Numbers 14:20-24 Bible Study | Episode 764

September 12, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Numbers 14:20-24 Bible Study | Episode #764764

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter 14, verse verses 20 through 25. We're dealing with God pronouncing his judgment. We really need to spend some time in this. So it'll take a few Bible studies to deal with this, and then the Israelites are going to try to do it themselves in their own power. And obviously, that's not going to work, but it's good Bible study. And when I say it's good Bible study, it's good Bible study, because we can spend some time thinking through how this, well, spiritually identifies some things for us in our lives. And although what is about to be pronounced against the children of Israel is very sad in one perspective, and it is very sad. It's common, and it's one of those things that we need to take into our own understanding of God and realize, you know, you're people who may end up this way if we don't do what we need to do now. I'm not talking about dying. We're all gonna die. And I'm not talking about going to hell. This is not about going to hell. This is about missing out on God's best. And that's what this whole story about the children of Israel not going into the promised land is about. Now, the generations before did not experience God's best either. And listen to me. The one of the hallmarks, especially, like, in our culture in the United States, one of the hallmarks is that we always want the next generation to have to be better off than the generation before. And so, obviously, as God gave promises to Abraham and to each generation following, and then as God began to, you know, they went into slavery, into Egypt, his promises were real palpable, and they were expecting it to be true, to eventually be delivered out of Egypt, and to eventually receive their inheritance. And we want and all people who are my age, 50 and older. When you get to a certain age, you want for your children and your grandchildren, especially your grandchildren. You want for your children, grandchildren, for them to have better than you did, for things to, for them to have more opportunity. Now, I don't want to make it easy, necessarily always easy for them. That's not really the way we want to look at it, but what I want to make it is I want to make it possible for them. And easy and possible are two totally different things. Possible leaves open the. The. The realization that you can do things that you didn't imagine could be done. And I want that to be the case for the generations that come after me. Not just only my family, in the sense of Kathleen and my children and grandchildren, but my nieces and nephews, the children of my friends and family members, the children of my community, the children of the people that I live around on a daily basis, children of, you know, in Alabama, we have counties, the children of my county and the children of my state, obviously, the children of my country, as you go out. But you always start with the ones that are most intimate, and you are desirous of the people and the families that, you know, for the possibilities to be greater and greater. And that's what really is the culmination of God's promises to the children of Israel. It is a group of people that God chose and set aside and promised certain things to, and that they should fulfill them, that they should have them. And what is sad about this is that the generation that was supposed to, the generation that was supposed to experience this, the ones that had the first opportunity to do it, are not going to. In fact, it says that the Lord said, I pardoned according to your word, meaning, God's not going to destroy everyone. He's not going to destroy all of the children of Israel and start over with Moses. And the reason he's pardoned according to his word is because Moses has spoken God's word back to him. Moses has spoken God's promises back to God. And when you. When you name and call out the promises of God, God's gonna act because they're his nature. They're his. They're his very word. It's. It's his revelation. So he's going to always. He's gonna always act according to his divine nature. He is. And when we call out that divine nature, when we. And when I say call it out, I mean speak it as if it is. Say, we believe this. We. We believe you for this. When we do that, that warms his heart, that makes God want to desirous of fulfilling his promises to us. He says, then they have said, I pardon according to your word, but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. What he's saying is, I'm going to glorify myself. I'm going to not destroy the children of Israel. But you want you to hear me. I am going to glorify myself and all the world. And the point of these children, these promises, this whole process that we're going through, the reason I've made the children of Israel mine, the reason I've made these promises, the reason I've gone through this process of bringing them out of Egypt is so that the world might know me, so that I might glorify me, glorify myself, that I might be known in the world. He said, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory, because all these men who have seen my glory, he now, he says, listen, I want the heaven to see it. But because these men who've seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put me to the test, now these ten times, what he's saying is they, they've tested me over and over and over again. Have they tested me over and over and over again. They keep not wanting to trust me. They keep doing things. They keep complaining about water and complaining about not having their own gods and complaining about not having food to eat, complain about not having meat to eat, complaining about who's gonna lead us, complaining about who's gonna be judges over us. All these tests, all these not following me, but, but complaining, why me? All that testing of me, and they haven't heeded my voice, meaning they haven't listened to me. They test me, but they don't listen. They whine, but they don't understand. He says, they certainly shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers. Now, listen, that's not going to hell. That's not what that is. This is not a picture of being sent to sent to hell is a picture of not seeing the promises of God. They shall not see the land, the promised land, of which I swore to their fathers. They, they were supposed to receive the promises I gave to their fathers, but they're not going to. Why? Because they keep testing me. And what else? They don't listen to me. They keep testing me and not listening to me. Testing me and not listening to me. He says, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. So those who have totally rejected God aren't going to see it. Those who aren't willing to hear God and keep testing him, they're not going to see it. If you reject God's word, which, by the way, a major denomination did yesterday, in full view of the world and everyone else, if you reject God's word and you fail to heed his voice and you are unwilling to do what he says and you're unwilling to walk in his promises, then you can't have his best. You just can't. It's not a socialist system. Everybody don't get it. It's an earned theocracy. It really is. It's earned. Do I earn salvation? No. Do I earn eternal life? No. Do I earn God's best? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. I get. I get all the things that come by his grace. But there's an aspect of walking with God and receiving his promises and having the spirit filled christian life and the fullness of God that comes by obedience born of faith. And I've got to be obedient and I've got to trust him. And it's not obedience for obedience sake. It's not obedience based off rules. It's obedience based off of faith. Now, does the faith lead me to walk in a certain way by certain standards? Sure. You can call that rules if you want to. I call it God's nature, but, but, sure, but it's obedience that's born of trusting God. Faith, he says, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. But it is the but now I love it because Caleb is the old dude, okay? He is the old dude. I mean, he really is. I mean, from every perspective, he is as old, if not older than Moses, okay? And he's going to hang around 30 million years before he goes in. I mean, he is the old dude now. He is going to be the old dude later on. He is the old dude full of faith. He got to walk in it. He don't care what anybody else thinks. He is going to stand up and stand for it. He's going to believe God and trust God. It don't matter what happens. I love that man. I'm not going to lie to you. Caleb is Caleb. If you said Chad, make the top ten list of Bible characters, I mean, he is obscure. I mean, he's not really mentioned a whole, whole lot. He's a little bit, you know, on the side as far as he's not definitely not a major character. I mean, there's not a book in the Bible written after him. Uh, I mean, named after him. You know, he's a. He's a. He's a. I wouldn't say he's a super monarch. He's not a. He's not one of those cast members that doesn't speak, but I. He speaks. He's got a speaking part, but not much. But, man, is he powerful is. I mean, he's somebody to be admired. I mean, he's. He is. He really is Joshua book written after him. I mean, you know, what more can we say about Joshua? I mean, Joshua was Joshua, but Caleb, come on. He's not even. He's not even looking to be in charge. He doesn't let him be in charge. He. They just. They picked him as one of the leaders because he's just one of those guys that leads. He. That's who he is. And when he speaks, I mean, he's like ef Hutton. Everybody listens. Why? Because he speaks the word of God. He said, but my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit. What kind of spirit does he have? Well, he follows me fully. He hears me, he believes me. He walks in it. He follows me fully. But my servant, Caleb, because he's got a different spirit in him and he's followed me fully. I'll bring him into the land where he went and his descendant shall inherit it.

Wow.

Old dude. He's getting it all. He's getting it all, he said. I mean, and God's calling him out. He's pronouncing judgment on the children of Israel, but he's calling Caleb out and he's saying, caleb's a different dude. He's a different man. He's got a different spirit about him. What is that different spirit? Well, he hears me and believes me. He says he's going to inherit the land. He went through the land. 40 years from now, he's going to take it. He's going to be around. He ain't going to die in the wilderness. Now, the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley, which means y'all are real close. They were right next to. I mean, they were ready to go in. I mean, they were one day's walk from the middle of Israel. He says, now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and move out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. Hmm. Tomorrow he's going to pronounce his judgment on the ten who led the children of Israel not to go into the promised land. I guess it's not tomorrow, I guess Monday, but. Hmm. That's some good stuff right there. It's not good for those who rejected God, but Caleb, that's some good stuff, really is. And the more I think about it, the more I think he's got to be on the top ten list. Who doesn't want to be like Caleb? Everybody wants to be like Caleb. Everybody. I mean, you want, you want to be able to do big things when you're young and you're chasing after God and you got a lot of energy and you got a lot of fight in you and sure, I mean, we all want to be Joshua or John or Peter. I mean, we want to be those folks, right? I mean, everybody, everybody does. You want to be King David going out there as a little boy taking down the giants? I mean, we want to be that, but, you know, really, to tell you the truth, after you've lived your full life and, and you've, you've done some of that stuff, but maybe not all of it, don't you want to be the Caleb who is the rock? Who's the one who just, he, he's got the different spirit. He's something special. Don't you want to be Caleb? I do. And then God said, you can't go in, but, Caleb, I know you're real close, but you're going in later. Well, I pray that one day I'll be a Caleb. I pray that'll be the case for me. I pray to be case for you. We do want to take down some giants along the way. You know, we want to spend some nights in some lines and ends and do some of the big things that God has for us. We definitely want to do that, but we want to have lived our life in such a way that when we get to the end, we got a different spirit in us, a caleb spirit, a spirit that hears God and believes him. And the only way to do that is practice right now and practice it, practice it, practice it, practice it. Do the things you need to do to make that happen. And when you do, you shall have it. That's the promise of God.

As you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today. In Jesus name.