One of the more pivotal chapters. The people of God have moved to kadesh barnea

The Lord spoke to Moses saying send men to spy out cannan

Deut 1:19 Go up take possession and do not fear nor be afraid, but the people want to send in spies. Moses said let’s go take it but they want to check it out first

Now in numbers 13 this is what is happening

V8 God changes The name from God saves to Yahweh saves so he is now Joshua.

V17 go see what the land is and what the people and land is like, warriors or fortified cities, or camps and weak people

Go and spy out from the bottom to the top

Cut cluster of grapes, need a pole to carry and Eschol means cluster

George Whitfield with out amplification could preach and Benjamin Franklin figured out 24000 people could hear him when he preached:

Everything that is needed to live here it is flowing with milk and honey and God is right.  This is the report but However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. - Numbers 13:28

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." - Numbers 13:29

All these people were Canaanite people and were descendants of Noah. God said he would punish them but was waiting on their sin to be full grown and He is going to use the Israelites to judge them

30 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."31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are." - Numbers 13:30-31

They saying this land devours its inhabitants means they are always at war and there are giants in the land. They say these are like the Nephilim. Josh believes these are the great and mighty people of Seth.  They believe the Nephilim survived the flood and we cannot win against them.

Ch 14

The people wept because the went through the wilderness and now are at the promised land and it is over since we cannot go in and do what God says to do.  They say we no longer trust God anymore

Moses and Aaron fall on their face and worship God since they reject God and their leadership

Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. - Numbers 14:7

The battle is between faith and fear.  Then all the congregation says to stone them with stones now

But the glory of the Lord appeared int the tent

11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." - Numbers 14:11-12

        In spite of God had done they still don’t believe.. God says He will disinherit them, destroy them and make a nation of Moses

      We cannot be paralyzed and live in fear of the obstacles that are in the way of God’s plans

We must believe no matter what.  Remember what God says to Joshua after Moses dies and He says be strong and courageous and do my will and you will have success

God had proved His supernatural power to the Israelites many times since they left Egypt. How easily we forget when we focus on the wrong things.

They allowed their fear to steal their faith and trust in God. Instead of trusting they grumbled. They wanted to return to Egypt, where they were slaves. Their old life is what they knew, but it is what God freed them from, now they keep wanting to return.

            Why do people return to their old life? What causes them to do this? Focusing on circumstances and relying on their own ability, instead of focusing and relying on God and trusting Him.

      They keep looking back instead of pressing on forward.

Lot’s wife looked back longing for her old life in Sodom, what happened to her?

        Philippians 3:12-17 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

Proverbs 26:11, As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.

Instead of pressing on forward with the LORD, they kept wanting to return to their slavery, how foolish.

God was teaching the Israelites a basic lesson of the life of faith, namely, that the real power in the lives of God's people is God's power. As we trust and obey God, He releases His power through us. We are never adequate in ourselves, but God empowers the obedient and trusting. Jesus taught His disciples the same lesson when He multiplied the loaves and fishes— twice.

2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

13 But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, 14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. - Numbers 14:13-14

               The failure of the Israelites grew out of unbelief (cf. Heb. 3:19). The majority failed to believe that God would give them the land of their enemies as He had promised.

           "Like Pharaoh, they were hardening their hearts and ignoring God's clear command.

Moses Intercedes

             In verses 13-19 Moses intercedes again for the people. Similar to the last lesson, Moses appeals to the LORD’s character and reputation. He repeated God’s words back to Him-praying scripture.

Not important that his name is great but God’s glory is important

Plead for God’s grace

Our prayers matter

        "Here is a whole nation rescued from ruin by the effectual fervent prayer of one righteous man [cf. James 5:16]."

           V17 Let your power be great

This rebellion was a test for Moses, similar to the test that Abraham faced when God told him to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22)

If He had actually done what He threatened to do, God could still have fulfilled His promises to Abraham, by destroying and dispossessing all the other living Israelites, and by sparing only Moses and his descendants. However, God could not have fulfilled the prophetic promises that He had given through Jacob (Gen. 49)—had He done so. There would have to be descendants of Judah, from whom a great ruler would come (Gen. 49:10), as well as some future for the other tribes.

            Perhaps God meant that He would completely destroy that older generation of Israelites immediately, wiping them out in one blow, instead of gradually (cf. Exod. 32:10).

20 Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned, according to your word.21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, 22 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, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. - Numbers 14:20-23

Children will inherit and will not be prey

All but Joshua and Caleb will die in the desert and will not enter into His rest

Leadership die immediately because they have the greater responsibility

      This oath was fulfilled partially when Israel entered the Promised Land (cf. Josh. 2:9-

11), but it will be fulfilled completely when God consummates His dealings with Israel in the future.

             The failure of the Israelites would not frustrate God's purpose to manifest His glory throughout the earth, through the seed of Abraham. Even though the present generation would die in the wilderness, Caleb (and Joshua, not mentioned here in v. 24 but in v. 30) would enter the Promised Land.

         Though some take the number ten as a round number, the text does record ten times the Israelites tested God (v. 22) by complaining:

"… this passage intends to show that the people failed to inherit the Promised Land and hence died in the wilderness without inheriting the blessing, not so much for a specific act of disobedience or for fear of the battles that lay ahead, but rather for the simple fact of their unbelief. They failed to trust in God."       

           Next the people repent, now we will go. It is too late at this point.  Is this not scary to us.  The Lord has every right to say no.  The Lord does not have to save any of us.  It is a privilege not a right.

The lesson is don’t sin, live in faith and trust Him

Two things, don’t presume on Gods grace

Don’t try to do what God only can do

This section of text teaches us important lessons about inadequacy and adequacy. The 10 spies, who did not want the Israelites to enter the land, felt inadequate (cf. John 15:5). In this, they were being realistic. However, they should have compensated for their feelings of personal inadequacy, by reminding themselves of God's complete adequacy (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9;

Luke 1:37; Matt. 19:26; Phil. 4:13). 1Sailhamer, p. 388.

           God was teaching the Israelites a basic lesson of the life of faith, namely, that the real power in the lives of God's people is God's power. As we trust and obey God, He releases His power through us. We are never adequate in ourselves, but God empowers the obedient and trusting. Jesus taught His disciples the same lesson when He multiplied the loaves and fishes— twice.

Joshua 14 Josh’s one of his favorite scriptures

Just whipped everyone and now Joshua says it is time to conquer the land, won the major battles.  Joshua and Caleb are 45 years older than everyone else.  Took five years to get to this place. Caleb says give me the mountains and the giants and I will show you what I SAID 45 years ago about GOD is true and He will win the battle The old name was for the leaders of these people and now it is the mountains of God

6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.' 10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." 13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. 15 Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war. - Joshua 14:6-15