Sermon Tone Analysis

Rebellion and its consequences

This part of the chapter is the sorriest of all that is in the book of Deuteronomy.

It is about rebellion and its consequences.

Some decisions that we make have little in the way of consequences and others have a devastating effect that nothing can repair it.

And today’s is the latter.

There is a breakdown of four parts in this passage:

20-25 The background of the rebellion

26-33 The description of the rebellion

34-40 The Lord’s reaction to the rebellion

41-46 The outcome of the rebellion

20-25 The background

20-21 Let’s go!

Moses says get your act together.

Don’t be afraid or worry about the upcoming challenge.

Take the land.

It’s yours for the taking.

Let’ go!

22-25 Hmm, spy first!

Wait, they said, let’s do a bit of surveillance first and send some of our guys in just to get a lay of the land.

The thing is that this faithless.

They are saying we are not sure about the Lord’s strategy so let’s make our own.

But it is the Lord who is commander in chief.

23-24 OK!

But Moses says: OK.

Seems reasonable.

And so Moses arranges for one from each tribe to go with the Lord’s blessing.

Notice that this blessing in is retrospect.

In Numbers 12-13 we have the full story.

In effect what was said was:

One, the people come to Moses and say, “You know, we can’t go in too quickly.

We’ve got to strategize.

Let’s send out scouts.”

They come and tell Moses that’s what we should do.

I imagine what happens is that Moses takes the thing to the Lord and the Lord says, “Fine, it’s good.

It’s okay.

Send them out.

We will listen to them.”

This happens several times in the book where the Lord grants people’s requests

24-25

Well they came back with a great report about the land.

They affirmed everything that had been said by the Lord about it.

It IS the land the Lord is giving us; the Promised Land.

Yay!

This, though, is not the whole story for ten of the spies then went on to say that they cannot go up for the people were giants, they had fortified cities and so on.

They discouraged the people.

Maybe they were exaggerating the extent of their enemies but they forgot the Lord who had helped them defeat two kings just a short while ago.

26-33 The description of the rebellion

the people’s response to the mission.

And it is one of rebellion

26

Yet you would not go up even with such glowing reports.

You rebelled against God.

They refused to do what He told them despite the land being a gift.

27

You see how twisted their thinking has become.

All of a sudden, God’s wonderful plan of salvation, redemption from the slavery of Egypt, has turned into a diabolical plot.

God got them out of Egypt to destroy them.

Their complaint is against God.

28

Yes, the land is good, but no, the people are too strong.

29-31

The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have been, you’ve 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’ ”—the Lord won’t stop carrying you now; this is His battle; He will fight for you.

Why would the Lord be any different now?

Moses is having a hard time convincing them.

Paranoia has swept over the camp.

Do not fear the enemy but trust God.

32-33

They simply would not believe.

Yet God had showed Him He was with them.

He was there:

in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.”

They had experienced the presence, the delivering presence and the providing presence, of God for a long time, but they couldn’t trust Him now

34-40 The Lord’s reaction to the rebellion

34

It’s not surprising that the Lord is angry

And He swore.

Not like that!

He made a solemn promise:

35

‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers.’

” Fine, if you don’t want to go in, then you won’t go in, and not one of you will, except …

36

some

very notable exceptions

Caleb is probably not even a native Israelite; he is a Kenizzite.

But here is a guy who is so thoroughly integrated into the faith of Israel that when the Lord was picking scouts to represent the tribes to scout out the land, Caleb represented the tribe of Judah.

Elsewhere Caleb is called “my servant Caleb who has a different spirit.”

In this instance as well, there is another strange expression used of him: “he was full after God,”

Here is a convert to the faith of the Lord; he is the one who will enter the land

37

“Even with me the LORD was angry on your account, and he said to me, ‘You shall not enter there.’

an early signal of a deep-seated bitterness in Moses

He had been angry with the people and lashed out at them and in the process he himself disobeyed God.

38

And Joshua becomes the one who will lead them in.

For both Caleb and Joshua said they should go in but, unfortunately for them, they suffered because of others.

39

The people had said to Moses and to the Lord, “They will make mincemeat out of our children.

We can’t take them into that dangerous world.”

Ironically, the Lord says, “Fine, you are the ones who will die.

Your children will go in, and they will take the land.”

40

Now Turn around.

What is interesting about this chapter is what Moses does not say.

He is recounting the history of Israel yet if we read Numbers 14 we find that Moses, despite his frustration at the people was interceding there for them.

Moses tries to change the Lord’s mind about destroying the Israelites.

Here were his four arguments:

the Lord had invested great effort in saving the Israelites from bondage of Egypt.

Effort will be wasted if He killed them.

(13)

the Lord has been uniquely close to His people.

He is in their midst.

He has been personally leading them along the way; by implication, it makes no sense now to destroy them (14).

the Lord’s reputation among the nations will be damaged if He destroys Israel.