The Brave Obtain Well-Being

"The Brave Obtain Well-Being" – Numbers 13:17-33 God sends us to conquer, not to tremble. Two years after leaving Egypt, a people who had seen the ten plagues, the Red Sea opened and the tablets written by the hand of the Lord sends twelve princes to scout the promised land. They come back with the fruit in their hands — enormous grapes, a land flowing with milk and honey — and with a report of fear: there are giants, we cannot do it, we look like grasshoppers. Only Joshua and Caleb believed. Because of the other ten, the people wandered thirty-eight years in the wilderness and nearly seven hundred thousand died without entering the promise: that is the bitter fruit of unbelief. The study walks through Numbers 13, Deuteronomy 1:22 and 29-33, and 2 Corinthians 5:7, and teaches that the fortifications that look like giants to us are not raised against heaven.

I. A people who had seen the glory of God.

A. Two years out of Egypt, and they already had the ten commandments.

1. They saw the glory of the Lord upon Moses and the tablets written by His hand.

2. They saw the ten great plagues and the Red Sea opened.

3. It was said there would be no leader like Moses, and there was not.

B. They were a people with no reason to fear anything.

1. The promise came down from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve tribes.

2. It was they themselves who asked Moses to scout the land.

II. God sends us to conquer, not to tremble.

A. A child falls ill and we tremble; money runs short and we tremble.

1. We never set our sights on the fact that what we are doing is conquering.

2. We sing that the silence of Jesus overcame fear, and we lack courage.

B. This is not acting mad nor living in fantasy.

1. It is knowing inwardly that we have that mighty God on our side.

III. Beware what others sow in you.

A. Someone comes, tells you something and makes you tremble, not even knowing what they say.

1. The intent may be envy, hatred, strife or simple lack of faith.

2. What drives those people need not drive us.

B. We must see life's realities, fight them and face them, but with active faith.

1. It is easy to tell another to have faith; when it is your turn you must prove it.

2. Even those who walk with us bring their own ideas ahead of God's direction.

C. Above all things we must pray.

1. No one makes the one who prays tremble or waver.

2. Living in fear means we still do not know God's direction.

3. Without prayer there is no direction, and we speak in doubt: it is a chain.

IV. The twelve spies (Numbers 13:2-3).

A. Moses appointed one prince from each of the twelve tribes.

1. Among them were Joshua and Caleb: Caleb means “faithful”, Joshua “the Lord is salvation”.

2. They were to observe everything: the land, its fruit, and whether the people were weak or strong.

B. Two or three million people were waiting for the report.

1. The whole decision rested on it: their word carried great weight.

2. They came back astonished: it was the land flowing with milk and honey.

V. The bitter fruit of unbelief.

A. “There are giants… we look like grasshoppers.”

1. They saw themselves as the smallest, most insignificant thing there could be.

2. The very people for whom God had opened the Red Sea.

B. We doubt over little things: “thirty days now and God has not answered”.

1. Sometimes years pass, because it was not the time.

C. Thirty-eight years wandering in the wilderness.

1. Of the twelve, only two believed and tried to silence the other ten.

2. All those over twenty years old died without seeing the promise.

VI. Moses reminds them (Deuteronomy 1:22, 29-33).

A. “Do not be shocked, nor fear them: the Lord your God will fight for you.”

1. He went before them with a cloud by day and fire by night.

2. He sent manna, and quail when they tired of the manna.

3. “Yet for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God.”

B. Before our own giants we also see ourselves as grasshoppers.

1. We do not sense the Almighty behind us, before whom those giants are small.

VII. Walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

A. God had already seen the land: seeking so much confirmation was absurd.

1. We too ask for one more confirmation before we will believe.

B. Man credits his own ideas and others' reports more than God's revelation.

1. That is how ruin comes: walking by sight and not by faith.

2. We love what looks safe and what causes no fear.

VIII. The report was meant to bring courage.

A. They were princes of standing, and even so they reacted as unbelievers.

1. We must guard what we think, what we say and what comes into our minds.

B. The prayers of Moses went hand in hand with the promises.

1. The promises stir us to pray, and without prayer we do not receive them.

2. Every promise comes with instructions, and the guidance is in prayer.

3. Do not compare yourself with anyone: that takes away faith.

C. Instead of confirming, they wrecked the mind of the whole people.

1. Our report should bring courage too, but we love tragedies.

2. Out of a year with eleven good months, we remember the bad one.

IX. The giants and the fortifications.

A. They could not deny the fruit, but complained about the giants: that is doubt.

1. Forty days murmuring the same thing, convincing one another.

2. They grew strong in their doubts and not in their faith.

B. The giants could be stronger than they were, but stronger than God, no.

1. Like David before Goliath, who never doubted for a moment.

2. We are weak, but God is not.

C. The cities were fortified against them, but they could not be fortified against heaven.

1. For heaven there is no fortification.

2. In their unbelief they were saying God could not keep His word.

3. With our fears we make the great God look small before the enemy.

X. Being like Joshua and Caleb.

A. “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we shall surely overcome it.”

1. Let us silence doubt; let us give it no place.

2. If some want to live in unbelief, let them live it.

B. Where there is no believing, there is perishing.

1. They died in the wilderness, not in Egypt and not in the promised land.

2. We too die in the wilderness because of our unbelief.

C. Great is God, not the giants.

1. You believe, and you obtain the blessing.

2. May we never see ourselves as grasshoppers before our problems.