Do you have ears to hear?

In Job 34:3-4 Job’s friend Elihu stated, “…the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Let us choose what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good.”

A common “battle” all face:

Who will you listen to for answers in religion?

Who will you believe?

An illustration of the importance of who we listen to in the religious realm is seen in the story of the mixed report of the spies who went to spy out the land of Canaan.

The report from the 12 spies - Numbers 13

 2 said: “…we are well able…v.30;          10 said: “…we are not able…v.31

Why was there not agreement on their report?  What was the difference?

4 - Moses’ instructions: Numbers 13:17-20

17Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, "Go up…18and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land."

What was the focus of these instructions? 

Their report: Num. 13:25-28

25At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26And…they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. (cont’d)…

Key word here is “HOWEVER”, in verse 28

Num. 13:30-33

30But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.“32So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.

Verse 31 helps to explain verse 28 and what ‘however’ meant.

• What made this report ‘bad’?
• Did they have ears to hear? (Job 34:2-4)
• Consider what had been said earlier…

Background: Instructions/statements of God:

Num. 13:1-2 – “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”

Deut. 1:19-21 – “…and we came to Kadesh-barnea.  And I said to you, 'You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.  See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Deut. 9:23 – “And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.”

• How well did they listen/remember what God had said?  What of the promises made to their great father Abraham regarding this land?
• What do you see as most significant in these instructions/statements?  Let us look at these passages again…

1st significant statement of God:

 Num. 13:1-2 – “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”

Deut. 1:19-21 – “…and we came to Kadesh-barnea.  And I said to you, 'You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.  See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Deut. 9:23 – “And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.”

• He had sworn an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob years earlier the same – Gen.

12:7 17:8; 24:7; 28:4.

• God plainly said that He would give them this land.  Did they have ears to hear?  What does this phrase mean?

                                

Deut. 1:20-21- (2nd significant statement)

And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.  Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

• “…fear not, neither be discouraged.”
• Hint as to what “ears to hear” mean. 
• Was it that they didn’t they hear it or that they didn’t believe it?
• This wouldn’t be known until they went there to spy

Deut. 1:23-26 - Moses’ words to the 2nd generation

“…I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, 'It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.'  26"Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. (cont’d)

• Whose words are Moses quoting?  The 10 spies, or the 2 spies?                                         

Deut. 1:27-31

27And you murmured in your tents and said, 'Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."' 29Then I said to you, 'Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.'

• Note what murmuring can reveal of one’s ‘ears’. 
• Again, whose words are being quoted by Moses?  The 10 or the 2?
• Note what murmuring can reveal of one’s ‘ears’. 
• Again, whose words are being quoted by Moses?  The 10 or the 2?

Deut. 1:32:

Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God…”

• What ‘word’?

Let us look at Num. 14 for the answer.

Num. 14:1-4

1Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”(cont’d)

Caleb & Joshua again speak: Num. 14: 6-9

6And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”

• Here we have the answer to the question asked earlier

The response by the people? Num. 14:10

Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

• Stone who?

The Lord’s response: Num. 14:26-35

26And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27"How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28Say to them, 'As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.' 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die."

• God’s words make it clear, however, at this time, for them, it is ‘judgment day’.

Num. 14:36-38

36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— 37the men who brought up a bad report of the land— died by plague before the LORD. 38Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

• Note the ‘ears’ of Joshua and Caleb.  What does the phrase ‘ears to hear’ mean?

Joshua & Caleb

Num. 14:24 -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.

Deut. 1:36-except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!

Josh. 14:8 - But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God.

• What about you?

When it comes to the question:

“What must I do to be saved”?

Who have you listened to? 

Who have you believed?

• Do YOU have ears to hear?

rdb

copyright 2011