Last week we talked about how the Israelites were poised to enter the Promised Land and sent out spies. But ten out of the twelve gave bad advice. So the question remained, “Who would the people listen to?”
The Answer to the Report
I. The Israelites opted for weeping
Numbers 14:1 gives the answer. That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. Before they even tried to lift one sword the Israelites cried out in despair. “Woe is me.”
It often happens that even within Christian married couples that they will go through a rough patch, but before they come for any counseling they decide to just file for a divorce. And if the Pastor were to come in and tell them to try and come in for counseling some get angry. “He’s being unreal. He doesn’t understand MY situation!” They don’t even want to try. They talk themselves into believing that God’s Word and Holy Spirit just can’t work change. “We can’t win!” “Woe is me.”
So what
were the Israelites going to do? Numbers
14:3-4;10 Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to
Beware of that reaction in yourself to blame others for your failure. Rebellious kids can get really angry and become masters and blaming their parents for their failures. “My parents never complimented me. They never let me do anything I wanted to.” So that’s why you can’t hold down a job? That’s why you decided to take drugs? You can blame your spouse for all of your marriage problems. “I would be a better husband buy you don’t know how hard it is to live with my wife!” You can also try to find another lover who will treat you better. You can try to find different pastor or a different church that tells you what you want to hear; these are all reflections of what the Israelites were going through. Cry all you want; but these are not the remedies to guilt and fear and sin. Running away from your duties in life and living your life in fear are the coward’s way out.
II. The LORD offered destruction
The LORD would have none of this. Numbers 14:11-12 says,
The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
Isn’t this a good reminder to us? If you want to run from your duties and be unfaithful as a father or mother; if you want to be lazy as a member; if you want to put your light under a bushel; the LORD can replace you. You aren’t indispensable to Him. He can raise up a different mother or father or spouse. The same thing goes for this church and this pastor. None of us are indispensable.
Yet we somehow get the mentality that God would never do that to us. We set our own limits on life on what we will do and we set our limits way too low. When it comes to sports or entertainment we’ll set our recorders and somehow always miraculously find the time to watch them or do them. But if it comes to volunteering to pull weeds or do something for a needy friend; spend time actually talking to your spouse or playing with your kids; well, that’s just too much. “I’m just too tired.” If it comes to actually reading my Bible on a daily basis or setting time aside for morning and evening prayer, “That’s a nice idea, pastor. I’ll think about it.” In the end we have the gall to say “no” to God and think that this is ok!
God tells you to crucify yourself daily; to take up your cross and follow Jesus; to make sacrifices; to live your entire life to follow Christ. Be ready for a battle! But it’s so much easier to lay in your hammock of sin and cry to God about how tired you are; how sinful you are; how weak you are. Don’t dare call this repentance. It’s retreat. Maybe instead of feeling sorry for how weak you are you ought to actually confess your sin and ask God for strength to battle your fear or your laziness. If you’re so sure you’re going to fail, why not at least die with your boots on? Why die in retreat mode?
The LORD offered the whole future of the Israelite nation to Moses. He could reshape it and retrain it from scratch, bigger and better than before. You might wonder why Moses didn’t take Him up on His offer. Listen again to what Moses’ chief concern was:
Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your
power you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell the
inhabitants of this land about it. . . If you put these people to death all at one
time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ‘The LORD was
not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he
slaughtered them in the desert.’ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed,
just as you have declared: ‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and
forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he
punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth
generation.’ In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these
people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left
Moses was mainly concerned about the LORD’S reputation; what such a slaughter would do to His name. Moses also knew that the LORD had already proven Himself to be gracious and merciful to the Israelites, so he asked the LORD to only be Himself. Whether the LORD decided to have them die in the desert or not he still begged that the LORD would forgive their sin. For without forgiveness they would all end up in hell.
When we find ourselves to be cowards in life and on the brink of disaster due to our own fear; what else do we have to go back on? Every week we come back here having struggled with fear; with impatience; with laziness; with unwillingness to fight the battles we ought to be fighting. We come limping back from the battle field and we sit in the pew, and what can we say? “Lord, thank you for keeping me so faithful this past week.”? Can we honestly say we tried that much harder? No. We say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” What can we plea to but to the LORD’S unfailing love in Christ? All we have to cling to is the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the world. All we have to cling to are God’s promises in the Bible; where Paul wrote, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” We cling to the fact that however we act doesn’t change the way God is; and God is merciful. If we are faithless, He will remain faithful. Yet we also pray for another opportunity to live; another chance to reflect our faith in our lives and in our words to those who live among us. This is all we can do; to cling to the LORD’S reputation.
IV. Yet the LORD ordained suffering also
The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. It’s so easy to overlook that first phrase; but it is the most important phrase in the whole statement. The LORD didn’t hesitate; He didn’t say, “I’ll think about it.” Without hesitation the LORD quickly pronounced His decision. “I have forgiven them.” How quickly and how easily those words roll from His tongue! Thank God for that! Without forgiveness the Israelites would have been held eternally accountable for what they did; they would have ended up in hell.
The words were easy to say for the LORD; but they were difficult to achieve for His Son. Jesus had to suffer terribly and go through hell on a cross for those words. Those weren’t just words. Those were words that were earned by God Himself. But the words are true. They are sincere.
This is the heart and core of what drives us to live on and fight on in this world. When we come back here as utter failures and the cloud of God’s wrath comes looming over our heads; we beg the LORD for forgiveness. The LORD doesn’t leave us on the floor. He doesn’t keep His mouth shut. The payment has been made on the cross. Jesus pronounced, “It is finished.” Every sin that has ever been committed or will be has already been paid for. The work has been done. So the LORD simply pronounces to sorrowful sinners who look to Christ, “I have forgiven you.” It’s that simple. It’s that quick. It’s that real. It’s a done deal. This is what the LORD loves to pronounce. This is what Jesus died to pronounce. “I have forgiven you.” Those words should be the sweetest sounding declaration we can hear. It’s the most important statement there is.
Then the LORD continues: Nevertheless,
as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole
earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed
in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— not
one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No
one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant
Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him
into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn
back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the
This might seem to be a contradiction. If their sins are forgiven, then why does the LORD not just let them enter the Promised Land? Why does he still have those who actively rebelled die in the desert; 40 years for 40 days? If the LORD really forgave them, why does He seem to remember what they did?
Here we need to make a distinction. Forgiveness on God’s throne of justice means that you will not be held eternally accountable for your sins. It also means that no payment ever needs to be made by you for your sin in this life or in the life to come. Yet there are still CONSEQUENCES of sin. A consequence is not a payment. It is a consequence. Permit me an illustration. If I try to go hot dogging on my bike and fall off and break my arm, my arm needs to be fixed. I go to the doctor and the doctor mends my arm. He does the work and the surgery. I do the rehab. Sometimes my arm never completely gets back to once it did. Sometimes it does. The scar is a constant reminder of my foolishness. Hopefully it hinders me from doing it again. My rehab doesn’t pay for the doctor bill or do the surgery. Money pays for the doctor bill. Insurance pays for it. The doctor performs the surgery. Jesus paid for our sins. His death repairs our status with God and makes us look like saints in God’s sight. He performs a perfect surgery to repair our status before God. But there are still things that I have to endure as a sinner, not as a payment for sin but as a consequence of sin.
The Israelites were given 40 years of suffering in the desert. It didn’t pay for their rebellion. It was a result of their rebellion. For the rest of their lives they would be reminded of their unbelief; what they could have had. Daily they would be led to repent of their foolishness. Yet daily they also could thank God for his mercy; for the fact that they were still alive; that they were still forgiven; that they wouldn’t have to live in the desert forever or pay eternally for what they had done. Even in their suffering they could reflect God’s glory through a continual repentance and faith.
This is an important distinction for us to make in our minds. If we think that forgiveness means that we shouldn’t have to suffer in this life or face consequences for sins; then we will constantly wonder if we really are forgiven. Forgiveness has nothing to do with how much you suffer. It has everything to do with how much Jesus suffered. The Israelites didn’t want to accept this. So they tried to plow their way out of suffering and enter into the Promised Land anyway.
Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the LORD promised.” But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.
The Israelites didn’t want to suffer in the desert. They thought they could make up for what they did and change their lives; and they only ended up either dieing or being embarrassed in their presumption. They couldn’t do anything to take back what they had done.
It is part of human nature to want to make up for what you’ve done and to right your wrongs. If you were a lousy father, what can you do to make up for all of those years of mistakes? Even when fathers try to make up for lost time they are often met with anger and resistance on the part of the kids. Many times you never can make up for it. Nowadays kids allow videos to be taken of them selves that end up being dispersed through the Internet. Through the simple click of a button they can be brought into a lifetime of shame. Nothing can take that back. That is a consequence of sin. People sometimes would rather have a system or something they can do to try and make up for it. But God says “no,” you can’t. This angers some, so they try it anyway and fail even more miserably. This makes others give up on life and end their own lives in shame. But this doesn’t solve anything either. It only adds the sin of murder to their failures.
Take comfort in forgiveness! This is where God wants you to take comfort. On Judgment Day, if God won’t remember your
sin; if God will not reveal it; if He will forget about it; that is so comforting
to know. You don’t have to make up for
your sin in order to get right with God, because Jesus already made up for it
through His life and death. Romans
Isn’t it also good to know that even if you are suffering as a consequence of sin, it isn’t a payment for what you’ve done? God isn’t holding some residual anger over you. He already forgave you. If you need to suffer as a result of some sin you’ve committed in marriage or at work or with your children; so be it. Help it be a reminder to you of how gracious God is and how wonderful heaven will be. If your suffering still reminds you of your sin and makes you grateful for God’s mercy, then is it really something you should try to run away from; or something you should joyfully endure?
The Israelites made a bad choice that had bad consequences. They chose to fear giants more than God. You hear about bad choices and good choices all the time in school. “Now Johnny, you decided to hit Billy in the nose. Was that a good choice or a bad choice?” Billy says, “A bad choice.” The teacher replies, “Ok, as a result I want you to go in the corner and spend fifteen minutes in time out; time to think about what you’ve done.” This isn’t what God did with the Israelites. He did something completely different. First He said, “You’re forgiven.” Then He said, “Go suffer.”
The world would like to paint a God who forgives without suffering. They would like to be able to sin without consequences. There are consequences to sin. Just ask Jesus. He didn’t hang on the cross for the fun of it. He hung there to pay for our sins; to earn our forgiveness. On Judgment Day there will be no consequences for those who believe because Jesus already paid the consequences.
But in the mean time there are still consequences. We still suffer as a result of things we do. When we make bad decisions in life we sometimes never can lose our reputation even among Christian friends and family. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us or that He is holding a grudge against us. It doesn’t mean there is some payment we need to make for sins. We are forgiven in Christ. Yet God does want us to realize who we are and how merciful He is. He wants us to trust in His mercy and forgiveness no matter where we have to live for the next forty years so that we look forward to living eternally with Him in heaven. This is God’s answer to us as we live in the desert of sin. Amen.