Our scripture reading this evening is Numbers chapter 13, and we'll hear verses one through three, then we'll skip down to verse 17, and we'll read all the way through chapter 14, verse 12. I would encourage you to take out your Bibles and turn there, and then I would actually encourage you to leave your Bibles open, because I'm gonna be in the sermon referring back to some earlier passages and we'll just be looking at those in the Bible rather than projecting them on the screen. So if you're using a pew Bible, you'll be looking at page 163. Let's pray before we hear God's word. Sovereign God, as we come to hear your word in this evening hour, we ask that you would quiet our hearts and our minds so that we might hear you speak. and that through these words of yours, you might draw us ever nearer to yourself by faith, not just this evening, but always. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So again, Numbers 13, one through three. The Lord said to Moses, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. from each of their ancestral tribes, you shall send a man, every one a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites. Then we'll skip down to verse 17. Moses sent them to spout the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up there into the Negev, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold and bring some of the fruit of the land, Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and spied out the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebohamath. They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron, and Ahaman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zohan in Egypt. And they came to the Wadi Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Wadi Eshkol because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there. At the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Peran at Kadesh. They brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land, and they told them, we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well able to overcome it. Then the men who had gone up with them said, we are not able to go up against this people for they are stronger than we. So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out saying, the land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim, the Anakites, come from the Nephilim, and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and people wept that night, and all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites, and Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, the land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land for they are no more than bread for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. The whole congregation threatened to stone them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to believe in me? In spite of all the signs that I have done among them, I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Allow me to begin with something of an analogy. Imagine a young Kurt Monroe, a boy of maybe 10 or 11 years. He has a brother named Scott, who is three years his senior. One day in late winter, perhaps on a day something like today, Kurt's and Scott's parents tell them at the dinner table that they are going to go to Kings Island that very summer. Now, where I grew up in Indiana, if you wanted to go to an amusement park, you either went to Kings Island in the Cincinnati area, or you went to Cedar Point, which is up by Lake Erie. My family, I think because Kings Island had a really cool old wooden roller coaster called The Beast, we chose Kings Island. Now, at some point that spring, and because this was the days before the internet, Kurt and Scott found some slick, colorful brochures and pamphlets sitting on the kitchen counter that their parents had been looking at, and they saw those things and started looking through them, and their excitement began to build. And finally, the boys' parents told them the dates of their Kings Island vacation. And then the day of their departure arrived, they had already packed their bags the night before, they set off, and imagine the family arriving at the amusement park a bit early, so the gates aren't open yet. The boy's father says, boys, why don't you walk up there to the gates and see what you can see? Well, you can see if the mindless entertainment that we have been promised awaits us on the inside. Just so you know, The word amusement is literally ah-muse-ment. That means it's without a muse. So if you think the role of the muse is to give you poetry and meaning and order. So you're going to something mindless when you go to an amusement park. You can do that, just know what you're doing. So go see if the mindless amusement is there. See what the gates look like. and see what kind of fee it costs us to get in, and see if you can find anything about the kind of food that lies inside and, you know, that kind of thing. Now, imagine young Kurt and Scott walking up, seeing the still-locked gates, peering inside, getting the lay of the land, and imagine them coming back to the car, their parents are still sitting there. Golly, Mom and Dad, sure looks like a swell place, because that's how children talk before the Internet, okay? But the gates are awful big. The admission fee is really high. And it's a pretty long walk back to the gate anyway. And you know, the food, it looks pretty good, but it's all really expensive. So maybe mom and dad, we should just turn around and go home. And Scott adds, plus I think squirt here is too short to go on any other rides. Imagine Kurt's and Scott's parents saying, no, we've planned ahead, we've been prepared for all of that, we've got enough money, and Kurt's not too short for most of the ride, some of them okay. And then imagine, though, the boys digging in their heels. No, if you feel that way, we're going to have to find some other parents who will take us home. The analogy, I'm afraid, isn't all that far off. And if anything, it might be a bit weak. The Israelites stand at the gate of not just a vacation that's been planned for a few months, but they stand actually planned, mind you, by good, faithful, earthly parents. Now, they stand at the entrance of the land that has been promised to them for centuries. by a heavenly father who has proven himself powerful to deliver on his promises at every turn of their tangled course over those centuries that he's been making these promises. In one sense, this goes back to the promises that are inherent in creation itself. and then to those thickly veiled promises to redeem the creation, the earth itself, made by God in the moments and the chapters immediately following Adam's and Eve's rebellion in the garden. But God has been concrete and transparent. about his plan, not for a summer vacation, but rather about a land of abundance, fertility, a land of life for his chosen people in which he would actually begin to undo the damage of the fall. He's been concrete and transparent about this ever since the call of Abraham. So as we stand here with the Israelites at the cusp of the land, And as we hear Yahweh's command to Moses in verse two of chapter 13, send men to spout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. As we stand here, let's do a little bit of review. And so this is, I asked you to keep your Bibles open. I would invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis 12. And we are going to look at verses one through three, and then we'll drop down to verse seven. This is God's call of Abram, who would become Abraham. So again, Genesis 12. And if you're using a few Bibles, it's on page 12. 12 verse one, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now jump down to verse seven. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Now look right across to the next page at Genesis 13 verses 14 and 15. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring. Forever. Just turn one more page over, and we'll look at the moment when God makes his covenant with Abraham, and we'll see how God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants is interwoven with his promise of the land. So this is Genesis 15, verses 13 through 21, and it's at the bottom of page 14. Then the Lord said to Abram, Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for 400 years. Now that he's speaking about the very people who are standing at the cusp of the land right now, right? But I will bring judgment on the nations that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. They've got those possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace, you shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, this is the covenant itself, passed between these pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants, I give this land. From the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Cainites, the Cainazites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rethayim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. Then if you'll turn the page, another page, we'll read the passage in which Yahweh reaffirms the covenant promise, but in the immediate context of the covenant sign of circumcision. So this is Genesis 17, verses 7 through 10, page 16. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding. And I will be their God. God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. The leaders of each tribe whom Moses sent in obedience to God's command regarding the land that he was giving to them, that is the spies, carried on their very bodies the mark of the covenant that came with the very specific divine promises regarding the land that they were sent to reconnoiter. Friends, God's promise to give the descendants of Abraham the land that the Israelites stood on the doorstep of didn't stop with Abraham either. And turn over now a few chapters later, Genesis 26, Verses two and three, and you will hear God make the same promises to Abraham's son Isaac. So this is on page 27. And again, it's Genesis 26, verses two and three. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt, settle in the land that I shall show you, reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and will bless you for to you and to your descendants, I will give all these lands and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father, Abraham. The promises don't end with the second generation. God repeats the promises to Isaac's son, Jacob, the man to whom he would give the name Israel. And so we'll turn over to Genesis 28, verses 13 through 15. And this is on page 31. So again, beginning at verse 13, top of 31. And the Lord stood beside him. that is beside Jacob, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring, and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and the south, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised to you." God's promises were actually remembered. They were remembered by Israel's sons. And we know this because they were on Joseph's lips as he was dying. We're not gonna turn there, but at the end, the very last chapter of Genesis, Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will surely come to you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And yes, you might say, but then there's those 400 years. And all of that hard labor under Pharaoh between the days of the patriarchs and the days of Moses, and perhaps the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, maybe they forgot those promises. And even if that was so, which I highly doubt, the promises are reaffirmed. in the call of Moses as the task of leading God's people is given to him. So now I want you to turn over to Exodus 6 and we will hear verses 2 through 9. And we're going to hear God continue to link His covenant promises to the promise of the land that He has sworn to give to His people. And we'll hear God link His response to the cry of the people under Pharaoh. And again, this is the cry of the people who are standing at the cusp of the land as Numbers 13 begins. We'll hear Him link His response to the cry, to the remembrance of the covenant. which is tied to the promises of the land. So again, page 65, now Exodus 6, beginning at verse 2. God also spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them, listen to the way that's phrased. I established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens. I've also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves and I've remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites. So this is something that Moses is to speak to the whole congregation of Israel. Say to the Israelites, I am the Lord and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. Moses told this to the Israelites. Now, this is an interesting phrase, but they would not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery. Now, perhaps there's a hint that there's something amiss there. And perhaps you might say the tumultuous events of the Exodus itself would have further shaken the promises out of their collective memories. But this is no excuse. God reminded them of it again as recently as their departure from Sinai itself. So at this moment, God is still burning with his anger because of their idolatry at Sinai, but the promise of the land is continued, and it is acknowledged that the land is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. So now turn over to Exodus 33. You're gonna turn to page 99 if you're using Pew Bible. Exodus 33, and we'll hear verses one through three. The Lord said to Moses, go, leave this place, that is Sinai, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, to your descendants I will give it. I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. Go up and occupy. Those are the phrases that you're gonna hear that we heard on Caleb's lips, right? Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. but I will not go up among you. This is right after the golden calf incident, and that's why he's saying this part, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people. Now, we could keep going. For the sake of time, we won't. I would, however, point out that at least in one sense, all of the law that we've read in Exodus, Leviticus, and now the beginning chapters of Numbers is also tied to the land. And the Israelites, and we as we read it, are reminded of that actually quite frequently. As we heard Yahweh say in Leviticus 28, 26 through 28, you don't have to turn there, but you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, the abominations of the other nations. Either the citizen or the alien who resides among you, for the inhabitants of the land who were before you committed all of these abominations and the land became defiled. Otherwise, the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nations that was before you." See, God's plan of salvation was that He would dwell in the midst of His people Israel, who themselves would be dwelling in the land that was promised to them. And instead of Israel polluting, defiling the land with their sin and their impurity, instead of that happening, God who's dwelling with them in the holy of holies, God himself, his holy presence would radiate out from among them into the promised land and from the promised land to the rest of creation. That's the plan, that's what's supposed to happen. And now here, having heard all of that, here again, the very first verses of Numbers 13, as Israel stands at the edge of the promised land and on the cusp of this next stage in God's saving plans for his people, and then through them, all peoples. The Lord said to Moses, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. Now the leaders of the 12 tribes, the spies, they obey God's command. They travel over 500 miles in 40 days, acquiring the information vital to the coming conquest of the land. And they do that, they head from south to north and then back again. They bring back a sampling of the fruit from the land. But only two can be said to have obeyed the command to be bold. The spies report starts off factually enough at verse 27 of Numbers 13. You might want to turn back to Numbers 13 and 14. We'll be there for the rest of the time. We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. As factual as that might be, notice that the spies obstinately refused to describe the land how it is consistently described in everything we've heard tonight. They said, we came to this land to which you sent us, instead of saying, We came to the land which Yahweh swore to give us. That word give, give Natan, give, give, give, give, give. We went to the land to which you sent us. The word give is nowhere present. That's not accidental. And then they immediately follow with what one scholar describes as a strong, strong adversative, the way it works in the Hebrew. It's the word yet in the English translation. It's stronger in the Hebrew. Verse 28, yet, the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The rest of the initial report And the details of the occupants of the land is evidently troubling enough to create an audible stir in the congregation because verse 30 tells us that Caleb has to quiet the people. And then following Caleb's encouragement to go up at once and occupy it, that's God told them that's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go up, you're gonna occupy it. Caleb's like, go up and occupy it. Go up after his encouragement to go up and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. 10 of the other spies, they add few additional details to their report, but they do add plenty of discouraging interpretation and some embellishment designed to cause God's people to fear. As you hear this, remember that this is the very generation who was just brought up out of Egypt and who watched Pharaoh's army drown in the Red Sea that God had parted with his mighty arm. We are not able to go up against this people for they are stronger than we. And the Pew Bible then says, they brought an unfavorable report of the land. I would suggest that a better translation would be, they brought an evil report of the land. The Hebrew word there just means evil. They brought an evil report of the land. Not that they were reporting that the land itself was evil, but rather the narration's telling us that their report itself was evil. Their report was cowardly. It was false. It was ultimately and most importantly, faithless. John Calvin summarizes the evil of the report. He writes, God had promised to give the land to the Israelites. They deny that he will do it. He had afforded them many proofs that nothing is difficult to him. They deny that his aid will suffice against the forces of their enemies. Moreover, they at length break out into such impudence that in their falsehood, they contradict themselves. They had confessed that the land was rich. They now declare that it consumes or devours its inhabitants, which is entirely the reverse. Calvin is right. They refuse to remember God's consistent promises and His consistent displays of power and grace, and instead they dredge up. they can't see all of those things that God has done, and instead they dredge up the minutia of the people's memory, bringing to the surface the terror of the Nephilim. I mean, it's just like one verse in Genesis, the Nephilim, what in the world? We're gonna forget everything God has done, the Nephilim, and they transform, sure, to be sure, the very tall descendants of Anak. There's ample evidence that they were quite tall, but they can transform those people. It's all embellishment into the demigods out of the past. These people swept away by the flood. And then, and do not miss the importance of this as they stand on the cusp of the fulfillment and the culmination of God's saving actions and promises of the exit itself. The whole congregation raises their voice, they cry, they weep, and as chapter 14 verse two puts it, they complain against Moses and Aaron, and it's not just a bit of whining. It's not a bunch of whiny kids in the backseat of the car. As one scholar puts it, they're murmuring, that's a better translation of the word complain, they're murmuring is actually like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trust their leaders. Their rebellion goes from bad to worse, as they then attribute evil to God himself. Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? They're accusing God of murder. And finally, they propose a rejection of God's own uniquely chosen and appointed leader, Moses, and a rejection of God's whole plan of salvation. Let us choose a captain. and go back to Egypt. Utter, wretched, faithless rebellion. I'd suggest that the last part of Numbers 13.33 captures their problem in a nutshell. Numbers 13.33, the second part, and to ourselves, we seemed like grasshoppers. and so we seemed to them. A literal and perhaps more helpful translation would render that phrase, and in our eyes, that's what the Hebrew says, and in our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers. And in their eyes. See, that's precisely their problem. They're looking through their eyes, and they're entrusting themselves to their own power in their own wits, instead of trusting God's greater vision, and instead of trusting God himself to save them and deliver their enemies into their hands. It might well be true that they were smaller and weaker, that they had no chance of victory based on their physical stature, their numbers of warriors, and the strength of their swords and shields. It well might be true that their leaders were relatively untrained and inexperienced in the ways of war. And in that sense, their eyes saw correctly. But had their eyes not seen themselves as they came up out of Egypt? Did they come up by their own strength? By the strength of their wepsons, their war horses, their chariots, they didn't have any. Did they cross the Red Sea by the strength of the breath of their mouth? Did they drown Pharaoh's army by the might of their arm? In God's eyes, they were enough. Grasshoppers though they might be. because God himself was enough. And their victory over their enemies who occupied the land God swore to give them would come not through their might, but through his might. Even after Moses and Aaron fall on their faces in intercession for the people, God allows Caleb and Joshua to extend to them one more call to repentance. in chapter 14 beginning at verse seven. The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If Yahweh is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and notice the word is present in their report and give it to us. A land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us. That's been the whole promise from the get-go. Do not fear them. That, friends, Caleb and Joshua, their report, that is sight by faith. Sight by faith in the overwhelming faithfulness of our God. That is the way to see reality and the way to act in a faith and a faithfulness that matches God's own faithfulness to us. Caleb and Joshua invite God's people into a wholehearted trust of God that God has earned through his covenant faithfulness over the centuries. So if nothing else, may this passage remind us to see with the eyes of faith, to attend to the past faithfulness of the God who is always faithful to fulfill his covenant promises to his covenant children and to trust in him entirely and in all things. When you seem to your own eyes but a grasshopper and your trials and your enemies seem like giants, Remember that God is ever faithful to his grasshoppers. And he delivers them through seas and armies into the land of his promise. But as we witness the abject faithlessness of Israel as it stands at the gates not of an amusement park, but the culmination of God's saving plans and actions. Let us also remember tonight the unwavering faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was true Israel, and who was also sent into the wilderness by God's spirit for 40 days, and never once looked at reality through anything but the eyes of faith, even when tempted. and looking at our Lord standing on the cusp of the final and the ultimate culmination of all of God's saving plans and responding with faithfulness. Let us also then remember the faith to which we have been called in our union with Him. Hebrews 3, quoting Psalm 95, that's looking back to a different rebellion. This is one of many. Those of you who are reading through the Old Testament know that. Hebrews 3, looking back to Psalm 95, says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, when your ancestors meet the test. A few verses later, Hebrews 3 says, take care, brothers and sisters. that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The choice to sin is always a faithless choice to head back into Egypt. The choice to sin is the equivalent of standing at the edge of Canaan and saying, nah, I reject Christ and his ways, I'll be my own captain, I'll head back into Egypt. The sin is always a rejection of what God has saved us for, which is the promise to land of the righteous and holy life of Christ himself. So as we see Israel standing faithlessly at the cusp of the culmination of God's saving plans for them, and as we see Christ our Lord contrasted to them, let us see with the eyes of our Lord, trusting that His righteousness and His holiness, trusting that obedience to His will is always the land of God's promise. the land of life, all of which is the gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ's merit. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious God, it's so easy to look back at the Israelites and think, oh man, they were messed up. It's so easy to dismiss them and their rebellion and overlook our own. Lord, in the midst of all of this, give us the eyes to see Jesus, your faithful one, who did what Israel couldn't do, who did what we couldn't do. And in him, in our union with him, give us the eyes of faith. Open our eyes to trust entirely in you, even when we feel like grasshoppers, and our trials and our temptations and our enemies seem like giants. Help us to place our trust in you and to go up and occupy the land that you have given to us in Christ. The victory over sin and death that you've won. Help us to live as your faithful people. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.