Prepare
Opening Prayer
God, thank you for giving us your Word. Quiet our hearts, focus our minds, and by your Holy Spirit make these words refined gold in our hearts and a lamp to our path. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
Death Sentence on the Rebels
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. 31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. 35 I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”
36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, 37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 14:26–38.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
The Lord judges the unbelieving generation: everyone twenty and older who complained will die in the wilderness, while Caleb, Joshua, and the children will enter the land. The ten faithless spies die by plague.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 14:30-31
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not explicitly select a best verse. Verses 30-31 best capture the contrast he emphasizes between the unbelieving generation's judgment and God's promise to Caleb, Joshua, and their children.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Walk by faith rather than sight. Hold firmly to God's promises and do the good works faith produces, trusting that the victorious King leads his people in righteousness.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
well good morning good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions that's where every weekday morning you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word nothing you want some of my coffee good no okay taste like coffee beans taste like coffee beans we get to God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2024 Lord willing will'll make it through the books of Numbers Deuteronomy and Hebrews good job you got it this time let's have some coffee we'll pray and get into God's word God we thank you so much that you have given us your word father we pray that as we read your word this morning that you would quiet our hearts that you would help our minds to focus and that your Holy Spirit would take the words that are on this page and we pray that it might be like refined gold in our hearts and a lamp unto our path in Jesus's name amen okay so we're at numbers 14 beginning at verse 26 uh would you rather read the small paragraph or the large paragraph that's the small paragraph what so 26 through 34 or 35 would be a large paragraph 36 and then 36 37 and 38 is a small one do you want to read the small paragraph or the large one um so this one or this one I think this the small one okay and I'll read the big one here we go and the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying how long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against me say to them as I live says Jehovah just as you have spoken in my hearing so I will do to you the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this Wilderness all of you who are numbered according to your entire number from 20 years old and above except for Caleb the son of jauna and Joshua the son of nun you shall by no means into the land which I swore I would make you dwell in but your little ones whom you said would be victims I will bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised but as for you your carcasses shall fall in this Wilderness and your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land 40 Days for each day you shall bear one your guilt one year namely 40 years and you shall know my rejection I Jehovah have spoken this I will surely do so to all the evil congregation who gather together against me in this Wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall die now the man who Moses sent to spy out the land heor and made all the congregation complained against bringing a bad report of the land those very men who brought the evil report about the land died by the plague before the Lord but J Joshua the son of not and Caleb the son of jeun jeun jeuno remain Alik of The Men Who s who went to spy out the land okay so talk to me about what happens in 26 through 35 what's that about uh um Dad says well you didn't listen to me you made you a promise what's going to happen he didn't listen to me so I was going to break my promise but M reminded me so I'm going to make sure you just get a one off a few years 40 years time and then one year for every day they spied out the land right so they were SP they spied for 40 days and so now they're going to spend 40 years and what did they tell Moses it seems like they told Moses what were they concerned who were they were concerned were going to die everybody well notice what it said but your little ones whom you said would be victims yeah they said everybody was going to die from the get yeah but they were specifically saying like our kids are going to die right we go to try to take this our kids are going to die and God what does God say you think I'm going to make them victims but they're going to go in the land they're going to go in the land and they're going to be the they're going to be the CH they're going to startop doing it yeah they're going to be the chosen ones they're going to be so the victims aren't going to be victims they're going to be victorious right they're going to be conquerors right but as for yall you're going have to wonder for a long time are they ever going to get to enter the promised land no what are the only two guys who are going to be allowed to and Joshua and Joshua so why isn't Moses allowed in again well we'll get to why Moses isn't allowed in later right so Aaron's going to die beforehand Moses is going to die beforehand it's just going to be Joshua and Caleb who will lead the people in uh and so uh they're all going to they're all going to die and it's going to be the next Generation coming up who's going to take the land and but what happens to those 10 spies who led the Rebellion did you catch that died disease yeah they died of disease of a plague that's right and so uh the Lord executed judgment right so we've talked about it go ahead and summarize all this if you had one sentence to summarize all this what would you say I'm [Music] think [Music] um maybe you should listen to God rather than men okay listen to God rather than men that's good yeah it's like you got is testing in faith and they didn't really believe I could help them yeah they what did they think about God they thought yeah he's not going to be able to help us yeah he's not going to be able to help us he can't actually give us a land just be like flies SWAT SWAT SWAT yeah we're going to be like flies SWAT SWAT SWAT right so they they didn't have what's the word we normally use for that faith and have faith right and so the Covenant has always been about faith right and that Faith produces good works right so so they were going what was their good work they were supposed to do go the go into the land but did they have faith to go do it NOP no they wouldn't do it do you think we still have that same type of problem today yeah yeah sometimes can we be afraid to tell people about the gospel sometimes can we be afraid of doing the right thing yeah but we have to have faith right it's hard it's real hard why don't we pray about that okay father we confess to you that we are no better naturally than any of these guys who came back with a bad report because we are tempted so often to walk by sight and not by faith so Lord we pray pleading with you that you would teach us to walk by faith that you would teach us to hold firm to your promises that you would teach us that you will not leave us as victims but you will make us Victorious Lord we pray that we would not fear those who could kill the body but cannot destroy the soul Lord we pray that we would walk before you and that your spirit would give us strength like Caleb and like Joshua we pray these things in Jesus's name amen well may the Lord bless you as you trust that your Victorious King Jesus Christ leads you in the path of righteousness and by faith you can follow him we'll see you next time say bye bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in in rule Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon rc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10:00 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this week [Music]