Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you tuned in today. At Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you grow in your relationship with Jesus. That's why we share verse by verse Bible teaching that's both clear and practical, so you can live out God's truth wherever He's placed you, and you can stay connected beyond the broadcast when you sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical encouragement, exclusive content, and helpful resources to guide you deeper into God's Word, delivered straight to your inbox.
Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free. Sign up today at ConnectWithSkip.com. That's ConnectWithSkip.com.
Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. The cloud covered. The tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, from evening till morning, it was above the tabernacle, like the appearance of fire. Isn't this cool? You'd never have to question God's will or God's presence.
You'd never have to go out and say, "Go, I wonder where I should go today." Ah, nowhere until that thing moves, and then when that thing moves, you never have to say, "I wonder if I where I should go today." You should follow that.
So you were always assured of the presence of God, and that would be nice. That would be easy. I got to tell you something. We have something far better. We don't have guidance.
We have a guide who lives inside of us. The Holy Spirit is resident inside us, and even though you don't know it or see it, you go. Oh, it'd be so nice to see it. No, wouldn't. I mean, so what?
That's easy. We live by faith, not by what. Sigh. They saw it. We live by faith, but you are guided by God's GPS.
The Holy Spirit lives in you. More than guidance, you have the guide. They had the guidance.
So it was. Verse sixteen: The cloud covered it by day; the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after the children of Israel would journey, and in the place where the cloud settled, the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord, the children of Israel would journey. At the command of the Lord, inferring the command was signaled by the presence and movement of this cloud and fire, they would camp.
As long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped.
Now the Jews call this cloud. I know you've some of you've heard the term. Shout it out if you know it. They called this the The Shekhina—that's how most of us pronounce it. Shekhina is the correct pronunciation.
Impress your friends at dinner tonight after church. If you're going to dinner, talk about the Shekhina. Cover your mouth when you do it so you don't spoil the dinner or spread your cold around. Shekhina is an Aramaic term. Not a Hebrew term, an Aramaic term.
It is not found in the Old Testament at all. It is found in the Targums commentaries that were written in Aramaic. The Shekhinah is a word that means the residence. God is residing with them. Must have been incredibly exciting to be in that tent in your own tent, looking out when that thing begins to move.
It's like hot dog. We're on the move. We're going somewhere. We're heading out to that promised land. It was an adventure.
You never know exactly where it's going to go or how how long you're going to be going.
Well, how long do we go for, Mom? Don't know. When do we stop? Don't know. Are we turning right or left?
Have no idea. It was that kind of an adventure. Do you know that God has the right to do the same to you today? Didn't have to tell you what he's going to do. Didn't have to give you a map.
In fact, you can want one all you want. You can make a five-year plan and a ten-year plan. Ha ha ha! That's a Jewish proverb, by the way. Man makes plans and God laughs.
Life is an adventure. We never know exactly where, or when, or how. I think following Christ is the greatest adventure in the world.
Now, something about this shekinah. It may have only covered the tabernacle, or some think, and I tend to be among them, that it centered over the tabernacle and spread out. Why is that important?
Well, the desert of Sinai is like living in Phoenix in the summer without air conditioning.
So to have a cloud that's centered on the tabernacle and would spread out, that'd be nice. That's a temperature regulator. And at night, the desert can get cold in parts of the year.
So to have a fire that would warm it and light it, it's a great system.
Now in chapter ten, verse eleven, it came to pass on the twentieth day. Here's where it starts. On the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle of the testimony.
So this is twenty days after chapter one. They begin their journey, the book of journeys. They now begin to leave Mount Sinai and move. Toward the promised land, verse twelve. And the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sinai on their journey.
Then the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.
So when the cloud settles down in the wilderness of Paran, where do you camp that night? In the wilderness of Paran, right? You got you get an A on the test.
So they started out for the first time according to the command of the Lord, the hand of Moses.
So wow, they're off! Finally, they get moving toward the land. What they don't know is they won't get there for another 38 plus years. It's an 11-day journey. They're not going to get there.
They don't know this yet. They're not going to get there for another 38 plus years. Why?
Well, chapter 11 starts to reveal a problem among them. Verse 1.
Now, when the people, what they do, complained. There's a problem, verse one, chapter eleven.
Now, when the people complained, have you ever heard a complaint? Have you ever known a person who complains? Are you a complainer? When the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it, and His anger was roused. They complained.
Get used to this word. If you read the book of Numbers, it's used a lot. Why do they complain? What is the source of the problem? Verse four.
Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to the intense craving, so the children of Israel also wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? I want a hamburger. Excuse me. I want a lamb burger. That's right, Jewish, not a hamburger.
I want a lamb burger." I want chicken fillets. I want with garlic and stuff. I want what we had in Egypt—all the frills, the cucumbers. I want the happy meal. I don't want this unhappy manna from heaven.
Even though it had protein in it, it gave them all the nutrition so that they would not get the diseases that you would get with a diet typically of the same thing over and over again. But they didn't like it. They wanted meat. God will answer that prayer by giving them in the next chapter quail to eat more than they can even handle. But they say, "Who will give us meat?" Now, who is this mixed multitude?
It is the product of mixed marriages: Israelites and Egyptians. Apparently, these were the offspring. They had a parent in Egypt and a parent among the children of Israel. They weren't fully Jewish. They weren't fully Egyptian.
They had enough Egyptian in them to like Egypt and want that back. They had enough Jewish in them to want to go to Canaan. But here's what happens, and here's why they complain: they start forgetting how bad it used to be. They start forgetting about their slavery. They have selective memory disorder.
You know it is that way. We look back to the old days. Yeah, I remember how cool that was back then. I used to have friends who they were saved like me in that whole Jesus movement era, and I remember one night, couple of them said, "Gosh, remember how cool it was when we used to like party and stuff?" And I turned to him and said, "You got to be kidding, right? You you don't remember some of those parties probably because you were so soust." But I remember picking you up after you vomited.
And you're talking about what a great party that was. You have selective memory disorder. We can get that. They got that. They're so nostalgic, talking about the good old days.
Listen, the good old days is nothing more than a good imagination and a bad memory mixed together. That's what that is. Because guess what? I bet in the good old days you complained even then. Once you look for problems, you start missing blessings.
So they complain, and the complaining spreads through the camp. It is contagious, by the way. Doubt and complaint are contagious. It spreads through the camp, even into the very home of Moses himself, with his sister and his brother infected by this complaining virus. Verse one of chapter twelve.
Then Miriam and Aaron; these are leaders. They have seen the wonders and miracles of God. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses. Because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, so they're bummed out because is who he chose to be his wife, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Now, who is this Ethiopian woman?
Some think, well, this is his wife, Zipporah. We know that from the Bible. His wife was named Zipporah. Trouble is, she's a Midianite woman. Zipporah was from Midian.
That's an of Arab descent. This is somebody from Ethiopia.
So, this is probably the wife he married after the death of Zipporah. The in-laws don't like her all that much. They complain, and they, it says in verse two. And so they said. Here's their complaint: Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?
Has He not spoken through us also? They've tasted enough of leadership to think we can be in charge. And it says, "And the Lord heard it." Mark that. Just like before, their complaints. The Lord heard it.
The Lord heard it. The microphone's always on. I have a microphone right now, right here. This is me doing it right here. It's kind of fun to do it.
And afterwards, I'll turn it off. Have you ever seen or heard of politicians who they don't know the microphone is on after the rally, and they say some things that kind of ruin their reputation? And what we need to realize is that the microphone is always on. In that, the Lord always hears what we say, and doesn't just sit by idly when we say it. He'll respond to that.
Now, verse three is interesting because it says, "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth." Who wrote this book? No comment. This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Want to understand your Bible better without getting lost in all the details? Pastor Skip Heitzig's new devotional, Soaring Above It All, takes you through the entire Bible in one year, giving you the big picture perspective you need to see how God's story fits together.
Each day offers biblical truth, practical application, and encouragement to help you grow in your knowledge of Scripture and deepen your walk with the Lord. Request soaring above it all is our thanks when you give fifty dollars or more today to help more people know God deeply through His Word. Give at connectwithSkip dot com slash offer or call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight.
Now let's return to today's teaching. But here's the point of this: if God chose Moses, and He did. And the people are complaining against Moses, and they were. Then, effectively, who are they complaining against? God.
They they they have to blame God. That's what really what they're doing. God chose him unmistakably, miraculously. In complaining against that chosen leadership, they are complaining against God.
Now David knew better. Later on, David, King David, before he was king, was being chased by Saul, the king, and when he had the chance to kill him, he wouldn't do it. Remember the story because he said he wouldn't touch God's anointed. He had respect for the office. He wasn't a perfect man.
He was a sinful man, but David respected the office enough to know you don't touch God's anointed. Miriam and Aaron did, and they complained. The Lord heard it, and so Miriam, after the shakina lifts, you look at her and she's white, look like she had leprosy, white like snow. Moses, instead of like folding his arms, like a lot of us are gonna go, serves you right, and kind of smiling and watching her get all embarrassed as she goes to the camp looking like an albino, he prayed for her. He prayed that the Lord would heal her.
Graciously, he prayed, and the Lord answered his prayer.
Now, in chapter thirteen, God gives a directive for Moses. Remember, they're making this journey; they've had their first encampment.
Now he has an order. He is to follow. Chapter thirteen, verse one: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel from each tribe of their fathers." You shall send a man, every one a leader among them. The mission was to go out to the land of Canaan from Kadesh Barnea on a reconnaissance mission to determine the nature of the land, the strengths and weaknesses of those who were inhabiting the land. Is the soil good?
Is not so good? What's the fruit like? How's farming? Are there cities? Are they big cities, small cities?
Do they have walls? Are they unprotected? Are the people big, small? Just give us a rundown on that.
So, they were sent out. The twelve, one from each tribe, twelve ambassadors went out. Verse twenty-five, chapter thirteen, and they returned from spying out the land after forty days. Go down to verse twenty-seven. Then they told him, "They're back.
We went to the land." Where you sent us, it truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Between two men, they carried back an enormous bunch of grapes from an area called Eshkol, by the area of Hebron, beautiful area down in Judea. They were massive. It took two men to carry this bunch, and they brought it back. If you go to Israel today, you will see cars driving around Israel with a sign on the side, a picture of two men carrying grapes.
To this day, that is the symbol of the Ministry of Tourism for the State of Israel. Remembering this reconnaissance mission, when they came back and they brought the grapes, so they had the evidence. They brought the fruit.
Now you would think in this report, everybody's going, "Yes, hallelujah, hallelujah!" Their faith is increasing. Right about now, you hear this report, you're really jazzed. But the fruit gets offset by fear. Watch this, verse twenty-eight. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land, their report continues, are strong.
The cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there, the Anakim, large people, gigantic people. Verse thirty. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses. And said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." But 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." Now I have a question to ask you right here: Is the majority always right?
Now remember that we live in a country majority rules. It does. Majority rules. We live in a country that's a democracy. The majority always rules, but is the majority always right?
No. They may rule, but they may be wrong in their rule. The majority was wrong in this case, and two of the people said, "We can do it." You know, faith is contagious, but so is fear.
So be around people who are filled with faith, not people who are filled with fear, or people who are filled with complaining. If you're around those people, you'll get fearful, you'll tend to complain, you'll get angry, you get narrow, you get bitter. Hang out with people who believe God can do great things. That also is contagious. Verse 32.
And they gave the life's just too short to hang around grumpy people. Verse 32. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report. Of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, espies, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw are men of great stature." There we saw the giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants.
Now they already said that, but it's like, hey, did you know there are giants here? Yeah, you told us.
Well, they're big. That's just like first and foremost in their little noodle. And look at verse thirty-three, the end. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. And what's the last little phrase?
And so we were in their sight.
Now they're wrong. The first is right. The second is wrong. We're like grasshoppers in our sight. That part is right, and we were in their sight.
That part is wrong, and I'll show you why. Hold on to that thought. It all depends on how you look at things. They said we're like grasshoppers in our own sight. It all depends how you look at it.
Joshua and Caleb were looking at a big God. The ten spies were looking at a big giants, big men. Big God. When you look at a big God compared to a God, they're little guys. Who what?
So what? But if you leave God out of it, then on Earth it's huge. It's insurmountable. You can't overcome it. It's too big.
It's too hard. Depends on how you evaluate life.
Now I said the first part is right. The second part is wrong. Notice that he says we were grasshoppers in their sight. That was wrong. How do we know that?
Well, thirty-eight years, ten months later, they get to the edge of the Jordan River. Moses dies.
Next leader is Joshua. Joshua brings them through. The first city they go to is Jericho. There's a lady there who's a prostitute named Rahab. See, you know your Bible so well.
You should just give the Bible study.
So Rahab is there. Takes two spies. Moses sent twelve spies. Joshua sent two spies. Why do you send two?
Who cares about the ten? They brought a bad report. All you need is two good ones.
So just send two.
So he sends two spies. They talk to Rahab, and Rahab tells them the truth. Listen to what Rahab says. You know the fear of you, Israelites, has fallen upon all of us. Our hearts are melting in terror because of you.
That's what they were really thinking. The giants and the inhabitants of Canaan were fearful at the children of Israel. Children of Israel thought. It's the other way around. We're fearful because they're so big.
God put terror in the hearts of the enemies. Never underestimate what God can do. When you face an enemy and you think that giant is so big, those people are so huge. This is a big trial. I can't handle it.
You don't know what God put in the heart of the other guy, and God did that here. They just didn't know it. Chapter fourteen. After the report comes back, it's time to make a decision.
So it goes out for a vote. Interestingly enough, all in favor of going into the promised land, two. All in favor of staying back here and just like hanging out in the dirt, ten. Verse one.
So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night and. The children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. Complained. There's that word again. And the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness." And if I were Moses, I would have said, "Amen." Wish that would have happened.
Be a whole lot easier. Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword? That our wives and our children should become victims. This is a person of faith.
Now using your kids as a scapegoat for your lack of faith. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?
So they said to one another, "Let's select a leader and return to Egypt." Now they pretend to be thinking about the safety of their kids. Actually, their complaint is a reflection on God. What they're saying is God doesn't care about our kids. That's what the complaint really says. God won't take care of our children.
God won't take care of my. He didn't care about our kids.
Now they're blaming Moses for it.
So they complain because their children are vulnerable. Question: Because you know your Bible so well, who entered the land? Their kids, not them. They're all going to die in the wilderness. The kids that they're so worried about, because God didn't care.
They're the ones that are going to get the land. Old folks sat there, cried, and died.
So, what's the result of all this? The result is judgment. Verse twenty-seven: God said, "How long shall I bear?" With this evil congregation who complain against me, God takes it personally. I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against me. Say to them, Mo.
He's talking to Moses here. As I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you. The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in the wilderness. All of you who are numbered according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above, except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. If only we would have died in the desert, God said, I'm writing that down.
That's what's going to happen to you. You got your prayer answer. Put an amen onto that, and you'll die. We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget about Pastor Skip's brand new devotional, Soaring Above It All.
This one-year devotional gives you a panoramic view of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, helping you better understand God's Word and stay engaged with it every day. Request your copy as our thanks when you give fifty dollars or more to help bring clear Bible teaching to people around the world. Give today at connectwithSkip dot com slash offer or call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. See you next time. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
What if your next trip didn't just take you somewhere new, but brought Scripture to life? Join Skip and Lenya Heitzig for an unforgettable tour of Israel, April 5 through 16, 2027. Walk the streets of Jerusalem, sail the Sea of Galilee, stand at the Jordan River, visit the Garden Tomb, and experience the places where Jesus lived, taught, died, and rose again. Along the way, enjoy powerful teaching, worship. Fellowship and the opportunity to attend the Episenter Summit in Jerusalem, featuring Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, and Graham Lotts, Jack Graham, and other respected Christian leaders.
Visit Israel, strengthen your faith, experience the Bible like never before. Learn more and reserve your place today at connectwithskip.com/israel.
