The Test of Kadesh
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· 2 viewsApril 24, 2022 Morning Worship
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome back!
Today we are going to take a trip back into the Old Testament and talk briefly about faith, stepping out on faith, and the consequences of failing to have faith in God.
And we are doing so in the backdrop of the Promised Land from Numbers 14.
And this morning our focus finds us at the edge of the Promised Land.
The Israelites had been in the wilderness for over a year at this point.
And the Lord has finally told them it was time to move.
So, imagine their excitement and anticipation that now this was finally it!
They were about to enter into the "Promised Land."
But there is one thing they hadn’t bet on, the journey to the Promised Land.
And as soon as they set out from the safety of Sinai, they realized the journey would not be easy.
And as a result, they began to mummer and complain almost immediately.
In Numbers chapter 11, we see them begin this pattern, First they complained about the journey . . .
Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the Lord had burned among them.
And then they complained about the food . . .
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
And as a result of their complaining, starting in verse 10 . . .
Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
Now skip down to verse 31 . . .
Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
And I’m not going to read it this morning, but the story continues into Numbers 12:1-9, with their continued complaining about absolutely everything, including Moses’ wife and why he was in charge.
The point is that at every turn and every step on the journey to the promised land there was difficulty, adversity, rebellion, and challenge.
It was not an easy road for the Israelites and it is not an easy road for us as Christians today in our journey to the promised land that God has provided for us.
However, the Israelites had reached the doorstep of the Promised Land, and the greatest challenge was yet to come.
Which was entering in the Promised Land, which is where we find ourselves this morning.
So, quickly, Numbers 14, starting in verse 36 . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it— these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord. Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.
Sending of the Spies
Sending of the Spies
Now, what I read there was the end of the account of sending out the spies to see about entering the Promised Land.
But to understand and get the full picture we need to back up a bit to the beginning of the Chapter to see what is actually going on.
So, going back to verse 1, the Bible tells us . . .
The Lord said to Moses, “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.” So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
So, the first thing here is God tells Moses to send these men out to survey the Promised Land and to make preparations.
And these were not just some random dudes that Moses was to choose.
These were the leaders of each tribe, the ones who were in charge of helping the people understand the will of God and the people the members of each of the 12 tribes looked up to for direction and leadership.
These were the ones that Moses trusted the most to help him administer God’s will to the people.
So, in reality they should have been those who would be most in tune with God and by extension those who would have had the most faith in God, because they were the ones that had seen the most and been through the most, in the desert as well as before the exodus while in Egypt.
So, Moses gets ready to send them and gives them these directions . . .
When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
So, basically go check things out.
Scope out the Promised Land and report back all the good things and blessings that were waiting on them in this land of Milk and Honey.
Which should have been a report that brought great encouragement and strength to the people.
Because here they were, on the edge of what God had already promised and now God was going to give them a glimpse of it!
So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
The Report
The Report
So, if we are going by what we have so far, all is well!
They go out and explore the land, gather samples of the food and look at how great the land is for planting.
This is awesome!
And they are gone for 40 days and finally they return to Moses and the people.
And I can imagine the people standing around anxiously waiting to hear what the spies have to say about it.
When can we go?
What are we waiting on?
Let’s get there and get what God has promised us!
But all ain’t sunshine and roses they find out . . .
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
So, they do return and confirm what God had said:
Yes, this is a land of Milk and Honey!
A land of plenty!
A Good Land!
BUT- There is always a "but" isn’t there.
The people are strong that live there.
They have walled fortresses!
There are giants in the land!
We can't take it, they are too strong for us.
They make us look like grasshoppers!
In other words, it looks hard and we are afraid.
We are afraid to go and take what God has already promised us.
We are afraid of the unknown, what if we fail.
What if this or what if that, which is exactly what we do, when God asks us to step out in faith and do something.
We are so afraid of the unknown that we refuse to even try.
Now, Caleb tried to calm the people and reason with the people!
"We can take it!" "Lets go now and possess it!"
Why did Caleb do this?
Because Caleb knew that God had promised it and God would deliver what He had promised!
However, the people lacked faith, they lacked understanding, they lacked a vision.
And Proverbs 29 in the KJV tells us that . . .
Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
In the NIV it says “revelation” instead of “vision” but they mean the same thing.
And because of this, they brought a bad report.
And again, we do the exact same thing.
Its too hard!
We can’t do it because __________________(Fill in the blank).
However, I want to ask you, has God given you the vision?
Has God made you promises?
If God says it, it can be done! It will be done.
It doesn't matter how big the giants are that stand in our way.
Th same thing is true for salavation.
So, many times people will not accept Christ because they can't "live up to it."
They think there is some prescribed "code of conduct" or set of rules.
The problem is, you are believing the lie of the devil.
Yes, there are things that Christians do and don't do.
BUT THOSE THINGS ARE A RESULT OF SALVATION NOT A CONDITION OF SALVATION.
None of us can live up to the standard of holiness that God requires.
That is where the grace and mercy of God come into play.
God does not require us to be holy in order to saved, but rather holiness is a result of accepting Christ and allowing Him to mold us, shape us, teach us, and change us.
All God requires of us is OBEDIENCE AND FAITH.
Remember what Samuel told Saul . . .
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Consequences for Failing the Test
Consequences for Failing the Test
We have to quit trying to "make sense of it all" and quit trying to "reason our way to salvation."
God's mind is not like our mind and His ways are not like ours.
Everything of God is given through faith.
And there are consequences for failing the faith challenge.
For 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 miraculous 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.”
So God was going to get rid of them all, but Moses intercedes . . .
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, O Lord, are with these people and that you, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put these people to death all at one time, 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 desert.’ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have 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 fathers to 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.”
Because of Moses' faithfulness, God spared their lives.
However the consequences for their rejection and lack of faith were severe.
None of the first Generation would be allowed into the Promised Land, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua.
Only they had the faith in God.
In addition, they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years because of their rebellion and unbelief.
Because they failed the test and failed to believe in God, their faith was sealed.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
What about us here today?
This is the test God has put before us.
Will we put our faith and trust in Him today?
Will we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior?
Will we trust Him to deliver us into our own Promised Land?
That land of Milk and Honey.
How long will God's longsuffering endure?
How many chances will He give us?
Folks, there will come a day that we will run out of chances.
A day when God will say enough is enough and we will wander in the wilderness the rest of our lives.
A day when we will not only wander in the wilderness but die in the wilderness.
Apart from God.
Is today that day for you?
Christian-what test of faith has God placed in your path?
Have you put your faith in God and accepted the challenge?
Are you rejecting God and refusing to step out on faith and trust Him?
TODAY IS A DAY OF TESTING. . . HOW WILL WE RESPOND?