Rejecting God's Promises

God's people still have trust issues that hold them back.

Numbers 13:28-31 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley." 

30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!" 

31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. "We can't go up against them! They are stronger than we are!"

One of the main points of God's story in the Bible is the promise of God to take a group of chosen people to a Promised Land. God took his people from the depths of despair in the dark kingdom of Egypt and treated them with great grace and mercy as he lovingly guided them to live in a better place.

God also taught them to live a better way that reflects his values, he paused the trip at Mount Sinai to prepare his people to live in that land in a way that is totally different from the nations around them. Their new kingdom should have been a reflection of God's future kingdom that we are all longing to see but they failed to complete their mission.

But their struggles and failures are very much like ours. We all have the tendency to doubt God's goodness as we focus on our immediate circumstances and we begin to compare ourselves to others and sometimes we even think that the people that are not God's people have a better life.

It seems logical from a human perspective to believe that God's people should be treated the best and have the easy life, but God didn't separate us from the troubles of this life, When the trouble comes we can be tempted to believe the lie that the joys and blessings that God has for his people are somehow inadequate and not worth the sacrifice.

There is a lot that we can learn from God's people in the Old Testament that will help us on our journey across this wilderness that is our temporary home as we move towards the amazing destination that God is preparing for his people.

Travel Tips For The Road To The Promised Land:

Do Not Doubt God's Word 

In Numbers 13:1-3 it looks like it was God's idea for his people to scout out the land and the people that are there but 40 years later when Moses gives final instructions to God's people, it seems like God was just giving the people what they had already asked for.

Deuteronomy 1:21-22 "Look! He has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged! 22 But you all came to me and said, 'First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter."

The Israelites lacked the courage, and faith to take the land that God told them is theirs. After all of the protection that God provided since the plagues way back in Egypt, especially that last one, and after all of the care and protection on the way through the wilderness, they still didn't put their faith in God's word.

Do Not Discourage God's People

Negative talk can be all in your head or it can come from someone around you, we have to remember that it is way too easy to be discouraged and the negative talk that we listen can keep us from listening to God's voice. 

It's bad enough when one person does it but in these verses there is a committee, that's usually a bad sign, this committee was reporting about their research. You could call it opposition research, they found that God was honest about the goodness of the land but, they had a very big "but."

Numbers 13:28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!

Deuteronomy 1:26-28 But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to go in. 27 You complained in your tents and said, 'The LORD must hate us. That's why he has brought us here from Egypt-to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have demoralized us with their report. They tell us, "The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there-the descendants of Anak!"'

It only takes one negative voice to stop the work of God but this was the majority of voices in a committee so it would be almost impossible to overcome their recommendation. The negative voices set them back 40 years.

Certainly there must have been other travelers that they met along the way during those 40 years in the wilderness, those people must have been amazed that God didn't get his people to the place that he promised. But it wasn't God that failed, his people still had more to learn about how dependable he is.

Do Not Defy God's Will 

Numbers 14:1-4 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. "If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!" they complained. 3 "Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?" 4 Then they plotted among themselves, "Let's choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!"

Everyday God's people are forced to make a choice, will we follow the leader that God has given us or will we elect a new leader and go back to Egypt. Negative people in the church discourage God's people and stir up a rebellion against God's leaders.

Do Not Disobey And Deserve God's Judgement

Numbers 14:10-11 But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?"

God showed up with some serious questions for his people, and suddenly his people are concerned about the consequences of their sin. They have always strived to have the easiest life possible and now that they know how God is going to punish them they decide it is better to obey his first command. 

Numbers 14:40-42 Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. "Let's go," they said. "We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the LORD has promised us." 41 But Moses said, "Why are you now disobeying the LORD's orders to return to the wilderness? It won't work. 42 Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the LORD is not with you. 

Taking the land isn't an option any longer, since God isn't going with them, they will not have a victory over the Canaanites. They couldn't win no matter what they did, they were sentenced to death in the wilderness but if they rebelled and tried to defeat the Canaanites they would still experience death.

We love the Bible verse that says "If God is for you, who can be against you," but turn that around. If God is against you, it doesn't matter who is for you.

Reacting To God's Will

We need to know and understand God's will: Ephesians 5:17,20 Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to find delight in his will: Psalm 40:8 I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart." We need to whole heartly obey his will: Ephesians 6:6 As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart

I need to appreciate the promises of God and totally trust him to come through no matter what the evidence around me seems to be saying. God gave me the example of our ancestors found in the Bible to help me.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Help me Lord to grow in faith and obedience to your will despite the fact that what I feel, what I see and what I think may be telling me to doubt your goodness. I want to trust and obey so that you will be glorified.

Jesus Heals the Leper

Who came to Jesus for healing? A leper. A leper was someone who had the disease of leprosy.

In Jesus’ day, they understood that leprosy was spread by touch, so lepers were forced to live in places outside of towns, away from friends and family.

NOBODY would touch them because leprosy didn’t get better; it was a disease that slowly led to death. What a sad way to go.

Let’s look at the attitude the leper had. Look at verse 40. He came humbly, kneeling before Jesus. He begged Jesus for healing.

The leper was desperate for healing. You can tell that he had faith—he knew Jesus could heal him.

But he was humble and politely asked Jesus to heal him saying, “If you will.”

What was Jesus' attitude in verse 41? He was moved with pity.

Pity is another word for compassion, which is feeling sympathy for and wanting to help someone who’s hurting. Jesus has emotions just like every other human. Anger?

Jesus said he was willing to heal him. He said, “Be clean.” and immediately the leprosy left the man. He was healed.

When Jesus speaks compared to when God speaks.

Did you notice that Jesus did what nobody else would dare to do?

People were afraid to touch lepers or even be around them for fear of getting the disease.

Lepers were rejected. You will be rejected.

Jesus could have healed the leper without touching him, but Jesus reached out and touched him to show love and compassion.

This was probably the first time anyone had touched this man since he had gotten leprosy. Imagine if you never got a hug or nobody ever held your hand.

In both of these miracles, Jesus showed his power over disease.
He touched Simon’s mother-in-law, and her fever left.
He touched the leper and he became clean.

Refer to the Attributes of God Poster. What attributes of God do we see in Jesus’ miracles?

Omnipotence and sovereignty in supernaturally healing the fever and leprosy;
Gracious in healing those who did nothing to deserve healing;
Merciful in showing kindness to those in misery.

As Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee in his first year of ministry, he usually had an excited crowd following him to see what amazing things he would do next.

We have seen Jesus establish his authority in the temple and synagogues, and also demons and now we have seen his power over disease.

Jesus Is Rejected At Nazareth

Most of the people believed that Jesus was God and that he came to save us from the penalty of our sins BUT when Jesus left Samaria, he continued his trip that he was on.

Before he stopped at Samaria for a couple of days he was on the way to Galilee.

The area called Galilee included Jesus' hometown where he lived with his mom and dad. Where did Jesus grow up?

Remember when Jesus was a little boy he went to church a lot to learn about God.

So when Jesus went back to his hometown they asked him to be the teacher for that Sunday.

Let’s watch a movie about Jesus teaching in the temple.

Jesus read from Isaiah. Who is Isaiah? Major prophet.

What did Jesus say about the scripture he had read? Jesus explained to the people in the church service that day that Isaiah was talking about him.

Isaiah wrote that part of the Bible about 400 years before Jesus was born.“Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled”

Jesus was saying that the prophecy came true that very day! Those verses were talking about the Messiah and that is Jesus.

At first they were okay with Jesus. The book of Luke tells us:

Luke 4:22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. "How can this be?" they asked. "Isn't this Joseph's son?"

They thought that Jesus was JUST the son of Joseph but we know better! Joseph wasn’t really Jesus' father. Mary didn’t get pregnant by a human.

They had a difficult time believing that Jesus is God because they knew Jesus as a baby and a kid that played with their kids.

Jesus knew their unbelief, so he reminded them of two times in the Old Testament when God sent his prophets to show mercy to the Gentile (non-Jewish) people because the Jews did not believe.

They were not very happy when Jesus basically told them they were being stubborn just like the Jews in the Old Testament who didn’t believe the truth.

Luke 4:28–30 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. [29] Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, [30] but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

Wow! The townspeople didn’t respond well at all to Jesus’ message. The problem was the OT law said that people that tried to say they were God should be killed.

Show the Lesson Theme Poster. This was a miracle! An angry mob of people, his own townspeople that all knew Jesus for a long time.

They gathered around Jesus and took him outside of town to the top of a cliff. They wanted to throw him over the edge and kill him.

But Jesus’ time to die had not yet come, he had to die a different way, we can see that God is in control because Jesus got away!

He walked right through the crowd and left, God is in control and he didn’t allow anybody to harm Jesus that day.

Jesus is God; he had the power to destroy those people, but he didn’t. He walked away, and they couldn’t stop him.

Woman At The Well

In John chapter 4, we will see that John’s disciples weren’t the only ones worried about Jesus’ popularity. 

The Pharisees, the religious leaders and teachers at that time, wanted to keep their power and control over the people.

These guys got mad when Jesus cleared the temple and now it is getting even worse.

They weren’t happy that so many people were listening to Jesus. They were upset with Jesus!

Knowing this, Jesus left Judea and headed north for Galilee, passing through Samaria.

Refer to the Map of Palestine. See this area of Judea on the map? That’s where Jesus was. Galilee is up here. This area in between is Samaria. The people from this area are called Samaritans.

There is a problem here! Jesus’ decision to travel through Samaria is surprising because the Jews would not go that way. 

Rather than going straight to Galilee the Jews would travel all the way around it because they disliked the Samaritan people so much.

The Samaritans were only half Jewish. Mixed race peoples. What a stupid reason to look down on someone!

We should look at the beauty in the ways that we are different!

Another way the Sam’s were different is that they had slightly different beliefs about God.

The Samaritan people had their own place of worship on Mount Gerizim (point this out on the Map of Palestine) instead of worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem where the Jews went.

These differences led to hatred between the two people groups, and they kept away from each other as much as possible. 

But not Jesus! Jesus knows that we are all created equal by God. We all came from the same great, great, grandparents, Adam and Eve.

Jesus is going to show us that we can care for and be friends with anybody that is different.

Jesus chose to go through Samaria, the route to Galilee that the Jews would not take.

Even though they took the short route to Galilee Jesus and his disciples are tired, hungry and thirsty from the journey. 

While they were in the area of the Sam people Jesus sat down by a well while his disciples went into the town to buy food.

So he was all alone when he took a break and rested at the well, EXCEPT there was a Samaritan woman who came to the well alone. She came alone because she was different!

Usually women came in a group for safety to get water from the well, but this woman was different.

She had lived a sinful life, so many people didn’t like her, she didn’t live by all the rules, so a lot of people would make fun of her.

What a great opportunity for Jesus to show us how to treat people that are different!

Table Header
Table Contents

Plain Table