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unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion have failed to en ter in. Back into the w ilderness they have gone, and how w retched the life! They can set th e ir seal to th is testi mony: “The rebellious dwell in a parched land.” (Psalm 6 8 : 6 , R. Y .). Is th is your experience, my read er? If so, tak e h eart, for it can be changed. Those who rebelled a t Kadesh- Barnea were not given ano th er chance to en ter Canaan. But it is different w ith us believers in th is dispensation of grace. If you will go by the rou te of 1 John 1:9 and Ro mans 12:1, 2, He w ill b rin g you in. If any rea d er of these lines is now facing th e Kadesh- Barnea crisis, we beseech you to close your ears to th e un believing cry of Num. 13:31-33, and listen to and act upon th is tru e testimony: “ If th e Lord delight in us, th en He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land whioh floweth w ith m ilk and honey. Only rebel not ye against th e Lord, neither fear ye th e people of th e land ; for they are bread for us: th e ir defence is departed from them , and th e Lord is w ith us: fear them no t,” (Numbers 14:8, 9). T he Story Of Two B rave Men. Num. 13:17; 14:9. Memory Verse.— “The Lord is w ith us: fear them no t.” Num. 14:9. Approach.— Children, what kind of stories do you like best, about people who are brave, or about people who are cowards? Yes, we all like to h ear about brave people. I t is not always easy to be brave and full of courage when we have to face hard things. T h at is ELEMENTARY why it is easier for boys and girls and Mabel L. Merrill grown up folks too, to be brave when they know Jesus and do th e things th a t are pleasing to Him, for then they know He is w ith them to help them in the h ard things. Let us bow our heads and th ank God for giving us Jesus to be our Sav iour to lead us and guide us, and to make us brave and strong every day. ■ Lesson Story.-—Now I am going to draw on the board a picture of a cloud, and on the ground under the. cloud the tabernacle, w ith lots and lots of ten ts and people, and this big m ark is for the m a n -whom God chose for the leader. Who can pu t th is picture in words? (Review la st week’s sto ry ). In our story today God’s people Israel have moved on from th e foot of Mt. Sinai and are n ear to Canaan, the land God promised to b ring them to. Moses told the people to go into th e land and take it for th e ir own, as the Lord had said they should. But th e people asked him first to send men as spies, who should go and search the land, and bring them word of what they saw there. Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe, and told them to look a t the land, and see w hat so rt of people liyed th ere; w hether they were few or many, and w hether they lived in ten ts or in cities w ith walls around them . Now listen and hear w hat Moses said to these twelve men; he told them not to fear, b u t to go and bring back also some of th e fru its of th e land. Then the spies went^ up into Canaan and walked th rough it from one end to th e other, for the Lord kept the people who lived th ere from doing them any harm . A t one place they found some grapes, and they cut off from the vine a branch w ith a single cluster. The cluster was so large, it took two men to carry it. They b rough t also some pomegranates and figs. They were forty days in going through th e land, and then they came back and showed the fru its they had brought. They said th e grain and th e vines grew well, and th e re was plenty to e a t and d rink; bu t th a t th e cities had walls around them , and were very great, and th e people were very strong. They
not see th e heavenly chariots and horsemen ranged on the hills round about. They saw th e giants, hu t were blind to Qo,d. The difference in th e two lay in this: th a t th e ten looked a t God th rough the difficulties, as when you look a t th e sun th rough a reversed telescope, and it seems in definitely d istan t and shorn of its glory; while th e two looked a t difficulties through God.—-F, B. Meyer. (V. 8 ) Of. I S :30 «The m inority rep o rt of the two spies was, 1. Real. The two did not deny the facts. They ad m itted it was an ascent and involved difficulty. But they ignored th e dangers and discouragements and dwelt upon th e delights (14 :7 -10 ). The encouragem ents to holy liv ing: Joy, peace, rest, comfort, fru it, rew ard, are constantly set before us in the Word. In Jesu s’ last words to His dis ciples He did say, “The world h ateth you,” and “They shall also persecute you,” and “ In th e world ye shall have trib ulation ,” bu t He told them of His coming again, of “ g reater works” even th an His, of answered prayer, of the F a th e r’s love, of His own peace, of the joy of abiding and fru it bearing, of His deathless love, of th e Com forter, th e Guide, th e Teacher. 2. Resolute. “ Go up a t once.” Delay in following God may be fatal, (Heb. 3 :13 ; Jas. 4:13, 14) and always adds to the difficulty. We are to “ redeem the tim e” (Eph. 5 :16 ; Col. 4 :5 ), buy up th e opportunity. When God opens a door and we refuse to go in, the door closes and we are sh u t out altogether or enter afte r long delay and heavy trials. A fterward when Israel would, they could not en ter in (14 :40 -45 ). This was not an arb itra ry decree; they had proved th e ir unfitness. 3. Rewarded. Long years afterw ard the two who brough t a good repo rt were abundantly recompensed (Josh. 14:6-15; Deut. 31:7; Josh. 1 9 :49 ). God never fails to rew ard the fidelity of His servants.— Selected. (29-34) The Consequences. The men th a t slandered th e land, th e ten men who brought the evil report, perished by th e plague. All th e re st of the "men over tw enty years old were to perish in the w ilderness during th e fo rty years of discipline of th e nation, and not one of them was to reach th e prom ised land, save only Joshua and Caleb (perhaps not including the Levites. cf. Num. 14:29 w ith Num. 1:45, 46 and Num. 26:63-65).— Peloubet. “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, tak en a t the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of th eir life is bound in shallows and in m iseries.”— Shakespeare. The topic for Young People and Adults in connection w ith this lesson is “The Crisis a t Kadesh.” A. crisis is a turning-point, afte r which things cannot be th e same as before. The passing of a crisis m arks a change for b etter or for worse. In business, the passing DEVOTIONAL of a crisis means bankruptcy or pros- COMMENT perity; in war, defeat for one side, John A. Hubhard victory- for the o th er; in disease, death or recovery; in th e sp iritu al realm it means a deeper, larger, fuller life, or th e going backward into a life of meagerness and dissatisfaction. F o r Israel, alas, it m eant th e latter! And for many a child of God since then it has meant the same. Think of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, on the very border of “ a good land, a land of brooks of w ater, of foun- tains and depths th a t spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pom egranates; a land of olive oil, and honey; a land wherein thou sh alt eat bread w ithout scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it.” (Deut. 8 :7 -9 ). Then con trast w ith th is th e life which they actually lived for th e following fo rty years— th e w ilderness life, a restless, dissatisfied, God-dishonoring life! This sad experience has been repeated in th e lives of a m ultitude of Christians. Like Israel, they have been re deemed by the blood of th e Lamb and th e power of God (see Exodus chapters 12 and 1 3 ); b u t when called of God to en ter a fuller, deeper experience— th e Canaan life— they have sh runk back, frightened by the “ gian ts" and th e seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and because of
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