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Caleb and Joshua: Standing Together, Facing Forward Tough Stuff Lessons from Numbers 13-‐14 and Hebrews 3-‐4 Intro/Story setup — Story: Lauren and Indiana Jones Sometimes our tough stuff is the weight of loss, grief, or despair. Other times it’s the fear we carry regarding what God has called us to do, who He has called to be. This kind of tough stuff isn't the result of horrible things happening to us. It’s the daunting, harrowing nature of steps of obedience out in front of us. Today we’ll consider this call as we study Numbers 13-‐14 and Hebrews 3-‐4. Hopefully we’ll get a clearer picture of how God asks us to walk into obedience together, and a sense of why this is so very critical for us today. Text/Narrative/Background • 14 months out of Egypt, traveling down the Arabian Peninsula and on their way to the promised land. • 3 easy steps to the promised land • Establishment of a new nation and all that entails: legal and social structures, economy, defense, leadership, even art & creativity, devotional life w/tabernacle (And what this showed powerfully) at the center of it. • The “getting to know you” phase of their relationship with God o YHWH guiding (fire and cloud) and providing (manna and quail) • Great victories and astounding failures; no real honeymoon period here. All of this brings us to Numbers 13 and the specific narrative passage we are interested in today. Quick Summary: -‐God says to Moses, “Send a leader from each tribe to go check out the promised land.” -‐He chooses a group of leaders not heard of to this point. We sometimes assume they were young, but we don’t know this (we know Joshua is Moses’ “aid from his youth”). It might have helped, given the hike they went on. (Route of the spies visual) -‐They get back and make a report [Read Num. 13:27-‐14:4] Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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1) What went wrong Their fear overwhelmed their faith... so they forgot What did they forget? YHWHs 1) Purposes 2) Plans, 3) Promises, 4) Provisions, 5) Presence (and where were they standing when this happened?) [Pick up the text again at 14:5-‐9]
And then: the people want to stone Caleb & Joshua; God responds with intended judgment on the whole lot of them; Moses intercedes; God forgives sin but still brings the more limited judgment of 40yrs; 10/12 get a plague and die; the people try to "make it up" to YHWH, that move fails. We might ask: how come God is being so hard on them? They’re scared for heaven’s sake. Because it’s more than just being scared. It strikes at the very core of their relationship with YHWH. They aren’t saying, “God, we’re scared, help us through this.” They’re saying, “No way. Ain’t gonna happen.” (See their promises from only a year ago in Ex. 24:3) 3 When Moses went and told the people all the Lord ’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Rebellion. Distrust. Mutiny. Betrayal. Forsaking of covenant and promise. In fact, God uses the term "contempt" to frame up their failing. Powerful word in the judgment text of 14:23: "...not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it."
More bad news. More of the same "what went wrong."
2) What went right Their faith kept fear in its proper place Caleb and Joshua reacted with: • Correction of a specific untruth (14:7) • A re-‐asserting of God’s sovereignty [no guarantees but He is trustworthy] (14:8) • A call to forward motion in faith (14:9)
Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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It’s perhaps easy enough to draw some conclusions from the clear contrast in the text, but we have even more than just that at our disposal. Something that brings those observations forward a bit in time and even gives some weight to us for right now as well. 3) Commentary and Call from Hebrews 3-‐4
One of the basic but really informative principles of understanding the Bible is that it beautifully interprets itself. Because we believe in progressive but finalized revelation, it’s always helpful to see if there is some kind of “downstream or sidestream” commentary on a passage we are looking at. In this case, we have a great and very helpful instance of this in Hebrews 3 and 4.
Do you catch the hints at the Numbers passage here? So, what is it saying?
[Read Hebrews 3:8-‐11, then 3:16-‐4:1,11]
Main points, Hebrews 3 and 4: They and You 1. “They” disobeyed and the result was they missed God’s “rest” (meaning the promised land); “You” Don’t disobey (the clear call in Christ, as displayed in His preeminence) and miss God’s rest (in this case rest from soul striving; salvation, and in the end eternal rest) 2. “They” wanted to turn back; “You”-‐don’t do it.
But the Hebrews text doesn't just leave us with the expected admonition of stoic, independent, isolated grinding it out on our own. Let's look a little closer at verses 12-‐14. (Heb. 3:12-‐14) See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. My ability to hold my original conviction firm to the very end is dynamically linked in some way to your acts of [encouragement] that fight against my tendencies to have a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." ESV uses “exhort” instead of encourage 1. parakaleo (παρακαλέω, 3870), the most frequent word with this meaning, lit. denotes “to call to one’s side,” hence, “to call to one’s aid.”
Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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Of special note then, is the communally-‐responsible tone of the passage. Essentially, it says “this failure back in Numbers was in large part a failure of the community, don’t let it be that again in your case.” So, I think I might see a pattern here via Caleb and Joshua and the communal call to ensuring the growing, sustained faith of the dispersed Jewish Believers in the first century. And it’s also a word for us: Stand together, facing forward. Why is standing together, facing forward so critical for us right now? Well, because in case you hadn’t noticed, the world is literally imploding. I mean, yes, the world has always been imploding since we decided to forsake the perfect world that God set up for us, but this is the time in which we live and it’s spiraling fast. Believers are surely in disagreement about the particulars at times, but the common ground is that no one thinks everything is okay. There is a speed and violence with which everything around us is coming undone; unraveling faster than our hearts can keep up with. So, what does this set of texts tell us? How do they direct us (As the Church, living out the Kingdom)? A. If we miss on standing together, we’ll pull ourselves apart. Standing together: Bringing aid (parakaleo)—yes, it may be needed encouragement. Or it may be a necessary exhortation. But it is always, always to be seen as bringing aid by drawing near. Have you ever noticed that relational distance feeds presumption? It easy for me to assume what you think unless I am close enough to actually ask you. And that presumption, left in place, becomes the slow embers of discord. Not really causing much trouble but still there. Well, all it takes is for a big wind to come by and cause the whole thing to blow up in flames and start causing some real damage. If we are to keep the big fires from destroying everything, we need to douse the embers early on. The only way to do this in relationships is the hard work of a committed engagement over time with one another. But just standing together isn’t enough and can be deceitfully destructive if we’re not absolutely clear of where we are going. And this brings us to what happens if we miss the facing forward posture: B. We end up either retreating in fear (going back to Egypt) or we step into the battle without God’s blessing and power (the Israelites in the hill country). What was the problem here? They were united weren't they? The vast majority of them agreed and were of one mind and heart. But in both circumstances they had the “action” part wrong. If they got it wrong, it’s probably fair to assert that we may get it wrong from time to time as well. Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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Or maybe the “facing forward” is cloudy because we have honest, thoughtful disagreements over the details. For example: Let’s just go for broke here. Should anyone die unjustly at the hands of another? Or how about this one: should corrupt, self-‐obsessed people be given the highest offices in our land? Okay, but now what—and I mean exactly what—are we to do about it when it happens? How do we respond individually? What kind of contributing economic and systemic factors led to the travesty and what kind of local and national policies should be implemented to better ensure a more just, God-‐reflecting society? What do those who walk with Jesus actually do, think, and say when something so horrific takes place, and more frequently than our hearts can handle? I think we get where we’re going here. Smart, caring, thoughtful people are going to come to at least some range of dispute in the details on an important, complex issue. Even like-‐minded folks usually have some differences in play. So, yeah, most of the time the “what to do about it” conversation is going to require some work. Well, here you go. Here is the Word of God giving us an outline of how to pursue disputable matters as the Body of Christ. Let’s turn to Romans Chapter 14 and 15. 1) Remove contempt and judgment from your response to those who differ from you. (14:3-‐4) while at the same time studying and reflecting in a way that gets you to a firmly settled place in your position. (Vs 5-‐6) 2) Replace judgment with an attitude of servanthood, especially when your position could cause a brother or sister to stumble in their faith. (vs. 13-‐15) 3) Remember: the Kingdom of God is not a matter of ________, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Vs. 17) and whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval (vs. 18) 4) Make very effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. (Vs. 19) 5) Keep what you believe about ________ between yourself and God (vs. 22)—most likely in the sense of contentiousness? As in, if you can’t do the above, then better to keep quiet? 6) Accept one another, just as Christ accepted You, in order to bring praise to God (15:7) So… have we taken into account the steps and considerations here in our engagement in very important matters? I know—I can hear some saying, “But what? You expect us just to do nothing!?” No, but then tell me: have you actually tried the Romans 14 pathway? Because I am just betting that if we would, God might reveal to us in the process some extraordinary things, maybe even solutions we never would have thought of otherwise. At the very least, the world would have to take notice: we will not retreat in fear over the trials of our day. But neither will we easily forsake a bond initiated and secured by something holy— the blood and body of Christ. Look, I get that there are probably more than two sides to any of these issues we are facing but, let me generally try to address a couple of voices in the Church as we close. Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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To the prophets: we need you. We need your heart and insight into what God’s Spirit is saying and calling us to do. But please be very, very careful about what it is you are calling us to. Do not give in to the easy and seemingly simple call of the world because your heart is breaking. Come stand by the rest of us and bring with you the aid of encouragement and exhortation. But please don't walk away quickly if we do not respond as fervently or directly as you would like us to. Don't give up on us. Don’t head out into the hills without the clear, unmistakable call of God. To the people: be gently discerning. Don't dismiss the prophets quickly because they agitate you. That’s their job. Instead, consider carefully what God’s Spirit may be saying in our times. Check their words against Scripture as you open yourself to being positively disrupted by them. Don't go back to Egypt. True, what’s ahead is likely hard and costly but following Jesus always has been. Rest is on the horizon, but only after engaging the battles that will get us there.
I am becoming more and more convinced that in such chaotic times our call and hope is in standing together, facing forward. Miss on standing together and we risk coming apart at the seams. Miss on facing forward and we could end up wanting to go back to Egypt in fear, or forge ahead into a battle without the favor and hand of God on us. Neither of those outcomes is desirable for the people of God.
Joshua and Caleb: Standing Together, Facing Forward—Wayne Stewart
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