Death Sentence on the Rebels

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. That's where every weekday morning, you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word. Nothing. You want some of my coffee? No? Okay. Tastes like coffee beans. Tastes like coffee beans.
We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Good job. You got it this time. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and get into God's Word. God, we thank you so much that you have given us your word. Father, we pray that as we read your word this morning that you would quiet our hearts, that you would help our minds to focus, and that your Holy Spirit would take the words that are on this page, and we pray that it might be like refined gold in our hearts and a lamp unto our path. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we're at Numbers chapter 14 beginning at verse 26.
Would you rather read the small paragraph or the large paragraph? That's the small paragraph. So 26 through 34 or 35 would be a large paragraph. And then 36, 37, and 38 is a small one. Do you want to read the small paragraph or the large one? So this one or this one? The small one? Okay. Then I'll read the big one. Here we go.
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against me. Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you.
The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who are numbered according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above, except for Caleb the son of Jethunah and Joshua the son of Nun. You shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land forty days. For each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection. I, Jehovah, have spoken this. I will surely do so to all the evil congregation who gather together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
Now the man who Moses sent to spy out the land, he turned and made all the congregation complain against him, bringing a bad report of the land. Those very men who brought the evil report about the land died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Noah, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, remained alive. The man who went to spy out the land.
Okay, so talk to me about what happens in 26 through 35. What's that about? Dad says, well, you didn't listen to me, you made me a promise, this is what's going to happen. You didn't listen to me, so I was going to break my promise, but you let me, so I'm going to make sure you just get a one-off for a few years, 40 years. And then... One year for every day they spied out the land, right? So they spied for 40 days. And so now they're going to spend 40 years. And what did they tell Moses? It seems like they told Moses, what were they concerned? Who were they concerned were going to die?
Everybody. Well, notice what it said. But your little ones whom you said would be victims Yeah, they said everybody was going to die. Yeah, but they were specifically saying like, our kids are going to die. Alright, we got to try to take this. Our kids are going to die. What does God say?
You think I'm going to make them victims. But they're going to go in the land. They're going to go in the land and they're going to be the... They're going to be the chosen ones. They're going to stop doing it. Yeah, they're going to be the chosen ones. They're going to be, so the victims aren't going to be victims. They're going to be victorious. Right? They're going to be conquerors. But as for y'all? You're going to have the wonderful homecoming. Are they ever going to get to enter the promised land? Nope. What are the only two guys who are going to be allowed to? Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua. So why isn't Moses allowed to enter? Well, we'll get to why Moses isn't allowed in later. So Aaron's going to die beforehand. Moses is going to die beforehand.
It's just going to be Joshua and Caleb who will lead the people in. And so, they're all going to die and it's going to be the next generation coming up who's going to take the land. But what happens to those ten spies who led the rebellion? Did you catch that? Died of disease. Yeah, they died of disease, of a plague. That's right. And so, the Lord executed judgment. So, we've talked about it. Go ahead and summarize all this. If you had one sentence to summarize all this, what would you say? Maybe you should listen to God rather than men. Okay, listen to God rather than men. That's good. Yeah.
So the guy was testing their faith and they didn't really believe God could help them. Yeah, what did they think about God? They thought, yeah, he's not going to be able to help us. Yeah, he's not going to be able to help us. He can't actually give us a land.
We're just going to be like flies, swat, swat, swat. Yeah, we're going to be like flies, swat, swat, swat. Right? So they didn't have, what's the word we normally use for that? Faith. They didn't have faith. Right? And so the covenant has always been about Faith. And that faith produces good works. What was their good work they were supposed to do? Go into the land. But did they have faith to go do it? No. They wouldn't do it. Do you think we still have that same type of problem today? Yeah. Sometimes can we be afraid to tell people about the gospel? Sometimes can we be afraid of doing the right thing? Yeah. But we have to have faith. It's hard. It's real hard. Why don't we pray about that? Father, we confess to you that we are no better naturally than any of these guys who came back with a bad report.
Because we are tempted so often to walk by sight and not by faith. So Lord, we pray, pleading with you that you would teach us to walk by faith, that you would teach us to hold firm to your promises, that you would teach us that you will not leave us as victims, but you will make us victorious. Lord, we pray that we would not fear those who could kill the body, but cannot destroy the soul. Lord, we pray that we would walk before you, and that your spirit would give us strength like Caleb and like Joshua. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you as you trust that your victorious King Jesus Christ leads you in the path of righteousness and by faith you can follow Him. We'll see you next time. Bye!
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.