Grumbling about Plans (Numbers 13-14)

“So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19)

So, what kind of faith do you have? Is it a simple interest in religious activity and comfort. Or do you truly rely on God, for your eternal salvation?

Grumbling about Plans (Numbers 13 and 14)

Will you follow Jesus, when it seems impossible?

As Christians we receive incredible blessings. We can become children of God, and come to him as our father, because Jesus his Son became one of us. We are no longer under condemnation for our sins, because Jesus died for us and we receive the gift of eternal life, because Jesus in his death and resurrection has defeated death.

These are incredible blessings, but at times it can feel like it is impossible to follow Jesus. Jesus, himself said that to follow him, we need to take up our crosses and deny ourselves. In other words, it is going to be tough at times. When challenges come, the temptation can be to give up and return to our old life.

It may be that we struggle with temptations and resisting them just seems too hard, we don’t believe God will help us. It may be that we are experiencing pressure from friends or family for being a Christian, and we don’t believe that following Jesus will bring us enough support, when human support seems to be rejecting us. It may be that we are struggling financially and we feel we have to fiddle our taxes or cheat on our benefits or steal from others in order to make ends meet, because we do not believe God will provide for us anyway.

To follow Jesus, through tough times, means trusting that he will be faithful in those times. When we stop trusting or believing, then we end up on Jesus and returning to the seemingly easier life without him. But to do so is also to lose out on the blessings he offers us, to fail to enter into the promises he gives to us.

The writer of Hebrews, who was trying to encourage Christians not to give up, warns about this danger of unbelief. He says,

“So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:19)

He is using an example from the Old Testament, the story of Israel when they first came to the edge of the Promised Land.

Ready to Enter?

Israel had seen some amazing things. They had seen God force Pharaoh, the king of Egypt forced to release them from slavery, by sending a series of ten plagues on the Egyptians. They had seen God miraculously rescue them from the pursuing Egyptian army by enabling them to cross the Red Sea on dry land. They had experienced God’s miraculous provision of food and water in the Wilderness and they had met with God at Mount Sinai, spending a year camped there with him.

Now after travelling for a few months, they were on the edge of the Promised Land, a wonderful land that God had promised to their ancestors centuries before. This was the moment, where they were to receive that amazing promise, to enter the land and conquer it.

But first in preparation, Moses sent out Twelve Spies, one from each of the tribes to check out the land. To see if it lived up to the promise of God in turns of bounty and to assess the challenge of the people they would have to defeat.

After travelling around the land, the spies returned. The land was indeed good, a land flowing with milk and honey, a term used to describe places of abundant resources of food. They even brought back some massive clusters of grapes to show how good the land was. All the spies were agreed on this, but when it came to the people of the land there were two different assessments.

Ten of the spies emphasised the impossibility of conquering the land, whilst two emphasised that God was with them and they could do it. In the words of the children’s song. Ten were bad, two were good. So, let’s explore what was bad about the ten and what was good about the two.

The Ten Bad Spies

1. Grasshopper Mentality – 13:27-29; 31-33

The first problem with ten spies, was their grasshopper mentality.

Their speech ends by comparing themselves with the warriors in the land:

Bring

Throughout their speech they have increasingly exaggerated the military challenging facing Israel in conquering the land. The land was full of different peoples, the cities were large and fortified.

In particular they mention the descendants of Anak. These were a people particularly renowned for their height. It may be that Goliath was one of the last surviving members of this tribe.

These descendants of Anak were associated with the Nephilim, a mysterious group, that Genesis 6 implies were semi-divine superheroes. How could the Israelites fight such people?

So, this was the report they brought back to the Israelites. They were basically saying, the land God promised is wonderful, but there is no way we can capture it.

1. Incite Rebellion – 14:1-4; 14:10

To the people of Israel who had come so far in order to reach the promised land, this message was devastating. Their response was to grumble against Moses and Aaron. Had they led them to the Promised Land just to be destroyed by its ferocious inhabitants? Wouldn’t their children just become plunder to the locals. Surely they would be better off ditching Moses and Aaron as leaders, appointing a new leader and heading back to Egypt. After all, being a slave in Egypt was better than being dead in Canaan!

When Joshua and Caleb tried to argue against this, they were so enraged that they actually tried to stone them.

The bad report from the Ten was not just them being a bit negative, it was leading to the complete abandonment of the whole mission by the whole people. Their lack of faith in God’s ability to help them defeat the people in the Promised Land, had caused disbelief among the whole nation. It was a lack of faith that made them want to give up and return to their old life. To give up on all hope of entering the Promised Land, of receiving the blessings God wanted to give to them.

1. Bring Judgement – 14:11, 20-38

But this was a lack of faith in the God who had rescued them so powerfully from Egypt. Look at how God sees their response in 14:11:

“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?” (Numbers 14:11)

To disbelieve God is to treat him with contempt. It is to tell him, I don’t think you are loving enough, faithful enough or strong enough to help me.

It is no wonder that God is angry with the Israelites. He tells Moses that none of the Israelites who are twenty years and older will enter the Promised Land. Instead they will wander around the wilderness for forty years until they have all died out, then the next generation, those under twenty and yet to be born, will go into the promised land. The ones they feared would become plunder in the land will be the ones to eventually plunder it.

This judgement fits God’s description of his own character. Moses quotes it in 14:18:

“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.” (Numbers 14:18)

God could have wiped out Israel completely for their sin, but he limits his judgement on Israel to the third and fourth generation. The generation that sinned, will not enter the promised land and receive its blessings. Their children and grandchildren and even some of the great-grandchildren will suffer as a result, because they will be stuck in the wilderness for forty years, but they will eventually receive God’s blessing and future generations would enjoy the blessing of living in the land.

The results of the ten spies bad report was judgement on their whole generation, a judgement that would affect the next few generations, but would not prevent God’s plans overall.

But, the judgement on the ten spies was to be even more immediate. Those who lead others into disbelief or sin are worse than those who follow them and are worthy of more severe judgement. The ten spies are immediately struck down with a plague.

• As we reflect on the ten bad spies, we need to see the seriousness of disbelief. It is corrosive and contagious. It destroys our relationship with God and separates us from the blessings he offers, and ultimately it ends in judgement.

But, our individual disbelief will never destroy God’s plans. The first generation may have failed to enter into God’s promises through disbelief, but the next generation will receive the promise.

Most of us have grown up in the midst of generations that have shown complete disbelief in the Christian message. Now, however, there are signs that the younger generations are beginning to turn back to God. Our generations may be losing out because of their unbelief, but God’s plans will not be thwarted!

The Two Good Spies

1. True Faith – 13:30; 14:7-9

In contrast to the ten bad spies, the two good spies show true faith. Whereas their colleagues emphasised the impossibility of conquering the land, Joshua and Caleb emphasise that they can do it. Whereas the others ignored God in the equation, Joshua and Caleb emphasise that because God is with them, they do not need to be afraid of the giants in the land. At the end of their speech they say:

“Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:9)

Now is not the time for giving up and going back to the old life, now is the time for faith and going forward to receive the promises God longs to give to us.

1. Speak Out – 13:30; 14:7-9

To speak out in this way was brave. They were the minority speaking out against the majority. They were outnumbered 5 to 1. It would have been very easy to have kept quiet and go along with the crowd. Especially when it was becoming obvious that the ten were swaying the whole people to give up on going into Egypt.

In 13:30, Caleb has to silence the people to speak out, and in chapter 14, Joshua and Caleb speak out, even though the people are now set on choosing new leaders and going back to Egypt. Speaking out, was becoming increasingly risky, but they still did it. The result was that the Israelites became so angry with them, that in 14:10 we are told that were on the point of stoning them. If it wasn’t for God appearing in glory, they may well have been the first spies to die.

Yet, Joshua and Caleb were passionate about receiving God’s blessing. They wanted the best for the people and were desperate to try and persuade them.

1. Receive Blessing – 14:30-31

In the end what looked to be a serious mistake turned into a great blessing for these two spies. They were rescued from being stoned and did not die along with the ten spies who were struck down with plague. In fact, God honoured their faith and courage by pronouncing that out of all of their generation, they would be the only ones who would enter into the Promised Land. In fact, they would be the ones to lead the new generation in faith into the conquest of the land and enable Israel to finally receive the blessings that God had been promising.

• As we reflect on these two spies, we see the example of their faith in the face of so much disbelief. Democracy has its merits as a system of selecting a government and making decisions, but there is no guarantee that the majority will always make the right decisions. At times, we will need to be those who speak out, in defiance of the majority opinion if we are to be true followers of Christ. That takes courage and faith, but God will ultimately bless those who do.

After all, Jesus spoke out against the majority of the religious leaders of his day, even though in the end they took him and crucified him for it. But, he trusted in God, and God blessed him by raising him from the dead.

Faith or Disbelief?

So, when following Jesus looks to be impossible, will you have faith that God will help you through or will you give up and return to your old life? Will you embrace the promised blessings God has for you or will you treat him with contempt and abandon his way.

Look again at the God for whom nothing is impossible. Have faith and follow him with courage to the ultimate blessings he will give you.