Pastor Joe Fuiten, August 10, 2003 AM

 

1. We now have on-line giving.

2. Watergate, Enron and Coach Neuheisel, A Community Ethics Forum—Mayor Charles Royer, Lynn Brewer, Enron Executive, Bud Crowe, Nixon White House attorney, Margaret Larson, John Carslon and others.  “Is there a moral compass to guide our professional, community, family and business life?

 

 

            There are two passages where this story is told in detail.  The first is Numbers 13 and 14.  The second is Deuteronomy 1.  Rather than read the text aloud, let me tell the story as a narrative and refer to various parts of it for the message today.

 

The story

 

            God brought Israel out of Egypt with an incredible series of miracles.  This is known as the Exodus.  After a brief period of time, just a few months, God gave instructions for Israel to enter into the Promised Land.  They came right up into the edge of the Promised Land and stopped.  In Deuteronomy 1:8 you have God’s instruction “See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers-- to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-- and to their descendants after them."

            The people wanted to send spies to check out the land. V22 “Then all of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to." 23 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.”  I believe Moses prayed about what he should do with this request and God seemed to be in agreement.  The answer to Moses’ prayer was why in Numbers 13:1-3 it reads, “The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders." 3 So at the LORD's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.”

            The land was promised to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, and is now promised again to Moses and all the Israelis.  It really is more appropriate to call it the Promised Land than it is to call it the Holy Land.  It has never been holy but it has been promised for about 4,000 years now.

Facts and faith are not at odds with each other.  Some people might have said they should just go without any further thinking or investigation.  God seems to be ok with the idea of checking things out.  The request for more information came initially from the people but God gave Moses the green light to go ahead with it.  Forty years later, when Joshua led the successful invasion of the Promised Land, he did the same thing.  He sent two spies to Jericho to check it out.  That worked out fine, unlike the twelve spies.

            Sometimes when people are sick they don’t like to say they are sick because that is somehow not being true to their faith.  You may very well have the sickness.  Your sickness is simply the fact.  Faith in what God can do generally speaking, or faith in what God will do specifically in this situation, are not troubled by the fact of sickness.

            Faith can express itself in several different ways.  One, is what God will do in this situation.  If the people had obeyed God, he would have given them the land and driven out those who were in it at the time.  Even though there were giants and powerful cities, they had a great God. In number 13:28 we have the fearful report, “But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”  The classic summary of fear is found in verse 33 “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

            Faith looks at God and what he will do.  Fear looks at ourselves.  “We looked like grasshoppers in our own eyes.”  They were giants but we were grasshoppers.  That is how it seemed to us and I am sure it is how we looked to them.

Two, faith is mindful of what God will do in me through this situation.  What should have been the result of all the previous trials in the Exodus.  Every time God delivered them.  God expected that they would have learned to trust God.  The passage in Deuteronomy makes clear what God thought they should know.  “There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." 32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.”

Most of us can look backward and recognize that you are much stronger today because of some of the things you have been through.  You have more faith in God because of what he has brought you through.  My question for you is, if you can learn that from all your past experiences, can you express it by faith in your current experience.  Can you say, ‘I don’t know how all this will turn out, but I know it will be ok because God always takes care of us.”?  God wants to do something in us in this current experience. 

This is where the fruit of the Spirit is displayed.   Paul had God’s working in mind in Romans 5:3-5 “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Three, faith is mindful of what God might want to do in others through this.  Forty years after the events in the Exodus, they were still striking fear in the hearts of the people living in Canaan.  When Joshua eventually did lead Israel into the land, Rahab, the Jericho resident could rehearse all the major battles that God had helped Israel with in the Exodus.  She said (Joshua 2:8-11) "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” 

Faith knows that all of us live in families.  We live in communities. Our lives are known.  Could it be that God is trying to reach your loved ones through how you react to your giants and walled cities?

Four, faith appreciates the opportunity to do right.  This is a moment in Israel’s history.  God has helped them in so many ways.  No they have the chance to do right.  They get to obey God. All your life you have prayed to be a Christian in the workplace.  You have always wanted to serve God and you have promised to be faithful.  Well, this is that chance.  Are you going to put money ahead of God?  Will you put comfort or ease ahead of righteousness?  This is a question you get to answer.  There are lots of opportunities to cheat, or complain, or be unfaithful.  This world makes all those things easy.  Faith on the other hand sees temptation or difficulty as the opportunity to do right.

If you have been an alcoholic and you have been struggling to get free, what does it mean when you feel like taking a drink?  Does it mean that you have failed or that you will never be free?  No, it just means you have the choice to be sober today.  It’s an opportunity to do right.

Five, faith recognizes that there are consequences to doing wrong too!  What were these spies and Israelis afraid of?  They were afraid they were going to attack those great cities and somehow be killed in the fight.  Warriors would die.  I’ve been reading a translation of the Bible taken from the Eastern texts.  A passage in Joshua leaped out at me the other night.  In the NIV it reads, (Joshua 5:4) “All those who came out of Egypt-- all the men of military age-- died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt.”  In the Eastern text it reads, “all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the journey.”  It didn’t emphasize the age.  It emphasized the role of these men.  These were men of war.  The men of war did not want to die fighting in Canaan so they died one by one in the wilderness.  Better to have them hang your helmet on the rifle stuck in the ground than to rot away in the desert. 

The way of the transgressor is hard.  Yes, sometimes our battles are difficult and they challenge us very deeply.  But isn’t it better to struggle in a noble cause than to struggle for no good purpose at all.

 

Even with all this, Israel chose poorly.  They wanted to stone those who said move ahead.  They chose the safe path and lost everything.  There is one more strange twist to this story.

God struck down the 10 spies who gave the bad report.  They all died of a plague.  When Moses told Israel they would not be going into the land, they mourned bitterly.    Once Israel discovered that God was unhappy with their decision. In Numbers 14:40 they tried to turn things around.  “40 Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. "We have sinned," they said. "We will go up to the place the LORD promised." 41 But Moses said, "Why are you disobeying the LORD's command? This will not succeed! 42 Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, 43 for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword." 44 Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD's covenant moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.”

            The day before, if they had gone up, it would have been faith.  Today, it became presumption because the Lord was not in it.  These were the same hills, the same country, and the same enemies.  There was only one difference.  God was not in it.  This is a classic mistake.  Faith can become presumption.  To all external appearances the act is the same.  The difference is that faith comes from God but presumption comes from the human will.

            Prophecy is like that.  I suppose that half of all the prophecies I hear come from the human will.  It is what that person wants.  They want it to happen so they speak it as though God wanted it to happen.  This most often happens with regard to sickness.  People are desperate for God to heal their loved one.  They really want this.  They know that God can heal so they prophecy healing. 

            In the Bible this almost never happens.  Jesus told one man to go wash in the Pool of Siloam and that kind of thing, but generally if someone was going to be healed they were healed.  The gift of prophecy and the gift of healing are both from the Holy Spirit and are gifts of the Spirit.  If the Spirit is present to prophecy healing, why isn’t he present to heal?  Spiritually it’s the same thing.  If we claim that we are acting in the capacity of a prophet then we will acknowledge that prophecy is to be judged. 1 Corinthians 14:29 teaches us that when a prophet speaks, “the others should weigh carefully what is said.”  The word for “weigh carefully” is judge, or diakrino.  It means to separate thoroughly, literally to withdraw from, or (by implication) oppose; figuratively, to discriminate (by implication, decide), or (reflexively) hesitate:  It is sometimes translated contend, differ, discern, or doubt. (Strong’s Concordance) 

            When Israel decided to charge up the hill, it had a very spiritual ring to it as though they were acting on God’s Word.  In fact, they were acting presumptuously and paid the price for it.

            There is a real faith that is expressed in obedience to God’s word.  Real faith looks at a circumstance and sees God and his plans.  Real faith trusts God to work out the details.  Real faith acts upon what God has said in his Word and what his Spirit is saying at the moment.

            It takes a real gift of wisdom to know what is of God and what is not.  If you find that you too often hurt your family or yourself by acting presumptuously or wrongly, then ask God for a generous gift of wisdom.