Numbers 12 & 13

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Numbers 12:1-16

“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth.) 4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. 6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. 10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle: and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. 13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. 15 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. 16 And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED583]

“Numbers chapter 12, we had journeyed as far as Kibroth-hataavah, the last time that we were here before the holidays, and not the holidays [Holy Days] that are in the book of Numbers, the ones we just went through. And it says here in verse 35 of Chapter 11, “And the people journeyed from Kibroth-hataavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.” Now again, we have 38 years of journey here in the Book of Numbers. So it’s very interesting to see specifically what the Holy Spirit pulls out for us here, because there aren’t that many things out of those 38 years to put before us, because no doubt those things are important to us, Romans 15 again, telling us the things that happened in old time happened for our instruction, our learning. 1^st Corinthians 10 telling us very specifically that these journeyings have lessons for us, upon whom the ends of the age are come, there’s things we’re supposed to learn here. So, coming now to this place, we find that Moses is confronted with something for the first time that he hasn’t been confronted with. And I imagine this is heart wrenching for him.

Talking Behind A Godly Leader’s Back--The Loneliness Of Leadership

Chapter 12, it says, “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.” (verse 1) Your translation may say “a Cushite,” she is probably from the area of the Sudan, most likely a black woman from North Africa. There was no prohibition in Scripture of this. They weren’t allowed to marry Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, who were the godless people of the land. No prohibition, there’s no Biblical reason for, nothing in God’s commandments for Aaron and Miriam to take Moses to task over. [Comment: The first pastor I had, a very wise pastor, said that God had no prohibition against Israelites marrying outside their race, but that the prohibition was marrying idol worshippers. He used Rabah the harlot as an example, who married a Jewish man named Salmon, the great, great grandfather of king David. It’s marrying someone outside of God’s true religion which is forbidden, just as it is now, where the apostle Paul commanded against marrying unbelievers. There is no prohibition against interracial marriage.] But it just makes this statement, assuming that Zipporah his first wife, who was a Kenite has passed away, and Moses has remarried. He’s about 82 years old here, it’s going to tell us that when he was 120 his eye was not dim and his natural forces had not abated, he still had vigor. So he’s a healthy man, he marries this woman. And verse 2 is going to tell us that there’s envy involved here. “And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.” Now first there the reason in regards to his wife, but then as it goes on, more and more comes out, and you find out that’s just the skin of the argument, there’s some thing of envy and pride underneath that they’re taking Moses to task over. Now Moses has heard the people grumble, Moses has heard from the mixt multitude, Moses has seen trouble with Nadab and Abihu, and the LORD judged them. But now this is a first-time experience for him, that his own sister whose older than him, and his own brother Aaron, older than him, rising up against him. And you have to understand, this is his sister, that followed him when he was placed in the ark of bullrushes, this is his sister that retrieved him from the daughter of Pharaoh [Hatshepsut]. Often he must have heard, that she had brought him back to his own mother to be weaned. This is his sister who had cared for him, had come through the Red Sea, along with Moses had sang ‘We will sing unto the LORD, he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea,’ the song there. We’re told she was a Prophetess. And Aaron his own brother, who he I’m sure dearly loved, rising up against him. We get the sense that Miriam is the instigator, for several reasons as we go through here. Verse 1, “Miriam and Aaron spake” the Hebrew verb there “spake” is in the feminine gender, and most scholars feel it’s because Miriam seems to be the one who instigated all of this. And as we follow through the chapter, she will be smitten with leprosy, not Aaron. So, it appears that she is the one who started this. And for Moses, I can’t imagine, with all of the other burden of the people, all of the other things that are going on, having to choose 70 of the elders to help bare the burden of the people. Again, if there’s 2.5 to 3 million people, the population of Phily a million and a half, imagine twice the population of Philadelphia, taking care of them in the wilderness, and the burden and responsibility of all of that. And he’s heard the people grumble, certainly many times. And now though his own family, now those the closest to him, initially raise their voices and say ‘You shouldn’t have married this woman.’ Now we don’t know, maybe when Zipporah died Miriam thought she would play a more prominent role, maybe there’s jealousy and envy. The Book of Proverbs tells us ‘contention cometh only by pride,’ only by pride. That contention among God’s people cometh only by pride. So there’s some measure of ambition or pride here, and she uses the initial excuse of Moses now marrying this woman, taking Moses to task, and she’s got Aaron involved, and this has got to be extremely painful for him. This is a time this guy’s gotta feel alone. And no doubt what the LORD had called him to was a lonely place. Whatever ministry God’s called you to, and everyone in this room, has a calling, there’s part of that particular place that is very specifically lonely [amen, see https://unityinchrist.com/author.htm]. There’s a part of what I do my wife can’t step into, my assistant pastors can’t step into, there’s one facet of what I do that’s an extremely lonely place, that no one bares but me, or in your ministry no one bares but you. And it’s bittersweet, it’s difficult, but it’s also the thing that makes us bend our knees, it’s the thing that locks us to the Lord, to seek him. And I look at Moses, and God is still working in his life, and I think ‘What a difficult day, his own sister, his own brother coming.’ And I’m assuming that this is public, because she’s going to be judged publicly. So, what a difficult thing, in front of God’s people, to have his own sister, his own brother now, and Aaron was the high priest, he had the Urim and the Thummim, no doubt God used him. We don’t find anywhere specifically where we’re told that God spoke directly to Miriam or Aaron [previously to this verbal correction coming from God out of the Cloud], but she is a Prophetess, he is the high priest. So they come to Moses, and they’re inferring with some private area of his life. It shouldn’t happen, all of us are entitled to areas in our lives that are up to our own discretion. Of course one of the problems with the people that know you and I the best, you know Paul says ‘Henceforth we judge no man after the flesh, we know no man after the flesh, but the Spirit.’ But it’s very tough for you, you know Jesus said ‘A prophet is not without honour, neither is a prophetess, except in your own family, amongst your own relatives.’ All of a sudden you’re saved, you’re reading the Scripture, you’re talking to them about the Lord, and they think you’ve gone off the deep end. They know years of history that define in their minds who you are, and they cannot at all comprehend a new beginning. And that’s what it says in that text, that we are a new creation in Christ. They don’t understand that you’re somebody completely different. But my poor wife, in some sense, she’s the only woman in the church without a pastor, because she’s gotta be married to me, pray for her. We know the humanness of one another, and sometimes it causes us to miss God’s hand on our lives and what he’s doing. And they come challenging Moses. I’m really convinced it was painful for him. “And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses?” ‘Is he the only guy with an uplink? Is he the only guy that he thinks that he can hear from God?’ “hath he not spoken also by us?” It seems that they’re broadcasting this to some degree. The problem is they were broadcasting it, it says “And the LORD heard it.” (verse 2) And he always does. Now, interesting, it says “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth.)” (verse 3) And of course Moses wrote this, the Pentateuch, so, imagine the meekest man in the world having to write that he was the meekest man in the world, he must have said ‘LORD, I can’t write that, I’m meek, I can’t write that I’m the meekest man in the world,’ and God said ‘Write it,’ and he said ‘ok.’ [Comment: judging from the fact that most of the first five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, are written in the third person, and a lot of the information throughout Genesis Moses wouldn’t have direct historic access to, these books had to have been dictated directly to Moses by the LORD, Yahweh, and then Moses wrote down exactly what he was told to by God.] Ah, meekest man in the world, it is different from just what we might think meek is…It has the idea of suffering wrong, sometimes, rather than, to rather suffer wrong than to do wrong or to wrong somebody else. That’s sometimes dug out of the Hebrew. It also has the idea of seeking the LORD, we find it in Psalm 22, verse 26, it says ‘The meek shall eat and be satisfied, they shall praise the LORD that seek him.’ And the grammar puts the idea of those that seek him with the meek, ‘your heart shall live forever.’ So it says there that one of the distinctions of the meek is they are those who seek the LORD. Zephaniah 2 says this, “Seek ye the LORD all ye meek of the earth,” and it’s the same word in both places. [Comment: The whole quote is: “Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld his justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’s anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3) see https://www.unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zephaniah/Zephaniah1.htm and scroll to Zephaniah 2:1-3 for a good explanation about what those three verses mean, it’s a message from the LORD, Yahweh, to the end-time Church.] ‘which have wrought his judgment, done his bidding, seek righteousness, seek meekness [humility]. That it may be you shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.’ ‘But seek ye the LORD all ye meek.’ So there’s a side of this, not just ‘I’m the meekest man that ever lived,’ there’s a dependence upon the LORD in this, Moses is a man who sought the LORD, Moses is a man who sought the LORD’s will. God’s going to say ‘He’s faithful in all of my house,’ he didn’t have his own agenda in the middle of all of these people. Moses hadn’t asked for the gift that he had, Moses hadn’t gone after it, hadn’t been attracted to it. Moses had said ‘I can’t talk, don’t send me.’ God had to get to the point, ‘Let’s put a stick in your hand, let’s start there, don’t tell me you can’t talk, I made the tongue, I made the eye,’ and he said ‘Just be quiet. You have a brother?’ ‘Ya, I have a brother.’ ‘Can he talk?’ ‘Ya, he can talk,’ ‘Then you just go and I’ll talk to you, and you tell your brother what to say, and then he’ll say it.’ And Moses had not at all been ambitious or sought after this. In that sense, he’s a man who seeks the LORD, and in the midst of God’s faithful, God said ‘In all of my house he’s faithful,’ he’s dependent upon the LORD, he doesn’t have an agenda, he didn’t want it, he didn’t say ‘I really deserve this, let this grow around me,’ he said ‘LORD, are you sure? If I was you, I wouldn’t pick me.’ He was a man who was dependent on the LORD, and in that, knowing it was the LORD’s house, and ambitious people often lose sight of this, knowing it was the LORD’s house, he was a man who would rather sometimes suffer wrong than wrong anyone else. ‘Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth.’ I think of Billy Graham, the humility he’s demonstrated for years and years. John Walvoord [see https://walvoord.com/about-dr-john-walvoord] had an opportunity to hear him, just a guy whose tremendously humble, some of God’s servants.

‘Moses, Aaron And Miriam, Come Out To The Tabernacle, Now!’

Now, it says “And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.” (verse 4) “Suddenly” he was not going to let this rebellion go on, because it’s like the sin of witchcraft, he’s not going to let this rebellion lumber along, “the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses,” notice, “unto Aaron, and unto Miriam,” and look what he says, “Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation.” You know, Aaron’s probably thinking ‘I can’t believe I listened to my sister again, she always gets me in trouble.’ “Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation.” and without having to think any further, it says “And they three came out.” I bet they did. “And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.” (verse 5) This has got to be an uncomfortable situation, the LORD says ‘Come on out here to the Tent,’ and they go out to the Tent, and then the Cloud comes down over the Tent, the Pillar of the Cloud, “and stood in the door of the tabernacle,” you know, you read Luke chapter 9 around verse 34, when they’re at the Mount of Transfiguration, it says when the cloud of God, they’re saying ‘Let us build three tabernacles,’ all of a sudden the presence of God overshadows them, and it says ‘They were in great fear in the presence of the Lord,’ and they hadn’t rebelled. I imagine Aaron and Miriam have to be awfully uncomfortable right now, as this presence of the LORD is descending on them, to the door of the Tabernacle, “and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words:” we’ve been listening to you guys long enough, “If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.” (verses 5b-6) and we find out those are not certainly the only ways the LORD communicates, sometimes he speaks directly to the Prophet, sometimes directly to his heart. But the idea is, ‘I’ll speak the way I want to speak unto him.’ In fact it tells us in those days, the Prophet was called a Seer, and it is because there was often a visual aspect to it. So he says I’ll speak in a vision or a dream. “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches;” not in things he has to figure out, “and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (verses 7-8) Now this is remarkable. It says in Exodus ‘I’ll speak to him mouth to mouth as a man speaketh unto a friend.’ And we get very much the idea here, no matter how you try to tear apart this verse, that God just spoke audibly to Moses sometimes, and he saw his similitude. Is he talking about the back part of God, back in Exodus 34, when he saw his glory departing? Or is it saying that when he spoke with Moses, sometimes Moses saw the glory cloud, or some part of God’s presence. It says similitude, he certainly never saw his face, we’re told that. But he saw or perceived some presence, and God spoke directly to him as a man speaks to his friend, how sweet. It says ‘With him I’m going to speak mouth to mouth, no intermediary, even not apparently, no dream, no vision,’ “even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (verse 8) ‘What were you thinking?’ And evidently God approves of Moses’ new wife because he says nothing about her here, it’s not the problem at all. ‘What were you thinking?’ And I don’t know if Miriam and Aaron are looking at each other going ‘Aaah, aaah, aaah.’ “And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle: and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.” (verses 9-10) Now he’s the high priest, he has to inspect here anyway. Moses now has a black wife and a white sister. She is as white as snow, she’s covered with a disease. And what’s happening is what she was internally in her heart, there was some leprosy, some disease there, has manifest outwardly. In fact it’s going to say here, very interesting, “And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord,” now Moses is his lord now, back in verse 2 he was saying ‘Hey, you think you’re the only guy that can talk to God?’ now he’s saying “oh my lord,” “I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us,” notice he says “us,” he’s thinking ‘I don’t want to be the next one with leprosy,’ “wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb.” (verses 11-12) Aaron’s description is Miriam looked like a premature birth, an aborted fetus, she was so eaten up, there was something grotesque about her presence, and he’s begging Moses ‘Don’t let this happen.’ And now you have, you’re going to have the high priest, who besought God on behalf of the people, going to Moses, to be the one who beseeches God on behalf of him and Miriam, and everything is coming back into focus very quickly. That ever happen to you? Some things come to our lives, sometimes bring everything back into focus awfully fast. “And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.” (verse 13) And I believe he loved Miriam. You and I probably would have said ‘Well, I’ll pray, but are there lessons here? Let’s sit down with the Bible and have a little talk here, there are things that we can learn. Do you remember verse 2?’ There’s none of that, Moses cries out here on behalf of his sister. And it’s very interesting, look, now the LORD has gone up, his presence had gone up in a cloud, Moses cries out, and the LORD speaks to him, remarkably. “And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.” (verse 14) Now I’m not sure about that example. We know in Deuteronomy 25, verse 9 I believe, and we know in Ruth, that there was a time where you took your sandal off and you spit in someone’s face. It was a sign of reproach. And here the LORD’s saying, if she had disgraced her family or her father and he had spit in her face, she’d be outside the camp for a number of days. Now we don’t have specifically in the Law anything about that. But the LORD is saying something to Moses here that he knew he would understand, he said “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.” He says ‘Moses, the problem is not my forgiveness, the problem is her learning curve, I can forgive immediately, if her repentance is real, but her lesson, her lesson is something that she needs to learn.’ If you do something stupid and you slug somebody and break your arm, you can go to the Lord immediately and ask forgiveness and you’re forgiven. That doesn’t mean he’s going to heal your arm, that cast is going to talk to you for six weeks about how dumb you were. Because it would be really important the next time you’re tempted to do the same thing. So, he says to Moses, ‘Let her stew, for seven days, let her remain out there.’ We’re going to find out in the next verse the whole camp is waiting to move, but they realize they can’t move until Miriam is cleansed and comes back in the camp. So here’s the girl who kind of stirred up the trouble, who wanted to be preeminent, ‘like I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.’ (3rd John chapter 1, verse 9) and instead she’s outside the camp and the whole camp’s ‘Aaah,’ waiting seven days, 3 million people, ‘Aaah, are you done yet?’ So here’s Miriam outside the camp for seven days. And it doesn’t tell us that the LORD healed her immediately when she was put outside the camp. Did the LORD let a slow process of healing of the leprosy take place? Or did the LORD let her be white as snow for seven days and at the end of seven days, snap! We’re not told. Whatever it was, it was God’s best, and I’m content with it. “And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.” (verses 15-16) And it’s pretty embarrassing with 3 million people waiting for you. So, a lesson, chapter 12, a lesson. God has different callings in our lives, God appoints us to different ministries. It tells us in Hebrews in regards to the priesthood, ‘No man taketh this to himself,’ that even the priesthood was appointed. And again, an interesting thing in the Old Testament, nepotism is expected not frowned upon, you had to be a priest’s son to be a priest, a Levite’s son to be a Levite, a musicians son to be a musician, there was something there, there was a calling on families, a calling on individuals to be a prophet. But the point is, even in the New Testament we’re told in 1^st Corinthians 12 God has placed different people in the Body the way he’s placed them, he’s given them gifts. It’s a supernatural work. It’s something that is only sharpened in one sense on the vertical, it isn’t something that you can of your own wisdom and your own ability on the horizontal make into something that wouldn’t be without God’s calling and God’s Holy Spirit, God’s anointing. So lesson, certainly in our journey there’s going to be people sometimes that bug you, David no doubt was bugged with Saul, but he said ‘God forbid that I should touch the LORD’s anointed, God made him king, I’m not gonna kill him.’ He understood somewhat of that process, so here is a lesson for us, that sometimes envy, sometimes ambition, sometimes those kinds of things creep into the camp and get into God’s leadership in places. And it can keep the whole camp from moving forward, it can keep a progress that’s beneficial to everyone sometimes, it can stalemate that until it’s resolved. So, sadly those things happen, the church is human. If you ever find a perfect church don’t go to it, because you’ll ruin it. Lessons though for us, to take to heart and to learn.

Numbers 13:1-33

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 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. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. 6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea [Joshua] the son of Nun. 9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. 10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. 11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. 13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. 14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. 15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua. 17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: 18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; 19 and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what the cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; 20 and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. 21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. 22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24 The place was called the brook of Eschol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. 26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kedesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Introduction

“Chapter 13, we come to Paran, we come to the border of the land, we come to the area that’s going to be called Kadesh, and then Kadesh-barnea. As we come to the border of the land, we’re about 50 miles southwest Barsheba. There are several Kadesh’s in the Bible, this one will be identified as Kadesh-barnea, and there are four major springs there that would have been able to sustain the camp, and most Bible and archeological scholars are agreed that this is where they were. And they’ll enter into the land, the spies, on a southern route, and go all the way up to the Baka Valley and back down again. So, they come to the border of the land [the Promised Land]. And there’s going to be huge lessons for us to learn here. First of all, the land of Canaan is not heaven, though there are spirituals that indicate that, songs that we sing sometimes, there’s that idea, that when we cross the River Jordan into Canaan it’s going into heaven. Well I hope not, because there are at least 48 different battles in Canaan, there are giants there, there’s struggles there, there’s sin there. I’m hoping heaven, especially lately, it’s going to be way different than that. OK? [the Kingdom of Heaven, which will end up on earth, cf. Revelation 21:1-23. There is this misconception amongst many Christian groups and denominations that we go to heaven when we die. When we die, our bodies get buried or cremated, cease to be, whilst the spirit-in-man that gives us our intellect, the software for our brains, goes back up to God, where it remains unconscious until it’s reunited with our resurrection body, which rises back up out of the grave, alive and well. Then we ascend back up to heaven for a short period of time, called The Wedding Feast of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 19:7-9), and then we’ll all return back to earth with Jesus at his 2^nd coming, to rule the world with him for 1,000 years. So the concept of going to heaven when we die is a misconstrued concept that is not Biblical at all. There are times when I get sick of hearing it, and that is why this comment.] I’m hoping when I get there the battles are over [coming back with Jesus, Zechariah 14:1-15, our battles will be just beginning. We’ll be like the troops hitting the beaches at Normandy--yet without sustaining any casualties]. Canaan is a picture of God’s promises, it’s a picture, the Promised Land is a picture of the things that God has promised to us, and our entering in upon them is simply that. Peter says ‘there’s great and precious promises that God has given to us, whereby we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that’s in the world through lust.’ There is growth, as we put on Christ we’re to put off the old man, that God didn’t bring us out not to bring us in. So for you and I, the promises of God are a picture of the Land, and ya, there are battles there, in our growth, in our experience, as we want to enter into the things that God has for us. And there are giants sometimes there. We’re going to find out that one of the centers for the giants is Hebron. Hebron is the word that means “communion” or “fellowship.” There’s certainly when we draw the closest to the Lord, you and I, when we’re alone and we draw completely close to him, when we come into the light, when we’re most aware of our own depravity and what we are, and so often that’s where the enemy says ‘Are you kidding, he doesn’t want to spend any time with you, look at those thoughts in your heart, look how jealous you are, look how lustful you are, look how bitter,’ or whatever, sometimes that very place of communion and fellowship that we long for is the place where we have to defeat giants. But the thing about this picture is, in unbelief they’re going to turn away from here at Kadesh-barnea, and it will determine the outcome of an entire generation. And what they turn away from is not just the land, they turn away from the promises of God. We’re going to find out in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 2, that it is an 11-day journey from Horeb to Paran, to Kadesh-barnea, 11 days. It’s going to take them 40 years to get into the Promised Land. It would have only taken them the 2 years and 11 days, they should have been in to the promises of God, all that he had for them. There are things that God puts in front of us that are to be examined. We’re going to find out they say ‘Let’s send in a man from each tribe, to spy out the land,’ God will condescend to that. But it didn’t need to happen because it tells us in Deuteronomy 1 that God had already spied out the land, God had already spied out the land. He’s not sending them into a situation that he’s unfamiliar with. God never sends us into a situation that he is not completely familiar with. Sometimes you and I get into a circumstance and it feels like such strange territory, because we’re somewhere we’ve never been before spiritually or some terrible circumstance seems to come upon us or something appears in front of us, and we thought ‘Lord, you made me promises, this seems too difficult to undertake now, do I just,’ at this point in the history of the nation, the decision was, turning away from the Word of God. At this point in the history of our nation, what we do, and I’m not talking about politics, I’m talking about the Church, I’m talking about you and I, will determine the destiny of the next generation. If we turn away from the Word of God for something easier, for something we can rationalize with our own mind, instead of something that God just wants us to enter into because we believe his Word and believe his promises, or we sit back and get caught in the paralysis of analysis, ‘Does it really mean this, or is that really relative to our generation, don’t we have to be cooler and slicker and savvier, don’t we have to have rear-screen projection, and the colors in here are cold, we need pastel colors, we need to warm everything up, we need to get people to come in and feel comfortable,’ either that, or we just understand that the Word of God is the Word of God, is the Word of God, is the Word of God, and heaven and earth are going to pass away [cf. Revelation 21:1] but the Word of God is never going to pass away, and we can stand upon it, and it is alive and powerful, and does not need our help, we only need to let it out of the cage, like Luther says, it devours its enemies. [applause] And that’s where they stood, they stood between, “Kadesh” which means “holy,” and “barnea” which means “son of wandering.” And that’s where they stood between those two places. And in some senses, we always stand there. God had given them his promises.

Did The LORD Tell Moses To Choose Out 12 Spies, Or Was It Something The People Suggested To Moses?

It says here in chapter 13, verse 1, “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. And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.” (verses 1-3) Now I’m going to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1, so you understand the process here, you can turn there if you want to, Deuteronomy chapter 1, to the right one book, verse 19 says “And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us. Behold, the LORD our God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out of the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe.” (verses 19-23) But he says to them, as this is going on, he says ‘Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, who went before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in cloud by day.” (verses 29-33) So Moses clearly says the LORD had gone before them, the LORD had promised to fight their battles for them, the LORD had said ‘the land is yours, go up and possess it,’ the LORD had searched out the land, but they’ve come to it now and are saying ‘Now we don’t know what the lay of the land is, we don’t know how many cities there are, you’re asking us just to step out of the boat onto the water, and people can’t float, we can’t defy gravity,’ and they’re caught in the paralysis of analysis. So God condescends, and he says ‘Moses, let them do this, let them send men up to spy out the land.’

The 12 Spies Enter The Promised Land & Spy It Out

“And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea [Joshua] the son of Nun. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gamali. Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.” (verses 4-15) Of the tribe of Judah, we want to take note of that, Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and this is just a remarkable character. Because his origins are outside the children of Israel, he’s a Kenite, he’s one of the Bedouin of the desert. And his family had joined themselves to the tribe of Judah, and he ends up, you know, in so many generations, they’re accepted, he’s accepted, he’s a convert to the true faith, and he’s a respected man. These are not the leaders of the 12 tribes we have in the first chapter, these are men specifically, evidently, they feel are fit for this kind of journey, they’re probably younger, maybe warriors, and Caleb, what a remarkable man he is going to be, and we’re going to see more about his life. He’s of the tribe of Judah, remarkably. Oshea, this is the other one we want to take note of, the son of Nun. Down in verse 16 it says “These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.” What he does is he adds to Oshea, which means “salvation,” “Ya,” from Jehovah [Yahweh], and changed his name to Jehoshua, “the LORD becomes our salvation.” The Jews just say Joshua [Hebrew “Yeshua”], the Greek is Jesus, and it’s very interesting, this man is going to be one of the primary men, he had been Moses’ servant, we hear about him earlier, but he’s going to go in and spy out the land, and his name changed, maybe right at this point, to encourage the other 11, “the LORD has become our salvation.” Interesting, that will become important as we get to the end of Deuteronomy, because Moses, who represents the Law, is able to bring them to the border of the Promised Land, but not bring them in. The first book in the Bible named after a person is named after Joshua, Jesus [Hebrew, Messianic Jewish: Yeshua], Joshua is the one who can bring them into the Promises of God, that Law could never do it. So we’re introduced here, specifically, of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. “And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:” (verse 17) Now, it’s reconnaissance, it’s answering the question of the people about route, no doubt, it is answering the question of the people about the inhabitants of the land. It’s answering the people about, and they should never have had to ask, is the land really a land that’s fruitful, of milk and honey, because God had promised that over and over. But they are sent now, no doubt to come back and confirm the very things that God had said. So he sends them to spy out the land of Canaan. “and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:” (verse 17b) the highland, into the midst of the land. Now look, there are times in our lives where it’s good to spy out the land. We encourage people if they’re to go into the mission field, and sometimes they don’t want to listen, but if you’re going to go into the mission field, you’re going to go into a third world country, our advice is make a 6-week or an 8-week commitment. Go, and then come back and pray and decide if you really want to do that, you go and spy out the land, that’s a big commitment, it’s a cultural change, a huge deal. And there are times we tell people, what you should do is go, plant yourself there, take some time, spy out the land as it were, and then come back and pray seriously and say ‘Lord, am I willing to make the commitment that is necessary?’ Sometimes that’s just wisdom. But there are other times when the Lord says ‘This is my promise, go in and possess it, it belongs to you,’ and there doesn’t need to be any spying, there doesn’t need to be any analysis, there needs to be faith. There needs to be stepping in and taking hold. I’m not saying that’s easy, but I’m saying there are times we’re to cast ourselves upon the Lord. Here they go up by the inland route to the mountains, “And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what the cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.” (verses 18-20) We’re probably in July/August, early August, somewhere in there. “So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.” (verse 21) They’re all the way up north of the Sea of Galilee, “And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were.” and just this very strange note, and I’m always amazed with it and never understood it, you probably won’t be, but it’s the way I am, “(Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)” (verse 22) Thanks, Moses. [It was the LORD who was dictating this to Moses, and somehow this will fit in with future revelations in ancient history during the Kingdom Age.] Hebron was built seven years before the area of Ramses. ok, that’s how old Hebron is, I guess. Ah, these three, Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, funny names, huh? You can say this, it’s not a trick question. But if you saw them you wouldn’t make fun of them, these are the sons of Anak. Anak is from one of the tribes of giants, there were the Rephaim, the Anakim, the Zamzumins, the Emims, the Thorims. We’re going to see, as we come in to the land, it’s a very strange thing. And because I’m a strange person I’ve collected books on giants, and biological anomalies, and Jamison, Fawcett and Browne talk about English explorers that were up in the area of Bashan where it says there were 60 cities of giants before it became dominated by Muslims and the present political intrigue of the world, and they came back and said they found basalt buildings with 18-foot ceilings with six-foot hinges remaining on some of them, and some doors that were stone that were set on pins that you could push with your finger and still turn, and very remarkable coming back and describing some of that. We’re going to run into Og of Bashan, there’s another guy, you wouldn’t call him Og-Og, and it says either his bedstead or his coffin was 13-feet long. That’s 20 pallbearers at least, this guy is big, just imagine. So, there’s a very interesting intrigue here, these three guys are giants, they’re the sons of Anak, and they live in Hebron. “And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.” (verse 23) The single cluster of grapes was so big they had to tie it to a staff, and two men carried it between their shoulders. You’ve seen no doubt pictures of this, some of the Israeli art is beautiful, pictures of this with two men with a staff with this huge cluster of grapes, which seems to me to be a wonderful thing, each grape had to be bigger than a grapefruit, the grapes must have been like that. That’s a wonderful thing if you have babies, babies like to eat grapes, but you have to peel them, which is always a task. If you could just peel one grape a week that would be wonderful. They brought back one cluster of grapes between two men on a staff, they brought back pomegranates, and figs. “The place was called the brook of Eschol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.” (verse 24) Just imagine one of those babies, cold, seedless, take it out of the refrigerator, sorry. Wonderful.

10 Of The Spies Give An Evil Report

“And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kedesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.” (verses 25-26) Notice, Miriam’s not there, she doesn’t have an opinion. So evidently the entire congregation in anticipation is waiting. This has been a promise since Abraham, waiting to go in and take this land, that God has made to him. And they’re waiting, no doubt in bated breath. They come and they show them, they look at this cluster of grapes. Now this is what they speak to Moses, they didn’t deny the beauty of the land, the fruit of it, “And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.” (verse 27) “milk,” that means grazing land, “honey,” pollination, “and this is the fruit of it,” they can’t deny that, this land is everything the LORD has said that it was. And then the Hebrew word here, “nevertheless,” which means cancel everything we said up until this point. “Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” (verses 28-29) ‘So ya, this is the fruit of the land, this is what God said, it flows with milk and honey, but the children of Anak are there, the giants are in the land, and there are walled cities, the walls going up into the sky, and there’s Amorites and Hittites and Jebusites and Amalekites,’ and they’re caught, “nevertheless, everything God says is true, nevertheless,” please don’t get caught there. Everything God said is true, but. There are given unto us great and precious promises, God has a plan for our lives, morally, and it’s in regards to purity, it’s in regards to marriage, it’s in regards to wisdom and genius of design. ‘But, Lord, if I do it your way, if I wait,’ and there’s a whole culture that’s screaming at us, screaming at us to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Media, music, television, screaming at us, washing our minds on a daily basis. God tells us what he wants us to be in our character, ‘nevertheless, people take stuff from work everyday, they’re going to throw this out anyhow.’ God tells us what he wants in regards to forgiveness, and he tells us that because we’re forgiven, because his grace has been extended, that we can also forgive, and sometimes we live our lives eaten up with bitterness. I’m I saying it’s easy to forgive? I’m not saying that. I’m saying we can carry wounds our entire lives, but that we should never go back off and say ‘Lord I’m just not going to do this,’ we should cast ourselves upon him, we should ask him. They still could have gone into the land, they could have said ‘LORD, we’re afraid, there are giants there, the cities are walled, and we don’t know how we’re ever going to take them, but, nevertheless, we’re going to go in there anyway.’ They’re saying ‘But nevertheless we’re not going do what you say,’ they’re turning away from his word. And it determines the lives of an entire generation, because they turned away from the Word of God. Look, verse 30 says this, “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” Not Joshua, Caleb. Now this is a guy who brings peace on everybody because of his faith. He said ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it, the LORD has promised, let’s go get ‘em!’ ‘But Caleb, we look like grasshoppers in their sight, these guys are 13-foot tall, what are you talking about?’ ‘I don’t care, let me at ‘em, you stick ‘em in the knee, when they bend down you stick ‘em in the eye, and when they can’t see you run around and stick ‘em in the back.’ We’re going to find out, only Joshua and Caleb, 38 years later, are going to enter into the Land, and Caleb’s going to be over 85 years old. And God says ‘I want you to cast lots for the inheritance of the land [for everyone else entering in, those that were under 20 years old from this time], but Joshua you and Caleb can take what you want.’ Caleb says ‘Give me Hebron,’ he’s 85 years old, ‘I got my sword here, just let me at those giants, I want fellowship, I want communion, I want the high ground, I want the high ground.’ I love this guy. He stills the people. You know Jesus would criticize the Sadducees, he would say ‘You neither know the Scripture or the power of God.’ And people that want to analyze everything today, that’s the problem they’re in. Caleb says ‘Let’s go at once, let’s go get ‘em, let’s go get those guys, the bigger they are the harder they fall.’ “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.” (verses 31-32) And notice “and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature” you know how that goes, don’t you? When you’re filled with anxiety, you’re angry or you’re stressed out, all of your adjectives change, “now all of the people.” Before it was there were Amorites, there were Hittites, there were Jebusites, you know, Canaanites. Now there’s only giants, all of the people are giants. You know what it’s like, you get in an argument, a husband or a wife, ‘You ALWAYS do that.’ ‘What do you mean, always, I did it once in 1974, I did it once, what do you mean always?’ ‘You NEVER,’ I don’t like those words, ‘you NEVER tell me the truth.’ ‘We had a misunderstanding 40 years ago, what do you mean “never”? “All of the people are giants,” you know people that say that ‘You do that EVERY TIME.’ That’s not fair, every time. Now all of the people of the entire land are giants, there’s no normal humans there now. “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (verse 33) “which come of the giants” and Moses uses the word “Nephilim” here. Now, Moses, the man who wrote together the Book of Genesis [dictated what God told him to write about the Book of Genesis, Moses was God’s holy scribe] tells us in Genesis chapter 6, “that the Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also afterward.” Modern scholarship, you know, I’ve got a book, 1800s something by Flemming, the whole book goes back through the demigods, the Greeks, all the way back to Genesis 6, it goes through the Hebrew, it goes through the Greek, the Church fathers, the ancient rabbis, it’s a remarkable comprehensive work. And modern scholarship is the one that’s turned away from the idea that there were giants. Custer, when he was amongst the Plains Indians, they brought to his physician that travelled with him, the army, a femur, and the doctor who examined it said ‘This is a femur from a human leg, this individual had to be at least 20-foot tall.’ And the Indians said, they had a name for them, used to live on the Plains, and they could run next to a buffalo herd and pick up a buffalo with one hand and eat it with one hand. ‘But they insulted the Great Spirit and mocked him, and a great flood came, and covered all of the mountains of the world, and they were all drowned. And since then we’ve all been normal sized.’ This is the Plains Indians. I’ve got a picture, you need to come next week if you want to see, I’m gonna put it up on the wall. I have a photo of a petrified giant they found in Ireland, standing, he’s over 12-foot tall, they have him standing against the back of a boxcar of a train, it’s just staggering. And there are reports in Rome, Caesar, the Celtic giants they faced, the giants that they faced in England, Patagonia, anyone know what a podiatrist is, “foot,” “gonia” giant, “Patagonia” the place of giant footprints, when they first landed there, the explorers found these giant footprints, and they learned then when they came to the New World, there had been giants in South America. They all play basketball now, but then [laughter], I’m only kidding. And this was some perverted thing that produced them, because whatever the fallen angels did, the problem survived the Flood. The Flood wiped out everybody but Noah and his sons and their wives, so it is a spiritual influence that produces this that’s not drowned by water, because it says they were in the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men. Very interesting, but they come in the land, the giants are there, they’re overwhelmed, “And all the congregation” chapter 14:1 “lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept all night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron…” (verses 1-2a) Look, the two first major problems that are encountered as they want to enter into the Promises of God are they disbelieve the Word of God, and they discourage the people of God. They disbelieve the Word of God, and they discourage the people of God.

In closing

Don’t you love to be, I love to be around someone who's been walking with the Lord for 50, 60 years. A.E. Wildersmith before he passed away, I just wanted to have time to sit with him and talk with him, and he had three earned PhD’s in different fields, one of the twelve brightest guys on the planet, this guy loved Jesus, loved the Bible. What an amazing guy, just to sit around. And I think of some of the privileges I’ve had, just to sit with some older saints, just remarkable, what a calming effect they have, life doesn’t freak them out, everything that was a HUGE deal, you know, to them they’ve seen it come, they’ve seen it go, they’ve learned to trust the Lord, how wonderful, what a calming effect to those of us who have taken hold of the Word of God can have. You know, husbands to wash our wives in the water of the Word, we should hold to that for the sanity of our families and our children. If we turn away from the Word of God, we become a discouragement, an Eor Christian ‘I don’t know, maybe we can trust them, maybe we can’t, I don’t know, I think he’s mad at me,’ Oh boy, I want to get saved, listen to that guy, he’s encouraging. Lessons, read ahead, chapter 14, this plays out and plays out and plays out, very important to God, because through the ages, God will put promises in front of his people. We can be locked down, strictly functioning in the law of nature, the physical, which God has set into motion. But there are higher laws than that. The law of the Spirit of life, in Romans 8, that sets us free from the law of sin and death. Something happens when we pray, or there’s no point in it at all, something happens when we lift the name of Jesus before the Father, and it’s in regard to human government and natural law that can be altered and changed, if God’s people seek him. ‘If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, I’ll heal their land,’ it’s a higher law, it’s a higher law. If we lock ourselves down, people are like that, the paralysis of analysis, we analyze everything so much we get paralyzed, we can’t move, we can’t breathe, we can’t trust, we can’t step out of the boat onto the water. God brings us all to those places. You raise kids, they don’t, my kids when they were little would jump off the top step at the landing, because they knew I was going to catch them. They didn’t know how often I’d thought ‘Well what would they do if I didn’t catch them today?’ They didn’t think I ever thought that. ‘Hey Dad!’ they’re already flying through the air. [I did that once to my dad, and he caught me, but it shocked the daylights out of him.] And there’s times God wants us to be like that with him, ‘hey Dad,’ here we are, we’re already going. Not foolishly, not tempting God. But we have text, we have a promise, we have his Word, it’s relative to our life, to our circumstance. We’ve sat alone with it, we’ve had tears in our eyes, God has spoken to us, reaffirmed his Word to us, done the spiritual thing no academia could produce, he’s just done that thing in our heart and we know ‘OK Lord, I bow my knee, I’m taking hold of it, I’m moving forward, I’m trusting you,’ how wonderful, how faithful, how gracious, how personal, how loving, the best Father, the best Father. Amen? Let’s have the musicians come, we’ll sing a last song, we’ll lift our hearts to the Lord, and let’s stand, pray for the person on your right, the person on your left. We don’t know who here, maybe has been challenged by a family member in some way that’s just so wrong, and their heart is broken now. We don’t know, maybe now the person next to you is really struggling, really struggling with trusting the Lord, they’re facing a very, very difficult situation, and God has been telling them, ‘I just want you to trust me, I want you to do this my way, I want you to let go, I want you to let me do this, I’ve already spied out the land, I’ve already gone before you, I am not taking you into unfamiliar territory, it may be unfamiliar to you, it’s completely familiar to me, and I’m the Good Shepherd.’ And the shepherd is never dependent on the IQ of the sheep, that’s a wonderful thing for me, just if their heart is willing to follow…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Numbers 12:1-16 and Numbers 13:1-33, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]