Becoming Promised Land People

January 7, 2018

New Life at First Baptist:  Becoming Promised Land People

Numbers 14:1-38, esp. vv 7-8                    NOTES NOT EDITED

SIS: If we as individuals, families, and the church want to experience something new in the New Year, then we need to think and act in new ways.

READ NUMBERS 14:1-10

**  This is an archetypal passage:  it is a pivotal text that is used to give context to the rest of the Bible.  For example, Paul uses this story in Hebrews, chapter 3.

**  The force of this passage is supported by the “divine revelatory formula” in verse one of chapter one, that is used throughout the Book of Numbers.  It is in fact the Hebrew title for the Book.  The Hebrew titles (like many book titles) sets forth the major theme of the Book.  This formula:  “And the Lord spoke,” is used 65 times in the Book of Numbers.

**  Additional force is given to this text in the use of the “piel” stem in the Hebrew word for, “He spoke.”  The piel stem is commonly referred to as the “intensive stem.”  To make a word more forceful, the Hebrews would use the “piel” stem.  It would be correct to translate these words literally as, “God spoke with intensity and forcefulness” to Moses.  You could even say, “God SHOUTED to Moses.”  This passage deserves very, very careful consideration by God’s congregation.

**  Having said that, let me quickly say, “that even if God came and spoke face to face with most people (as Jesus in fact did) they still would reject His guidance and control of their lives.”  To reject God’s clear command to move forward as a congregation is to invoke God’s wrath and condemnation on our lives.  I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO COMPREHEND AND EMBRACE THIS MESSAGE.

**  One more important piece of background:  the Promised Land in this passage is not a picture of “heaven.”  It is a picture (a model) of what it means to experience the power and providence of God in the here and now.  Heaven will come soon enough and all you have to do to possess it is accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.  Becoming a Promised Land Believer is a different matter entirely.  This is what theologians refer to as “sanctification.”  This is what I refer to as “Victorious Christian Living.”

There are three pieces to the puzzle of becoming a “Promised Land Believer.”  We need to put something BEHIND us, look forward to something BEFORE us, and experience the power of someBODY WITH us.

1.  Putting something BEHIND us (1-4)

Someone posted a statement on my FB page that sums up what I am trying to say:  “We cannot experience a new chapter in our lives if we continue to re-read the last chapter!”

You cannot harvest happiness by sowing seeds of regret.  Likewise, you cannot experience “new joys” relying on past successes.  A new experience requires “forward” motion.  Even if you fall, you can make progress if you simply “fall forward!”

You cannot possibly move forward if you keep making a “U-turn” in your life to go back to what is familiar and comfortable.   Like most men, I hate to make “U-turns.”  This is an indication I made a wrong turn in the first place – and I just don’t like admitting I’m wrong.  And, I don’t like going “backwards.”

I recently read about an experience of an elderly couple that illustrates what I mean.  An elderly couple was travelling on vacation and stopped to eat.  After a leisurely meal, the couple got back into the car and continued onto their destination.  About an hour into the drive, the women noticed she had forgotten her glasses at the restaurant.  This really aggravated her husband who acted in the typical grumpy manner and began to scold her tirelessly.  It didn’t help that they had to drive several miles before they found an off ramp they could take to turn around.  Then, the old geezer berated his wife for the entire hour long trip back to the restaurant.  The woman was nearly in tears.  Finally, they arrived at the restaurant.  The woman was glad that her hour long scolding was about over.  Yet, as she was walking into the restaurant the old geezer rolled down the window to yell at her one last time.  He screamed at the top of his lungs:  “Woman, I guess while you are getting your glasses you might as well pick up my hat and our credit card!

Maybe, we shouldn’t be an “old geezer” about turning around to get our wife’s glasses, but we SHOULD detest the very thought of ever going back to old habits, old ways, or the slavery of a life of sin.  The direction of the Christian life should always be forward.

Here, we observe the sad reality of how so many Christians, and so many churches, react to change.  Read with me verses 1-4:

Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. ² All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron,  and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and little children will become plunder.  Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”  ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Egypt represents sin and the bondage it brings into our lives.  The Jews, by this time, had been slaves in Egypt for over 430 years. There lives were characterized by bitterness, disappointment, and a total lack of freedom.  The same condition we live under (and worse) when we are slaves to sin.

God heard the cries of His people and sent them a Deliverer—Moses.  Moses miraculously led the entire (up to 2 million) nation out of Egypt, the most powerful dynasty in the ancient world.  Now, they were at a point of decision.  Do we move forward into the Promised Land, or do we go back to our old, tired, disappointing lives.

Like most people:  they voted for a return to status quo (the way things were).  They voted to “go back.”  The result would be that the entire nation would wander in the barren wilderness of Zin for the next 40 years! 

This is typical of many people who get saved.  They start out great, but soon their taste for the “old ways” gets the best of them and they slide back into old habits, old ways, and an old life of bondage.

Friend, if you hear nothing else this morning hear this:  “You can never make progress in your life if you go back to your old ways.”  If you want to experience something really new in the New Year, you have to put your old life BEHIND you.

Here’s a picture of the national seal for Australia. The two animals holding up the coat of arms are iconic to Australia.  In fact, the kangaroo and the emu are only found on this continent. Common lore states that the kangaroo and emu were chosen for the national emblem because they “cannot move backward.”  In fact, they “can” move backward, but only with great difficulty, and they seldom ever move backward.  The kangaroo and emu, then, symbolize the on-going progress and success of Australia.

Unfortunately, humans can and do move backward.  However, if you want to experience the “full blessing of God’s presence” in your life in the New Year, you need to once and for all, put yesterday BEHIND you.  You need to once and for all, with all the enthusiasm and sincerity a human can muster, forsake your life of sin and put it BEHIND you.  Shed all of yesterdays, failures as well as successes, and move steadily forward toward the Promised Land.

2.  You need to have something BEFORE you.  (7)

We work a lot like the old donkeys that would turn a millstone to grind grain.  We need a “carrot” dangling in front of us to motivate us to move forward.  SLIDE OF DONKEY AND CARROT

Notice this same type of motivation taking place in verse 7:

The land we passed through and explored
is an extremely good land.

Literally the verse reads, “very, very good land.”  There is nothing “second rate about” the gifts God gives.  James says:

^1:17 Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights.

A major theme of the Bible is “gift-giving” with God leading the way.  Dr. Henry Morris points out:  The theme of giving is strong in the Scriptures. The words "give," "giving," "gift" and other such words occur at least 2100 times. The very first occurrence, however, is in connection with the giving of light. God placed the great lights in the heavens "to give light upon the earth" (Genesis 1:15). Then, of course, we know God not only gave the “first gift” (of creation) but gave the “best”gift in His Son:

¹⁶ “For God loved  the world in this way:  He gave His One and Only  Son,  so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Because God is the Greatest Gift Giver, we can look forward to heaven (and eternal life) “some” day.  What most Christians overlook, however, is that we can also look for a “little taste of heaven, today.”  The Bible speaks abundantly of how God blesses people with all kinds of blessings right here—right now!

Have you ever stopped to think of how many times Jesus blessed someone with an earthly blessing.  At least 65 miracles are recorded in the Gospels.  Many of them were “healings.”  Every one of those 65 or so miracles was an “immediate, right here, right” now blessing.

The Promised Land is not about “pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-by-and-by.”  The Promised Land was a “tangible piece of honest to goodness real estate” that was as “sweet as milk and honey.”

Often, when I think of the possibilities available in my life and in the life of our church, I think of Habakkuk.  He said:

3:2  Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known;

in wrath remember mercy. (NIV)

“In our day; in our time.”  Here’s a promise that does not require we die to see it fulfilled.  Oh, yes, heaven’s a great gift, and I look forward with great expectation of claiming it someday – JUST NOT TODAY!

Friend, I’m not so much interested in “pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-by-and-by” as I am “tasting a great big slice right here—right now!

Notice how Joshua describes the Promised Land that lay BEFORE the Israelites.  Not only was it “exceedingly good,” but it was “explored.”  That is:  they saw it; they touched it; and they even tasted of it’s fruit.  This was not a “someday promise,” but a “today reality.”

Sadly I must say to you today, “most believers will not take hold of the Promised Land that lies right BEFORE you.”  Most Christians will not change any attitude or take any new action in the New Year and “if they make it to December of 2019,” the year will be very much like last year—maybe even worse.

In order to experience something new in the New Year, you need to think new thoughts and take new actions.  The same is true for our church.

To really change our attitudes and actions, we need to be motivated by the “extremely good land” that lies right before us.  All we need to do is be “obedient” to go in and take what God has already promised to us!-

In order to experience something new in the New Year, you need to think new thoughts and take new actions.  The same is true for our church.

Write that down!  That is a critical component of becoming a Promised Land Believer:  see the extremely good land that lies BEFORE you. 

Now, remember the report from the 10 cowardly spies:

^13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³² And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

There is never a “victory” without a “battle.”  Victorious Christian Living as a Promised Land Believer will require a lot of sacrifice and you will face a lot of challenges.  At the end of your sacrifice and challenge however will lie “an extremely good land.”

To become a Promised Land Believer you need something BEHIND you—all your disappointment, failures, and propensity to sin—and you need something BEFORE you—the extremely good land of God’s promise for obedience—and,

3.  SomeBODY WITH you (8ff)

Here’s the real key to living a Promised Land life.  Joshua points out:

⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ 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.”

Oh, friends, the Bible declares:  “If God be for us, who can be against us!” (Rom 8:31).  That’s a rhetorical question that does not call for a vocal answer because the answer is obvious:  “If God is for us NOBODY can be against us.”

We just celebrated Christmas.  Remember what the angel said the child’s name would be:  “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.”

If we could only bring ourselves to trust what God clearly says in His word, we would march into our world and take back that which the Devil has stolen.

As Charlie Daniels sang:  “We would take back or streets and take back our schools.”

It's gettin' late but the battle ain't lost
He's raising an army at the foot of the cross
With the weapon of prayer and the everlasting power of love
It's time to take off the gloves change all the rules
Take back our streets and take back our schools
(Hey Satan) take your hands off America the beautiful

Don't worry about the darkness for we are the children of light
And we can still win the battle but it's gonna be a whale of a fight.

God never told the Israelites there were not “giants”in the land.  God simply promised that the giants would be defeated!  God promised that He would be ‘WITH’ us, as we move out into obedience.

When all hell breaks lose in your life the safest place to be in right in the middle of God’s will. 

The Israelites thought they would be safer as slaves in Egypt, but in fact they would have been safer fighting the giants in the Promised Land.

The early American Indians had a unique practice of training young braves. On the night of a boy's thirteenth birthday, after learning hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was put to one final test. He was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of the family and the tribe. But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken several miles away.  When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of a thick woods and he was terrified! Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. After what seemed like an eternity, dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was his father. He had been there all night long.

Even when we cannot see God we can know He is there.  His Presence is our protection.  Look at verse 9 again:

Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.

Without God, a person has no protection against the myriad of evils that ever person must face in life.  A believer has the promise of God’s presence which gives us the protection of God’s power.

We cannot lose in the battle of life as long as we have God on our side—and, we always have God on our side when we are moving forward according to God’s command.

If we want to experience something “new” in the New Year, we must think and act in new ways.  We must put last year BEHIND us, keep God’s Promise BEFORE us, and realize that whatever we face, God is WITH us.

This can be the best year of our lives if we trust God radically.

Let’s Pray For Courage to Become Promised Land Believers.