Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: disobedience

You Will Not Be Led -8- All but Two
Joshua & Caleb

Observe carefully those faithful to the LORD and also leaders faithful to Moses. Then listen to the grumbling rabble of the disobedient and see a stark contrast.

Two faithful successors stand out because these contemporaries of Moses (who began this forty year exodus at age 80) stood faithfully with the LORD’s anointed leader: Joshua and Caleb.

So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water so that we may drink!” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”
Joshua did just as Moses told him..
Exodus 17:2, 10a NASB2020

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said,
“We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.”
Numbers {In The Wilderness} 13:30 NASB2020

You Will Not Be Led into the Promised Land

We could have begun our pilgrimage much earlier than Noah.

“I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Genesis 9:11

Even though Abraham was far from sinless, the Books of Moses follow his blessings and covenants with the LORD.

As we approached the Promised Land we noted the disobedience of Lot’s wife, sin in the cities pervasive beyond the Jordan near the Dead Sea.

And it would seem that Moses, the LORD’s chosen leader in the wilderness encounters nothing but complaint, disobedience and sin by the ‘chosen’ now stranded in the desert.

While journeying from Mount Sinai to the promised land, although mention is made of important events delaying the Hebrews in the wilderness, I have not dwelled on an important consequence of disobedience we suppose to be just part of the Hebrew journey —

40 YEARS! in the wilderness

Numbers: [Bamidbar] 13:

25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh..

.. “We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

28 Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of Anak there!

30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.”

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.” 32 So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel…

Numbers 14:

And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.

6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes…

10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel…

Moses then pleads for their lives

¹¹And the Lord said, “.. I will strike them with plague and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

13 But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people up from their midst…

19 .. Please forgive the guilt of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your mercy, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” So the Lord said,

“I have forgiven them in accordance with your word..”

וְאוּלָם חַי־אָנִי וְיִמָּלֵא כְבוֹד־יְהוָה אֶת־כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
Numbers 14:21 KJV

Therefore – your punishment!

14:22 כִּי כָל־הָאֲנָשִׁים הָרֹאִים אֶת־כְּבֹדִי וְאֶת־אֹתֹתַי אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂיתִי בְמִצְרַיִם וּבַמִּדְבָּר וַיְנַסּוּ אֹתִי זֶה עֶשֶׂר פְּעָמִים וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּקוֹלִֽי׃
- Because all those men which have seen my glory [kāḇôḏ],
- and my miracles [ôṯ], which I did in Egypt
- and in the wilderness,
- and have tempted [nāsâ]me now these ten times,
  - (i.e. [10 X] they would NOT be led by the LORD!)
- and have not hearkened [šāmaʿ– shaw-mah’ ] to my voice…
shâmaʻ, shaw-mah’ – שָׁמַע

Strong’s Definitions – H8085 matches the Hebrew שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ), which occurs 1,169 times in 1,072 verses in the Hebrew concordance of the NASB

to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.):—× attentively, call (gather) together, × carefully, × certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, × diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear(-ken, tell), × indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, (make a) proclaim(-ation), publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, × surely, tell, understand, whosoever (heareth), witness.

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
Numbers 14:23 KJV

A spirit of obedience perseveres

24 But as for My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it…
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We read the following previously in "You Will Not Be Led."
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26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying,

27 “How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are voicing against Me.

28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you;

‘your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,’

‘all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me…’

31 ‘Your children, however,

whom you said would become plunder—I will bring them in,

and they will know the land which you have rejected.

But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.”

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Numbers 14:33 KJV
Why 40 Years?

The distance from Mount Sinai to the place where the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the promised land is about 400 kilometers or only about 250 miles.

‘In accordance with the number of days that you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall suffer the punishment for your [fn]guilt a year, that is, forty years, and you will know My opposition.
Numbers 14:34 NASB2020
The Rabble React

39 Now when Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly…

41 But Moses said, “Why then are you violating the command of the Lord, when doing so will not succeed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, to prevent you from being defeated by your enemies.

⁴⁴But they presumed to go up unto the hill top.. (while Moses and the Ark of the Covenant remained) .. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites .. struck them and scattered them…

After Forty YEARS!

Deuteronomy 9:

Shema, Yisroel: Thou art to pass over Yarden today, to go in to possess Goyim greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and walled up to Shomayim
Devarim 9:1 Orthodox Jewish Bible

Hear, O Israel: You are crossing the Jordan today…3 Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God

is he which goeth over before thee;

as a consuming fire he shall destroy them,

and he shall bring them down before thy face:

so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly,

as the Lord hath said unto thee.

a few REMINDERS:
- 4 “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from you,
  - ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’
  - Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
- 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land,
  - but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you,
  - and in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 “Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.

.. 27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin.

Do YOU turn with the 10 against the Lord in the Wilderness?

And they said to Joshua, “The LORD has indeed handed over to us all the land; furthermore, all the inhabitants of the land have despaired because of us.” -Joshua 2:24

OR do you follow His leadership like Joshua & Caleb?
March 19, 2021
Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 3

The Fall before the Fall

… so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Hebrews 9:28 HCSB

In ‘Disaster From Disobedience 2’ we considered the ‘In the beginning’ creation narrative. Genesis continues with the creation of man. We know that the fall of mankind and our expulsion from Eden will follow, but consider first an earlier significant event, the fall of angels.

The Fall Of The Rebel Angels Painting by Gustave Dore

Luke 10:

… “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.”

18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a lightning flash.

19 Look, I have given you the authority … over all the power of the enemy; nothing will ever harm you. 20 However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Christ Jesus instructs followers of what only the Son of Man from before creation can know. Angels disobeyed God, Creator and Master of all He Created.

Yet witness here Christ’s authority over fallen angels. Demons submit to God by the Apostle.s command in Christ’s authoritative Name.

Angels – Other Beings who Serve

Angels were created also to serve God. When? We can’t be certain, but we do know that it was prior to the fall of man. And like us, they were also given freedom for obedience.

I suppose it is possible that angels and man were created at the same time, since Adam and Eve may have lived many years in Eden until the fall. Yet the presence of the serpent in Eden would seem to indicate an earlier creation of angels.

Like mankind, some angels rebelled against the purpose for which the Lord God created them. God created angels as several, specific types of spirit-creatures. Angels are not the spirits of those who have died, but were created as beings in heaven. And like the creatures of earth, not all angels are alike.

Picture angels as many individual and diverse spirit-beings just as the creatures of this Earth vary. Visualize their lives in a real and existing, unseen dimension, separate of this visible place.

Unlike the Lord, no spirit rules over the day or fills flesh with the power of life! Angels are messengers for good or for evil, depending on who they serve.

The Fallen Star

Satan is just one of the disobedient angels of darkness, posing falsely as hope for mankind.

Returning briefly to a time after the fall of Jerusalem, the Prophet Isaiah had predicted Israel’s return after seventy years of captivity. Isaiah also interestingly described hell and the fall of Satan.

Isaiah 14:

12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit…

Disaster is not punishment for sin, but consequence of the fall.

Job chronicles several conversations between the Lord and Satan. Here Satan comes before the Lord asking for permission to inflict evil upon Job, even though God sites Job as blameless. The common scene is Satan as prosecutor, accusing and condemning the criminal to death for some sin; even tempting man to turn again God and follow his own demise into eternal punishment.

Job 1

6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”

Beware of the tempter

Beware of what you cannot see, for Satan roams the earth for the prize of sinners tempted into disobedience against God.

Satan rules unseen spirits and principalities of darkness. Whether original sin, where the tempter is mentioned as the serpent or in Isaiah, where Lucifer appears as false light, Satan seeks disobedient sinners.

Even now that prince of devils opposes righteous men and women who seek to serve God and Christ faithfully.

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The entire saga of Job begs the question from his wife, his friends and the reader, “Why would God allow this to happen to ‘a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil?’”

The Lord even permits Job to question the intentions of the Almighty! However the LORD answers Job and the readers at length.

HE IS THE LORD! … and man is not.

Nor is Satan, or angels; kings or idols. God IS God and we are not. Yet we would do well to remember the tempter’s appeal to our own desires, even as in Eden and since the inherited evil of ‘adam.

Angels who serve God

Much more is written of angels serving the fallen prince of the darkness and angels who remain messengers and worshipers of the Lord God.

Though our series addresses our disobedience, let’s close with a brief description by a Prophet of spirits near to the Living God. And like other descriptions of heaven, our mortal minds can barely take-in the immense glory of the scene.

Ezekiel 1

4 I looked, and there was a whirlwind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber. 5 The likeness of four living creatures came from it, and this was their appearance:

They looked something like a human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, sparkling like the gleam of polished bronze. 8 They had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings. 9 Their wings were touching. The creatures did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

10 Their faces looked something like the face of a human, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle. 11 That is what their faces were like.

Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching that of another and two wings covering its body. 12 Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the Spirit wanted to go, they went without turning as they moved…

Throne of the LORD

lapis lazuli

25 A voice came from above the expanse over their heads; when they stopped, they lowered their wings. 26 Something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli was above the expanse over their heads.

On the throne, high above, was someone who looked like a human…

Read on if you like, or read other descriptions of the awe of the Lord and of the heavenly servants which include angels.

Man is fallen and sin has consequence. Next, we will return to the fall of man.

To be continued…

June 9, 2018