{"id":1549,"date":"2021-11-21T20:57:08","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2021-11-21T20:57:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T19:57:10","slug":"land-of-the-giants-numbers-13-and-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1549","title":{"rendered":"Land of the Giants! Numbers 13 and 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back when I was a boy one of the earliest television science fiction series told the story of a spacecraft which crashed on a planet which was remarkably similar to earth, except that on this planet the spacecraft is only a foot long and the passengers only an inch tall. The series followed the adventures of this gallant band in what was called \u201cThe Land of the Giants\u201d. Anybody else remember that series? It was really \u201cGulliver\u2019s Travels\u201d in space! But the plot was really borrowed not from Jonathan Swift but from the Book of Numbers, where ten out of the twelve spies found the promised land of Canaan to be \u201ca Land full of Giants\u201d.
\nThe spies reported back that it was indeed a land full of blessing.
\nNumber 13:27 \u201cWe went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
\nAll God\u2019s promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and the Israelites in Egypt were fulfilled. God keeps His promises! But it was also a land full of dangers.
\n28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. \u2026 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, \u2018We can\u2019t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.\u2019 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, \u2018The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.\u2019
\nThe Nephalim were the great warriors, a legendary race of ancient giants. So the spies\u2019 description of the Canaanites may have had some truth in it! Humanly speaking the Israelites did face great odds. But God is Almighty! God can do anything! Nevertheless the spies were afraid about the cost of the battles ahead and the Israelites began to grumble and complain again.
\n14 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn\u2019t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?\u2019 4 And they said to each other, \u2018We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.\u2019
\nLike many other stories in the Old Testament, this story of the Land of the Giants is a picture for us of our own story. God calls us to claim the victory in our own lives and enter into the promised land. In particular God calls us to proclaim Christ and share his gospel with a needy world. But too often the world around can seem like a land full of giants which are opposed to God and to the gospel. Sent out as lambs amongst wolves, we can be paralysed with fear at the task of evangelism God has entrusted to us. We can be made to feel like grasshoppers when we consider the challenge of mission! In some ways even North Springfield can seem to be a land full of giants, making us feel like tiny grasshoppers! This morning I want us to think about some of the giants we can feel we are up against, forces resisting the gospel and sometimes even opposing the church.
\nWorld-wide challenges to the gospel
\nBritain is no longer a Christian country! But so often churches and Christians try to live as if it was! We live in a rapidly changing world. God calls His church to be \u201cthe people of the future\u201d but too often we live as \u201cpeople of the past\u201d. The last 30 or 40 years have seen enormous changes in the world around.
\nSECULARISATION \u2013 in our lifetimes we have seen a dramatic decline in the influence of Christianity and Christian values. The church has become less and less important in the lives and thinking of ordinary people. We live in a \u201cdisenchanted\u201d world, where worship of God has been replaced by science and technology. Now if people are looking for spiritual experiences, they no longer look to the church but instead to the occult and New Age practices. The age of Christendom has gone \u2013 we live in a Post-Christian world.
\nPLURALISATION \u2013 Christianity is no longer the only, or even the dominant faith. It is now seen only as one option amongst many on offer in the supermarket of beliefs. Political correctness now forbids Christians from claiming that Christ is the only way to God. Some local authorities are now removing Bibles and Christian symbols like the cross from places like hospitals and schools and prisons, ostensibly for fear of upsetting the other religions.
\nPRIVATISATION \u2013 our lives are becoming more and more isolated. Local community life and even family life are being replaced by individualism and the anonymity of \u201csociety\u201d. We can communicate with strangers across the globe by phone and text and email and social media, when we don\u2019t even know the names of the people who live across the street. Faith is squeezed into our private lives \u2013 as the media portray Christianity as outdated and irrelevant.
\nThe new false gods in this Post-Modern world are ENTERTAINMENT and CELEBRITY. And CONSUMERISM means that people demand choice and satisfaction guaranteed in every area of life, not just in shopping and entertainment, but in healthcare, and increasingly even in religion.
\n\u201cLand of the Giants.\u201d Against the international giants of Secularisation and Pluralisation and Privatisation and Consumerism, Entertainment and Celebrity, it\u2019s very easy for Christians to be discouraged! Against such giants, God calls us to stand up for the historical truths of our faith and to give the world example of true love and community, to believe what we preach and preach what we believe! We have GOOD NEWS \u2013 how can we keep it to ourselves?
\nLocal Challenges to the gospel \u2013 even in a town like Chelmsford
\nMATERIALISM \u2013 compared to billions around the world most people in Chelmsford have more than enough and plenty to spare. They don\u2019t just have enough to survive. They have more than enough to be content. Of cash. Of possessions. Of money in the bank to guard them for a rainy day. Very many people never stop to think about whether they need treasures in heaven because they have plenty of treasures on earth. They are not necessarily trapped by greed, which is idolatry. They are simply deceived by all the earthly goods they possess into thinking that there isn\u2019t anything more to search for. Instead of possessing their goods, their goods possess them! The God-shaped-gap in their hearts is buried under career and hobbies and holidays and \u201cthings\u201d.
\nBUSYNESS \u2013 even if people in Chelmsford do start thinking about the ultimate questions of life and eternity, those questions get squeezed out of many lives by sheer busyness. Commuting. Hobbies. The demands of family life rushing to get the children to three places as once. The pace of life here means that nobody has time to reflect on spiritual things.
\n\u201cWhat is this life, so full of care? We have no time to stop and stare!\u201d
\nCOMPLACENCY \u2013 most of the people around us, our neighbours and friends, are not usually people who are struggling to cope with life. They are not usually burdened with guilt looking for somebody to forgive them, because most think they haven\u2019t ever done anything particularly bad. They are not ground down with poverty. Most aren\u2019t trapped in alcoholism or drug abuse. Most people in North Springfield are living satisfying, contented lives. They don\u2019t worry about what will happen when they die, because life here and now has been generally good to them. Most people are happy non-believers. They never ever ask the really important questions of life \u2013 where did I come from, why am I here, who created me, does God really exist? They never see the need to think about questions like that. They are not trapped by obvious sin, but simply by complacency.
\nThen there is the giant of COVID19. The Coronavirus pandemic has affected so many things in life. Very many people are living in fear of this dreadful illness and many are living with its consequences, the loss of loved ones or the struggles of Long covid. Our church life together has changed and so have the ways we reach out and share our faith.
\n\u201cLand of the Giants\u201d. Against the giants of materialism and busyness and complacency, and even COVID, Christians must be BOLD to proclaim the gospel. God is God Almighty, creator and sustainer of the universe! God deserves to be worshipped! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and exalted at God\u2019s right hand! The gospel is not an offer which people can choose to accept or reject. The gospel is an announcement which demands our obedience. Jesus is Lord!
\nSpecific Challenges to Outreach WITHIN the church
\nNorth Springfield Baptist Church is a very small church. We can feel we don\u2019t have enough people, to run all the activities we want to run. or to do the kinds of outreach we want to do. We don\u2019t have enough money \u2013 month by month what the church spends is greater than our income.
\nAnd then many of our church members and friends are facing all kinds of giants in their own lives. Battles with illness. Challenges in the workplace, or even to find a job. Struggles to survive on fixed incomes. The limitations which the passing years bring on. Stress, anxiety, insecurity, feelings of inadequacy. And perhaps when it comes to evangelism, the great giant very many of us have to do battle with is fear. Fear that others will laugh at us or reject us. Fear that we aren\u2019t really very good at sharing our faith and that we might make a mess of it. Fear that we will let God down.
\n\u201cLand of the Giants\u201d. God is calling us to claim the victory over all these giants we face as a church and just as much in our own personal lives! Just as the Israelites had to face their fears, so God is calling us to face our fears and go forward to possess the land!
\nWe face some of the same discouragements as the Israelites did
\nWe feel we aren\u2019t strong enough!
\n13 31 \u2026 \u2018We can\u2019t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.\u2019\u2026 \u2018The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. \u2026 We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.\u2019
\nIf we take on all the giants at once we will indeed be overwhelmed. But if we seek God\u2019s guidance to do the work God has for us, the specific good works He has prepared beforehand for us to do, we will be victorious. If we go out in our own strength we will fail. But in Christ\u2019s strength, \u201cI can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.\u201d
\nWe feel it will cost us too much.
\nNumbers 14 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? \u2026 Wouldn\u2019t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?\u2019
\nSharing the gospel does cost! Helping people in need does cost. In time as well as money. In energy and emotion too! But in God\u2019s strength we CAN cope! God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others in our turn. Because as well as the same discouragements as the Israelites, we also have
\nThe same promises
\nJust two of the twelve spies sent into Canaan had faith. Caleb and Joshua had vision
\n30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, \u2018We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.\u2019
\nWe can certainly do it! We are well able to conquer it! As Bob the Builder almost used to say, Can we do it? \u201cYes we can!\u201d CAN we do it? Yes, we CAN! Can WE do it? Yes WE can! If everything I have said so far has left you discouraged and depressed like the ten spies, I have failed and the devil has won. Instead let God win! We have God\u2019s promises. We can certainly do it!
\nDeuteronomy chapter 1 also recounts the events of that day and it records what Moses said to the Israelites.
\nDeuteronomy 1 29 Then I said to you, \u2018Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.\u2019
\nThe Lord your God will fight for you. He will carry you! We need to learn to see our giants from God\u2019s perspective. We seem like grasshoppers to them. But they are smaller than grasshoppers to God. Humanly speaking the giants might crush us! But in God\u2019s strength we can trample over them.
\nListen to the voices of Joshua and Caleb as they pleaded with the Israelites.
\nNumbers 14:7 \u2018The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.\u2019
\nGod will be with us! God will lead us! God WILL give us the land. Do not be afraid. But more than that \u2013 do not rebel! For the Israelites, choosing not to go on with God was not just a missed opportunity. It was an act of rebellion against God! Choosing not to enter the land at that point was a sin which God would punish severely \u2013 with forty years of wandering in the wilderness. And apart from Joshua and Caleb, not one of that grumbling generation lived to enter the promised land! And so it can be for us today. If Christians choose not to step out in faith and claim God\u2019s promises, they don\u2019t just miss out on the blessings. If Christians disobey God\u2019s commands to reach out with the gospel, they can end up in the wilderness!
\nGod commanded the Israelites to take possession of the promised land \u2013 and they disobeyed. That wasn\u2019t just a missed opportunity. They delayed God\u2019s purposes for forty years until every one of that faithless generation had been punished by death. That is certainly a warning of a sin to avoid! God calls us to stand up and be counted \u2013 to be bold and be strong in living the gospel and proclaiming the gospel and so to take possession of North Springfield in Jesus\u2019s name! It\u2019s a land full of giants, but if we have faith and prayer and obedience, God WILL give us the victory! We are not grasshoppers! We are giants in the Lord!
\nSecularisation. Privatisation. Pluralisation. Consumerism, Entertainment and Celebrity. Materialism. Busyness. Complacency. Covid. The challenges of being a small church and a poor church. And also the hundred and one very personal giants we may need to confront. But our God is greater than all of these! Can we do it? Yes we can! CAN we do it? Yes, we CAN! Can WE do it? Yes WE can! May God give us the faith and obedience Caleb and Joshua showed.
\n\u201cWe should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when I was a boy one of the earliest television science fiction series told the story of a spacecraft which crashed on a…<\/span><\/p>\n

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