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NUMBERS
CHAPTER 14

1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

Here is something to ponder:
1. They KNEW God was present with them (Chapter 12:5),
2. They had first-hand and immediate recent knowledge of His POWER
(See Chapter 12:7, Chapter 11:18-19, 31-32),
3. They had God's promise of the land being given to them (Chapter 13:1).
How could they be fearful and NOT go?
Why would they carry on so, and gripe and complain?
You'd think they would ALL be like Caleb and Joshua - ready to GO!

The problem with man's fear is the problem of CONTROL. We are physical and
our view is all too often horizontal. We look at things WE canot control,
so we retreat.
But God has not given His people a spirit of this kind of "fear." It is WE
who have it, and Satan who feeds it! (2Timothy 1:7)
When circumstances get a little rough, we can't blame God. He's covered
all the bases! These were God's people. He had been leading them by the
pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. His PRESENCE was
VISIBLE! He had also performed miracle after miracle in their sight, and
He fed them everyday. These were indeed God's people; but they let fear
overcome faith! Is it not happening today?
The church, the body of Christ, has visible evidence of God's PRESENCE today.
He is performing miracle after miracle before our faces. People are being saved
daily - that's a miracle! People are still being miraculously healed by the
"prayer of faith" today - that's a miracle!
Yet most Christians, and even many pastors, say there's nothing we can do about
the awful direction our country and world is taking. Let me share with you two
important things we can do to "overcome" in this present world.
1. We can PRAY! God hears and answers (2Chronicles 7:14, 2Chronicles 16:9),
2. We can preach the gospel (Romans 1:16).

Let us not do as these people and allow fear to overcome faith; but let our faith
over come fear!

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

Moses and Aaron PRAYED!

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

Caleb and Joshua PREACHED!

10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

But the people were angered by the piety of true believers! LISTEN!
When a person determines to turn away from following God, he is easily angered
by true believers! These folk were so angry they would have stoned Moses,
Aaron, Caleb and Joshua! But God intervened. He caused His "glory" to be
ominous; which brough a halt to the evil these men would have done.

11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

Indeed, God DID intend to destroy, and did destroy some immediately (verse 34).
But God also used the incident to "temper" or to test (prove> Moses.
God actually offered Moses Abraham's place!

13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) 14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

But see how God's constant presence and power has CHANGED Moses! This once
impetuous murderer, who's anger could flare in a moment's notice, has now become a
man of PRAYER!
The offer from God is not even considered! I personally don't believe that
Moses even heard that offer. The thing he heard was God's intent to
destroy these people. And by this time, Moses KNOWS God! He knows that God
will not thwart His own purposes. And Moses' immediate reaction is intercessory
prayer! Take a lesson here from Moses. God can change the soul!
OH! The JOY of knowing God! (See Philippians 3:8-11)
We finite humans shouldn't try to rationalize God; we should just KNOW Him!
Moses' prayer is not based on rationalization; but realization!
His prayer was not based on understanding; but on revelation!
We cannot understand God; we must come and let God reveal Himself to us.

Right now, Moses knows God's plan, and he KNOWS that God is ABLE! (verses 16-17)
Moses also knows God's character, and he believes God will always be the
same as He has been (verses 18-19).

20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

God assures of five things here:
1. PARDON (verse 20) - forgiveness for the sin of rebellion.
2. HIS GLORY TO BE SHOWN (verse 21).
3. JUDGMENT (verses 22-23). Those who led the rebellion will die. Forgiveness
does not set aside appropriate consequences.
4. MERCY (verse 24). Caleb (and later we find out Joshua also) receives a promise
to live and to conquer later. Why? because he had "another spirit" in him. It was
not the spirit of FEAR, but of FAITH in God.
5. GRACE (verse 25). God warns of the danger and tells them where to go so they
can escape it.

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. 35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

All those who were "twenty years and upward" (verse 29) and participated in the sin
of rebellion against God will die in the wilderness and not see the Promised Land.
They had used the excuse that they feared for "the little ones." And God assures them
that these "little ones" will see and inhabit the Promised Land (verse 31).
Bu the children are suffering for the parent's sin (verse 33). We need to SEE
this today!! Parents who fail to walk with God are doing disservice to their children.
Is the way too rough? Walk it anyway.
Is the way too narrow? Walk it anyway.
because "the way" of God leads to the PROMISED LAND (Matthew 7:13-14).
God's character demands that He do all these things:
1) Forgive, 2) show mercy, 3) give grace, 4) prove His glory, 5) judge and
punish for sin.
But God's character is also just and perfectly righteous.

36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, 37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

God sent a special plague that killed the ten men who brought an "evil report."
Caleb and Joshua were spared.

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

When the people realized this they repented from the sin and determined to go and
take the land. They realized now that it was indeed a promise from ALMIGHTY GOD!

41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

But they had not consulted God about the decision. They had sinned away the reward
that God had planned for them. Man cannot sin away his salvation, if he is truly
saved. But he can sin away rewards.
You see, if a person is truly saved, he may sin, but his desire for God will not
allow him to KEEP sinning. We, as Christians, cannot say we don't sin because we
most certainly do. But we don't life a lifestyle that is sinful.
(See 1John 1:6-10 in connection with Ephesians 2:13)

44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

These folk just wouldn't LISTEN! Moses wouldn't have any part of this attempt
to do what God had now forbidden. And he wouldn't allow them to take the "ark of the
covenant."
When God's proven leaders won't have part in it, and God's Word doesn't allow it
DON'T DO IT!!

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