Angelic Conflict part 185 : Human history (fear) – Num 14: 24:8-9; Pro 3:5; 1Pe 3:14; Exo 34:24; Lev 18:24-25; 20:23-24.Title: Angelic Conflict part 185 : Human history (fear) – Num 14: 24:8-9; Pro 3:5; 1Pe 3:14; Exo 34:24; Lev 18:24-25; 20:23-24.
A hunter goes into the forest to get a deer and at last sees one on a hillside and wounds him. The deer turns and crashes out of sight into the woods. After some moments, the hunter reaches the spot where the deer had been when shot and begins to follow the bloody trail. He goes on and on, up and down the pathless forest, and ultimately comes to a stream where the prey has eluded him by going in the water for some distance and coming out at an unknown spot. The man searches in vain and finally gives up in defeat and goes home. Some weeks later a certain village is struck with an epidemic of enteric fever. An investigation reveals that a wounded deer, infected with the typhoid bacillus, has fallen into the water supply and, unable to rise, has died there. Who is responsible for the epidemic, the hunter or the deer? Of such differences are great theological arguments sometimes made. The hunter is satan; the deer is man. Satan fired the fiery dart; man was wounded. Man has the nature that is susceptible to wounding, and out of his fall has come all the ills that infect the world today. [Donald Barnhouse, The Invisible War]
Num 14:1 Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
The Christian way of life does not depend on how you feel. Emotion is no criterion for spirituality. Proper thinking under the influence of G/HS is spirituality.
Num 14:2 And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
The illogic is palpable. They are afraid of the people living in the Promised Land. They are afraid that they will die fighting them and so they wish they had died somewhere else. They therefore have been beaten before they set foot on the battlefield.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
Rev 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Num 14:3 "And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"
Num 14:4 So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt."
Num 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.
Moses did first plead with them.
Deu 1:29-31 "Then I said to you, 'Do not be shocked, nor fear them. 'The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked, until you came to this place.'
Now they fall on their faces in prayer. Israel is saying no to their birthright, even after seeing all that the Lord is capable of.
Don't say no to your birthright, for in the Church we have a greater birthright as being adopted into the RFOG. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons and we have not been given a spirit of fear or slavery, but a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba, Father." There is an inheritance that comes with that reality, but one that can be greatly diminished if we are not willing and do not suffer in the manner of our Lord.
Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
Num 14:7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
Num 14:8 If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us — a land which flows with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey. Their protection [literally - shadow; common usage in the sultry near east] has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them."
Balaam under the influence of God the Holy Spirit said about Israel [38 years later; younger generation] camping in the valley north of Moab:
Num 24:8 "God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He shall devour the nations who are his adversaries, And shall crush their bones in pieces, And shatter them with his arrows.
Num 24:9 "He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you." [Abrahamic covenant]
God had promised them:
Deu 7:16 And you shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
Num 14:10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.
God steps in and puts a stop to this madness, but not before the doubters are allowed to take their fear all the way to the point of murder.
God protects His people while He allows evil within other people to run its course.
The fact that the evil people will be used by satan to attack you is clear, but the solution to that attack is just as clear. The flesh and the world tempt us to react to the attack with temporal, earthly ways and not in grace and in trust of God who is our hope. Satan usually looks to put pride in the soul so that we rely on ourselves and our own ability to rebut the attackers, but as the other tempters in our life get it wrong this is wrong and not a solution at all. Pride, earthly, temporal ways, and the ways of the flesh in a complete disregard for God's will in the situation will only compound the problem and make us miserable and slaves to that from which we have been set free. The sin of leaning on one's own understanding with resultant fear results in the sin of failing to trust in the Lord with all one's heart with resultant peace and victory.
Pro 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding.
1Pe 3:14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled,
While they conclude that the expedition is hopeless God has already determined that the protection that has been upon the people living in Canaan is removed and they are ready to be taken by Israel.
The protection [shadow] of God had departed from the Canaanites, because God had determined to destroy them when the measure of their iniquity was full (Gen 15:16; cf. Ex 34:24; Lev 18:25; 20:23).
This was all communicated to the Exodus generation. They did not mix what they heard with faith.
Gen 15:15-16 And as for you [Abram], you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete."
At Sinai: Exo 34:24 For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.
Lev 18:24-25 'Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. 'For the land has become defiled, therefore I have visited its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.
Lev 20:23-24 'Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. 'Hence I have said to you, "You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Being separate from them and not intermarrying with them and not following their customs of ultra sensual idol worship was not that they were to be snobs, for they were the keepers of the words of salvation through the atoning blood of the sacrifice of the Messiah and were to herald that good news.
But this is sanctification, which is being set apart unto God and unto His truth and ways, and away from the demonic doctrines that defile body and soul.
In the same way, we are to be sanctified unto Christ through His word and away from the spirit of the world which defiles body and soul.
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