Sermon Tone Analysis
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/Sabotage & Rebellion/
Good Morning,
When I asked God what we would be studying this morning, He gave me a theme and then led me to the passage.
The theme is /sabotage/.
And the passage is a very familiar one – /Spies in the Promised Land/.
I never put the two together before.
It amazes me how many time you can read a passage of Scripture and learn something new every time.
Turn to Numbers 13
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.
Who is them?
If you look at the verses before these, you will see the names – one representative from each tribe.
This is what Moses told them to do.
18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
19 What kind of land do they live in?
Is it good or bad?
What kind of towns do they live in?
Are they unwalled or fortified?
20 How is the soil?
Is it fertile or poor?
Are there trees on it or not?
Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”
(It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
Now before we go any further, flip over to Deut 1:20-23.
In Num 13 the action is happening right now.
In Deut 1, Moses is an old man, looking back on his life and retelling the same story.
Have we seen that type of literature before?
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon looked back on his life.
When Moses tells the story this time he lets us in on a secret, look for a new piece of information.
Deut 1:20 Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.
21 See, the Lord your God has given you the land.
Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
22 Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”
23 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe.
So what was different?
What did we learn in Deut 1?
The people wanted spies sent out.
God didn’t command this, he allowed it.
Why?
To reveal to the people what their hearts were really like.
God already told them many times what Canaan was like, what nations were there, and how He would defeat their enemies and gain their inheritance.
Back to Numbers 13:
21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath.
22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where the descendants of Anak,
lived.
23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes.
Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.
Rabbit trail: Grapes grown in Eshcol range from the size of a man’s thumb to about the size of a prune.
One cluster would weigh about ten to twelve pounds.
Grapes in Egypt (what they were used to seeing) on the other hand would be scrawny by comparison.
25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
The mission of the spies was clear: 1. to determine the nature of the land itself and 2. access the strengths and weaknesses of its inhabitants.
They were on a scouting mission.
They were supposed to bring back information that the armies could use to form strategies.
They were not asked to reach a conclusion.
Generals don’t ask privates what to do.
Who takes orders from Privates?
No one.
Who takes orders from Sergeants?
How about Lieutenants?
Captains?
Chiefs?
So who can tell a general what to do?
What rank do you think Moses & would hold if we ranked them in this system?
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran.
There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!
Here is its fruit.
28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.
We even saw descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
OK, so there were people in the land.
God told them they would take possession.
Caleb was urging them to go get it.
31 But
When you see this word, I want you to associate it with unbelief.
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”
They had “spied out” their inheritance and even tasted some of the fruits of His blessing; BUT their unbelief led them to sabotage God’s plan for their destiny.
*sab•o•tage*
*1* *: *destruction of an employer’s property (as tools or materials) or the hindering of manufacturing by discontented workers
*2* *: *destructive or obstructive action carried on by a civilian or enemy agent to hinder a nation’s war effort
*3 a* *: *an act or process tending to hamper or hurt
*b* *: *deliberate subversion
Let’s see how the unbelief of a small group of individuals sabotaged the lives of millions.
32 And they spread among the Israelites 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 there are of great size.
33 We saw the Nephilim there.
We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
They saw the giants.
They didn’t see God.
Instead of reporting the blessings of the land, the ten spies emphasized the difficulties.
They gave an “evil report”.
They sabotaged hope.
They said, “its there, but we can’t have it.”
Nay-sayers, there’s always someone ready to tell you:
· you can’t do it.
· you can’t have it.
· God told you what?
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