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

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 reverenceof the Old Testament to us.  Verse says these things were written forexamples to us.    The passage is addressing idolatry whichmeans placing anything in our lives above God.     Toworship God means to hold Him in the highest place submitting one’s selfto Him.    Through this passage God is saying that the Israelitesall were guided by Moses and by God through the cloud in the daytime andthe pillar of fire at night.  They all passed on dry land through theRed Sea and were saved from Pharaoh’s army.    Verse 4 saysthey all drank of that spiritual drink, meaning they knew of the Lord’s deliveranceand were looking by faith towards the Messiah, the coming Savior.   

    However, verse 5 says that in spite of all the knowledgeof God they had and the demonstration of His power God was not pleases withsome of them.   Their disobedience,  which was sin, brought about its natural result and most of them never saw the PromisedLand and also lost their lives in the wilderness.  Numbers 13:25-33records how they did not believe God’s promises.  Moses lead the peopleto 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 cominginvasion.
 
    God had promised to protect them and make them victorious,but when the eight of the ten spies came back they reported that the landwas inhabited by giants and the land would eat them up. They people believedthe spies in spite of what God had said and  then  murmured againstMoses 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 hadbrought 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 Joshuastood up as Number 14:6-9 tells us and encouraged the people to believe Godand 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 spakeunto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which wepassed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.  If the LORDdelight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a landwhich 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: theirdefence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not” (Numbers14:6-10)

    The people’s response when they heard the message wasto take up stones to kill them and thus silence the message that exposedtheir unbelief and unfaithfulness to God.   Would it not have mademore 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 believeme, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?  I will smitethem with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greaternation and mightier than they.”

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

    “And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shallhear 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 heardthat 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, byday 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 whichhave heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,  Because the LORD wasnot able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, thereforehe hath slain them in the wilderness.  And now, I beseech thee, letthe 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 fathersupon the children unto the third and fourth generation.  Pardon, I beseechthee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy,and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now” (Number14:13-19)

    God’s natural is to show “unmerited favor”  whichis 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 theLORD.  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 theseten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;  Surely they shall notsee the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of themthat provoked me see it” (Numbers 14:20-23)

    God then chastened them and sent them to wander in thewilderness for forty years.   I have personally seen part of thatdesert land when I went to Israel in October 2002 and believe me it is barrenand 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 hadshown Himself to them in a mighty ways and had promised to give it to thembecause He loved them and wanted to use them as His witnesses to the lostworld.    But they would not believe Him  and becausethey would not believe God all the children of Israel who were twenty yearsold and older died in the wilderness.

        God’s testimony was not ruined by theirfailure.  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 atthat time possess the land.   They knew it was the failure of Israelto follow the Lord.    Joshua 2:10-11 records Rahab’s testimonythat 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 inearth beneath.”

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

    God promised to Joshua and Caleb they He would honor theirfaith 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 withhim, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereintohe went; and his seed shall possess it.”    

    What was the spirit that Caleb had that caused him towant 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 arebeing swept along with the crowd.   They attend church and theywant all the blessings of God.    They would give the sameanswers the Hebrews would if you had asked them if they believed God. They would had said “Yes.”    If you ask them did they wantedto possess the land of Canaan they would reply “Yes.”   

    But they really did not believe God and they too werebeing tested.     He tests our faith and commitment toHim.   Before God uses anyone to serve Him, He tests them to provetheir faith to real.   He weeds out the unbelievers.    Israel was tested at Kadesh-Barnea.  Before them lay the great blessingsof God.   Before then was a  beautiful and wonderful land where they could prosper, raise their families and live godly livesand 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 directionthey would follow.    Joshua and Caleb believed God and God’stest proved their faith that it was real.   They were ready toobey 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 willingto commit their lives, their families and their all to see the Lord’s workaccomplished.     It would be Joshua who was to lead the Childrenof Israel into Canaan and take possession of the land.   Throughhis leadership and obedience to God Israel would win great victories.  Caleb would be an important part of this and would be a testimony even untilthis very day of how God uses those who believe live by their faith.

    1 Corinthians 10:6 presents Israel in a negativelight and says they were examples to us and Verse 7 says they sat down toeat and drink and rose up to play.     This gives usgreat incite into what their sin was.   They were not at this openlyworshiping idols but God says they were in idolatry.   What theverse means is they were not seriously devoted to the Lord.   Theywanted God’s blessings, but they were not willing to work for the Lord.  They placed other things in their lives before the Lord.   Theiridolatry was what were their priorities.   There is nothing wrongwith eating, drinking or playing.   But what displeased God wasthat they had made these good things into idolatry by placing them beforethe 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 familiesof 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 wasministering to them as I should.    I explained to the pastorthat this couple only attended church about once every five to six weeksand then only on Sunday morning for the worship service.  They neverattended any other meetings of the church.   I explained that Ihad visited them and spent more time talking with them than any other ofour members.  Once when my wife called asking if anything was wrongbecause they had missed many services the wife said that she was so tiredon 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.  FriendsI 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 comeand worship the Lord.  The pastor said from what they said he suspectedthey were that type of people.    The problem was not withme as their pastor….the problem was with them and their lack of faithfulnessto the Lord.    No new pastor or new church can help suchpeople because the solution lies within themselves.    Manypeople are looking for some special counseling that will give them the solutionto their problems and they want some magical cure, but the only cure is tobelieve 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 firstplace and He will not take second place behind the idols we put before Himand bless us.   Colossians 1:18-19 says “that in all things hemight have the preeminence.  For it pleased the Father that in him shouldall fullness dwell.”  That passage is saying that we are to put Christfirst in everything because in Him is everything we need.

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

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

    This passages uses the verb “flee” which is a strong wordmeaning 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 thisdestructive sin.    

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