[0:00] Looking in the Word, we'll be in the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 14 is where we're going to be in Numbers chapter 14. So if you have your Bibles, ask you to join me as we turn to Numbers chapter 14.
[0:14] You get there, we'll open up with a word of prayer. We're just making our way through the Bible in connection with our Sunday nights. Of course, this past Sunday night, we did not have services.
[0:27] And then Sunday night prior to that, we did our question and answer time. So it's been a Wednesday night thing for the last couple of weeks, not so much Sunday nights. But we will pick back up on it on Sunday nights as we move forward.
[0:39] But we are just making our way through Scripture and we've come to this point. So let's open up with a word of prayer and then we'll get into the Word together. So let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much just for allowing us to have this time.
[0:53] We thank you for this day which you've provided for us. Lord, we thank you for the beautiful weather which you've given. But Lord, we thank you that we have a chance to come together to read your Word with one another. Lord, to fellowship with one another.
[1:05] And we pray as we read it that we would draw closer to you through it. Lord, that you would work in our lives for your glory and your honor. We pray for those who are working with the children and the youth in the back.
[1:18] We pray that you would be magnified in their midst. But Lord, we ask that you give us an understanding of Scripture, not just for the gaining of information, but Lord, for the transforming of our lives.
[1:30] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, I've been very blessed here lately. I've been getting books and books and books and books given to me, which is a blessing. Because I had went through a season where I wasn't reading as much and the pastor needs to read.
[1:45] Someone once told me, actually my mentor in the faith told me, that a call to preach is a call to prepare and a call to prepare is a call to read. The irony in that is the gentleman told me that he did not like to read.
[1:56] So I don't know if it was his own lack of preparation that he was trying to move me beyond. So I enjoy reading. I did not like the discipline of reading at that time, but I have learned to enjoy it.
[2:10] But I've got a lot of information that's running through my head, and I'm thankful for it. So I appreciate those who keep just kind of the pipeline going. But we're in Numbers chapter 14.
[2:22] We're going to go back. If you remember last week, we kind of went into it with the first four verses. But we're going to pick that back up. So we'll start in verse 1. We're going to read it in its entirety. But to get it in the proper context, we understand the book of Numbers is really pivoting here in chapters 13 and 14.
[2:39] If you remember, and we kind of have to set this context every time we come together, the book of Numbers is titled Numbers in English because of the counting of God's people, the numbering of the nation, which takes place in the first couple of chapters.
[2:53] The Jewish book, this portion of scripture in the Jewish text was titled In the Wilderness. Because really this book just details for us the wilderness wanderings of God's people.
[3:05] And it's really important to understand because we see the downward spiral of his people when they start out on a high note, and that would be walking in complete obedience, and they end on a low note, walking in absolute disobedience.
[3:18] And where that door swings is here in Numbers 13 and 14. Now it starts to crack open in Numbers 10 where God moves them away from the mount of the Lord, and they begin their journey, and they start complaining.
[3:29] And they start murmuring, and they start griping, and they start doing all of these things. What's ironic in that is as soon as they left Egypt, they complained. They didn't even get across the Red Sea out of Egyptian territory before they were complaining because they started griping and complaining, Oh, we're going to die because you've brought us here.
[3:46] As soon as they crossed the Red Sea, they complained again. And when they stop at the mount of the Lord, after the construction of the golden calf and the rebuking of Moses and really the judgment of God that falls at that point, Moses spending 80 days total up on the mount, 40 days the first time, 40 days the second time, seems to be a peaceful period of obedience.
[4:09] Because as long as God's not moving and calling us to do anything drastic, it's easy to obey, right? And God was putting them in a place of constructing the furnitures for the tabernacle, of actually building the tabernacle, and of organizing the nation.
[4:24] And at that point, while they're sitting there and camped being still, they seem to be very compliant. As soon as God calls them to step out now on this faith, which he has built up in them, they begin to grime and complain and all these things.
[4:41] They begin to just kind of murmur and be upset. The word is repeated over and over again. The great disobedience takes place in Numbers 13 and 14.
[4:53] And that is, when they get to the edge of the Promised Land, they get to Kadesh Barnea, they send in the 12 spies. Remember that? And we saw last week, because we want to put it in context, because it says in Numbers 13 that God allowed them, or God told them, to send in the 12 spies.
[5:09] So it seems as if God was setting them up for failure. But if we look at the Scripture to be the commentary on Scripture, the book of Deuteronomy in the first chapter tells us the reason God ordained for them to send 12 in was because they had asked Moses to send 12 in.
[5:25] God's command was, go take the Promised Land. God's command is, here it is, right? You're here. Go get it. The people said, Moses, maybe we need to hold up just a little bit. Maybe we need to send a delegation in to go look around this land we're about to take.
[5:38] Maybe we need to consider what it is God is calling us to do, instead of stepping out and doing what God called us to do. So God allowed them to do that. They sent the 12 in.
[5:48] We know that 10 came back with a bad report, not of the land, but of the inhabitants of the land and of the fortified cities. These two, Joshua and Caleb came back with a great report.
[6:00] Yes, the land is good. The people are big, but God's bigger, right? We'll see that again tonight. But what we see is the people begin to follow the leading of the 10. And they begin to follow that, and it begins to spread rapidly.
[6:14] We'll see it in just a minute in the text. As that shows us that most times in Scripture, we see here, we need to be careful where we follow the majority. We need to be careful how we follow the majority.
[6:26] You know, that's a biblical theme all throughout. Because Jesus says broad is the path that leads into destruction, but narrow is the way that leads into eternal life. And there are few who find it. Because following the majority in this world definitely is not going to call you or cause you to walk in obedience.
[6:42] But here are Numbers 14. We'll read it, and then we'll just jump right into it together. It says, Then all the congregation lifted up their voices, because they had heard the report from the 10. Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
[6:56] And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and 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?
[7:09] Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly and the congregation of the sons of Israel.
[7:26] Joshua, the son of Nun. By the way, this is the first time Joshua is vocal in the book of Numbers, okay? Because we had Caleb speaking in Numbers 13. Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes.
[7:40] And they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. Now stop right here. Verses 8 and 9 are the key verses to all of the book of Numbers.
[7:53] So we'll always try to mark the key verses. If you want to interpret the rest of the book of Numbers, you always have to find the key verses. I believe verses 8 and 9 of the 14th chapter are the key verses. Here it is. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.
[8:10] Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us.
[8:20] Do not fear them. But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. The Lord said to Moses, How long will this people spurn me?
[8:33] And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.
[8:45] But Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by your strength you brought up this people from their midst, and they will tell it to 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 eye to eye, while your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
[9:05] Now if you slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say, Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which he promised them by oath, therefore he slaughtered them in the wilderness.
[9:16] But now I pray, Let the power of the Lord be great, Just as you have declared, The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, 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 generations.
[9:34] Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, just as you also have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. So the Lord said, I have pardoned them according to your word, but indeed as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
[9:49] Surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not listened to my voice, surely by no means, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned me see it.
[10:07] But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered and his descendants shall take possession of it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley.
[10:18] Turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against me?
[10:29] I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against me. I say to them, As I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will surely do to you.
[10:41] Your corpses will fall in the wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me. Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
[10:56] Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey, I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until your corpses lie in the wilderness.
[11:15] According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you shall know my opposition. I, the Lord, have spoken.
[11:27] Surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me in this wilderness. They shall be destroyed, and there they will die. As for the men who Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by plague before the Lord.
[11:51] But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land. Verse 39. When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.
[12:03] In the morning, however, they rose up early, and went to the ridge of the hill country, saying, Here we are. We have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised. But Moses said, Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed?
[12:19] Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord.
[12:31] And the Lord will not be with you. But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country. Neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them, and beat them down as far as Hormah.
[12:49] Numbers chapter 14. I want you to see tonight, we'll try to make our way through it as quickly as we can. I want you to see tonight the outcomes of a rebellious response. The outcomes of a rebellious response.
[13:03] Because God had commanded them to go up and to take the land. They had decided it would be better to consider what God had commanded them to do by way of a committee. And they had put a group together of 12 individuals to go consider whether or not God's commands were worth obeying, or if it would be too difficult to obey.
[13:19] And they decided that obeying would be more difficult than what they had bargained on, so they rebelled against God's clear teaching. Remember, this is the purpose God brought them out of Egypt. The scripture tells us over and over and over again in the book of Exodus that God brought them out in order to take them in.
[13:36] God brought them out in order to take them in. That is a reinforcement that if God has the power to bring you out of captivity, He most definitely has the power to bring you into the promise.
[13:48] If God has the power to deliver, He has the power to deliver the enemy into your hand. The power that God has to give them what He has promised them is based upon the fact that He had already conquered their greatest enemy, the Egyptians to whom they were enslaved in.
[14:03] The reason we can trust God in this life, for Him to come through with His promises of eternal life is because that by His power, He has already delivered us from the greatest enemy which each one of us have, and that is the enemy of our souls.
[14:17] He has delivered us from death, hell, and the grave because He has forgiven us through faith. He has set us free from the captivity of sin, and therefore we know for certain that He will come through in His promise.
[14:30] God brought them out in order to take them in, but they stopped short. They rebelled against God's clear teaching, and their rebellion was based upon the opinions of ten individuals.
[14:46] Opinions that were informed, sure. Were the people at large? Yes. Were the cities fortified? Yes. Were the walls reaching high up to the heavens? Yes. Did the giants live there? Yes.
[14:56] Did it matter? No. Because none of these things were taking God by surprise. When God called you, and He redeems us, He knows this is one of the great mysteries.
[15:09] He knows every obstacle that's going to be in the way of our lives from that point forward. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He knows that faith is going to be tested. He knows it's going to be tried.
[15:19] He knows it's going to walk through fiery ordeals. He knows it's going to walk through wilderness wanderings. He knows it's going to come upon things bigger than it. But yet these things are what is known to God and unknown to us, and so graciously unknown to us.
[15:34] But they still rebel, and they fall short, and it is a lack of trust. I want you to see these outcomes of a rebellious response. First of all, we see that it is a public display.
[15:45] It is on public display. These people come back. Caleb speaks in verse 13, and Caleb says, Yes, the land is good. It is most definitely full of milk and honey. Remember, they brought back proof of that reality.
[15:57] They brought back some of the fruit of that land, and God had so ordained it that it was the first days of the grape harvest. So He had so ordained it to be the most fruitful time for the land.
[16:08] If you've ever done any kind of geographical study of the promised land, you understand that the grape harvest is a very important season for that land because of its provision for them. They had the early rains and the latter rains, but during that season when there were no rains, the grape harvest came right before it so that they could preserve the grapes and God could sustain them in such a fluid, abundant land.
[16:30] So God had brought them into His most glorious time, and they had brought back proof of that. And Caleb's like, Yes, let's go get it. Let's go take it. Let's go after it. And I love that because Caleb is probably 40 years old at this time, and the reason we know it, he's actually probably 42, because 38 years later, after they wander around and everybody else dies, and Caleb is 80, he still walks by faith and says, Yes, I'm going to go take this land which God has promised me.
[16:55] And we understand this. But 10 of them said, No, no, no, there's giants there. There's giants there. But we see here just this small minority. Listen, there are a million plus people, right? A million plus people.
[17:08] And 10 say, We can't do it. Look at the influence of the 10. Because it says, Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried.
[17:19] Negativity has a habit of spreading like wildfire. All it takes is a small minority to influence an overwhelming majority when the word is negative enough.
[17:37] Negativity always spreads faster. This is why we have so much negative news in front of us, right? This is why we hear so much negative talk. This is why we hear so much bad things, because the bad news spreads.
[17:48] And what we see here is they went out publicly and started declaring how hard it was going to be. And all of a sudden, the entire congregation lifted up their voices and cried. And they went to bed that night weeping. And it says they woke up the next morning.
[18:00] In verse 2, All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And they all started murmuring and grumbling and complaining. And their thing was, Well, they brought us out here to die in the wilderness. Why are we going to go die by the sword?
[18:12] Let's go back to Egypt. And it was this very public display of rebellion. And in the midst of that public display, you had four individuals. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua.
[18:25] Who did not take part. And the rest of them are there complaining. And they're murmuring. And they're making it public. Because here's what happens. I heard it actually today on the radio.
[18:35] Luis Bilal was kind of giving this great advice of one thing we need to do in our church. He said, Always speak well of your church. Always speak well of your church. Always speak positive of your church.
[18:46] Because the way we speak publicly about our church is how people will portray our church. And I thought it was very good advice, right? Very wise advice. And that's why I've always tried to be cautious.
[18:58] Anytime we have church shirts. And I tell church members, When we're wearing that shirt, we're representing a lot more than just us, right? We're representing the church. And we're representing what we want the people to see the church as being. Because it only takes a little bit of negative to spread like wildfire.
[19:16] And put on public display open rebellion. And we see this. This is what's going on here among the nation. Is there's public rebellion.
[19:26] Everybody's like, No, we're not going to go. No, we're not going to go. No, we're not going to go. No, because they get a report from ten individuals. But while there was public disobedience, there was also public humiliation.
[19:41] Because it says, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole congregation. Do you see that? They didn't go into a tent. They didn't go into a hiding place.
[19:54] They fell on their faces publicly in front of the whole congregation. Now, they're interceding for them. We'll get to that in just a moment. But as soon as they start rebelling, they start interceding.
[20:07] And they made it very public. They said, I'm going to pray for you, right? They just fell on their faces. And when they fell on their faces, then Joshua and Caleb started speaking. So you had public disobedience, public humiliation, and then public declaration.
[20:22] They said, What are we doing? Why are we rebelling? Let's move forward. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will give us the land. If we walk in obedience and we do what he's commanded us to do, then the people's protection of that land has been removed from them.
[20:38] Their protection is not in their size. Their protection is not in their walls. I mean, the walls of Jericho fell down because people marched around. And some scientists have tried to tell us how that happened. And I'll tell you exactly how it happened.
[20:49] The people obeyed God, and God caused the walls to fall down, right? That's all we need to know about it. I don't need any kind of scientific understanding of how it happened and the beating of the people's feet caused an earthquake. No, it's just God said, Do this.
[21:00] They did it, and the walls fell down. Exactly how God told them to do it. Now, I'll just go ahead and I've got to stop right here because this is one of the parts of that story that just really amazes me because there was one portion of that wall that did not fall down.
[21:11] Remember that? Because there was a prostitute who lived on the wall who hung a scarlet thread out of her window, and she lived on the wall.
[21:23] And as long as she stayed in her house on the wall, she was going to be preserved. Remember that? So there wasn't some earthquake. It was a divine hand of walking in obedience.
[21:37] So what we see here is there's this public rebellion, there's this public humiliation, and this public declaration of saying, No, let's follow the Lord. And unfortunately, what we have so many times is our churches failed to follow through on the second part of this public display of humbling ourselves and even prostrating ourselves and declaring the truth of the Word of God.
[22:03] But we see here that this is a public display. We not only see that as a result of this rebellion is there a public display, there is also the petition that is offered because as the people are rebelling, and you see Moses and Aaron prostrate before them all, falling on their faces, and you see Joshua and Caleb speaking, then the people have this great response.
[22:23] They say, Let's stone them. All right? While they're down there, let's go ahead and kill them and get them out of the way. Let's find our own leaders here. We'll just replace Joshua, Caleb, Moses, and Aaron with people of our own choosing.
[22:35] And I love this because it says, Then the Lord intervenes because it says, Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the nation. Then, at that point, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the nation before the tent of meeting.
[22:51] God intervened before they killed them. And God's intervention is a judgmental intervention. But as is the case in the book of Exodus, and as is the case that we see throughout Scripture, and by the way, this is a thing that we need to pay attention to, God always has a man to stand in the gap.
[23:11] Between his righteous judgment and his merciful decision. At this point, it's Moses.
[23:22] Now, Moses says in Deuteronomy 18, That God would raise up a prophet like unto me, that we see as being pointing to the fulfillment of Jesus Christ. Right?
[23:32] That God's righteous judgment is this. Moses, let me remove them. Now, did God intend to remove them? No. I mean, we don't want to get into all this, okay?
[23:43] But what God is showing us here, this theme that we need, that there is one who intercedes. There is a great intercessor. There is one who is standing between the people that are in need of judgment, deserving of judgment, deserving of wrath.
[23:59] The God who is righteous in his judgment. There is an intercessor who stands between them and holds back that judgment. And rather, we find grace and mercy and pardon and forgiveness.
[24:12] Because what God says, God says, I'm going to wipe them out. By the way, this is the second time God tells Moses this. Stand aside. I'm going to kill them all. I'm going to wipe them all out. And I'm going to make a great nation out of you.
[24:24] Second time. He said it after the golden calf incident. Right? He says it here as well. Stand aside. I'm going to kill them with a pestilence. I'm going to kill them with a plague. We just need to go ahead and recognize this. That whole group was deserving of that judgment.
[24:38] God himself declares, these ten times they have rebelled against me. We could go back and point to ten specific rebellions since they were set free from Egyptian slavery.
[24:51] Ten specific rebellions of murmuring and complaining. We don't know if God is speaking of the literal ten rebellions we have recorded or if God is just setting a standard. As I have delivered them with ten plagues, they have fully rebelled against me ten times.
[25:08] And they were standing deserving of this judgment. Moses here petitions God. Intercedes on behalf of the people. But I want you to notice this intercession because, by the way, all these things point to the New Testament.
[25:24] Right? It's always pointing to Christ. It helps us to understand. And I think these truths, the book of Exodus, all these things, they help us to fully understand our salvation. Because Moses never speaks of the worthiness of the people.
[25:38] Do you notice that? He doesn't say, don't do it, Lord, because they're pretty good people. He doesn't say, don't do it, Lord, because they won't do it again. He doesn't say, don't do it, Lord, because they didn't mean to do it.
[25:48] He says, God, for your own sake, don't do it. Because the people will hear. He begins to speak of the character of God. God, the Egyptians know that you had set them free.
[26:00] The Egyptians will tell the other people that you could not bring them in. The Egyptians will spread the word, Lord, your glory will fail because the people of the world will say, you were not strong enough to deliver what you had promised them.
[26:12] God, you made a promise. And if you don't, you didn't promise it to Moses. You promised it to Abraham. And these are the descendants of Abraham. You told Abraham that his people, a multitude of people, would come into the promised land.
[26:24] Everybody knows of this. This is one of the great things that we have in Christianity. It's one of the great things we have in the Bible. God has foretold things that will happen. Right? Read the book of Revelations.
[26:35] We know what's going to happen. We can read the Old Testament. We know what's going to happen. And then we see God fulfill that because he stakes his glory on it. Essentially among mankind.
[26:47] The glory of God is dependent upon God staying true to what he has promised. The glory of God is staked upon the reality that what God has intended to do, he will do.
[27:00] And when Moses petitions, he doesn't petition on behalf of the people. He petitions on behalf of God's faithfulness to what he has said. To God's purpose.
[27:12] To what he has promised. We see these realities. It was never, God, they're better than that. God, they're okay. God, they're sorry. It was none of that.
[27:24] The petition that Moses offers is all of the Lord God. His glory. His faithfulness. His worthiness. He says, God, let your glory not be barred among the nations.
[27:38] And we see this petition that is offered. And he says this reality. He says, God, pardon them by your power. Forgive them. And this leads us to the third thing.
[27:50] And I know I'm making my way through here fairly quickly. I have no idea of the time. But it's such a rich text. It would take us a very long time to go through here. But we see the third thing, and it is the punishment that is ordained.
[28:03] Now, I love this reality. I love this reality that we see here. Verse 20 says, So the Lord said, I have pardoned them according to your word.
[28:16] So, the question is, were they forgiven? Yes. But forgiveness or pardon doesn't remove consequences. Sin has consequences.
[28:31] And the consequences of sin are not automatically removed because of the forgiveness that's offered us by grace and mercy.
[28:44] This is something we need to understand now. Even in today's time, that when we sin and we fall and we mess up and we cry out to God based upon his character, based upon his promises, based upon his word, God is faithful to forgive us.
[29:02] But that does not necessarily mean he is going to remove the consequences of our sin. As Tony Evans says, sometimes God loves us enough to take us through those consequences.
[29:14] Sometimes he may lighten those consequences. But not always. Because the consequences of sin are something that is ordained by God as a result of our sin nature.
[29:31] So God says, I have pardoned them. Okay? So it's not a matter of God's pardoning, but he pronounces their punishment. They're going to die in the wilderness. Does that mean that God's unloving?
[29:43] No. God, by the way, by their own declaration, God gave them what they wanted. Oh, that we had died in the wilderness, they said.
[30:00] God says, that's what you want? That's what you'll get. You see it? It says, oh, that we had died in the wilderness rather than dying by the sword.
[30:11] So God says, as you have said, so it will be done to you. By the way, let us be very, very careful. And what we tell God we wish he would do with us rather than what he is calling us to do.
[30:26] Because some of the scariest portions of scripture that I have ever come across is when God lets man have his way. It says in the book of Romans that God gave them over to a debased mind.
[30:39] It says in the book of 2 Thessalonians that God gives them over to believe the lie. God says, you say you want to die in the wilderness, I will let you die in the wilderness.
[30:51] Here's the punishment that is extended to them. It says that all those males that are 20 years old and upward, all those who were able to go into battle, those who were called to march victoriously and to take the land, every one of them will die.
[31:04] You will go into the promised land and for every day you went into the promised land, you will march in the wilderness a year. So 40 days going around the promised land, 40 years in the wilderness. Now it's going to be 38 years because they've already been there too.
[31:17] It's already been two years since they left Egypt by this time, by the time they turn around. So you've got 38 more years of wandering. Someone has said that Moses led the longest funeral march ever led. You're going to march in a circle until everybody dies.
[31:29] The only ones that won't die is Joshua and Caleb. Now look here at this great accuracy of the word of God. Why? Because Moses and Aaron have yet to commit the sin that God said would keep them out of the promised land.
[31:45] But the declaration of God was that only Joshua and Caleb would go in. They'll commit that sin here in a couple chapters.
[31:56] The striking of the rock when they were supposed to speak the rock and God says for that. But God does not get caught in this kind of catch 22 phrase, right? God says that all males, 20 years old and upward, would die.
[32:07] Which included Moses and Aaron. Why? Because God does not see things in the future. He sees things in the present. He knew their rebellious heart. He knew what was going to happen.
[32:18] We'll get to that when we get to it in the book of Numbers. But what we see here is this punishment that is ordained upon them. It says that the children whom you said would die, they're going to be the ones who take possession of.
[32:31] But the children were going to suffer for the rebellion of his people. He said, your children will have to be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years. Their children were supposed to be living in houses they did not build, and drinking from water from wells they did not dig, and eating from trees they did not plant, and from gardens they did not plow.
[32:50] He says, but rather your children are going to suffer because they're going to have to be shepherds in this wasteland for 40 years. Because the consequences of sin affect generations which follow us.
[33:04] It doesn't mean that the children will die for the sins of the Father, because God says in other places that that is not the case, that each man will die for his own sin. But the sins of the Father will always, always, always affect the generations which follow him.
[33:17] Most times, more than one generation will be living together in a house. So be careful how we live in rebellion.
[33:28] Here's the punishment that's ordained. Now the fourth thing I want you to see, and this is the danger that so many of us have, and it is the presumption that is made.
[33:38] Because God ordained this punishment, he said that they would die, and in order to validate his word, those ten men who rebelled publicly against him died immediately in the presence of all.
[33:51] Those ten men. It says a plague fell upon them and they died. So everyone, after hearing this declaration from Moses that this is going to be the punishment, sees the visible evidence that God really means it, because these ten men who have rebelled against him and led everybody astray, are held accountable for their actions and their words, and they die.
[34:11] So the people go back to their tents, weeping again. They wept the first time because they didn't want to obey. They're weeping again now because of the consequences of their sin. So they were mourning and weeping because these ten men died.
[34:21] I mean, God really meant this is what's going to happen. It says, and they woke up the next morning, and they said, we have sinned, now we're going to go take the land. Here's the presumption that is made. As long as I'm sorry, I can just go ahead and do what God's called me to do.
[34:35] Now we need to understand their we have sinned was not repentance. They were sorry for the consequences that were put upon them. There's a big difference in a repentant heart and a heart that does not like consequences.
[34:53] And they woke up the next morning and they said, well, we acknowledge our sin, we were wrong, so we're going to go take the land. Moses says, don't do that. Why? I told you something Sunday morning. Every time God's people rebelled, God added something to them.
[35:07] Right? There's a consequence added. God commanded them to turn around and go back to the way of the Red Sea. So God's command was, I'm still going to bring you people into the promised land, but you're going to go a 38-year journey before you get there.
[35:23] So now they wake up the next morning and they say, we're going to go take it. We're sorry we did it. We're going to go take it. That's presumption because presumption says, as long as I'm sorry, I can do what God told me to do.
[35:34] God had already given a new command. He had commanded them once to go take the promised land. They disobeyed that command. So God says, okay, now turn around. Go around the long way, literally, for 38 more years before you go into the promised land.
[35:47] They thought that their regret would open up the door for them to move forward. Moses says, don't do it. The Amalekites and the Canaanites, they're over the hill.
[36:00] Don't do it. You notice it says the Ark of the Covenant stayed in the camp and Moses stayed in the camp. And they went up there presuming that because they were sorry, God was going to do what he had told them they would do.
[36:14] It says they were defeated and they were pushed back as far as Hormah. Not only were they defeated, Hormah is 100 miles away. They were driven 100 miles back from where God had told them to turn around.
[36:32] Once God calls us to do something and we refuse to walk in obedience to do it, we cannot change the consequences he puts upon us simply by going, oh, I shouldn't have done that and attempting to presume we can move forward.
[36:54] Because God had given a new command. Turn around. Go the other way. And they thought, well, as long as I feel bad about it, I'm okay. Sin and rebellion is a very, very big thing.
[37:13] Especially when it comes to obeying what God had called his people to clearly do. And it was equally as sinful to presume that they could get up the next morning and move forward anyway.
[37:26] Because God says, no, we're not doing that. Here we see the outcomes of a rebellious response to doing what God had called them to do in Numbers 14.
[37:42] Thank you. Thank you.
[37:58] Thank you.