Three snapshots of our journey with God
Our theme is following the lead of the Holy Spirit. So I want to look today at three episodes in the Bible that illustrate what it means for us to follow God. There is one positive example, and one negative example, and then a look at just where we are going on our journey with God.
First, the good example, and that is Abraham. I mentioned the example of Abraham when I spoke about two months ago. We see it in Hebrews chapter 11, that Abraham set a great example of faith. Here is what it says:
Heb. 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Isn’t that a great example of faith, of following the lead of the Holy Spirit? Abraham was willing to obey God -- even though he did not know where he was going. Sometimes we have to do that too – we have to do what God is telling us -- even though we do not know where it will lead.
If I may use a current example, we might feel led to go on a mission trip even before we know where to go. Of course, it is important to be sure that we are hearing God correctly – but that is the subject for another sermon. In this case, we have the teachings of Scripture, opportunities that are in agreement with Scripture, and our relationship with God that says this is the appropriate thing to do. Maybe not the only thing to do – God often gives us options – but it is an appropriate thing for us to do. We think it will be a good experience for all of us.
But let’s get back to Abraham, and if we turn to Genesis, we will see that there is more to the story than what Hebrews tells us. The story begins in chapter 11 verse 31.
A guy named Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Ge 11:32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
So the story of Abraham begins with Abraham moving with his father and other relatives from Ur, in southern Iraq, to Haran, in eastern Syria. And it is in Haran that God enters the story – Chapter 12, verse one:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
Now, we aren’t really told when this happened. The NIV here makes it sound like it had happened earlier, but the Hebrew text doesn’t really say that. In the literary flow of Genesis, it happened after they moved to Haran. But notice that the family had already decided to go to Canaan. At that time in history, many people were moving in a westward migration from Mesopotamia to Canaan.
It was Terah who had decided to leave Ur and go to Canaan, and while they were on the way there, they decided to stop and live in Haran instead. So when God told Abraham to go further, he was actually leading him to a place that he had already wanted to go to. He had heard of Canaan, but he had not yet been there.
So when Hebrews says that he went out, not knowing where he was going, it is possible that he did not know that God was leading him to the place he had originally wanted to go to. Or perhaps he knew that God was taking him to Canaan, but it just means that he did not know it in the sense of having a full understanding of what Canaan would be like.
That might be like us today, knowing that we are going to the Navajo Indian Reservation, but yet really not knowing what it will be like, or what we are getting into. No matter what happens, we know we will learn and grow from our experiences there.
Episode 2: Israelites
Okay, so much for Abraham. Now let’s turn to another episode in the Bible that tells us how people followed what God said. In this case, the story is not as familiar, so we will have to read more of it. The story begins in Numbers 13, verse 1:
Nu 13:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”
Nu 13:3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran.
And to make a long story short. The 12 supplies, went to Canaan, investigated the land, and came back to the Israelites to tell them what they saw. Ten of the spies gave a discouraging report, but Joshua and Caleb encouraged the people to have faith in God. And in chapter 14 we see what the Israelites did:
Nu 14:1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
In other words, they were refusing to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, and God was angry with the people. In this case, the people knew where they were going, but they still refused to go with. They not only refused to walk by faith, but they also refused to walk by sight. They had carefully investigated and decided not to go. That happens to us today sometimes, too. We investigate the scope of the project and get intimidated by its size, when we would succeed, if we simply started in faith going one step at a time. Sometimes it is better if we don’t know what we are getting into.
And in verse 11, God said:
11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
But Moses interceded for the people in verse 13, as God no doubt knew that he would. Moses had already interceded for the people at Mount Sinai. God had threatened to kill all the Israelites who worshiped the golden calf, and Moses pleaded for God’s mercy, even offering himself as a substitute, foreshadowing in a way the sacrifice of Jesus. Here Moses intercedes again, this time using a different strategy with God.
Nu 14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O Lord, are with these people and that you, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.’
Nu 14:17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
So Moses was appealing to God’s honor and then his character as a merciful God.
Now, what can we learn from this? God had spoken, had declared what he would do, and Moses pleaded with him to do something different. That can happen to us today, too – if we think that God is leading us in a direction that we do not want to go, then we can plead with him to change his mind – but we’d better have good reasons for it, and we’d better willing to accept “no” for an answer.
But that’s not really my point today. I want to go further into the reaction of the Israelites.
First, let’s see what God said in verse 20:
Nu 14:20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers.
And so God sentenced the Israelites to wander in the desert for 40 years, and to die in the desert. Now what did the Israelites do? Verse 39:
Nu 14:39 When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. 40 Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned ,” they said. “We will go up to the place the Lord promised.”
Now, this looks like repentance, doesn’t it? God had told them to go to Canaan, and they refused. God was angry at them and threatened to punish them, so they said, OK then, have it your way. We will go to Canaan. They were doing what God had originally wanted them to do – but this was the wrong thing to do. Moses said in verse 41,
Nu 14:41 But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed! 42 Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, 43 for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”
And that is what happened.
Nu 14:44 Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.
Now, what lessons can we learn from this incident? First, that God’s plans can change. One day, God wanted the Israelites to go toward Canaan. The next day, he punished them for doing that very thing. His plan had changed, and so had the people, but they changed in the wrong way. And that’s true for us today. We do not obey God by obeying obsolete laws, or the rules of yesterday. God has a new plan for us, and new instructions, and that is what we are supposed to the following.
I think that another valid lesson we can draw from this incident is that we are to obey what God is telling us – not what he is telling someone else. We do not follow the lead of the Holy Spirit just by doing what other Christians are being led to do. We don’t just copy other churches – even successful churches. Rather, we should try to learn what God is telling us.
Just as God’s plan can change from one time to another, it can change from one person to another, and just as different spiritual gifts are given to different people, different spiritual tasks are given to different people as well. God may want us to do something similar to what other Christians are doing, or he may want us to do something different, and it is important for us to listen to what he is telling us. There is a big difference between following the lead of other Christians, and following the lead of the Holy Spirit.
And third, I would like to observe here that when we are walking with God, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t matter whether we know where we are going. These Israelites certainly knew where they were going – the problem was that they were not willing to do what God had said, when he said it. We need to respond to God when he talks to us, and not put it off for another day.
Episode three: our destination
The third part of my message today, I want to look at Hebrews chapter 12, because it tells us where we are going. we do not have to go out, not knowing where we are going, because God has told us where we are going. In fact, in Hebrews, it is presented as someplace that we have already arrived at. It is describing our future glorious reward as an already accomplished fact. Then in Hebrews, this heavenly reward is contrasted with Mount Sinai. But start reading in verse 18:
Heb 12:18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
No, we have not come to Mount Sinai, with its many threats for disobedience. The new covenant is about forgiveness, not punishment. We have not been called into a relationship with God in which we need to be afraid of him; rather, we are called to approach his throne with confidence, knowing that he will accept us because of Christ. Verse 22:
Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Here is our destination --- the heavenly Jerusalem, the place where we can all live with God. We have been invited to the heavenly banquet, the heavenly party, the heavenly rejoicing. We have been invited to come to a God, who has made people perfect through the intercession of Jesus Christ. It is this blood that speaks forgiveness, instead of vengeance. This is our destination. This is where the Holy Spirit is leading us--- we know where we are going. We may not know precisely when or how we will get there, but we know this is where we are going.
The challenge for us today is to see how our day-to-day steps fit into this journey to glory. We have to trust God, that he is leading us in the right way, that he is giving us the experiences that will help us arrive at this wonderful destination. We may not know how our particular pathway will bring us to the heavenly Jerusalem, but by faith we accept that it will.
As verse 25 says, Heb 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.
So there is a little warning here for us, that we need to be responsive to what the Holy Spirit says, that we need to have faith that he is leading us where we want to go, but the new covenant is a matter of confidence and not of fear. As the author said in chapter six, I am confident of better things for you, things that accompany salvation. Yes, there is a warning, but we also have good reason for confidence, that God will finish the work he has begun in us. And as our author concludes in verse 28,
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
We know where we are going, and God knows how to make sure that we will get there. We can have faith in that, and we exercise that faith from day-to-day as we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.