The Big Read – Numbers

Powerpoint Pictures: Sat Nav; Pilot Cockpit; MPs; Scales; Newspapers

Do you trust the following?

A Sat Nav to give you the right directions?  A pilot to safely fly a plane?  MPs to lead this country well?  A particular diet will help you lose weight?  What you read in the newspapers is true?

The book of Numbers is about trust.

Do the people of Israel, whom God has rescued from Egypt, trust God to get them safely into the Promised Land of Canaan as He said He would.

When the people of Israel reached the border of the Promised Land, “The LORD said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” (Numbers 13:1)

So 12 men were sent to check out the Promised Land.

After 40 days they returned, and when they did, two of the men, Joshua and Caleb encouraged the people to trust God and take possession of the land.

“But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.” (Numbers 13:31-32)

The people didn’t trust God – even after all He had done for them – and as a result they didn’t enter the Promised Land.

What about their children?  The next generation?  Would they trust God and enter the Promised Land?

The book of Numbers was written to encourage them to do this, and not just them, us as well.

God has saved us through Jesus’ death on the cross in our place for our sins, taking the punishment we deserve.  He has promised us that one day we will go to be with Jesus in heaven.

The question is, do we trust God to get us there?

Whatever happens in our lives, will we keep on trusting Jesus or will we be like the generation of Israelites who did not trust God and who missed out on entering the Promised Land?