2010 European Bible ConferenceThis is an edited version of the lecture titled, "35th European Bible Conference" which was preached on October 13th, 2010 EveningBut the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins. "    (1Peter 4:7-8)Israel Resents GodWe will read from Numbers chapter 13 verse 1.And 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." So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. (Verses 1-3)Then, we will read from verse 24.The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." 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." 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 as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." (Verses 24-33)Last time, we studied passages from Exodus and Leviticus. The passages from the end of Exodus chapter 18 through Numbers chapter 11 are about how the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, arrived in the Wilderness of Sinai, and how the pillar of cloud hovered over the camp of the Israelites and began to move. The passage from Numbers chapter 13, which we just read, took place after the Israelites left the Wilderness of Sinai and entered the Wilderness of Paran.When we say, "forty years in the wilderness," we often think of only the Wilderness of Sinai. They received the Law on Mount Sinai, but the region in which the Israelites spent their forty years in the wilderness spanned over a larger area, and each place had a different name. The Israelites were first in the Wilderness of Sin, then in the Wilderness of Sinai, then in the Wilderness of Paran, and then they moved to the Wilderness of Zin, which had a similar name.About two years after the Israelites left Egypt, they were already quite close to the land of Canaan. Some people think that the Israelites wandered through a vast region, since they lived in the wilderness for forty years, but the places are not actually that vast. They say that today, it takes 7 to 8 hours to go from Egypt through the Wilderness of Sinai to Israel by car. About two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the Wilderness of Sinai. They received the Law on Mount Sinai, and when they offered a sacrifice for the first time, while in the Wilderness of Sinai, the glory of the Lord was manifested. (See Leviticus chapter 9) This happened within two years after leaving Egypt.In Numbers chapter 11, we read about the Israelites leaving the Wilderness of Sinai and going up north. The Israelites went up north and headed toward the land of Canaan, and when they were almost there, Moses chose one person from each of the twelve tribes and sent them to spy on the land of Canaan. Those who went to spy came back carrying a large cluster of grapes on a pole, and they said that the land of Canaan was a land where milk and honey flowed. Caleb, the leader of the tribe of Judah, urged them to go and strike the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, but other than Joshua - the leader of the tribe of Ephraim - and Caleb, ten of them opposed it, saying that the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were bigger and stronger than they were and that they would die.As a result of this difference in opinion, the fate of the grown-ups - older than the age of 20 - who crossed the Red Sea and entered the wilderness, was decided. We will read from Numbers chapter 14 verse 1.So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, 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!" (Verses 1-2)All the congregation cried all night and blamed Moses and Aaron. When they did not have food, the Israelites blamed them, saying that they had been happy when they had eaten bread and meat in Egypt. Also, when they were short on water, they complained, saying, "We are dying of thirst. It would have been better if we had died earlier."The voice of these Israelites is our voice. At least, the Israelites were actually in the wilderness, where they could have died, when they said this, but we are not even in such a situation and we complain as they did, don't we? We human beings complain for various reasons about what does not suit us. God plainly reveals this image to us through the Bible. As such, we find ourselves in the Bible, and as a result, we come to acknowledge what the glory of God is.Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?  (Numbers 14:3) Now the Israelites speak as if the Lord were their friend.So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt." Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, "a land which flows with milk and honey.' Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them." And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now....  (Numbers 14:4-10)The Israelites had left Egypt and they were headed toward the land of Canaan. It was God's command for them to enter the land of Canaan. Joshua and Caleb only stated what God had commanded them. Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim, must have been transporting the remains of Joseph. This was because Joseph's will was for his remains to be taken back to the land of his forefather. (See Genesis 50:24-25) The Israelites sprang forth as people in the land of Canaan, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived there. Joshua and Caleb stated the obvious and yet, the Israelites tried to stone them to death.This is what the people that have been born again by the words of the Bible, spread the Bible in the fellowship, and live according to the word have suffered for the past two thousand years. Jesus, who spread God's word, as it is, was also persecuted. At the time of the Early Church, a tremendous number of people were persecuted, and the apostles were also persecuted. As such, man has the heart that despises God's command being spread to them as it is. So, as we read in the Bible about the many people that compromised with the world, we come to consider how frightening it is to compromise with the world as we live our lives with the Bible.Joshua and Caleb said, "the LORD is with us," so were they wrong? When Moses passed on the law to the Israelites, the Israelites clearly said that they would keep all the words, but when Joshua and Caleb said that they could enter the land because the LORD is with them, they tried to stone them to death. They did not just say, "Stop the nonsense"; they actually took stones to kill them.God's glory was revealed to the Israelites And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. (Numbers 14:10)When they thought evil thoughts and the heart that wanted to deny God reached its peak, God's glory was revealed.We might think that God's glory is revealed only when good things happen, but that is certainly not the case. When we walk the path that we should not walk, with thoughts that are different from the words written in the Bible, God's glory may be revealed. The words, "shall fear your God" (see Leviticus 19:14), were not written in vain. When it says to fear, it means to be afraid. So, the Bible says, "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel" (Deuteronomy 17:19-20). When we turn aside to the right hand or to the left, God may reveal His glory as a form of reprimand. As we live in this world, when our thoughts or actions are wrong, then we may be disciplined. This is because God, who is in glory, reprimands us until the day He calls us.As such, when Caleb and Joshua confidently urged them to conquer the land of Canaan, the Israelites tried to stone them, and that is when God's glory was revealed.Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."God says to Moses that He would wipe out all the worthless people and make another nation of him.And Moses said to the LORD: "Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people; that You, LORD, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, "Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.' And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, "The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.' Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." Then the LORD said: "I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD ?because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea." And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, "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 this wilderness, all of you who were 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. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.  (Numbers 14:13-34)This was a horrifying incident.Was it because the Israelites feared the inhabitants of the land of Canaan that God made them wander in the wilderness for forty years? If you read the Bible, it says that the Israelites referred to God and said, "Why has the LORD brought to this land to fall by the sword" (Numbers 14:3). God rescued these people from the Pharaoh's soldiers, He had them cross the Red Sea, and He gave them manna and water. When the tribe of Levi first offered a sacrifice, the glory of God appeared, fire came down from heaven and burned the offerings on the altar. These people had seen all of this, and yet, they resented God. They even tried to kill their own countrymen that spoke about the land that God had promised to them. As a result, the Israelites ended up living in the wilderness for forty years. The number of days that the leaders of the twelve tribes had spied out the land of Canaan was forty.The number "40" comes up frequently in the Bible. Moses went up Mount Sinai, stayed there for forty days, and came down with the first stone tablets, but they were broken, and he went up Mount Sinai again, stayed there for forty days, and received the second stone tablets - which are later put in the ark of the covenant. These two stone tablets are shadows of the first covenant and of the second covenant. Jesus also spent forty days on two occasions. First, Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness and was tested by the devil. Just as the Bible says, "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, ..." (Isaiah 58:6), Jesus' fast was the true fast that God wanted. Before Jesus began to work, He fasted for forty days. Second, after Jesus resurrected and before He ascended into heaven, He was with the disciples for forty days and spoke of the matters of the kingdom of God. Jesus spent forty days two times. The first was in order to prepare for the death, and the second was after He had died and rose, in order to explain to the disciples the tremendous glory and blessing that would come to this world through His death. As such, whenever we have this number, "40," something new takes place.The Israelites spied out the land of Canaan for forty days, but they resented God, so each day that they spent spying was converted to a year, and they ended up wandering in the wilderness for forty years. God also said that among all the adults older than twenty years of age who came out of Egypt, would all die in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua are shadows of the Jews that lived in the Old Testament times, found Jesus Christ, received the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost, and continued on to the Age of the Church. They were the people that crossed the Red Sea, saw Moses' death, and entered the land of Canaan. Only these people were allowed to enter the land of Canaan, while others ended up dying after wandering in the wilderness for forty years.After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, while they spent forty years in the wilderness, on their way to the land of Canaan, the glory of the Lord appeared. It was because they resented God that they ended up spending forty years in the wilderness. God Himself said, "How long will these people reject Me?" (Numbers 14:11). They despised God and resented Him, so God's glory appeared, in order to reprimand them. He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years.Therefore, as we read these passages, we should reflect upon ourselves. When we experience difficulties and sorrow, we tend to resent God. We resent God in our hearts. I too look back on my past, and I wonder how I lived because I was not at eas

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