Who Do You Trust?

Introduction

In Exodus chapter eleven, we find ourselves at the conclusion, or nearing the conclusion, of one of the great works of God, freeing his people. Now it’s important to know about this is that God’s people had multiplied greatly. In Exodus chapter 1, you see that the promise to Abraham of a great nation being made of him is finally being fulfilled. In fact, it’s being fulfilled in such a way to such a number, that the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is frustrated and concerned with what he’s going to do with these Israelites, with these Jews. And of course, as you fast forward into Exodus chapter 11, you find yourself nine plagues in to the ten plagues that God worked, ultimately ending with the freedom of God’s people. But note, as God is warning of this final plague in Exodus chapter eleven, that is going to be the taking of the firstborn.

Note some of the specific reasoning for this plague and the others. In Exodus chapter eleven and verse four. So Moses said, Thus says the Lord, about midnight, I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmail, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there never has been, nor will ever be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

And all these servant and all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, Get out, you and all the people who follow you, and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land. And of course, we know what follows is exactly what God said would happened. The plague is threatened, the plague is explained, but Pharaoh did not listen. Pharaoh did not relent. He did not ultimately let the people of Israel go.

And the cost of that was the firstborn of his nation, of his kingdom. But what’s interesting is that phrase in verse 9 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Why? That my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. I hope you’ll fast forward in your Bibles with me to Numbers chapter 13. And if you have a marker, stick it there. We’re going to be in Numbers chapter 13 and 14 quite a bit this morning. But as we’re moving forward, you understand God’s people Israel, in addition to the whole world, and especially Egypt, they had a firsthand showing of God’s power and God’s might. They saw firsthand the ten plagues that God worked that allowed them to be freed. And by the way, what was it that happened to enable the people to escape Pharaoh?

That’s right, it was God who allowed the Red Sea to be parted and the Israelites to cross by faith on dry ground. And of course, it’s at that time that later the people of Israel at Mount Sinai received the Ten Commandments. They received the law of Moses. And these people were a blessed people because they were gods, even though there was the incident of the golden calf, even though there was much murmuring and complaining that littered and struggled was a struggle for the people their entire time. But when you come into Numbers chapter 13, they’re finally on the precipice of that second promise to Abraham. Yes, he was promised a great nation, but he was also promised a great land. He was going to be taken to a land, and that great promised land was Canaan.

But note in Numbers chapter 13, remembering what the people of Israel should know about God, and note the consequences of how this impacted their thinking as a nation. In Numbers chapter 13 and verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men to spy out the land of kingdom which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them. Of course, in verse 16, these were the names of the men whom Moses sent out to spy the land, and Moses called Hashiah the son of nun Joshua. But verse 17, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not, be of good courage, and bring some through the land.

Now the time was the season of the first right grapes. And of course, we understand from verse 21 on down that the people, the spies, the twelve spies, did do what God expected. They did what Moses asked them to do. But as we also know, that story of the twelve spies is that there was a lack of trust in God ultimately. When you pick up the reading and you see that they had gone through with this in verse 25, note the response and what they what the results were of their spying. Verse 25, at the end of the forty days they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them into all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land, and they told them, We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities, the cities are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. And right there we see that the people were beginning to show their lack of trust in God. Because if God is on your side, if the God who freed you from Pharaoh’s grasp from the land of Egypt, by separating the Red Sea into distinct walls, allowing you to cross on dry land, you think you would trust that God.

If you lived through the Passover situation, and it was a Passover, because God allowed for his people to be passed over in that final plague, that taking of the firstborn, that you would say, This God has power. I should do what? Trust in Him. Again, the people of Israel took great pride, certainly by the time of the New Testament, in their ancestry back to Abraham. But even at this time, they certainly would have understood that God had something special in mind for them. Certainly they would have should have known and trusted in God. But the fact is it’s really not that easy. And when you look at what the spies claim, it’s not unreasonable, only if you don’t have God on your side. But if you have the Lord, all things are possible, all things will come to pass if God has promised them to be so.

1. Submit to the Lord Even When I Don’t Understand

So I want to ask a couple questions this morning. First one, will I submit to the Lord even when I don’t understand? Read with me in verse 30 as we pick up the reading. 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. Then the men who had gone up with them said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report out of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.

There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seem to them. And you understand this battle report is is pretty bad from a tactical standpoint. Here we’re going to go fight. And what was the description in verse 28? The people who dwell in the land are strong, their cities are fortified and very large. Now you add that, you add the fortified cities to the strong people, and you realize that these are very large individuals. How does that make for a good battle plan? Well, it makes for a losing battle plan, unless you have some sort of secret weapon. Of course, God is not a weapon, but God’s destiny for his people was promised and sure.

Note back in Numbers chapter 13 and verse 1. This is critical to understand for the story as we begin making personal application. In Numbers chapter 13 and verse 1, what was it that the Lord had said to Moses? Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. Yes, God’s intention was for the people to go spy, but what had he promised would be theirs? The land that they spy out. That’s just it in verse two. Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. See, even those ten spies who did what the Lord said. Yes, they went and they spied out the land in verse 21. We see that.

They went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zen to Rehab, near Lebohamoth. They went up into the land of Canaan, they scouted it out, they brought back the fruit. They understood that it flowed with milk and honey. They saw this was a good, fertile, great land to be in. And they also took note of the people, which was part of their task. But did they ultimately submit to the Lord? No. How can we understand that? Well, in chapter 14 and verse 1, note the result of the congregation. Caleb has spoken up and said, We can do this. The people have said, No, we cannot. Let’s see what the masses think. In Numbers chapter 14 and verse 1, then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.

And all the people of Israel grumbled 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? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. And I want to fact-check that for a moment. Where is it that they want to go? They want to go back to Egypt. Where were they in Egypt? What social standing did they have? That’s right. They were slaves. They were in bondage in Egypt.

And that’s where they wanted to go back to. Why? Well, they were afraid. If you examine the verses, they were afraid that they would be cut down by the sword. They were concerned they would not be able to win this war. And in fact, all this exercise that they had gone through, escaping from Egypt, coming now finally into the land of Canaan, was an exercise of not only futility, but some sort of weird, cruel twist of fate, in which just on the precipice of this great land, they would die a painful, excruciating death. Does that seem like it would be the Lord’s plan? But it also makes me think about us, and I think, which camp would I be in? Because the fact of the matter is, those of you who are here this morning at 9 a.m., we’re like the spies.

The spies all went out to the land. Can we give them that much credit? They did go and look. They did go out and give a report. They did examine what Moses through God had revealed that he wanted them to see and to find. But we understand that the trust failed when they saw what God promised would be their land, and they decided we cannot take this. I wonder if it’s all too different when we do Christian things, where we show up to church and we we are kind to others. But really, you know what’s interesting about some of those Christian things is we can do them just because we’re good people. The fact is, there’s plenty of good people who are not Christians, and they do good things.

Now we can examine good and perhaps in a different context, you’re not good without Jesus the Christ and his atoning sacrifice. But consider, at least for the sake of argument, doing a good thing, holding the door open for someone, helping someone who’s pulled aside on the on the side of the road. People can do good things without being a Christian, without being a part of Christ’s body. But does that make you truly submitting to God? What is the difference between the people who trust in God and the people who do not? Well, the rub comes not in doing checklist items. The rub comes in doing what God says, even when I don’t understand why he has asked me to. You see a great example of this in 2 Kings chapter 5.

I think this illustrates it a bit more clearly. In 2 Kings chapter 5, we run into Naaman. And we find in 2 Kings chapter 5 and verse 1, I encourage you to turn there with me. We say that Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor. Why? Because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.

So Naaman went in and told his Lord, thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Egypt, of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So we went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, When this letter reaches you, you know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?

Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him now come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came in with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house, and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away saying, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

Isn’t that just how we see things too? You think about the pinnacle of the story is Naaman’s desperately wanting to be cured of his leprosy, this awful disease that is literally eating away at him. And you have this idea of Naaman who finally finds out, hey, there’s a chance I can be cured. There’s a chance I can be made whole, I can be cleansed apart from this great disease. And of course he goes, and the king of Israel doesn’t have the ability, but Elisha does, Elisha being the prophet of the Lord. And Naaman comes to the door of Elisha, and Elisha says, Here’s what you do. You go and do this. And Naaman says, What? This is not what I asked for? This is not the healing I wanted.

Know what how his description is, and I can’t help but think this is all too true even today. What was it that Naaman thought would happen? Well, he said, I thought that he would surely come out to me and say, and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. To Naaman, it made sense. If this man has the power to cure my leprosy, he’s going to come out, speak a couple magic words. I’m going to be better because that’s how God works, right? And we laugh at that. We think, Naaman, you silly man. How did you not know better? Well, to be fair, in verse 10, what was Elisha’s antidote for him? Well, to go and wash in the Jordan seven times.

What about that, Jordan? Was that some sort of cleansing fountain? No, far from it. But where was the power? Power was in the faith in the prophet who worked the works of God. The faith was in God. The power of the cleansing was through God’s power. So we say, Naaman, you should have done that. But I have to think, when I consider my life and I see things going pretty smoothly, I think I’m a really good Christian. I’m doing well. I’ve got a job that’s working out well. My family situation’s going good. I have friends. Life is good. I’m doing well. I must be doing what God wants. And then things go wrong, and I think, where is God in this? Why is he not just making it better?

Then someone maybe comes up and says, I’ll pray for you, and I say, That’s great. Please do. I’m praying too. And then we wake up the next day and everything’s not magically better, and we think, what is going on here? That’s certainly an exaggerated case, but do we not find ourselves sometimes struggling with doing what God asked of us when we don’t understand the methodology? Certainly a great parallel could be made of Naaman’s case, and even this case in Numbers chapter 13, with the idea of baptism, and you consider that if we see something that doesn’t make sense to me, you say, why does going down in water wipe away my sins? The answer is only because God said so, or because God made it so.

But sometimes it’s not just about not understanding. Sometimes it’s about this is not the way that I wanted or the way that I had in mind. And that’s when it gets more dicey, because then our trust in God is truly illuminated. Is that not in Numbers chapter 13 the problem of the ten spies and the people of Israel who ran away with that and complained and grumbled? The problem was not that the land was there. The land was good. The problem should not have been that the people were there. Why not? Why should the land and the people who were there strong and large, the land being occupied? Why should that not be a problem? Well, look at Numbers chapter 14. Consider the answer of Caleb.

In Numbers chapter 14, Joshua and Caleb are speaking, beginning in verse 6. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Japuna, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. Note verse 8. If you underline things in your Bible, note this. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them. Isn’t that the message of God’s people? Trust in God. Don’t waver, don’t distract. You may not understand right now. You may not even like what the message is. Trust in God. Why? Because if he delights in us, what will happen? Well, he will give us the victory. Why? But what victory? Is this just some temperamental God who say, well, if we give him good favor, he’s going to let us win wars? No. God had promised he would give them this land. If we trust in what God has promised us, we will be provided for. Is that not the message of Matthew chapter 6? Not to be anxious, but do what? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

2. Will I Trust in Him Even When Things Are Difficult?

Will I submit to the Lord when I don’t understand? It’s a tough question. Because I like to do things my way. But if I’m truly devoted to God, I’ll do things his way, whether I like it or not, because I trust in God. Now the other side of that coin, though, is will I trust in him even when things are difficult? You could look at this idea with Naaman, but certainly with the ten spies here, even when things are difficult. Even if you trusted in God, I’ve got to tell you, it’s a bit frightening. You think about David and Goliath to go up before a circumstance where, aside from being a child of God, whether physically or spiritually, you would not win the victory. Can you imagine David, the little shepherd boy, as he’s going up against Goliath with just a little slingshot and a couple rocks, a couple pebbles, a couple stones?

Can you imagine facing the giant Goliath, this manslayer that the rest of your nation is afraid to face? And then you imagine the spies who saw the large people, the fortified cities, and you think, maybe I can understand. Well, what’s the attitude of God’s people to be? Well, the attitude of God’s people is the very report that Caleb and Joshua brought back. Trust in the Lord. If God delights in us, we will be delivered. We have to know that. We have to believe that. But look at these Psalms. Look at Psalm chapter 9. You want some encouragement? You want to be able to stand up against difficult times in life? We may not face true armies, but we certainly are facing the wiles of the devil.

We certainly are facing his schemes, and frankly, we’re facing ourselves and our lack of understanding our difficult times that this life offers, being apart from our great God. In Psalm chapter 9 and verse 9, the Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of what? In times of trouble. Who is the Lord there for in this verse? Is he for the easygoing? The rich whose life is going plentiful and fancily? The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed. At what time? In times of trouble. What do I do when things are difficult? Do I try to go about it myself or do I trust in God? Get on my knees and pray. Trust that God’s will will be done. Because it always has been, and it always will.

Because that’s the God we serve. And Psalm chapter 46 and verse 1, you see much of the same. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help when. In trouble. God is a help. God is a strength. He is our refuge. We should escape to him. But look at Psalm chapter 118 and verse 8. Psalm chapter 118 and verse 8. I think this is where it gets really dicey, I think, at least for me. In Psalm chapter 118 and verse 8. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. You can insert whatever man you want. It can be parents, it can be elders, it can be deacons, it can be preachers, it can be family. It can be an army, it can be a nation’s political leader.

It can be myself. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. What the people of Israel, the spies of Israel, and then the general congregation that was revealed in Numbers chapter 14 as complaining and grumbling, saying, oh, that we could go back to Egypt. What they missed was that they were saying, we can’t do this, why? Because as man on man, we will lose. But it never was about man versus man, was it? It was about God’s plan of deliverance. We have to stop trusting in the things that we see and the things that we control and the things that we are. Stop putting your trust in men. Stop trusting ourselves. Trust God. We won’t conveniently start to trust God.

We have to bow down and trust his will always, when times are good and when times are bad. When we’re in the light and we’re in the dark. And life brings all of that, does it not? We have to decide when things are going good, that when things stop going good, it’s not God’s fault. But if it’s going to get good again, it will be because God allowed it and God blessed us that way. Do we trust in God to do what he says even when it’s difficult, even when I don’t understand? You know what? Sometimes those even run together. Sometimes things are difficult because I don’t understand how they could work out. But God does.

And you’d be interested to know that his mom was converted, but the story itself is quite fascinating. It goes about a preacher who went down to a certain area, and he didn’t want to do a lot of work. He wanted to really save some souls in a certain area, and he was there for a week or two. I don’t remember which. And after all this time, he had but one convert. He spent all this time, all the central focus trying to teach the will of God, trying to get people to understand Christ and to put their trust in him. Only this one convert was made. But what’s interesting about that one convert is that that convert was a woman who was a mother. And that mother taught her child, who is now, frankly, among the brotherhood, a very well-known gospel preacher.

And that family is made comprised of many gospel preachers. And you think about all the work that those men have done in different areas of this country and the world abroad, and you say, where does it go back to? Well, it goes back to mom. Well, where does the mom go back to? That one man who came away, and even though he was a little disappointed at first, he had done the work of God. He taught someone to trust in the Lord. She passed that on. Think about all the work that was done. It’s easy to be the brother who’s teaching and to see one person converted and say, Is that really all that we have? It’s easy to look around at the congregation this morning and say, Is this really all that will worship God in Orlando today?

Is it really like this in the world today that God’s people are so few in number that we’re outvoted on any number of items? That the current tide of media and television streams are constantly anti-religion. The truth is God has a plan. And God’s plan isn’t boxed in the way ours is. He doesn’t have to reason through the things the way that we reason through, because our understanding is limited and flawed, but God’s is perfect in understanding. And when we understand that idea, when Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9, that his ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, we know that’s the God we serve. And isn’t that a blessing? We have to know that.

We have to believe that. We have to know that if we’re going to practice it. It can’t just be something that we say, oh, I believe. Because even the spies went out to the land and did what God said. They did the will of Moses. But only Joshua and Caleb believed. I think it’s interesting, the final point in Numbers chapter 14. Of course, if you know the Bible history, you know what came out of this failure to trust in God in Numbers chapter 14. If you’ll skip down with me to verse 20, we see then the Lord said, I have pardoned in Numbers chapter 14, according to your word. But truly, as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.

And none of those who despise me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. What happened? Because of the people’s lack of trust in God, they would wander in the wilderness until that entire generation was wiped out. What a loss. What a sad ending to a story. That could have been a great moment and became a signature moment of God’s power and sovereignty in all the earth. But if you notice what said in Numbers chapter 14, and you see the response of Moses and Aaron in verse 5, when the people are saying, Let us go back to Egypt, they fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.

Conclusion

We already read Joshua and Caleb’s message. But I want to think about just for a moment. What were the people turning back to? Yes, they didn’t understand the will of God here. They didn’t think they could do it. Yes, it was going to be difficult. It didn’t look easy. But what was their other option? What was the other choice? They wanted to even go back and be slaves in Egypt. And again, we think you silly people. But note quickly as we conclude the lesson this morning in Romans chapter 6. Note Romans chapter 6. Note that these verses with me. When we choose to not trust in God, when we say, I need to be heard on the matter, my will needs to be done in the matter, whether we say it that way or our actions just be lie us in that manner, note what we are turning to.

In Romans 6 and verse 12, what then? Excuse me, in verse 15, are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace by no means? Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. We should not return to being slaves of sin. We need to be realized. We need to be changed. We need to be the sacrifice.

We need to be the people that say, Today I’m giving up my will. I am crucifying the flesh along with us desires that Paul writes about in Galatians chapter 5. And I’m going to set my sights on Christ. God is who will deliver. God is who is there for me. Even when I don’t understand, even when things are difficult, I will not go back to sin. I have changed from that. I have been there. I was lost. But Jesus saved me. And because of his saving blood, because of the love of God, sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Recognizing that Christ died for us when we are ungodly, when we were sinners, when we were enemies of God.

Will we live out that purchase? Or are we going to turn back and be slaves of sin? Will you go to God and pray with me? Our dear God and most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for loving us and looking upon us with such favor that you would have patience with us, that you would allow us to repent, that you would allow us through the Son, through your Son, Jesus the Christ, to have our sins washed away. Oh Lord, we know that we have failed you. We know that we don’t trust in you. Help us to read your will. Help us to be moved by your wonders, by your signs. Help us to be moved in understanding and practice by your will. Help us to be the lights in the world that you expect us to be.

Lord, forgive us of when we do wrong. Forgive us of when we pridefully seek our own way rather than yours. Help us understand that it is you and you alone who can direct our steps successfully. Help us one day to enter in that narrow gate. Help us to be with you for all of eternity. And pray all these things in your Son’s name. Amen. We’re now dismissed to our Bible class.