Baptists Committed to World Evangelism

Deuteronomy 1:21-28 “ Behold, the LORD thy 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.  22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. 23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: 24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. 25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us. 26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:  27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.” In Deuteronomy, God through Moses is rehearsing the history of the nation of Israel and reviewing the law of Moses again to remind them of what it says.  In chapter one, we find something that is not mentioned in the previous account in Numbers 13.  It was the idea of the people to send men in to spy out the land.

Numbers 34:50-53 “And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.” When the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, they were instructed by God to do several things: Drive out all the inhabitants of the land before them Destroy all the pictures of the inhabitants of the land Destroy all the molten images of the inhabitants of the land Pluck down all their high places Dispossess the inhabitants of the land They were to take complete control of the land, to completely drive out all the inhabitants, and to destroy everything that had to do with idol worship.  This was for their own good. Later on in this passage, God said that if they did not drive them out, those that remained would be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides to vex them.

Numbers 32:6 “And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” The nation of Israel had been commanded to go up into the land of Canaan and take the land that God had given them.  Several of the tribes wanted to stay where they were instead of going over the Jordan River.  By wanting to stay behind they were discouraging the hearts of their brethren who had to face the enemies and challenges over on the others side of the river.  They were not going to be allowed to sit there in comfort while their brothers went to war. This applies to Christians today.

Numbers 20:7-12 “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?  And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” Moses was a very meek man.  He was a good man.  God really used him, but he had problems with his anger.  It got him into trouble more than once.  As a young man in Egypt, his anger resulted in the murder of an Egyptian taskmaster

Numbers 16:1-3 “Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? The leadership of Moses was continually under attack and question.  His own sister and brother criticised him and questioned why he was in charge.

Numbers 14:40-45 “And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. 41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.” When God told the Israelites to go up into the Promised Land, they were afraid and did not want to go up.  They rebelled against the Lord and refused to go up.  When God told them that they would wander in the wilderness for forty years because of their rebellion, then they decided to go up without the Lord’s blessing.  Their efforts were resisted, and they failed because the time had passed and God was not with them

 Numbers 11:11-17 “And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?  12 Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?  13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

Numbers 6:21 “This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.” I was reading in the book of Numbers today about the position and role of the Levitical tribes, the Nazarite vow, and the various offerings.  I am ashamed to say that I was thinking, “What is in this for me?” Often my attitude and maybe yours is to think what is in this for us.  If we cannot see the immediate benefit of the Bible, then we move on.  We have a buffet-style attitude about life.  I will take what I want and reject what I don’t want

Numbers 2:3 “And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.” Numbers 2:9 “All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. These shall first set forth.” As we read through the Bible, we notice many lists, genealogies, and an orderly pattern of things.  We find that God is a God of order.

Leviticus 26:44 “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.” God’s punishment upon Israel for walking in continual sin would be that he would scatter them and take them out of the land that He has promised to them.  This punishment and scattering, however, would not be permanent but temporary because God has made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.  God will not go back on His word, and even their sin, though it might delay the fulfilment, could not alter the ultimate fulfilment of God’s promises. God said he would not cast them away, abhor them, utterly destroy them, or break his covenant with them, for He is the Lord their God.  To do that would go against the very character of God