ENGAGE
This morning I’m going to begin with a poll. I’m going to put some names up on the screen and ask you to raise your hand if you’re familiar with that person at all:
• Shammua
• Shaphat
• Caleb
• Igal
• Joshua
• Ponziel
• Palti
• Gaddiel
• Gaddi
• Ammiel
• Sethur
• Nahbi
• Geuel
Just for the fun of it I threw one name in there that’s not in the Bible at all, but the other 12 all appear in the first 15 verses of chapter 13 of the book of Numbers and they all have something in common, as we’ll see in just a few moments. So why is it that most of us are only familiar with two of the names on that list? What is it that separated them from the other ten?
TENSION
I could ask similar questions of all of us this morning. I could ask how are we are living our lives in a way that sets us apart from the surrounding culture and making a positive impact on the kingdom of God? And although our goal is not to be famous like Joshua and Caleb, I could also ask if our lives are being lived out in a way that others notice that there is something different that separates us from the crowd? We’ll look at the lives of Joshua and Caleb to help us answer those questions this morning.
TRUTH
Let’s begin by setting the stage for the account that we’ll look at this morning. In order to do that we have to go all the way back to the promises that God had made to Abraham over 600 years earlier to build his descendants into a great nation through whom He would bless the entire world, and, even more relevant to us this morning, to give that people the land that He had promised to Abraham.
After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, God raised up Moses to lead His people out of bondage through a series of ten miraculous plagues. God then opened up the Red Sea to allow His people to pass through unharmed and then killed their enemies by drowning them in that same sea. They had witnessed God lead them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They had benefitted from His providential care as they ate the quail and manna that God provided for them each day. God had provided clean drinking water for them in the middle of the desert. He had prepared them for life in that promised land by giving them the Law and the instructions for the tabernacle.
After all that, God gave the command for the people to leave Mt. Sinai and to go and take possession of the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the people travelled through the wilderness until they came to Kadesh Barnea, just to the south of the land that they were to take possession of.
That brings us to Numbers chapter 13.
[Read Numbers 13:1-4]
Without looking at Deuteronomy chapter 1, which gives the backstory behind what occurs here, we could easily get the idea that it was God’s idea to send the 12 spies into the land He was about to give them. But there we read that when God gave the command the enter the land, it was the people who came up with the idea to go spy out the land, ostensibly to plan out their route. So here, God does what He often does when man rebels against Him – He allows them to follow their own plans and experience the consequences that go along with that rebellion.
Then, beginning in verse 4, there is a list of the 12 names that I read earlier – on from each of the 12 tribes is Israel. That list goes through verse 15.
Let’s pick up in verse 16:
[Read Numbers 13:16]
Here we learn that Moses changed the name of Joshua from Hoshea – which means “help” or “salvation” to Joshua, which means “God is my help” or “God is salvation”. Commentators have come up with all kinds of theories about why Moses did that but frankly there is just not enough in the Bible to support any of them so we won’t speculate and further. But what I do want you to see is that Joshua is a type, or picture of Jesus and that his name is exactly the same as the Hebrew name of Jesus – Yeshua.
Let’s continue.
[Read Numbers 13:17-33]
The account continues in chapter 14 and for time’s sake, let me just give you the Reader’s Digest version of what occurs there.
After the report of the 10, the people begin to grumble against Moses and Aaron and lamented that it would be better to be back in Egypt as slaves. But Joshua and Caleb plead, with no avail, for the people to take the land because God had promised to give it to them. God is angry with the unbelief of the people and He relents from pouring out his wrath on them only because of the intercession of Moses. God promises to forgive the people’s rebellion, but He doesn’t remove the consequences of their choices. None of that generation, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, will be able to enter into the Promised Land.
Here is the main idea that I want us to take away from this passage today:
The prevailing side is often not the winning side
Although the opinion of the tens spies prevailed at the time, ultimately only the two that remained faithful to God – Joshua and Caleb – really ended up winning and were able to experience the fulfillment of God’s promise and enter the Promised Land.
This is such an important message to those of us who are disciples of Jesus here in the United States in 2017. So often, it is easy to feel like we’re on the losing side of things. In many cases, the Biblical principles that were once the foundation of this country and which were supported by a large majority of our citizens, are now the minority position. And that can be really discouraging at times.
But the good news is that God doesn’t operate by majority rule. And ultimately those who mock and rebel against God will go the way of those 10 men whose names none of us ever remember. And those who remain faithful to God in the face of that opposition will end up on the winning team and have their names permanently written in the book of life as a testimony of their faithfulness.
The prevailing side is often not the winning side
APPLICATION
HOW TO MAKE SURE I’M ON THE WINNING SIDE
1. Take God at His word
A few weekends ago, our kids and grandkids came over to swim. I got in first so that I could take off the solar blanket. But then it was interesting to see the different approaches that the others took in getting into the water for the first time. Some of them trusted me when I told them the water was nice and warm and they just did a cannonball into the pool. But some of the others – I won’t reveal who – who don’t like to get in the pool until it’s at least 85 degrees, didn’t get in until they first tested the water temperature, and even then they only got in slowly a little bit at the time.
Something similar happened with the people of Israel. There were a few, like Joshua and Caleb, that just took God at His word. When He told them it was time to take the land that He had promised to their forefathers, they were ready to just jump in and obey God. But unfortunately, the large majority of people weren’t quite ready to do that so they came up with a plan to “test the waters” by sending some spies into the land to check it out first.
Even though they had seen the miracles that God had done in Egypt, even though they had walked through the Red Sea on dry land and watched their enemies be drowned by that same sea, even though they had witnessed God’s presence as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, even though they had seen God provide manna and quail day after day, they still weren’t ready to just take God at His word, without first checking things out for themselves.
Had we been able to ask any of those people if they believed in God, I’m sure they would have said, “Oh yes. We believe in God.” But their decision to spy out the land before they were willing to obey Him show that they really didn’t believe Him or trust Him. And God calls them out for their lack of faith:
And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
(Numbers 14:11 ESV)
But before we’re quick to condemn these Israelites, we would do well to evaluate our own lives to make sure that we’re not doing the exact same thing. And my guess is that for most of us there is at least one area of our lives where we’ve chosen not to just take God at His word until we first test the waters. I say that because I know that I’ve certainly done that in my life.
Let me share just one personal example. When Mary and I were first married, I was a new believer. And as I began to learn what the Bible taught about giving, I knew what God wanted me to do but at the same time our finances were really tight and I just wasn’t sure we could afford to do that. So we kind of tested the waters. We started by giving a little bit, and we still had enough money to pay our bills. Eventually we got to the place where we decided we could give a “tithe” on our net income. And after we did that for a while, we still had enough money to pay our bills, so we took the next step and began to tithe on our gross income. And of course God was faithful to meet our needs. But we still hadn’t really come to the point where we were necessarily giving generously and joyfully. It took us even longer to get there.
In this particular case, because of God’s grace, we eventually arrived at where God wanted us to be. But by testing the waters instead of just taking God at His word, we certainly risked being disobedient to God in that area. I often wonder what would have happened if early on we hadn’t had enough money to pay our bills one month. It would have been pretty easy to just conclude that we really didn’t need to give God our firstfruits, to give Him our best, even though His Word is very clear on what He expects.
But in the case of the Israelites, even after the land had been checked out, they still could have obeyed His command to enter into and take the land. But they failed to do that because they failed to employ the second principle that we’ll look at this morning:
2. View my situation through my spiritual eyes and not my natural eyes
Most of you have seen optical illusions like this one, right?
[Show picture]
As you look at this picture how many of you see an old woman? And how many of you see a young woman? They are both there, but what you see depends on your perspective.
Even though Joshua and Caleb saw exactly the same things as they spied out the land, they came away with a completely different perspective on what they had seen.
All of them saw the abundance of the land. Joshua and Caleb saw that with their spiritual eyes as evidence that God’s promises were true and could be relied upon. The other 10 viewed that some abundance through their natural eyes and missed God altogether.
And they all saw the same people in the land. Joshua and Caleb saw them through their spiritual eyes as obstacles that God would overcome because that is what He promised he would do. The other 10 greatly exaggerated their size and strength because they looked at those same people through their natural eyes and saw foes that they could not defeat in their own strength.
That is still the way that things work today isn’t it? One person can look at a beautiful sunset through his or her spiritual eyes and see God’s creativity and another person can look at that same sunset through his or her natural eyes and explain it only in terms of the science behind it and miss God altogether.
And the same thing happens when we look at our life situation. We can choose to look for our spiritual eyes and look for how God is at work to fulfill his promises and His purposes through that situation or we can look only through our natural eyes and miss God altogether, or even worse, blame Him for our problems.
3. Fix my eyes on the opportunities, not the obstacles
When I first began to sense God calling me to be a pastor I shared that with a couple of pastors at the church I was attending at the time. I still remember how one of those men seemed to focus only on the obstacles – my age, my lack of a seminary education, my lack of ministry experience. But the other man focused on the opportunities – the chance for God to use my life experiences and my passion for His Word to build into the lives of other people. And he even sought out some ministry opportunities on my behalf. Today, I am so thankful that I chose to fix my eyes on the opportunities and not the obstacles.
We certainly see that same kind of distinction here is this account, don’t we?
Joshua and Caleb sized up the situation and saw it as an opportunity for God to manifest His power in order to fulfill His promises. They saw giants with a little “g” and God with a big “G”.
But the other 10 focused only on the obstacles. And they did what people often do when they focus on the obstacles. They greatly exaggerated the extent of those obstacles. They admitted that it was a land of abundance, but they turned around and in the next breath called it a land that “devours its inhabitants”. They described themselves as grasshoppers compared to the size of the people in the land. They saw Giants with a big “G” and god with a little “g”.
Matt and Cameron Dodd have certainly faced some huge obstacles since Matt was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to his brain back in January. Those of you who have been following their story are certainly familiar with many of them. But what has been so amazing is to watch how Matt and Cameron have chosen not to dwell on those obstacles but rather to focus on the opportunities his situation has given them to both reaffirm their absolute faith and trust in Jesus and to communicate that faith to others.
The prevailing side is often not the winning side
And that is not an easy truth to live by. It’s so easy to look at the culture around us and begin to think that we’re on the losing side. Those of us who stand up for Biblical principles when it comes to marriage, the value of all life, human sexuality and other moral absolutes find ourselves mostly in the minority now.
But the fact is that throughout history, those who have chosen to remain faithful to God are almost always in the minority during their lives here on earth:
• Moses and his family certainly entered the ark as a minority – only 8 of them. But they did emerge a majority didn’t they?
• Daniel and his three friends were among the few Israelites who chose to remain faithful to God while in exile in Babylon.
• While Jesus was here on earth, only a small handful of the large crowds who once followed Him remained faithful to Him when He began to talk about the cost of entering His kingdom and about going to Jerusalem to die instead of to usher in a new political kingdom.
• The early church was a small group that for a long time was considered to be nothing more than a splintered off sect of Judaism.
But in every single case, all those who appeared to be on the losing side at the time eventually ended up on the winning side because of their faithfulness to God.
INSPIRATION
I think that all of us here this morning need the encouragement that comes from knowing that even though we may very well be the Calebs and Joshuas of our lifetime and it seems like the other side is prevailing, if we’ll remain faithful to God, He’ll make sure that we’re on the winning side and as a result one day He’ll carry us to the Promised Land.
ACTION
I believe that today that just like He did with Joshua and Caleb, God is placing some great opportunity before each of us – probably one that is so much bigger than anything we can do in our own power. And the question this morning is this: Will I take the “next step” to take hold of that opportunity? Will I do what God wants me to do even when it seems like doing so is going to put me on the losing side?
What’s your “next step”?
• Perhaps it is saying “Yes” to Jesus and putting your faith in Him for the very first time.
• Perhaps it is being baptized or joining TFC.
• Perhaps it’s committing to give cheerfully and generously to advance the kingdom of God
• Perhaps it’s finally starting to serve here at TFC in some way that God had been putting on your heart for a while, but you’ve been putting it off.
• Perhaps it is telling someone else about how Jesus has made a difference in your life.
• Perhaps it is asking God to forgive some sin in your life that has become a lifestyle and then getting serious about taking some concrete steps to get that sin out of your life.
• And obviously it could be some other step that God wants you to take in order to be obedient to Him.
I want to be really honest with you this morning. If you make the commitment to take that next step today, it probably isn’t going to be easy. You may have people make fun of you for being one of those “Jesus freaks”. You may even lose some friends or have some family members disown you. You might experience financial difficulties or even lose your job. And when that happens you’re going to wonder if it’s worth it. When that happens just remember…
The prevailing side is often not the winning side
So here’s what I’m going to ask all of us to do this morning:
First, will you pray about and write down just one “next step” that you’re going to take this week. I really encourage you to do that right now before you leave this morning because if you don’t you probably won’t do it later.
Second, would you share that step with someone else and ask them to pray about it this week with you and help hold you accountable for actually following through with that step.
[Prayer]
