Stoning Moses

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is our every weekday morning. You and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word. No, no coffee. 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. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word.
You ready to pray? Alright. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word. God, we pray that you would teach us, that you would instruct us, that you would help us to understand and apply your word to our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so we are at Numbers. Let me check my list here. We are at Numbers chapter 14, verses 1 through 10. So, I'm going to give you a little background from what Deborah and I just read, okay?
So, Moses sent 12 spies into the Canaan. So how many spies? Twelve. Twelve spies, that's right. He sent twelve spies and ten of them come back and they say, oh no, we can't do this. We're like grasshoppers. They'll squish us like a bug. But two spies came back and they said, we can do it. God's made the promise. Let's go. And now we're going to find out what they do, okay? Alright, so let's hear what they do with that. And the people wept all night.
And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has Jehovah brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us select a leader and return to Egypt. Whoa, they want to go back to the land of slavery.
Did you hear that? Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land we pass through to spy out is exceedingly good land.
If Jehovah delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Jehovah, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them." And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the meeting before all the children of Israel. Whoa, did you hear that? So people will say, hey, we're going to select a leader.
And they want to take them back to where? To Egypt? Yeah, they want to take them back to Egypt. Remember where there were slaves in Egypt? Yeah, Moses and Aaron, they fall on their faces, but Joshua and Caleb say, guys, guys, the land is good. We can do it. The Lord is with us. And what do the people want to do? They want to take rocks, stones, and they want to throw stones at them until they die.
Eeks. Yeah, eeks. That's right. That's right. But what happens right as they're about to start throwing stones to kill them all? God shows up. That's right. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before the children of Israel. The light is there.
And they realize, oh, we can't do whatever we want. Is it hard to follow God? Is it hard to trust Him sometimes? But is it our blessing to follow Him? That's right. So can we trust Him? Did He love the Israelites? Did He love them? Did He give them food? The manna? Did He save them from Egypt? Did He have land He was going to give them? Did He make promises to them? Was He going to make His promises good? But did they trust Him? Can we be like those Israelites?
Sometimes we can act like it. Sometimes it's hard for us to trust God. You want to ask Him to help us now? No, you. Oh, me, okay. God, please. It's easy for us to be critical of the Israelites, but we need your Holy Spirit to help us to believe. We need you to teach us to have faith. Lord, even when there seems like there's an enemy that we can't defeat, a problem we can't conquer, God, we pray that we would trust you. We pray that we would follow after you, that we would lean not on our own understanding, but that we would trust you. Give us courage, Lord. Let us be strong and courageous. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may God give you strength that comes from the Holy Spirit and courage to follow after Him. We'll see you next time. You want to say bye? Bye-bye. Bye-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 and 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.