An Old, Old Story

Scripture: Numbers 13: 25 – 14: 4

Sermon: An Old, Old Story

Topics: rebellion, fall, home

Preached: November 5, 2017

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble:

Israel has been freed from Egypt, travelled through the Red Sea,

received the law at Mount Sinai,

and now has travelled to the edge of the Promised Land.

They have just sent 12 spies – one from each tribe – to scout out the new land.

Here is their report.

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 

²⁷And they told him, ‘We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.’

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’ 

³¹Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we are.’ ³²So they brought to the Israelites an unfavourable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. ³³There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’

14Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. ²And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ ⁴So they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION – AN Old, Old Story

When you are flying and get to a high enough altitude, you can look down and see patterns in the landscape.

When you pull back from a Biblical text and see it all,

you see patterns too.

The oldest pattern there is, is the one found in Genesis.

This pattern starts with

CHAOS – when all was a formless void.

From that CHAOS God brings forth CREATION

And CREATION has ORDER,

with light and dark, land and sea, birds of the air, fish of the sea, and

animals of the land.

Then there is a FALL – humankind rebels against God’s commands.

Then there is a FLOOD – something to wipe things clean

Then there is a NEW START.

Chaos, Creation, Fall, Flood, New Start — that is the pattern.

And we see that pattern again in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

How does Exodus start?

Exodus starts with CHAOS – the chaos of slavery for Israel.

What comes next is CREATION – through the labor pains of the 10 plagues,

Israel comes through the Red Sea, and a New Creation,

a New People, a new nation Israel is born.

There is ORDER to this New Creation.

Just like there was order to the Sun, Moon, and Stars

in heaven above at Creation,

At Mount Sinai this New Creation, this New Nation, is given Order,

in the form of the Torah, the Law.

Everything is looking like it is going fairly well,

until this New People gets to the edge of the Promised Land.

In Genesis, in the Garden,

God’s command was DO NOT EAT – but Adam and Eve ATE.

Here in the wilderness, God’s command is GO, go into the gardenlike

Promised Land – but Israel DOES NOT GO.

Both are forms of rebellion – forms of the FALL – of not obeying God.

In both cases there is something of a FLOOD –

in Genesis there is a literal Flood

lasting 40 days and nights to wash the world clean.

In Numbers the FLOOD is their wandering in the desert for 40 years.

In Genesis, Noah and his family represent a brand NEW START.

Here, in Numbers, the whole old generation,

everyone 20 years old or older who came out of Egypt,

will die in the desert.

It is only the younger generation, plus Caleb and Joshua, who will be

allowed a NEW START – who will be allowed to enter the Promised Land.

NUMBERS 13-14 — A BIG DEAL

So hopefully you can see why these two chapters in Numbers are such a big deal.

These chapters represent another Fall,

another rebellion against God.

What made this rebellion so painful?

1. First, it represented a rejection of a Gift:

God was giving his people a gift – the gift of this promised land.

It was a gracious and generous gift – but Israel said No.

2. Second, this was not simply a Rejection of a Gift.

It was also turning the Blessing of a Gift into a Curse.

All the spies were unanimous,

They all agreed,

That the land was very good,

A land flowing with milk and honey.

But they suddenly turned this blessing into a curse,

Saying that the land was filled with Giants,

And that the land would devour them.

God wanted to bless them –

But they could only see it as a curse.

3. Third, they didn’t only reject God’s gift,

They didn’t only turn this blessing into a curse,

They also turned from God’s promised land

and wanted to turn back to Egypt, the land of slavery

with all its counterfeit gods

and false comforts.

In this story, the adults — the cautious, fearful, prudent adults — do not look very

good at all.

It is the kids — the hopeful, dreaming, wishful-thinking kids – that carry the hope

of this passage.

LIMITS OF PRUDENCE or CAUTION

I once read about a pastor who is asking kids what they would like to be when they grow up.

One child says, “I want to be a ballerina.”

Another says, “I want to be a fireman.”

Another says, “I want to be a pilot.”

Another says, “I want to be a superhero.”

And another says, “I want to be an actuarial analyst.”

The Pastor was a little stunned at first,

but then asked, “Do you know what an actuarial analyst is?”

“No,” answered the child, “But that’s what my parents tell me I should be.”

There is something about prudence, and caution, and fear,

that can be rather stifling — and at its worst, it can even stifle

the very gifts, good gifts, that God has given us.

J.K.ROWLING

Some of you may know the name J.K. Rowling.

Maybe not. How about the name Harry Potter?

Well J.K. Rowling wrote all the Harry Potter books.

Let me tell you a little about J.K. Rowling before she wrote all those books.

When she was only 6 years old she wrote her first story about a rabbit called Rabbit. Already then she knew she loved to write. She had a gift.

But it was hard, very hard, being a writer.

She was young, she was a single mom, and she was poor.

Everyone was telling her to get a “real job” —

like maybe an actuarial analyst.

She had written the first Harry Potter book The Philosopher’s Stone (known in

America as The Sorcerer’s Stone by the way.)

But who would publish it?

She got rejections from 12 different publishers – No, No, No, No…..

Finally, finally, one publisher said they would give it a try.

They paid her $4000 for the book,

and said, to be safe, you better get a real job.

But she kept writing …and I think we all know how that went.

HOME – the Promised Land

Why was J.K. Rowling so successful with those Harry Potter books?

Here is what I think:

She wrote about a place called Hogwarts – a magical place,

just like C.S. Lewis wrote about a place called Narnia,

and like J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about a place called the Shire in Middle

Earth.

In a way, they were all writing about the same place.

They were all writing about a place

we are all homesick for:

A place where we know we belong;

A place where we know we will be accepted;

A place where we know we are loved;

A place that, deep down, we are all homesick for.

There was a boy scout group in North Carolina a while back

that went on a camping trip.

Suddenly one of the scouts was missing.

That set off a huge hunt for him.

After three days the boy was finally found –

a bit disoriented, a bit dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed.

Of course, some of the first questions were,

“What happened?

The boy answered, “I left the camp.”

They asked, “Why did you leave the camp?”

Boy: I was hoping to find a road to hitch-hike on.

People: Hitch-hike? But where?

Boy: I wanted to hitch-hike home. I was homesick.

That boy had a yearning we all have – the yearning to be home,

and home is just another word for the Promised Land.

That yearning never leaves us.

We have it as kids.

We still have it as adults,

The yearning to be in a place

where we have a holy purpose,

where we can be a blessing and not a curse,

where we can be motivated

by hope, not fear,

by love, not caution,

by generosity, not stinginess.

The yearning to be in a place

where we have a holy people

that we can journey together with through life –

because no one wants to journey alone.

The yearning to be in a place

where we can experience holy joy —

the joy of being loved and loved unconditionally.

CONCLUSION

Here is the reality,

for Israel,

for that boy scout lost in the woods,

and for us too,

We all need to wander in the wilderness,

facing a few tests and trials

and experiencing a few deserts

before we begin to find our way home.

Of course,

even as we are finding our way home,

desperately seeking our heavenly Father,

somewhere along the way

we discover

our Father is even more bound and determined to find us.

Amen

Prayer:

Guide us, O our great Redeemer,

For we are pilgrims through this barren land.

We are weak, but you are mighty, hold us with your powerful hand,

Let your pillar of fire and pillar of cloud lead us our journey on,

Until we cross the Jordan and find our way home.

Amen