Deuteronomy 1:19-33 | Overcoming the Giant of Unbelief

Introduce series. Overcoming Giants: 7 Keys to a life of success and transformation. These are lessons from the book of Joshua. We won’t go through the whole book of Joshua, but simply look at crucial moments in the book.

The apostle Paul tells us that the next 7 the stories we are going to look were “written for our instruction.” (Rom 15:4)

Overcoming Giants: There are giants in the Promised Land.

“And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Numbers 13:33)

God’s people are told to go against these giants and fight them off. It’s not going to be easy, but soon, the people of Israel are going to discover bigger giants to fight:

The giant of unbelief

The giant of fear

The giant of misplaced priorities

The giant of unconfessed sin

The giant of self reliance

The giant of complacency

The giant of a divided heart

7 Keys to a life of success and transformation. In Joshua chapter 1, God gives Joshua a vision of a life of prosperity and success (next week).

“I’m not afraid of failure. I’m afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.” (William Carey, missionary)

There are a lot of things in life we could succeed at, but there are very few that actually matter.

Historical & Geographical Context

Abraham Travels to Canaan (Map)

In Genesis 12, God gives Abraham a three-fold promise: a land, an offspring, and a world-wide blessing.

Abraham fathers Isaac

Isaac fathers Esau & Jacob

Out of Jacob comes what will be known as the 12 Tribes of Israel.

Jacob a.k.a., Israel and his family end up immigrating to Egypt due to a famine.

The Israelites began to multiply in Egyp and end up becoming slaves for 400 years.

God sends Moses with the good news that himself is going to take them out of Egypt into the land that was promised earlier to Abraham and his descendents.

Journey in the wilderness (Map)

The Exodus takes. God leads them out of Egypt to the Promised Land through signs and wonders. (Dt. 26:8)

God takes them through the dessert in order to shape and transform their hearts (Dt 8:2).

After spending time at Mount Sinai, also known as Horeb, our passage today tells us that they departed Horeb and came to Kadesh-barnea.

Deuteronomy 1:21 “See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you.”

The Israelites suggested to Moses: “Let’s send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.”

The idea seemed good to Moses and approved by God (Num. 13:2).

The Journey of the Spies (Map)

Moses sends 12 spies to scout out the Promised Land. Why are we in the book of Deuteronomy if we are going to be going through the book of Joshua? Two reasons: This is where we are introduced to the giants in the Promised Land. Also, one of the 12 spies is none other than Joshua himself.

Numbers 13:23–24 “23 And [the spies] came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them……That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.”

The Valley of Eshcol is near Hebron. The spies also spent time at Hebron. Why is Hebron so significant? Centuries earlier, Abraham had bought a piece of land from the locals so that his family might be buried there. What an amazing act of faith! Hebron is the place where the Patriarchs are buried: Abraham and his wife Sarah, and Isaac and his wife Rebekah, Jacob and his wife Leah.

Hebron is the place where the spies would have encountered a rich history of God’s faithfulness: God had not failed their ancestors, surely God is not going to fail them now.

In addition, the spies would have remember the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that his offspring would be multiplied like the stars of heaven and like the sand that’s on the seashore (Gen 22:17).

It is estimated that that the population of Israel was 2.4 million when they left Egypt to the Promised Land (Ex. 12:37).

The report the spies bring back back to Moses and the Israelites “It is a good land that the Lord God is giving us.” (Dt 1:25)

Let’s pause for a moment, the Bible is a library of books with all type of literature. All the sermons on these series are found in narrative literature:

Introduction/exposition

Rising action

Climax: the turning point

Falling action

Resolution

The climax, the turning point of today’s story is found in vv.26-28:

“26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” ’” (Dt 1:26-28)

Falling action: Joshua and Caleb encourage people to change their mind. “Kill Moses, find a new leader to take us back to Egypt.” Moses also pleads with them.

Resolution. Everyone in that generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, will enter the Promised Land.

Hebrews 3:19 “19 So we see that [the Israelites] were unable to enter [the Promised Land] because of unbelief.”

Hebrews 11:6 “6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Jesus marvels at our response.

Luke 7:9 “9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.””

Mark 6:5–6 “5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.”

The giant of unbelief seeks to harden our hearts towards God and despise His promises.

"Unbelief is the cause of all our troubles and failures. This is the strategic point where Satan concentrates his forces against us, and therefore it is here above all that we need divine help." (A.W. Pink)

The giant of unbelief:

Questions the goodness of God

“And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Dt. 1:27)

Murmur: complain, grumble

Murmuring is an outward expression of deep inward discontent and rejection of one’s lot. (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

The Israelites slander the character of God: “He hates us and his plan is to destroy us.”

Questions the truthfulness of God’s Word (v. 28)

In our passage today I counted 3x where God’s promise is confirmed to the Israelites about the Promised Land.

The LORD our God is giving us the land (v.20)

Go and take possession of the land as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. (v.21)

“It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us” (v.25)

Instead of focusing on what God had said, they found reasons not to believe:

The people are bigger than we are

The cities are great and fortified up to heaven

There are giants there

They found reasons to believe why the Word of God didn’t apply to them.

Ancient trick. Works every time! “Did God really say…”

Despises God’s promises (v. 26, 32)

v.26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.”

v.32, “Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God,”

v.24 “Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.” (Ps 106:24)

How to overcome the giant of unbelief:

It is a daily battle!

Remember God’s victories over your life in the past.

V.30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,”

Let your experience of God's goodness in the past feed your faith in his loving purposes for you now. While there is no promise that we shall be delivered from all our trials and troubles, by faith we shall pass safely through them. (Jonathan Stephen).

Rest in God’s care and provision for you today.

V.31, “and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’”

Listen, the giant of unbelief typically attacks when you are tired and worn out. “Great and terrifying wilderness.”

Rely in God’s promises to sustain you tomorrow.

v.33 “who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.”

Conclusion: The giant of unbelief seeks to harden our hearts towards God and to despise His promises. We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.