Message Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. There were Twelve spies

a) They came from different tribes

b) They were leaders who were chosen for the task of spying out Canaan

c) Each one had “a different spirit”

2. Ten spies

a) Colluded with each other

b) They collaborated and conspired together

c) They now possessed a “common spirit” among them

i) A cowardly spirit

ii) A hostile spirit

iii) A disobedient spirit

3. Caleb and Joshua

a) They were now the minority

b) They would be outvoted by the majority

c) They had “a different spirit” from the Ten Spies

d) What was that spirit?

THE THREAT OF GOD

11 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?

12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:11-12

1. Assessment of the children of Israel

a) They had rejected the LORD

b) They had refused to believe in Him

c) Despite all the signs that had been performed

2. Judgment forewarned

a) God will strike them with a pestilence

b) He will disinherit them

c) He will start afresh a new line through Moses

3. The Intercession of Moses

a) He pleaded for Pardon

b) He appealed to the great and merciful nature of God

4. The Intercession of Moses was well-received

a) The children of Israel would not be killed

b) They would be spared

c) But God would have to deal with the Ten Spies directly

d) They had greatly and adversely affected the children of Israel

THE FINAL JUDGMENT RENDERED

20 Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;

21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord—

22 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,

23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.

Numbers 14:20-23

1. Pardon from destruction is granted

2. The glory of the Lord

a) The earth will be filled with His glory

b) Punishment would reflect His glory too

c) Pardoning the children of Israel would also bring glory to God

3. The Punishment to be meted out

a) The children of Israel who had seen the glory of God were guilty of iniquity

b) They had kept testing God (ten times)

c) They had not heeded His voice

d) They will not see the Promised Land

e) They will live out their days in the Wilderness

f) They will perish along the way

g) This was Divine Justice

MY SERVANT CALEB

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.

Numbers 14:24

1. Acknowledgment of Caleb

a) He is called “My servant Caleb”

b) God regarded him with honour

c) He had a different spirit

d) He had a spirit of a servant of God

i) Humble

ii) Hardworking

iii) Faithful

iv) This was “a different spirit” from the “common spirit of the Ten Spies

v) He had followed God fully

2. Honouring and Blessing Caleb

a) God will preserve him

b) He will bring him into the Promised Land

c) His descendants would be blessed because of his spirit of faith

CONCLUSION

1. Our challenge is to cultivate our spirit

2. Caleb’s spirit is truly worth emulating