The leaders and the pastors of our churches must also have a spirit like Caleb. Caleb had a different spirit than the other 10 spies who were also 10 leaders from the other tribes. What the leaders of our churches do will trickle down to the flock and they will either be blessed or cursed based on the leaders decisions and beliefs. Leaders and pastors, you must understand the accountability you possess as you have been called into your positions to serve the flock.
Numbers 13:3 So Moses by the command of the Lord sent scouts from the Wilderness of Paran, all of them men who were heads of the Israelites.
Caleb had a spirit which fully obeyed, trusting, and who had fully surrendered to the Lord. The other ten spies had a spirit of fear and lacked faith. The 10 spies or leaders of their tribes brought a faithless fearful report of the giants. And as a result, the leaders as they preached to their tribes spread the spirit of fear among their people. Their lack of faith became contagious. It is very important the leaders in our churches are men who are God fearing, tested, and seasoned and not men appointed because of money or church politics.
Numbers 13:30 Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it. 31 But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are.32 So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.33 There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
The people out of fear cried all night complaining and grumbling. Then in verse four, they said, "Let us choose a captain and return to Egypt." The Kingdom of God is a monarchy. He assigns and appoints whom He desires. Spiritual authority is very important in Christianity. However, when God's people did not like the level of difficulty required to get to their blessing, they rebelled in their hearts and since they did not like God's original appointed, Moses, they decided they could do better by instituting a vote.
Since fear had taken over the people and when Joshua and Caleb attempted to speak courage to them, they were ready to kill them with stones. Many Christians profess to believe and trust God but when they are put to the test with their faith, how many of them will shine and possess the different spirit as Caleb had from among all the others? Even today, how many Christians are there always looking back to return to Egypt to what they perceive to be a easier comfortable life.
When God puts you in the wilderness to test, refine, and teach you obedience and we grumble and complain, then those complaints and grumble will fall back on us as it had with God's people. When they shrank back in fear from the report, God gave them what they spoke as they spoke in verses 1 to 3.
God's people was again in rebellion as He was going to smite them with pestilence and disinherit them as He had threatened to do when they had also built the golden calf. However, Moses interceded again on behalf of a stiffed neck stubborn people. It is so important to have leaders who are God fearing and full of His Love. Let us always pray for our leaders and pastors who oversee His flocks to possess the heart of God.
Numbers 14:10-13 But all the congregation said to stone [Joshua and Caleb] with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting before all the Israelites.11And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke (spurn, despise) Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me [trusting in, relying on, clinging to Me], for all the signs which I have performed among them?12I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they.13But Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for You brought up this people in Your might from among them.
Numbers 14:20-37 And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. 21But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 Because all those men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested and proved Me these ten times and have not heeded My voice, 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; nor shall any who provoked (spurned, despised) Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.25Now because the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.26And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 27 How long will this evil congregation murmur against Me? I have heard the complaints the Israelites murmur against Me. 28 Tell them, As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in My hearing I will do to you: 29 Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness--of all who were numbered of you, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me,30 Surely none shall come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But your little ones whom you said would be a prey, them will I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised and rejected.32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be wanderers and shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your whoredoms (your infidelity to your espoused God), until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which you spied out the land [of Canaan], even forty days, for each day a year shall you bear and suffer for your iniquities, even for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure [the revoking of My promise and My estrangement].35 I the Lord have spoken; surely this will I do to all this evil congregation who is gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed [by war, disease, plagues], and here they shall die.36And the men whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble and complain against him by bringing back a slanderous report of the land, 37 Even those men who brought the evil report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to search the land, lived still. 39 Moses told [the Lord's] words to all the Israelites, and [they] mourned greatly.40And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and we intend to go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned. 41 But Moses said, Why now do you transgress the command of the Lord [to turn back by way of the Red Sea], since it will not succeed? 42 Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that you be not struck down before your enemies.43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from following after the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country; however, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. 45Then the Amalekites came down and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country and smote the Israelites and beat them back, even as far as Hormah.
If we continue to complain and grumble, then those negative words we speak of our situations and circumstances may become our reality and as we continue to complain, the Lord will not be with us if we turn away from following after the Lord. Let us humble ourselves and return to possessing the biblical Fear of God instead of our circumstances.
Glory to God for His messages
Fire of God
Steve Yong Kim
Feb 15, 2012
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