Interpreting the Facts
(Numbers 13:1-33)
1. Joe Friday: "Just the facts, mam."
2. A lot of what is presented as facts are really interpretations of fact. When we are taught interpretations of facts as actual facts, we become biased and blind to the difference between what we have been told and what is.
3. In their book Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman tell about a test that was conducted at a college. They said the teacher couldn't make it, but they had a guest instructor. Half the students were given a brief bio that included that statement that the instructor was competent, even though he was considered to be cold by some. The other bio was given to half the students that had all the same information, except it said that the professors was said to be warm in personality.
4. After class, they asked students to evaluate the prof. The students who had the bio that said he was cold indicated that such was the case; the half with the bio that said he had a warm personality indicated that. [source: "Sway," by Ori and Rom Brafman, pp. 72-73.
5. People are prone to be biased because they have accepted another's interpretation of fact or they themselves jump to conclusions. We see that phenomenon played out in today's text.
I. The Storyline: Same Facts, DIFFERENT Interpretation
A. The Facts PRESENTED
1. Spies go out, probably in twos.
2. The people initiated this, according to Deuteronomy 1:22
3. Check out land, crops, and people
4. They come back at different times, having spied out different regions
5. Land is flowing with milk and honey, crops large
6. They bring a big bunch of grapes and taste them
7. But the men are huge, the Sons of Anak
The New Testament is filled with midrashim from this chapter and the next
i. Much of the Book of Hebrews is a midrash on this, including chapter 6.
ii. Jesus naming 12 apostles may be drawn as a midrash from this text.
iii. The nicknaming of disciples also originates here; Moses nicknames Joshua
iv. God penalizes the Jews for 40 years and then the believing generation conquers; in NT, God gives the Jews 40 years to receive Christ, they do not generally do so, so He brings judgment.
B. The Facts Interpreted NATURALLY
1. The people are strong
2. Large cities and fortified by walls (30 to 50 feet high, 15 feet thick)Large inhabitants; we seemed like grasshoppers in their sight (how did they know what the Canaanites thought)?
3. Hyperbole: exaggerating; they were not that big!
4. They had to spread their fear and doubt
5. Verse 31 can be translated "stronger than we" or "stronger than He."
C. The Facts Interpreted Through the Eyes of FAITH
1. Caleb, also speaking for Joshua, says, "We can do it."
2. Note the simplicity of verse 30
Two groups, one large (10 spies), one small (2 spies). Was the majority right? They had the same facts as the minority. How could they be drawn to two opposite conclusions?
II. How We Reach Poor CONCLUSIONS
A. We think EMOTIONALLY
1. Instincts are not always bad, but thinking emotionally is
2. "Following your heart" is the philosophy of the age; brain use
3. Wisdom, reason, and sensibility are considered boring, stifling, and joyless.
4. How much we value wisdom probably indicates how wise we are
B. We follow the HERD and trends
1. From designer jeans to beanie babies, we do not trust our own taste or opinions, so we let others set the course and we join in
2. In truth, we are afraid to be ourselves
3. We are also hesitant to go at things alone, even if God demands it
4. Like the demon-possessed swine rushing off the edge of a cliff, many modern Christians simply join the herd…whatever the new fads are…
C. We are SWAYED through faulty thinking
1. Our forefathers in faith advocated taking this land from the Indians & then later the Mexicans
2. Many of them advocated slavery and racism
3. Why did so many Christians go along with these things? runaway spending, R-rated movies, refuse to say no to their children, and interests of life displace God from as first priority. Because crowd does it. Christian crowd?
Main Idea: If we want to interpret life and the decisions of life reasonably, we need to develop the Biblical virtue of wisdom, a wisdom that comes from adjusting to God's Word.
III. Notice How FAITH in God's Word Makes the Difference
How did Caleb and Joshua, the two faithful spies, think?
A. They knew what God said and what it MEANT
1. Matters were much more gray to the doubters…
2. Do you make God's certain truth uncertain? Do you refuse to draw conclusions and act on what the Word means? Are you hesitant?
B. They TRUSTED in God's character
1. Sometimes, it is hard to believe that God is good.
2. God calls us to trust Him even when we do not understand.
3. But God had established such a track record for this generation…
4. Are you missing the promised land – God's will for you – out of unbelief?
C. They chose obedient RISK over complacent fear
1. The more I learn about human nature, the more I see about how much fear affects us.
2. We can resist change because we are strapped by fear. Social fear. People gravitate to their "kind" because they are afraid of those who are different.
3. We will go through great effort to keep from losing; we are more enthused about not losing than we are winning….
4. Experiment: $20 bidding…..(book, Sway). If eggs go down, we do not usually buy more of them; if they go up, we do without. We are also hesitant to let things go (like life in Egypt), even if it is unsalvageable.
5. Too much commitment to the wrong things.
D. They marched to the beat of a DIFFERENT drummer
1. A traditional radio has a variable capacitor we know as a tuning dial. Its purpose is to help us tune into the right frequency and blot out competing stations.
2. Nothing distinguishes the solid disciple of Jesus Christ like his willingness to tune into and follow his Lord, blotting out competing masters. We can then march to his beat, not the beat of others.
3. Hearing that beat does not come by default, nor is it instinctive. It does not come through denial, procrastination, or going with the flow. It takes time in the Word, in church, in fellowship, and in prayer. We must tune and retune, because our tuning dial slips. Before we know it, we are on another station.
CONCLUSION
If we want to interpret life and the decisions of life reasonably, we need to develop the Biblical virtue of wisdom, a wisdom that comes from adjusting to God's Word.
1. So what kind of Christian are you – one who follows the trends and majorities – one who thinks the way the 10 spies did – or one who will stand in the minority, like Joshua and Caleb? To what radio station is your spiritual dial tuned?
2. A second question is this: which do I want to be like?
