Deuteronomy 1

Okay. Good evening. Good to see everybody. Why don't we, people are still coming in. Why don't we go ahead and find our seat. Go ahead and stand with me if you will. We'll pray and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the day. God, I thank you for this time that we can come together, spend some time in your presence, worship you, Lord, and spend some time in your

word, God. I just pray that you bless this time, Lord. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you, Lord, and just position our hearts rightly to receive from you tonight. Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

You're working all things out. You're working all things out. Oh, yes, I will. In the lowest valley, yes, I will. Bless your name. Oh, yeah. I count on the same God that never failed,

who's never late. He's working all things out. You're working all things out. Lift you high, in the lowest valley. Bless your name. You can stand again. You can stand again. You can stand again. And I choose to bless your next time. You guys can go ahead and have a seat, if you like.

Peace like a river, wash over me. Immerse me in water, as deep as the sea.

Your healing ease like a river, wash over. Worship your majesty. Worship your whole. Jesus, my every is your. Rain down on us as I pour out majesty. Worship your. Flood out your presence. And have it. Lord, send revival. Lord, send it. Come now. Like you've done it. Lord, send it. Oh, spirit. Like you've done it.

Make out. Lord, send it. Oh, spirit. Make out. Come now. Cover. Like you've done it. Heaven. Lord, send it. Oh, spirit. Heaven. Break out. Come now. Like you've done it before. What would you do? Just wash through our country, Lord. In communities, homes, schools, Lord, God. God, just bring revival, God. Bring a much-needed revival, Lord. The God of Jacob. Up in doors through generations. Keep your cup. I'm calling on the God of Moses.

Now to do the same thing. Oh, God, my God. Things are possible. I'm calling. The day the shepherd boy courageous faced Goliath. But I've got my own giants. Oh, God, my God. I'm standing. I'm standing on your faithful. Your children. Same God. Same God. You answered prayers back then. And you will answer now. You are the same God. You are the same God.

You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are the same God

it's tough, and your life is good. I pray that we would realize that we need you, God. We need you every hour. God, forgive us if we've ever, we've ever thought we could make it on our own, Lord. And have purpose for us, Lord.

God, you are perfectly capable of doing mighty things in our lives, Lord. I just pray that we would trust in that plan.

Sing that chorus with me one more time. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you.

I'm standing on your faithful.

Oh God, my God, I'm standing on this Lord.

God, I just thank you that you are the same. And I thank you that you're always faithful, God, even when we're not. God, tonight I just pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you would speak mightily through him, God. Because you are still a mighty God, and you still do mighty things. You are a good God. God, you are king above all kings, Lord above all lords.

You are awesome, and you are mighty, God. So please, come and do something awesome tonight. We love you, Lord. We thank you and we praise you in your precious and holy name. All of God's people said, Amen.

Good evening. Good to be back with everybody tonight. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 1.

I heard that out there.

Oh man, what a week. So, yesterday and today are maybe the least sharp I've felt since like junior high. So, bear with me if I don't make total sense. On the day that I was the worst last week, my wife was trying to ask me questions, and I could hardly form complete thoughts to answer it. And she looked at me and she said, Oh dear God, it's made you stupid.

So, she knew I was really sick at that point. Or she was like, We all saw this coming. You're just acting like we all knew. So, that being said, I'm doing much better other than the fact that I don't have much energy, and I don't feel overly sharp. So, this could just be a normal week. Alright, so we're picking up in Deuteronomy, chapter 1. Really excited about getting into the book of Deuteronomy, because

I actually find it to be a pretty fascinating book. I love all of the Old Testament. But, to me, as Moses rehearses their history, it's just such a fascinating thing, because as he rehearses their history, he really applies so much of it to our lives, and there's so much of it that can be applied to our lives. The word Deuteronomy means the second law. But also, in the Hebrew,

they use a word that I can't pronounce, because I can't speak Hebrew. It literally just means the words of Moses, which is exactly how the book begins. It's called the second law, not because he gives them a brand new law. They call it the second law, because it is the reiterating and expounding upon the law of Moses. It's the time when the children of Israel, we really just went over

at the book of Numbers. We're right at the beginning of the book of Numbers. We're right at the edge of the promised land. We'll gain that little context as we begin. As they're right there at the edge of the promised land, a new generation is ready to enter. And as they're ready to enter, they need the law explained to them in a way that they can understand, because some of them

either, A, weren't born when the law was given, or B, were just really small kids at Mount Sinai. And so, he's going to reiterate to them exactly what the law says, but he's also going to explain it in even greater detail than it was the first time around. The book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy is really, really important. It's actually quoted over 80 times in the New Testament, putting it in the league with Genesis, Psalms, and Isaiah as the most quoted books of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

As a matter of fact, Jesus used the book of Deuteronomy exclusively when he was fighting against temptation there in the wilderness, when Satan tempted him those three times. We always talk about the fact that Jesus quoted Scripture to Satan. Well, the Scripture that he quotes all three times are out of the book of Deuteronomy, which tells us that this must have been a book that Jesus in his humanity spent a great deal of time meditating upon as this fifth book of the law. It's written, of course, by Moses, except for probably the very last chapter, because the very last chapter is when he dies. Most

think that probably Joshua wrote that last chapter, but in general, it's attributed to Moses. And I loved the open Bible, their introduction to this, because in the open Bible, it pointed out the fact that really, what Deuteronomy is, is a series of sermons. Really, three main sermons that Moses is going to give. It's kind of interesting to think about it that way, because when Moses spoke these words, and that's exactly what he did, is he spoke these words to the nation of Israel. He spoke them in somewhat

sermon form. The open Bible says that it's three different sermons that he gives. And this will be kind of how we handle the book of Deuteronomy. The first sermon are in chapters one through four. I think I had it put this up there. Did I have you put that up there? Chapters one through four, look at that. What God has done. That's the first sermon. And we'll cover the first chapter of that

tonight. Chapters, because the end of chapter four will start the next section. Chapters four through twenty-six are what God expects as he goes into especially the law and what God expects from them out of the law. And then chapters twenty-seven through thirty-four are what God will do as he, prophesies really over them about their conquest of the land and even up into the sending of the Messiah, Jesus.

What Moses will refer to as a prophet that you will listen to. And so, these three sermons are what we'll kind of look at in the book of Deuteronomy. Tonight we'll cover the first portion of the first sermon on what God has done. And so, he'll reiterate for them the history. We'll see first of all from Sinai to Kadesh and then of course the failure at Kadesh. So, we pick up in

chapter one, verse one, and it says this. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan and the wilderness in the Arabah opposite Suph between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Diz, that place. It is eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. It came about in the fortieth year on the first day of the eleventh month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give them.

After he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, Og, the king of Bashan who lived in Ashteroth, and Edre. Across the Jordan and the land of Moab Moses undertook to expound this law saying, we'll stop right there for just a minute. This first section, of his reiterating of what took place from Sinai to Kadesh is really kind of a little bit of a historical context as well as an introduction to exactly what he's about to talk to the children of Israel about. We find out that he's across the Jordan. This is where we left them last time

in the book of Numbers. This is actually going to take us back a little bit in the book of Numbers probably to right after the children of Israel defeat the Moabites. It's going to be right around that time. So they're just across the Jordan. They can see the Jordan River from there and they're ready to take the promised land. But before they can take the promised land, he needs to make sure that they

understand where they've come from and where they're going. And so it says that an interesting play on words is given to us here by Moses. And I can almost feel, I can almost feel the frustration in Moses as he wrote this down. Perhaps you felt the same. Let me read it to you the way I think Moses wrote it. It's 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

But it came about in the 40th year. I love that because Moses just told us how quickly they could have had this whole thing done. It could have taken them from the place of Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea 11 days. 11 days is all it would have taken. And that was probably taking the long way, right? For them to come to the place where they were ready to enter the promised land. At that point in time

they could have entered the promised land as he'll tell us. And they wouldn't have had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. 11 days. I don't know if you ever thought about the perspective of 11 days versus 40 years. That's an amazing perspective. Right? You're talking a week and a half or me. Right? Like that's kind of the difference here. That's what you're looking at. Is that a

span of time? But I think there's a couple of things to be pointed out just in those couple of verses. Verses 2 and 3. Because Moses I think points that out for the purpose of us understanding something. The first thing we realize is that unbelief brought delay. Unbelief brought delay to them. If they would have believed what God had to say, and would have rested in God's promises,

and moved forward in faith, they would have avoided 40 years of a whole lot of garbage in their life. But that unbelief brought about delay. And it's no different in our own lives. Unbelief will always bring about delay in my life. When I am unwilling to wait on what God has for me or unwilling to move when God says to move, then He'll say that's fine, but now

it's going to take you that much longer to get where you need to be. Because that unbelief will bring delay. I've seen this happen in my own life where I ended up having to go into my own personal wilderness and see God move. And He was faithful to move, but I remember looking back on that period of time in my life that was wilderness and going I could have avoided all of that if I would have just believed God the first time.

And that unbelief will always bring about delay in our lives because those promises that God has for us are always accessed through faith. And faith, listen, always moves. So that's the first thing that I want to point out. But the second thing that I want to point out is this, because it's easy for us to dwell on the fact that the unbelief brought delay. But I want us to look at this from somewhat of a

positive perspective. Delay did not negate the promise of God. And for me personally, I think that's one of the most encouraging thoughts I can have. Is that sometimes I may end up taking the long way. The really long way. But it doesn't mean that God is done with me. It doesn't mean that God's promises are done. It just means I've taken the long way around. I've had to go

through things the hard way. And having worked with teenagers for a very long time, I always tell them there's an easy way and there's a hard way. You can choose God's A plan the first go around. And it's really kind of the easy way. It may not look like it from the outside, but ultimately it's the easy way. Or you can choose God's B plan. Which ultimately will bring you

back around to where you want to be. It'll just take you longer. And it's a little bit harder. But it doesn't mean that God's done with you. But sometimes when we find ourselves going, I think I should have done fill in blank here. And now I'm stuck in this stupid wilderness. We can think, but maybe that means God's done with me. And I want you to know, it does not.

It does not mean that God's done with you. It just means you took the long way. And eventually you're going to get there. Because God's delays do not negate God's promises. And so he said, it's 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. But it came about in the 40th year on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel

according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give them. And of course, he gives us again a little historical context. After he had defeated Sihon, and after he had defeated Og, he's now ready to speak to them. There's one last little point I would like to bring to you out of verse 5. It says, Some of your translations may say, Moses undertook to explain this law.

That word explain or expound is kind of an interesting word because what it literally means is to dig deep. And that's exactly what Moses is going to do. Is he's going to take this law that they were given in a very brief time there in the wilderness, there at Mount Sinai. And he's now going to dig deep to teach them more in their understanding of what God required of them in the law.

He's about to do this deep dive into everything that God has to say to them. And as I was thinking about this, again I thought of a couple of things. Number one, I thought about the fact that really that's what I'm called to do as a pastor. Right? Is I'm called to dig deep into some things so that I can then tell you all more about what God has to say about it.

I remember when God gave me kind of like this is what I want you to do. And it's out of the book of Ezra. And it says that Ezra set in his heart that he would understand the law of God. That he would obey the law of God and that he would teach it to the people. And I remember God telling me that's what I want you to do. I want you to determine to understand

what it says. Try to live by it to the best of your ability by my grace and then teach it to other people. That's what it means kind of to do the job that I have. It means to dig deep so that I can share that truth with you. But I was reminded of something. Not only is that my job, ultimately that's kind of the job of all of us as believers in Jesus Christ. Right?

Like we're all to dig deep into what God's word has to say. I've been kind of blessed on the Instagram machine here lately because I found the things that I like to follow. Okay? Some people follow pro athletes. I follow premium Bible pages. Okay? I geek Bibles like nothing else in the world. And I found out that there is an entire world of people just like me. Who like

premium leather covered Bibles and like to show people how they mark them up. And so I've been following these pages and it's been kind of encouraging to me to go, man, there's so many people out there digging deep into God's word. And it's great because they give these little tutorials on how they do it. It's kind of fun to see other people's Bible study methods and how often theirs will overlap with mine.

One of the ones that I saw is somebody said, the first thing I do when I study a book of the Bible is I just read through the entire book. I don't mark anything up. I don't start to make notes or anything. I just read through the entire thing. And then I pull up a commentary. It's great because I'm not on Calvary Chapel websites, but the two websites that I keep seeing everybody say that they use,

one is Blue Letter Bible. The other one's called, Enduring Word, which is David Guzik, a Calvary Chapel guy. And these, again, aren't Calvary people that I'm following on these. These are just folks that read the Bible a lot. They're like, I then read an overview, like on Blue Letter Bible or Enduring Word, and then I start looking for words and phrases that stick out to me.

And I mark them up and I make notes and I was like, hey, that's what I do. That's kind of fun. That's what we're to do as believers in Jesus Christ. That's called digging deep. That's called expounding or explaining or digging deep into what God's Word has to say because He has so much to say to us, but oftentimes I have to stop long enough, and the only way

that I can really dig deep is to stop long enough to do so so that I can hear what God has to say to me because you know as well as I do that there are certain passages of Scripture that you can read and go, I don't get it. And the natural tendency is just to move past and go, well, there must not be anything to get there. Well, that's not true because God's Word speaks to us on every single page of it. We've hopefully learned, even in some of the most boring places possible, like numbers.

But in order to mine some of that truth, you have to dig deep. That's exactly what Moses is going to do in this wilderness with the children of Israel to prepare them to move into the land that God has for them. So now we begin to look at what he has to say about their journey. Verse 6 says, The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

Turn and set your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites, to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the low land, in the Negev and by the sea coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I place the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them. I spoke to you at that time saying, I'm not able to bear the burden of you alone. The Lord your God

has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousandfold more than you are and bless you just as he's promised. How can I alone bear the load and the burden of you and your strife? Choose wise, discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.

You answered me and said, the things which you have said to do is good. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them over you, leaders of thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens and officers of your tribes, and I charged your judges at that time saying, hear the cases between your fellow countrymen and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countrymen. Or the alien who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment.

You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. So the first thing he does again is he reminds us of what the journey looked like from Sinai to Kadesh. I found it interesting the way

their journey from Sinai began because it starts off by saying, the Lord spoke to us at Horeb saying, you've stayed at this mountain long enough. Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, which of course is the place where God gave them the law, where they built the tabernacle, where they prepared all of the instruments and the implements that would go inside of the tabernacle. And the place of Sinai, barring that one incident with that whole golden calf situation, barring that one incident, their time at Sinai was really kind of a blessed time. I want you to think about what they saw there, their experience at Sinai. First of all, when they arrived

there, it was in a very miraculous way because God had delivered them across the Red Sea in that miraculous way by parting the waters for them. And then of course, remember how he guided them along the way? He guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That was kind of how they knew where to stay and it's what protected them. And while they were there

at Mount Sinai, they prepared themselves to hear from the Lord. And not only did they hear from the Lord, but literally God's voice spoke, thundered, to them and they saw all his glory come down on the mountain. And he spoke those Ten Commandments and it overwhelmed them so much that they said, Moses, why don't you go talk to God? We'll hang out here. They saw Moses

go up on the mountain and come back with his face shining like a light bulb because he'd been in the very presence of God and at that place, they received all of the law, that righteous statement of who God is and what God expects of them. They received that there. They said, we'll follow you. And so it was an amazing experience and it was there that they began to fashion all of the implements of the temple or all the implements of the tabernacle.

Remember there were a couple of guys that God called aside and said, these are the ones. I've gifted them specifically with a gift of craftsmanship to build these implements for the tabernacle. And they got to watch God work in miraculous ways and very supernatural ways through a natural thing, that gift of craftsmanship to build all the things. And they saw the construction of the tabernacle.

Do you remember what happened when they saw the construction of the tabernacle? The glory of God filled the tabernacle. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. Yeah, that place of Sinai was an amazing place. They had an amazing experience with God at Sinai. And you know as well as I do, what's our tendency when we have an experience with God?

When we have an experience with God somewhere, we say, this is where God is. I'm never leaving. Here. Right? Same thing happened in the New Testament with the early church, right? They had an experience with God in Jerusalem, and they said, this is where God is. We're never leaving. Here. But just like with the church in the book of Acts, God told them as they were there

at Sinai, He said, hey listen, don't stay at this mountain anymore. You've been here in this experience long enough. You've gotten all the goods you can out of this experience right now. Now it's time for you to go and experience something more. Because what did they experience there? They experienced the law. But what did God have for them? God had so much more. What did He have

for them? He had the promise. We would call it the promised land. But He had the promise that was there for them. The law was to guide them to the place of promise where they could ultimately inherit what God had for them. And so He said, you've been here long enough. And now it's time for you to move on. Move on to the places that I've called you to. Move on

to this promised land that I want you to take. And may I say sometimes we as Christians can find ourselves in a place where we've experienced God. And we love that place where we've experienced God. Perhaps that place is physical and locational. And sometimes that place is spiritual. Well this is the place where I've always experienced God. This is how I've always experienced God.

And God says, but I have so much more for you. You see there's an entire promised land I want you to take. And so I want you to move on. We should never as Christians be content with the place where I am right now in my walk with Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, if there's ever a place, if there's ever a time when I say, I think I've learned as much as I need to learn, and you're on top side

of planet earth, you're on this side of eternity, man, that is the most heartbreaking thing I can imagine. Because as long as we live with God on this earth, He always has something more for us. Don't be content with just being on Mount Sinai. Always have it be your desire to move into the promise that God has for you. He said, you've been here long enough.

It's time for you to go and take the promised land. I have placed the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and their descendants after them. And I suppose along with that, I would ask you a question. A question that only you and God can answer. What's the promised land for you?

In your own life, what is the promised land that God has prepared for you? That God has showed you, this is what I want you to walk into. Is it a place of victory over life-dominating sin? Is it a place of ministry that God wants to move you into that you think that you're not qualified for because you don't talk well enough or you don't think well enough or you don't do enough? Is it

some aspect of career that God is going to move you into because He wants to move you up in that place so that you could be an even greater asset to the kingdom of God? What's the promised land for you? And are you being too content to dwell on top of Mount Sinai in those old experiences? Only you and Jesus can answer that question. But I think it's a heart-searching question that we should continue

to ask ourselves as believers in Jesus Christ. Because we all know that the greatest enemy to the growth of the Christian life is God. But this is what I've always done. God wants to move us out of that mentality and into a, but Lord, what do you want to do next? So He tells them, it's time to move on. And then of course He reminds them how as He was leading them, it

became too much for Him. He said, I can't handle these people all by myself. As a matter of fact, there was one specific instance when He was called for the first time to strike the rock to bring forth water for the people. And as He struck the rock to bring forth water for the people, God said, but first I want you to gather some men to bear the burden with you.

Men who can handle everything that you can handle with the pressures of ministry. And these men were to be qualified in certain ways because they were to be qualified by being wise, verse 13, and discerning and experienced men from the tribes that will behead the people. Wise, discerning, and experienced. Very important things if you want to move into a place of leadership in any aspect of ministry.

He said, so I took the heads that we chose, and then He said, I gave them specific charges. Do you notice the charges that He gave them? The specific things they were to pay attention to. Verse 16, He says, you are to hear the cases between your fellow countrymen. Do you know what that means? If you want to be in a place of leadership, you have to be first. You have

to be one who can listen. Isn't that great? God says, you need to be a listener. And I'm talking to us as men right now because we as men are not always very good listeners. We're really good talkers. Right? Like, anytime I go anywhere, my girls just know they'd better just chill out for a little bit because I'm going to find somebody to talk to. But sometimes we as

men need to remember that God gave us two ears and one mouth. And there's a reason why the ratio is set up that way. And we must, if we're to be leaders within our church, or pay attention close, leaders within our homes, we must be men who can listen. Because if we cannot listen, we cannot judge righteously. He says, you have to be able to hear the cases and then to

judge righteously. And you must judge fairly because notice what it says in verse 17. You shall show no partiality in judgment. In other words, you can't decide you like somebody better than the other, and therefore you have to rule in their favor. You can't, you know what, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut on anything else I'd say right there. There's just,

the news has so much material right now.

Oh, Lord Jesus, deliver all those thoughts from me. He says, you shall hear the small and the great alike. And then notice the next thing he says, you shall not fear man. Oh, if there is one area where I have to continue to grow myself personally, is to not fear man. Because it is so easy to get nervous about what somebody's going to say when you tell them the

truth. When you speak what God truly has said. Because every now and then, there are hard things that you have to say. And I don't know how many times I've sat in counseling sessions, especially with couples, where I have to say, you're probably not going to like me when I say this, but this is what I have to say. And then they say, you're right, I don't like you.

I'm like, it is what it is. You can't fear man. And he says, if the case is too hard for you, you shall bring it to me and I will hear it. In other words, don't be afraid to say if something's too much. Those are the men that I chose, and those were the men that were leaders. And so he says, that's what I had to do, and everything seemed good to you. That's what he gives as the

rehearsal of that first portion of the wilderness journey. Those first few weeks that brought them to Kadesh, to the edge of the wilderness. And now we come to that sad time at Kadesh Barnea. Notice what he says in verse 19. And then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites

just as the Lord our God had 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 about to give us. See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you. Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you approached me and said,

let us send men before us that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us the word of the way by which we should go up in the cities which we shall enter. The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. They turned and went into the hill country, came to the valley of Eshgal and spied it out. They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it back down to us and they brought to us a report and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.

Let's just for a minute pretend this next part isn't going to happen and talk about what took place up to this point in time. Moses said, then we finally came to Kadesh Barnea right at the edge of the promised land. A lot where we are right now. And as we came to the edge there I said, hey, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Go in and take that land that God's given to us.

Then he says, and you all came up with an idea. You guys wanted me to send twelve spies in to spy out the land. Now this is just a little bit different than the way it reads in the book of Numbers. You remember what it said in the book of Numbers? It said, God said, send twelve spies into the land. This time it's the people's idea. I think the second time around

Moses is reminding them that God in his permissive will allowed them to do what their heart wanted them to do. You see, too often we can be just like those children of Israel and God says, I've got something amazing for you. And you're like, huh, well let's check that out first. Let's make sure that it really is going to be good. There's another Old Testament

story really similar to this. Remember the story of Gideon? Gideon kind of did this in his own way when God was like, hey, I want you to go gather an army and take out the Midianites. And Gideon's like, that seems like a really bad idea to me. And so, I don't know if this is really from you, even though it was an angel of the Lord standing right there in front of him, right?

We often think, man, if an angel of the Lord was just the one talking to me, I would have no problem believing it. Yeah, you would because of Gideon, right? He says, okay, so let's do this. Let's see if this really is you talking to me. Let's put out a fleece. I'm going to put a fleece out there and if the fleece is all wet and the ground is all dry, then I'm going to know that that's

what you want me to do. Because I'm not sure that what you have prepared for me is exactly what you want for me. So, Gideon wakes up the next morning and what's going on? He wrings out the fleece. It's all wet. Ground around it's all dry. And Gideon says, that could happen anytime. Maybe the fleece soaked up all of the moisture all the way around it. This time, let's do something different.

Let's put the fleece down and if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, I'm going to know that's what you want for me to do. So, the next morning, he wakes up and that's exactly what took place. And finally, God says, Gideon, go. Too many times, we're just like the children of Israel. We're just like Gideon. God's like, I have something amazing prepared for you. And we think

to ourselves, but perhaps I should make a pro and con list on exactly what God has prepared for me and make sure that it's really what's good. If they would have just moved in, taken the land like God called them to, they would have avoided the last 40 years. But they didn't. They sent in the spies. And notice what the spies came back with. They came back with some of the

fruit of the land. And as they came back with some of the fruit of the land, they brought back what started off as a good report. It's a really good land that God is giving us. These are the largest grapes I've ever seen in my life. This is amazing. Except for there's one problem. Verse 26. Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.

And you grumbled in your tents and said, because the Lord hates us, He's brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt saying the people are bigger and taller than we. Listen, I live with that every day. The cities are large and fortified up to heaven. And besides,

we saw the sons of Anakim. They're right. They're like, it's a really great land, except there's one problem. We can't do it. Everything's too dangerous. We're all going to die. It's like a political commercial, right? Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house. COVID-27. And so he says, this is what happened. You weren't willing to go up because everything

looked too big. Everything looked too bad. Everything looked too scary. And you notice what it said in verse 27. What did they do? They grumbled in their tents. Why do you suppose they grumbled in their tents? Because who wasn't in their tents? Moses. They all went back to their tents and they were like, I don't even think that Moses guy even knows what he's doing, but he even

happened to agree, right? He's never been to the wilderness before. He may say he used to bring sheep out here, but I watched him. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's an idiot. Right? And they just grumbled and grumbled. I think that God, I think he hates us. He brought us out here just to watch us die. He's sick and sadistic. And they all grumbled in their tents. You know why they

grumbled in their tents? Because they didn't think anyone could hear. Just like we do. Because where's the place that we all grumble? In our living rooms. Where we don't think anyone can hear. Where we don't think anybody knows. But remember, anytime that grumbling goes on, anytime that complaining goes on, I may not hear. Church leadership may not hear. Nobody else in the world may hear.

But you know who hears? God hears. And you know who else hears? Everybody else in your house. Have you ever noticed that complaining is contagious? That when one person starts to grumble, everybody else throws in their two cents too. I'm really good at it. Like, well, you know what else I heard? I heard Moses. I heard he smokes. Right? Like everybody else is throwing in their two cents

too. Like, well, you know what I heard? And so all these bad things are going on. There's grumbling. It's all taking place in their tents. And it causes all these issues and the people's hearts melt. Why? Because the people are bigger and taller than we. The cities are large and they're fortified to heaven. And we saw the sons of Anakim there. Who are the sons of Anakim?

Giants. Forgetting that whether the people were big, tall, and giants, or whether the people were small and easily defeated, the only reason they could take that land is because of God. Because what had God already told them? I didn't choose you because of how great a people you were. I didn't choose you because of how strong you were. I chose you because I

love you. And I'm going to go before you. And I'm going to drive out the inhabitants of the land before you. And I am going to establish you in the land. God had already made this promise. But what could they not see? They couldn't see the promise because all they could see was the problem. See, oftentimes our perspective gets so off because all we can see is how hard the thing is going to be

that's right there in front of us. I always use the perspective of my fist. If I put my fist right up close to my hand, I can't see that large TV. Because even though that TV is so much larger than my hand, if the problem that's sitting right here in front of me is right there, I can't see anything past it. What do I have to do? I have to reset my perspective.

I have to put my problems in the perspective of how much bigger God is, than them. Which means I have to take my eyes off of the problem and I have to put them onto the Savior. And all of a sudden when I start to realize just how much bigger God is than whatever it is that I'm facing, it's a lot easier for me to believe that He is able to handle everything that comes my way. And that's what they weren't able to do. Notice how

Moses tries to fight with them. He says, don't be shocked, nor fear them. You should have known these guys were going to be bigger than you. The Lord your God, verse 30, who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes. And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carries you, just as a man carries his

son all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and in cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. And the Lord heard the sound of your words and He was angry and took an oath saying, not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. And to him

and his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot. Because he followed the Lord fully. I love the way that Moses talks to them because honestly, if we would talk to ourselves this way and then believe what God had done, it's amazing how God will move in our lives. Because I think if they would have at that point in time said, you're right. He did. Did you pay attention to it? He did

fight for us in Egypt. Because did they have the strength to defeat one of the most powerful armies in the world at that point in time? No. How did they defeat them? Well, God worked them over with plagues and then he drowned them in the sea. Did they do anything for that? No. He fought for them in Egypt. Should they have been able to have bread through the wilderness all that time?

Should they have been able to overcome the enemies that they overcame at that point in time? Should they have been able to have water in the wilderness that whole time? No. Why did they have it? Because God had fought for them. And then he said, and you were not willing to believe that God would fight for you even though he went before you with a pillar of cloud by

day and a pillar of fire by night searching out an encampment for you. You know what I really think was probably going on at that point in time in the wilderness of Kadesh as they were on the edge of the promised land not believing that God was able to go before them? According to the way the Hebrews written here, we're given the idea that the cloud was standing above them at that point in time. In other words, he says you weren't willing to believe God even though he was standing right there.

Again, it has nothing to do with the presence of God being with us. It has everything to do with us believing that the presence of God is with us. And so, of course, God gets angry with him and says, that's it. None of you are going in. None of you get this toy if you're going to fight over it. None of them get to go in except for who? Caleb. And of course, Joshua. Caleb and

Joshua get to go in. And now, I should have been keeping track of this. My fault. I thought about this today. I should have been numbering all the times the name Caleb is mentioned along with this qualifying phrase of who Caleb is. He says, the only one that gets to go in is Caleb, the son of Jephunneh because he followed the Lord fully. Have you noticed? I think I pointed this out before, but

again, not 100% sharp right now. Have you noticed that every time the name Caleb is mentioned, it's always mentioned in conjunction with that phrase that Caleb followed the Lord. Fully. I was reminded this week in my reading as I was reading in the Old Testament the stories of the kings that all God's really looking for is somebody who will follow Him completely. It says in the

book of, I believe it, 2 Chronicles, that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to search for a man whose heart is faithful in following Him. My wording is just mildly off there, but you got the idea. That's what God's searching for, and when He finds that man, He will build that man up, and He will push him into the uttermost parts of the earth to do amazing things that nobody knew was possible. When we get into the book of Joshua, we're going to find that when the land is being allotted, Caleb says, hey, see that mountain? That's

where the giants are. That's what I want. That's what I want to be able to go after, is I want to be able to take that land after Caleb's over 80 years old at that point in time. He's like, hey, give me the hardest place to take over. That's where I want to go. And so, we see that that's who Caleb was, a man that followed the Lord fully. Then in verse 37, he says,

the Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, not even you shall enter there. A little blame shift on Moses' part, but whatevs. Joshua, the son of none who stands before you, he shall enter there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones who you said would become prey, your sons who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall

enter there. And I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. As for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. You said to me, we've sinned against the Lord. We will indeed go up and fight. Just as the Lord our God commanded us. And every man of you girded on his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.

And the Lord said to me, say to them, do not go up nor fight for I am not among you. Otherwise you will be defeated before your enemies. So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead, you rebelled against the command of the Lord and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out again. They chased you and chased you as bees

do and crushed you from Seir to Horma. Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord didn't listen to your voice nor give ear to you. So you remain in Kadesh many days, the days that you spent there. Of course, after God tells them, here's what you need to do. You need to go back and wander in the wilderness. Head back towards the Red Sea. We're going to find out in the next chapter that what they're going to

do basically is roam around Mount Horeb for 40 years. Circling the mountain. He says, that's where I need you to go. But of course they didn't obey that either. Instead they decided they were going to obey God their way. The way that they wanted to. Isn't that just like us as humans? Like, listen, I don't really want to obey God the way he's called me to. This is what I think it looks like to obey

God. And so this is what I'm going to do to obey God. And God's going, but that's not what I said. That's not what I want you to do. And we're like, yeah, but I think that's what I'm going to do. And I think I know better than you. We may not say that out loud, but sometimes that's what's in our heart, right? And that's what they did. And of course they got their rear ends handed

to them. Because you can't obey God the way you want to. You have to do it the way God wants you to. And they got crushed and turned around and God said, now, you're going to remain here many days. And you're going to wander the wilderness for a very long time. So, it's going to get happier I promise. This first part's a little bit rough because we're rehearsing this history.

But, they're going to come back around again. So, that's Deuteronomy chapter 1. Next week, we'll get into the second chapter and probably cover just a little bit more. But, lots to learn here in this book. And hopefully, we continue on to go dig deeper into what God has for us. Let's pray. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word.

Lord, I thank you for the great love that you have for us. I thank you for the great patience that you show towards us. And Lord, I just pray that you would be with us as we go out from here. Strengthen us in you. And Lord, may we be the people who are not content with yesterday's experience. Who are not content with a shallow understanding of you. But, will not be satisfied

until we awaken your likeness. And until that time, we dig deep into everything that you have to reveal to us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.