Faith and the Promised Land

All of us are familiar with the frequent prayer requests that we send to our membership. We try to send those out weekly, at least, sometimes sooner, but at least weekly. We try to send you. And of course, many of them regard members who have experienced health problems. Almost all of them are mostly about health, because that perhaps is the most common problem. And of course, we're not as aware of maybe many other concerns. But undoubtedly, people have other concerns. They need relief from those concerns. And so clearly, it's good for us to pray for one another. Knowing many of the local concerns, either here or in Fulton directly, I'm amazed at the level of the trials and the testing that many of us are currently enduring. And I'm sure you would be aware of many of these. Perhaps all of them that I'm also aware of. In a letter that was sent to us here a couple of weeks ago by Dr. Don Ward, he's the chairman of our Council of Elders, and he mentioned that we're entering a historical period of trial and testing. And I want to describe a little more about what he is saying. He said in the letter shortly after receiving the law, Israel entered into the terms of the Old Covenant, and God then told Moses to build him a sanctuary patterned after the heavenly sanctuary, so he might dwell among them. And when the tabernacle was raised up, God's spirit filled the tabernacle. God's spirit was with them, but not in them. It's important to have an understanding of how God was wishing to work with this physical group of people, and that he would be among them in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Later, you know, they would come back and build a restored temple, but ultimately the real sanctuary was ultimately to be the Church of God, where God would dwell through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. But in thinking about Israel, it says, as a nation, they rebelled against God and quenched his spirit numerous times, and by the time the ten spies were sent to survey the Promised Land, they attempted God ten times. Now, we're going to go back and look at a few of those today, and yet it's interesting to just see this real summary of what happened.

So, as a result of their continued lack of faith, they were sentenced to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. That was why they ended up wandering around for 40 years.

And so, Dr. Ward asks, what about our habitation? Will we be ready for the day of Pentecost? Often times after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, things may seem to get worse.

Even though we've examined ourselves and repentedly of our sins and exercised faith in the sacrifice of Christ, he says you, talking to each one of us, need to be aware of the fact that we're entering a historical period of trial and testing. And I think he's referring to what we commonly see is the 50-day period separating the spring holy days from the summer holy day of Pentecost during that period of time. Now, amazingly, Israelites who had just seen the incredible power and majesty of the great God at the Red Sea, they continually murmured against Moses, and they murmured against Aaron, and they murmured against God because, why? Why did they do that? Well, because of lack of faith in God during those trying times. Now, you'd have to say, yes, it would be a trying time when you don't have any water, not only to drink or to feed all your livestock, or you don't have any food. You don't know what you're going to eat. At least we had something to eat back in Egypt.

Or, you know, you don't know how you're going to survive from one day to the next.

And yet, of course, what God had offered was solutions. He was able to provide all of that, as we know, but they lacked faith in God. And so, whenever they were facing trials, as Eric mentioned, times we face things and we need to meditate and focus and not be distracted, and yet we have to ask ourselves at this time, and as we see trials that others are experiencing, as we go through trials ourselves, do we rely on faith when we are faced with trials and tests?

Because, you know, we need to learn from the experiences and the examples of the Israelites and certainly not be like them. Now, I want to point out here in Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is a psalm that David wrote, and, of course, it's a song, as are many of the Psalms. They are there set to music, or they were in the Israelite community, in the Jewish people. Many of these are set to music and are songs that they sing, and I think we sing these same ones, some of them, at least in our hymnal. But here in Psalm 95, he mentions, and I'm only focusing on the latter part of it, in verse 7 it says, He is our God. We are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand.

And so God had a relationship with the people of Israel, and David was several hundred years beyond the children of Israel who came out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. It was four or five hundred years until you would get to the time of David, which was around 1000 BC. And yet he says, oh, that day, or on that day, oh, that day, that you would listen to His voice. Do not harden your hearts as at Maribah or on the day at Masai in the wilderness. When your ancestors tested me and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work for 40 years, I loathed that generation, and I said, they are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways. Therefore, in my anger, I said, they will not enter the Promised Land. Now, that was a reminder that David was giving the people of Israel in his day. He says, don't be like our ancestors. Don't be like our forefathers of four or five hundred years before us. They had seen what God had done, and yet they complained, and they grumbled. So, I want to read that because this is referenced in the book of Hebrews as being very applicable to us today. And yet, I would like for us to go back and take a look at some of the examples of what Israel did in hopes that it will help us as we endure our own trials, our own tests, as we pray for one another, as we know. We know that God has brought us here. We know that He is working in our lives. We know what we struggle with. We know the difficulties that we often face. We read about the things that others are facing. But where is God during all of those times? Well, God is with us. God is able to help us. He just wants us to look to Him in faith. And this is what the Israelites time after time after time refused and resisted God's direction. Let's go back to Exodus 15. We read part of it a couple of weeks ago in the sermon that I gave here about the song of Moses, about the song that Moses had them sing, about how glorious it was that God had just delivered them from their Egyptian captivity and ultimately even through a miracle at the Red Sea. But I want to drop down here in chapter 15 and continue to read. Verse 22, Moses ordered Israel to set out for the Red Sea. They went into the wilderness. They went three days in the wilderness, so it didn't take very long, did it? It only took a short time, a few days, to start getting thirsty. Start running out. You know, my canteen is only half full. It's only a quarter full. It's empty. The cattle and the sheep and the goats, whatever they had with us, you know, those are getting thirsty, too. And so when they saw, or excuse me, when they came, verse 23 to Mara, they could not drink the water of Mara because it was bitter.

That's why it's called Mara. And the people complained, in verse 24, okay, this is three days away from the Red Sea. Amazingly, the people complained against Moses, saying, what are we going to drink? And of course he cried out to the Lord. The Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw the wood in the water, and the water became sweet. And so God clearly had all the answers. He had the solutions. He was able to solve the problems that the Israelites had, but they enjoyed complaining, I think. I think King James says murmuring. My translation that I commonly use says complaining. It gets to me a little more than murmur because, you know, we, the Israelites were, you know, quite the grumbling bunch. And, you know, we don't want to be like that. Verse 27, they came to Yalem, and there was 12 springs and 70 palm trees. It sounds like an oasis out in the desert. And so, you know, God knew where he was going. He knew what they were going to do. But, you know, the Israelites, for the most part, now Moses appears to have had, you know, the right approach. Just look to God. God will try to, you know, he'll bring about a solution, whatever it is. Drop down to chapter 16. What's chapter 16 about? Well, technically, it's about food and drink and the Sabbath. See, at this time, they were needing to be reminded what day the Sabbath was. They were needing to actually even be shown which day the seventh day was and which day you can go on the day before on what we would call Friday. And you can gather twice as much, and it'll be fine for the next day. Pretty good lesson that God had to teach them. The whole congregation set out from Yalem. Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Yalem and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month. And so, this was a month later, after they had left the land or through the Red Sea, or no, actually, after they had left the land. And so, they were then delivered by through the Red Sea. And so, just one month later is the kind of the indication in the second month of the 15th day, at the date departed from the land of Egypt. And verse 2, the whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And they said, if only we'd died by the hand of the Lord and the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and we ate our fill of bread, but you've brought us out in this wilderness to kill everybody with hunger. Now, they, you know, they, they first of all, didn't have any water immediately. I guess that's always the case. You know, you need water before you actually need food, probably physically. But here, you know, what food they've had is starting to run out and they're wondering. And the Lord told Moses, I'm going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people will go out and gather enough for that day. In that way, I will test them, whether they will follow my instructions or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as you gather in other days. And so that was the instruction. That's what they were told to do. I think most of us are familiar with this story and kind of what it showed.

And yet, if we drop down to verse 7, in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. It wasn't just complaining about Moses, even though they love to complain of Moses and Aaron, but he says the Lord has heard your complaining against the Lord. And so, in verse 8, when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and you're full of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him, what are we? You know, he was saying, what are we? Moses and Aaron. You know, we're just people like you. We don't have an ability to feed the millions of people that would have made up Israel at that time. It says, what are we? Your complaining is not against us, it's against the Lord. And so, there are numerous lessons here, but clearly Moses was just pointing out, look, you know, we need to let God provide for us. We need to learn to just trust Him. And so, in verse 12, it says, I've heard the complaining of the Israelites. God said, twilight, you shall eat meat. In the morning, you shall have your fill of bread. You shall know that I am the Lord. And so, he was going to verify that he not only had brought them out of the land of captivity, but he was going to work with them and bring them into a promised land. That he had promised this land to Abraham. And he was going to do it. And yet, you see in verse 19, Moses said, let no one leave any of it over until the morning. And so, this was part of the instruction. You'll gather how much you need for today. Don't gather enough for tomorrow. Don't gather enough for three days. Just gather enough for today. So, this is going to be an ongoing test. It's going to be a day-by-day test.

But in verse 20, they did not listen to Moses. And some left part of it until morning. This is talking about the manna. And it bred worms and became foul. So, it stunk. It just went bad, real fast. And of course, morning by morning, they gathered as much as they needed each. When the sun grew hot, it melted. And so, now this is truly a miracle. The whole thing with manna, the whole thing with quail, both of those were miraculous. And on the sixth day, verse 22, they gathered twice as much. And when all the leaders came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord is commanding. Why are you together twice as much on the sixth day? Well, because tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, boil what you want to boil. All that's left put aside to be kept until morning. So, they put it aside until morning. And it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won't find it in the field. Six days you shall gather, but on the seventh, the Sabbath, there will be none. And so, clearly, God was pointing out how that, even though they had lost much of that information, while in Egypt, God could show them exactly when the Sabbath day was and how they could prepare for it ahead of time and directly with the man and the quail. So, in verse 27 on the seventh day, some of the people went out together, and they found none. And in verse 28, this is in essence God's answer to the test that he had been giving them. Verse 28, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? And so, you can see that, you know, Israel just didn't want to trust God. They didn't want to have faith in God. Yes, you know, they were a physical nation, and yes, God was among them. He wasn't yet in them. That was going to be for a time, much down the road.

Let's jump on down to verse 1 of chapter 17. The whole congregation of Israelites journeyed by stages.

They came to Rephidim in verse 2. Okay, here they didn't murmur. They didn't complain.

They out and out quarrel with Moses. Verse 2, the people quarrel with Moses. They contended with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord and the people thirsted there for water? And the people complained against Moses. Why did you bring us out here to, you know, have us starve to death or have us not have anything to drink? So Moses was trying to figure out what to do. He brought this to God. He cried out to God, what shall I do with this people? They're ready to kill me. They're ready to stone me.

And God said, well, go ahead of the people. Take some of the elders with you.

Take in your hand the staff that you, where you struck the Nile and go. And I'll be standing there in front of you at the rock of Horeb. Strike the rock. Water will come out of it so the people can drink. And so Moses did so. And in the sight of the elders of Israel, he called the place Masah and Marabah because Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, is this is the Lord among us or not? See, again, example, as Dr. Ward mentioned, you know, time after time, ten times, they are just complaining against God, refusing and resisting to cry out to God. Now, what did Moses do? Cry out to God. What should I do? What are, what is the answer? And again, in this case, you see the water coming out of the rock.

Now, in chapter 19 and 20, again, I know you're familiar with this story, they come to Sinai, and God is going to give them in chapter 20 the Ten Commandments. And after, you know, you see this recorded here in verse chapter 20, verse 1 through 17, it says in verse 18, all the people witnessed the thunder and the lightning, the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, and they were scared to death. They were afraid. They trembled and stood at a distance and said to Moses, well, why don't you speak for us? Speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak to us because we'll die. You know, they were very afraid. And Moses said, well, don't be afraid. For God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin. He said, God's not trying to scare you. He's not trying to make you afraid of him. He's trying to have a proper awe and a proper respect for him and to learn to trust him.

Now, of course, you have several chapters here in Exodus that cover numerous things that were given to Moses. And yet, before he came back down here in chapter 32, you come to the chapter that describes the golden cap. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, they said, come, make gods for us. Who shall go before us? As for this, Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't even know what's become of him. Now, did Moses know how long he might be there on the mountain? Unless God told him, I would guess he wouldn't have any idea. It would be until God sends him back down. But, of course, the people are complaining. And Aaron said, we'll take off your gold rings and bring them, all of your wives and families, bring them to me. So the people took off the gold ring from their ear, brought them to Aaron. He took the gold. He formed it into a mold. He cast an image of a calf and said, here are your gods. Now, that was not a good move on Aaron's part, obviously. That was going to be an error, a big mistake. And then he's going to lie about it, because he's going to describe this scenario a little differently as we go on down. But you read through this whole account in verse 21.

Moses said to Aaron, well, what did the people do that you brought this great sin upon them? And Aaron said, well, don't, don't be angry with me. Do not let the anger of the Lord burn hot. You know the people, they're bent on evil. You know, they've been complaining. They've been groaning and griping, and they've been upset, and they've not wanted to trust God. And they said to me, make us gods, who shall go before us. Verse 23 for Moses, the man who brought us out of the land. We don't know what's become of them. So I said to them, well, whoever has gold, take it off. And so they gave it to me, and I threw it in the fire, and out came a calf. Now that, that was a little fabrication there. And you know, it wasn't accurately describing what actually happened, and what we see recorded earlier. But, you know, they had sinned, and of course, I'm not reading all of this. They had sinned a great sin. In verse 30, on the next day, Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin. But now I'm going to go to the Lord. Perhaps He'll forgive. Perhaps He will offer an atonement for you. And again, you know, I'm not going to go through all the whole story. You can read that if you wish. But, you know, Moses pleaded for mercy. God extended it after thinking about it a little bit. And so I want to jump over to Numbers chapter 11, because we have additional accounts here in the book of Numbers about them being faithless in the wilderness or in the desert. You know, God was supposed to be leading the Promised Land, but you're going to find that they're going to get close, and then, you know, they're still not even going to have faith to go in. So here in chapter 11 of Numbers, now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it and His anger was kindled.

See, that's kind of a pretty oft-repeated scenario. They continue to complain. God would be merciful and listen. If we drop down to chapter 12. Chapter 12, we come to a time in verse 1 while the red horazoths, Miriam and Aaron even, spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman that he had married, because he had married a woman in Egypt. And so here, it wasn't the people in general. It was his own family. It was those who had been actually helping him, Aaron, and Miriam as his sister. Actually, his sister had watched over him for a long time. She was older than he was, as you'll recall. She put him in the basket and put him in the river when they were in Egypt. But this is an interesting account because they spoke against Moses.

And they said, has the Lord spoken only through you, Moses? In verse 2, and the Lord heard it.

Now again, you find in many of these accounts, you see what happened. You see how Moses relates this. He's describing it. He's giving us the information and facts. And yet, he's also pointing out God hears all of it. He knows what's going on. You know, God knew when he was up giving the 10 commandments to Moses and many other instructions about how he should eventually make the tabernacle.

God was well aware of what was going on down with Aaron and with the children of Israel. He knew.

But Aaron and Miriam said, as the Lord spoken only through Moses, has he not spoken through us too?

And the Lord heard that, and the man Moses was very me. Keep us humble, more so than anyone on earth.

And suddenly the Lord said to the three of them, come out here, you three. I want you to come to the tent of meeting. So the three of them came out and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. And I'm sure they timidly approached. They came forward. And God said, hear my words. When there are prophets among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to them in visions, and I will speak to them in dreams, but not so with my servant Moses. He is entrusted with my house and with him I am going to speak face to face. Clearly not in riddles he beholds the form of the Lord. Why? The last part of verse 8, why then were you not afraid to spank against my servant Moses?

The Moses has heard a lot of complaining from the people. He had heard a lot of jeering, a lot of distress, a lot of struggle, a lot of lack of faith. And then here you find very close relatives even trying to undermine Moses and say, did Moses choose to do this? Well, he agreed to do it, but God chose him for that role. In chapter 13, they've come closer to the land that is the promised land.

And yet as you read this account, chapter 13 verse 21, they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zen all over throughout the whole region. In verse 25, at the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land. So they got pretty close to the promised land.

Didn't take all that long to get there, but because they continued to complain and murmur, to grumble, to show disrespect, to show a lack of faith in God and in God's ability to work through whoever he chose, which in this case was through Moses.

Now the report of the land is given here. In verse 27, they told him, we came to the land which he sent us, it flows with milk and honey. Yet the people who live in the land are strong and the towns are fortified and they are large and we saw giants over there.

We saw the descendants of Anna. You know, it's a good land, but boy, you know, it's not going to, they're not just going to give it to us. I can tell you, they've got big people, they've got things fortified, you know, they are very sound. The Malachites live in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Canaanites are there by the sea.

Now there are all kinds of people inhabiting this land of Canaan, but in verse 30, Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let's go up and take it. We are well able to overcome it. Now, what was it about Caleb that seems to be quite different than everyone else?

Well, it's obvious that he had faith in God. He saw the same thing that the other spies saw, but he was approaching it. It says later that he had a different spirit, a different attitude, a different outlook. He had an outlook that involved faith, even against obstacles that seemed impossible. He says, we should go up. We're well able to overcome it, but the other men continued to overrule him, and they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land, and so they refused. They wouldn't go in. So, in chapter 14, all the congregation raised a loud cry. The people wept all night. All the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation.

Now, the same type of complaint. You know, we would have been a lot better off if you hadn't brought us out here in this confusion, and Moses could only say, well, you know, I don't really believe I'm the one who got us through the Red Sea, or I'm the one who brought the water out of the rock, or I'm the one who sent the food, the man in the quail.

He could only say, you know, we have to rely on God to do that. And amazingly, it says in verse 4, they said to one another, we ought to pick somebody else to lead us and get back to Egypt. Talk about a, you know, a stubborn, disrespectful, faithless group of people. So, God says in verse 11, after they continue to complain in verse 11, he says to Moses, how long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

I'm going to strike them with pestilence and disinheritum. I make of you, Moses, a nation greater than they are. Now, Moses again interceded for the people. He was, in a sense, an intercessor for these people in the Old Testament and the people of Israel at this time. And he would plead for them and God would listen. God would hear what he has to say. And yet, in verse 26, the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, how long will this wicked people, wicked congregation, complain against me?

I've heard the complaints of the Israelites that they complain against me. So, it wasn't just solely directed at Moses or Aaron, it was directed at God. And I think we should think about, you know, the, as we go through our trials, because we will. We will go through trials, we will go through tests, we want to simply bring those to God and lay them at his feet and ask him to repair them, because that's what living by faith is all about.

Now, in verse 28, God says, say to them, as I live, I will do to you the very things that I heard you say. Your dead bodies are going to fall in the wilderness, and of all your number, including in the census from 20 years up, who have complained against me, not one of them will enter the land, in which I swore to settle you, except for Caleb and Joshua, but your little ones who you said would become booty, I'm going to bring in and they will know the land that you have despised, and as for you, your dead bodies will fall in the wilderness.

Your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years, and shall suffer because of your faithlessness until the last of your dead bodies lie in the wilderness. So this was, in a sense, kind of a sentence for their faithlessness. And so they were going to suffer and have to endure wandering in the wilderness till over 20 died off, and to the younger ones grow up, and yet we find, whenever we take a look at what was happening right as they, after those 40 years, would about be going in, the young ones had listened to what all the old ones had been saying.

They had not learned much that we need to have faith in God. We need to trust God. You know, they were tiny, tiny whenever they came through the Red Sea. And after 20 years, or after 40 years, you can, you know, it's true. I don't remember much. 20 years ago, I remember a little bit, and I can kind of figure back 20 years ago, and even 40 years ago, but you don't remember it exactly like you did at the time. And so, unfortunately, you know, you see incident after incident. Here in Chapter 16, you see the revolt of Cora and Dathan and Abiram. And after they protested, they confronted, in verse 2, Chapter 16, verse 2, they confronted Moses.

They said, you've gone too far. All of us are holy. Every one of us. The Lord is among them. Why do you exalt yourself against the assembly of the Lord? Again, these men were exalting themselves.

They were saying, well, we're all the people of God. Who do you think you are, Moses? Moses responds in verse 5 or verse 4, he heard it and fell on his face. He said, I'm not sure exactly what God's going to do with this, but I'm sure he's going to solve it, which, of course, he did. And in verse 31, as soon as he finished speaking, the ground under them was split apart and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up along with their households, everyone who belonged to Cora and all his goods. And so, you know, instead of looking to God in faith, this was an out and out rebellion, an out and out revolt against God's leadership, in this case, through Moses. And what's amazing is when we get down after you see the ground open up and the earthquake consume those who opposed a servant from God, it says in verse 41, on the very next day, however, the whole congregation of Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, you've killed the people of the Lord. You know, this makes so little sense when you read through here and you see the illogical response and resistance and, yeah, resistance. You know, a lot of people talk about that today. You know, if we can't cooperate, we'll resist. We will persist in resisting. That's terrible. That, that, you know, surely will have a bad outcome. But it's not what I'm talking about here.

In chapter 20, you see the death of both Aaron and Miriam. But in chapter 20 verse 3, you find another account here of water being brought out of the rock.

Verse 2, there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron and the people quarreled with Moses. Same thing over and over again. And then Moses was told what to do. Verse 7, the Lord spoke to Moses, take your staff, assemble a congregation, you and your brother Aaron, command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So God changed the instructions a little bit. He had told him what to do before. And now, you know, Moses had listened to some griping and complaining. Long, long time. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them. Thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock. And so Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?

Then Moses lifted up his hand and he struck the rock twice with his staff.

And water came out abundantly and the congregation livestock drank.

And so the outcome was pretty much the same. They got the water, but God was not pleased with Moses becoming irritated, becoming, in a sense, kind of hostile. And this was going to be a very bad flaw that Moses would pay for. Says in verse 12, The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not trust in me to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring the assembly into the land that I've given them.

These were the waters of Maribah where the people quarreled with the Lord and by which he showed his holiness. And so an incident that Moses and Aaron are going to be refused to go into the Promised Land because they didn't show God the right type of respect. They didn't follow the instructions. They didn't say the right thing. They didn't do the right thing. They didn't give God the credit. And so in that case, as good as we see a good record of Moses most of the time, this was a bad one. He had spoken, Psalm 106 says, rashly. He had spoken, I guess you could say, speak before you think. You know, that was what Moses did. You know, these are all examples, of course, that we can learn from. Now, I want to jump over to Deuteronomy 8 because Deuteronomy is a book that was written later toward the end of the time of the 40 years in the wilderness. They're on the verge of going into the Promised Land. And as we read in the sermonette, Joshua was given responsibility and charge. And he says, you look to me in faith, you study my law, you meditate on what is important. I'll help you. I will settle you in the land. And of course, that's what's going to happen. And that's in the book of Joshua. But here in Deuteronomy, you have in a sense a repeating of much of what you have in the law.

And in chapter 8, you have some good description of why it was that they had wandered around the wilderness. Chapter 8, verse 1, Deuteronomy 8.1, this entire commandment that I command you today, you must diligently observe so that you may live and increase and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised. Verse 2, remember the long way that the Lord, your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. Remember, God's been leading you around. He sentenced you to that 40 years. And yet He's still been with you. And it says in verse 2, remember the way the Lord led you these 40 years in order to humble you. He wanted to see what was it that they should have learned.

Well, he said he did this, God did this, in order to humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether or not you will keep His commandments. And He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna.

See, those were all lessons that God was teaching. And in essence, the trials that they ran into, the difficulties, they had a kind of a day-by-day test of collecting the manna. Of learning to remember the Sabbath, of recognizing what we do and what we don't do on the Sabbath day. And take care in verse 11 that you don't forget the Lord by failing to keep His commandments as you go into the land. You're going to be given abundance. But you need to remember what God has done. He says in verse 15, He made water flow out of the rock. He fed you in the wilderness with manna. That your ancestors had no idea anything about manna.

But God did that to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good.

There are numerous things here in chapter 8 that are pointed out about what God hoped to accomplish in working. See, He humbled the Israelites. He tested them to see what was in their heart.

And then, you know, He wanted to see if they would obey.

What kind of heart did they have? Will they obey? And He did this for their good.

Now, when we think about the trials and tests that we go through, do we learn those lessons? Do we think about those lessons that God allows us to be tested? He allows us to go through trials. We read about that quite extensively in the New Testament. You can read about it even as what it is to be a Christian. To be a Christian is to face trials. Sometimes it is to even suffer. Sometimes it is to sacrifice.

Surely it is to learn to serve others. I mean, those are all things that are additional lessons. But see, He wants us, you know, to learn to look to Him in faith and to know.

In spite of the fact that sometimes we don't have an answer that comes as soon or as soon as we do, or as quickly as we would wish, God is still with us. He is still with us. He is still watching us.

He is still wanting us to grow in His divine nature.

Now, I want us to go over to Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 as we conclude here, because it's already obvious what the Israelites lacked was faith in God.

And not just faith whenever you ran into the fact that you didn't have water or the fact that you didn't have food, it's just to live by faith. See, in essence, that's what Moses needed to do, because he didn't know exactly how God would provide, but he certainly did have a relationship with God that was close, that was respectful, that was... he was humble. He understood the humility and meekness that Jesus Christ would personify whenever He came to the earth as the Lamb of God. But here in Hebrews 3, we're encouraged to look to God in faith as our way of life, even during the trying times and tests that we are required to endure.

See, God can fix any of the problems. It's obvious He knew how to fix any of the problems Israelites had. He had power to do it. But in some ways, He allowed them to be tested.

In verse 7, it says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear His voice... See, this is quoting from Psalm 95. Quoting from what David wrote several hundred years after the Israelites were in the wilderness, it was still the same lesson, the same lesson, the same lesson, do not harden your hearts. In verse 8, as you did in the rebellion or on the day of testing in the wilderness where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for 40 years, therefore I was angry.

I said they always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways. And in my anger, I said they're not going to enter my rest. See, what is it that's required to be part of the Promised Land, a part of the Kingdom of God, a part of the Millennial Rule of Christ? Well, faith in God is imperative. He says in verse 12, take care, brethren, that none of you have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. See, that's got to be through the remainder of our lives, however long that is.

But exhort one another every day as long as it's today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

See, that's clearly the description that you find the Israelites exhibited. You know, they sinned over and over and over again. They resisted God. They resisted Moses and Aaron.

They simply couldn't look to God in faith. For, he says, those of us who are Christians, we become partners with Christ, partners of Christ. If only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

As it said today, I hear your voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. He's going to repeat, do not harden your hearts several times. He says, don't allow focus. Meditate on the fact that God is trying our hearts. That's what he said about Israel. They failed. But about us, you know, he wants us to enter his rest. Now, he says in verse 16, who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Wasn't those who were... They had seen what God had done in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Was whom was he angry? Was it not those who sinned? To whom did he swear that he would not enter... they would not enter his rest? Is it not those who were disobedient?

See, those who refused to obey, those who refused to have faith in God, belief in God, he says, verse 19, so we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief. They weren't not allowed into the Promised Land because of lack of faith in God. See, we often think about faith whenever we're facing some kind of trouble or struggle or problem. But the time to think about faith is that I need that today, every day, all day long and all week and all month and all year and the rest of my life. That is when we need to have faith in God. So he says in chapter 4, therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is open, let us take care that none of us should seem to fail to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as it has to them.

See, God was offering answers. He was offering a solution. He was offering a Promised Land. It was a physical possession. And yet he holds out before us a Promised Land leadership in the kingdom of God.

Verse 2, indeed the good news came to us as it has to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith. It was that they didn't have faith and exercise faith and live by faith, which with the help of the Holy Spirit we are able to do, brethren. Verse 3, for we have believed, we who believe enter that rest, just as God said. In my anger, I said they would not enter my rest. See, we're going to enter the rest if we simply live by faith. Though his works were finished at the foundation of the world, verse 4, for if any one place in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, the Lord resteth in the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this place it says they shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains open for you to enter it. And those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. So he mentions unbelief, lack of faith, disobedience. Those are things that have to be important to us. Again, verse 7, he sets a certain day today, saying through David, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. See, that is a lesson of continuing.

Continuing to draw close to God, continue to walk in the field, continue to meditate on the law, continue to focus on God's ability to help us. For in verse 8, if Joshua had given the rest, God would not speak about another day. See, it wasn't just solely about whatever the Israelites were doing in the, as we read it in the Old Testament. So then a Sabbath rest shall remain for the people of God. For those who enter God's rest also cease from their labor as God does from His. We observe a day that God designates as a Sabbath day. But we look beyond that because the significance of that is great. You know, it involves understanding a seventh thousand-year plan that God is working out, a time in the future that will be a rest to this world, a peace that is going to come. So let us therefore, in verse 11, make every effort to enter that rest so that no one may fall through disobedience as they did.

See, brethren, that's what we have to keep in mind as we recognize that, you know, we may be living right now during a time that does involve a lot of tests and a lot of trials, a lot of struggles.

It's not bad to be in struggles. It's not bad to struggle against sin or to struggle against things that we know we have to struggle against in our lives. God simply wants us to have faith in Him.

He wants us to know that He is with us, and He will help us if we look to Him in faith.

You know, actually growing in faith through trials is by God's design. He said He did that to Israel for their good. How much more would He do that for us?

I think it's good for us to think about the question, when can we say that we have endured until the end? We all know there are several verses that are pretty clear, endure until the end, and you shall be saved. Those can easily be said, but when?

Can we say that we have endured until the end?

Till I'm 40, till I'm 60, till I'm 80, till I'm 100. I think we can say we've endured until the end when we have endured until the end. All the trials of this life, we have endured those trials in faith, and then we can say that we have endured until the end.

And so look to God in faith, not like the Israelites, who disbelieved, who disobeyed, but as we look to God, we can anticipate His involvement in our lives and ultimately entrance into His kingdom and to His family forever.