Deuteronomy 1:19-46 Chased By Bees

Welcome to Recast Church, where we're growing in faith, community, and service. You're listening to a message by Pastor Kyle Douglas from the Book of Deuteronomy, from a series entitled, Clinging to God on the Way from Here to There.

If you'd like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Pastor Kyle.

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to Recast. We're glad you're here, as always. Thanks for braving the snow. Are you loving winter?

Yeah.

Okay.

Winter.

Wow.

I say, if we're going to have it, then let's have it, right?

Bring it.

The trouble is, we're running out of parking spots. That's a difficulty.

Okay.

So this morning, I'll get into the introduction here to the text. I'm back. Don is out of town. He's hanging out with Linda in Mexico. So they're on a cruise, and I hope just having a great time. I get to fill in for a couple weeks, so we're back in Deuteronomy.

But just to give you a heads up, too, we're going to do an announcement. Right before connection time, after worship, about the school transition. So that's on its way. But let's jump into the text here.

Belief as Trust, Not Mere Agreement

So Deuteronomy, we're in this series called Clinging to God on the Way from Here to There. Going back to what is probably, for most of us, a little red book in the Old Testament. And this week, we are in chapter 1, verses 19 through 46.

Did we get that right on the worship folder, by the way? Does it say through 46? Or 31? Okay, good. Got that right. And so this passage this morning is a wonderfully enlightening example of how not to interact with the creator of the universe.

Does that sound exciting? We're going to learn how not to interact with God a little bit this morning. We will be shown, by way of Israelite example, what it looks like to act cowardly. To distrust the intentions of God and rebel against his commands.

And what I think that we're going to find in this story is that it will help us define what it means specifically to not believe in the Lord. To not believe God. Now, belief is a pretty important concept.

We'd probably all agree, right? But if you think about it, it can be a pretty nebulous term. So if I tell you, hey, you know, believe in God, what do I mean by that? Do I mean have an intellectual epiphany?

Some kind of factual, logical statement that you can agree with? Am I asking you to really believe something in spite of lack of evidence? Like a fairy tale or, right? Is that what belief is? Is just despite not seeing proof that you just, you're still going to claim that it's true?

Don't many people in our world today have that kind of idea of religion, right? That there's just a bunch of people choosing to believe something that everyone else can tell isn't real? Is that what it is, belief?

Or is there some kind of action to it? When we talk about believing in God, are we asking people to do something? Can we say that we truly believe that a bridge is safe and sturdy if we refuse to walk across it?

So you can see, you know, other people going across it. You can see that it's holding their weight, but you won't go across it. Do you really believe that that bridge is safe? And these questions matter, right?

Because at some point in your life, like right now, you'll hear something like, you are to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And I hope, my intention is that our story this morning will help move you in the direction of answers to some of these questions about what does it mean to believe God, and specifically to put your trust in Jesus Christ.

So Moses is giving his magnum opus here at Kadesh Barnea in Deuteronomy. He's pastored these people for 40 years now. And this is, his sermon in front of those people is the book of Deuteronomy. So they're at a point where he knows he's about to die, actually.

And these are his final words. These are the important things that he wants to pass on to his people. And how many of you know that when someone comes to the end of their life and they're about to transition, we'll say, what they say becomes meaningful.

The things that you think of to pass on, or the things that you find important that you want to share with other people, when you're facing your death or you know that it's imminent, it tends to carry some weight, right?

So this is what he wants his people to know, and he's trying to convince them to be obedient to God. The Israelites have completed their journey in the wilderness, in which God disciplined and refined them.

So they've been wandering for 40 years. They're a sizable nation now. They're divided into 12 tribes, and the whole group is numbering somewhere around a million. They've left, escaped the clutches of an evil tyrant in Egypt, right?

And God has been eagerly desiring to make good on the other half of his promise to Abraham, he promised to make him a great nation and make his descendants as numerous as the stars. And as one of our previous sermons looked at, he looks out and he sees, yeah, you guys are as numerous as the stars.

But then the other half of the covenant was what? To bring them into a land of their own, to bring them to a good land, to establish them as a nation with property. And so he wants them to achieve this.

God is helping them get to this land of milk and honey. But as we looked at a couple weeks ago, it really shouldn't have taken this long to get to this point. This speech by Moses, again, is being given 38 years after the first attempt to go into the land, so God wanted to move them in almost immediately after the exodus of Egypt.

He brought them to the wilderness, he shared his law, he had Moses do some administrative things, a couple house cleaning items, right? And then he was like, okay, it's go time. You guys are ready? Now let's move into the promised land and get this done.

But as we'll read this morning, something went really wrong in that first situation. The takeover didn't happen. Instead of gloriously, triumphantly marching into the promised land, the Amorites came out, the text says, and chased them as bees do.

And they got beat down at Horma. I believe that Moses recounts this miserable first attempt in this historical prologue, so again, he's opening his sermon with looking back on the past. How did we get here, right?

Not just to be mean to them, not just to be cruel, not just to remind them of their inadequacy, but I think he's asking this group of Israelites to please learn from your mistakes, specifically, the mistakes of your parents.

Because all of these people who are now ready to enter the land were all the children below the age of accountability when the first event happened. So they don't go into the land, God sends them into the wilderness, an entire generation dies off, and now their kids are taking over, and God's saying, okay, clean slate.

Will you learn from the mistake of your parents? Will you trust me, and will you let me lead you into a good place? And if you don't, you might have another 40 year field trip, right? And no one wants that.

My hope for this morning is that we ourselves would learn from their mistake. That we would connect the dots between the chaos in our lives that is because of our sin, and the non-faith in God that produces it.

Now, does that mean that everything that happens in our life, all the difficulties or the struggles or the trials, are they, is it just God punishing us? Is it the discipline of the Lord? No, absolutely not.

But I would venture to guess that some of you are on the run this morning. On the run because of your sin, because of your rebellion against God, and you're being chased like bees chase you, and you're getting beat down.

And I hope that as we investigate this text this morning, as we look into what God was asking of the people and how they responded, that you might learn what it looks like to put your trust in God in spite of the trials, in spite of the challenges.

And I promise you that he wants to lead you to a place of rest and peace. This is a pretty long text. It's a great story though, and it all fits together as one piece, so we're gonna read the whole thing.

I'll try and not put you to sleep as I read it, so I'll try and be dramatic. But turn with me to chapter one, verse 19, and we'll read through the end of chapter one through verse 46. And this is on page 125, did I get that right?

In your Bible, page 125, all right, so read with me. Deuteronomy chapter one, starting at verse 19, then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us.

And we came to Kadesh Barnea, and I said to you, you've come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us, see the Lord your God has set the land before you, go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers has told you.

Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you came near me and said, let us send some men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities onto which we will come.

The things seemed good to me and I took 12 men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us and brought us word again and said, it is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us, yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you murmured in your tents and said, because the Lord hated us, he's brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us, where are we going up?

Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying the people are greater and taller than we, the cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. Then I said to you, do not be in dread or afraid of them.

The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. And in the wilderness where you've seen how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all the way that you went until you came to this place.

Yet in spite of this word, you did not believe the Lord your God who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents and fire by night and in the cloud by day to show you by what way you should go.

And the Lord heard your words and was angered and he swore, not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

He shall see it, and to him and to his children, I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord. Even with me, the Lord was angry in your account and said, you also shall not go in there.

Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there.

And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. Then you answered me, we've sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.

And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it was easy to go up into the hill country. And the Lord said to me, say to them, do not go up or fight. For I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.

So I spoke to you and you would not listen. But you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir as far as Horma.

And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. So you remained at Kadesh many days. The days that you remain there. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word.

We thank you, Lord, for this story that you've preserved for us. And God, I pray that as we come to worship and as we prepare to sing these songs, God, that your spirit would make us ready to listen. And to hear the lessons that you have for us in this text.

God, we want faith. We want to be able to trust you. We want to believe you. We want our lives to be different because we walk in obedience to you. And Lord, I just pray that as we sing these songs and remind ourselves of the truth of your goodness and of who you are and your greatness, God, that you would fill our hearts with faith.

That you'd prepare us for all that you have for us to do. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, everybody, before we do connection time, go ahead and have a seat. We're actually gonna have a super exciting announcement.

Because we have a major event coming called The Launch. That's actually not official, I just made that up. But we on March 9th will be officially moving to Madawan Elementary School, March 9th, which is quattro weeks away.

Is it getting real now for anybody? Okay, you might already see some changes happening. There's some cords that you could trip on and don't do that, please. No one die on the cords. But we're getting the snakes out.

We're starting to get our equipment around. We're moving some things, grabbing some stuff out of storage. We've been in talks with the school more closely, working on the office that Recast will be moving to.

So a lot's happening, and this is really moving forward. But now we have a date on it. We're going to one service. So March 9th, we'll begin by going back to one service at 10 .30 in the morning. So that's the time, 10 .30, you'll get to see the other half of Recast, which will be great, and this is the next adventure for our church.

And we've had several of these, and this is just what happens. We're a body of faith. We're a family of believers. And as you can kind of see already, I mean, there's some spare seats, but we're, this is about comfortable, right?

There's not a whole lot of more room for people, and the school's gonna be a great step for Recast so that we can continue to grow, continue to reach out to people, and share the good news of Christ with them, and have them be a part of our family.

So with all of that happening, we have some things to be working on. We have some crews and some of our volunteer administrators who are working to make it happen, and we wanna give a couple of those a chance to speak to you this morning.

Jeremy Thompson, who is heading up the set up and tear down crew, and he's gonna describe some of the needs that we have so that we can do a good job when we get over there with all the equipment and whatnot.

And then Kerry Knold, who is head of Recast Kids and is coordinating volunteers for that, and obviously, getting the kids transitioned out of KDU and going into the school is gonna require some work and effort, and we wanna give you guys a chance to plug in there.

So thank you guys, as always, wonderful job. And before we jump into the text, let me remind everybody that if you have a gift that you wanna give to the Lord, envelope in your connection, or in your worship folder, black box back there on the counter, and then also a connection card if you wanna fill that out, do that as well.

God Sets the Land Before His People

Okay, let's jump in. As we look at this text, starting in verse 19, he says, remember that time when we went out through Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw? This land was great and terrifying, right?

It was new to them. There were people in there that were strong, well-fortified cities, probably not very friendly to them, right? So there is a challenge to this whole idea of taking over the land. And it's very important to see that right up front, that this isn't just a cakewalk, it's a deal, right?

It's a major mission that needs to take place here and not an easy one. But we see that the Lord commanded them to do it. God commands them to go up and go into the land which he is giving to them. And he says that he set the land before them.

And if you think about that wording, what does that mean? To have something set before you. You know, if you go to someone's house and you sit down to a meal and they're very hospitable and they've made you dinner, do you work very hard at the meal prep?

No, right?

You sit down and they take the plate or the food and they put it right in front of you. And what's left for you to do? Eat, enjoy it. Or pretend like you're enjoying it, depending on who's cooking, right?

But the point is, is that they take that food and they've done the work and they've set it before you. It's right there for the taking. Or maybe think of like Christmas morning, right? When you give a gift to a child and that child wakes up and, you know, you're opening the presents and you go and you take your gift and you put it in front of them to open up, right?

Have they done all the work at the job to pay for the money that made the gift? Or did they make it with you, whatever it was? Or did they wrap it up? No, you provided the resources. You set it before them for them to enjoy.

And all they need to do is open it up. And that's what God is doing here for his people with this land, right? I'm giving it to you. I've set it before you. Now go in and take it all as he's commanded you to do.

This is God's fight. It's his grace. It's his provision. It's his work that is making this possible. And so Moses says, despite a great and terrifying wilderness, do not fear or be dismayed because I am making it happen.

Everything's good so far. So the people come to Moses verses 23 through 25 and they suggest that they go on a scouting mission. Okay, we're supposed to go up and take the land. So let's send some spies and see what we're up against.

And Moses, it says, thought that this was a good idea. It seemed good to him. And he quotes the people as saying, giving reasons so that we know the way by which we should go up and to learn about the cities that we'll be overtaking.

Kind of makes sense, right? Sounds strategic, actually kind of wise. And if we compare numbers 13 verses one and two, which in numbers 13 and 14, it's the actual historical account of what happened here, right?

In Deuteronomy, we're kind of looking back. This is a sermon and Moses is referring back to when this happened, but numbers actually records the historical event. It says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.

So the Lord spoke to Moses. He says, from each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. So I like to point these out. Sometimes when they're discrepancies, and you hear someone preach on a passage, and then you go and read about it in another one, and you're like, well, that doesn't sound the same.

I just like to be honest and say, well, it sounds weird. Moses is saying, you guys came to me and said, hey, let's go up and check this out. In numbers, it's saying that God said, go and spy out the land.

So why the contrast? Why is it now the people's idea rather than God's? Well, it could be that the people made the suggestion first, the first time around, and Moses brought it to God. God said, yep, do it, and then made it a command.

So he gave his approval. And we see that happening from time to time with Moses, where he has an issue with the people. He goes and brings it to God in the 10th of meeting. God gives some kind of decree, and then he restates it to the people.

It might've been a second scouting report as well. So they could be different scenarios. But either way, we see that God is okay with it. So it wasn't wrong that they go up and scout out the land. They do so, and when they get the report back, it's a good one.

The land is incredibly lush.

It's fertile.

It is a land flowing with milk and honey, right? The Valley of Eshcol, where they went up to, the name actually means grape. So the Valley of Grapes. So this place is so lush and so productive that it actually took its name from the grapes that were produced.

And they took a bunch of grapes, and they put it on a post, and they actually brought it back to show the people, you know, look at these things. It's awesome. So the report about the land itself is good.

And I tend to think that this was probably Caleb and Joshua's part. They're just saying, guys, this is awesome. Like, you will not believe where we're headed to. This is gonna be great, right? But there were other facts in the report that made the command to go up and take the land seem like a suicide mission to the people.

Versus 26 through 28. As they hear the report, right, what are some of the things that they're getting here? Oh, yeah, it's a great land. It's flowing with milk and honey, but there's also super fierce people.

They're huge. They're giants. Their cities are fortified up to heaven, right? There's no way that we're gonna be able to get in there and take this place over. So it's good, but it's impossible. These spies give their report about what's happening here.

And all of the people, rather than getting jacked up and saying, yeah, we can go do this, what do they do? They turn around and they walk back dejectedly to their tents, murmuring, right? I just picture it, you know, it's just like, tell us about the land.

Oh, you know, and then they Charlie Brown it the whole way back, right? And look at what they say. Man, this really hit me like a ton of bricks on this week. And, you know, maybe as you read it, and we just kind of went through it here.

It didn't really sink in, but it's one of the joys of getting to preach is that you get to really sit in a text. But look what they say against God. Because the Lord hated us, he brought us out of Egypt into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.

Because the Lord hated us. They hear the report and they question the heart of God. They accuse him of hatred. The Hebrew word is sin-ya. I think that's how you pronounce it. It sounds a lot like sin to me.

It means enmity. It means maliciousness, opposition. It's the same word that's used in Psalm 139, different context. But the psalmist is saying, crying out to God, saying that he hates God's enemies. Listen to what he says.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. O men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. This is a strong, strong word. Many of us growing up right in kindergarten, maybe you heard it, you don't say hate. But here the people accuse God of being malicious towards them, of having evil intentions.

Seems to me that maybe as a coping mechanism for their own security, they find fault in the God who has done nothing but save them and provide for them and care for them and lead them again and again.

They blame shift to cover the shame of their own cowardice and fear. But there's more dysfunction there. It's not just against God. Look what they then do. They turn on themselves, right? They say, where are we going up?

What are we even doing here? We're too little. We're too weak. Again, these are just common expressions of shame. Which for our purposes here, I think could be defined, partly defined as the realization of our inadequacy.

You know that feeling, especially that you had like when you were a kid, right? Get caught doing something you're not supposed to do. And you have that embarrassment and that flush and flushness and tightness in your chest, right?

Why?

Because you've been caught doing something bad. You're wrong. And there's legitimate shame over our sin. And then there's debilitating shame that we take on ourselves in spite of what God is telling us to do.

Can you identify with that? With any of their responses? Have you ever been faced with a challenge which put your own weakness and sense of inadequacy on display for others? And how did you react? As a pastor and a Christian mentor for a long time, I've heard a lot of these.

Maybe I've used them myself a time or two. Why is he doing this to me? Why would God allow this to happen? God must hate me. This is one that I heard.

It was difficult.

Everybody tells me that God is good, but I've never seen it. Or do you turn on yourself? I'm nothing. I'm a nobody. I'm sorry, God. I know what you're asking me to do, but I'm just not that strong.

I'm too stupid. I'm too weak.

I'm too whatever. We may not be able to help the fear that arises from the challenges of life. And I think especially the challenges that come from a desire to be obedient to God, because he asks us to do some incredible things, hard things, things that we can't do naturally in our own strength.

And it may be, in fact, I would say it's most often true that we aren't strong enough, that we aren't smart enough, that we're not good enough or loving enough or caring enough to get done what he's calling us to.

But that's the beauty of it is that we don't have to be because he is. He is strong enough. He is caring enough. He is mighty enough to handle whatever he's asking us to go through. Moses knows this and he wants the people to know it too.

And he hears their response and he kind of goes into this damage control mode, right? He's like, whoa, guys, guys, please don't be afraid. God himself will fight for you. I love that phrase. God himself, Yahweh himself will fight for you.

Moses recounts God's track record. He says he's going to fight for you just as he did in where? In Egypt, right? In Egypt before your eyes. These are people who would have likely been alive during the Exodus, right?

These are the people who got rescued out of Egypt. Even if they were a kid, they were one generation away. I mean, these are the stories that are gonna be told time and time again around the dinner table or wherever.

Exodus 14, 31 reflects on that. It says, Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians so that the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant, Moses.

They saw what God did in Egypt. They saw the plagues. They saw a sea separate in two and they walked across on dry land and they had the right response. God rocks the Egyptians. The Hebrew word used in this Exodus passage, and it's the same one used here in Deuteronomy, for believe is aman.

It means trust. It means trust. The second evidence that he gives is the wilderness. He says where God carried you like a man carries his son. I have three daughters. They're getting big too fast, right?

My youngest, Charlie, is still a perfect size to just scoop up in my arms and hold and snuggle tight. And I'll tell you, as a dad, it is one of my favorite things to do is just to go and scoop that kiddo up, hold her in my arms.

I don't know how many times, you know, we'll be out going somewhere and we're getting all packed up and putting the coats on and she comes walking out with five different babies that she just has to have with her or whatever, right?

Can't even like walk through the snow and she's like, daddy, hold me. Yep, I will hold you kiddo. I'll pick you up every time. Pick her up, carry her. That's my kid. I delight in my kids. Evie's getting big.

I can still pick her up. I can still pick up all my kids. Adelaide's almost as tall as me though. It's getting a little bit harder. I think Moses uses this expression because for one, it was a reality.

God did care for them every moment that they were in the wilderness. He fed them. He protected them. He led them like a father leads his kids. But he also wants to communicate God's heart towards the people, right?

It's soft and loving. God's like a dad who can scoop up his kids. He doesn't hate you. He's not out to hurt you for no reason. And then it says that he provided visible direction for them as they navigated the wilderness.

Comes in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God was doing a lot of things to show himself a protector and provider for the people. So yeah, God is asking them to risk their own lives, but also to trust him for the victory.

We shouldn't diminish the difficulty of this. You know, like I read this and it's kind of easy to get high and mighty with the Israelites. You know, like you idiots, like God, of course, God's going to win the battle, right?

But I mean, it's like you put your sword on, right? I mean, they were literally risking their life. They had to go and take over a land from people who didn't want it to be taken from them. Even if God gives the nation a victory, maybe several of them were going to fall in the battle, right?

So they were literally being called to place their lives in the hands of God. So we don't want to diminish that. But the important thing to grasp is that God is a God who has revealed and proven himself in the past.

And we can put our trust in him for the future, even when he's asking us to put our life on the line. This God proving himself thing, it is a little bit harder for us, I admit, based on where we fall in history, right?

It's not that God isn't doing incredible things all the time, you know, miracles here and there. But the Israelites were a part of God's very vivid and clear intervention in the affairs of men. I mean, can you imagine seeing a land flooded with frogs or the sun being darkened for three days or, you know, whatever?

I mean, these were really incredibly miraculous events. And I think atheists and secular people love to use God's apparent silence against him all the time in arguments, don't they? If God's real, it would just be really nice.

If he proved it.

I've heard that in a couple of conversations, actually, over the past couple of months, talking to someone, you know, God's real, why doesn't he just show up? Have him turn this pencil into a car, right?

Like some kind of magician. Well, the thing is, is that he did do things. He did things more mighty than that. But they've happened in history. And Moses is reminding the people of some of these examples of God's revealing himself to people.

God has not stayed hidden, right? Our faith is not based on the conjectures of a single leader or a purely theoretical paradigm, but on thousands of years of claims to eyewitness accounts of God's movement in history.

From our modern vantage point, we have to work with these accounts. We have to determine whether they're valid historically. We have to go through the texts and the papyruses and all that. Determine if they're trustworthy, but they nonetheless claim to be historical records of actual events.

And once we grasp what God is claiming to have done, what the scriptures are claiming that God has done throughout history, then we are confronted with a choice to believe. And what is that process of belief?

I think we could maybe break it down into three steps. Number one, the first step is the intellectual ascent. So it is a brain thing, right? That the claim is true. So yes, God fed his people with manna for 40 years in the wilderness.

That happened. It was miraculous. Not many other explanations, but it happened, right? So the first thing is there's an event, and I'm believing that it happened intellectually. The next step, though, of belief is to ask what that reveals about God and his intentions.

So these events have taken place. Yep, God does provide for his people, and he loves them like a father loves his kids. But then the final step, you've seen the event, you've made a conclusion about what that says about God's heart, but then it has to come in.

Based on what I've seen and what it tells me about God's character, will I trust him to provide for me in the same way? And I think this is where a lot of us fall short. We're okay doing the Bible studies.

We're okay hearing the sermons. You know, we go back, and yeah, look what God did and all that, right? But God doesn't want you to just know a bunch of stories. He wants you to live in obedience to him, exercising the same faith and trust in him that he was asking the Israelites to put in him at that time.