(6)
Scripture Reading: Num. 14:11-45
In this message we will first continue to consider the failure of the children of Israel in not believing in God (vv. 11-38). Then we will see that they also failed by transgressing the word of God (vv. 39-45). Concerning these matters, I have some serious things to say.
Because of their failure at Kadesh, God abhorred the people of Israel (14:11-38). God had brought the children of Israel to the border of the good land, and they could have easily crossed the border and entered into the land. But God knew their heart, and He put them to the test. He gave the word to send out the twelve spies to spy out the land (13:1-2). According to Deuteronomy 8:2, God did this purposely in order to test them. This test exposed them to the uttermost.
Our faith may be very weak and small, nearly nonexistent. Since this may be our situation, we should learn to humble ourselves before God, confessing the weakness of our faith and asking Him to forgive us. This is the spirit we should have before God. But as indicated by what they said, the children of Israel did not care for God but only for themselves. Their feeling was centered not on God but on themselves.
Today, thirty-five hundred years later, we can realize from reading the biblical record that although God's bringing of the people into the good land was apparently for the people, it was actually to accomplish, to carry out, God's eternal plan, which is altogether centered on the all-inclusive Christ. This is on the positive side.
On the negative side, God still has an enemy, Satan. Apparently, it is man who occupies and usurps the earth; actually, the usurper is not man but Satan. This is the reason that in Matthew 6:10 the Lord Jesus told us to pray that the Father's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. This indicates that God's will has not yet been accomplished on earth. Concerning God's will being done, there is no problem in the heavens, but there is a problem on earth. Therefore, we need to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
At the time of Exodus, the entire earth was occupied by the Gentiles, who were under the hand of Satan. Not even a small part of the earth created by God was under His control. The children of Israel were in Egypt, but Egypt was not their land. They had to find a land, and God had prepared a land for them. Hundreds of years before, God had told their forefather Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan to his descendants (Gen. 13:14-17). Actually, God's desire was that Abraham's descendants would take that good land for His purpose.
When the men spied out the land, they found that the descendants of Anak, a particular people whom the Bible calls the Nephilim, or giants, were dwelling there (Num. 13:33). The origin of the Nephilim is seen in Genesis 6. In brief, Genesis 6 tells us that when man fell to such an extent that he became flesh (v. 3), the fallen angels came down to earth to marry the daughters of men (vv. 1-2, 4). This mixed marriage produced the giants, the Nephilim. God could not tolerate this mixture. It was because of this mixing of the human race with the fallen angels that God destroyed the whole human race by the flood. Later, the same mixed race, the Nephilim, a mixture of fallen angels and fallen man, dwelt in the land of Canaan. Hence, God commanded the children of Israel to take over this land and to destroy every living being there so that the human race could be cleared up (Deut. 7:1-2).
However, the children of Israel did not know this. Their consideration was not for God but for their own interest. They did not care for God in the least, but cared only for their safety, their peace, and their existence. They did not confess their weakness or humble themselves before God. Eventually, they offended God to such an extent that they became abhorrent to Him. What they did was altogether abhorrent in His sight.
As human beings we need to be concerned for our daily life, our jobs, our safety, and our security. But we should not forget that God's enemy, Satan, is hidden behind the scene and that the real issue on earth today is a matter not between God and man but between God and Satan. Thus, if we care only for our existence, security, safety, peace, and future, we may become an abhorrence in the eyes of God.
Today some believers are very much for themselves, caring for their security and for blessings in material things but not caring for God's purpose. Such Christians believe in Jesus Christ only for their own benefit; they do not have the slightest thought concerning God's interest on earth and in the universe.
Surely we are God's children, and God is for us. But for whom are we? Some Christians give no thought to God's interest, God's gain, or God's suffering. They think and speak only about themselves and their security. Among worldly people today, security is a big idol. Everything they do is for their security. For their security they study diligently and work hard. Some even fear God and believe in Christ for their own security.
Why did the children of Israel become abhorrent to God in Numbers 13 and 14? They became abhorrent because they were so much for themselves. In everything and in every way they were for themselves, not for God's interests. If they had thought even a little about God's interests, they would have said, "God, as You have been so good to us, we just love You. We would like to sacrifice our future, our safety, our security, our existence, and everything for Your purpose. We forget about our benefit. We care only that You accomplish Your purpose. For Your purpose, let us go and possess the land."
Caring for God and His interests produces faith. When we are so much for ourselves, it is difficult for us to have faith in God. But if we take the standing that we are for God and that for His interests we are willing to risk everything — our future, our family, even our life — faith will spontaneously be produced in us.
We all need to be impressed with the fact that in ourselves we are weak and do not have any faith. Who among us can boast that he has faith? Faith is of God, faith is in God, and faith comes from God. If we would have faith, we must learn to care for God's interests and not for our benefit. The worldly people are concerned daily for their own security and benefit, but we should care for God and His interests. History tells us that those who cared for God and did not consider their own benefit became people of faith, and some even became giants of faith.
In His abhorring of the people of Israel, God wanted to strike them with a pestilence and make of Moses a nation greater than they (Num. 14:11-12).
Moses prayed for them according to God's word, namely that Jehovah is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression (vv. 13-19). Moses was a God-man; he knew God. Therefore, he did not pray according to his concept; rather, he prayed according to God's concept, according to what God is, what God speaks, and what God promises. Moses did not argue with God, but he did pray to God. His prayer, saying that Jehovah is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, bound God according to what He had spoken and what He is.
God forgave the people according to Moses' prayer (v. 20), but their unbelief nevertheless had certain negative consequences (vv. 21-38).
God would not allow those who murmured against Him to see and enter into the good land. Rather, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, their carcasses would fall in the wilderness (vv. 22-30, 32).
The people had said that their little ones would become a prey and would be taken over by the Canaanites and the Nephilim. But God said, "Your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected" (v. 31).
The rebellious ones and their children would be wanderers in the wilderness forty years to bear their iniquities according to the number of days (for every day a year) in which they spied out the land (vv. 33-34).
The men who returned with an evil report and made all the assembly murmur against Moses died by the plague before Jehovah (vv. 36-38). Even though all the people rebelled against Him, God did not destroy the entire people. Instead, God killed the ten men who instigated the rebellion.
In 14:39-45 we see that the people failed again by transgressing the word of God.
The people of Israel, after hearing the word of Moses to them, mourned greatly (v. 39). Then they rose early in the morning, went up to the top of the mountain, and said, "We will go up to the place which Jehovah has spoken of; for we have sinned" (v. 40). Their word indicates that they were not only a rebellious people but also a stubborn people.
Moses forbade them, for God was not among them because they had turned back from following God (vv. 41-43). The people had actually given God up. The journey from Egypt had not been their journey but the journey of the ark. From Egypt they had followed the ark, which was the embodiment of God (a type of the Triune God in His incarnation embodied in Christ), but from this point they gave God up and would not follow Him any longer. The principle may be the same with us today in our following the Lord. When we rebel against the Lord, we give Him up and do not follow Him any more. What a terrible situation!
The people presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, although neither the ark of the covenant of God nor Moses departed out of the midst of the camp (v. 44). The people were supposed to move only when the ark moved. But when God asked them to move, they did not. Now they presumed to move by themselves.
"The Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down, and defeated them and beat them back as far as Hormah" (v. 45). In Canaan there were at least seven tribes, but only these two tribes came out to fight against the people of Israel. In the typology of the Bible, the Amalekites typify the flesh; they signify the fallen, fleshly people. The first war the children of Israel fought after their exodus from Egypt was against Amalek (Exo. 17:8-16). The Canaanites signify human beings who have joined themselves to the evil spirits, to the satanic power of darkness in the air.
We need to read the history of Israel as our history. Without God's mercy and grace, we would be the same as they. Thus, we must be very much on the alert. We should not think that it is a small thing to touch the church, the church life, the way of the church, or the ground of the church. Our own history of the past twenty-seven years tells us that it is not a small thing to touch God's way, which is the church. Without the church, God has no way to go on. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were God's way. If God had not been able to accomplish His purpose with them, He would not have had a way on earth. Today the church is God's way. It is therefore a serious matter to touch the church, to say something evil or good about the church.
My expectation is that we all will be greatly blessed by touching the way of God, which is the Body of Christ. Whatever the situation may be, we must hold a proper attitude in a proper spirit and stand on the proper ground to touch the church, to live the church life, to speak about the church, and to view the matters concerning the church. Then we will be greatly blessed, and our blessing will become others' blessing.
