The Road to Nowhere
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Our Scripture lesson this morning is Deuteronomy 1:19-2:1. Before I read our Scripture lesson this morning, I want to remind you of where we are in Moses’ sermon. This first address, consisting of Deuteronomy 1:6-4:44, is a recounting of Israel’s dealing with God up until now. The purpose of this section is to remind Israel why they should renew their covenant with God. Of all the stories Moses will recount, Israel’s rebellion is the most import. We know this because of all the time Moses devotes to it. Although the rebellion at Kadesh-barnea represents only two weeks, Moses devotes 27 verses to it, a full 25% of the narrative verses in this first address! In contrast, the journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, which is the first verse of our reading, has only one verse devoted to it, although it represents 43 weeks. An even more striking contrast is found in the last verse of our reading today; this one verse represents 38 years!
So you can see, what transpired at Kadesh-barnea was very important. With this in mind, let us hear God’s Word to us today:
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 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. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your 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. 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.” ’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 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 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.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, 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.
“And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
“Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.
“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir.
May God now bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
The key to properly understanding this passage is found in vs. 22, where Israel requests spies be sent out in order that they may know “the way by which we must go”. This is a very faithless and rebellious request considering that the Lord was the commander of Israel’s armies and ever since Israel had left Egypt God alone had gone before Israel showing them the way. This is found in Deut 1:30-31:
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 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.’
Do you hear what Moses is saying? He is saying,...
The Lord Has Faithfully Shown You the Way
The Lord Has Faithfully Shown You the Way
Psalm 78, is a recounting of God’s dealings with Israel from the Exodus from Egypt to the conquest of the Promised Land:
He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
I chose to read from this Psalm because it extends beyond the time frame of Deuteronomy: God has, is, and will faithfully lead His people, and that includes you! It is not without good reason that Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved portions of Scripture! In John 10:11, Jesus identifies Himself as “the good Shepherd”, and in John 14:6, He famously says::
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Do you understand what Moses, David and Jesus are saying? They are saying that God is faithfully showing us the way, is leading us along the way, and will safely carry us to the place to our journeys end! God’s faithfulness is the reason we should whole-heartedly submit ourselves to God as His vassals. It is also God’s great faithfulness that makes seeking our own way so sinful.
Seeking Our Own Way Always Leads to Sin
Seeking Our Own Way Always Leads to Sin
I did not speak of this last week, but in Deuteronomy 1:15, we see that Israel was organized as an army.
So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes.
As a child, I remember singing a song entitled, I Am in the Lord’s Army. Perhaps you sang that song as well. The military motif has fallen out of favor, and sadly, children are not taught this song any longer. However, there is no denying in both the Old and New Testaments, the marshal theme is prominent. We are commanded by the Apostle Paul to “put on the whole armor of God” and “to take up the sword of the spirit” (Eph 6:10-17) and at the close of the age, the saints will be in the armies of heaven that follow Christ (Rev 19)!
I say all this, because an army has only one Commander and Chief, and in the armies of heaven, it is Jesus Christ! It was not Israel’s place to set the strategy; her place was only to obey. God would go before them and show them the way. More importantly, God would go with them and give them the victory!
Is this not always what is true of sin? We doubt God’s love, ability and faithfulness. We see this so clearly in our text:
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your 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. 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.” ’
Their natural reasoning was spot on; the people of the land were too strong for Israel. However, our natural reasoning does not take into account the power of God; the people of the land were not too strong for God! Rebellion and sin always find their beginning in unbelief; and where does unbelief lead? It leads to failure and futility.
Seeking Our Own Way Always Leads to Futility
Seeking Our Own Way Always Leads to Futility
The consequence of this rebellion was that God gave them just what they asked for:
“And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,
God’s justice is perfect, it is never too much nor is it too little. The punishment always fits the crime. God is saying to that rebellious generation, “You do not want the land, fine you will not have it!”
Before I move on, I do want to mention that God makes three exceptions—God will give the land to Caleb, Joshua and the young children and infants of Israel. I am going to focus on their stories next week, but for now, I want to point out that this is another example of God’s love, faithfulness and grace. Our sin will never destroy God’s good plans and promises. The Exodus generation would not inherit the land, but the next generation would! Moreover, after we have sinned, God always gives us new opportunities for obedience. Notice what God says in vs. 40:
But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
Even though the Exodus generation was not to inherit the land, God did not disown them. If they would repent and trust in God, they would inherit the greatest of all promises—eternal life! Once again, however the Exodus generation did not obey God command. Instead, they responded with false repentance saying, “We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.”
Do you see the irony in this? Before when God commanded them to go into the land, they claimed the Amorites were too strong for them. Now, when God commands them to turn away from the land, they presumptuously claim the Amorites are not too strong for them!
Earlier, I told you that natural reason cannot be trusted; do you see how unreliable their natural reasoning is here? We have all heard the saying that the quickest way to get someone to do something is to tell them not to do it. We laugh at this, but it is no laughing matter, it is evidence of how deprived our hearts are.
What was the result of Israel’s presumptuous rebellion? It was utter and complete defeat at the hands of the Amorites! After weeping many days at Kadesh-barnea, the people finally departed as the Lord commanded:
“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir.
This is a picture of wasted lives. A generation destined for greatness, spent the remaining years of their lives going in circles, until each and every one of them died!
Do you understand the significance of Kadesh-barnea?
Seeking our own way is always a road to nowhere! Are you feeling a though your life is going nowhere? Perhaps, it could it because you are not trusting and obeying God.
However, the most important lesson of Kadesh-barnea is that in the midst of our unfaithfulness is God’s faithfulness. God does not abandon the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. By His power and faithfulness, God takes two men, Caleb and Joshua, along with the “little ones” of Israel, and conquers the Amorites thirty-eight years later! It is this story well will begin to look at next week.