Sermon Central
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Wandering In The Wilderness
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Mar 22, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: The Children of Israel had been told by the LORD to go up and possess the land that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. DID THEY DO IT? We need to look at three things, Let’s look at-
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I. THE REPORTS
Before going in and actually possessing the land, God told the Children of Israel to send in 12 spies to search out the land. Once they spied out the land, they were to come back and give a report on what they had found.
Look at Numbers 13:1-2 “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.”
WHY DID GOD TELL THEM TO SPY THE LAND OUT BEFORE ENTERING IT?
Before we undertake a major project, wisdom requires that we consider the forces we are going to be going against.
Some would say that God is OMNISCIENT (knows all things). Why would He want them to spy the land out? He knew there were giants in the land.
There are three reasons, such as:
(1) HE WANTED THEM TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS VICTORY!
One of the mistakes we parents make is that we make it too easy for our children.
From the time they are born, they are given almost anything and everything they want without any effort of their own. Then we wonder why they grow up being so unappreciative!
The reason they do not appreciate anything is because they have never had to work for anything themselves.
Illus: A young boy that has never had to work for anything, gets in his dad’s car, and when dad is not around, he “Squeals-off”, burning the rubber off his tires. But later on, when that same boy has to work to put tires on his car, he will not squeal the tires because he knows how hard it is to make the money to buy them.
God could have driven the GIANTS out of the land without their effort, but God wanted them to share in this victory. God wanted them to spy the land out for another reason.
(2) HE WANTED TO RECEIVE THE GLORY
How would the Israelites give God the praise for the victory if God did not first let them see the giants in the land?
Illus: If a basketball team came and said, “We won last night”, that might not impress us a great deal because basketball teams win all the time. But if we knew that the opposing teams players were all seven feet tall, that would be significant.
There were giants in the land, and God wanted them to see them so when the victory was won, they would recognize that the only way they could have done it was through Him.
He wanted them to participate in this victory and He wanted to make sure that He received the glory!
But He wanted them to spy the land out for another reason-
(3) HE WANTED THEM TO USE THEIR BRAINS
Some feel that because we are God’s people, we can throw common sense out the window and plow into anything and be successful.
Illus: That would be like speeding through a busy intersection without considering the consequences. We might make it and we might not.
Illus: Bill O’Reilly, on the Fox News Channel, is the number one talk show host on television. But the reason he is number one is because no matter who he invites on his show with an opposing view to his, he has done his homework on the subject that will be discussed and on the individual that is opposing his view.
For forty days the spies searched out the land.
WHAT WERE THE RESULTS WHEN THEY RETURNED? They had two reports. One was:
(1) A NEGATIVE REPORT
These spies had seen the hand of God in a mighty way.
• God miraculously brought them out of Egypt.
• They saw the plagues in Egypt
• They saw the waters parted at the Red Sea
• They saw Pharaoh’s army drowned in the sea
• They ate heavenly manna from above
• They followed a cloud by day
• They followed a pillar of fire by night
• Their clothes didn’t wear out
They had the mighty God of heaven on their side and they were acting as if God brought them this far to destroy them.
It seems to me that the spies made the same mistake that the United Nations made when they tried to spy out the land of Iraq when they were looking for weapons of mass destruction.
WHAT WAS THE MISTAKE? They sent a bunch of MEN. If they wanted the land “spied out”, it would have been best to send a bunch of MOTHERS.
Illus: Anybody knows that if you want to find something, you do not send a bunch of men. We all know that men have a blind spot when it comes to finding things.
