Not Ready To See The Promised Land

 

Exodus 14:1-4

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

 

Exodus 14:19-22

19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

 

Numbers 13:31-33

31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

 

Numbers 14:24-25

24 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.

25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

 

 

The people were not ready to see the Promised Land.

This was NOT a problem of the Will of God.

Rather it was the people that demonstrated their inability to handle the Will of God.

Luke 8:5-15

5 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

9 And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

What are the differences between the 3 situations?

The seed is the same. The difference is the SOIL.

• What is the difference between rocky soil and good soil?
• What is the difference between thorny soil and good soil?
• The difference is the preparation of the soil.

 

The first thing a farmer does every season is to plow the soil. He digs deep and disturbs the settling of the soil. It brings the rocks to the surface so that they can be removed and the roots are able to go deep.

 

It breaks up the roots of the weeds. (The weeds are the cares of the world.)

Plowing is painful to the soil, but is necessary to get it ready to accept the seed.

The LORD causes testing to come into our lives to prepare us for the seeds he wants to plant.

But the LORD will not give us more than we can bear.

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

John 6:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

 

These scriptures are sometimes taken to mean that he will not send bad things that we cannot bear. But I believe he also holds back the good things in our life because we are not able to bear them as well.

Joshua 3:14-17

14 And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;

15 And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)

16 That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

Why were they ready to cross the Jordan when their parents could not?

Joshua 10:7 Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.

The “mighty men of valour” means “trained soldiers.” So the Israelites did not simply wander in the desert for 40 years waiting for the old people to die off.

Rather they spent the years training. They were not the timid slaves that left Egypt, but they were trained warriors.

Since Moses was an Egyptian, they were like trained in the ways of the Egyptians, the mightiest warriors at the time.

So we should work to prepare ourselves for the Will of God.

Ask yourselves if you are ready. Do you have any fields that need plowed? Do you need to take some Spiritual karate classes?

If you want to see the Will of God, show him that you are able to accept it.