436 – Israel at Kadesh – Barnea

SEMESTER 3

436 – Israel at Kadesh – Barnea

BIBLE INSTITUTEOF CORRESPONDENCE

COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY III LESSON # 36
ISRAEL AT KADESH-BARNEA

Read Num. 13:1-3, Num. 13:17 through Num. 14:45, Deut. 1:1-3.
Read also the narrative of MAJOR BIBLE EVENTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, lesson 36, page 73.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Kadesh-barnea is a very important place in the history of Israel, and an important symbol to us.
2. It was a place where God permitted their unbelief to alter the destiny of many of them.
3. While we know God’s decree was not altered, from every ex­perience and perceptible view their lives were.
4. Speaking hypothetically this is where Esau stood at Jacob’s vessel of pottage, and where Felix stood at Paul’s preaching.
5. Let us take heed lest our evil heart of unbelief makes us refuse the grace of God. (Heb. 3:10-19)
6. Let us view this historic event under four headings:

I. EVIDENCES WHICH SHOULD HAVE ENCOURAGED THEM

1. The natural mind seems to always cry “show us a sign.” Note Mat. 12:38-39.
2. The desire, requirement and respect of signs are all effects of unbelief. (Heb. 11:1-6)
3. These people had enough evidence by signs and wonders to give anyone assurance, if that were, in fact, God’s appointed means.

i. They had seen all the plagues and miracles in Egypt.
ii. They had the Red Sea experience.
iii. They had the pillar of cloud and fire every day.
iv. They had the quail and manna every day.
v. They had the cessation of the manna each week.
vi. They had multitudes of other miracles in the desert.

4. You see unbelief is never the result of ignorance or inexperience, it is the corrupt state of the human heart.

II. THE VISIBLE VERSUS THE PROMISE

1. God had promised them this land through Abraham, as well as through Moses.
2. Remember that a part of their family history in Egypt was the promise of returning to Canaan. (Acts 7:25, Gen. 50:24-25)
3. There can be no question that they fully understood God’s stated promise.
4. Contrary to faith, they, desiring to walk by sight, sent in spies to see how and if the job could be done.
5. Thus, they saw exactly what must be seen from the human point of view: impossibility.
6. Thus, in the night when they should have been filled with the praise of anticipation, they were overwhelmed with the lamenta­tion of defeat.

III. THE IMPLICATIONS OF UNBELIEF

1. Unbelief always pits our wisdom against God’s.
2. It denies the power of God to do what He purposed to do.
3. It denies the honesty of God, by implying that He promises what He cannot, or perhaps will not perform.
4. It denies the omnipresence of God, “I AM,” placing Him in time, as not having yet done that which He has purposed.
5. No overt act of sin, so graphically demonstrates the vileness of human depravity as his inherent unbelief.

IV. THE PENALTY FOR UNBELIEF (HEB. 3:10-19)

1. A life of unrealized goals, (living in the desert).
2. A constant slandering of God, demonstrating a statement of His unfaithfulness.
3. The loss of peace and victory, they could not enter into rest.
4. The refusal to give God glory by being used to demonstrate His power and holiness.
5. The loss of the temporal blessing of the “milk and honey” of this life.
6. Death in the desert of frustration and unfulfilled purpose.

III: Most men die without anything they lived for.