Angelic Conflict part 188: Human history (fear) – Num 14:9-24; 1Co 6:18; 10:14; 2Ti 2:22; Rom 13:14; Eph 4:22-24; Gen 9:25-27; Jud 2:1-22.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 188: Human history (fear) - NUM 14:9-24; 1CO 6:18; 10:14; 2TI 2:22; ROM 13:14; EPH 4:22-24; GEN 9:25-27; JUD 2:1-22.

 

Another great test of the character of Moses.

 

NUM 14:12 "I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they."

 

NUM 14:13 But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Thy strength Thou didst bring up this people from their midst,

 

NUM 14:14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of this people, for Thou, O Lord, art seen eye to eye, while Thy cloud stands over them; and Thou dost go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

 

NUM 14:15 Now if Thou dost slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of Thy fame will say,

 

NUM 14:16 'Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.'

 

NUM 14:17 "But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as Thou hast declared,

 

NUM 14:18 'The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.'

 

NUM 14:19 "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

 

Great conflict clearly shows the winners and losers.

 

The struggle in the wilderness reveals the great weakness and unbelief of the people and the great strength and faith of Moses. Moses is more concerned about the reputation of God than he is about his own deliverance and by this attitude he passes this test again, and even more dramatically since it is the second offer of the end of his struggle with this people. Did Moses regret his decision at Sinai to reject God's offer of building a nation through him and his family, now over a year later? We find that he did not.

 

Great conflict also opens the opportunity for effective prayer.

 

And although God answers Moses' request in the affirmative, He will by no means compromise His own character.

 

Moses' love remains after another tremendous failure by those he loves. How many times should I forgive my brother in a day?

 

NUM 14:20 So the Lord said, "I have pardoned them according to your word;

 

NUM 14:21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

 

"As I live" is a vow of the eternal one - the earth will always be filled with His glory.

 

NUM 14:22 Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

 

NUM 14:23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.

 

NUM 14:24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

 

How many times have you distrusted God directly after He has wonderfully delivered you? That is not stated for condemnation since there is none in the CA, but for instruction in righteousness.

 

Israel, the first client nation.

 

Thus Israel stood poised in the plains of Moab on the eve of con¬quest. The entire Transjordan now belonged to Israel. Moses had died and the mantle of covenant mediatorship had fallen on the shoulders of Joshua. Encouraged by the promise of Yahweh to be with him as he had been with Moses, Joshua set about with confidence to plan the strategy that would result in the conquest and occupation of the land of promise.

 

Canaan was under the rule of the Egyptians, but the Pharaohs during the time of the exodus and the conquest were generally uninterested in Canaan. The other strong kingdoms to the north were fighting with one another (Assyrians, Hittites, and Mitanni, with the Syrians caught in the middle) and so they did not venture south in order to fill the land and so were unable to fill the vacuum left by Egypt's disinterest in the land. Only the Canaanites stood in Israel's way and they were many, but unorganized.

 

So God set up the best possible circumstances for them, while not removing the resistance of the people living in the PL. Joshua would have to defeat 31 kings.

 

God gives us all a strategic advantage in Christ, but does not remove our adversaries.

 

Joshua's plan was simple and affective - "divide and conquer." He would take the middle, then the south, and then his toughest opposition, the north. And it didn't happen quickly. He would conquer and return to Gilgal, go out and conquer more, and return, etc. until it was all conquered over a period of seven years. This tells us that in our own conquering or winning or overcoming our adversaries that we don't have to gain all victories in a short span of time. God will make it abundantly clear to you if you need to quicken your pace and will set up the circumstances for that quick leap in your spiritual life. Leave all of that up to Him and enjoy the battles. You are already victorious in Jesus Christ and we will all lose battles, but if we are willing, yielding, humble, and refuse to quit on doctrine we will not lose the war and we will conquer the land, or the high ground of spiritual maturity.

 

However, though it would take time, God had commanded Joshua to undertake the campaign immediately.

 

God does not want us sitting on our hands waiting for what we think is the best time to act. As God has led you, do so, and do so with vigor and without fear. We are all procrastinators.

 

Passion for God's will overcomes procrastination.

 

2CO 6:2

"At the acceptable time I listened to you,

And on the day of salvation I helped you";

behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation"

 

The last words of Todd Beamer aboard flight 93 on September 11, 2001 was "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll!" as the passengers and flight attendants rushed the coward terrorists and downed the plan that was headed for Washington DC.

 

A brief history of the times of the judges. (Approximately 1400 BC to 1050 BC)

 

From Joshua to Samuel (a period of about 400 years) the condition of the Israelites varied according as the fundamental law of the state was observed or transgressed, exactly as Moses had predicted, and as the sanctions of the law had determined.

 

 

The last admonitions of Joshua [Jos 24], and the solemn renewal of the covenant with Jehovah failed to produce all the effect intended. That generation, indeed, never suffered idolatry to become predominant, but still they were very negligent with respect to the expulsion of the Canaanites. Only a few tribes made war upon them, and even they were soon weary of the contest. They spared their dangerous and corrupting neighbors, and, contrary to express statute, were satisfied with making them tributary [slaves and those who paid taxes].

 

God asks us to expel certain systems from our soul and if we refuse then we will find ourselves in bondage to dangerous and corrupt thinking.

 

We do this through the power of doctrine and Holy Spirit influence.

Communion 110313

 

Most of the following is a excerpt from The Invisible War, by Donald Barnhouse; pp. 222-224.

 

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the bankruptcy of Satan's entire theory of success. It was in this that He made a public example of Satan and all his principalities and powers. Their embattled efforts to build a kingdom on earth would fail. They would seek to give man power through the place of pride; their kingdom would fail. It would take a little time for the full effect to be manifested, but the invisible war would come to its triumphant conclusion and all the force of satan would be put down on the principles that were established when the Lord Jesus humbled Himself to the death, even death on a cross.

 

It was on the basis of this unmasking of satan at Calvary that the Lord God took from the pretender all of the offices which had been given him in his unfallen state and deprived him of all that he had seized in the rebellion. Lucifer was the possessor of certain God-given privileges. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled him of all that he had been given and of all that he had seized. We saw this happen to one of his evil empires in Nazi Germany. Initially they gained much of Europe and a great amount of western Russia, but the battle of Stalingrad resulted in the overthrow of all German power in Russia and it was the beginning of the end. Not only did they lose all that they seized but they even lost their original power over their own land.

 

The spoil which the Lord Jesus Christ took from satan at the cross may be counted in even more categories and in even greater dimensions. Lucifer was given the privilege of prophet, priest, and king. His rebellion forfeited these rights even though he gained some kingship over the world system, but only temporarily. God could have seized these things back at any time but in His infinite wisdom He had a better plan that neither man nor angel could have ever seen or predicted. God was willing to wait for the cross to begin the work of disarming satan. The process might seem slow to men, living within the ticking moments of time, but in the sight of eternal God it is all but an instant and its outcome was never uncertain.  From the moment Christ died, the watching universe would see that satan and his hosts were sentenced and that the present and future manifestation of his impotence and his complete despoiling would be carried out in accordance with principles so true, so certain, so perfect, that there could never be a whisper raised - even in the lake of fire - against the fact or the method if the procedure.

 

1 Cor 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."  26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.