Numbers 13

Numbers chapter 13, we'll just read a few verses, starting at verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. Verse 17, And Moses sent him to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain, and see the land, what it is, and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds, and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not, and be of good courage, bring the fruit of the land.

Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended by the south and came unto Hebron, where Amman, Shishai, and Ptolemy, the children of Anak, were.

Now Hebron was built seven years before Zon and Egypt. And they came unto the brook of Eschol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they buried between two upon a staff, and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. Now just for sake of time, verse 28.

Nevertheless, 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. Verse 30.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to cover, to overcome it. But the men that went up with them said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And verse 33.

And 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. Now we know that God blesses the reading of his precious word.

You know the background of what we have read, the children of Israel were going up to the inheritance that God would give them. And you will also know that that inheritance really doesn't speak of heaven. You know, they went into the land, and there were enemies in the land.

And we read about giants and so on in the land. So it's not really a picture of heaven. We have an inheritance reserved in heaven for us that fadeth not away.

We are preserved for it and it's preserved for us. But the wilderness typical and type really is the present enjoyment of the things of heaven. That's what God wants us to do now.

And that's one reason why we have conferences. We want to enjoy things that lie before us and be encouraged as we travel through this wilderness world. And Moses, he sent these spies to spy out the land.

They were to go into the land, and they were to bring a report back to those who were traveling through the wilderness. And in a way, that's what the person would do that ministers the word, whether at the conference or at your regular meetings. We want to get something out of God's word.

That's how we enjoy what lies ahead. And we want to be able to encourage God's people, to refresh them. That's one of the things we need to be refreshed as we travel through this world.

So he sent them out and he said, you spy out the land and see what kind of a place it is. People are strong or weak or good or bad, they dwell in tents or strongholds and so on. But above all, he said, bring out some of the fruit of the land.

Now the grapes of Eskol, you likely know that a beautiful picture of what we read in Ephesians chapter one. And Ephesians is a book about the inheritance that we're going to reign over with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he said, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

We have the Holy Spirit of God, who is the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. In other words, he's saying, because you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you can enjoy some of the things that lie ahead. We can enter into them.

And this is what God wants us to do. And these men, they brought back a great bunch of grapes. It was so big, they had it on a pole.

And grapes, you know, of course, and the fruit of the vine, it speaks of joy. And they wanted God's people to be joyful. You say, but they're traveling through a wilderness and there's lots of pain in the wilderness.

And that's true. The product of the wilderness was the thorn bush. And it's still the same.

There's lots of pain for God's people. If you're younger and you haven't experienced them, be thankful, but you'll get older. And there's different ways that people can become discontent or disappointed or whatever, as they travel through the enemy's territory.

But at a conference time, their brethren can bring the grapes of Eskol to us. They can bring something that will refresh us and something that will really encourage our hearts. And these people, they would say, what a tremendous country we're going into.

Let's enjoy it now and look forward to what all the joy that there is in heaven, going to be wonderful when we're all home and all gathered together, all God's people from every corner of the globe and from denominations and assemblies and all kinds of, we'll all be together and we'll enjoy it. Are you enjoying it now? And then there were pomegranates. And if you've ever eaten a pomegranate, you open it up, you know, there's a lot of seed in it.

You can eat the seeds though, but it speaks of fruitfulness. And God would be reminding them, we need to be fruitful as we're going through the wilderness. And the fig that they brought, the fig speaks of sweetness.

In the parable of the fig trees in Judges 9, we were reading it the other day, the fig tree said, shall I leave my sweetness? It speaks of sweetness and grace. And this is what we administer to one another, to encourage one another as we travel through this wilderness world. But you know, there are difficulties.

We're not blind and there are hindrances. If the book of Ephesians is a book about the inheritance that God wants us to enjoy, you wouldn't be surprised that at the end of it, you need to hold the full, all the armor of God to fight against the wicked one, because Satan doesn't want you or me to enjoy the things of God. And he'll do everything within his power.

And these people, they said, there's giants. Why? There's things that are insurmountable. We can never enjoy this.

There's too many difficulties. Oh, but you know, there was a man called Caleb. You know what he did? He stilled the people.

It's good to have men like that. And sometimes maybe even women could be used of God to still the people. When there are difficulties that arise, even in assemblies, there are men that seem to be able to just calm things down.

Some of us could maybe make them worse. I hope we wouldn't do that. But I hope God would use us just to, that we might have peace in our assemblies.

We need to be unified. We don't need ministry or anything that's going to divide God's people. We're told in Ephesians four, isn't it? To keep the unity of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace.

We don't make it, but we keep it. That's what God wants. It doesn't matter.

The fact that we're from all different backgrounds and age groups and everything else, there should be peace among God's people. And conferences should, well, they usually do tend to make that. We enjoy the fellowship, don't we? Not just the ministry, but we enjoy meeting God's people again.

Some maybe we haven't seen since last year or some other time. It's great to be together with God's people. That's what strengthens us, to be with God's people and to be under the sound of the word of God.

And I'll just close with this. Don't ever think of the difficulties. When the children of Israel were coming into the wilderness, and you remember just before the manna was given, manna was given.

He said, look toward the wilderness. And what did they see? They saw the glory of God. They didn't see the difficulties.

They saw the glory of God. God's able and God's going to bring us all safely through. There's no doubt about that.

And the question that we could ask now at the end is this, how big are the giants? They said, well, I don't know how they knew it, but they said, we're just like grasshoppers in their eyes. How big are the giants? Big are the difficulties, the problems that we might have. Well, you know, the answer, another question, answer a question with a question sometimes, how big is God? The giants are nothing compared with God.

And God loves his people to be together and he wants to bless us. And if we can just keep in that spirit, what we need in God's assemblies today, more than maybe most things is a good spirit. If there's a good spirit, we'll get along together.

We'll not be taking sides or dividing or anything like that. We'll say it's a great place we're going to. Let's enjoy the things of heaven now.

The Hemrider put it well, the streams on earth, I've tasted more deep, I'll drink above. So may the Lord minister to us from his word, things that will encourage us, things that will build us up, things that will make us more fruitful and things that will make us more gracious. And if this would be the result of the conference, I tell you, it would be worthwhile, wouldn't it? So we trust that God will bless his word.

Amen.