3.10.11"Another Lap Around the Desert"

"Another Lap Around the Desert"

Numbers 14:1-15:16
Mark 14:53-72
Psalm 53:1-6
Proverbs 11:4

My insecurities can hinder and potentially destroy the great things God has planned. So can yours.

The story of the 12 spies is told in Numbers 13 and 14. The Israelites have been wandering in the desert for years. They've been eating Manna & Quail like it's going out of style. Now they stand on the edge of the Promised Land. This is it. This is the moment they've all been waiting for. After the years of journeying in the desert it was now time to take possession of the promise!

When the 12 spies return with their report, they all talk of how beautiful it is, but 10 of the spies talk of the strength of the enemy, and the inadequacy of the people to overcome them. The people began complaining, well it was actually more intense than just complaining. 14:1 says, "Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they carried on all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron." I love the phrase "chorus of complaint"... quite a picture...

The people then said, "We wish we had died in Egypt... Let's get out of here and return to Egypt!" Verse 4 says, "The idea swept the camp. 'Let's elect a leader to take us back to Egypt!' they shouted."

The story continues with Joshua and Caleb standing up to them in a vain attempt to remind them of the greatness of God. "Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land... the Lord is with us... Don't be afraid of them!" (14:9)

Then the glory of the Lord shows up... Yeah, you can guess what he's thinking of all this. God was ready to nuke em. Moses stands up for them, and God listens. "then the Lord said, 'All right, I will pardon them as you have requested. But I vow by my own name that just as it is true that all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, so it is true that not one of the men who has seen my glory and the miracles I did both in Egypt and in the wilderness - and ten times refused to trust me and obey me - shall even see the land I promised to this people's ancestors..." (14:20-23)

The Lord had a different opinion of the spies with faith. "But my servant Caleb is a different kind of man - he has obeyed me fully. I will bring him into the land he entered, and his descendants shall have their full share in it."

But for the rest, the hammer falls. "Tomorrow you must turn back into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea."(v25) "Then the ten spies who had incited the rebellion against Jehovah by striking fear into the hearts of the people were struck dead before the Lord... What sorrow there was throughout the camp when Moses reported God's words to the people!"

verses 40-45 are funny and sad at the same time. "[the people] were up early the next morning and started towards the Promised Land. 'Here we are!' they said. 'We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to go on into the land the Lord has promised us.' But Moses said, 'It's too late. Now you are disobeying the Lord's orders to return to the wilderness. Don't go ahead with your plan or you will be crushed... But they went ahead.. despite the fact that neither the Ark nor Moses left the camp. Then the [enemy] attacked them and chased them to Hormah."

It's quite a story, and it's one we REALLY need to learn from.

1. The wilderness is not a holding pattern. It is a proving ground. All of the great things God had done for the people in the past was to be "faith ammunition". By the time they got to the Promised Land, they should have KNOWN that God would bring them in. Too often we fail to connect the dots. We "endure" the desert, instead of considering it "pure joy" and gaining the fruit we so desperately need.

2. A negative idea "sweeps the camp". Negative thoughts and attitudes are a fast track to rebellion. As soon as things look uncomfortable, or there's a chance that the leader had a bad idea, we are too often ready to "vote them off the island" and do things our own way. It's like throwing gas on a fire. Matthew Henry's commentary says, "we give more credit to the reports and representations of sense than to divine revelation; we walk by sight, not by faith." Ouch! If God says it, we need to go for it, and squelch the negativity. We can't "get the band together" and sing the "chorus of complaint"!

3. We need to be "a different kind of man". We need to be fully obedient what the Lord has for us. There's no giant that he can't defeat. The blessing is not found in our strength. It's found in our obedience.

4. If you don't pass the test, you will repeat it. How sad to hear "tomorrow you must turn back into the wilderness..." If that's not motivation enough to be obedient people, I don't know what is. They came out of the wilderness without remembering the greatness of God. When we go through the trials, we MUST remember how God carries us through. We NEED that to pass the tests that are to come.

5. Faith must be rebuilt in humility. After seeing the spies struck dead, and hearing the verdict of their sin, the people were "oops, my bad! ok, let's go get the bad guys!" It doesn't work that way. We've missed God's timing. We can't go out in our own strength. Yes, when we fall we are forgiven, but there is often a need for a time of restoration. I find it interesting that chapter 15 goes back to more instructions about the offering. Restoration comes through steps of obedience that may seem small, but are very important.

What are you standing on the border of today? As you look at the territory that by natural sense seems impenetrable, whose report will you believe? Will you walk in obedience, will you experience the fruit of the faith that has grown in the trial of the past?

Or will you take another lap around the desert?



Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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