Monday, August 20, 2007
"Now they [the 12 spies] departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children 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. Then they told him, and said: 'We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.' Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.' But 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.' And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight' " (Numbers 13:26-33).
IDEA: It is possible to take counsel from our fears rather than from our faith.
PURPOSE: To help listeners make decisions based on faith, not on fear.
James Russell Lowell wrote,
Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood,
For the good or evil side.
[The Present Crisis]
Do you think that is true?
I. It seems to be true for the Israelis in the wilderness?
The crucial scene came in Numbers 13:26-33 in which spies went into the land of Canaan and reported back to the people.
What was the report? Is the majority always right?
The people believed the report of the majority who could see only the obstacles. They refused to believe Joshua and Caleb who believed that God could overcome the obstacles.
II. The choice by the people meant that that generation would not see the land God had promised them.
They had seen God at work in a miraculous way in opening up the Red Sea, but they simply could not believe that God was powerful enough to let them conquer the land.
They took counsel from their fears rather than from their faith.
III. Do you think that that could be true of us?