Numbers Study - 2025-09-03

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Let's open with a word of prayer.

Father God, we welcome your presence here tonight, Lord.

We thank you, God, for this opportunity to gather together, Lord, and to dig into your

word tonight.

We thank you, God, for all we've been learning, God, over the past few years, Lord.

In the beginning, being in the Bible, he had Genesis, and through Leviticus, and

now we're in Numbers, God.

And we just thank you, Lord, how you have been growing us, Lord, spiritually, Lord,

growing us closer to you, Lord, giving us a more in-depth understanding of you and

your scripture, Lord.

When we prayed tonight, God, your spirit would be here among us, Lord, and open our

hearts and our minds, Lord, that we can talk amongst each other and learn and

wrestle with your word and come into a closer knowledge of you, God.

We pray, Lord, for your anointing to be on, Lord, what's spoken here tonight in our

conversations, Lord.

We pray for those who couldn't be here tonight, God, that your blessings would be

upon them.

And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

All right, we are in Numbers 14 tonight.

Faith versus fear, trusting in God in the face of giants.

I don't know about you, but Numbers has been a little bit easier in Leviticus, right?

It's been a little easier to teach.

I don't know about learning it, but it's been easier to teach for sure.

So just to give a quick overview before we jump into the text.

So coming out of Numbers 13, there were the 12 were sent to explore the land of

Cain, and 10 brought back the fearful report while Joshua and Caleb, they trusted in what

God promised them.

There's rebellion here among the people that we're going to read about that really came

from their fear instead of looking at what God had promised them.

They really kind of fell back on their fear.

This is really a pivotal moment here for the Israelites.

And there's a lot to be learned here.

Chapter 14 is a very, very familiar text for Christians and for Jews and really for other

faiths that look at the Old Testament.

It's a very, very familiar, there's a lot of familiar scripture in here.

So let's dig in.

We're going to start out with verses one through four that talks about the beginning of the

rebellion of the people.

It says, that night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them,

if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness.

Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?

Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.

Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?

And they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

It's like, wow.

I mean, to be thinking about, I wish we would have died.

I wish we would have never left Egypt.

I wish this.

And isn't it amazing what fear can do?

When we allow ourselves to be consumed by fear.

I mean, fear can cause us to do some crazy things, right?

I mean, when we allow ourselves to give in to fear and it just gets a grip on us,

it makes us do some crazy things.

I used to talk a lot about this when COVID was running wild.

And I said, you cannot give in to fear because when fear gets a hold of you, it consumes you.

And look back in COVID and tell me some of that stuff just wasn't crazy, crazy fear induced stuff.

And that's what we see here.

The Israelites are consumed with fear and instead of keeping their eyes on what God had promised,

after all that God had brought them through and after all they had seen God do.

I mean, we talk nowadays about believing in faith and just trusting in this.

Well, man, God had manifested himself so powerfully to them.

Over this period of time, they had seen with their own eyes what God was capable of doing.

And for them to just turn like this, this fear led to a rebellion.

It led them to question Moses' authority.

It led them to question God's promises and it put them in a place where we just want to go back.

We don't want to face what's in front of us.

We want to go back.

You know, this is a text that is referenced time and time again in the Bible,

in the New Testament, Hebrews 3, 16 through 19.

It says, you know, Israel's unbelief just kept them from entering into God's rest.

First Corinthians 10, 10 through 11 says,

and do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angels.

These things happened to them as an example and were written down as warnings for us

on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

So God, you know, God used this, this short, this brief time in history.

He used this text that we're learning about tonight

as something that was a teachable moment all throughout scriptures.

And isn't that true of so many of these stories in the Old Testament?

It's one thing to read about and then say, okay, these were historical events.

These were the plights of the Israelites.

These were the things that happened.

But when you look at it as these were teachable moments that God used for generations

and generations and generations to teach people,

it puts it in a little bit of a different context, doesn't it?

It's one thing to look at it and say, oh boy, there's done Israelites.

There they go again.

But this was a life lesson that God used all throughout scripture time and time again.

It's powerful.

It's powerful.

So verses five through nine talks about Joshua and Caleb's faith.

It reads, then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israeli assembly,

gathered there.

Joshua, son of Nun and Caleb, son of Jebnoah, who were among those who had explored the land,

tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly,

the land we pass through and explored is exceedingly good.

If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into the land,

a land flowing with milk and honey and will give it to us.

Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people of this land

because we will devour them.

Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.

Do not be afraid.

So these two were basically standing in the face of these giants.

If you ever want to read about savage, relentless killers, read about the Amaklites.

They were just brutal, savage people, killing and sacrificing babies.

They were just like, you can see when you read about them,

the kind of fear that gripped the other ones.

But Joshua and Caleb are saying, no, man, we are going to take this.

He is going to deliver this to us.

I mean, they were so firm in this.

It's like, it gives me goose pimples just reading and thinking about it

because they were just like, yeah, kind of like David in the face of the Goliath.

Basically, everybody is cowering in front of Goliath, and David is saying,

look, you uncircumcised Philistine.

I got something for you right here, and this is what the Lord has for you.

And this is just so powerful.

So Joshua and Caleb, they tore their clothes, and this is something we read about.

You read about this in scripture a lot, even in the times of Jesus

where people would tear their clothes, and it's like, why?

Why do people tear their clothes like that?

It was this, they were just so conflicted.

This tearing of clothes and this ripping of clothes

becomes this outward public expression to those around of the inner turmoil

that they had there.

Look, we can see it right in front of us, what God has for us.

And then they see the people just saying,

now, we got to find somebody to take us back to Egypt.

And they're just saying, no, no, no.

And it's like in this visual expression of grief and anguish, they rip their clothes.

And it's a powerful statement.

The faith that they had focuses on God's strength,

not on the limitations that we have.

As people.

So when we think about what we can do, and this is something that I often find myself

faced with.

I mean, I know my limitations as a person.

I've got a pretty good handle on what I can and can't do.

When I'm faced with something, I feel like I can't do.

It's like, man, I just don't, it kind of starts to weigh you down.

But then when you look to God and say, God, give me this strength to do it.

There's a hope that rises up within you.

And there's this sense of purpose that he's called us to do it.

And then all of a sudden, you can see a pathway, right?

So they saw that so clearly by their faith.

Their faith focused them on what God had promised them, not on the reality that was in front

of them.

Because the reality that was in front of them was brutal.

I mean, it was, you look at an army like that and a vicious army like that.

It's like, man, there's no way.

There's just no way.

But they didn't look at that.

They put their faith and their focus on what God has.

And when we do that in challenging circumstances and where the odds are just stacked against us,

where we really feel like we can't do it, when we put our hope and our faith in God to get us

through that, it draws us nearer to God.

Whereas the exact opposite happens when we become consumed with fear.

It pushes us away, away from God.

And that's exactly what happened to most of the Israelites, is their fear consumed them

and it devoured their faith and their trust in God because they were not focusing on God.

They were focusing on the fear that they were consumed with.

Romans 8.31 says, what then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is with us, who can be against us?

Hebrews 11.1 says, faith is confidence in what we hope for, assurance of what we do not see.

So Joshua and Caleb, they represent the minority voice

of courage amidst those who were doubting what God had for them.

Powerful, powerful stuff here for us and such wonderful, wonderful life lessons for us.

Verses 10 through 25, this is a long burst of scripture here,

talking about God's judgment and Moses's intercession.

But the whole assembly talked about stoning them for this.

Imagine that, I mean, it's like, imagine that.

These guys are standing strong in their faith and they're saying,

trusting God, trusting God, He's going to overcome.

He is going to deliver the land that He promised to do.

And they're saying, yeah, we're going to stone you for that.

And the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meetings to all the Israelites.

The Lord said to Moses, how long will these people treat me with contempt?

How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them.

But I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.

Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear about it.

By your power, you brought these people up from among them

and they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it.

They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people

and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them

and that you go before them in a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive,

the nations who have heard this report about you will say,

the Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath.

So he slaughtered them in the wilderness.

Now, may the Lord's strength be displayed just as you declared.

The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children for the sin of the parents and the third and fourth generation.

In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people

just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.

The Lord replied, I have forgiven them, as you ask.

Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth,

not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness,

but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on

oath to their ancestors.

No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly,

I will bring him into the land he went to and his descendants will inherit it.

Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow

and set out towards the desert along the route of the Red Sea.

So God is saying, look, it's game over for these guys.

I'm going to destroy them.

I'm going to do this.

And sometimes when I read things like that, I ask myself, come on, God.

It's like, you know these people.

You know their hearts.

You know what's going on.

And I wonder sometimes if he's not just giving Moses an opportunity to show wisdom

in these situations and show how he's grown and to show mercy to them.

I don't really know.

But this is a powerful, powerful intercession and appeal from Moses.

And we know that Moses has gotten to the heart of God before.

And God has changed his mind because of Moses's intercession.

But God does have mercy, but he is a just God.

So he's just and merciful as a God.

And we will see that played out here.

We know that when people's hearts are truly repentant,

when we come to God and just really pour ourselves out, we know that he is merciful.

James 5, 16 says, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other

so that you may be healed.

The prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective.

You know, John 1, 1 John 1, 19 reminds us that God forgives those who confess.

So God responds to people who are truly repentant in heart.

And God responds to those who really intercede on behalf to those.

But we also know that there's consequences for these things as we're going to see.

And as God pretty clearly laid out there, continuing in 26 to 38,

the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, how long will this wicked community grumble against me?

I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.

So tell them, as surely as I live, declares the Lord,

I will do to you the very thing I heard you say.

In this wilderness, your bodies will fall.

Every one of you 20 years old or more who has counted, who was counted in the census

and who has grumbled against me, not one of you will enter into the land I swore

with uplifted hands to make your home.

Except Caleb, son of Jebne and Joshua, son of Nun.

As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder,

I will bring them in to enjoy the land that you rejected.

But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

Your children will be shepherds for 40 years,

suffering for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

For 40 years, one year for each of the 40 days you explored the land.

You will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.

I, the Lord, have spoken and I will surely do these things to the whole wicked community,

which has banded together against me.

They will meet their end in this wilderness.

Here they will die.

So the men Moses had sent to explore the land who returned and made the whole community grumble

against by spreading the bad report about it,

these men who were responsible for the spreading of this report about the land were struck down

and died of the plague before the Lord.

Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua, son of Nun and Caleb, son of Jebne,

survived.

Wow.

Aren't we grateful that God doesn't do that to us nowadays?

Because I think, you know, I think maybe there have been times in my life where I might have been

guilty of kind of spreading stuff or doing things.

And I certainly know of others too.

And, you know, they can be learning experience for us.

But thankful that God wasn't as harsh with us as he was with the Israelites here.

So this entire generation, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb,

are condemned basically to wander in the wilderness until they die.

And I think, as I mentioned earlier, you know, the context of what we're reading here

is so powerful that it's used time and time again as life lessons and as learning lessons

for us.

And rebellion has consequences.

You know, when we lead or when we do things that just blatantly rebel against God,

there are consequences and leading others away from God.

So when they used fear as a tool to lead others, so the others hadn't seen it.

They were just caught up in the fear.

And fear can be a contagious thing.

You know, when you see mobs that are just kind of like running in fear, it doesn't take much.

Fear just takes a little spark.

And then there's like gas that gets poured on it.

So it doesn't take much for that to go.

So these were just the few that led the masses into this fear and this rebellion.

So that holds a significantly harsher consequences than the others.

And even unbelief has consequences to it, some of it long, long term.

So there are really some powerful, powerful lessons for us here to grasp hold of and learn from.

Hebrews 3, 12 through 15 says, see to it brothers and sisters that none of you

has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God,

but encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today.

So that none of you may be hardened by sins of deceitfulness.

We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

And it has been said today, if you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion.

So there's a warning here in the New Testament again, referring back to this very text

and saying, applying it to our hope that we have in Christ and this warning against

don't let the evilness of unbelief and fear invade and turn and twist our hearts.

Galatians 6, 7 reminds us that we reap what we sow.

So as Caleb and Joshua were sowing hope and sowing faith and sowing belief in the promises

of God, that's what they were reaping. But as the others were sowing this fear,

that just spread like wildfire.

And the final verse is 39 through 45. When Moses reported this to all the Israelites,

they mourned bitterly. Early the next morning, they set out for the highest point

in the hill country saying, now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised.

Surely, surely we have sinned. But Moses said, why are you disobeying the Lord's command again?

This will not succeed. Do not go up because the Lord is not with you.

You will be defeated by your enemies for the Amalekites and the Akaneites 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.

Nevertheless, in their presumption, they went up toward the highest point of the hill country,

though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord's covenant moved from their camp. Then the

attacked them and beat them down all the way to Horma. So after God pronounced his judgment,

the people attempted to say, okay, yeah, we changed our mind. And they attempted to enter

this land. It was a false remorse. They weren't repentant of it. They were just trying to get

their way. They were just saying, look, okay, we were only kidding here.

And this again is such a good example. And there's so many examples like this. I mean,

David talked about this. Moses talked about this. If God is not with me, I don't want to go.

How many times was God with David when he went up against just forces that just seemed

unbelievably against him and he won. But then there were times when God's favor was not with him.

So obedience has to be aligned with God's timing and presence.

So when we do things, we have to be aligned with the will of God for his favor to be on us.

John 15.5 says, apart from me, you can do nothing.

Any of our accomplishments that we do outside of the will of God, outside of his favor,

are just burnt offerings before God. Matthew 7.21 says, not everyone who says to me,

Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of the Father

who is in heaven. So they were moving again outside of the will of God.

There's so much to be had within this chapter. It was just a great, great chapter to go through

this idea of fear versus faith. Which one are we going to hold on to?

You look at the examples here of leadership under pressure.

These guys were under enormous pressure. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, Joshua.

You examine Moses' humility. You look at Joshua and Caleb's courage as they went through this.

This is good, powerful stuff. And you look at and you really come into an understanding

of God's mercy and his justice here. And another thing that really spoke to me was

this spiritual inheritance and rest that God truly wanted for his people and that he would ultimately

deliver to them. And then the power of intercessory prayer in all of this.

Few key takeaways. Fear and unbelief can keep us from experiencing what God has for us

in everything that we do. Whether it's at home, whether it's at work, whether it's in

relationships, no matter what it is. If we allow fear, we allow unbelief to get in there,

it will keep us from what God has for us in those situations.

Faith requires focusing on God's power, not on what we think we can do or not on our limitations.

God's judgment is real. When you think about this and maybe God doesn't come down and just

lay that plague on us right now or cast us out, but I certainly have been in some

wildernesses in my life. Have you? Yeah. So I mean God's judgment can be real,

but his mercy and his patience towards us is always, always there. True obedience,

it always aligns with God's timing and presence. So when we're truly obedient to

the purpose that he has for us and what he's called us to do as a body,

his presence is always there. I heard this guy, I was watching this clip on TikTok this morning

and this guy was talking about what's going on with the homeless and he said,

we wouldn't have a problem with homelessness in this country if the church was doing its job.

Right? And I'm not making this a political statement by any means, but I'm saying if we were

to rise up as the church and meet the needs like the early church did in this community of

believers, there wouldn't be this problem where the police have to go in and just ravage these

communities of homelessness. And I know that there's examples of people that they just want

to be, and they choose to be homeless, but I'm saying that obedience, we're talking about here,

it aligns with what God calls us to do and his timing and his purpose. Intercessory prayer

is powerful and it reflects God's heart. So when we feel that compulsion to just

intercede in these situations, it's the heart, the heart of God in there.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word. Don't

forget to like, share, and subscribe to our channel at 8 AM Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed and have a great day!