The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea

1. Study of Numbers
Class 5
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea

2. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 Egypt tipifies the world with it’s slavery, but Canaan
tipifies the abundance of the Christian life.
 Between Egypt and Canaan lies the desert. The desert
tipifies the Christian life lived in the flesh, according to
self effort.
 We all pass through the desert and have to face the
crisis of entering Canaan; the crisis of faith and
dependence, the crisis of Kadesh-Barnea.

3. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 In Kadesh-Barnea, Moses sent twelve spies to spy out
the land and bring back a report. All of them testified
that in fact the land was good, and flowed with milk and
honey.
 However they suggested some problems: the people
who live there were powerful and they lived in fortified
cities. Instead of looking at the inheritance that God
was giving them, the spies focused on the enemy and
on themselves.

4. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 We are what we say we are and what we perceive
ourselves to be. If we see ourselves as weak, then we
are weak; if we see ourselves as grasshoppers, that is
what we will be.
 The spies looked at themselves and not to God and to
who they were in God. Their report dishonored God.

5. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 In 14:36, we read that the 10 spies who did not believe
God’s Word were struck with a plague before the Lord.
They died because they lead the people in unbelief.
 We as leaders must be very careful not to lead the
people in dismay because of our words. We must be
like Joshua and Caleb who spoke words of faith,
challenging the people to submit to God and conquer
the land.

6. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 If we read the whole story, we will see that Caleb
entered Canaan, defeated the Anakim and took
possession of the land. In Joshua 15:14, we read that
Caleb saw the Giants, but did not fear them. The others
however died in the desert because they saw
themselves as grasshoppers.
 Why couldn’t the people enter the land? Simply
because they had a grasshopper complex.

7. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
1. The grasshopper complex
 a. Unbelief
 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." Numbers 13:31
 The great problem of those who remained in the desert
is that they doubted God’s Word.

8. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 God said that they were strong, but they insisted on
looking at their weakness. God says that Christ already
bore their infirmities, but they insist on looking at the
sickness. God said that they were already freed from sin,
but they insist on trying to overcome sin in their own
strength.
 They don’t believe in God’s promises therefore they live
in defeat.

9. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 These people are not defeated by the giant of
circumstances, but by the giant of doubt and unbelief.
 The 10 spies succeeded in contaminating all the people
with their unbelief, in such a way that all of them were
poisoned in rebellion against the Lord. They wandered in
the desert for 40 years because they listened to the
wrong people.

10. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
b. They looked at themselves
 The second problem was that they looked at the problem
and not to God. All those who walk in the flesh are
introspective, they look at themselves too much.
 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." Numbers 13:31

11. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 These men doubted God’s word and God’s power and
only saw obstacles. They took their eyes off the Lord and
look at themselves and their circumstances. They acted
just as Peter who instead of looking to the Lord began to
look at the waves and the wind (Matthew 14:30).

12. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 They perceived that the cities were great and fortified
and that their inhabitants were stronger than them,
however they were not greater than the Lord. The Lord
would fight for them and give them the victory.
 When you face problems, look not to yourself nor to the
problem, but to God. We must look to what God is, what
he has and what he can do.

13. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
c. They spoke evil of the land
 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 Numbers 13:32

14. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 We commit a grave mistake when we diminish or
despise our birthright as Esau did. It’s terrible when we
conclude that our inheritance in the Lord is nothing. This
is what the 10 spies did: they despised the inheritance of
the Lord.
 When the people are contaminated with the virus of
unbelief they speak evil of God’s promises. They make
little of God’s blessings and begin to declare defeat.

15. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
d. They were ignorant of their identity
 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." Numbers 13:33
 We all know the story of the people of Israel. How they
were enslaved in Egypt and how the Lord freed them
and lead them to the desert.

16. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 The Lord wanted to change their identity. God did not
want cleansed Egyptians nor freed ex-slaves, he wanted
them to be his holy people full of his heavenly nature.
 But instead of this they declared themselves
grasshoppers compared to the Giants and for this
reason they were unable to enter the land because
grasshoppers cannot enter into the inheritance.

17. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 They failed to receive their inheritance because they
failed to recognize who they were. They still had the
mentality of slaves therefore they saw themselves as
grasshoppers. Those spies were princes, but they saw
themselves as insects under the boots of the giants.
 They felt despised before the giants and the
circumstances that in their unbelief, they saw in the land.

18. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 Who said that the enemy’s saw them as grasshoppers?
In their unbeliefthey gave place to the lies of the devil.
 The great problem of God’s people is not knowing who
they are. If I don’t know who I am, I will easily fall before
the threats of the enemy, but if I am aware of my
strength, my weapons and the power that is within me, I
will fill myself with courage and destroy my enemies.

19. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 Many Christians miss God’s best because they know
neither who they are nor what they can do in Christ.
 The spies were still slaves, they had the mentality and
the self-esteem of a slave.
 When you face problems, look neither to yourself nor to
the problem, look to God.
 Look to who God is;
 To what God has;
 To what God does.

20. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
e. They claimed defeat
 The power of life and death is in the tongue. We will
have what we speak. Words are seeds. Spoken words
are spoken seeds, and repeated words are watered
seeds.
 They confessed that the people of the land were
stronger than them, they claimed that it was impossible
to conquer the land. They also said that they were like
grasshoppers.

21. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 We must learn to confess only what God says that we
are, what God says that we can do and what God says
that we have.
 The truth is not what I see, nor what I feel, nor what
others say about me. The truth is what God says.

22. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 It is sad to be saved from Egypt and live a miserable life
in the desert. Many Christians today have in fact left
Egypt but they have never experienced God’s
abundance in Canaan.
 God repudiates unbelief. The people did not fail to enter
into the land because of their murmuring, but because of
their unbelief. If the Lord said it, we must believe it.

23. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
2. The consequences of the grasshopper complex
 The attitude of the 10 spies deeply influenced the
people. The same occurs today when unbelieving
leaders speak among the people. Remember that
because of the sin of the leaders, the whole nation
suffered.

24. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
a. Desperation
 Unbelief always removes all hope. In Numbers 14:1 we
read that the people cried all night long (Numbers 14:1).
 Their cry was not one of brokenness, but of unbelief and
desperation, the cry of those who are unable to see any
solution.

25. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
b. Ingratitude and murmuring
 All murmuring is related to ingratitude. We begin to
complain when we forget everything that we have
received. In Numbers 14:2 we read that all the children
of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron (Numbers
14:2).

26. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 In that moment they had forgotten the terrible life that
they had in Egypt as slaves and even said, “If only we
had died in the land of Egypt!” (Numbers 14:2).
 It’s hard to believe that within 15 days they could have
been in Canaan, but instead they wandered through the
desert for 40 years.

27. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
c. Desire to return to Egypt
 The people said: “Would it not be better for us to return
to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:3). The people forgot God’s
benefits and the beatings of the taskmasters of Egypt.
 The natural result of unbelief is a return to the world. If
we mistrust God’s faithfulness, the only thing left is to
return to Egypt.

28. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
d. Rebellion
 “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (Numbers
14:4). Contaminated by the spies the people wanted
other leaders to lead them back to Egypt. All rebellion
against God is revealed in rebellion against leaders.

29. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 Unbelief is at the root of every sin, principally the sin of
rebellion. If we doubt God’s Word then there is no
reason to submit to him.
 Obedience is the result of faith.
 When people refuse to change normally they seek to
change their leaders or their church.

30. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
e. God’s discipline
 They failed to obey God’s voice (Numbers 14:22) and
ended up despising his purposes (Numbers 14:23). So
God changed the direction of their pilgrimage (Numbers
14:25). They had to wander through the desert for one
year for each day that they spied out the land (Numbers
14:34).

31. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
 That generation would fail to enter the land of Canaan
(Numbers 14:29,­31). God’s sentence against them is
that they would not have that which they had despised.
He gave them what they called for: death in the desert.
 Joshua and Caleb entered the promised land (Numbers
14:24, 25). They trusted God, and God honored them.
God wants us to live in the promise land and not in the
desert. We are princes and not grasshoppers.

32. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
3. How to overcome the grasshopper complex
 Evidently we have to follow the path of Joshua and
Caleb. They dared to believe in God’s promises, they
saw the Giants not as unbeatable enemies but as bread
to be devoured.
 The 10 spies felt too small and saw themselves as
grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb saw themselves as
unbeatable.
 But there is even more that we can see in their attitude.

33. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
a. Brokenness before God
 Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and Joshua and
Caleb rent their clothing (Numbers 14:5, 6).
 To fall on one’s face and rip one’s clothing are biblical
signs of brokenness and humiliation before God.

34. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
b. Stand on the promise of God
 “The land we passed through to spy out is an
exceedingly good land” (Numbers 14:7). We must not be
influenced by the commentariese, criticisms and
epidemic of unbelief. On the contrary, we must stand on
God’s Word placing all of our confidence on it.

35. Study of Numbers – Chapters 13 and 14
The crisis of faith in Kadesh Barnea
c. Follow God’s will
 “If the Lord delights in us...” (Numbers 14:8). God is
pleased with those who believe and do his will. When
God is pleased with his people he makes them
unbeatable.
 “ ... The Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers
14:9). Our victory does not proceed from our strength,
but from God’s power within us. “only do not rebel
against the Lord” (Numbers 14:9).