The End of Israel in the Wilderness

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Greetings!

Yesterday, we finished our series in Exodus and Numbers, looking at the people's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. We saw the people reach the Promised Land in Numbers 13 & 14, and how they failed to enter it.

It started well, with the people reaching the edge of the land and Moses sending scouts out to explore it, but it all went horribly wrong.

We saw 5 stages in the disaster that unfolded as the scouts reported back in Numbers 13:24-33.

1. They ignored God – they didn't see the land as the land that God was giving them or the Promised Land – it was just the land Moses had told them to look at.

2. They looked at the opposition instead of God. They saw lots of people, and fortified cities.

3. They were afraid.

4. They let their fear distort the facts. By v31-33, they are contradicting themselves with the land eating its inhabitants, but the inhabitants being giants.

5. They let their fear affect their sense of self-worth. They think the people see them as grasshoppers to be stepped on; they start seeing themselves that way as well.

This leads to the final verdict on them that they have treated God with contempt, so will never enter the Promised Land (14:10-12)

Compare that with Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful scouts, who report back in Numbers 14:5-9.

  • They look at God and remember his power

  • They respond with faith.

  • They see that for all the Canaanites' fortresses, their defence is God because God is with Israel.

  • They see their identity as being "the people who God is with".

In the same way, it can be really easy for us to be intimidated by the world into being too scared to stand up for Jesus. We can hear voices telling us we are too guilty, too weak, too old, too young, too irrelevant, too foolish, whatever it is.

But we can instead choose to listen to God's voice, which tells us

Never will I leave you, nor forsake you.

The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation – the old has gone, the new has come.

Let's trust his voice this week!

God bless,

John

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