don’t get special clouds or pillars of fire in our day. Then again, those who have placed their faith in Christ do not need external signs of God’s presence. Jesus promises His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17). Paul writes to the church in Rome, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). He reminds the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). We do not need to look for clouds by day or fire by night. The very Spirit of God dwells within us! And if symbols were a reasonable comfort for struggling Israelite men and women, what should the actual inner presence of God be to you? My prayer for you today is that you will, in both good times and bad, know with an assurance greater than your eyes could ever provide that God is with you! Pastor Don |
From Pastor DonWriting about the Bible and praying that it will be of some good for someone. Archives
June 2021
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