08-Mar-2019 – Ps. Joshua
Many us feel afraid. It’s perhaps, the most common human feeling.
We write ourselves a fear story – why does this happen to me? I’m not good. I’m always bad at this.
Or we can write a faith story – God is with me. He will not leave me. This circumstance does not define me.
What is fear?
False Evidence Appearing Real.
Exodus 14 gives an account of Israel’s first test after the seeing first-hand the evidence that God was with them.
It seems that Israel always choose fear over faith.
Exodus 14:10-14
10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?
12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
How many times we tell ourselves – ‘Only if’ or ‘we wish’. In Israel, this seems to be recurring theme.
When you look through the eyes of fear, we take from God the opportunity of working mightily.
Numbers 13:1-2, 17-20
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.”
17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains,
18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;
19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds;
20 whether the land is [d]rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.”
Numbers 13:32-33
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the [h]giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like[i] grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Moses had sent out the spies to check the land. 10 spies came back with a bad report. They grumbled.
Numbers 14:1-4
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
God brought Israel to the promised land. They were on the threshold on something great; of seeing God perform a magnificent miracle.
But Israel’s response was to look at the past. Looking unto the past causes you to lose out on the blessing of God
Fear magnifies to the problem. When we approach a problem through fear, the problem appears bigger than they are.
‘we were like grasshoppers in our own sight’ – This shows how fearful the Israelites were. Instead of looking from the eyes of faith, they saw through the eyes of fear! Today, the choice is ours.
Numbers 14:22-24, 29-35
22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I [f]swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it
29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.
30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I [g]swore I would make you dwell in.
31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall [h]know the land which you have despised.
32 But as for you, your[i] carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your sons shall be [j]shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.
34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your [k]guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My [l]rejection.
35 I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”
For 40 years, the Lord made Israel spend in the wilderness.
God was asking Israel to trust him and have faith in His promise that He would take us through.
Exodus 14:13-14
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation[b] of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold[c] your peace.”
Instead of looking to God for a solution, we look at God as the cause of the problem and grumble & complain.
Exodus 14:15
15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
Stop standing around in fear & doubting God. Move forward in faith and He will work for you.
How do we move from Fear to Faith?
Joshua 2:24
24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.”
Joshua sends two spies; this time to Jericho.
But here, the lesson is learnt. Israel has turned from fear and they now see through the eyes of God.
Numbers 13:33
33 There we saw the [h]giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like[i] grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Look at the contrast.
Joshua 24:14
14 But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Although we now live in the new covenant, we can still live in faith.
- Look at the God and not the Problem
Israel when taking over Jericho, they looked at God for help.
Joshua 2:24
24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.”
- Do not grumble or murmur about to the problems
Grumbling and murmuring only tests God.
- Take the step of faith
Joshua 3:13
13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord
of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”
- Be still
Instead of being afraid, stand still. Take the step of faith and stand still.
Exodus 14:13-14
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation[b] of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold[c] your peace.”
It is better to be still and not say anything, than to grumble & murmur and lose your blessing.
Numbers 14:24-28
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you
- Give God praise till breakthrough comes
Joshua 6:8-9
8 So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. 9 The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets
15 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. 16 And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!
God always asks that we celebrate before things happen.
We see this in the new testament in the lives of Paul & Silas
Acts 16:25-26
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed
