March 2, 2007

FEAR OR FAITH

Numbers 13-14

In the world of classic Greek literature and drama, all plays fell into one of two broad categories. They were either comedies or tragedies. The meaning of the word comedy particularly has changed significantly in modern usage. Today, we use it to refer to something that makes us laugh (or is supposed to make us laugh). This was not the case in the classic use of the term. A comedy simply referred to a play or a story that had a happy ending. This was in contrast to a tragedy which was a play or a story that had a sad ending, usually concluding with the death of the main character or hero.

We might chart the progress of a comedy by comparing it to a letter U. The story introduces the characters and then quickly descends into problems, crises and chaos. But as the character journeys through these difficulties, he ultimately overcomes them and rises to a happy or victorious conclusion. If we were to chart the progress of tragedy, however, we would use an inverted “U”. The story begins with the hero facing challenges and often opportunities for triumph and glory. We may even accompany him/her as he ascends to great achievements. But at some point in the story a decision is made or a course of action chosen which leads eventually to disaster and often death.

According to these classic categories of literature, if we were to write a play based on the story we are looking at today in Numbers 13-14 it would clearly belong to the category of tragedy. The story opens with the nation of Israel camped on the very borders of the Promised Land. All the promises of God to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob lie within their grasp. All the opportunities for a land of their own lie just beyond the next range of hills. The 400 years of slavery in Egypt are now a fading memory. The hardships of over a year of desert travel and living are now behind them. It was time to enter the Promised Land!

From their vantage point on the edge of the land, 12 men are sent to scout the land. The scouts are chosen, one from each tribe from among the leaders of the people. They complete a wide sweep of the land, taking 40 days in doing so, and return to the Israelite camp, bearing some of the produce of the land in the form of a single cluster of grapes so large they had to carry it suspended on a staff between two men. In the opening words of their report, we come to the high point of the story. (Read Numbers 13:26-27)

It is all there, just within their grasp, and it is theirs by the promise of God himself. But it is right at that point that the crisis emerges. Remember a crisis is the moment of decision, the fulcrum moment in a story, when all can swing one way or another. And as the crisis comes into focus, we find that at the heart of it all is the battle between faith and fear. After describing the abundance of the land, the scouts continue with their report in verse 28: But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large…

They introduce the element of fear. “Yes it is a good land, an abundant land. But it is a land full of people; fearsome people, big people, powerful people, giant people…and big, fortified cities.”

Faith or fear? The contrast is laid down very clearly in the text, because two of the scouts speak up to give their opinion. The spokesman for the two is Caleb from the tribe of Judah. Look at his words in verse 30: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” At this point, we need to understand that Caleb has God on his side. God had already clearly said, “I am giving you the land. I will drive out the inhabitants before you.” Caleb’s response was one of faith, based on the clear promises of God.

The other ten scouts, however, have a take on the situation that is dramatically different from Caleb’s. It is given in verse 31: “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” They continue in verse 33: “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Caleb’s report was based on faith. Their report was based on fear. “We are like grasshoppers compared to them!”

Caleb said, “We can…” The other scouts said, “We can’t…”

It is a classic spiritual battle between faith and fear. The future of the nation hangs in the balance. What will the people choose? It is exactly at this point that the tragedy begins to unfold. The next four verses must surely be among the saddest verses in Scripture, in literature, in history. (Read Numbers 14:1-4)

“Let’s go back to Egypt,” they said. Instead of pressing on into the promises of God, they wanted to turn back out of fear. The moment of crisis is drawn out, and the sense of drams is heightened in the story as the people are given an opportunity to change their mind. Another model, another choice is laid out passionately before them in the words of Joshua and Caleb in verses 7-9. (Read)

Joshua and Caleb stake out the high ground of faith. If Yahweh is pleased with us, he will bring us into that land…Do not be afraid...Yahweh is with us.

This is the climax of the story. One final opportunity is given to make a different choice, a right choice. Godly leaders stand before them and plead with them to choose the path of faith. The history of a generation is at stake, all condensed into this one climactic moment. It is with a sense of doom and deep tragedy that we read the next verse: But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. (verse 10) They not only reject Yahweh’s rule over them but they are ready to stone the human leaders he has placed in front of them.

It is a turning point, an irrevocable moment, an opportunity forever lost. The consequences of their choice became instantly apparent. In the same verse we read, then the glory of Yahweh appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. And the tragedy unfolds from there. A now familiar scenario is played out in front of us as God threatens to destroy the nation instantly on the spot and begin again by making a great nation out of Moses and his descendants.

In God’s response, we capture some sense of how God views fear and a lack of faith. In verse 11: How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I think sometimes we tend to view our failures of faith as excusable timidity, something we have no control over. “I was afraid,” we think, will cover a multitude of sins. But God sees it as an act of contempt for his truthfulness or his power. He had promised to give them the land. When they turned back, they were either calling him a liar, or calling into question his ability to do what he said he would do. And this contempt was all the more stunning in view of the many acts of divine power the people had already witnessed. When we respond out of fear rather than out of faith, we are treating God with contempt. Joshua and Caleb used another word for it in verse 9. Only do not rebel against Yahweh. Their act, even though prompted by fear, constituted an act of rebellion, of revolt against God.

We see Moses once again in his now familiar role of intercessor in verses 13-19. It is interesting to note the line of reasoning he uses to persuade God to turn from his judgment. He argues on the basis of God’s own reputation. “If you destroy this nation here, word will get back to Egypt. They will conclude that you destroyed the nation here because you lacked the power to take them into the land you promised them.”

He then pleads on the basis of God’s own character. (Read verses 17-19) Did you recognize the words and attributes by which God had revealed himself to Moses on Mt. Sinai? It is the description of his “approachable face.”

Let us look at God’s response. (Read verses 20-23, 29, 34-35)

Let’s get some kind of visual impression of the impact of God’s words. I want everyone in the audience today who is under 20 years old to stand up. Now look around. Look at those who are still sitting. Not one of these will enter the land. By the time God leads the people into the Promised Land, every one of these people will be dead. They had their opportunity and they turned away. Look at those who are standing. These are the ones, the only ones in the room, who will live to enter the Promised Land. Forty years of wilderness wandering, one year for each year that the scouts spent in the Promised Land.

It was a sobering moment. It was a moment of tragedy. There is an ironic twist at the very end of the chapter. After the people hear God’s judgment pronounced, they have a change of heart. They say, “Oops! We got that wrong! We don’t want to spend 40 years in the desert. We’ve changed our mind. Let’s go into the land now just like God said.” But the opportune moment has passed. The judicial sentence has already been recorded. Moses pleads with them not to go, because God is no long going with them. But once again they ignore his words. They go up in the presumption of the flesh and they are utterly routed by the enemy.

And so this chapter of the story ends. What could have been a glorious, classic “comedy”, ending in joy and in triumph, became a dark tragedy, resulting in forty years of fruitless and unnecessary desert wandering until an entire generation of Israelites had died in the desert. Why? Because of the choice they made between fear and faith. Their fear led to rebellion rather than obedience. And their rebellion resulted in defeat and tragedy rather than victory and triumph.

Once they made that choice of fear over faith, the chain of events was inevitable. But it doesn’t have to be that way for us. There is another choice available to us, just as there was another choice available to the Israelites. We know that because running through the text is another story.  The story of one man who made that different choice. It is the story of Caleb. In the language of literary analysis, he plays the role of a “foil”, a character who provides a contrast to the main character of the story. In this case the main character is the nation as a whole. Look at the choice he made in Numbers 14:24: But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Caleb had a “different spirit.” He followed the Lord wholeheartedly. What does that mean? Well in contrast to the Israelites in the story, he chose faith over fear. “With God’s help we can conquer the land,” he said confidently. Because he chose faith over fear, his faith led to obedience, and ultimately produced a very different result. To find the “rest of the story” let’s turn to Joshua 14:10-14: (Read)

Caleb’s life reads like a “comedy”, a story that ends in victory and triumph and celebration, rather than death and defeat, and at 85 years of age he led the troops against inhabitants one of the biggest and strongest cities and overcame them and inherited the land according to God’s promise.

We all face the same basic choice as the Israelites did on the borders of the Promised Land. We face the choice sometimes in large, life-altering decisions that determine the whole direction of our lives. We face the choice frequently in the smaller, daily decisions we confront week after week. And often the multitudes of smaller, daily decisions we make add up to also determine the ultimate direction of our lives. Again and again, whether in large decisions or small ones, life confronts us with a very basic question: Can God be trusted? When we are faced with that question, we have a choice to make. Will we choose fear or faith? Fear leads to rebellion and ultimately to tragedy and defeat. Faith leads to obedience and ultimately to triumph.

The choice you make will determine, when all is said and done, whether your life is recorded in eternity’s records as a tragedy or a triumph.