I had initially considered going through the bible in order with the fear verses. In the end, since the narrative was spaced out by hundreds of years anyway, it seemed a useless construct. The next few verses in Genesis weren’t speaking to me, so today we skip ahead a little bit to the book of Numbers. Did you ever have a pastor get truly excited about the book of Numbers? Me either, and that’s probably a shame. As an adult I find the whole story fascinating.
The verse today is Numbers 14:9 “Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
Numbers 14 is an incredible narrative, and I never realized it until today. We, at least in the Protestant West, tend to overlook the power of some of these scenes. Numbers 14 is the record of a meeting of the Israelites. The entire chapter takes places over the course of, presumably an evening, but it’s a very short length of time. Then the author chronicles the fallout of the decisions made. Most importantly, God himself attends the meeting half way through. Numbers 14:10 says Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. Which was always presented as some kind of spiritual experience and everyone felt some vague presence placed on them.
No.
The tribes of Israel were sitting around grumbling and THIS GUY walks in, and they STILL get mouthy. Ancient peoples man, right or wrong, they can’t be called cowards.
I digress, I got distracted and excited by the presence of God. Which to be fair, is not a bad reason.
So what is happening? The Israelites have been wandering the desert after leaving the land of Egypt. They have seen the promised land, and know it is good land. Yet due to their continued insistence on lives of Sin, they have not been allowed to settle in it. Rather than repent and prostrate themselves before the glory of God, they are persisting in their lives of Sin.
In 1-4 the assembled crowd of Israelites is grumbling about the journey. They are living in fear that they will be defeated by the Caananite and Amelikite Daemonkin that currently live in the lands they are walking through. They insist it would have been better to die in Egypt (representing the safety of demon worship) than to explore the wilderness of Israel. They begin openly debating returning to the idols of Egypt, and they say “Let us choose a leader, and return to Egypt”
Moses and Aaron in 5-8 then fall face down in front of the crowd, and admittedly they get it right. They are desperately trying to avert disaster (though their sin makes it too late). They say that the land they have seen is good land, flowing with milk and honey, and that they need not fear the idols of the Caananites and the Amelikites, because “Their protection is gone”. The grumbling crowd begins talking of stoning Moses and Aaron, and then God himself appears in the tent.
I was going to attack the whole verse today, but for a single meeting there is quite a lot happening. So let’s just take a look at Numbers 14:1-10 today. Which we will call “Everything that happened BEFORE God showed up”, as there are some amazing parallels to current events layered in here.
First, just as an observation, if you believe in the wisdom of crowds or movements or groups of people making wise choices, just read the bible. The Israelites of that time were a relatively small tribe of tightly woven people. They walked under the direct signs and presence of God. He was WITH them at all times. They STILL couldn’t make wise choices. Their entire history is the crowd looking at what they know God told them, and going “yeah, but ..”. So don’t do crowds, mobs or groups.
Now, two main points leap out at me as being relevant to today on the first 10 verses here. The first is the mob wanting to “choose a leader”. It’s important to note that Moses here is NOT the king of the Jews. Just like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not King of the Jews. God himself was the King of the Jews, and he spoke directly with the people and expressed his wishes. It was not God’s wish that we be subjected to Kings here on Earth. It is a fine line to walk, as some sects of Christianity glorify the kings of Europe. While superior to the bureaucratic nightmare we have now, a King is not God’s wish either. It was delivered as a judgement onto Israel.
Even more telling, is they want to choose a leader to take them back to Egypt. They know that choosing a leader will lead them away from the glory of God, and back into the safety of idol worship. Yet they want to make this choice anyway. No doubt because the ancient ones were at heart the same people as today.
You go into the ballot box every year, knowing your leader is a fallen demon worshipping sort, but as long as he’s terrible it absolves you of the responsibility of choice. You can’t vote your way to God, as all earthly leaders are a divine judgement on us, not a reward. Remember that. Every leader takes you back to Egypt, stop participating in the journey.
Second, the lands of Israel were ruled by Daemonkin. The Caananites and Amelekites were demon worshippers, and potentially giants as well. Yet the people of Israel are commanded to BE NOT AFRAID. The Lord is promising that the power of the demons will not save them, and even more, there is no talk of a battle or overcoming them through strength of arms. The Lord has promised that with their protection gone, their enemies will be consumed utterly.
This is the message we should be carrying into today. The land’s we have been promised are filled with demons and their worshippers, just like in the past. Yet in the presence of God, they have no power. Our victory is ours, IF we remain faithful to the Lord. We spend all of our time picking leaders, and trying to figure out how to use the god’s of Egypt to destroy our enemies, when instead we should walk in harmony with the Lord and know the His glory cannot be defeated.
The times we live in have never changed, it’s always the same struggle. We always walk through lands filled with demons. We always have the choice of walking with God’s glory and defeating them easily, or we can sit around in a grumbling horde and choose a leader who will take us back to Egypt. It’s fear that keeps us in the mob. We haven’t changed in 6000 years. The demons of Egypt will always take you back. It might even be comfortable for a little while. Yet you pay the eternal price for it.
Maybe it’s time we do something different?
We’ll talk about the rest of the meeting next time.