The Tragedy of Unbelief - 1 Corinthians 10:1-14, Joshua 13-14

The Tragedy of Unbelief
1 Corinthians 10:1-14 - Joshua 13-14
Cooper P. Abrams III

Introduction:   1 Corinthians 10:1-14 explains to us the reverence of the Old Testament to us. Verse says these things were written for examples to us.    The passage is addressing idolatry which means placing anything in our lives above God.     To worship God means to hold Him in the highest place submitting one’s self to Him.    Through this passage God is saying that the Israelites all were guided by Moses and by God through the cloud in the daytime and the pillar of fire at night. They all passed on dry land through the Red Sea and were saved from Pharaoh’s army.    Verse 4 says they all drank of that spiritual drink, meaning they knew of the Lord’s deliverance and were looking by faith towards the Messiah, the coming Savior.

   However, verse 5 says that in spite of all the knowledge of God they had and the demonstration of His power God was not pleases with some of them.   Their disobedience, which was sin, brought about its natural result and most of them never saw the Promised Land and also lost their lives in the wilderness. Numbers 13:25-33 records how they did not believe God’s promises. Moses lead the people to Kadesh-Barnea which was on the southern border of the land of Canaan.   He then send spies into the land to gather intelligence for the coming invasion.

   God had promised to protect them and make them victorious, but when the eight of the ten spies came back they reported that the land was inhabited by giants and the land would eat them up. They people believed the spies in spite of what God had said and then murmured against Moses and started to choose a new leader to lead them back to Egypt.    It is not amazing that God had done all these miracles before them and had brought them this far, but they wanted to return to slavery in Egypt!   Yet, Moses, Aaron and two of the spies believed God and Caleb and Joshua stood up as Number 14:6-9 tells us and encouraged the people to believe God and take the land.

   “And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not” (Numbers 14:6-10)

   The people’s response when they heard the message was to take up stones to kill them and thus silence the message that exposed their unbelief and unfaithfulness to God.   Would it not have made more sense to see the error of their ways and to believe the truth?    But they did not really believe God and they acted according to their unbelief.      Numbers 14:10-11 says God’s glory then appeared in the Tabernacle.

   God then tested Moses “And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

   But Moses loved the Lord and loved God’s people and he stated his heart.    Moses was jealous for God and for God’s testimony before the lost. With all his heart he believed God and wanted God’s will done.     Number 14:13-15 records Moses’ response:

   “And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now” (Number 14:13-19)

   God’s natural is to show “unmerited favor” which is grace and His response was to forgive but unbelief has its consequences:

   “And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it” (Numbers 14:20-23)

   God then chastened them and sent them to wander in the wilderness for forty years.   I have personally seen part of that desert land when I went to Israel in October 2002 and believe me it is barren and desolate. Our guide said it was more than a desert it was a “wilderness” stressing to us how barren the land was.

   Before them was the “land of milk and honey” and God had shown Himself to them in a mighty ways and had promised to give it to them because He loved them and wanted to use them as His witnesses to the lost world.    But they would not believe Him and because they would not believe God all the children of Israel who were twenty years old and older died in the wilderness.

        God’s testimony was not ruined by their failure. The Canaanites I am sure were happy to see them fail.   They knew the God of Israel was Almighty God and they feared Him.    They understood that it was not God’s failure that caused Israel to not at that time possess the land.   They knew it was the failure of Israel to follow the Lord.    Joshua 2:10-11 records Rahab’s testimony that the Canaanites knew of the power of God. She told the spies, “ For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

       And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.”

   This was forty years after Israel sent in the first spies from Kadesh-Barnea.    The Canaanites knew of the power of God and they forty years earlier were afraid of God’s people.    You can imagine that they hoped God was through with these idolatrous people and for forty years heard they were still in the desert begin fed manna and quail.   God was still protecting them and in spite of the fact He was chastening them....He did not forsake them. Yes, they were not allowed to possess the land, but God fed them and even kept their clothes and shoes from wearing out.   Can you imagine wearing a pair of shoes for forty years and the same clothes.   By the way....to those who preach the heresy that one can lose their salvation by disobeying God this would be quite a revelation....God never forsakes or turns his back on those whom He saves.

   God promised to Joshua and Caleb they He would honor their faith and that they would enter the land and process it.    It is interesting and very revealing what God said about Caleb.

   “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.”

   What was the spirit that Caleb had that caused him to want to attempt great things for the Lord and go and take the land?   It was the spirit of belief. He truly believed God.

Conclusion:

   1.   So many today in our churches are being swept along with the crowd.   They attend church and they want all the blessings of God.    They would give the same answers the Hebrews would if you had asked them if they believed God. They would had said “Yes.”    If you ask them did they wanted to possess the land of Canaan they would reply “Yes.”

   But they really did not believe God and they too were being tested.     He tests our faith and commitment to Him.   Before God uses anyone to serve Him, He tests them to prove their faith to real.   He weeds out the unbelievers.     Israel was tested at Kadesh-Barnea. Before them lay the great blessings of God.   Before then was a beautiful and wonderful land where they could prosper, raise their families and live godly lives and experience all the blessings of living for the Lord.

   2.   But it would take effort, great effort. It would mean putting God first in their lives and making His will the direction they would follow.   Joshua and Caleb believed God and God’s test proved their faith that it was real.   They were ready to obey God and do His will because they knew who had made the promises to them. They wanted to be a part of what God was doing and they were personally willing to commit their lives, their families and their all to see the Lord’s work accomplished.   It would be Joshua who was to lead the Children of Israel into Canaan and take possession of the land.   Through his leadership and obedience to God Israel would win great victories.   Caleb would be an important part of this and would be a testimony even until this very day of how God uses those who believe live by their faith.

   1 Corinthians 10:6 presents Israel in a negative light and says they were examples to us and Verse 7 says they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.     This gives us great incite into what their sin was.   They were not at this openly worshiping idols but God says they were in idolatry.   What the verse means is they were not seriously devoted to the Lord.   They wanted God’s blessings, but they were not willing to work for the Lord.   They placed other things in their lives before the Lord.   Their idolatry was what were their priorities.   There is nothing wrong with eating, drinking or playing.   But what displeased God was that they had made these good things into idolatry by placing them before the Lord.    They were not willing to fight to take the land.    They were more interested in a life of ease.

ILLUS: I once had a pastor call me and tell me that one of the families of my church had visited him and were interested in attending his church.    He called as a courtesy to let me know and wanted information about the couple. He said their complaint was that they did not feel that I as the pastor was ministering to them as I should.    I explained to the pastor that this couple only attended church about once every five to six weeks and then only on Sunday morning for the worship service. They never attended any other meetings of the church.   I explained that I had visited them and spent more time talking with them than any other of our members. Once when my wife called asking if anything was wrong because they had missed many services the wife said that she was so tired on Sundays that she did not even dress on Sundays and stayed home to relax.    They had every kind of problem you can think of in their lives. Friends I faithful taught and preached every service, yet they were rarely there.   We went by their house a number of times and they were never home.   You cannot minister to people who will not put forth the effort to even come and worship the Lord. The pastor said from what they said he suspected they were that type of people.    The problem was not with me as their pastor....the problem was with them and their lack of faithfulness to the Lord.    No new pastor or new church can help such people because the solution lies within themselves.    Many people are looking for some special counseling that will give them the solution to their problems and they want some magical cure, but the only cure is to believe God and live according to God’s promises.

   The Lord Jesus speaking to Jews gave this powerful truth, in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”    You see, God our Creator, our righteous and Holy God. He deserves the first place and He will not take second place behind the idols we put before Him and bless us.   Colossians 1:18-19 says “that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.” That passage is saying that we are to put Christ first in everything because in Him is everything we need.

   Joshua and Caleb had to wait forty long years before they received God’s promises, but Joshua 14:6-15 records that God was faithful to them and they did inherit the land.    Numbers 14:33 records also a sad result which happened to the children of those who would not believe God.   The verse says their children would bear their whoredoms meaning idolatry for forty years. Their unbelief effected their children.   Can we grasp the reality that these disobedient parents put their children through the rigors of forty years of wandering in the wilderness.   Instead of growing up with the benefits and blessings of God in the land of milk and honey they were raised in a bleak and ugly desert with all its hardships.

   1 Corinthians 10:14 contains the compassionate plea to avoid the destructive consequences of idolatry saying: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”

   This passages uses the verb “flee” which is a strong word meaning to run away with all abandon from idolatry as fast as you can.   Fight it with all your might even to the point of panic....flee from this destructive sin.

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