Four reasons why we must not be afraid

Deuteronomy 1:29-31 (ESV)
Then I said to you, ''Do not be in dread or afraid of them. [30] The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, [31] and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.''

Moses in this passage gives several reasons why Israel "should not be in dread or be afraid of them". Firstly, the LORD their God went before them. Our God is like an army that goes before us, to prepare a way for us, to be as a 'buffer' for us, protecting us from heading straight into harm. Our God always goes first, and surveys the area for us, so that we can follow Him by the way that He paved for us. He is our Commander, our General, our Captain, our Leader who goes first. We never have to lead the way, or seek out a place for God to stay. For He does it all, and He knows where He ought to go:
Matthew 26:17-19 (ESV)
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" [18] He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ''The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.''" [19] And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

We ought to be so glad that we have a God who "goes before us". It is a great comfort to know that we don't have to face the future first, but God faces it for us first. Our God holds our future in His hand, as the scroll in heaven in which is written whatever will happen in the future:
Revelation 5:1 (ESV)
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
God has written His future for us and how our days will be spent even before we were born:
Psalm 139:16 (ESV)
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Knowing this, we have great assurance that all things will work for the good for us whom He has chosen, who loves God:
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
And the next verses in Romans explain what this "good" is. It is becoming like Jesus Christ. There is no other "good":
Romans 8:29-30 (ESV)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30] And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God has predestined us whom He has chosen to be conformed to the image of His Son. This is the glorification God has destined us His children to receive. This is the future that God has mapped out for each of us whom He foreknew.

Jesus Christ our God has gone before us:
Mark 14:28 (ESV)
But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."
He has gone before us to heaven to prepare a place for us:
John 14:2-3 (ESV)
In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus Christ has also gone through the fire of suffering before us, so that we may also follow Him, and go through suffering as He did, that we may be glorified with Him:
Mark 10:38-39 (ESV)
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" [39] And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized
Romans 8:17 (ESV)
and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Knowing that Christ has gone before us and suffered before us, it gives us great courage for the suffering that is waiting us by God's grace. It makes our pain bearable, because we remember the greater pain that Christ suffered, for us. It makes us not to be afraid of suffering, for we know the greater glory that awaits us in our resurrection, as it was given to Christ:
Romans 8:18-19 (ESV)
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Let us then hold fast to the Gospel, which shows our Lord's path that He walked, and let us walk in that same path of suffering to glorification.

Second argument Moses gives makes is that "God Himself will fight" for them. Moses is saying, in effect, 'HE will do the fighting, through you. Just offer yourselves to God as weapons through faith'. This agrees with this verse:
Romans 6:13 (ESV)
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

We are the ones doing the fighting, but it also will not be us, but it will be God, if we offer bodies to God as a living sacrifice. We are like a sword that is in the hand of a Mighty Warrior. A sword does not fight the war himself, as though it has life. By no means: it is DEAD. In another example, a musical instrument does not play itself, as though it was the musician. But the best it can do is to be still, and to yield itself to a great Musician. Likewise, through our deadness to our selves, God will work through us. To understand this mystery, this word helps:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

God Himself fighting for us also means that the battle will be a spiritual one, in the unseen realms, and thus through God's Spirit alone we shall be victorious:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. [5] We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, [6] being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Because the battle is spiritual, but since we are but flesh, we cannot fight the battle at all ourselves:
Romans 7:14 (ESV)
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
When Israel was in Egypt, the battle was to break Pharaoh's hardened heart that he may let go of Israel. No one could do this spiritual work but God. Likewise, when we are struggling with sin, we must realize that the battle is beyond our ability. It is impossible to suppress our sin by modifying our outward behaviour. This is an INWARD work that must be done by the Holy Spirit. He must melt our hearts and He must free us from the chains of our sins. Christ alone has the keys to take us out of the prison. He alone has the Blood that can cleanse us from all our sins.

When Israel later did invade Canaan, was it because of Israel's great military strategy that defeated the great armies of giants? No. God had gone first by His Spirit, and disturbed the spirits of the Canaanites that they had no left strength within them at all. As Rabab testifies:
Joshua 2:11 (ESV)
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
It was a spiritual battle, and God was doing the fighting with their spirits before Israel had fought them in the flesh. Could Israel have done this? Impossible. It was the working of God. The realm of the impossible is the spiritual realm. Therefore we must put our trust in the God alone in our spiritual battles, knowing that we are spiritually invalid apart from His Spirit. Therefore it is written:
1 Samuel 17:47 (ESV)
For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand.
God Himself will fight for us our spiritual battles, and our job is to entrust ourselves to Him. We must depend on Him in prayer, being humble and knowing that apart from the Spirit we are nothing.

Just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. In this third argument that Moses makes, he appeals to victories that God wrought for Israel in the past. Memories of what God has done in the past for us should give us great courage for similar troubles we face in the future. God had destroyed Egypt before Israel's eyes, so they may see and remember God's salvation whenever they found themselves in trouble. If God had saved them with great salvation, what will stop Him from saving them from smaller troubles? We Christians must also remember how they were rescued from the world, sin and the fate of hell by such a great salvation and power. If we were so rescued from the Kingdom of darkness and slavery and sonship to Satan, why should we be afraid or anxious of minor captives that hold us? God will rescue us from them all, if we remember our salvation, and trust again in God's salvation.

And we have assurance since God does not change, and is forever the same:
Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
If He saved us yesterday, He will save us today, and He will save us forever by His eternal life. If He gave us strength in the past, He will continue to give us strength. If He has loved us in the past, He loves us today and will love us forever. Whatever Christ has done for us yesterday, we know that He will do for us now and in the future. Therefore our past walk with Christ gives us great confidence to face today and tomorrow. We don't know what troubles we are going to face today and tomorrow, but we rest assured, because we know our God, that He is immutable, and that He can deliver us from every situation. It is because of God that we take courage, because of the certainty of His faithfulness, that we can face the uncertainties of life.

And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son. Fourth argument that Moses makes for Israel to not be fearful was that God was their heavenly Father. God, as a Father, has fed them, given them water, clothed them and provided shelter for them, defended them and disciplined them in the wilderness. They were being cared for, as a babe is cared for in his father's arms. They were indeed but a babe in a Father's arms. What were they afraid of? Just as God had carried them up until this point, He was going to carry them all the way inside the promised land. He would indeed always carry them, even unto their old age, as it is written:
Isaiah 46:4 (ESV)
even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

What the Spirit is saying is, then: we will never outgrow from being a baby in God's arms. We will never cease to be God's children, and He will never cease to be our Father. In this world, we are dependent of our fathers until we reach a certain age, then we become adults, independent from our parents, able to sustain ourselves without their help. And later it is US that need to help our fathers, and to carry our fathers since they become old and fragile. But not so in the case of our relationship with God our Father. There will never be a time when we come so mature that we no longer need to depend on God for help. We will never reach a point where we will become self-sufficient that we don't need God to provide for us. We will forever be carried and cared for and fed and provided for by God our Father. We will grow, for sure, but we will also always be little children in God's sight. We will never outgrow God, since God is eternal. Neither will God grow old that He needs to be carried by us, for He is immortal and dwell in eternity. Hence God is called our EVERLASTING Father, we being His everlasting children:
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

All the way that you went until you came to this place. God had been carrying Israel from the moment they came out of Egypt, all the way in the wilderness until they had come to the land of the Amorites. But now Israel's problem was that they were refusing to be carried by God any further. If they had continued to entrust themselves to God, their fight with the Canaanites would have been like as easy as a baby being carried in the arms of a father. But Israel refuses to be carried, since they see themselves as they see themselves as adults and see fit to carry themselves, they are refused entry into Canaan. Only those who humble themselves and are converted to be children will be carried by God into the Kingdom of God:
Luke 18:16-17 (ESV)
But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. [17] Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

Pride is the fruit of unbelief that hinders people from entering into the Kingdom of God. Pride is the opposite of faith, this idea that one does not need to depend on God. Pride is destructive: it is like a baby that hates being in the arms of his father, exposing himself to the dangers of being outside the father's protection. Faith is humbling, because it is relying on the power of another, but it is what keeps us in the safety of God's arms.

If we have once placed our trust in Jesus Christ to save us, then we ought to keep on trusting in Jesus Christ to save us. This first generation of Israel trusted Him through the desert, but gave up their trust when they saw the Amorites. But what was that saying about their God? That God was not able. It is impossible to please God without faith, because God created all His creatures to depend on Him for everything. We were created to trust in Him, and we were saved by this faith, and we will continue to be saved through faith. Failure to do this is to fail at the main purpose of our existence, and to miss out on salvation.

We must trust in Jesus even unto our old age, and especially then, as we draw nearer to our death. At the face of our enemy death we can't be scared, but trust that Christ can even bring us through this Anakim of our souls. Though death looks like a fortress that is walled up to heaven, we remember that Good News, how Christ died for us, and we put trust in Christ our Lord and Saviour. And death will crumble before us like the walls of Jericho the moment we enter into glory and into His joy forever. Praised be to God, our trust!

United in either hate or love of God

Deuteronomy 1:28 (ESV)
Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."''

Our brothers. Israel are so quick to call these evil spies their brothers, for they are united together in unbelief. Just as believing brothers have confederacy with one another, unbelieving sons of Satan have confederacy with one another, for they have the same father. How God hates such union of devils gathered together in their rebellion against God! God surely loves the congregation of the saints, and Christ is in the midst when two or three are gathered in His name. But how odious is it when two or three gather together in rebellion against God. Surely that is what they did when they crucified the Lord of glory:
Psalm 2:1-3 (ESV)
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? [2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, [3] "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."

God hates the congregation of the wicked, and He will scatter them:
Genesis 11:4-8 (ESV)
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." [5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. [6] And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." [8] So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

And remember when Israel gathered together as brothers and danced around the golden calf and gave glory to it together. Observe what Moses made them do afterwards:
Exodus 32:27 (ESV)
And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ''Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.''"
God causes war between them that together gather to war against God. There can thus be no true union outside the will of God. It will eventually be destroyed, and only union in Christ will last forever:
Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

Have made our hearts melt. Some good brothers they had, who made their hearts melt and made them to be caught in fear! Sons of Satan thus hate each other and do harm to each other, for their bond is not out of love to one another but based on hatred towards God. There are no perfect bonds of love between them. Their bonds are temporary, and are not permanent bonds of the love of God. Sons of God however are united with love toward one another, and are even willing to die and sacrifice for one another. This is only possible because their Father loved them so much and offered up His own Son for them. How then can they hate each other? They only want to do good things for one another.

This evil crowd did not realize that Joshua and Caleb were their true brethren who told them the truth and tried to encourage them. Yet they sided with these enemies who discouraged and gave them fear and called them brothers! See then true love builds up faith and hope and love. But these evil spies, since they hated the brethren, tore down their faith, hope and love, and made their hearts melt.

Jesus Christ was also our true brother who built up our faith, hope and love. He was the true brother to those Jews who killed Him, for He was also a Jew, from the house of David. But they rejected His Gospel, and murdered Him, listening instead to the Pharisees, Sadducees and the priests' evil report of Him.

And see with what words did the evil spies discouraged their brethren: "The people are greater and taller than we". As though Israel's strength laid with their own strength or height or military skills. Israel was strong because their God was strong, not because of anything in themselves. Did Israel escape Egypt because they were mighty warriors? Did they lead a great revolution and took over Pharaoh's courts with violence? No. God did all the work and freed them from their bondages. All they did was to walk out of there.

Likewise it was God that saved us and freed us from our bondages to sin. Did any of us free ourselves from our slavery to sin by power and might? Did we achieve some great enlightenment by ourselves and overcome our sins? By no means! There was a supernatural working of God who convicted us of sins and a supernatural power that cleansed our sins away by Christ's blood. God freed us from our chains, we simply walked out. As it is written:
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (ESV)
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; [28] God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, [29] so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

It is God that makes us strong and wise and sets us apart from other people. Other people are greater, richer and wiser than us. But we have God. This is what Israel could not realize. Let us put our confidence in Christ, who is our strength and our wisdom, and let us put no confidence in our flesh:
Philippians 3:3 (ESV)
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh-
Let us give the glory to God. Being a people of God is special because of God, not because of anything in us. It is His grace and His election. We are God's people, so that makes us strong. Without God we would not even be a people at all.

Cities are great and fortified up to heaven. Also notice how unbelief makes us to exaggerate. The cities' walls were high and but they were not "up to heaven". Unbelief always makes things appear so much worse than it is. And we remember in Jericho how easily these walls that were "lifted to heaven" came down like houses built on sinking sand. No matter strong or high the fortresses in the world are, they will all crumble and fall that which is not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ:
Matthew 7:26-27 (ESV)
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. [27] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

By saying that the cities are "fortified up the heaven", the spies were implying that defeating the Amorites was impossible. Thus unbelief makes us to emphasize on the impossibility of things. Of course, it was humanly impossible that such a small army with inferior weapons go in and overtake giants who live in highly walled fortresses. But they should have known this truth, that what is impossible with man is possible with God:
Matthew 19:26 (ESV)
But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

It is impossible that a man born blind can be given eyes to see. It is impossible that a man sick for decades can just be healed. It is impossible that one who is dead can be brought to life. It is impossible that a virgin can be with a child. It is impossible that God can become a man, and still be God. It is impossible that God would take the punishment that His elect humans deserve and die, to rise again from the dead, never to die again. These are impossible with man, but with God those things impossible with man are possible. That's the definition of miracle.

Israel should have had confidence that they will defeat the Amorites BECAUSE they were and taller and live in high walls. They should have been joyful BECAUSE the mission was impossible. That should have meant for them that God will work, and God will do the fighting for them. Impossible situations are an opportunity for us to believe in God, who can do the impossible. This God - who sent His Son, to be a man, to die for our sins, and raised Him from the dead - what is it then this God cannot do for us, that which glorifies His name? God will do the impossible, if we ask for a miracle and trust that He is able to do what we can't. Remember when we were a small child and we couldn't open a bottle because it was impossible for us to open it with our strength, then our father came and opened it for us. That's what it means to trust in God. When we see something impossible, let's give it over to God.

And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. It seems that these Anakim were a people renowned for their great height and strength. So great was their renown, it seems that their name had reached even to the land for Egypt, for Israel knew them. The very mention of their name cast the shadow over the hearts of the Israelites, making them freeze with terror. We must ask here, why didn't they have such terror of the name of God? They ought tk have feared God more. For what is God's name?:
Exodus 3:14 (ESV)
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, ''I AM has sent me to you.''"
God is the I Am. He is under no authority, for He does whatever He pleases. He kills and makes alive, and none can deliver from His hand of either destruction or salvation. He is the only Independent Being in the whole world, who alone sits on the throne of heaven, carrying out judgment according to His own standards.

This is the God whom Israel served, this Lion of the tribe of Judah, this independent, Almighty, self-sufficient God. Anakims breathed by the breath that God had given Him. Anakims ate whatever food and whatever drink that God gave them. Anakims could not live one more day if God had withdrawn His hand of grace. Why then didn't Israel fear the name of their God? Even devils tremble at His Holy name:
James 2:19 (ESV)
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder!
Matthew 8:29 (ESV)
And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"

But these Israelites fear God less than these demons fear God. They fear man more than God, bringing great offense to God. Here we learn something here: what we fear above God are our idols. These Israelites had a worship-like fear of Anakims. Do we have anything that we fear above God: Money, recognition, approval, career, education, health, family, friends, our own life? Are we afraid of losing these things more than we are of losing God and Christ? Idolaters will forsake God for the above things, because they fear the things of these present world. But he that worships God alone will forsake the above things that he may have Christ:
Matthew 13:44 (ESV)
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

We must do as Christ said:
Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
It is our imagination that is fuelled by unbelief that makes to think that man can do more than hurt our body. It is our idolatrous imagination that makes us to think that man can do to us what only God can do. But we must put man to their right place and give God the honour in our fear. If Israel had more knowledge of God, their hearts would not have melted in them at the sound of Anakims. Let us remember and consider this following verse, and encourage our hearts:
1 John 4:4 (ESV)
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Believing in God's love for us

Deuteronomy 1:26-27 (ESV)
"Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. [27] And you murmured in your tents and said, ''Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

Because the LORD hated us. When we rebel against the command of the Lord, then we begin to doubt God's love towards us. When we believe and obey God's commandment, then we become sure of God's love toward us. How foolish were they to doubt God's love when it was they who were hating God and His commandments. God did not hate them, but loved them, and wanted them to inherit the land of Canaan. But we see here that Israel is covering up their own hate for God with the abominable excuse that God hated them.

When we don't believe in God's word, then we don't believe in God's love toward us. When God commands us to do something, it is because He loves us and wants us to prosper and be blessed. But when we doubt His commandment, we also doubt God's love in that commandment. But when God commands something to us, and we obey, believing that He loves us, that by obedience will be beneficial to us. For example, God commanded Christ to die on the cross for sinners. Christ believed in God's love in that commandment, and chose to obey Him. And though it was horrible for a season, because of this act He was glorified as the Name above all names, and all nations honour and love Him for His obedience.

God's love is fulfilled in us through our faith. God loved Israel and desired them to inherit the promised land. But this could not be fulfilled if they did not believe and obey God. Likewise, God loves the world, and sent His only begotten Son in the world to die for sins. But this love means nothing if a person does not believe in that love. God's love is completed in us through our faith. When we trust Christ, and obey Christ, then that love of the Father is applied to us and it is fulfilled and revealed in us. When we by faith in Christ charge into the Kingdom of God, we become more sure of God's love and it shines brighter and brighter upon us.

And see how it says: "you murmured in your tents". When we don't do anything for God out of faith and obedience to Him, we will simply sit in our tents and murmur against God. These Israelites should have been out of their tents and ready to charge into battle. They speak so much with their mouths, but their feet were resting in their own tents. Dead faith doesn't do anything, it only talks. As Paul mentioned of those in the Corinthian church that only talked but did not do:
1 Corinthians 4:19-20 (ESV)
But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. [20] For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

Rebellion against God can be done simply by sitting in our tents and doing nothing. Not doing what we ought to be doing is as much sin as actively being involved in heinous sins. We don't need to be pointing our finger in heaven and cursing God to be committing rebellion against Him. We can be sitting at home, at ease and watching television and committing more sin in our hearts than going to an atheist convention. Therefore we ought to watch out for idleness. Idleness and laziness is fruit of unbelief. When we believe in God's love toward us, we will not be idle, but move diligently to bear fruit for Him, since we know He loves us. But when we doubt His love towards us, we become lazy and don't do anything in the name of "fearing God", but this kind of "fear" is actually wickedness and unbelief:
Matthew 25:26 (ESV)
But his master answered him, ''You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?

Have also a look at how Israel portrays God in their speech: ''Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us". They are saying that 1) the motive for God in rescuing Israel was hate 2) that if God loved them God should have let them stay in Egypt 3) they loved it in Egypt 4) that God's goal in salvation was their destruction in the hand of the Amorites. How insane and illogical does Israel make God out to be? They think that God delivered them from Egypt, only to kill them. They have a truly warped image of God. They don't know who God is. They completely disregard God's promise that He made to Abraham that they would inherit this land. And see how they fear the Amorites, not knowing that God's will is to destroy the Amorites by the hand of Israel. How twisted have they made this whole situation!

And how cheaply do they talk of God's mighty salvation that He has brought for them? How forgetful they were of the 10 plagues, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and all the provision that He had given them so far! Do we also thus talk cheap of our salvation? Do we dare to say that Christ HATED and thus died for us, so He may destroy us? It would be an abomination. But some Christians speak in this way when they complain of their hard lives as Christians, when they compare themselves with the unbelievers who prosper. We truly commit great sin in talking this way. We should always, always, always be thankful that Christ loved us, and died for us. It is because Christ loved that He chose to die. Only God's Agape love would have driven Him to do this. If He hated us, He would have left us in our bondages to sin, ready to be slaughtered on the Judgment Day. But because He loved us, and wanted the best for us, He died. He didn't want to see us perish, so like the Passover lamb, He shed His blood and applied them to our souls. How can that possibly be hate?

Did not God hate Egypt and destroy them by His plagues? Did not He make Egypt into a wasteland just so that He could rescue Israel from slavery? Did He not avenge Israel and kill all Egypt's firstborn? Then why is this wicked generation saying such vile things? They hate Him without any reason:
John 15:25 (ESV)
But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ''They hated me without a cause.''

When we hate God, we live as though He hates us. But He does not hate us, but loves us, but we justify our hate towards Him by imagining that God hates us. Because then we can go on sinning. It is as Jesus said:
John 3:19 (ESV)
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
The light of God's love has shone to people in Christ Jesus. But they, because they hate God and Christ, accuse God of hating them, and believe in that lie, and they love this lie more than the truth of God's love, because it enables them to continue hating God. It is no wonder that God will destroy them in the end. How deceitful and evil is man's heart?

Unbelief also imagines the worst scenario possible. When a person does not trust in God, fear overtakes him and his imaginations run wild. See the destiny that they write for themselves: They are certain that they will be given over to Amorites and be killed by them. Distrust in God indeed makes God look weak. Israel thinks that God would just leave them be defeated and be consumed by the Amorites. God had just destroyed Egypt, the superpower of the day, and drowned its king in the sea. What then made them afraid? Their unbelief is a mystery indeed.

But when we trust in God, because we know that God is in total control, and that not even one sparrow falls without His command, we are sure that God will lead us safely into the Kingdom of God. We don't ponder or trust in our imaginations, but in God, whose vision for us is far greater than our wicked imaginations. God never had destruction in mind for Israel. It was their fault for imagining something God was not imagining. Likewise we ought not put into our minds anything that is not in God's mind. We trust in God's sovereignty and His power. See how Joshua and Caleb saw the future:
Numbers 14:9 (ESV)
Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

Joshua and Caleb saw God's future, and forsook their own imaginations, because they had the Spirit of God. We also need to be filled with the Spirit of God, that we may know His mind. Let us lean not on our understanding, but trust in the Lord. As it is written:
Psalm 112:6-7 (ESV)
For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. [7] He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.

God's goal for us is not destruction, but is salvation:
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 (ESV)
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, [10] who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
Let us then be confident in this Gospel, knowing that Christ died for us, and thus we cannot perish, as long as we continue believing and trusting in Him. Let us trust in Christ's love which is able to keep us unto the end through faith in Him. Amen.

Risen Christ the Witness of God's Kingdom

 Deuteronomy 1:24-25 (ESV)
And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. [25] And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ''It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.''

Here Moses speaks nothing about the evil report the 10 spies brought, and speaks only about the good report that Joshua and Caleb brought. To Moses' eyes only Joshua and Caleb were worthy to be called spies. These two were the only faithful witnesses. Moses is so angry at these wicked, cowardly, unfaithful spies, that they are non-existent to him. Moses has deleted them from his mind, and the memory of what they did.

Likewise are evil men are as dead to God. It is fitting, since they consider God as dead and think of Him non-existent. Just as they do not consider the work of God, God takes no notice of their vain works. Memories of sinners are wiped out from God's mind. They are like a bad dream to God:
Psalm 34:16 (ESV)
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Psalm 73:20 (ESV)
Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

If wicked man's works are remembered, it will be remembered for their shame, like these 10 spies who were recorded forever as unbelieving cowards who caused Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Like Joshua and Caleb, only the works of those who live by faith will be remembered before God:
Psalm 112:6 (ESV)
For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.
We remember Mary, who poured out expensive ointment upon Jesus' feet, whose work Christ ordained to be remembered forever because of her sacrificial love and faith for Christ:
Matthew 26:13 (ESV)
Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

Another reason why Moses mentions only Joshua and Caleb is to emphasize that Israel's sin is not necessarily that they listened to the lies of the evil spies, but that they rejected the faithful witness of the true spies. Before a person believes a lie the person must first reject the truth that had been presented to them. When Adam and Eve sinned, their problem was not only that they listened to the devil, but that they first rejected the commandment and the word of the Lord.

As Paul says:
Romans 1:18-20 (ESV)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
What Paul is saying is that every human being in the world has been given enough knowledge about God to reject Him and to suppress the truth about Him. God has shown all humans through His creation His glory, His existence and His Godhood. But all mankind has suppressed the truth about God by their unrighteousness, and have exchanged the truth about God to a lie:
Romans 1:25 (ESV)
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

So it is for the rejection of the true witness that man has received from God that all mankind is subjected under the wrath of God which is coming upon the earth. And God has not only left it to nature to witness the truth about Him, but through His prophets, through the nation of Israel, and ultimately through Jesus Christ His Son, who is the True and Faithful witness from Heaven. He alone is the true messenger from Heaven:
John 3:11-13 (ESV)
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Jesus Christ is like Joshua and Caleb in that He brought to us the fruits of the Kingdom of Heaven, in all the miracles He did and the heavenly compassion He showed towards man. When Christ came to the land of Judah people had a taste of what heaven was like:
Luke 17:21 (ESV)
nor will they say, ''Look, here it is!'' or ''There!'' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."
Jesus Christ gave us a word of the Kingdom of God, and gave witness of it, saying it is an "exceedingly good" kingdom the God is giving to us:
Matthew 13:44-46 (ESV)
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. [45] "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, [46] who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Jesus encouraged us, like Joshua and Caleb, did, that we can take the Kingdom by force, and that God delights to give us the Kingdom:
Matthew 11:12 (ESV)
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Luke 12:32 (ESV)
"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

But men rejected the testimony that Christ the Witness gave about that good Kingdom He came from. He was the King of that land, and came to make peace with the inhabitants His enemy kingdom, but people rejected His offer. They despised His message, and as they did to Joshua and Caleb, picked up stones to stone Him. And at the end they indeed killed Him. They crucified the Lord of Glory. They again suppressed the truth with their unrighteousness, and exchanged the final Truth that God had offered them with a lie, that they may be gods.

Now let us think: if God so was angry at this first generation for rejecting the testimony of these human spies who was sent from among them, and made them to wander in the desert for forty years, and made them die and never see the land they refused; is it then not fitting that God, who sent His only begotten Son as the only and final witness of Heaven, subject those who have rejected His testimony to an eternity of wanderings in Hell, and make them to never see the Kingdom of Heaven? As it is written:
John 3:18 (ESV)
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Also, if Israel had trouble believing in Joshua and Caleb, human witnesses who were chosen and sent from among them and who returned to give witness, how could they believe in Jesus Christ, whose origin is not from them, but who came from above? It is as written:
John 5:46-47 (ESV)
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
The human prophets of the Old Testament do prepare a way in our hearts to believe in Son of God the Prophet from heaven. If we do not believe in the writings of Moses, and of the prophets, it is impossible that we can believe in Jesus. If we cannot believe that which is familiar to us, Moses and the prophets being humans with like passions as we are, how can then we believe in Jesus Christ who is not like us? This is why Jesus said in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man:
Luke 16:29-31 (ESV)
But Abraham said, ''They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'' [30] And he said, ''No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'' [31] He said to him, ''If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.''"
The Law prepares a heart to Jesus Christ. Thus when we speak with those who adamantly refuse to believe in Christ, we have to begin with something more familiar, namely those from human witnesses. But if they reject Moses and the Prophets, how can the Gospel be believed on, since it is too wonderful for them? For example, if a person does not believe that God created the heavens and the earth, how can they see the wonderful beauty of the fact that the Creator became one of His creatures? The Law is the schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. Gospel is that pearl that can't be given to the swine.

We also remember here that Jesus Christ is only witness that came back from the dead, to give witness of what will also happen to us. Jesus was really dead, and really did rise again from the dead. It was not like Lazarus and countless other people He rose from the dead only temporarily, to be dead again soon. No. He rose again from the dead, defeating death, and never to die ever again. He is the only one who went into the belly of death, and came back from there. Like Jonah, who was in the belly of the fish, and like Daniel who was in the den of the lion, Christ was in death, but God rose Him again from there, like Joseph from the pit, and lifted Him up, living forever, as the Lord of Lords and the Name above all names.

We remember what David said of his baby:
2 Samuel 12:23 (ESV)
But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."
But Christ DID return from the dead on the third day. He indeed came back from there to here, having defeated the devil through death, repossessing in His hand the keys of death and Hades:
Revelation 1:17-18 (ESV)
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, [18] and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Jesus Christ came back from the dead in order to bear witness to us that we will all rise from the dead like He did, either to eternal life or eternal death:
John 5:28-29 (ESV)
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice [29] and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Jesus Christ, by raising Christ again from the dead, showed how those who have believed in Him will likewise be saved:
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (ESV)
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. [23] But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

But if we reject this testimony of the resurrection, we will naturally live in comfort and sin, as though there is no eternity:
1 Corinthians 15:32 (ESV)
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
But the fearful thing is that just as Christ rose again from the dead, we will all likewise rise again from the dead. We will all really die, and we will rise again, not temporally, but permanently, either to spend forever in joyful communion with Christ, or in the continuous torment and pain of Hell, having both body and hell perish for an eternity.

Jesus Christ is the firstfruits that God took and brought back from the dead as the evidence of our resurrection and of the Kingdom of God to come. If we have then scorned this firstfruits of Christ's resurrection, and did not believe in God's very witness, how then can we be saved? This is why belief in the resurrection of Christ is central to our salvation:
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If we don't believe that Christ rose from the dead, we don't believe that there is a resurrection, nor that there is a Kingdom of God. We don't believe in Christ's testimony about the Father and of Heaven and Hell. We don't believe in the Father's testimony of the Son. But if we do believe that Christ rose from the dead, then we will live lives that reflect that, one that is filled with the hope of our own resurrection, of the assurance of our salvation from God's wrath, of our right standing with God through Christ's life. Let us ask ourselves, do we fully believed and are convinced of Christ's resurrection and the witness that it gives of us? Does Christ's resurrection mean everything to us? As Paul said, if Christ is dead, we are still in our sins, because that means we have no mediator nor intercessor between us and God. God's wrath would surely consume us if Christ is still dead, for we are hateful to God on our own. It is only because of Christ we are accepted in His eyes. Let us ask God for mercy, that we may always believe that God raised Christ from the dead. His life alone is our life. Let us believe in Christ's testimony of the Kingdom of God, and live in a godly and righteous way that reflects this faith, and press on towards the goal of eternal life:
John 14:19 (ESV)
Because I live, you also will live. 

Two motives, one event

Deuteronomy 1:20-22 (ESV)
And I said to you, ''You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. [21] See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.'' [22] Then all of you came near me and said, ''Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come." [23] The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe.

You have come to the hill country of the Amorites. Israel had reached the land where Abraham once used to sojourn:
Genesis 14:13 (ESV)
Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram.
And it was when he was living in the land of the Amorites that God had confirmed to him by a covenant that his offspring would come back to possess this land and the entire land of Canaan:
Genesis 15:18-21 (ESV)
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, [19] the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, [20] the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, [21] the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

On that day God also let Abraham know when his offspring will possess the land. It would be after the children of Israel spend 400 as servants in Egypt. And not only that, it will be when the sins of the Amorites have reached the peak of God's patience:
Genesis 15:13-16 (ESV)
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [14] But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15] As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. [16] And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

So it was at the completion of the sins of the Amorites that the fourth generation from Israel would come back to this land to take possession of it. The Amorites' iniquities were, as it were, the 'timer' by which God will begin His destruction work upon the land of Canaan. Sin of the Amorites was perhaps the most wicked of them all, since God gives special attention to this people's sin over others'. It may be that God especially hated the hearts and deeds of the Amorites, and desired to destroy them first and foremost for their prime sin and oppression committed more proudly than other nations.

Thus Moses here is in a sense telling the Israelites they coming to the Amorites is the fulfillment of God's covenant to Abraham. He is saying, 'The iniquity of the Amorites is now complete! It is time to destroy them and all of Canaan with the wrath of God. God is with us. His promise is being fulfilled. His covenant is still sure. Let us go and take possession of it!'

Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed. God had made the promise to these Israelites that they will take possession of this land. Nothing stopped them from taking the land as long as they believed that God was able to do this. It is God that had spoken. It didn't matter if Israel were small and weak and the inhabitants of the land were giants and mighty warriors. It didn't matter if they had sticks for weapons and their enemies had highly fortified walls. If they had put their trust in God's power, they would take possession of the land.

It is the same for us Christians. Jesus our Lord has told us that we will take possession of Heaven. To us it looked impossible to our eyes, but Christ promised that if we only believe in Him, we will pass from death to life and that He will take us there. It doesn't matter how strong our enemies - flesh, world and the devil - are, Christ said if we continue believing in Him, we will see Him as He is. There are no other conditions, for we have failed all other conditions. By faith in His grace we will enter into heaven. Just as Abraham believed that God will give him a child, though his body was as good as dead - we believe that God will take us to heaven though we ourselves have no merits and our righteousness is like filthy rags. We believe that Christ is our Captain who has gone in and conquered all enemies for us, and all we are to do is to follow him into the land. Christ our God is our Salvation. We have no confidence in ourselves, in our flesh, but only in Him. He spoke, and we believed, and by this faith we will enter into heaven no matter how weak we are. It is Christ who has done all things to make our salvation possible.

We need not fear anything. Do we fear judgment? It is Christ who died, and rose again from the dead. We need fear not the devil, for greater is He that is in us, and he who is in the world. We need not fear death, for we know that Christ has taken away the sting of death. Christ has set heaven before us. Let us trust in Him to take us there by His own power, and not by our power. It is He who justifies and who has opened the everlasting doors of heaven by His hands, so that we may enter with Him. Let us not doubt, like this first generation did, who only looked at their own hands and their own weaknesses. Let us look to Christ.

Let us send men before us. In Numbers 13 we read that sending the spies to the land of Canaan was also what God had commanded Moses:
Numbers 13:2 (ESV)
"Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them."
It may be that God had commanded to send these spies in order that they will bring positive news of the land, so that the whole army may be encouraged to enter in. Indeed this is what Caleb and Joshua did.

We have also need to be faithful witnesses of the Kingdom of God to outsiders. Caleb and Joshua tasted of the fruit of the land, and saw that it was an "exceedingly good" land, and they brought good news to the people. But the evil spies, though they ate of the good fruit of the land, spoke evil of the land and despised God's promise:
Numbers 14:7-8 (ESV)
and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. [8] If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
Numbers 13:27-28,32 (ESV)
And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. [28] However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. [32] So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.

See how plainly they spoke of the fruit of the land "and this is its fruit". They didn't even explain how a single cluster of grapes were so large and heavy that they had to carry it between two men:
Numbers 13:23 (ESV)
And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs.

Some Christians also explain Christ and His everlasting Gospel in this dull, plain, un-passionate and boring way, and thus bring evil report of the land. They present Christ as just a thing or an idea, not as a living Person who saved them from the everlasting fire by amazing love. They treat the Gospel as any other news, or some story out of a fable, and not as the Greatest Good News that has ever been proclaimed to the ears of man. There is no fire in their hearts that burns with reality and truth. They speak the name of Christ lightly, in vain, and not with a burning emphasis in the glory of His name. To them Christ is NOT "exceedingly good", but just 'good'. Such witnesses only bring evil report for the Kingdom of God. We need witnesses who speak of Christ and Heaven with a weight of reality that can't be denied in the ears of the hearers.

So it was for the purpose of encouragement that God had desired to send the spies. But it seems it is because of fear that the people desired to send the spies. Moses commands them to go bravely and possess the land, but they back down and ask that they send spies instead. Unbelief was growing in their hearts already from this moment. Thus unbelief was the motive on their part, but encouragement of faith was the motive on God's part. Thus there were two motives, but one event.

Motive, the heart of an action, is important. It is what determines the value of an action in the sight of God. For example, a man may exercise and jog everyday for the glory of God, in order to preserve the precious body that God had made and given him, in order that he may serve God to the best of his ability. This is a good motive. On the other hand, a man may jog and exercise for the love of self, for his own glory, that he may gain popularity and have his body worshipped by others. So the action is the same, but the motives are worlds apart - the difference is as far as heaven and hell.

Serving God can also be done with such polar opposite motives. We can serve God out of true love toward God, out of love for the brethren, to the end that God and Christ alone may be glorified. We can also serve God in order to glorify ourselves, to make ourselves famous, in order that we may have some personal gain at the expense of Christ. Same serving, but one pleasing to God and the other an abomination to Him. Let us then purify our hearts of evil motives, and serve Him with the right heart. We may fool man with our outward actions, but we can't fool God. His word reveals the intentions of the heart:
Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The death of Jesus Christ was the quintessential event in which the good motive of God and the evil motive of man converged in a single event. God's motive in killing Christ was to offer His Son as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of all His elect, that they may not perish but believe Christ for everlasting life. It was to God the greatest display of His love, that He would offer up His Beloved Son for us, who were His enemies. His motive was for the glory of God, that all nations would worship Him for His grace and His righteousness fulfilled. But the Jewish leaders delivered up Christ for all the wrong motives. They killed Him because of hatred and jealousy. They hated Christ because of all the popularity and glory He stole from them. They could not stand Him, and treated Him as the sons of Israel treated Joseph. They scorned and mocked Him as demon-possessed and a mad man. It was cold-blooded murder of the Son of God.

Death of Christ happened with sinful motives, but God did it with good motives, that He may save the world with a great deliverance. It is as Joseph said to his brethren:
Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

And so God always means good in the midst of all the evil that happens. God can work His good through all the sin, destruction and evil. But God remains good because His motives are good, in bringing glory to Him through all things. Man hated Christ and desired to be rid of Him, but God meant that hatred for good, and used it to offer His Son as a pleasing sacrifice for sins of many. Because of this evil event, God saved many from eternities in Hell. The Devil meant it for evil when he destroyed Job's family and everything he had, but God meant it for good that He may prove Job's unconditional love to God, and to reveal precious truths about suffering. God always has His good reasons for all the evil that He allows and works through, though we may not understand them all.

This event of the spies revealed clearly the unbelief in Israel's heart. And through it God could cleanse all the unbelievers in the midst of His congregation that only the believers would be left. This was the good to which God allowed this request to be granted. See how Moses says "This seemed good to me". Even to the great and wise Moses their intentions of the heart could not be read. But Christ knew the intentions of people's heart when He came and He never gave Himself over to those with wrong motives. He still despises those who come to Him for the wrong motives. His eyelids are still testing and proving man's hearts:
Revelation 2:23 (ESV)
and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

We can't hide our motives before Christ. Let us bow down and worship Him, pouring out our hearts before Him, for He already knows the things that we will say to Him. This is the omniscient God whom we serve. Let us not have double hearts or hypocrisy before Him, treating God as though He is blind. We will all confess to Him and kneel before His Judgement Seat.

Fearing God as Father, or fearing Him as Judge

Deuteronomy 1:19 (ESV)
"Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea.

And went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw. This way from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea was terrifying because God was terrifying to them, due to their complaining and lusting:
Numbers 11:1,4-6 (ESV)
And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
[4] Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! [5] We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. [6] But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."

When we are discontent at our blessed state in Jesus Christ, our journey to heaven is surely made terrifying. It is wilderness even without God's hand of chastisement. Why then do we want to make our lives more miserable with God's frown of displeasure? As Paul said, the Christian life on earth is already difficult, and we are indeed the most miserable people in the world if our hope was not in Heaven:
1 Corinthians 15:19 (ESV)
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Why then do we want to add God's opposition upon our lives because of our pride?:
1 Peter 5:5 (ESV)
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

It is a wonder why Israel "complained of their misfortunes", and provoked the anger of the Lord. Misfortunes? They were weeping in the bondage of slavery in Egypt, and God had rescued them with a mighty hand, laying the land of Egypt into a wasteland for their sake. For their sake God opened the Red Sea, but closed it upon Pharaoh and his men. It seems Egypt was the misfortunate ones, not Israel. It seems the blessing of God is upon them. They received the Law of God that no other nation on Earth received, and had a God who looked after them and fed them and gave them water. Why then were they complaining of their misfortunes? It is no wonder the fire of God fell on them.

Christians can also "complain of their misfortunes", not understanding how blessed they are. God has chosen them from amongst a God-hating, wicked crowd. He sent His only Son to bear the wrath and the curse for their sins, uniting them with His Son, so that they may be His very own children by the Spirit of adoption. God has counted them righteous and blessed them with every spiritual blessings in heaven. God makes everything to work together for their good, so that whatever happens, God can use all things to give Him glory. He gives them faith and good works and repentance, for which He praises them, even though He gave these to them in His grace. He hears their every prayer because they pray in His Beloved Son's precious name, and delivers them from all their troubles. He loves them as He loves Jesus Christ, because we are His people. He does all these good things for us.

Yet we complain, despising God's blessings, and think of ourselves as people God has experimentally chosen to make us live lives of misery. When we go through suffering, to which we are ordained so that we may be more like Christ, we complain as though we are in Hell, not understanding at all that it is nothing compared to the misery of not knowing God. We realize not that we are the only people in the world who can rejoice in our sufferings, because it makes us to share the glories of Christ:
Colossians 1:24 (ESV)
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

Israel could have entered in the promised land in this same year, if they had repented of this complaining attitude. Instead they spent 38 years in the wilderness and died because they did not count the blessings they had received. Above all, they did not love God above all things. If they knew that God was with them, and they said, 'This wilderness is fine, all this walking is fine, and having only manna as food is fine - as long as God is with us'. But they preferred the chains of slavery more than God and the cucumber and leeks of Egypt than God's word.

It is no wonder the wilderness was made terrifying to Israel. It was the display of God's anger through the fire and the plague that made Israel afraid. When we are right with God, then we have nothing to be afraid of:
Proverbs 28:1 (ESV)
The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.
But when we are wicked before Him, then we have something to be scared about. For if we live in sin, God is coming after us with a rod of iron, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of God. None can deliver from His hand:
Hebrews 10:29-31 (ESV)
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? [30] For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." [31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

A wounded conscience is a terrible burden to live with. It makes our lives as barren as the wilderness. It is a life of hiding from the terrifying presence of God the Judge:
Genesis 3:10 (ESV)
And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Just as criminals live in fear of being caught by the police, so do human beings live in fear of death, of being one day caught by God to be judged of all their deeds. We live petrified of what destruction awaits us in the next corner, of what disease, sorrow and evil will overtake us tomorrow. And what is most terrifying to us is God's patience, knowing that we have sinned against Him and we deserve immediate destruction, but that His judgment tarries. We know that we must die and be punished for our sins, but we don't know when or how. This is the fearful state of an evil conscience.

But we know that Christ has died for our sins, so that we may be cleansed of an evil conscience by trusting in His Holy Blood:
Hebrews 9:14 (ESV)
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
We can now serve the living God without fear, as Zechariah prophesied:
Luke 1:74-75 (ESV)
that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,might serve him without fear, [75] in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Because Christ has died the death for our sins, if we trust in Christ's works, we don't need to be afraid of God's punishment. This is what it means to be have our consciences purified. Read what Christ went through for our sins:
Isaiah 53:4-10 (ESV)
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. [8] By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? [9] And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. [10] Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

If Christ was so thoroughly punished by God for our sin, how can we be punished again by God? We may be chastised, in a fatherly displeasure, but we will never be punished as a criminal is punished by the justice system. We fear God not as a soldier fears an enemy nation's king, but we fear Him as a son fears his father and listens to his rebukes. When we were a child, and we did something wrong, were we not afraid that we would be caught by our mother? But that fear, no matter what evil we had done, never made us doubt that we were our mother's child. We never doubted our relationship as mother and son, because we came forth from her. Perhaps we feared the rod and her rebukes, but certainly not of being disowned. That's the fear and trust that we have with God. We were born by the Holy Spirit of God. We will always be the child of God, no matter what sin we commit. Nothing can change that. Yet we do fear Him as our Father, and are ashamed before Him for our sins.

Yet the unbeliever can never have such loving fear of God. To them it is indeed a TERROR, for God is not their Father. They are like pots that He has made, yet pots that were useless to Him. As a potter smashes the pots that are not pleasing to Him, God will also smash them by the power of His might. He shall be glorified in their destruction. God will have pleasure in destroying them, for they are the children of the devil and do the things of their father. Their fear will never end; Christ will never comfort them by saying:
John 6:20 (ESV)
But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."
But they will be afraid because it IS Jesus Christ, the one they have opposed and mocked their entire lives. They will say:
Revelation 6:16-17 (ESV)
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, [17] for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
We look forward to this Day when Christ comes, but unbelievers will desire to hide away from the glory of Christ as though He were a meteorite coming to consume the whole earth. They shall run, but shall be caught by His omnipresent hand of destruction, and what they have feared, God's wrath, will come true for them:
Proverbs 10:24 (ESV)
What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

This life of wilderness does not have to be a terrifying wilderness. We don't need to live in the fear of death. Knowing that Christ has died the death of condemnation for us, so that we may be freed from this fear:
Hebrews 2:14-15 (ESV)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [15] and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
By rising from the dead, Christ gave us the good hope and assurance of our resurrection. Our death is made sweet, because we believe in this promise that Christ made to us:
John 11:25-26 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Let us then believe in Jesus Christ, that we may fear God as our loving Father and not as our terrifying Avenger, that we may serve Him without slavish fear, bearing the fruits that only comes from a purified, calm conscience. Let us dwell in the love that which He loved us, that we may do those things that are pleasing to Him. Amen.

If it is impossible, then we bring it to Christ

Deuteronomy 1:17 (ESV)
You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.''

And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. There are problems that even the wisest and the best leaders and elders cannot solve for us. We must take these matters to Jesus Christ, our God, knowing that there is nothing difficult or Him:
Genesis 18:14 (ESV)
Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."

When we think, 'My situation is impossible', then it is the time to believe that God can do this particular thing. God does not have anything that is impossible for Him. It is hard to get our minds around this. We are restricted by time, space, various laws of this life, but God is not. He can do anything He wants. That is what it means to be God. So when we come to an impossible situation, and we need deliverance, then is time to go to our God.

God will not work miracles if we do not believe that He can do the impossible. We must first glorify Him by our faith, then God will work through that faith:
Matthew 9:27-29 (ESV)
And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." [28] When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." [29] Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."

But when we don't believe that God can do the impossible, we mock Him, and consider Him as one of us, confined by time, space and laws of the world. And so we are always a prisoner of the natural, because of our unbelief. We just naturally accept that death and sin is a normal process of life. But we don't realize that Jesus Christ came to give us hope from the resurrection from the dead and to set us free from the power of sin. All we must do is go to Jesus Christ, believing that He can deliver us from the natural, and His supernatural power will come upon us. But where is this faith in the world? Where are those who glorify God through faith?:
Luke 18:8 (ESV)
I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

We must remember that salvation is impossible with fallen man. Just as it is impossible to expect to survive if I jump off a 100 story building, it is impossible that a man who falls off into the precipice of eternity without Christ expect to save himself from the bottomless pit. If salvation was only 'really difficult', like climbing Mount Everest, then some people would have probably made it to heaven by themselves. But it is not simply difficult, but it is IMPOSSIBLE. It is impossible because man is dead to God. Man is a corpse, not a sick person. Dead men do not even get sick. They are dead, DEAD to God and the their sinful deeds are only the putrefaction and the decay of their deadness. Dead men can't climb high mountains. They can't even climb a tiny hill in a children's playground! It is not possible. Read this and see if Christ thinks salvation is something a man can do if he just tries hard enough:
Matthew 19:24-26 (ESV)
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." [25] When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" [26] But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

"With man this - salvation - is impossible", Christ says. Just as a camel can't fit into the eye of a needle. It is not possible. But He says with God all things are possible. Only God could have saved us. And the way He did it was by making Christ die to God for a little while, and making us to live to God forever. Christ took our place in deadness to God, being forsaken by God on that Cross. And on that moment, the veil of the temple was torn, showing that we now lived to God because of Christ's death, and that now we who believe are saved. And Christ rose again from the dead, booking resurrection unto salvation for all who trusted in Him.

This was nothing that we ever did, because corpses don't do anything, except decay. How can the dead please God? Only the living please God. Only Christ, the Living, pleased His Father and revived our dead souls. And because of Christ's death, the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead came to us, raised our souls from the dead to live to God, that we may be able to serve Him with all we are. And the Holy Spirit continues to do this impossible work of service in us by causing us walk in His paths and to do those things that please Him.

Therefore we ought to bring our dead ones to Christ in prayer, that He may raise them from the dead. We must bring not only hard cases, but impossible cases to Him, for we know that He alone can do all things. We remember how a group of good friends brought a paralytic to Christ through the opening on the roof. This is a picture of persistent prayer and petition. Our prayers of faith for our loved ones also can go through the heavens to reach Christ at His throne of grace:
Mark 2:3-5 (ESV)
And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. [4] And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. [5] And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
See what is amazing, Jesus saw THEIR, the four men's, faith, and forgave the paralytic's sins and raised him from his spiritual paralysis. These four men believed that there was nothing that Christ couldn't do. When our friends don't have the faith themselves, we must do the believing on their part. We must believe our atheist, God-hating friends can be raised from death to life by the Holy Spirit. And we don't lose heart, because since it is impossible us, then it must be possible for God. Let us have this faith, and ask God to forgive and help our unbelief:
Mark 9:21-24 (ESV)
And Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. [22] And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." [23] And Jesus said to him, "''If you can''! All things are possible for one who believes." [24] Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

Right judgement is according to the spirit, not flesh

Deuteronomy 1:16-17 (ESV)
And I charged your judges at that time, ''Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. [17] You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.''

Judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. The cases these judges were handling were cases between man and man. But on that Last Day, judgment will be between God and man. God will bring in all His dispute and strife with mankind, and Judge the world by that God-Man that He has chosen: Jesus Christ.

It is one thing to have a lawsuit made against you by a mere man, who can at worst kill your body. But it is something else altogether to have God make a lawsuit against you. God has been gathering the evidences for this one Day in court, writing all our transgression and sin in His books. In them He has written exactly what sin we have committed, and how, and when. He knows it all. And the witnesses shall be none other than our own consciences. We ourselves will confess our sins, and have no excuses, and shall agree with God's decree of condemnation. His lawsuit will be successful against us, for He is God, and we have sinned against our Maker who gave us life.

The judgment shall be righteous judgment, for Christ will judge not by what He sees, or by what He hears, but only by what the Father tells Him, only according to what has been written against us. If we have not received Christ as our Saviour, every transgression will be recompensed, and the sentence of punishment will be pronounced that will fit our crimes:
Revelation 20:12-15 (ESV)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13] And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [14] Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15] And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Christ will judge us according to all that we have done in this body. Everything we have ever done has been recorded against us in His books. However, for Christians, we shall be judged according to the book of life. All our transgressions have been blotted out from God's book, for God had nailed them with Christ on the Cross. Christ took the blame for our records of transgressions:
Colossians 2:13-14 (ESV)
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Acts 3:19 (ESV)
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

When we repented and believed in Christ, our names were written in the book of life. And we were counted among those who are justified, counted to be righteous before God. What Christ did in His body was counted to be what I did, His punishment for my sins, His resurrection assurance of my eternal life with Him. Therefore even when we are judged righteously by Christ on the Last Day, we will be saved from God's wrath, because Christ has covered ourselves with His works and His death. Not only that Christ, the Judge, will also be our Advocate who will speak for us to God on that Day, for He will declare to the Father that our sins are wholly forgiven, and that He has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for us:
1 John 2:1 (ESV)
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Praise be to God, that if we have repented and trusted in Christ in this life, our Judge who will judge us will also be the one who will plead for our case. Just as His case against the sinners will be successful in condemnation, His case for us whom He has chosen will also be successful in salvation. We are to rejoice for God's grace, for Christ chose us and died for us. The fact that our names were written was not any of our doing, but God's election:
Luke 10:20 (ESV)
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

The judges of Israel were commanded to judge righteously between man and his brother, and also with the alien. They were not to show any favouritism to Israelites over the stranger. Firstly, this shows that on the Last Day also God will not regard which country we were from. Jews or Gentiles, God will condemn and save likewise according to the persons sins or faith in Christ. Righteousness or condemnation has nothing to do with the colour of skin or nationality. As it is written:
Romans 2:9-11 (ESV)
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, [10] but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. [11] For God shows no partiality.

Nor will any other demographic receive special treatment: poor or rich, those who have died young or old, male or female, slave or master, from a Christian family or not, from a Christian country or not. It will not make any difference who you are on the outside. Human beings loved to speak of 'equality' - and thus they shall indeed be equally treated on that day of Judgment. God will not look at the outward appearance at all, but look only at the inward man. And those who have done evil will go to Hell, and those who have done good by grace of God through faith in Christ will go to heaven. God will judge by righteousness:
Revelation 19:11 (ESV)
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
John 5:28-29 (ESV)
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice [29] and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. The judges were not to turn a blind eye for the causes of the small. We remember how Solomon, who was the King, even heard a case from prostitutes, though it was small and vile:
1 Kings 3:16 (ESV)
Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
Solomon, though he was king, was willing to listen to such an insignificant case, because he was willing to obey God's precept. But how much don't we have this mentality in our justice system today? If a person has no money, it is impossible to file or continue a lawsuit. Only those with money are able to sustain a lawsuit. But that is not what God desires.

We Christians, as judges with Christ, are not to turn a blind eye on the cases of the poor and the small:
Galatians 2:10 (ESV)
Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
If Christ considered our pitiful case against God, and saw that we would but perish on Judgment Day because of our sins, and reached out His hand to rescue us, who were but like small worms, how much must we also show compassion to those poor whose voice is heard by no one. We must help them. Let us remember those who are in affliction. God has heard our small and pitiful cry for salvation:
Matthew 9:27 (ESV)
And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David."
Let us also bother to hear the cries of those whose voices are small, and turn to help them in any way we can. It is our duty as Christians, as much as keeping ourself pure from the world:
James 1:27 (ESV)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

We like to believe that human rights was the invention of man. But here it shows clearly that it is the invention of God. God hears the cry of the Jew and the Gentile, small and the big. He shows no partiality to any one. He judges according to righteousness and not by appearance. That is what Christ meant when He said:
John 8:15-16 (ESV)
You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. [16] Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.
Likewise we are not to judge according to the flesh, according to the outer appearance, but according to the Spirit, according to the standards of God, not our own standards. How can we hold prejudices against someone because of their nationality, ethnicity or social status?

Not that those who live in sin, such as homosexuals, are counted amongst this "minority". We cannot change the colour of our skin, but we can turn away from our sins by God's grace. We can repent of our sins and be cleansed by the power of any sin through faith in Jesus Christ. Our outward appearance we may not change, but our hearts can be changed by the Spirit of God. It is therefore an abomination for sinners to think that because they commit peculiar sins, they can be included as a minority. It is an offence to those who really are the minority, those who are poor, homeless and oppressed. God will therefore enter into righteous judgment with those who live in special sins, and abuse the meaning of "human rights". He will repay them with special destruction.

You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. It is interesting that Jethro said of these judges, that the judges should be ones who "fear God":
Exodus 18:21 (ESV)
Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

When we fear God, then we shall not be fearful of man. When we see that God can destroy not only our bodies but also our souls, we shall not be afraid of those who can only destroy our bodies. These judges, because they feared God's judgment, were not afraid of the rich man or the prince who threatened them. We must likewise fear God's judgment of us, than man's judgment. How shall we face God after we die if we have sinned or have neglected certain things because we were afraid of man's judgment. Christ feared God's disapproval more than man's, and therefore was able to endure the Cross:
Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

By saying "judgment is God's", Moses is saying that these judges were in God's place, to carry out His vengeance, His judgment. Therefore they were to judge as God judges. God is not afraid of man; in fact, He laughs at man's threatenings:
Psalm 2:4 (ESV)
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Therefore, the judges also must not be afraid of man, but be at ease as God is, trusting in God to carry out His justice through them.

Here we remember that ALL judgment in the world is God's, just as all authority is from God. Any judgment that has been made in the court of law anywhere, is the judgment made by God. Even if there have been mistakes and wrong judgments, it has been God's judgment, to bring glory to Him. For it was GOD who judged and condemned Jesus Christ to death by the Sanhedrin, and by Pilate. Though the judgment was humanly speaking 'wrong' and sinful, it was to fulfil God's good will, that Christ may die for the sins of His people:
Matthew 26:65-66 (ESV)
Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. [66] What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."
Mark 15:15 (ESV)
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Also, we remember also that Christians will judge the world with Christ, and be co-assessors with Him on the Day of Judgment. We will judge not by what we hear or see, but with Christ's judgment, just as Moses' judges carried out the Judgment of God:
1 Corinthians 6:2-3 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? [3] Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

We Christians are these judges that Isaiah prophesied of:
Isaiah 1:26 (ESV)
And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city."
Christians shall surely be judged ourselves, but after we are acquitted and counted righteous, we shall sit in thrones next to Christ on that Day, and participate in judging the sinners and the devils who have sinned:
Revelation 20:4 (ESV)
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

If then we shall have the authority to judge the world and devils, we must walk in a manner that a good judge would walk. A judge that commits crimes would be a corrupt judge, with a warped standard of righteousness, excusing sin. We must always keep a good conscience towards God and men. How cannot we point out the sins of others, if we are committing the very same sins that they are committing. We must first take away the plank from our eyes that we may see properly our brother's sins. We can't be hypocritical judges, but we must thoroughly repent of our own sins before we can rightfully help others to escape from sin. Let us walk as the light of the world, and as those who shall reign with Christ in righteousness, and make our actions worthy of our calling. Amen.