Last week, we talked about the struggles we have with stress and the various stressful events in our lives…from marriage to divorce…from birth to death…from good to poor economics, and so on.
We looked at Christ’s words from Matthew’s Gospel that tell us to not worry. BOY is that hard!!! Yet, God is very clear that He will take care of us and He is indeed trustworthy!
Today, we are going to look at a couple of those things that can cause us to really struggle with not worrying and not fretting. That is the combined issue of changes and trusting the Lord in the midst of those changes.
What are some of the major changes you’ve had to make in your lives?
Moving to a new house? Moving into a pick up camper? Getting married? Changing jobs within your company? Changing jobs AND companies? Having kids move a long distance away? Having kids move back home? Having you parents get divorced? Going through a divorce yourself?
We all have changes in our lives. Some of those changes seem to be easier to navigate for us and some seem to challenge us at our very core! Some of us can easily succeed on the same situation that someone else could really flounder in, and then in a different setting, the success and struggle ratio could be exactly opposite.
For instance, if something were to happen and the camp speaker fell through for a junior high retreat next weekend, and I were to be called, I’d have NO problem doing that! However, my guess is that many of you would turn them down. On the other hand, if I lost my job at The Baby Fold, and someone offered me the chance to be a crossing guard at a school or a position in a cubical at State Farm, I don’t know what I’d say. I wouldn’t do so well with that kind of change.
How many of you have ever asked the Lord to make something very clear to you as you were in the process of making a change in your world? How many of you have ever had second guesses about asking the Lord to make something clear to you after things happened…you know, it’s kind of like asking Him for patience!
This week and next, we’re going to look at another somewhat familiar passage from God’s Word. This section of Scripture is back in the Old Testament…back to the days of Moses and the people of Israel. It’s a good reminder of a people who knew that change was going to come and that their lives would be different. Please open your Bibles to Numbers 13.
If you remember your Biblical history, Joseph was hated by his brothers. He was sold into slavery to the Egyptians. Joseph eventually became a very powerful man in Egypt…actually the second in command! Somehow, things got bad for the Israelites and the whole people group ended up as slaves building the pyramids.
They served as slaves for many years and then Moses was appointed by God to help lead the people out of Egypt and take them to the Promised Land. You’re familiar with the ten plagues on Egypt, the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Ten Commandments.
However, it seems like at every step, somebody is challenging Moses’ authority and by extension, God Almighty’s as well! In fact, in Numbers 12, Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam were in full-scale rebellion over his leadership. In chapter 11, people are complaining about the manna that God had provided, and they were complaining about needing meat and expressing their desire to return as slaves to Egypt.
WHAT!?!?!
You’ve been slaves! The foreign country was afraid of you and started aborting all of your babies! God has demonstrated His incredible power and care over you through the whole Exodus! Yet, you want to go back to Egypt?
After God deals with several of these different kinds of issues all revolving around rebellion, the nation arrives at the edge of the Promised Land. So, maybe it would be like them all camping out just east of Danville on I74 waiting to come into the Promised Land of Illinois (before all of the financial problems that we had). This is where we pick the story up.
As I mentioned earlier, each of us has gone through changes in our life that cause us to reevaluate things. Most of us do research on these changes when it’s possible.
For instance, when Karen’s dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last fall, the whole family quickly started doing research on what this cancer was like. Did the doctor know what he was talking about? Did we need to get a second opinion, and so on. If you’re looking for a new job, you do research to see if you can do the job, how much it should pay, will the hours work, will you have to move, etc…. If you’re going to take college classes, you check out the various options. Which school offers the degree I want? Can I get a job in the field I want after I graduate? How much does it cost? HOW MUCH DOES IT COST??? Can I do the work? Do I really want to put the time in for what I’m going to get back from it?
Just like us asking questions before starting something new, God told Moses that He needed to do some studying of the Promised Land prior to going in. Since they didn’t have Google Maps or even the internet they had to go in on foot to check things out. This is where we pick the story up:
Numbers 13:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. 4 And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
Now, this might not happen at your house, but on a rare occasion, Karen might not see something just like I do. She might have a different opinion about a change that is coming up in our lives. As wrong as she may be, she is still welcome to her opinion (JUST KIDDING). So, as we come into major decision making situations, we sit down and talk about the situation and the decision(s) that need to be made. We each get to express our thoughts as we weigh out the decision that needs to be made.
Each of the twelve tribes identified one of their key leaders to go out and represent their interests in the new land. Earlier in Numbers, we’re given the census numbers of the men who were twenty or older. The tribes ranged in size from around 30,000 men to about 75,000 men. Therefore, it must have been quite an honor to be counted as such a leader to go and represent 100,000 or 250,000 men, women, and children! There was a lot at stake for them as a tribe, and the people respected these guys to go as their representative to make sure they got the right answers to the questions they had.
So, God sent out these twelve leaders that each tribe had chosen to go and check out the land. With a dozen of them going, they would be able to get a really good understanding about the land they were going into. They would see different things as they traveled and would be able to talk about the things as they traveled through this new country and evaluated how they could finally get to their new inheritance.
In fact, Moses gives them clear directions about what they are to observe and talk about:
Numbers 13:17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
These sound like pretty straightforward questions…are they:
Strong or Weak
Few or Many
Good or Bad land
Easy or Hard to defeat city defenses
Are there any good fruit trees so we can open the original Busy Corner Pie Station
I think that if I were going in to take over a country, that these would be legitimate questions to ask…don’t you? We’re told in the next verses that they actually obey the Lord and go out to check things out.
Num. 13:21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,* because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
So, they set off to investigate the new land of Canaan. The wilderness of Zin and the Negeb are both pretty sparsely populated areas, but they did check out the towns in the area. Going back to Danville, it would be like these twelve spies crossing the Indiana/Illinois line and checking out Danville, Champaign, Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, Galesburg, Moline, and the smaller towns like Goodfield, Carlock, LeRoy, and Mahomet along the way. So, as they’re going along, they’re probably putting the information into their iPads so they can give a good report once they make their way back from Moline.
As you can imagine, it would take some time to walk from Danville to Moline and back. So, it makes sense that they took about six weeks for this investigative trip. We aren’t told much about the details of the trip, but Moses tells us about their return in this way:
Numbers 13:25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 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. 27 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.
The good news is that indeed, it’s a great land and there is plenty of food for them. They will be able to survive and eat well.
BUT…they then followed it up with this part of the report:
28 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. 29 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.”
Do you know any people like that? There is something very positive about a situation, but they become totally focused on the negative? One of my Grandma Beaty’s “quirks” was that when she was worried about something, she projected that fear and worry towards others. For instance, if you had a cold, she could warn you that she once new someone who had a similar cough and they ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. Or she heard about someone who had broken their arm like you did, but it wasn’t set right and the doctors had to re-break the arm and then ended up amputating the arm and a leg too.
It was a kind of pessimistic way to live life! It sounds like these ten spies had been reading from the same playbook. I hear this from students (and my own kids). Yea, but…. Yea mom, I’ll load the dishwasher, but I need to finish my game on the X-Box. Yea, I know my homework was due yesterday, but I had to go to the mall instead. Yea, it’s a nice land, but…there are giants living in big cities with big walls! Those “yea, buts” will really get you if you don’t control them. That’s exactly what Caleb attempts to do.
Caleb shows real Godly leadership and steps up to say in faith what God’s will was. Remember, they have left slavery in Egypt in a dramatic fashion, and God showed Himself incredibly faithful throughout that time! God told them that they were going to the Promised Land…the land that God had promised to their ancestors. In Caleb’s dissenting mind, it’s kind of a “no-brainer”…God said it, that settles it for me!
Num. 13:30 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.”
However, the “yea, but” crowd comes back even stronger with all of the reasons why it can’t work. “Listen fellow Israelites, the people there are SOOO BIG, that we look like grasshoppers compared to the giants:
31 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.” 32 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 fall the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 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.”
OK…that grasshopper line is a large exaggeration, but it shows the extent that people will go to in order to avoid obeying the Lord and to avoid stepping out in faith. Next week, we’ll look at the response of the people AND the response of God to their lack of faith.
So, what can we learn from this passage? Why did I choose to preach on it?
From the positive side of the passage, I think that we need to follow the Lord’s and Moses’ example of checking things out before we move ahead.
Last week, we had Pastor Stephen Barr and others from Faith Baptist Temple in Eureka join us, and next Sunday, we’ll have Pastors Ritch & Art, and maybe Pastor Daniel from the Bethany Baptist Churches join us to do a similar thing.
As your pastor, I appreciated your grace and you genuineness of asking Pastor Barr questions. I think we need to ask those kinds of questions so we know what the options are. In the same way, I believe we need to ask those who come from Bethany and East White Oak similar questions:
Is the church going to keep reaching Goodfield?
Will we be able to be part of the future?
What do you think the future looks like?
How have you done something like this before?
Can we come over and see a church service?
And so on….
From the negative side, we need to make sure that we evaluate things from God’s perspective and not our own. Since God told the Israelites that they were to go into the new land, it really didn’t matter if the sons of Anak were shorter, the same height or three times taller than the spies…they needed to follow Caleb’s exhortations and go into the land.
Now, believe me, I probably have the longest lists of pros and cons for the various options that we’re looking at. I’m looking at things from many different angles and I have lots of thoughts about what looks good…like a monster cluster of grapes that has to be carried by a couple guys. I also have thoughts about what makes me feel like a grasshopper.
However, we need to make sure throughout all of this that we’re following the Lord and that we don’t get hung up on the “glass is mostly empty” viewpoint that ten of the spies returned with.
We must back up and ask the Lord who is the most passionate about our church and our community to do what needs to happen in order for His name to be lifted high and for it to be proclaimed around our communities and even the world based on what happens here in the coming months.
Our closing song today is a fun one based on the issues around this passage. It was written by the late Keith Green over thirty years ago, and the irony and sarcasm are just as pointed today as they were thirty years ago.
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