Israelites in the wilderness

Follow God Series #4

“Politics is a fact of life,” the leader said. He meant, “Politics is a fact of life in this church-related structure.” He added, “Maybe you need to be more of a politician.”

A few days later, Henry Blackaby stood before us, addressing a chapel service. “We don’t need politicians in the church,” he said. “We need statesmen.”

To see how a statesman thinks and acts, look at Caleb. One of 12 spies Moses sent into Canaan, Caleb saw the fortified cities and the giants in the land. Returning to the Israelite camp, he heard the other spies’ fear-filled report. He saw the terror in the people’s eyes.

Caleb the politician would have known when to go along. Caleb the statesman “silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’” (Num. 13:30).

Did the people rally to his cry? No. All night, they wailed, “Woe is us!” Then, they started packing to return to Egypt.

Once, a presenter teaching about teamwork sketched on a whiteboard an overhead view of several people in a rowboat. All the rowers faced the same direction – except one. “Who is hurting the team?” the presenter asked.

“The one going a different direction,” a chorus of voices responded.

“Unless all the others are rowing toward a cliff,” I thought.

Fervently, Caleb and Joshua appealed to the crowd: “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (Num. 14:7-9).

Fearing the dissenters’ advice would destroy them all, the crowd threatened to stone Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb.

When almost an entire nation headed the same direction, Caleb was one of four rowing the other way. Was he stubborn, reckless, divisive? Was he presuming on God’s help and putting everyone’s future at risk? By his persistence in disregarding the political climate, did he needlessly create an uproar that threatened to cost him, not only his position, but also his life?

God says otherwise. The Lord rebuked and judged the people. “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” (Num. 14:24).

Six times, Scripture says Caleb “followed God fully.” Literally, he “was filled with pursuing.” His heart was so set on following God that it didn’t have room for any competing choice.

Caleb believed God would lead the Israelites to conquer the land because God had promised to do so. All the people knew God’s promise. Caleb knew it in his inmost being. Not to curry favor, not to protect his position or even his life, would he turn aside from following the Lord.

He pleaded with the people to go that way too. He pleaded with them for their good. What they thought would destroy them would instead lead into abundant life. The direction they were choosing would take them over a cliff.

God himself shut down their return to Egypt, but he slammed the door to Canaan too. When he did, Caleb knew he also had to wait. His personal promise would be fulfilled when God brought the nation into the land. So Caleb the statesman wandered 40 years with a generation sentenced to purposelessness and death. But while the Israelites walked in circles, grumbling every step of the way, Caleb spent an agonizing 40-year delay living fully – and leading the next generation in his clan to follow God with their whole heart.

Joshua 14-15 tells the story of Caleb’s victory. At age 85, still as strong as the day he left Egypt, he led his clan to do what few Israelites did. All the tribes entered and subdued Canaan, but Caleb’s clan laid hold of their inheritance to the full.

In today’s church culture, politics is a fact of life. But you, be blessed to have a different spirit. Be blessed to hear God clearly and follow him fully. Following him, seek what is best for all – even when people you’re trying to help reject and attack you for it. Pressing in to follow, cultivate in others a spirit like Caleb had.

Regardless which way anyone else is rowing, you be filled with pursuing God.

© 2013 Deborah P. Brunt. All rights reserved.

Other articles in the Follow God Series:

#1 Don’t Omit the Obvious

#2 Don’t Be Fooled by Counterfeits

#3 Hear God’s Voice

#5 Have a Daniel Heart (coming 12/05/13)

Excerpt from the Key Truths e-column titled, “Time Out”

When God says something once, it’s important. When he says something three times in a row, he’s highlighting, underlining and urging us to listen. Hebrews 3-4 reminds us three times in 20 verses that the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:7, 15; 4:7).

The inspired writer of Psalm 95 said it first: “He is our God … Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (vv. 7-8).

Several thousand years later, we’re still reading: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

But what does God the Spirit keep urging us to hear? What does he keep warning us not to harden our hearts about? The surprising answer is rest. Ten times, Hebrews 3-4 mentions “rest.” Again and again, the inspired writer urges us not to do what the wilderness generation of Israelites did, not to forfeit rest.

Leaving Egypt, the Israelites resisted resting at the times their Lord designated as Sabbath. Further, they failed even to realize: Sabbath is also a place. At Sinai, the Lord referred to both aspects of Sabbath – the land he was giving his people and the Time Out with him wherever he led – when he promised, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:14).

Camped just outside the promised resting place, the Exodus generation decided they didn’t have the wherewithal to take the land. Hardening their hearts, they did not enter their rest.

Hebrews 3:19 says, “So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” As a result of refusing rest, they spent the remainder of their lives wandering aimlessly, bickering angrily, dying slowly. Like a person on an endless treadmill, they took a lot of steps – and went nowhere.

Equally tragic, later generations of Israelites hardened their hearts in a similar way. Hundreds of years after Moses’ death, Isaiah cried:

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it” (Isa. 30:15).

In yet another generation, the prophet Jeremiah declared:

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jer. 6:16).

Again and again, God’s people hardened their hearts and rejected rest. No wonder the writer of Hebrews warns us so strongly against doing the same thing. No wonder Hebrews 4:11 urges:

“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:11).

Entering rest

It’s hard to dismiss the compelling testimony within us: Nonstop busyness kills. It reduces our minds to mush. It opens our bodies to disease. It replaces vitality with stupor and a crazed, mechanical running to keep up.

It’s hard to dismiss the compelling testimony of Scripture: God calls his people in every generation to “make every effort to enter” a Sabbath-like rest.

In God’s economy, Time Out isn’t a punishment. It’s a blessing and a gift. Receiving the gift requires pressing in to go where you haven’t believed it possible to go. Regularly, intentionally, you punctuate periods of purposeful labor with a short pause, an interval of silence, a real rest.

Read more about Time Out.