Faithful in Consequences

September 29, 2019 Background Scripture: Numbers 14:10b – 23 Lesson Passage: Numbers 14:10b – 20 Today’s lesson is a continuation of the text from last week’s lesson. Israel demonstrated an absolute lack of trust in God to provide them with what He promised. Although God had led them to the land He promised to give them, they did not trust Him to give it to them. They believed that God had led them into a situation of doom. They rejected God’s offer to occupy the land of Canaan and recommended stoning Joshua and Caleb for suggesting it. It was at this point that the glory of the Lord appeared inside the holy tent. God addressed Moses from within the holy tent. All of the miracles God performed for Israel was to engender in them a trust for Him. God had constantly led Israel into situations of need and provided everything to meet those needs. God’s provisions came through works of miracles: dividing the Red Sea, turning bitter waters into potable water, delivering water from a rock in the desert, and providing food (manna) Israel had never heard of. All of this demonstrated God’s power and His concern for the needs of Israel. In spite of the evidence God showed of His trustworthiness, Israel continued to lack trust in God. They behaved and spoke as though they believed the last thing God did for them was the last thing that God was going to do for them. God spoke to Moses of losing patience with them. God threatened to destroy Israel and to build a new nation from Moses’ descendants. Moses reminded God that He had established a reputation that the Egyptians were telling others about. Although Israel refused to see and acknowledge God’s ongoing provision for them, the other nations freely recognized it. Even the Egyptians were watching to see if God was going to do all that He promised He would do for Israel. Moses stated that God’s reputation among the other nations would be at stake if God did not preserve Israel and bring them into Canaan as He promised to do. A failure to do this would cause the other nations to question God’s power to deliver His people. God offered to make a nation out of Moses’ descendants but Moses saw this as too great a risk for God’s reputation among the people who only knew Him based on what they had heard. Moses asked God to demonstrate His power through His patience, mercy, and forgiveness. Moses did not ask God to ignore or remove Israel’s guilt. Rather, he begged God to pardon Israel in spite of their guilt. This would be a greater demonstration of God’s might to the other nations than destroying Israel because of their iniquity. Moses’ prayer demonstrates that he had indeed learned much about God’s character. God had offered to extend to Moses the same promise He made to Abraham and renewed in Isaac and Jacob. Moses declined God’s offer in favor of God demonstrating to the heathen nations the true essence of His character. Moses chose to defend God’s character rather than seek worldly fame for himself. God accepted Moses’ prayer and granted his request because Moses had shown that he was faithful to God in a time when the nation of Israel was facing dire consequences for their iniquity. God pardoned Israel’s iniquity but they still had to suffer consequences for their lack of faith. Robert C. Hudson September 13, 2019

Faithful Despite Unfaithfulness

September 22, 2019 Background Scripture: Numbers 13:1 – 14:10a Lesson Passage: Numbers 13:1, 2, 17, 18, 25 – 28; 14:1, 2, 5 – 10a One of the most remarkable attributes that God has revealed about Himself is His immutability. Immutability simply means that God never changes. Since God has revealed to us that He is holy, we can rest assured that He is always holy. Likewise, as today’s lesson will show, God is always faithful. God’s character does not depend on anyone or anything outside of Himself. God is Who He is and He will always be the same. On the other hand, human relationships are very dynamic. Individually, we adjust and make changes to our interpersonal interactions within the confines of relationships based on the actions and/or inactions of others. We expect them to do the same and, together, we hope to find a happy medium somewhere that the relationship can subsist on. However, this is of no use to us when it comes to having a personal relationship with God. We are constantly changing, whether it is the result of learning or never learning. While we are going through the dynamics of our changes and acting and refusing to take action, God remains the same. Today’s lesson also reminds us that there are God-fearing people who can also be counted on in difficult times to remain faithful to the causes of God. Joshua and Caleb are brought front and center today as faithful followers of God. They were two of the twelve men chosen to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The group was sent on a mission to examine the land of Canaan to check its suitability for Israel to begin occupation of it. According to Moses’ statement in Deuteronomy, this was done at the request of some of the people of Israel. God had promised the land to Israel. God had examined the land for its suitability. Finally, God had led them to it by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. However, it seems as though this is where their trust in God stopped. Rather than follow God’s guidance and be led to occupy the land—trusting that the land of Canaan would be everything God promised it would be—they decided to have their representatives evaluate the land for them. After forty days of examining the land, the group returned with a report of their findings. They reported that the land was all that God said it was. In other words, their evaluation agreed with God’s evaluation of the land. Unfortunately, this is when things got twisted. Ten of the twelve men did not consider God’s guidance as an important factor in occupying the land. Based on that, Israel could not overpower the people who were currently living in Canaan. A war with the Canaanites would be disastrous for them and their women and children would become prey for the Canaanite armies. The mission to occupy the land would be futile and fatal. This report upset the congregation of Israel and they felt they were deceived into leaving Egypt and led into a situation where they could all be killed. Again, this was all based on not including God’s leadership to guide them into occupying the land. As a whole, the congregation was showing itself to be very unfaithful as far as trusting God. They seemed to be determined that they would have to survive without any help from God, although God brought them out of Egypt without them having to fight the Egyptians for their freedom. Only Joshua and Caleb stood up against the unfaithful opinion of the congregation. They proved to be faithful to God despite the unfaithfulness of the rest of the congregation. Robert C. Hudson September 9, 2019