Distant Respect or Intimate Relationship

 

Text:

Numbers 13: 26-33

                  ²⁶And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. ²⁸Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. ³⁰And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. ³¹But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. ³²And 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. ³³And 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.

 

Ex 19:10

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, ¹¹And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

13-B   …when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

Ex 20:18-21

        ¹⁸And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. ¹⁹And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. ²⁰And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. ²¹And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

Here is God’s problem with the human race.

Ø He desires intimate relationship…

Ø They desire distant respect.

We thought their problems started when they believed the report of the fearful spies.

Ø We thought it was because they didn’t obey the good report.

Ø But the real problem that God had with the people he brought out of Egypt was that they would not draw near to Him.

He told Moses to tell Pharaoh that He wanted them to enter into the wilderness to worship Him.

Ø Instead they murmured.

Ø They complained.

Ø They doubted.

Ø They feared.

Ø And the whole time He was just wanting them to come near to Him and worship.

 

While Moses was drawing near to God they were backing up.

Ø Moses is getting a touch from God…They were getting as far away as possible.

Isn’t it amazing that while one person is doing everything they can to get closer to God…

Another is doing everything they can to get farther away!

I’m convinced they Satan works overtime to convince people that they should Fear God.

Ø Fear will keep you from experiencing Life’s most precious moments.

You see you will never have the faith to conquer giants if you don’t have

the faith to come near to God.

How you going to have faith to believe God for the miraculous if you can’t draw near to the mountain of worship.