Well, good morning, church. It's good to see you all this morning. Would you turn with me to the book of Numbers?
! Today, we'll be looking at chapters 13 and 14. That's page 113 in the Pew Bible.
If you turn to page 113 and it's not Numbers 13, that means you have one of the new editions of the Pew Bible. Lucky you,
it's somewhere close to there. You'll find it.
If you're new to the Bible, then the chapters are the big numbers and the verses are the little numbers.
We have a long passage today that we're going to look through. We'll skim through some of the
paragraphs, but just follow along with me as we pick up. Let me pray first as we come to God's Word.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for these moments that we get on Sunday mornings to gather
together. Lord, throughout our recent Sunday school class, we've been thinking about other parts of the
world where gathering is not so easy. Lord, where there's much danger gathering on a Sunday morning.
So, we're just grateful. We're grateful to be able to meet, to open your Word, to read it, to be edified
by it. And as we do so, we remember that we do so with your people throughout the world,
your people who are coming to your Word,
so that we might hear what your Spirit is saying to us today,
so that we might walk faithfully and worthily of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
and fix our eyes on Him once again.
So, we pray that by your Spirit, you would allow us to do that, allow us to understand, apply,
and be transformed by your Word today. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
All right, Numbers 13. I'm going to pick up at the end of chapter 12 just for context.
We'll read some of this, and then we'll dive in.
After that, the people set out from Hazaroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
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.
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.
And then, in verses 4 through 16, are the names listed of those men by their tribes.
You can scan over those names down to verse 17. We'll pick up there.
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them,
Go up into the Negev and go into the hill country and see what the land is,
and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they're many or few,
and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad,
and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds,
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.
And then, in verses 21 through 24, it says how the spies successfully spied out the land
and how incredibly fruitful the land was, and then we pick up in 25 when they return.
At the end of 40 days, they return 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 show them the fruit of the land.
And they told them,
We came to this 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, very large.
And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev.
The Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the hill country.
And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan.
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.
And all the congregation raised a loud cry,
and the people wept that night.
And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The whole congregation said to them,
Would that we had died in the land of Egypt,
or would that we had died in this wilderness.
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will become a prey.
Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?
And they said to one another,
Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.
All right, let's pause there.
On the surface,
doesn't this seem kind of hard to believe?
How could they possibly want to return to Egypt?
Right?
After all they had seen and experienced up to that point,
here they are on the verge of the promised land.
How could they want to turn back now?
The whole story from Exodus 1 up until this point
has had one plot line,
rescuing the people,
God doing everything necessary to take them into the land.
God had fulfilled so many of His promises.
The people were now a great nation, massive in number.
They'd been liberated from slavery and oppression and death in Egypt.
They'd been given His instructions and commandments
so that they might be His people and display His glory in the world.
And now, right when they're at the climactic moment
to enter the land and be settled in their home,
to find rest from their slavery,
rest from their wanderings,
they're right there.
And they turn back.
They fail to enter.
It just seems so hard to believe, right?
Hard to believe,
at least until we start to examine our own hearts, right?
You know, the New Testament often will return to this episode in Numbers.
It often looks back to this critical turning point in Israel's history,
the rebellion of the Exodus generation,
their failure to enter the land.
And it will bring it up as a constant reminder.
It will say things like Psalm 95, for example.
It will say things like,
today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion
on the day of testing in the wilderness.
And in the New Testament,
the writer of Hebrews especially follows that same example,
and he applies Numbers 13 through 14 to the church today.
Giovanni read it for us earlier in the service.
Remember what the author of Hebrews said?
He said,
Take care, brothers and sisters,
lest there be in any of you
an evil, unbelieving heart,
leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another
every day,
as long as it is called today,
that none of you
may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
So you see, according to Scripture,
we too can be just like the people
in Numbers 13 and 14.
When faced with the challenges of the world,
when faced with the seeming dangers
and impossibilities before us
as God's people living on God's mission,
when faced with just
constant and everyday fears
and uncertainties,
our hearts
can give way
to unbelief.
We can become hardened,
Hebrews says,
by the deceitfulness of sin.
When the difficulties at work
seem to mount up,
when the pressures rise
to conform to our peers,
when our own habitual sins
and failings
seem to not be getting any better,
unbelief can start to creep in.
We fear things will never get better,
that maybe we should just give up
and go along with the crowd.
We think that perhaps
it's not worth the effort
to follow and obey Christ.
Suddenly, we start to think
and act more and more
like the Israelites
in Numbers 13 and 14.
Let's just pick another leader,
go back to Egypt.
Now, maybe we wouldn't put it
that bluntly, right?
We wouldn't explicitly reject Christ
or leave the church,
but we start to harden.
Our hearts start to get callous,
get jaded,
get uncaring,
no longer believing
that God's promises are true
and that God's promises
are what really matter
in life and in death
and in everything in between.
So what do we do?
How do we prevent this hardening
that I think all of us
have felt some, right?
How do we combat this subtle unbelief
from growing in our hearts?
Well, Hebrews says,
we must exhort one another
every day.
Thankfully,
this very passage,
Numbers 13 through 14,
shows us a number of things
that can do just that.
There are a number of things here
that come to speak to us
and to soften our hearts.
So let's look at each of them in turn
so that our hearts
might be softened today,
so that we might grow
in our believing,
trusting God,
even in the face
of great challenges
and uncertainties and fears.
So we're going to look at three things
in the rest of chapter 14.
First thing we see is this.
There's a faithful exhortation
to soften our hearts,
a faithful exhortation.
This is found in verses 5 through 9
of chapter 14.
Thankfully,
not every spy that day
was convinced
that they should run away.
Not every spy that day
gave a bad report,
which the Hebrew word there
actually has shades
of a false report.
They started to skew
the report
because they were so afraid,
because they were so unbelieving.
Did you catch how they skewed it, right?
Everyone there is a giant, right?
The land devours its inhabitants.
How could the land
devour its inhabitants
and everyone be these giant,
huge, flourishing people?
That doesn't seem to add up, right?
Thankfully,
not everyone gave a bad report that day.
Two spies, Caleb and Joshua,
exhorted the people
to remember the reality greater
than the challenges
in front of them,
the reality of the God
who had promised to go with them.
Let's pick up in verse 5.
Then Moses and Aaron
fell on their faces
before all the assembly
of the congregation
of the people of Israel.
And Joshua, the son of Nun,
and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh,
who were among those
who had spied out the land,
tore their clothes
and said to all the congregation
of the people of Israel,
the land which we passed through
to spy out
is an exceedingly good land.
If the Lord delights in us,
He will bring us into this land
and give it to us,
a land that flows
with milk and honey.
Only do not rebel
against the Lord
and do not fear
the people of the land,
for they are bred for us.
Their protection
is removed from them
and the Lord is with us.
Do not fear them.
You see, what often happens
when we face trials
is that we do exactly
what the ten fearful spies did.
And what they did was
is they put their however
in the wrong place.
We contend to put our however
in the wrong place.
What do I mean by that?
Look back at verses 27 through 28.
In 27 through 28,
the ten fearful spies say,
we came to the land
which you sent us.
Notice, which Moses,
they're saying,
you sent us here, Moses.
They forgot that it was the Lord
who had sent them there.
We came to this land
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.
Do you see where they put
the however?
The land is good,
they say.
However,
the people are strong.
Therefore,
we're doomed.
Let's give up
and abandon ship.
But notice what Joshua
and Caleb do.
As you read verses 7, 8, and 9,
you don't literally see
the word however
anywhere in there.
But in essence,
don't they say this?
The land is good.
And yes,
the people are strong.
However,
the Lord is with us.
They put their however
in a much different place.
And that made all the difference.
It wasn't the strength
of the inhabitants
that had the last word.
It was the reality
and presence of God.
Just think of the difference
that would make
in our lives.
Think about our mission
as a church.
You know,
if we said,
there are lots of people
in our city
who need Christ,
however,
most of them
don't seem interested
in hearing the gospel.
That begins to make
human realities
the final word.
But instead,
what's really true?
There are lots of people
in our city
who need Christ,
and many of them
don't seem interested
in hearing the gospel.
however,
God has many
in this city
who are His,
and He will make sure
according to His word
that He converts
every single sinner
for whom He died.
So where are you
putting your however
when it comes
to your marriage
or your children
or that difficult relationship
in your small group
or in your friend circle?
is your however
giving God
the rightful
and final place
that He deserves?
Yes,
your marriage may be rocky.
Yes,
you may be in a challenging
season of parenting.
Yes,
there might be
tense relationships.
However,
God has given you
everything you need
for life and godliness
in the gospel.
He can change hearts
and give you patience
and wisdom
and kindness.
He can heal
and restore.
He can instruct
and guide.
The Lord is with us,
verse 9 says.
Don't fear.
Do not harden your hearts,
friends.
Don't harden your hearts
by dwelling
on how great
the problems
or the trials may be
and all the attending
circumstances.
You don't need
to minimize those things,
but instead,
put those great problems
and trials
before the greatness
of the almighty God
who rescued you,
who filled you
with His Spirit
and now promises
to never leave you
or forsake you
as you walk
in trusting obedience
with Him.
Notice how that
changes things.
Notice how it changed
things for Joshua
and Caleb.
You know,
the ten spies
saw the people
of the land
and they thought,
we look like little
grasshoppers
next to these giants.
Right?
Now,
grasshoppers were like,
you know,
they weren't like
karate apprentices,
you know.
Grasshoppers
in the ancient world
were like the smallest
edible creature
you could find,
right?
So the spies
were basically saying,
like, look,
these guys are going
to eat us up
like a plate
of chicken nuggets.
Like, this is not
going to go well.
But notice what
Joshua and Caleb
say in verse 9.
Don't fear the people
of the land
for they're bread
for us.
Putting God
in the center
of their vision,
putting God
in the place
of their however,
it changes even
their self-perception.
The ten spies
literally said,
we seem to ourselves
to be grasshoppers.
We don't stand
a chance.
But that wasn't
what Joshua and Caleb
understood to be
really true.
They couldn't wallow
in self-pity
or despair.
They had found
an appropriate confidence,
not a prideful confidence
in their own abilities
of their own strength,
but a God-centered confidence
because of God's ability
and strength.
The Lord is with us.
Do not fear them.
So here's the first thing
that will soften our hearts,
a faithful exhortation
to put God uppermost
in our thinking,
to end even our sentences,
not with our horizontal
circumstances
or with our present trials
or troubles
or difficulties,
but to give God
the final word,
to put His reality
in front of our fears,
a faithful exhortation.
Now, the second thing
in Numbers 13 through 14
that can soften our hearts
is not just a faithful exhortation,
but a faithful intercession,
a faithful intercession.
We see this in verses 10 through 19.
Unfortunately,
the people did not heed
Joshua and Caleb's exhortation,
and we read this in verse 10.
Then all the congregation
said to stone them with stones,
but the glory of the Lord
appeared at the tent of meeting
to all the people of Israel.
And the Lord said to Moses,
How long will this people despise me?
And how long will they not believe in me
in spite of all the signs
that I have done among them?
I will strike them with the pestilence
and disinherit them,
and I will make of you
a nation greater
and mightier than they.
But Moses said to the Lord,
Then the Egyptians will hear it,
for you brought up this people
in your might from among them,
and they will tell the inhabitants
of this land
according to the greatness
of your steadfast love,
just as you have forgiven
this people from Egypt
until now.
So the people pick up stones
to judge Joshua and Caleb.
That was a judicial act,
right?
As a sign of their total rebellion,
the people are ready to judge
the people who are attempting
to draw them towards faithfulness.
So the Lord comes down
to this people
and speaks a word of judgment
over them.
They've rejected the Lord
and His chosen mediator Moses.
They've declared that they'd rather
go back to Egypt
than go forward into the promised land,
trusting His promises.
So God is ready to judge them
completely for their rebellion
and for disregarding
and dishonoring
all the mercy
and kindness
and power
He's shown on their behalf.
A word of judgment comes.
But then,
the God-appointed mediator,
Moses,
intercedes.
When God threatens
to wipe the people out
because of their sin,
to give them over
to the death
that they've chosen
for themselves,
when God's ready
to give them exactly
what is perfect
and good justice
requires,
Moses intercedes.
And His intercession
has two parts.
First,
He prays
in light of God's glory.
And then,
second,
He prays in light
of God's character.
We see His prayer
in light of God's glory
in verses 13 through 16.
Moses,
in essence,
says,
Lord,
what will the nations think
if You wipe out Your people?
Well,
they'll think
that You aren't actually able
to bring them
into the promised land.
They'll think
that the Lord
wasn't strong enough,
wasn't mighty enough,
wasn't wise enough,
wasn't good enough.
It will result
in God's glory
being defamed
among the nations.
And false gods
will go on getting
the honor and praise
that only the true God deserves.
So Moses prays
for God's glory
to be advanced.
God is God.
Only God deserves
the praise
and honor of creation
because God is
the Creator and Redeemer
of all that is.
So Moses prays,
God,
praise God,
pardon Your people
because such a pardon
will increase
to Your glory.
Then second,
Moses prays
in light of God's character
in verses 17 through 19.
And the central verse here,
verse 18,
is Moses
rehearsing
the self-revelation
that God gives
in Exodus 34.
You remember,
that was the golden calf incident
and God had to
sort of reestablish
His covenant
with the people
after that.
And this is where
God gives
this revelation
of His very nature.
The Lord is unlimited
in love and mercy.
The Lord is slow
to anger
and abounding
in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity
and transgression.
But at one
and the same time,
the Lord is also
completely just.
He will by no means
clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity
of the fathers
on the children
to the third
and fourth generation.
That is,
the effects of sin
will go down
into the succeeding generations.
And don't we know
that that's how it works,
right?
That the sins
are passed down
generation after generation.
What do we see here?
God's love
and God's justice.
We see that God's love
is a righteous love.
God's justice
is a merciful justice.
He's all these things
at once.
And so Moses' intercession
appeals to God's
own character.
He appeals to
His righteous love,
to His merciful justice.
And on that basis,
he asks God
to pardon His people.
not because of
who the people are,
but because of
who God is,
who God has revealed
Himself to be.
And you see, friends,
this faithful intercession
should soften our hearts,
should soften our hearts
because we know,
we know in light
of the New Testament
that for the sake
of His own glory
and for the sake
of His own character,
God has forgiven us.
God has pardoned us.
And He has ultimately
done it through
an even greater intercessor
than Moses.
You know,
don't you read
the Old Testament sometimes
when you think,
God's here,
and then Moses jumps in,
and then God changes His mind?
What does that seem like?
Well, friends,
don't you see,
all of that is
God crafting a picture
of what would be true
when the even greater
intercessor came?
Jesus Christ,
the true and better
Moses,
is the one
who offers
perfect intercession
for us.
Jesus is
the very glory
of God incarnate,
the second person
of the Holy Trinity,
the eternal Son
of the eternal Father,
become flesh for us,
who now intercedes
at the Father's
right hand for us.
And the basis
of Jesus' intercession
is not simply
God's character,
but His fulfillment
of that character
in history
through His own life,
death, and resurrection.
Because in the life
of Jesus,
and in particularly
at the cross,
we see
God's character,
His mercy,
and His justice
in perfect expression.
God's justice
is displayed
because at the cross,
human sin
is judged
in the humanity
of Jesus.
And God's mercy
is perfectly displayed
because at the cross,
sinners are forgiven.
Jesus becomes
our substitute.
He pays the penalty
for our sin
and gives us
His righteousness
so that we can be
forever accepted
by the Father.
So you see,
Moses' intercession
buried here
in Numbers 14
takes us right
to the heart
of God's glory
and God's character,
and therefore,
it takes us right
to the heart
of the good news,
the gospel.
And by the power
of the Spirit,
the gospel,
God's mercy displayed
in perfect fulfillment
of His justice
at the cross,
that is what softens
even the most
hardened heart.
Jesus intercedes
for you,
His blood,
His righteousness.
He's offered them
up for you
and for all
who unite themselves
to Christ by faith.
And you know
what that means,
friends?
That means that now
when you reach
the verge
of the true
and better promised land,
that is when your
earthly days
are nearing their end,
and when you stand
on the verge
of the metaphorical Jordan,
ready to cross
into eternity,
when you stand
in that place,
if you are united
to Christ,
then you need not fear
the greatest enemies,
the most terrifying giants.
you need not fear sin.
You need not fear
Satan.
You need not fear
death.
You need not fear
hell,
because Christ
has conquered them all.
He died
so that you might live
now and forever,
so that you need
never turn back
when fear and uncertainty
raise their heads.
If He has conquered
those enemies,
and you can cross
through even death
itself with confidence,
what else do you
have to fear?
Have courage,
brothers and sisters.
The risen Lord Jesus
intercedes for you
with His own life,
His own blood,
His own righteousness.
So this is the second thing
we see in this passage,
a faithful intercession
that takes us
to the heart of the gospel.
But what's the last?
We've seen a faithful exhortation
and a faithful intercession.
But last,
the passage ends
with a firm warning.
A firm warning.
And this warning
is also meant
to soften our hearts.
Let's read the rest
of chapter 14,
picking up in verse 20.
Then the Lord said,
I have pardoned
according to your word,
but truly as I live
and as all the earth
shall be filled
with the glory of the Lord,
none of the men
who have seen my glory
and my signs
that I did in Egypt
and in the wilderness
and yet have put me
to the test
these ten times
and have not obeyed
my voice
shall see the land
that I swore
to give to their fathers.
And none of those
who despised me
shall see it.
But my servant Caleb,
because he has
a different spirit
and has followed me fully,
I will bring into the land
into which he went
and his descendants
shall possess it.
Now, since the Amalekites
and the Canaanites
dwell in the valleys,
turn tomorrow
and set out for the wilderness
by the way of the Red Sea.
And the Lord spoke
to Moses and Aaron saying,
How long shall this
wicked congregation
grumble against me?
I have heard the grumblings
of the people of Israel
which they grumble against me.
Say to them,
As I live,
declares the Lord,
what you have said
in my hearing,
I will do to you.
Your dead bodies
shall fall in this wilderness.
Of all your number
listed in the census
from twenty years old
and upward
who have grumbled against me,
not one shall come
into the land
that I swore
that I would make you dwell,
except Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh,
and Joshua,
the son of Nun.
But your little ones,
who you said
would become a prey,
I will bring in,
and they shall know
the land
that you have rejected.
But as for you,
your dead bodies
shall fall in this wilderness,
and your children
shall be shepherds
in the wilderness
forty years
and shall suffer
for your faithlessness
until the last
of your dead bodies
lies in the wilderness.
According to the number
of the days
in which you spied out
the land,
forty days,
a year for each day,
you shall bear
your iniquity
forty years,
and you shall know
my displeasure.
I, the Lord,
have spoken.
Surely this will I do
to all this wicked congregation
who are gathered together
against me.
In this wilderness
they shall come
to a full end,
and there they shall die.
And the men
who Moses sent
to spy out the land
who returned
and made all the congregation
grumble against him
by bringing up
a bad report
about the land,
the men who brought up
a bad report
of the land
died by plague
before the Lord.
Of those men
who went to spy out
the land,
only Joshua,
the son of Nun,
and Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh,
remained alive.
When Moses told
all these words
to all the people
of Israel,
the people mourned greatly.
And they rose
early in the morning
and went up
to the heights
of the hill country
saying,
We are here.
We will go up
to the place
that the Lord
has promised,
for we have sinned.
But Moses said,
Why now are you
transgressing
the command of the Lord
when that will not succeed?
Do not go up,
for the Lord
is not among you,
lest you be struck down
before your enemies.
For there the Amalekites
and the Canaanites
are facing you,
and you shall fall
by the sword
because you have turned back
from following the Lord.
The Lord will not
be with you.
But they presumed,
they presumed
to go up
to the heights
of the hill country,
although neither
the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord
nor Moses
departed out of the camp.
Then the Amalekites
and the Canaanites
who lived in that hill country
came down
and defeated them
and pursued them
even to Hormah.
So the Lord,
in response
to Moses' intercession
for the sake
of His own glory
and character,
pardons the people.
He doesn't make
an end to them.
He doesn't give them
what their sins
fully deserve
and completely
wipe them out.
But there are still
consequences
for their sin.
the Lord
disciplines them.
And even in those
consequences,
even in that discipline,
the Lord proves Himself
to be just
and merciful.
Merciful because
God promises
that the people
will live,
their children
won't die,
and that next generation
will inherit the land.
He will keep
His faith
with His people.
But God is also just.
Just because
the generation
that rebelled
will not enter
the promised land.
Instead,
they will get
what they asked for.
They will get a life
outside the land.
They will have to
turn back
towards the Red Sea,
turn back towards Egypt,
and wander in the wilderness
for forty years.
One year for every day
the spies spied out
the land.
Except for Joshua
and Caleb.
The Lord knew
their faithfulness
and they will enter.
They will be the only
two of the whole generation
that was counted
in chapter one
who will enter
the land.
And the other
ten spies,
the ones who gave
a bad report,
who led the people astray,
they're judged immediately.
You see,
those in positions
of leadership
are held accountable
to a greater degree,
and so they bear
the penalty right away
for their unrepentant hearts
and so that their unbelief
doesn't continue
to spread
amidst the next generation.
But perhaps
the most tragic part
of this passage
is the final paragraph.
Some of the people
in presumption
decide
that they will
take the land
after all
and they're defeated
because the Lord
isn't with them.
The people shift
overnight
from faithless fear
to faithless presumption.
And in neither
their fear
nor their presumption
were they accepting
what God said
and living accordingly.
It would have been better
for them at this point
to accept God's discipline
than to presumptuously think
they could go into
the promised land
without God.
So the passage ends
with a warning.
You see, friends,
the cost
of unbelief
is great,
as great as could be imagined.
That's why Hebrews says
exhort one another
every day
as long as it's called today
so that you won't be hardened
by the deceitfulness
of sin.
The cost of unbelief
is so great.
This generation
lost the earthly
promised land
because they allowed
the fear of man
to overshadow
their awe
and trust in the Lord.
They didn't enter,
Hebrews says,
because of unbelief.
And the same
is true today.
Friends,
there's only one way
to face our fears
and to enter
the heavenly promised land,
and that is through faith.
Believing,
ongoing trust
in God's promises
fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
You see,
God would keep
His promises.
In a generation,
Joshua,
would lead the people
into the promised land.
In fact,
the Jordan River
would part
just like the Red Sea.
The people would walk
through on dry land,
and Jericho,
one of those great
fortified cities,
would collapse.
How?
Because the people
obeyed the Lord
and walked around it
seven times.
But it wouldn't stop there.
God would continue
to be faithful
to His people
and His promises.
No matter what enemies
or trials arose,
think of Gideon.
Gideon would defeat
the Midianites
with nothing more
than torches
and clay jars.
David would defeat
Goliath
with a sling
and a stone.
Hundreds of years later,
the exiles would return,
protected and preserved,
though their enemies
abounded.
God would remain faithful.
But the reality is
a true place of rest,
a true home,
would still remain
for the people of God.
Joshua wouldn't be the one
to truly lead his people
to ultimate rest.
David wouldn't be the one
to ultimately defeat
the enemies.
Ezra and Nehemiah
wouldn't be the ones
to bring the people
in to the safety
of the ultimate promised land.
It would be Jesus.
His resurrection
would inaugurate
the new creation
and open the door
to our true rest.
And through trusting in Him,
our real rest,
our real home is found.
So friends,
don't be like the people
of Numbers 13
who stood on the verge
of victory
and instead chose defeat.
Trust God's promises
trust that He's already
conquered our greatest foes.
Trust in Christ.
Yes, your sin is great.
Yes, the wages of sin
is death.
However,
Christ has died
and rose again
for all who believe.
And there's no weapon
formed against us
that can stand.
And nothing can separate us
from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Our Father in Heaven,
we confess this morning
that we do bring with us
many fears.
And we confess
that often
we are tempted
to slide
into obscuring
the greatness
of who You are
in our own hearts.
Lord,
we see the calcification
of our own hearts
setting in
at times.
But we thank You
for the work
of Your Spirit
who through Your Word
comes and softens us.
So soften us today.
Cause faith
to rise up in our souls
as we behold Christ,
our great champion
and King.
Help us, Lord,
to put You
in the uppermost
of our minds,
Your reality
and Your promises
to not give credit
to these earthly circumstances,
but to give all the credit
and all the honor
to You, God.
And Lord,
help us to encourage
one another
with these things.
Hebrews says
to exhort one another.
So give us the words,
give us the wisdom
in our community
to be able to speak
life-giving,
encouraging,
exhorting words
to one another.
Lord,
help it to happen
in conversations
and in small groups,
in marriages,
between parents
and children.
Lord,
between friends.
And Lord,
would how we live
as Your people,
free from fear,
be a great witness
to those around us.
Lord,
we know the uncertainties
in the world are great.
Lord,
the challenges,
the trials,
the fears,
or they abound
in our neighbors.
But,
O Lord,
allow our confidence
in You,
our trust in You,
our boldness in You
to speak brightly
of the matchless grace
of Jesus
that is offered
to all who believe
in which You draw
all people to Yourself.
We pray this
in Your mighty name,
Jesus.
Amen.