"Fear or Faith? (Numbers 13-14)", Will DuVal | 3/16/25
Numbers 13-14 | 3/16/25 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re talking about FEAR. How many of you were AFRAID on Friday night, with the storms? We were tucking the kids in bed and just saying goodnight when the sirens started going off outside and both our phones started screaming alerts at us all at once. So we took the kids downstairs to the basement; 10 minutes later the POWER went out. Poor Ellery was beside herself. So I hugged her, and reassured her, “We’re gonna be okay, baby.” And she asked me, “Daddy, do YOU ever get scared?” I said, “Yeah, baby, I do. We ALL get scared at times. It’s not an “IF” but a “WHEN”… and even more importantly: WHERE. Where do we TURN, in our fear?” So I said, “Let’s pray; go to GOD with our fears…”
You may remember from A.P. Bio the “fight-or-flight” response that kicks in when animals are afraid, feel threatened. Since I was in high school they’ve recognized a third option: “freeze”. But according to God’s word, we humans actually have a fourth option available to us when we are under attack: FAITH. We need not run or hide or even fight back when we know that our God fights for us. This morning in Numbers 13 & 14, the Israelites - now at Kadesh Barnea, on the very brink of entering the Promised Land - are faced with a choice: will they respond with fear at the sight of the inhabitants of the land, or with faith in God’s promises?
In these 2 chapters, we get a picture - SIX pictures, actually, 6 contrasting snapshots here - of the difference between fear and faith. What do YOU fear? Maybe you got HIT by the storm, and now you fear the insurance company is gonna fight you on it. Maybe you fear the storm you’re walking into tomorrow MORNING, in the office. Or you’re heading out on spring break, but you’re afraid to FLY. You’re afraid of the results of your medical tests. We’ve had a few of you lose LOVED ONES in just the past few weeks now; maybe you’re afraid they didn’t truly know the LORD, and now they’re suffering the eternal consequences.
There are LOTS of things for us to be LEGITIMATELY afraid of! Tornadoes, Cancer, HELL! For the Israelites this morning, it was GIANTS; literal giants. You can’t BLAME ‘em for being SCARED! But the question is, once again: “Where do we TURN, in our fear?” Do we turn INWARD, to our SELVES, in FEAR? Or UPWARD, to the LORD, in FAITH?
I invite you to stand with me… (SCRIPTURE: Num 13-14)
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. 4 And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua… from Simeon, Shaphat… from Judah, Caleb… from Issachar, Igal… from Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; from Benjamin, Palti… from Zebulun, Gaddiel… from Manasseh, Gaddi … from Dan, Ammiel… from Asher, Sethur… from Naphtali, Nahbi… from Gad, Geuel… These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there… 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. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
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25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 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. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
30 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.” 31 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.” 32 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. 33 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.”
Ch14 now:1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 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! 3 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?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, 14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, 16 ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ 17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”
20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you [“Be careful what you ask for!”]: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb… and Joshua… 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 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. 34 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.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— 37 the men… died by plague before the Lord. 38 Of those who went to spy out the land, only Joshua… and Caleb… remained alive.
39 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” 41 But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” 44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah. [over 100 miles north of there]”
[This is the word of God…]
6 contrasting pictures of FEAR vs FAITH here. The first is that…
1) Fear OBJECTS; while Faith OBEYS. (13:1-16; 14:39-45)
And Israel gives us a glimpse of BOTH, as BOOKENDS, at the very beginning and then the very END of the passage. Notice: they make such a good start here: “The Lord said to Moses, “Send spies out… So Moses sent them… according to the command of the Lord”. God commanded; they obeyed. They COULD have objected: “God, there’s just TWELVE of us!”; they will travel roughly 500 miles over the course of the next 40 days, encountering at LEAST FIVE different, gigantic HOSTILE nations that are named here, spread out all over the land; they could have objected: “God, this is a SUICIDE mission!” But they obeyed.
Now CONTRAST that with Israel’s response at the END of ch14. Their most decisive act of disobedience will occur at the BEGINNING of ch14, when they vote to “choose a [new] leader and go back to Egypt” (v4); we’ll GET to that. But they weren’t DONE disobeying there. Because even after God REBUKES them - “your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness” - and they “mourned greatly”, 39 - but then they turn right around and disobey him AGAIN! When God says, “Fight”, you FIGHT; when he says, “DON’T fight; you had your chance and you BLEW it. Now turn around and march BACK into the wilderness for another 38 years so your whole generation can die out there”- you OBEY. You don’t DARE fight, when God WARNS you: “Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you… you shall fall by the sword…’” (vv42-43).
Similarly, Jesus reminds us: “I am the vine; you are the branches… apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). CONVERSELY, we can rejoice with the apostle Paul that: “I can do all things through [CHRIST] who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13).
If God is WITH us, who can stand AGAINST us? (Rom 8:31); what could go WRONG? But if he’s NOT with us, what could possibly go RIGHT?! “We can do NOTHING!”
So Jesus COMMANDS us, then, to “ABIDE IN ME”! (Jn 15:4). “I am the vine; you are the branches… ABIDE in ME”!
And Church: we do that by abiding in God’s WORD through daily devotions and abiding in God’s SPIRIT through constant PRAYER. The Christian faith is not primarily a religion that we adhere to, a belief system that we assent to, or a set of values that we espouse; MOST essentially, Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP that we enjoy with a living person, Jesus Christ. And the KEY to a healthy, growing relationship is communication, back and forth, listening and sharing. We LISTEN for God’s voice, in his word, and we SHARE our hearts with him, in prayer. That’s how you “abide”; how we know his will. It’d be NICE if it was always as CLEAR to us as it was to ISRAEL here: “Don’t go up and fight; I’m not going with you!” We may have to listen a little harder. But we DISCERN his will by obeying his command - accepting his gracious invitation! - to ABIDE. And once we’ve discerned his will, we obey him.
Jesus’s love language is obedience: “If you love me,” he declared, “you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
Fear objects; Faith obeys.
#2 - The SECOND lesson of faith here is a bit controversial. So I’m actually gonna give you BOTH possible interpretations, and let you decide which one God wants YOU to hear this morning (hint: it’s the one that is most personally convicting to you).
Here’s what I mean: if we only read vv17-24 here, in isolation, it seems like the takeaway is that 2) Fear COWERS, while Faith CONFIRMS. (13:17-24)
Moses gives the spies even more details about the objective of their reconnaissance mission: to determine how STRONG their enemies are, how NUMEROUS, how well-PROTECTED… and just how GOOD this land is ALSO; “bring back some PROOF… some FRUIT…”.
And again, we ought to note, the spies COULD have COWERED: “Moses, it’s dangerous enough that you’re sending us into this hostile territory; NOW you’re asking us to MEASURE the giants?! Count their armies?! Survey their cities? Cut down their TREES?! You think they’re gonna take KINDLY to that?”
But they DON’T cower; once again, they OBEY: “So they went up,” v21, “and spied out the land”, even “brought back some pomegranates and figs” and “a cluster of grapes” so big it took TWO of them to carry it!
So it’s possible God wants SOME of us to see from this that faith CONFIRMS what we should already KNOW to be TRUE. Did the spies learn anything NEW from this trip? Hadn’t God already TOLD them the land was good, “flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8), and that they’d have to contend with the Amorites and Canaanites and all KINDS of “-ites” in order to TAKE it (Gen 15:18-21); he’d already TOLD ‘em all that.
And yet it’s one thing to HEAR it, and it’s another thing to SEE it, with your own two EYES, isn’t it? To CONFIRM, to get PROOF.
I’ve met CHRISTIANS who get very nervous around any kind of discussion of APOLOGETICS, the branch of theology that involves arguments for God, defenses of the faith. Some Christians think we should just take God’s word on faith, and not PURSUE the “proof”. That it’s somehow UN-faithful to study the cosmos for clues of a Creator, or investigate the fossil record for evidence of an ancient worldwide flood. In fact, SOME of these Christians, if they’re honest, are downright AFRAID of such inquiries, because they’re afraid of what they might find OUT. “What if the evidence DOESN’T seem to match what the Bible says; what THEN?” So they cover their eyes and ears and shut out the scholarship and the science and they embrace a kind of “BLIND faith”.
But the BIBLE doesn’t encourage a faith that is blind; GOD invites us to “love [Him] with all of our MINDS” (Mt 22:37). In Isaiah 1:18, he invited Israel to ““Come now, let us reason together…”. God calls US today to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15). So rather than FEAR the answers and thus AVOID the questions altogether, it takes REAL faith to ASK, ANSWER, and CONFIRM.
That’s all TRUE, and maybe some of you need to HEAR it this morning, and be CHALLENGED in that way.
HOWEVER… we can ALSO read these verses more NEGATIVELY. Where the spies are NOT to be celebrated here for “CONFIRMING” God’s promises, but rather, DISCIPLINED for DOUBTING them. Sometimes fear DOUBTS while FAITH DEPENDS on, TRUSTS in God’s PROMISES. And sometimes there’s a FINE LINE between “confirming” God’s word, and QUESTIONING it.
To get the FULL picture of this story, we have to flip ahead to Deuteronomy ch1, where Moses retells it for Israel with a few new telling DETAILS; he recalls: “we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 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.’ 22 But 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.’ 23 [And Moses admits:] The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you…”, and sent them IN as SPIES. (vv19-23)
Now THAT paints the story in a whole different LIGHT, doesn’t it? If Moses gave the ORDER, from GOD: “Okay, we’re HERE. Time to go take possession of the land like God TOLD us to…”, but INSTEAD Israel countered, “Woah now; slow your ROLL there, Moses… GOD… Let’s don’t RUSH INTO anything. Maybe we send some SPIES in first; what if the people there are BIGGER than we BARGAINED for… or the land’s not quite as “GOOD” as God PROMISED…” - a fine line INDEED, between “confirming” and QUESTIONING - DOUBTING - God’s word.
God COULD have - maybe SHOULD have! - struck them with the pestilence for their faithlessness right THERE, back before the story even got STARTED in v1 of Numbers 13. But look at how merciful and accommodating God is, to Israel’s fears: they BEGGED to send spies… even MOSES thinks, “Yeah, that’d honestly make ME feel better about it - feel SAFER about OBEYING the Lord”; God COULD have said, “Sorry; FAITH - REAL faith - is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) So NO! You DON’T get to spy out the land first, and SEE it with your own eyes… CONFIRM my promises; you shouldn’t NEED to! You should TRUST me by now!”
But God doesn’t DO that, does he? In v1 he says, “Okay, go ahead; Send the spies…”. Because God is INDEED, as Moses will EXTOL him later: a God who is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (14:18). God is SO patient, SO kind with us.
BUT, “he will by no means clear the guilty” (14:18). Even GOD’S patience wears out eventually, that his righteous and magnificent JUSTICE might be displayed.
And as much as SOME of us may need reminding that it’s OKAY to have questions and doubts, that God DOESN’T call us to shut off our BRAINS when he calls us to open up our HEARTS to him… OTHERS here need reminding that God will not endure our persistent, defiant doubt INDEFINITELY. It’s ONE thing to ask “How do I RECONCILE my suffering with God’s goodness?” or “How do I reconcile Deuteronomy ch1’s version of the story with Numbers ch13’s?”. St. Anselm defined “theology” as “faith seeking understanding”. That’s beautiful. But it’s very different from UNBELIEF, which is “doubt seeking ammunition”, any possible excuse NOT to have to believe. Because belief is COSTLY; if there really IS a God, and you’re not HIM, acknowledging that will have VAST implications for how you live your life. Deep down, most unbelievers don’t WANT to believe. They don’t WANT to have to bend the knee. But God promises that ONE day, and one way or ANOTHER, they WILL - ALL will - “every knee will bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ IS Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:11)
How about YOU - are you a doubter OF God, or a depender ON God? I can’t help but think here of the story of Doubting Thomas, who was gone using the outhouse when the resurrected JESUS first appeared to the other disciples in John ch20, and “showed them his hands and his side”. Poor THOMAS came back and they told him: “You just missed JESUS! He’s BACK!” But Thomas said, ““Unless I see in the nail-holes in his hands… place my hand in his side, I will never believe.””. EIGHT DAYS LATER - those had to be 8 long days, huh? But some of you have been waiting a lot longer than THAT: “I’ll believe when this CANCER is in remission…”; “We’ll believe when God gives us the CHILD we’ve been praying for…” - remember what Jesus said, when he eventually appeared to Thomas, too? “Go ahead, SEE for yourself… TOUCH for yourself… But blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” (Jn 20:29).
Maybe God’s got you in a wilderness right now that is SO dark you can’t even BEGIN to see the light at the other side of it yet - I asked one brother here about sharing his “Wilderness Story” with us, and he said, “Pastor, I’m STILL in the wilderness; I’m still struggling to see God’s PURPOSE in it, to see how he could bring anything GOOD out of this…”
I said, “But you still BELIEVE he can… that he WILL?”
He said, “Yeah… MOST days…”; “I believe; help my unbelief!”
I said, “Then BLESSED are you for BELIEVING without seeing.”
#3) Fear SHRINKS; Faith is STALWART. (13:25-33)
“strong and brave; valiant; firm, steadfast, and uncompromising” (dictionary.com)
V25: “At the end of the forty days, the spies returned”.
All TWELVE of them said, “The land is AWESOME! Just check out these GRAPES!”
But TEN of them said, “BUT… there’s a BUT.” “If you think the GRAPES are big, you oughta see the INHABITANTS! And their CITIES, their FORTIFICATIONS!” Canaan was the TEXAS of the Ancient Near East: “Everything’s BIGGER in Canaan”!
Iain Duguid notes (Numbers, 169): “Their fortifications were indeed substantial. Archaeological explorations suggest that the walls of these cities were thirty to fifty feet high and fifteen feet thick.” And that’s all the TEN could see.
Meanwhile, Caleb and JOSHUA saw the exact same WALLS, but they’re thinking, “Ehh, nothing a few TRUMPETS can’t knock down!” That’s what OUR God can do.
See, that’s the thing: the TEN were looking at the GIANTS, thinking, “WE’RE no match for THEM”. But Caleb & Joshua were looking to GOD, thinking, “THEY’RE no match for HIM!”
The TEN say, “We’re like GRASSHOPPERS compared to them” (13:33); the TWO say, “They’re like grasshoppers compared to GOD”! (That’s Isaiah 40:22 - “the earth’s inhabitants are like grasshoppers,” to God.)
The TEN say, in v32: “On second thought, the LAND isn’t even all that great; it “devours its inhabitants”; they change their tune, and bring a “BAD report” now. Caleb & Joshua say: “Judge for yourselves: just look at the GRAPES! We got the PROOF it’s a great land; the grapes don’t LIE!” There’s a REASON the land is full of giants - it doesn’t DEVOUR its inhabitants; it DEVELOPS them. It doesn’t SWALLOW its settlers; it SUPERSIZES ‘em!
But it ALL depends on where you’re FOCUSED. Fear fixates on the GIANTS and says, “We can’t WIN; they’re too STRONG.”
But FAITH focuses on GOD and says, “Let us go up at once and TAKE it; we are well able to overcome”, with GOD on our side; “I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
Can YOU say that - DO you say that, when facing YOUR giants - marital strife, parenting battles, financial debt, chronic illness, past trauma that WON’T go away, keeps REARING its ugly head; does your fear cause you to SHRINK, or does your FAITH cause you to SWELL, and trust GOD for the victory: “I am WELL able to overcome this”... with GOD on my side. Do we KNOW with CONFIDENCE, Church, that Daniel 3:17 - “our God is ABLE to DELIVER us”!?
That Luke 1:37 - “nothing [is] impossible with God”!!
Now, Contrasts #4 & 5 are fairly similar, so we’ll be briefer in ch14 now…
FOURTH - Fear TURNS BACK; while Faith TRUSTS AHEAD. (14:1-9)
SPEAKING of where we’re looking: fear looks BACK, but faith looks FORWARD.
Israel’s still gazing in the REARVIEW mirror; last week in ch11 it was the FOOD back in Egypt that they romanticized: “Remember the FISH, and the CUCUMBERS, and Ohh, the LEEKS!” (v5); that’s how you KNOW they were inventing these fond memories - “the LEEKS were to DIE for!”. Pun intended; because look at what they BEG for now in ch14: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!” “As a matter of fact,” v3, “Wouldn’t it be better for us to just go back there?” “Yeah; ‘Let’s choose a leader and go back’.”
“Better the devil we KNOW, than the one we DON’T,” they think. So she keeps returning to the same abusive partner…
He keeps returning to the same self-destructive coping mechanism, his addiction…
We keep going BACK, “like a DOG returns to its VOMIT” the Bible says, (Prov 26:11) because the only thing more scary than the SLAVERY of Egypt is the UNCERTAINTY of CANAAN. We are TERRIFIED of the unknown, aren’t we?
But not Caleb and JOSHUA. They know a promise from GOD is as GOOD as a known certainty: “If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us” (14:8). “Don’t fear the people of the land; they are bread for us” (v9); WE’RE not the ones on the MENU here! “Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us”.
We TRUST him. We’re not turning back; we’re marching forward, trusting GOD every step of the way.
“I have decided to follow Jesus / No turning back, no turning back
The cross before me, the world behind me / No turning back, no turning back.”
Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Lk 9:62) Don’t look back to EGYPT, brother, sister; it’s got nothing FOR you anymore. Nothing but slavery and sin and DEATH. “if [you are] in Christ, [you are] a new creation. The old has gone; behold, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17).
But does Israel LISTEN to Caleb & Joshua, to Moses & Aaron? No, v4: they turned and said to ONE ANOTHER… v10: “Then all the congregation said to stone them”; who’d they SAY it to? “One ANOTHER”. This is what fear DOES:
#5) Fear LOOKS INWARD; FAITH looks UPWARD. (14:10-19)
Fear looks INWARD: “We can’t win; they’re stronger than US…”
Faith looks GOD-ward: “If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us in… just don’t rebel against HIM… Don’t fear; the Lord is with us” (14:8-9).
Where does MOSES look? If MOSES had been focused inward, on living “his best life now”, he would’ve TAKEN God’s offer, in v12: ““How long will this people despise me? And not believe in me, in spite of all that I’ve done for them? …I will strike them… and disinherit them, and I will make of you, Moses, a nation greater and mightier than they.””
“I’ll just start OVER.” Forget ISRAEL; it could be the 12 tribes of MOSES. What’s God DOING? He’s TESTING Moses. To see if he’s just as SELF-CENTERED and FAITHLESS as the rest of them. And how does Moses RESPOND?
He once again INTERCEDES for the people. But Moses’ concern here, his APPEAL, isn’t even centered on the people; look at how radically GOD-centered, UPWARD-focused Moses is; he asks God to spare Israel for the sake of THREE THINGS:
1) God’s POWER - “if you kill this people… then the nations who have heard of your fame [cuz Egypt’s already talking about what happened to THEM; the word’s getting out: “Israel belongs to YAHWEH; don’t MESS with them!” But if you KILL Israel, they] will say, “It is because YHWH was not able to bring this people into the land… Now, please let the power of the Lord be great”. Moses says, “God: you’ve already PROVEN your great power to judge sin back in EGYPT; now show off your even GREATER power to FORGIVE sin for your PEOPLE!”
2) Moses appeals to God’s PROMISES: v16: Moses subtly reminds God that “he swore to give the land to them”, so v17: “let your power be great as you have promised”. “God: you PROMISED to not only deliver us from Egypt, but to Canaan. And I KNOW you’re a God of your word; you are a covenant-KEEPING God.
And thirdly: Moses appeals to God’ POWER, God’s PROMISES, and 3) God’s PERSONHOOD; his nature, his character. v18: “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression”. Moses says, “Lord: this is who you REVEALED yourself to be, back in Exodus 34, and who you’ve PROVEN yourself to be for 67 chapters already: when they complained about the water at Marah (Ex15) and about the food in Sin (Ex 16), and when they grumbled about water AGAIN at Rephidim (Ex 17), and the food AGAIN in Paran (Num 11), and ALL their sins in between - how about the GOLDEN CALF?! This incident in Numbers 14, is SO similar to the Golden Calf one back in Exodus 32: the people DOUBT God’s promises, they look BACK to Egypt, God’s ready to KILL them and start all over with Moses, but once again, MOSES INTERCEDES: “Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love”.
Friends: do you know that we TOO have an INTERCESSOR, a new and better and ETERNAL Moses, Jesus Christ, who is in heaven right now, praying that very prayer for YOU: “Father, please forgive their sin according to the greatness of your steadfast love”.
But you have to look UPWARD, to HIM - to JESUS - in FAITH. It is by GRACE - God’s free gift of eternal life - that we are SAVED - forgiven of our sins and freed from their consequence: death and HELL… through FAITH - “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Ac 16:31).
Lastly, in closing, we see the contrasting CONSEQUENCES of fear and faith, of unbelief vs belief:
#6) Fear is REJECTED; Faith is RECEIVED. (14:20-38)
Fear and disbelief are REJECTED; “none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I’ve done, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed and TRUSTED me, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers… your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land”.
…EXCEPT: CALEB, and JOSHUA. “because [they] have followed me fully, I will bring [them] into the land”.
Faith is RECEIVED. “to all who received him [JESUS] who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God” (Jn 1:12), to be received into God’s heavenly family. The ONLY way in, is FAITH.
CONCLUSION: Church- we don’t HAVE to fear… IF we have FAITH! Because of our Savior Jesus Christ, we can now declare along with Caleb & Joshua, even in the face of life’s BIGGEST, most TERRIFYING giants - Sin and Death and HELL - “Do not FEAR them… we are well able to overcome them… for the Lord is WITH us.”
Amen; let’s pray…