Wilderness Journey (4): Rithmah to Ezion-geber
Wilderness Journey • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Main idea: Doubts make you drift away; obey and don’t delay.
When you doubt whether you can achieve your goal, you drift away.
When you delay in facing the obstacle, you drift away.
What stands in the way is the way.
Introduction
When it comes to anything in life, goals and direction is important. If your goal is to go to school, your bus or train must go in the right direction. If your goal is to do well in school, your studies must be in the right direction. You study topics that will be on the exam. And when you get to Sec 3, poly, or JC, even your subject choices must be in the right direction. If you want to be a doctor, then you should choose Chem and Bio. If you want to be an engineer, you should choose physics and higher maths. So when you have a goal, you have a direction.
And as you walk in the direction of your goals, you come face-to-face with things that stand in the way. But there’s a saying, ‘What stands in the way is the way.’ The obstacles are the way forward. You don’t become a doctor by skipping medical school. You have to go through the long hours of study. That’s an obstacle that stands in the way, but it’s also the way forward. And sometimes these obstacles seem too big for us to handle, to the point that we’re not so sure if the goal is worth it.
In school, that might be taking A math or a chemistry exam. But if you believe the goal is worth it, you can overcome.
At home, it might be having to deal with difficult family members, or dealing with crying babies at night. But again, if you believe the goal is worth it, you can overcome.
So what about your spiritual journey with God? What are some things that stand in the way between you and the goal? And most importantly, do you believe it’s worth it?
In the third stage in the wilderness journey, the Israelites encounter a huge obstacle standing in the way between them and their goal. The goal was to enter into the promised land. The obstacles, as we will see, are literally gigantic. And this causes them to doubt whether the goal is worth it. And moreover, it causes them to look in the wrong direction. Let’s read the scripture passage.
Deuteronomy 1:19–28 (ESV)
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’
Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” ’
All this takes place at the 14th campsite called Rithmah. And this kickstarts the longest part of the wilderness journey, from the 14th to the 31st campsite. How long was the wilderness journey? 40 years. And of those 40 years, this stage lasts for 38 years. Why? Because the Israelites knew the goal. They knew the direction. But as they came face-to-face with the gigantic obstacles, they started to doubt if the goal was worth it. They delayed in obeying God’s command, and they ended up drifting around aimlessly in the wilderness for 38 years. So the main idea and the conclusion of today’s bible study is this.
Doubts make you drift away; obey and don’t delay.
Doubts make you drift away; obey and don’t delay.
The twelve spies spy out the land
The twelve spies spy out the land
Rithmah was a huge campsite near the southern border of the land of Canaan. The campsite was so huge that people called it two names. Rithmah, and Kadesh.
And as we read, it was from Rithmah that the Israelites sent the twelve spies to spy out the land of Canaan. And they spied out the land for how many days? 40 days.
Now, while they are in the land of Canaan, they see grapes so big that it takes two men to carry a single cluster with a pole on their shoulders. If you go to NTUC you can grab a cluster of grapes with one hand.
And they came to the Valley of Eshcol 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.
I can’t imagine what an NTUC would be like in Canaan. You have to go shopping with a group of guys. And all of you have to carry these huge grapes back home.
And more than big grapes, the spies also see huge fortified cities.
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 rule of thumb for medieval warfare is that if you’re going up against a fortress, you need three times the amount of soldiers. So if the fortress has a thousand soldiers, you need three thousand.
In chapter 3 of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, he says this: “The rule is not to beseige walled cities if it can possibly be avoided” (Art of War. 3.4). It takes three months to prepare the tools, and another three months to attack.
And here are the twelve spies, and they see many cities that are large and fortified. I think even Sun Tzu or Zhuge Liang would give up on such a hopeless conquest.
And on top of that, the spies see the descendants of Anak there, otherwise known as the Anakim. Not Anakin Skywalker okay? And these Anakim were giants.
You know the story of David and Goliath? Goliath was a descendant of these Anakim. How do we know? Much later when the Israelites conquer the promised land, the Anakim fled to the Philistine cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. And Goliath the giant came from Gath.
There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.
And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
The twelve spies report back to the Israelites
The twelve spies report back to the Israelites
So anyway, at the end of 40 days, the spies come back and give their report to the rest of the Israelites. Do you think they gave a good report or a bad report?
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 Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
So what we see is out of the twelve spies, ten of them gave a bad report, and two of them gave a good report. And the Israelites absolutely lose it. It’s like trying to get into Harvard law school. I’d probably lose my mind. It’s like, ‘Study so hard for what? There are so many other law schools in the world. I’ll just go somewhere else.’ That’s doubting your goal right? Only those who dream day and night of getting into Harvard can endure the struggle and overcome.
The Israelites have now come face-to-face with a huge obstacle, and they start to question whether the goal is worth it.
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 would 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.”
And so the Israelites doubt the goal. And here’s the thing. It’s okay to doubt the goals you set for yourself, but it’s not okay to doubt the goal that God has given you. It’s okay to say, ‘You know what, I don’t need to become a doctor. I can be a nurse.’ But it’s not okay to doubt God and His Word. The Bible calls that the sin of unbelief.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
It is unbelief that allows us to live as if God isn’t by our side. It is unbelief that allows us to think it’s okay to come to church 10mins late. It is unbelief that makes us think that the things of God are not worth the struggle.
The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said this.
“Unbelief is the parent of every other iniquity. There is no crime that unbelief will not beget” - Charles Spurgeon
And what is God’s response to their unbelief? God tells them that for each day they spied out the land, they will wander in the wilderness for one year.
But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’
How many days did they spy out the land? 40 days. So how many years would they wander in the wilderness? 40 years. And so the Israelites go back into the wilderness for 38 more years. Why 38 years? Because by now the Israelites have been in the wilderness for about two years.
And from that point on, they would go in circles and circles, on and on and on until the entire first generation of Israelites died. You can see it in the map, from campsite 15 all the way to campsite 32, called Kadesh. And you can see that Kadesh and Rithmah are basically side-by-side. The Israelites have been here before. It’s the same place as Rithmah, where they sent spies to spy out the land. So after going round and round for 38 years, they come back to the same place.
And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.
This is the important part. What does it say? It says they wandered for 38 years until the entire generation died. What is this generation? It’s the generation that was born in Egypt. So after 38 years of wandering, the only Israelites left were the generation born in the wilderness. Only those born in the wilderness could enter the promised land.
This has a deep spiritual meaning. Why? Because we are the Israelites in the wilderness. The first generation born in Egypt represents our old selves before knowing God. Egypt represents the sinful world. And we were born in sin. We doubted God and we doubted His Word. But then by grace God brought us to church, and by grace we started to trust in God’s Word. That’s what it means to be born again.
So what this third stage of the wilderness journey shows us is that the journey to heaven is a journey of leaving our doubts behind. It’s a journey of putting off doubt and putting on faith. That’s what it means to be born again. And Jesus says that only those who are born again can see and enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Conclusion: Walking one step at a time in God’s direction
Conclusion: Walking one step at a time in God’s direction
So what’s the conclusion? Doubts make you drift away; obey and don’t delay.
Two things. Don’t doubt, and don’t delay. And I realize that telling you to don’t doubt is not very useful, since trust is built on experience. So the true conclusion is that we have to experience God. How? Try obeying Him. Just give it a shot. We all know what’s the goal. We all know what’s the right direction. The goal is God Himself, and the Bible tells us the right direction. So try reading the Bible and praying. Try paying attention during service. Try offering true worship to God. Try walking away from your sinful habits. Try serving in church.
The thing is, the Israelites didn’t even try. They didn’t even take one step into the promised land. All they did was send spies, and then give up. If only they tried, they would’ve entered the promised land after 2 years in the wilderness. But instead they spent 38 years going in circles and circles, drifting without direction.
And this is something that Christians go through in our spiritual life. We go to church, we do church things, and then the moment we get home it’s back to the old me. And then we come back to church, we do church things, and then go back to our old ways. That’s us being like the Israelites, just going in circles over and over and over for 38 years without making any spiritual progress.
Why? Because we doubt God’s Word and we delay our obedience. God wants us to walk away from a certain sin? I’ll walk away next week. I’ll obey God next week. I’ll start trying next week.
And before you know it many years have passed and you’ve just been going round in circles without making any progress in the right direction. And then you wonder, “Why isn’t God working in my life? It must be because He’s not real.” But actually God’s waiting for you to start trying. If there are no giants for you to face, how is God going to show you He’s a giant killer? If there are no obstacles in the way, how is God going to show you He can help you overcome? Look at what it says in Matthew.
And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
Jesus didn’t do many mighty works there because of their doubt. By the way, it doesn’t say that Jesus couldn’t. It says He didn’t.
And so if we just walk in the right direction, and actually try to obey God, God will reveal Himself to us, and we will reach the goal. It doesn’t have to be a sprint. Just one step at a time. Faith, obedience. Faith, obedience. Stepping in the right direction.
Out of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. Why? Because they didn’t doubt God’s Word. All the other Israelites saw the miracles that took place, so they trusted God a little, but Joshua and Caleb trusted God 100%. That’s why even the giants and the fortified cities didn’t scare them. In fact, Joshua and Caleb were the ones who defeated the Anakim when the Israelites conquered Canaan.
And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities.
And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak.
So I pray that we will take steps in the right direction, knowing that the goal is worth the struggle. Knowing that God is worthy of it all. And I pray that as we walk in faith and obedience, all our doubt will be put off with our old self. Let us walk one step at a time. One step of faith. One step of obedience. In which direction? In God’s direction.