Spies, Lies and Cries

The world of espionage is a world that few of us know anything about and those that do can't say anything about it. And yet occasionally, a spy scandal will erupt and come out into the public and we recognize when that happens, the incredible damage that is done to the nation that has been betrayed and the blessing and help it is to the nation for whom the spy has worked. So spying and the world of espionage is something we don't know a lot about, but there's something in the Bible about spies. In number chapter 13 and 14, we find a story about spies and it declares for us some wonderful truths of God because these spies did irreparable harm to the nation of Israel. As we walk with Moses and the children of Israel through the wilderness, as we've been looking at the life of Moses, we come to date a numbers chapter 13 where we find a story of 12 spies, kin of noon total lies, which led to the cries of the people of Israel against Moses and Aaron and their leadership and ultimately led to the judgment of God being announced. The last time we saw Israel, they were just setting out from Mount Sinai. It would be an 11-day journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea where they arrive in chapter 13. Kadesh Barnea is at the southern tip of the nation of Israel or the promised land as it would be known with a land of Canaan as it was known in that time. Right at the southern tip, this will be the launching point for their entrance into the land. That's what's planned. That's the way it's supposed to happen. But something happens with these spies that will lead to an irreparable damage to the nation of Israel and the death of a whole generation of Israelites. Today we look at the story of the spies, the lies and the cries to see what we can learn from them. The story itself falls into four sections and we're going to take the time to look at these four parts of the story in chapter 13 and 14 before we tie together some lingering lessons that we can learn from this story of the spies, the lies and the cries. The first part of the story is the review in chapter 13 verses 1 through 25. What we have given to us here is the review of the land. What the spies actually are doing as they go in and review the land itself. Look at the first three verses where we have the Lord's command for them to do this. Verse 1 says, the Lord said the Moses sends some men to explore the land of Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites from each ancestral tribe sent one of its leaders. So at the Lord's command, Moses sent them out from the desert of Peron. All of them were the leaders, were leaders of the Israelites. Sometimes it is assumed that the actual sending of the spies was a lack of faith on Moses part or the nation's part and maybe even an act of sin questioning God. But it is not the sending of the spies that is wrong. We find here that it was actually done at the Lord's command that God commanded. They do this. It is assumed that God has given them the land. God says so in verse 2. He says, go explore the land of Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites. So it is assumed that God has given them the land. That is not the purpose of the spies. The purpose of the spies is to check out the land probably for a couple of reasons as we will see later in this text. One reason would be to be able to plan an invasion of the land. To see what they are up against, where they should go first. You see God hasn't given them any plan yet and won't do that too much later. So they are seeking a house the best way to invade the land. That is very reasonable to be expected. That is simply wise planning. But also just to encourage themselves into good land that God has given them. That is the purpose of sending the spies. Now when Moses recounts this story in Deuteronomy chapter 1, he will add to detail that the children of Israel asked him to send spies into the land. But then he will say, I prayed and asked the Lord about this and the Lord said it was okay, the Lord gave the command. So the spies go into the land at the Lord's command. That is important to remember. It is not the desire to find out what was in the land or to do wise planning about how to approach the invasion. It was not that that was sinful. It was what they came back and did. That was sinful as we will see as we progress through the story. So the Lord's command is followed by Moses' instruction. Actually all the names of the spies are described in verses 4 through 16, but to read all those names and get them pronounced right would take another 40 minutes. So we are not going to do that. We will get down to verse 17 where Moses gives some instruction for the spies and we will see that basically he keys in on those two things that I just mentioned. When Moses sent them to explore Canaan he said, go up through the negative and onto the hill country, see what the land is like. And whether the people who live there are weak or strong, few or many in the next verse he will talk or ask them to find out whether or not they live in an unwalled or fortified cities. So that is designed to help them know how to invade the land. What kind of enemy are we up against? What kind of cities do they have or they walled, fortified, give some idea of what we are up against. That is great. Then the other part that Moses instructs them in is in verse 19 and that is just find out what kind of land it is. 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? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in 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. So Moses basically lists the things that the spies are supposed to find out. Information that will be vital for the plan of attack and information that will just be encouraging as they see what kind of good land God has actually brought them to. So the Lord's command followed by Moses' instruction to the spies. Then we have the spies exploration in verses 21 to 25. Describe that exploration. Read all those verses because they described some of the boundaries they explored. Basically they started the south, just over into the land from Kateshvarnaia, into the Nagav or the southern desert region, and then they went all the way to the northern part. The last town that is mentioned is near what we know today is Damascus, the capital of Syria. 250 miles north or south to north. So they were to scan the breadth of this land and the length of this land a journey of 250 miles one way and then back it would take them 40 days. But notice one interesting detail in verse 23. Verse 23, when they reached the valley of Eshkall 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. That was some cluster of grapes. One cluster of grapes took two of them to carry it on a pole between them. That little bit of other fruit along there too. But that would become the evidence of God's blessing on this land. And in fact it still is today. I don't know how much has changed in the last 32 years in Israel's main airport of entry in Tel Aviv. But when I flew into Israel in 1984, the first thing you'd see when you walked into the airport was a big mural that had this image on it of two people, two spies carrying a large cluster of grapes between them. It became the sign of Israel's tourism industry. They recognized this as their national symbol. It was intended then and is still seen today by the nation of Israel to be the sign that this is a good land. This is a prosperous land, a God bless land. And so they come back from this exploration. And we move into chapter two of the story which is the report. After the review of the land they give their report. It was in chapter 13 verses 26 to 33 describe that report. And it has four different parts to it. First of all, there's a report of the facts. They just give the facts of the land, verse 26. They came back to Moses and Aaron, the whole Israelite community at Kedish in the Desaviparon. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account. Now here are the facts. We went into the land of which you sinned us and it does. We flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit. Here's the facts right here. It's the land of milk and honey. Now don't misunderstand that. That doesn't mean that the land actually had streams of milk and streams of honey flowing through it. This was a common old testament expression for a fruitful land. If you wanted to describe a land that was abundant in crops and had the potential to support a nation, you would describe it as a land flowing with milk and honey. That's just a beautiful description of what the land is like in its fertility and its fruitfulness. So they report about the facts but then they quickly move to report the fear. Notice an ominous word at the beginning of verse 28, the word but. Now you know what it's like whenever you're wanting to report to someone or describe something to someone and you describe, oh, this is good. This is good but now you know the real message is coming. What you really want to communicate is coming next. You got the little stuff out of the way and now's what you're really wanting to communicate and that's exactly what they do here. But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. One word literally means neck and it's used to describe quite literally long neck. Long neck people live there. That was an Old Testament way of describing people who were very tall. People who were very tall were described with that expression. They're long necked. So the idea here is these, there are some really tall people there. It's not describing all the people. We saw some there, descendants of Anak there. We saw them. They're tall. They're taller than the average person. And then in verse 29 they describe that there are various groups of people living throughout the bread of the land. It is clear that the purpose of this part of the report is to instill fear in the hearts of the people. It describes the obstacles that they will face in this land. People are very powerful. And the cities are fortified and very large. There are lots of tall people there, long neck people there. And there are people dwelling in every part of the land. It's not like we'll be able to conquer a couple of small groups of people and take the land. It's obvious this part of the report is full of fear on the part of the spies and it is designed to paint the obstacles and difficulties in the way in such a way that will produce caution on the part of the nation, even fear on the part of the nation. So it's a report of fear. And I think Caleb and Joshua saw what was happening here and saw the tide turning in the people's response to this report from the spies. And so Caleb jumps in with the report of faith. And notice his report of faith is described for in verse 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. Now I mentioned Caleb and Joshua and Joshua will chime in with Caleb in chapter 14. You may wonder why his name is not mentioned here. It's just Caleb. It could be that, of course, everybody in the nation already knows that Joshua is Moses aid his assistant. And it could be that Caleb and Joshua would see any report Joshua would give as kind of biased toward pleasing Moses. But for that reason, probably Caleb speaks up first. I love this guy. We're introduced to him here. He's a great character in the Bible, although he's only found a couple of times. His name literally means dog. He's a dog, not in a bad way, in a good way. And he's not a French poodle kind of dog either. He's a pit bull kind of dog. That's a kind of dog tale of his. He has a dog in determination to trust God and not let fear. He saw all the same stuff the other spiced all. He will not let that deter him from doing what God has told them they can do. He has this dog in determination. So he steps in and says, hey, wait a second here. We should go up and possess this land. He can do this. And that's not a self-confidence. That's based on the promises of God. They'll mention those in chapter 14. He has a dog in determination to follow God. He's the kind of guy that does not operate by democracy, but by theocracy. And that's the way Israel was supposed to be ruled, not by majority rule, but by what God said. And Caleb is one who says, I don't care what the majority of the spies say, they're wrong. God said, it's our land. We can take it. I will trust God. We can do this. Let's go up and take it. I can trust God. And you know what? I love the final part of Caleb's story. You'll read about it in Joshua chapter 14 where they finally do go in and take the land. And Joshua is dividing up the land. Joshua is now the leader of the people of Israel. He's dividing up the land. And Caleb comes up to him in Joshua chapter 14. He says, hey, buddy, you remember me? That's the King John version. I don't think you'll find that actually in your text. You remember me? I'm the guy that was with you when we spied out the land. And you remember what we saw, don't you? We saw fortified cities. We saw long-neck people, tall people, the onok. He said, you're passing out the land. Give me some of that. Give me some of the mountains. The mountains that have those tall people in them. And he literally says, I want the mountains where the descendants of onok live. I'm going to take them 40 years ago. I said we could do it. Now I'm going to prove it. He's 85 years old. And he tells Moses, my eyesight has not dimmed. My strength is just like it was 40 years ago. Give me the tough part. And I'll show you that God was true when he said we could take it. And he took it. He took it and defeated those tall, well fortified, strong people. Faith, that was the report of faith. But then the 10 spies speak up again. And now the report changes to a report of sheer folly. This is the report of the folly. This is their fear really gone to an extreme. What I want you to see happening here is what fear will do to you and what fear will do to me. Whenever we are on the brink of a crossroads in our lives where we have an important decision to make or important something that God is doing or a fear of something in front of us, this is where fear will take you. If you let it, fear will take you to absolute folly. What the spies do in verses 31 to 33, 3 is they now fall back on distortion, exaggeration, and outright lies to sway the hearts of the people. Notice what they say, verse 31, that the man who had gone up with him said, we can't attack those people, they are stronger than we are. Now that's a distortion. So maybe on the outward appearance they are stronger. They've got fortified cities, they've got implements of warfare. But wait a second, what about the Egyptian army? You were the most powerful army on earth at the time, much more powerful than any Kainanite army. And God had shown he could defeat the Egyptian army. Have you forgotten that? You see what fear does, fear distorts your view of God. To the point that the God who overthrew the Egyptians and drowned their army in the Red Sea and the God who defeated the Amalakites in the wilderness is no longer strong enough to defeat these nations. Come on. Fear distorts your view of God. But that's not all they have to say, verse 32, and they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. Bad report. You mean the land that flows with milk and honey, the land that has this kind of fruit in it, the land that God has prepared and told us is ours? A bad report about that land? Fear will lead you to deny everything you know that God has told you. You will deny everything you know from the Word of God in the face of fear. They go on. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. You know what that means? You cannot support yourself on this land. We'll live there for a while, but it will not support a nation of two million people. There will not be enough crops. Wait a second. Didn't they just say it was a land flowing with milk and honey? A land that was very fruitful, a land that was very productive, and now fear distorts and changes the way you look at the obstacles in front of you. And the obstacles begin to become exaggerated. And notice they really get crazy with the exaggeration now. Look at the next statement. Oh the people we saw there are great size. Really? Now before you just said we saw some children of Anak there, some descendants of Anak. We saw a group of people that were kind of tall, long necked, you know, that's all. But now they're saying, all the people, all the people are tall. All the people are big, great size. Here will cause you to exaggerate the difficulties in front of you. To blow them way out of proportion. To where now they look bigger than God could ever be. But they're not done yet. Verse 33, this is sheer folly. We saw the Nephilim there. The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim they add by way of explanation. Now wait a second. Let's think this one through. Who are the Nephilim? They're mentioned one other time in the Bible in Genesis chapter 6 before the flood. They were the men of great power who ravaged the earth and caused fear among all people by their brutality and their sheer force before the flood. So if I'm thinking right, unless Noah and his three sons were Nephilim, none of them survived. How can they have any descendants? How can anyone have come from them? You see what fear will do is it will cause you to believe the lie of the enemy and will cause you to think unbidlically. I mean, can anybody remember Genesis 6? Can anybody remember the stories that have been passed down through the generations of Israelites, Moses, maybe by this time has already recorded the book of Genesis? Doesn't anybody remember the Nephilim all perish? They don't have any descendants? You're just lying to us. But fear will cause you to think unbidlically. And then this is the best one at all, of all. We seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we look the same to them. Now how do they know what they look like to the inhabitants of the land? Did they go up and ask them? Click board in hand? Do a little survey here today. Folks, by the way, I'm hiream, I'm a Jew. We're kept just south of you here along the border. We're going to invade this land. We've got a few questions for you before we invade this land. Number one question. Do we look like grasshoppers to you? Can you believe this? Fear will cause you to believe absolute foolishness when you get your eyes off God and you begin to fear what lies ahead of you rather than trust God to fulfill his promises, you'll go all kinds of different directions of crazy. And that's exactly what they're doing. The report of Folly. Well, their report leads to the rebellion. Tragically, it leads to the rebellion. Chapter 14 verses 1 through 10. Describe the rebellion. Just look at the pieces of it here. The first piece of rebellion is that emotions are aroused. Verse 1, that night, all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. What are they crying about? What are they raising their voices about? That raising of your voice is a crying out in fear and anger and desperation. What do we do now? Here we are. We've come all this way and we can't take the land. So what do we do now? The emotions have been whipped into a frenzy by the fearful lack of faith report of the Tim spies. So the next piece of this rebellion is that tempers and tongues lash out. And whenever our emotions get aroused, it always has a way of coming through our tongues. Then our tempers notice what they say, verse 2. All that Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly said to them, if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness. Hang on to that thought. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Hang on to that thought. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt and they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Nehemiah chapter 9 actually fills in a little bit of the details here and says they actually did choose a leader. They were intent on replacing Moses and going back to Egypt if God had not intervened. But their tongues, their tempers lash out and they're speaking against Moses and Aaron. But really they're speaking against God. Again, in Deuteronomy 1, when Moses recounts this story, here's what he says about it. You grumbled in your tents and said, the Lord hates us. So he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. This is all God's fault. You see that the grumbling against Moses and Aaron is just a veiled disguise for hating God and grumbling against God and anger against God and God's mean to us and God brought us out here to kill us. Tempers and tongues lash out. Well Joshua and Caleb are not going to stand by and just let that win the day without some voice of protest. So what we find next in chapter 14 is the voice of faith cries out. The voice of faith, once again, cries out for the people to listen. Verse 5, then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. I think Moses and Aaron recognized that God was going to step in and act. And so they fell down on their face which is a sign of reverence for God and that's exactly what will happen in a few moments. Joshua, notice Joshua and Caleb speak up verse 6, Joshua son of none and Caleb son of Jaffuna who were among those who had explored the land tore their clothes ripping the outer garments, a sign of deep grief and trouble and a sense of seriousness in what they're going to say to the people, notice what they say verse 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, the land we pass through and explore is exceedingly good. Now once you're noticed that everything they say now is directed to God or directed to get the people of Israel to look to God. Everything is about God. Everything the 10 spies said was about themselves and fear. Everything Caleb and Joshua say is designed to turn their eyes back to the Lord and faith. Look at it verse 8, if the Lord is pleased with us, you see what they're saying? What you need to focus on is being pleasing to the Lord, not the people of the land and your fear of them, just be pleasing to the Lord so they're pointing their eyes back to God. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey and he will give it to us three times in that one verse. They're talking about God and his power and who he is and what he's promised to do. One thing in verse 9, only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people of the land because we will devour them. How can you save that? Joshua and Caleb, how can we devour them? Well again, they turn their eyes to the Lord. Their protection is gone. The people of the land have no protection. But the Lord is with us, do not be afraid of them. Five times they reference to the Lord who he is and what he will do. There's nothing about the obstacles in front of them appearing too big. In fact, they say, don't be afraid of those people. They have no protection. Their protection is gone and we have the protection of God. Five times they reference how they can look to the Lord and find him to be strong on their behalf. That is the voice of faith. You see, the real issue is when we face things that look too big to us, the real question is, not how big are the problems that are facing us, how difficult are the situations that are facing us. The real question is, how big is your God? That's the real question. And that's what Joshua and Caleb are trying to get the people to see. You have a big God, so you got a few long net people up there. You got a big God, a big God, who can do what he said he would do. Can you trust him? Just focus on being pleasing to him. He'll give you the land, he'll lead you into the land, he'll protect you. Just believe him. But what happens next is incredibly sad because this rebellion ends when fear winds out. In spite of this impassioned plea by Joshua and Caleb, look at the response of the people in verse 10, but the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Are you kidding me? After they have heard what these men have said, after they've seen all that God has done for them through the wilderness, leading them out of Egypt, the plagues, the destruction of the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, after all of that, fear winds out. Wow. What a tragedy. And the tragedy is this will mark a turning point for the whole nation. They are at a critical crossroads and they are about to really blow it in a way that will affect the nation for decades to come. Just like when we are at great crossroads in our lives, whether we choose to trust God or fear what's in front of us, will determine what happens to our people. Thus, and which road we go down, the last part of this story is the result of this rebellion. The result is described for us. In the rest of chapter 14, we won't take the time to read it because it's a long passage. I just want to give you kind of the three steps in the result. The first is that God is displeased. Obviously, God is displeased. And He shows it in a dramatic way. Verse 10, while the whole assembly is talking about stoning their leaders, the glory of the Lord appeared at the tabernacle. And the impression you get, the glory of the Lord is the bright, shining presence of God, a bright, shining light that demonstrates the presence of God. You get the impression that this was abrupt and it was intense, that as this rebellion is beginning to foment to the point they're ready to ston their leaders, God suddenly shows up in great, brilliant light and suddenly, dramatically, intensely, God is in their midst. God is displeased. And He says so. He says, Camusus, I'm going to destroy this nation after all that I have done, all the miracles I've done. I'm going to destroy this nation. I'll build a new nation from you. And then what happens next has puzzled many people who just read this story. Moses cries out to the Lord and says, Lord, if you do that, it's your glory that will suffer. It's your name that will be drug through the mud because Egypt and all the nations of this land know that you brought us out of Egypt and you destroyed the Egyptian army. And they've heard stories of the pillar of fire by night, the pillar of cloud by day. And what they'll say is you were able to lead us out, but you didn't have enough power to get us into the land. And so it's your glory that will suffer. And so he pleads with God, please forgive the people. God says he will. Now, it wasn't God that needed convincing. I think this is really a test of Moses. God cannot be tempted or tested in any way. So this is not a test of God or a calming down of God on the part of Moses. Perish the thought that that could even happen. This is really a test of Moses. God is testing Moses to see whether or not he himself has been swayed by the people to get his eyes on the circumstances or does he still have his eyes on God and his glory and his name and his power and Moses passes the test. This is concerned not about him and not about a new nation being made from him and he and being the one that is left who stood for that which is right. He's not concerned about that. He's concerned about God, his glory and his good name. And so his focus is still on the Lord. Moses passes the test. But God, although he's displeased, and he will forgive the people, God disciplines. And verses 20 through 38, God basically says this about the people. I will forgive them. They are still my people. But I'm going to do exactly what they talked about in the first part of the chapter. They said it would be better for us to have died in Egypt or to die in this wilderness and God says that's what you want. Okay. After all I've done for you and you've turned your back on me, if that's what you want, I give you over to that. You will die in the wilderness. Everyone 20 years old and older. In other words, anyone old enough to serve in the army. There's only those 20 years and older who in the first part of the book of numbers are counted, are numbered because they can serve in the army. All of you 20 years old and over will die. That whole generation will die in the wilderness. And you were concerned about your children and your wives being taken as plunder. They are the ones who will inherit the land. God says. You see what God is basically saying. He's basically saying you've turned your back on me. You've declared this is what you want. This is the way you want to go. Okay. I take my hands off and you're going to be disciplined by getting exactly what you wanted. Every nation needs to hear that. Every believer needs to hear that. Sometimes when we say, God, this is what we want. This is the direction we've chosen to go. And we'll pass laws to show that we don't care about what you say. We're going to go this way. There are times when God says, okay, you've chosen that way. That's what you want. I give you over to that. Romans 1 describes it clearly. Every nation needs to hear that warning. Our nation right now in our history needs to hear that warning. Could it be that God is saying to us, you've chosen your way with your courts, with your laws, with your leaders, you've chosen a way that is shoving my truth back in my face. Okay. Have your own way. And God sometimes shows his displeasure with his discipline of a nation or an individual. And then lastly, God distances himself in verses 39 to 45. The children of Israel kind of wake up and say, oh, man, we know it would be that bad. Moses, we're sorry. We're going to take the land. Promise. We're going to take it now. And Moses warns them and says, no, no, it's too late. It is too late. And God will not go with you. He has already disciplined you and told you what will happen. You're going to die in the wilderness. 40 years. One year for every day, the spies were in the land. You're going to wonder in the wilderness and this generation is going to die. Don't you dare try to go up and take the land now because God is not with you. He's distancing himself. But they go anyway and suffer a crushing defeat. And they will wonder in the wilderness for 40 years. And the result is horrendous. What are some lingering lessons that we need to learn? I think they're at least four of them. Planning for the future is a healthy exercise. We'll start there. Go, that's where the people started. We're going to sense spies into the land. We're going to check out the land. That's okay with God. That was okay to check out the land. It was not wrong to analyze the enemy and form a proper and wise method of invasion. Nothing wrong with that. That's good planning. There's nothing wrong with seeing what kind of land it is. That will help us know what parts we should settle first and so forth. There's nothing wrong with that. God can use all of that to help lead us. So there's nothing wrong with analyzing trends and thinking about the future and looking ahead and making plans for the future. The key is not, are you planning? That's good. The key is in your planning, is there a spirit of submission to God? When you think about your future and you make plans for the future, nothing wrong with making plans for the future. That's not, doesn't show a lack of faith. The key is do you have enough faith in God that if he changes your plans, you say, okay, Lord, thank you for delivering me from a mistake, you've changed my plans. Thank you. Lord, I don't follow your plan. Surely a lot better than mine. Are you willing to submit all of your plans to him in faith? That's the key. Second lesson we can learn. Fear focuses on problems and potential obstacles. Whenever you face acrossroads in your life, a decision that needs to be made, a commitment that God's speaking to you about and you begin to respond with fear. You begin to look at all the obstacles, you begin to look at all the potential problems and just like the nation of Israel, fear will cause you to focus on that to the point that you distort. You distort the size of those obstacles. They look absolutely overwhelming to you and you begin to distrust God's Word and even twist it. You begin believing the lies of the enemy just like Israel did. To the point that you will make every excuse possible as to why what God is speaking to you about cannot be done. It's exactly what Israel did. I'm reminded of the little three-year-old girl who was awakened in the middle of the night with a clap of thunder and scurried into her parents' bedroom and said, Mommy, Daddy, can I get in bed with you and Mommy was kind of half asleep and said, Honey, going back to your bedroom, the Lord is there with you. Little three-year-old girl got us far as the door and she turned around and said, Mommy, could I stay in here with Daddy and you go in there where God is? Isn't it easier to trust what we see rather than what we can't see? And we're so much like that little three-year-old girl, we'd much rather put our confidence in what we can see than in the God whom we cannot see but who is very real, who is powerful and who is there with us. Fear will cause you to focus on what you see rather than what you can't see and it will cause you to blow away out of proportion, way out of size, the problems that are before you to where they eclipse the promises of God and the power of God. That's what fear does. But the third lesson we can learn is that faith focuses on God's promises and power. Faith will focus your eyes, your heart, your mind on God's promises and power and even though the events are troubling, there's a deep calm trust in the sovereign God who is powerful beyond whatever problems or obstacles lie in front of you. And so you believe that God can lead you into that future and that God will give you a better future than the present you now have because of His power and that what you're so afraid of will shrink in comparison to the greatness of how God will work and God will provide. So faith allows you to jump in to allow you to take some risks in faith to do as the book of Ecclesiastes said, cast your bread upon the waters and you'll receive a return. That was an expression in Solomon's day for the trading that they would do, sending off their bread and ships on dangerous seas many times uncharted waters trusting they would come back with the imports from those exports. And that's what we have to do with God, trusting that when we launch out in faith, not knowing what kind of waters may face us out there, that God will bless. Man was driving down the road one day. He was a very rich man drove a really expensive car, kind of arrogant, and haughty, proud of what he had done and who he was. And he's driving alongside corn fields and he drives a little bit further down the road and he sees a young boy over there kind of hoeing at the edge of a field and messing around there in the crops. And so he decides to stop. He needs a little bit of a stretch anyway. So he stops and he walks down to the fence and he calls out to the guy, a little boy and says, looks like your corn is turning yellow. Little boy said, yeah, we planted yellow corn. Well, that kind of got under the skin of the wealthy businessman who thought he was much better than this little farm boy. And so he said, well, it looks like a me, you're only going to get about half a crop. Little boy said, yeah. We planted in halves. We know we'll only get about half of the return, but we planted double so that the half would be what we need. Well, that really got to the guy. He thinks this little boy is trying to show me up. So in angry said to the little farm boy, he said, you're not far from a fool, are you boy? Little farm boy said no, there's just a fence between us. You see, all the pins on the side of the fence are on. If you're on the side of the road looking over into what God's doing and growing a crop, then you'll have a tendency to pick all kinds of things wrong with it. This can't happen, that can't happen. If you're on the side where God's doing the work, where the field is and the crops are growing. And you're seeing what God's doing. You have a much calmer, better perspective on what God can do. That's what faith does. When you see the power of God, when you see what God's doing, there's a calm reassurance that everything's going to be okay. You have nothing to fear. Faith focuses on God's promises and power. Now, here's the clinching lesson. And it's the most, I believe, sobering of all. And that is this. Choosing fear over faith robs you of God's blessing and power. If you choose to give into your fears about the future and what might happen if you decide to really follow God and trust Him for what He's moving on you to do, if you let fear stop you, then you will rob you. Be yourself of God's blessing and power. You see, what Israel did and the tragic consequences of their choice to let fear take over from faith. What they ended up experiencing was what might be called God's second best. I don't understand what I mean by that. They are still God's people. God will show Himself merciful on their behalf as they wonder in the wilderness. He will still provide mana for them. He will make sure their sandals and their clothes do not wear out for 40 years. So in lots of ways, He will still show Himself merciful to them as a nation. They are still His covenant people, but they themselves have settled for what we're going to call God's second best. And that is an existence for the rest of their lives where they will not see the ultimate expression of God's power and blessing like they could have seen if they had simply entered the land in faith and done what God was moving in their hearts to do. The same thing can happen to you, my friend. If you let fear overcome faith, you can lose His blessing on your life. You can lose the full experience of seeing God work in the way that He wanted to work in power to provide for you, to bless you, to enable you, to protect you. You can miss all of that. And what a tragedy that would be. All warns, the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 9, about not following the Lord fully and thus being disqualified for rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. In other words, you're still saved. You'll still be in heaven, but you'll lose reward that you could have received by following the Lord fully. I don't think it's any mistake that He follows it up in the next few verses in chapter 10 by giving this illustration of Israel grumbling against God in the wilderness and not following Him by faith. You can disqualify yourself from God's best for you, God's blessing, the seeing of His power in your life, the reward you would receive in heaven if you let fear overtake faith in your life. Are you at a crossroads today in your life? Is there an important decision staring you in the face? And in the midst of that decision, you feel fear rising up in you. Please, please hear what I'm going to say. Please do not let that fear of what you think might happen. Destroy what God wants to do in your life. Please don't let fear cause you to shrink back from fully following the Lord. Is God calling you to a deeper commitment to Him today than what you've been giving Him with your life? But you're afraid of what you might have to give up. You're afraid of what that means to you. You're afraid of the sacrifice that might be involved. You're afraid of what might happen to you if you wholly sell out to the Lord and follow Him. You know what will happen if you give into that fear. All of the obstacles will grow bigger in your eyes. You will blow them out of proportion to the point that you believe you cannot do what God's calling you to do. What God's calling you to do. You can do that, my friend. God will eventually take His hands off and say, okay, that's your choice. You can do that. But you will consign yourself to a second best in His life for you. And you'll lose reward and blessing in the sense of His power on your life. Please don't do that. Is God calling you to do something for Him, calling you into ministry. You've been speaking to you about going into the ministry in some way, going into missions in some way. Then you can sit back and look at all the problems ahead of you. And you can become fearful of whether or not God can take care of you, whether or not God will provide for you, whether or not things will be okay with you. And if you let that fear dominate you, you will consign yourself to God taking His hands off of your life and saying, you have second best then. You're still my child. I'll still take care of you. You're going to heaven. But you will never experience what I really intended for you to in your life. And you'll give your second best. You might work a great job, make a lot of money, retire rich. But you will be absolutely empty because you did not follow what God wanted you to do. Don't let fear rob you of the opportunity to see God work in your life. Trust Him for stepping out into the future. Trust Him for overcoming that sin, that habit, that hurt in your past, that hang up you've got in your life. You know what's eating it, you know what's troubling you, you know the way you're living is not the way God would have you to, but you're afraid to admit it to anyone. You're afraid to come clean and start the road to healing and recovery. And so the fear is keeping you away from what God wants you to do and what He wants to do in you. Trust Him. Believe Him. Do not let fear keep you out of the promised land. You're at that crossroads today. What is how will you respond? Fear or faith? I urge you today let go of fear. Dare to believe that you can trust God. You can trust Him and He will provide and He will work. Dare to believe that. Dare to believe that. Be a dog like Caleb. Not a fearful little French poodle like the tin spies. Let's pray. Father, what we're talking about here this morning is so serious, it's so real. We all face decisions in life. Crossroads where we must choose one path or another and hearing your voice. We know that we need to trust you to move ahead and yet that old fear comes back and plagues us. And we look at the potential obstacles and the problems and everything seems bigger than it really is. Lord help us not to shrink back in fear. When you're calling us to go into the promised land help us to trust you to overcome the obstacles to provide all that we need to see us through to bless us with your power and a sense of your presence and your provision. Father help us to let faith win the day and not fear. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. And before we stand. Some of you may be here today and you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior. You're standing at that crossroads and maybe you remember the church even. Maybe you've been in this church for years and fear is holding you back because you're afraid of what other people will think of you if you admit the fact you've never really been saved. Do you let fear keep you out of heaven? I urge you to trust Christ today. Drop your fear. People who know and love the Lord will rejoice with you and probably examine their own hearts too. That's a good thing. Are you on the brink of a decision? Crossroads. Which one are you going to give into fear or faith? You will decide. God will let you decide.