Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This Torah Portion goes from Numbers 13:1-15:41

So far, we have discussed how God longed to show Himself to Israel.

If they had come up to mount Sinai the complete restoration back to God would have been accomplished as the Lord would have tabernacled in them.

They could not do it.

We have also discussed and taught on the ways of the Lord in establishing His patterns in the Menorah

How He was prophetic about the rapture

How He has hidden His mysteries in His patterns

Bemidbar

The Israelites who escaped from Egypt, witnessed the Sinaitic revelation, erected the Tabernacle, and were instructed in the operation of it (as described in Exodus and Leviticus) now prepare themselves militarily and spiritually for their march (walk) through the wilderness.

They are organized as a war camp centered about the Tabernacle (1:1–10:10), but they become progressively demoralized by complaints, rebellions, and finally by apostasy, leading to their death in the wilderness (10:11–25:19).

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 1–3.

This is not unique to the children of Israel.

We also experience this in the way we have been nurtured, whether at our own house or in the things of the Lord

You need to understand

what has brought you where you are now.

The message you have heard

Raised in environment not conducive to growth or wellness

Conditioned to a lifestyle and beliefs

Eg.

Many religions and different denominations

Question the soil you are planted in: are you giving fruit?

I need to be able to recognize good soil (Joshua and Caleb)

Need for change

Our study today is on the basis of an alternative meaning for the word SHELACH:

This word is most commonly translated as SEND: meaning

שָׁלַח S7971 TWOT2394 GK8938814 vb.

send = send forth, drive cattle to pasture, send messenger

Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 1018.

It also means:

To cause to go somewhere

It denotes a principle of being transplanted to be planted

Picture

I am sure you would have heard this concept presented by other preachers, but I would invite you to look at the message in the Scriptures from the Hebrew perspective in a more linguistic approach.

I intend to use this Torah portion to take a closer look at what happened to the children of Israel in their journey through the wilderness into the promised land

To discuss:

Their actions

Challenges

Mindset

Reasons for the Lord to send them

How this applies to us today

Presentation

Actions

A literal translation reads in V-2:

Send for you men and them explore the land of Canaan not translated with I am about to give to the children of Israel

The emphasis is on “You are sending the men”

The Lord spoke According to the tradition recorded in Deuteronomy (1:22, 23, 37), the initiative to scout the land stemmed from the people, not from God—constituting a breach of faith because God had already scouted the land.

Hence, since Moses approved the expedition, he was condemned with the people to die in the desert.

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 100.

Ramban also notes that no lot was used to select the scouts (cf.

1:5–15; 34:19–28), a further indication of the Lord’s displeasure with the idea of sending scouts.

Therefore, God, as it were, told Moses: If you want them, you must pick them

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 100.

Everyone was listed to go spy except Levi

Not only did they not trust God to know that the Land was good, but they also wanted to decide for themselves if it is good.

The way they saw themselves made them feel inferior

Grasshoppers

They saw themselves not God

Challenges

Complaining

Considering themselves victims

They want to return to where it is comfortable

Challenges

Don’t want to leave what is comfortable

Don’t want to learn what seems so foreign

Fear of the unknown

No understanding of how God works

Family dynamics

Different structure

Different culture

Different worship style

Other nations around

Different language

Different authority

Different Norms

Unfamiliar

Israel had to be educated

Mindset

Fixed mindset- cannot do it, I cannot learn- so that change does not happen

Mental and emotional barriers - keep you from risk of challenge

I believe the Lord is using the principle of

SHATAL

Which is the principle of planting and replanting

Consider the soil where the Lord plants

There are 4 different kinds of soil

By the wayside

Stoney soil

Soil among the thorns

Only one soil is good

I would propose to you God puts us in the wilderness to take us through a process of transplanting and planting

When we are planted in the wrong soil - not all the potential

Not the right environment

Then we get Uprooted

Takes away nutrients

Needs to be replanted in the right field

With the right care

To continue to reach its fullness

If we pay close attention Israel was planted for 400 years in Egypt

They needed to be uprooted - why?

Because their planting was in the world, in the darkness: Egypt