But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw are of great size."

Numbers 13:31-32, NIV 

 

Here is the setting: Israel is on the brink of entering the Promised Land. They have sent in twelve men to spy out the land, and they have found that the land is everything that God had promised. Two of the spies - Joshua and Caleb - trusted in God and were enthusiastic about entering this land, but the other ten men were not. In fact, they were cowards who did not trust in the LORD and who were afraid of what would happen to them if they tried to go into this land that they testified flowed with milk and honey.

 

So they spread a bad report among their fellow Israelites and their countrymen became afraid as well. The were so afraid that they talked about stoning Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, and returning to Egypt to see if they could be slaves again.

 

Fear is contagious! So much so that ten men were able to infect an entire nation of over a million people with their cowardice and persuade them to disobey God, kill the righteous men who would not disobey God, and return to slavery. But let's face it: That all happened over 3,000 years ago, so why bother talking about it now?

 

Well, one reason is that history often repeats itself, especially among those who fail to learn from from its mistakes. I have lived during one of the greatest eras of prosperity and peace that there has ever been. As an American, I have benefited from a righteous heritage of courageous men and women who sacrificed everything they had in order for me and my family to enjoy these great blessings from God.

 

But the world has changed, and evil men have seized power in the nation that I so dearly love. Our nation has largely turned away from God. Our nation has embraced false religions, sexual immorality, and the killing of innocent children. In this land of milk and honey in which I live, the courage of most men has grown cold - few will even stand up and state that something has gone wrong - that we should not be doing the things we are doing. It has got so bad that our own leaders have voted to require taxpayers to pay for others to kill their own babies. These same leaders are also using our money to fund terrorists in foreign lands to, among other things, rape and kill Christians. 

 

And I am sad to conclude that the vast majority of men in this nation are no longer men. They have become cowards who refuse to stand up before their wicked leaders and say, "enough". Instead, we have become a nation that resembles the nation of Israel who, after finally gaining their freedom from tyrants, were more than willing to return to their bondage in order to have comfort and protection.

 

In Israel's era, God caused the cowards to wander in a desert until they died out. I wonder what He will do to those of us in the present era should we fail to have the courage to speak up and take a stand against sinful men. I wonder if we will, too late, discover what the cowards of Israel's era had to learn: Fear can be fatal!

 

The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me...?"

Numbers 14:11, NIV

 

Today is day 20 of the 30 day challenge to study through the Books of Moses, with Numbers 11-14 being the text for today. May God richly bless you with the knowledge and courage you need to stand for Him against the wickedness of men! 

 

 

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.

The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."

Numbers 25:1-4, NIV 

 

I must warn you at the outset that the lesson from today's study is no fun at all. But learn it we must if we are to ever repent and live in the way that God commands.

 

We are often tempted to think that God is not serious when it comes to joining the worldly in their sin. Israel had been cooped up for a long time in Egypt and the desert and were ready to cut loose a bit. So they decided that it would be okay to take part in a little sexual immorality and idol worship - after all, what could be the harm? 

 

They soon found out!

 

In our modern times, we do not see many people attempting to serve Baal, but we have just about everything else. We celebrate the cutting loose with sexual immorality and the chasing after the idols of our modern age and we think, "what could be the harm?" We celebrate people living together in sin and children out of wedlock and homosexuality and men who say they are women and visa versa. And we think that since God does not punish us immediately that the rules no longer apply... but someday we will find out otherwise, if we do not repent.

 

Sometimes the study of the Old Testament is no fun because it makes us realize that God does not share our view of worldly behavior, but such studies are important because they remind us that God really is serious about sin. For those who might be tempted to think, "That's just Old Testament times", they might want to consider the following passage from the New Testament for God's views on immorality today:

 

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

I Corinthians 7:7-10, NIV

 

Today is day 22 of the 30 day challenge to study through the books of Moses, with Numbers 23-25 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you seek His will and do your best to live your life according to His holy Word! 

So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I gave them."

Numbers 20:9-12, NIV 

 

Have you ever wondered just what it was that Moses and Aaron did that was so bad that they didn't get to go into the Promised Land? There are several possibilities: First, God told them to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses struck the rock twice. It is interesting to note that on a similar occasion God had commanded Moses to strike a rock to get the water. Maybe Moses just presumed that it would be okay to do so again, but he was wrong. But is was the second thing that Moses and Aaron did that was the likely cause of their being barred from the Promised land: They spoke rashly, and in doing so they violated God's holiness.

 

How do we know this? Well, for one thing God condemned the two for not honoring Him as holy. But to understand fully just what was going on here, we have to read in the Book of Psalms a passage that was likely written more than 400 years after this incident:

 

By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' lips.

Psalms 106:32-33, NIV 

 

Rash words were the culprit! Instead of just speaking to the rock as commanded, Moses in his zeal decided to make a production out of the matter. He struck the rock twice and then asked, "must we bring you water?" when it was not Moses or Aaron at all who brought the water, but God. And it was this rashness and presumption that they could do and speak as they chose that kept these two otherwise righteous men from entering the land of Canaan.

 

So what's the lesson? I'm sure that there are many, but I do believe that we should pay particular attention to at least this one: If God would keep Moses from entering the Promised Land because of his rash talk and presumptuous ways, do we think that He will treat us any differently? We may at first be tempted into thinking that maybe God was just too picky with the way that He expected Moses and Aaron to approach Him, but we would be wrong! For when it comes to holiness, zeal without knowledge can quickly become the downfall of even the most righteous among us.

 

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

Proverbs 19:2, NIV

 

Today is the 21st day of the 30 day challenge to study through the books of Moses, with Numbers 20-22 being the text for the day. May God richly bless you as you take the time to learn His will and honor His holiness! 

But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29, NIV 

 

The first three chapters of Deuteronomy contain a brief history of the 40 years that Israel wandered in the desert, but it is the fourth chapter that is so vital for men of all ages because it contains one of the major themes of the entire Bible: Seek and you will find!

 

This is an exciting theme, because so many people are convinced that no one can really know God or exactly what it is that He wants us to while we are here on earth. However, nothing could be farther from the truth because God promises us once and for all that those who look for Him with all of their heart and all of their soul will most certainly find Him.

 

It was true for the Israelites who lived under the Law of Moses, and it is true for all who would live under the Law of Christ today. Some will be tempted to challenge this fact, and they may even attempt to use (or misuse) Scripture to prove their point. They might be tempted to go to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said:

 

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14, NIV 

 

In reading these words of Jesus, some will suppose that because many people will not find the way that leads to life (that means they will be lost!) that God's Word is just too hard to understand. Nothing, though, could be further from the truth, and we know this is so because Jesus also gave us this promise in that same Sermon on the Mount:

 

"Seek and you will find" Matthew 7:7, NIV 

 

Some may wonder if Jesus is contradicting Himself when He says, "seek and you will find" only to say a few moments later, "only a few find". So how do we reconcile this? The answer is clear: If everyone who seeks will find, then those who do not find simply do not seek. By the way, for something as critical as the standard for your entire life, Jesus is not saying that any who show a mere passing interest in following God's way will find it. Instead, we must understand the theme we began with in Deuteronomy chapter 4: We will find only if we seek with all of our heart and soul.

 

One of the reasons that it is so important for us to read and study the Old Testament is because it is from the Old Testament that we learn much about the nature of God and His eternal principles. Since a principle is a truth that can never change, these principles help us to make sense of some of the most important themes in Scripture. And, there is no more important principle for us to learn than this: If you seek God, you will find Him, but only if you go about that seeking with all of your heart and soul.

 

Aren't you glad you decided to study the Old Testament?

 

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." 

Matthew 7:7-8, NIV 

 

Today is the 23rd day of the 30 day challenge to study through the books of Moses, with Deuteronomy 1-4 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you seek Him and Jesus with all of your heart and soul!