So, this morning, let's start, if you have a Bible, if you don't have a Bible, it'll
be helpful for you to have one, and there are some extras sitting in the bookshelf over
there.
But let's start with Psalm 95 this morning.
Psalm 95, in some Christian traditions, is prayed every morning as part of morning prayer,
and it happens to fit really well with what we're looking at this morning.
So, which one did you say?
Psalm 95.
O come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.
Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God, and
a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it.
And his hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
For he is our God.
And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at
Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof
that they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said, they are a people who go astray in their
heart, and they have not known my ways.
Therefore I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
This psalm sings praises to the God of Israel, who is the rock of their salvation.
And this morning we're going to be looking at the fundamental moment, the fundamental event
of Israel's salvation in the Exodus.
But then in the latter half of the psalm, you have this bit, today if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as Israel did in the wilderness.
And we're going to be looking at the wilderness years as well, the time when Israel went astray
in their heart and did not know God's ways.
So, this summer, through the whole summer in this Sunday school class, we're looking
at a sort of big, broad, thirty-thousand-foot view picture of the Old Testament, and especially
the narrative of the Old Testament.
Because it's one big story.
And sometimes we might know individual pieces of that story, but it's helpful for us to be
able to put the whole thing together to see how Jesus is the climax of the whole story
of the Old Testament.
And today, we're looking at Israel's exodus from Egypt and their time wandering in the
wilderness before they enter the Promised Land.
And since, if you've been coming to the sermons, you would know that we are going through Exodus
right now upstairs.
So, we're going to, it's really going to be a thirty-thousand-foot view.
Because if you come to the sermons, you will be getting a sort of verse-by-verse look at
Exodus.
So, I'm a handout.
I have a very, it can't get any briefer than this, outline of the Torah, of the first five
books of the Bible.
I put this on here just because we're going to be finishing up the narrative of the Torah
this morning.
We looked at Abraham's life last week, and that's all in the first half of Genesis.
And then today, we're looking at Exodus.
And Numbers has some of the story of Israel in the wilderness.
And then Leviticus and Deuteronomy, it doesn't have so much narrative in it.
It's mostly just legal codes.
So, we're not really going to be looking at those books at all this summer.
But first, talking about the Exodus from Egypt, where we left off last week, Israel is not
in Egypt.
Abraham is still wandering in the land that God had promised to give to his offspring.
So, I just put down a few sort of citations there if you want to chart out the story of Abraham's
family getting down into Egypt.
We talked about Abraham and Sarah being the parents of Isaac last week, the promised child,
the child that God had promised to Abraham.
And God's promises and blessing to Abraham that we talked about so much last week are
reiterated to Isaac in Genesis 26.
And then they're reiterated to Jacob, the child of Isaac, in Genesis 32.
So, we see this family line of promise, of blessing, emerging in Genesis.
Which is God bringing about and continuing his promise to Abraham that his offspring, his
family, would be the means by which God would bless the whole world.
And that promise is reiterated to Abraham's children.
Then there's the story of Jacob's child, Joseph, who was sold into Egypt as a slave.
Then God raises Joseph to prominence, saving the land from famine.
That's about 10 chapters in Genesis that we're just totally, we're mentioning but not looking at.
And then in this one, I think it might be helpful to look at really briefly.
If we can turn to Genesis 45.
So, starting in verse 4, this is Genesis 45.
Joseph is talking to his brothers years later after they had sold him into slavery,
after Joseph rises to prominence in Egypt.
So, starting, so Genesis 45, verse 4.
Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please.
And they came near.
And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
For God sent me before you to preserve life.
For the famine has been in the land these two years.
And there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
And God sent me here before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive
for you many survivors.
So, it was not you who sent me here, but God.
He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over the land of Egypt.
Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord
over all Egypt.
Come down to me.
Do not tarry.
You shall dwell in the land of Goshen.
And you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flock
and all that you have.
There I will provide for you.
For there are yet five years of famine to come.
So that you and your household and all that you have do not come into poverty.
So, in this way, Israel ends up going down into Egypt.
And at first, it's not, they're not enslaved at first, right?
This is a good thing for them to be going to Egypt.
And Joseph even says God sent him there.
But just as God had told Abraham in Genesis 15, which I put on the page there,
know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs
and will be servants there.
And they will be afflicted for 400 years.
But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve.
And afterward, they shall come out with great possessions, just as God had assured Abraham.
So it happens.
A pharaoh, a new pharaoh comes up in the beginning of Exodus, who doesn't know Joseph's family.
And out of fear of that family that is increasing greatly, he enslaves them.
And they are afflicted for 400 years, as God had told Abraham.
And like I said, it's because it's the sermon series upstairs.
I have just a few notes here, like a really broad view of the book.
And on the second page, I have an outline of the book of Exodus,
which might actually help you follow the sermons upstairs.
You can place any particular sermon within the broader outline of the book.
But in short, the book of Exodus starts with God calling Moses and saving Israel from slavery in Egypt through Moses.
Then there's this, God brings them to Sinai and makes a covenant with them and gives them some laws.
That's where we are upstairs right now.
Then Israel fails, breaches the covenant, worships the golden calf, but God renews, restores the covenant.
And even from this really, really broad outline of the book of Exodus,
I think we can learn a lot about the life of faith just from that very basic structure of God saves Israel,
God makes a covenant and gives them laws.
Israel fails miserably, worships the golden calf, even while Moses is up on the mountain receiving laws and talking to God.
And then God restores the covenant.
I think from just that very broadest outline of the book, we can learn a lot about the life of faith.
For one thing, just as God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt,
God saves us, his people today, from a kind of slavery to sin and death.
Jesus says in the Gospel of John, and I put these on the handout,
Jesus describes sin as almost a kind of addictive behavior.
If you engage in it, and we all do, you become enslaved to it in a sense.
I can, I can, how many times have I, has a word come out of my mouth,
an unkind, cruel word come out of my mouth before I even realize it?
It's, it's, it's, it's as if I cannot help but do wrong to God and my neighbor.
I, I am, in some sense, a slave to sin.
And, and Jesus says that is, that is our condition.
But he, the Son, sets us free, and we are free indeed.
Um, so, there is that kind of correspondence, um, that, that we see in the life of faith
between the Exodus and, and, um, us today.
And then, this, this bit from Hebrews.
Since, therefore, the children, uh, human beings, share in flesh and blood,
the Son himself, likewise, partook of the same thing.
Becoming flesh and blood, that is.
That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.
And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Um, there, there is a, a sense in which we are slaves of, of death and the fear of death.
Uh, that, uh, the, the, the fear of death limits what we are willing and able to do.
Um, but Jesus, in defeating death,
uh, frees us from that.
To be able to serve him, uh, live for him, uh, and, and say with Paul,
for me, to, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Whether I, whether I live or die ultimately is not the thing that matters,
but whether I belong to Jesus is the thing that matters.
Uh, and I want to be part of what he is doing in the world.
Um, for, to, to be this conduit of blessing, uh, to the whole world.
Um, so just as God saved Israel from Egypt,
so also Jesus saves us from, from a kind of, a kind of slaver.
Um, and just as God saved Israel apart from anything they did beforehand,
so also God saves us irrespective of what we've done.
Uh, the, the law is not given to Egypt, right?
So that big, broad outline of the book of Exodus,
God doesn't tell, uh, God doesn't tell Israel how to live,
uh, giving them commands to live by,
until after he saved them from Egypt.
Um, and it, and it's the same, it's the same way for us.
We don't, Israel didn't have to earn their, their freedom from Egypt
in the same way we don't have to earn our, uh, relationship,
our freedom with God.
Uh, by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of works,
so that no one may boast.
Um, so you see what I'm doing here.
I'm looking for these correspondences between, uh,
the book of Exodus, and it's, it's big, broad outline,
and the life of the Christian.
Um, because there is this, the, the, the,
the big, broad outline of Exodus is a picture of,
of salvation in Jesus.
Um, and then just as God gave Israel his law at Mount Sinai,
um, after, after saving them,
God gives us direction on how to live.
Uh, God expects us to, to live in a certain way
after he's, you know, saved us from this kind of slavery
and, and brought us into a relationship with himself.
Uh, just going on, right, uh,
so the previous thing that I read was Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.
Very next verse, uh, we are his workmanship,
God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Uh, in the same way that Israel is expected to live in a certain way
after God brings them out of slavery,
so also God expects us to live in a certain way
after, after God brings us into relationship with himself.
Um,
and then just as God forgives Israel
and restores his covenant with them,
after they fail miserably in, in, in worship of the golden calf,
so also God forgives our sin
and restores our relationship with him
when we genuinely turn back to him in, in, in faith.
Um, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Uh,
so as, as, um,
as we are, uh,
going through the rest of the book of Exodus upstairs,
I hope, I hope I'm not rehashing too much
what, what our pastors have been saying
in sermons so far.
Um, but as we go through the rest of the book of Exodus,
uh,
it can be helpful for us to look for ways that,
uh,
the story of Israel in, in the Exodus is,
is our story too.
Um, which we should expect if we are,
as, as we were saying last week,
if we are Abraham's offspring,
uh, then we should expect the story of Abraham's offspring
to be our story too.
Um,
if, if you, uh,
if you know this word,
the, the approach that I'm doing there
is called typology.
If you've heard that word before,
that's why I'm saying it
just so you have something to,
to grab onto.
If you don't know that word,
forget it.
It doesn't really matter.
It's a seminary word.
Um,
you don't,
you don't need that to follow God.
Um,
so that,
that's a super,
I, like I said,
the,
I feel like I'm doing violence to the text
by skimming that briefly through it.
But, um,
I don't,
I don't want to steal,
steal anything from the pastors upstairs,
uh,
and,
and sort of belabor the point.
Um,
I want to spend most of our time
on something we,
we are not going to be talking about
so much upstairs
when we look through Exodus,
and that's Israel's wilderness years.
Um,
but before we move on to that,
uh,
are there any thoughts,
questions?
Um,
I don't think you can do Exodus too much.
I mean,
I thought you could come back to it
probably several times in your life
and come back to it
and find more.
There's,
there's a lot here for us.
Um,
you're fine.
You can't talk to us.
Amen.
All right.
So,
um,
after Israel leaves
Mount Sinai,
uh,
God sends them away,
uh,
into,
into the land that he had promised Abraham
all those years before.
Uh,
we were looking last week in Genesis,
uh,
God promised Abraham,
I'm going to give your offspring this land
that you're wandering about in.
Well,
now God's doing it.
Uh,
finally,
after 400 years,
God is,
is taking Israel into this land.
Um,
and,
it's,
if we look,
there's this verse in the beginning of Deuteronomy
that tells us that
it's only an 11 days journey.
Um,
the second verse of Deuteronomy,
it's only an 11 days journey
from Mount Sinai
to the edge of the land
that God had promised
to give to them.
Uh,
but it takes Israel 40 years to get there.
Uh,
and you think,
what gives?
Well,
it's because Israel is
once again disobedient.
Uh,
and,
and this entire time,
so most of Israel's time in the wilderness,
uh,
is in,
uh,
is recorded in the book of Numbers.
Um,
in the,
the Hebrew name for the book called Numbers.
See,
we call it Numbers
because it begins with some census data
and we think the whole book
is just a bunch of numbers.
It's,
it's not,
uh,
it's,
it's a story
and,
and the Hebrew name for it
is actually a lot better.
It means in the wilderness,
uh,
which is really what the book is about.
Um,
so most of this,
most of the story is in the book of Numbers.
Uh,
and their whole time in the wilderness
is characterized by disobedience.
Uh,
it didn't end with the golden calf.
They grumble about lack of food and water.
Uh,
they grumble about,
uh,
the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
Um,
and then later on in,
in Numbers 25,
they worship the pagan god Baal,
uh,
which comes up again and again
in the rest of the Old Testament.
Um,
but I want to focus on one incident in particular,
uh,
in Numbers 13 and 14
that sort of captures,
uh,
the whole,
um,
that really captures the whole thing.
It's,
it's maybe the most striking incident
of,
uh,
of Israel's disobedience in the wilderness.
Um,
and,
once again,
I think this shows us a great deal
about,
um,
our life of faith.
Uh,
and that's,
and that's the lens I,
I want to,
uh,
bring to it.
Um,
and it's,
it's quite a lot of text,
so that's why I left a lot of time for it.
So let's,
uh,
look at Numbers chapter 13.
Um,
um,
so by this point,
they've gone on that 11 day journey.
Israel has,
uh,
they're at the promised land.
Um,
and
God tells Moses
to send people
into the land
to check it out.
Um,
so let's start in,
in,
I'll start reading in verse 17.
Um,
all right,
since this is Numbers chapter 13,
I'm going to start in verse
17.
Great.
All right.
Moses sent them
to spy out the land of Canaan
and said to them,
go up into the Negev
and go up into the hill country
and see what the land is
and whether the people
who dwell in it
are strong or weak,
whether they are few or many
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.
So they went up
and spied out the land
from the wilderness
of Zin
to Rehob
near Lebo Hamath.
They went up
into the Negev
and came to Hebron,
Ahaman,
Sheshai,
and Talmai.
The descendants
of Anak were there.
Hebron was built
seven years before
Zoan in Egypt.
And they came
to the valley of Eshkol
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.
That place was called
the valley of Eshkol
because of the cluster
that the people
of Israel
cut down from there.
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.
They said to them,
We came to the land
to which you sent us.
It flows with milk
and honey
and this is the 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 Negev.
The Hittites,
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 Amak
who come from
the Nephilim
and we seemed
to ourselves
like grass humpers
and so we seemed
to them.
Then 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 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.
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 it 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 bread for us.
Their protection
is removed from them
and the Lord is with us.
Do not fear them.
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
despite all of 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 of it.
For you brought up
this people in your might
from among them.
And they will tell
the inhabitants
of this land,
They have heard
that you, O Lord,
are in the midst
of this people.
For you, O Lord,
are seen face to face
and your cloud
stands over them
and you go out before them
in a pillar of cloud by day
and a pillar of fire by night.
Now if you kill this people
as one man,
then the nations
who have heard your fame
will say it is because
the Lord was not able
to bring this people
into the land
that he swore to give them,
that he has killed them
in the wilderness.
And now please let
the power of the Lord
be great as you have promised,
saying the Lord
is slow to anger
and abounding
in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity
and transgression,
but he will by no means
clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity
of the fathers
on the children
to the third
and the fourth generation.
Please pardon
the iniquity
of this people
according to the greatness
of your steadfast love,
just as you have forgiven
this people
from Egypt until now.
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 despise 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 way of the Red Sea.
And then God repeats
in verse 28,
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
and of all your number
listed in the census
from 20 years old
and upward
who have grumbled
against me,
not one shall come
into the land
where I swore
that I would
make you dwell.
So,
the spies go into the land,
they're told to be
of good courage,
but they come back
in fear.
They bring a bad report
and their fear
goes viral
and the people
want to even stone them,
Caleb and Joshua,
with stones
for having faith
in God.
And God ends up saying,
you ask to die
in the wilderness
and that's what's
going to happen.
It is a chilling narrative.
And it characterizes
really Israel's
entire time
in the wilderness.
God saves them
from Egypt,
makes this covenant
relationship with them
and yet they fail
repeatedly again
and again
and they hear,
even though they're
on the cusp
of the land of promise,
the fulfillment
of all these promises
to Abraham
400 years earlier,
even so,
they refuse to go in
out of fear,
really.
And,
like I've been asking,
I want to ask
of this text,
what does it show us
about our life
of faith now?
I think it's
at least a few things.
One is this,
be of good courage.
That's what Moses
tells these spies
right towards
the very beginning.
Are we making
our decisions
out of fear
or based on faith
in what God
has promised us
in scripture?
Israel's disobedience
here,
which excludes them
from the land,
excludes that
entire generation,
their disobedience
emerges from fear.
So I think it's good
for us to ask ourselves
on occasion,
what are you afraid
of in life?
Um,
and I don't mean
like spiders
or snakes,
you know,
uh,
or,
uh,
your closet
when you leave it
open and you're
in bed and the lights
are off.
That,
that's something
for me.
I don't mean that.
Um,
I,
I mean,
I mean the big
things.
Uh,
afraid of being
alone.
Um,
and yet,
Jesus has promised
to be with you
to the end
of the age.
church and,
and he's given
you a family
and,
and brothers
and sisters
in,
in the church.
All,
all of us
adopted it.
Uh,
uh,
financial insecurity.
Um,
you know,
big,
the big things,
you know,
um,
the big things
that shape how we,
how we live our
lives.
Uh,
what,
what are we afraid
of?
And,
and how might
these fears
lead in the same
way to rebellion
against God
just as,
just as it leads
Israel to rebellion
against God here.
Israel was afraid
that if they went
into this land,
these tremendous,
uh,
tremendously strong
people in the land
would,
uh,
would destroy them.
And yet,
they,
they had seen
God taking care
of them,
bringing them out
of Egypt,
and God had promised
to give them the land.
So,
Caleb says,
of course,
if,
if we,
if we don't rebel
against God,
we'll certainly
be able to go in.
Um,
as a side note,
one might wonder,
you know,
driving them out
of the land,
this is very violent.
Uh,
well,
Nick will be,
uh,
telling us all
about that this morning.
Uh,
uh,
and if this is
something that troubles you,
come back next week
because we're talking
about the book of Joshua.
Um,
we seemed to ourselves
like grasshoppers,
and so we seemed
to them,
um,
the spies say.
Uh,
I,
I think this shows us
we need to,
we need to understand
ourselves
and our circumstances
not based on,
on,
uh,
we need to interpret
ourselves and our circumstances
based on
who God
has revealed himself
to be
and what he says
about us.
Uh,
and not the other
way around.
Um,
here,
Israel looks at
their circumstances
and says,
this is such a scary,
disastrous situation.
We feel like grasshoppers.
Therefore,
uh,
then,
you know,
they project that
onto,
um,
the people in the land.
If you look at the
beginning of Joshua,
actually,
it's the other way,
it's the other way around.
Uh,
at the beginning of Joshua,
I put the Joshua 2.11.
Uh,
the people in the land
are actually really scared
of Israel.
Uh,
it's,
it's not that
they seem like grasshoppers.
Um,
it's that they were actually
really scared of them.
Uh,
yeah,
I,
I think,
um,
you know,
it's only,
it's only Joshua and Caleb
who understood their,
their situation
and who they are
in,
in the Lord,
uh,
correctly.
Um,
and so I think this,
this text would have us
ask ourselves,
uh,
is,
is our sense of self
in our,
in our sense of our circumstances,
uh,
based on what God says about us?
Or is it overly inflated
or overly deflated
because of,
uh,
a fixation on self,
a kind of prideful fixation
on ourselves
and what we're thinking
and feeling?
Uh,
God,
you know,
it,
God made you
in his very own image,
uh,
as we were talking about
a few weeks ago.
Uh,
you are of inestimable value.
If you belong to Jesus,
you,
you are a,
a,
a brother or sister
of the very son of God,
right?
Uh,
there,
there's,
having a sense of self
that is like,
well,
I am,
I am worthless
or I am nothing,
uh,
as,
as so many of us
sometimes fall into,
uh,
is not really grounded
on,
on the truth.
It's not grounded
on what God says about us.
And if we have this sense of,
I,
I'm,
I'm the man
and I'm better than everyone
around me,
uh,
well,
no,
you're a creature.
Uh,
you're not God.
You're,
you're a creature.
Um,
God made you.
Uh,
you came from the dust
and from the dust
into the dust
you will return.
Uh,
so that's,
that's what I mean.
Are,
are we,
are we constructing our,
are we understanding ourselves,
um,
in light of what God
says about us
or,
uh,
does it come just out of a,
uh,
a fixation on ourselves
and our own feelings?
Um,
then perhaps the most chilling
line in this entire
bit that,
that I,
that I read here,
God says to Israel,
what you have said
and my hearing
I will do to you.
Um,
Israel cries out,
if only we had died
in Egypt
or in this wilderness.
And God says,
okay,
if that's what you want,
this entire generation
will die in this wilderness.
Uh,
ultimately,
I think this teaches us
that God gives us
what we really want,
either God
or not God.
Um,
we see this dynamic
in Romans chapter one.
Uh,
there's this refrain
of God saying,
uh,
he,
Romans one describes,
um,
the pagan world
that worships idols.
Uh,
and,
and there's this refrain
of God gave them up.
Um,
they exchanged the glory
of the immortal God
for images
resembling mortal man
and birds
and animals
and creeping things.
Therefore,
God gave them up
in the lust of their hearts
to one period.
Uh,
God
ultimately gives us
what we really want,
whether God
or not God.
Uh,
C.S. Lewis
has this,
has this great quote.
I actually,
I put a citation for it,
but I actually couldn't
track it down yesterday.
Um,
so,
forgive me.
Uh,
it's either from somewhere
in the great divorce
or from near Christianity
and I couldn't find it,
but it's great.
Uh,
there are only two kinds
of people in the end.
Those who say to God,
thy will be done
and those to whom God says
in the end,
thy will be done.
Um,
and so this week,
will we choose
to live for God
or for lesser things?
Uh,
because God will say to us,
uh,
in the end,
thy will be done
and either it'll be,
uh,
our will to,
to walk with Jesus
and live for him
and love him
and be loved by him.
Uh,
or,
uh,
for things that ultimately
in the grand scheme of things
don't,
don't really matter,
um,
in comparison.
Uh,
in Numbers 13 and 14,
what we just read
takes us through
a challenging aspect of that.
Israel chooses not God.
Uh,
but then there's this,
uh,
in,
in Luke 11,
um,
this,
this ask and it will be given to you,
seek and you will find,
knock and it will be opened to you.
Uh,
and,
and Jesus says,
uh,
if,
if human parents,
uh,
like to give gifts to their children,
how much more then will the heavenly father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Right?
So,
take heart,
right?
If,
if we want to,
to know,
God
and,
and know his spirit,
he will give them to us.
Um,
so it's,
it's not just this,
I'm not trying to just be super dour
with,
with this passage in Numbers 13 and 14.
There's also this,
a beautiful,
amazing aspect of,
if we want to be with God
and know God
and love God,
then God says,
yes,
great.
Um,
and,
uh,
this last bullet that I put on here,
and there's more than this,
surely,
of what this can,
passage can teach us about the life of faith.
Um,
but God,
God will accomplish his purposes for the church.
Uh,
God accomplished his purposes for Israel.
Israel enters the land,
ultimately.
This generation dies in the wilderness,
wandering around for 40 years,
but ultimately they enter the land,
and we're going to be talking about that next week.
Um,
God had promised.
God,
God follows through on his promises.
And God will follow through on his promises for the church.
Nevertheless,
an entire generation of Israelites excluded themselves,
disqualified themselves,
from,
from enjoying God's purposes,
uh,
and from resting in the land.
Um,
and in the same way,
uh,
we can disqualify and exclude ourselves
from God's purposes for the church
through faithless disobedience.
Um,
I,
we started this morning looking at Psalm 95.
Uh,
there's this bit in chapters,
in Hebrews chapters three and four,
I put a citation here.
I'm not going to read it now,
because it's really,
it's,
it's pretty dense,
and it would take more than 10 minutes to really unpack it.
Um,
well,
that bit in Hebrews,
uh,
takes this,
um,
this time,
this disobedience in the wilderness,
and applies it to the church,
and says,
uh,
that,
um,
he,
he connects Israel's rest in the promised land,
from which a whole generation of Israelites excluded themselves.
And he connects that to the Christians' heavenly rest,
and says,
uh,
therefore strive to enter that rest,
that,
that you might not fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Um,
and I think there's more to it than just this,
you know,
heavenly rest thing.
I,
I don't want you to go away this morning and think,
Alex is beating us over the head with a fear of hell or something.
Um,
because I,
I think there's,
there's even more to it.
Um,
God is doing amazing things in the world.
Uh,
the gospel is bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world,
Paul writes in Colossians,
and,
and how much more so today?
Paul's world was pretty small.
Our world is much bigger.
Uh,
I,
I'm reading a book right now,
um,
for a seminary class about,
um,
the role of,
of the American church in the global mission of the church.
And,
and this author who has spent decades,
uh,
doing missionary work around the world,
and working with missionaries and pastors around the world,
is telling these incredible stories about what God is doing around the world,
what he's seen God do around the world.
Uh,
and,
and it can be hard for us to,
to realize,
uh,
sometimes in,
in New Haven,
uh,
the whole global scope of what God is doing.
Um,
he,
he talks about,
uh,
walking down a street in Nigeria and,
and just hearing worship and praise of God booming in the streets.
You walk down the streets of New Haven,
you don't hear on,
on a Sunday morning,
uh,
unless you're right on State Street,
right outside this church,
you don't hear worship on Sunday mornings.
But,
he talks about in Nigeria,
uh,
there,
the,
the gospel is going out and increasing so much,
uh,
that you just hear booming worship.
Of course,
partly it's a PA system and speakers.
Uh,
but partly there's just so many people coming to,
to know and love the Lord.
Um,
he,
he talked to a,
a pastor friend.
I,
I'm not,
I'm not going to go on and on and on,
but,
uh,
this one I found really striking and challenging.
He,
he,
he taught,
he,
he tells about a story.
He was talking to a pastor friend of his in,
in Nigeria.
And,
uh,
he,
he asked him how he,
how he became a Christian.
He said,
well,
uh,
God raised me from the dead by the hand of a missionary.
And so then,
then I became a Christian.
I'm like,
I'm reading this.
I have to put the book down.
Like,
do I believe that God is actually working like that?
I,
I don't know.
That's,
uh,
that's,
that's something challenging for me.
But,
uh,
nevertheless,
I can,
I can say God is doing things around the world and not just around the world,
but here in New Haven too.
Um,
uh,
pastor Matt sermon a couple of weeks ago,
uh,
he was talking about all of these ways that,
um,
that people in this very congregation are,
uh,
working to,
to care for and include,
uh,
the marginalized and,
and the poor and the outcast in,
in this city.
Uh,
in the,
the church is being the church here,
here in New Haven.
Um,
and,
and accomplishing what God wants for the church to be doing.
Uh,
will we,
through fear,
uh,
and a faithless disobedience exclude ourselves from the,
the joy of participating in,
what God is doing in,
in the world and in New Haven?
Um,
I,
I think,
I think that's,
uh,
I think that's a question that Israel's wilderness years would have us ask
ourselves.
Um,
will we lift up our eyes to see what God is doing?
Uh,
just like how Jesus says to his disciples in John four,
lift up your eyes and see the fields are white with harvests.
Uh,
God is doing amazing things.
Will,
will we participate or will we through fear?
Um,
stand on the sidelines.
Um,
all right.
Uh,
that was much more pontificating this morning than,
than I actually,
um,
so we have about five minutes.
Um,
so are there any,
uh,
questions,
comments,
concerns?
Um,
okay.
Okay.
Well,
um,
let,
let us,
God,
you are the rock of our salvation and,
you saved your people,
Israel from Egypt and you have saved us from sin and death and have brought us into this
relationship with you to know you and love you.
Um,
um,
Lord,
help us to,
um,
to be a part of,
of what you are doing,
um,
through your people.
Um,
help us to,
uh,
put aside,
um,
fears and uncertainties,
uh,
about you.
Um,
and today when we go upstairs and hear your voice,
um,
keep us from hardening our hearts to your word,
um,
as it's being preached,
um,
but soften us,
um,
that we might,
um,
be receptive in knowing and loving you and in,
in walking in,
in the ways that you've,
um,
appointed for us to do those good works that you have prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Through Christ our Lord we pray.
Amen.