Sermon Tone Analysis

The Cost of Disobedience

I’m going to begin with reading our passage for this morning, which is a little bigger chunk of scripture than I normally preach on, but it is a long narrative so I will read the whole thing and then we will get into finding some lessons in it.

In case you missed the last week or two, the sermons are available to listen to at our website, oasisfl.org,

and since each sermon in this sermon series will be building off the previous lessons, it may be helpful for you to listen to any you have missed as well as check out the blog on the website, where I will be offering some follow-ups and previews.

As a quick recap of where this passage falls, Moses is addressing the people of Israel.

These are the people who were left, after 40 years in the desert place, the older generation had passed away.

They had not been allowed to enter the promised land because of their lack of faith.

Moses is recalling for them part of the history that happened since the exodus of Israel from Egypt.

Last week, we saw that Moses recalled how he appointed leaders.

We know this was based partly on the advice of his father-in-law Jethro; Moses asked the people to select wise, understanding, and experienced men, that he would appoint as heads.

There were to be judges at all levels of the society, who were to be fair, and when they could not handle a case, they were to bring it to Moses.

Now in our passage this morning, Moses continues his speech to the people:

In the first few verses, we see that the people had gone through “That great and terrifying wilderness”.

In my studies, I read that the landscape there truly is difficult.

There are sharp rocks, there are snakes, it is not a nice place.

Compared to southern Florida, it would be a very different place.

No flowering trees or palms would be found there, no mango trees or avocado trees, no star fruit.

Just barren land with lots of difficulties and pain.

But through this land, the people of Israel went, and made it to the place where they were to enter into the promised land.

And Moses tells the people, Deut1.21

After all the miracles the people had seen, the mighty hand of God in the plagues of Egypt, and the plundering of the Egyptian people who feared God and gave to the Israeli people all their jewels, and after seeing the Red Sea parted, and walking through it, and looking back and seeing the army of Pharoah, horse and rider thrown into the sea, and after seeing God’s pillar of fire and his cloud to guide them, and after seeing Moses return from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, after all of these amazing miracles, their faith must have been strong, they must have been ready to trust God and Moses his servant with their very lives, right?

Not exactly.

Now the people want to have a team go and make sure the land is good.

Normally, this would not be much of a problem.

When the US bought the Louisiana Purchase, which more than doubled the area of this nation, they sent Lewis and Clark to explore the land, to map it our, to make a report of what resources were out there and what obstacles.

But this was not the Louisiana Purchase.

This was the Promised Land.

Who promised the land?

The true and dependable, never failing, creator God.

So the people asking for scouts to go out after all they had witnessed about God’s power and faithfulness, may be a mark of disbelief.

And we will see that disbelief is really the sin that kept them from the promised land, just as disbelief keeps people from receiving eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Now, Moses doesn’t put all the blame on the people here.

He also thought it was ok

and God had also given his stamp of approval for this mission as we see

The command had been given to go in and possess, but God also allowed this to happen, that the spies would be sent in.

They went in, and discovered that the land was really good.

It was fruitful.

This spies even said “it is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us”

Well, then, let’s go!

It looks good, God has kept his promise, let’s go.

Well, no, They would not go

And here we being to see their sin compounded.

It would have been bad enough if these people who had seen the power of God were scared, it would have been bad enough if they wavered and had uncertainty.

Now they compound their sin by murmuring.

God had proven himself to the people through the miraculous sings they saw, he proved to them that he had brought them to a good land.

But they either do not believe God can fight with them or they are too lazy to go out and fight, whatever their various reasons are, they continued their rebellion by murmuring.

This murmuring if so sinful, not so much because they don’t believe Moses, they don’t believe God.

II.

He shows them how fair they stood for Canaan at that time, v. 20, 21.

He told them with triumph, the land is set before you, go up and possess it.

He lets them see how near they were to a happy settlement when they put a bar in their own door, that their sin might appear the more exceedingly sinful.

It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites that they were not far from the kingdom of God and yet came short, Mk. 12:34.

Now, this lesson had been used by some in the church throughout history to say that rebellion agains ta leader in the church is wrong, and it is pushed even further to say you can never question the authority of a pastor or leader in the church.

But note that the problem really isn't so much regarding their trust of Moses, although God had indeed clearly been affirmed by God to be their leader, the real offense was not believing God himself.

I don’t want anyone to make a career of criticizing me by any means.

But asking questions of leadership is not a punishable offense in the church, and many churches have ultimately fallen because the culture of the church was to protect the leader at all costs.

Don’t question him, don’t criticize, just do what he says.

This is the wrong application of this passage.

It is not saying that at all.

The reason The people were guilty of not doing what Moses said is because what Moses said was the direct command of God, and no pastor today has this same authority.

However, when it comes to God’s Word, if the pastor is preaching it, you do have a responsibility to obey it, not because of the pastor who preaches but because it is God’s Word.

Maybe you don’t like some decision the pastor or the board made.

It is fair to ask questions, so long as it isn’t in a rebellious spirit.

I am by no means perfect, I will make mistakes, I will make decisions that frustrate someone, I get that.

I’m not bothered if you disagree.

And I can still love and get along with people I disagree with on certain things.

But when it comes to God’s Word, I will not compromise, and you need to obey God, not man.

So I throw that in to the sermon, because sometimes it is important to point out what a particular passage is not saying, and this passage is not saying that all church leaders are like Moses, with the authority he had to command.

However, teachers and preachers and pastors can and should tell the people in their care what God’s Word says, not twisting it and using it for spiritual manipulation, but for the building of the church, and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

So the people are afraid of the Amorites, and their hearts have melted, so they sat around in their tents murmuring.

How frustrating this was for Moses!

And yet,

Still Moses encourages the people, he reminds them that the Lord will fight for them

He reminds them of God’s provision and protection.

They have seen in many ways how God has taken care of them.

Now we are about to see the cost of this rebellion.

Only 2 men of that Generation end up going into the promised land, Joshua and Caleb.

Caleb was one of the spies who said they could take the land.

It is curious to me what ever happened to the other spy.

Joshua would go in because he was Moses’ faithful assistant, and the people needed a good strong leader to lead them into the promised land.

Every other person in that generation would die in the desert, never seeing the promised land.

Their children and grandchildren, who were not considered to be accountable for this rebellion would go in.

The general consensus I found was that anyone from about 20 years of age and younger at this time would go in.

Caleb was also to be given the land that he had spied out, and the completion of this promise is found in the book of Joshua chapter 14.

Moses himself would not go in:

Now, Moses was not allowed into the promised land for the same reason as the rest of them.

We see the reason Moses did not go in in Num20.2-13

So Moses also would not go in, but Joshua would replaced Moses as leader of the people and lead them in.

Interestingly, the people had given as part of the reason they would not go in, the safety of their children.

But in the end, it would be those children who would receive the land:

Now the people are starting to understand what their rebellion has cost them.

So now they say, OK, OK, we will go and fight!

They have heard the sentence for their crime, and now they want to plead with their judge that they will go do the right thing now.

It’s like the employee who the boss has warned again and again, be sure to complete your work.

The boss gave a verbal warning a written warning, still the employee didn’t complete the job.

Finally the boss says, you are fired.

Now the employee says, I’m going to do the job now!

The boss says “it’s too late”.

The employee doesn’t listen and refuses to leave and goes to do the job anyway, even though they have already been fired, and now the boss has them arrested for trespassing.

This is a somewhat weak illustration of what happens next: