Deuteronomy 1:34-36 (ESV)
"And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, [35] ''Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, [36] except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!''
And the LORD heard your words. As much as God hears our prayers, He also hears all our conversations and everything that we speak from our mouths. Therefore we ought to be careful what we ought to speak. When we speak, we must speak prayerfully, and as the Apostle says:
1 Peter 4:11 (ESV)
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God
God hears and writes down all the words that we have spoken, and will enter into judgment with all of them. We have this notion that God only hears us when we speak to Him in prayer, and is deaf in other times. God is hearing all our complaining, all our unbelief, all our exclamations, all our filthy language, all our whispering, gossiping, slandering, all our planning and discussions in closed doors. As there is nothing hidden from His eyes, there are no words hidden from His ears. These people thought they were speaking in the safety from their tents, but God was even with them in their tents to hear all their grumblings. There is no space in the universe where we can hide to speak in secret. It is no wonder that the Holy Spirit heard the Jews speaking against Christ behind closed doors:
John 11:47-48 (ESV)
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
Our words show us who we are. Jesus Christ was God's Word, and He showed us God's love, grace, truth, righteousness and power. This generation's words were full of unbelief, fear and hatred. Therefore God's assessment of them was that they were an "evil generation", for their words showed their hearts were nothing but evil. It is as Christ said:
Matthew 12:34-35 (ESV)
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. [35] The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
A good person will speak good things. A man's speech shows plainly the person's condition of the heart. A bitter heart will speak bitterly, a cold heart coldly, a lustful heart lustfully. If we want to change our evil speech, then we had better change our hearts with God's help. Then only we shall speak that which is good. We must treasure good things in our hearts, the Word of God and the Gospel, that our speech may be naturally be good.
So clearly does our speech show the contents of our heart, that it will be by which Christ will justify and condemn us on Judgment Day. By our words Christ will judge whether we have treasured Jesus Christ in our heart, or if we have treasured our sins. By our words He will see whether we really believed in our hearts the Lord Jesus, or whether we did not believe:
Matthew 12:37 (ESV)
for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
2 Corinthians 4:13 (ESV)
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak,
Romans 10:10 (ESV)
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Our words show especially the state of our faith or disbelief in God. When we speak words of worry, we plainly show that we don't believe in God in that regard. These Israelites did not believe in God, and consequently their words showed their unfaithfulness. But God has His ears out for words of faith, and commends such words:
Luke 7:9 (ESV)
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."
Let us work to make Christ marvel with words faith. Let us pray for a heart of faith, that will be pleasing to God as a sweet aroma unto Him.
And was angered. God loves words of faith, but nothing angers God more than words of unbelief. Unbelief in the truth is the beginning of all sin, and is the cause of God's wrath:
Romans 1:18 (ESV)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
What makes a God of love be filled with wrath and fury? It is unbelief: the suppressing of the truth about God. This was the reason that Hell was made. This was the reason why Christ died on the Cross for us, bearing the wrath of God against our unbelief.
Unbelief is the gate that opens itself to all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Once the truth about God is suppressed, then a man is free, in his own deluded mind, to commit as much sin as he wants. As Satan asked Eve, "Did God really say...?", Eve began to doubt, and her conscience was seared by unbelief, and she was enabled to boldly take of the fruit and sin against God. When we are tempted to sin, we are not to focus on that sin, but check the state of our faith in what God has said. If we believe in His words, we will not sin against Him:
Matthew 4:10 (ESV)
Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "''You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.''"
How can this flame of God's wrath against our unbelief be cooled? It is by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ:
John 3:36 (ESV)
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
It is by believing in the truth about Jesus, and trusting in Jesus' person and works that we are saved from this wrath. But it is not as though our faith is the cause of God's removal of wrath, for even before we believed, Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, including unbelief. Then it is GOD who gave the faith to us, that we may no longer be the children of wrath, but children of God:
Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
To be believers means that God's wrath has been removed from us. To be unbelieving, means that God's wrath is remaining on us. But no one can change oneself from being an unbeliever to a believer, without the power of the Spirit of God. It is the work of God alone. Jesus Christ is impossible to be believed on without God's help. How fearful then is the work of salvation! Man has no handle on this handiwork of God. As it is written, he that is in Christ is a "new CREATION". Whose creation? God's creation. A man cannot make himself a believer. A man cannot create faith in himself. God must create and give the faith to the man:
Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Matthew 16:16-17 (ESV)
Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." [17] And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
True faith is not the work of flesh and blood. Therefore the removal of wrath against unbelief is impossible for a man. It is God who reveals truth to a man by the Spirit, and removes the cloud of unbelief, and hence removing the wrath that was upon the sinner. There is therefore nothing a man can do to be saved. He may make a false faith in his mind with the information gathered from flesh and blood, and say that he is a believer of Jesus, but God knows whether that faith is man-made or God-given:
John 2:23-24 (ESV)
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. [24] But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people
Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers. God swears an oath that this generation which do not believe in Him will not see the land, and will perish. This oath overrides the oath that God had made to their fathers regarding this land. This generation did not emulate the faith that was in Abraham, Issac and Jacob's hearts, and thus were not fit to be called their children. This agrees with Apostle Paul, who says that not all who are of Israel of the flesh are children of Israel, only the children of the same faith:
Romans 9:6-8 (ESV)
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, [7] and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." [8] This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Galatians 3:7 (ESV)
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
Since this generation chooses not to believe in the promise that God had made to Abraham, that is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are not the children of Abraham. Thus the promise that God had made to Abraham have not failed:
Genesis 17:8 (ESV)
And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
So we see how important faith is. It is what separates between the children of God and children of the devil, those who will inherit the Kingdom of God, and those who will inherit the wrath of God.
Let us behold also the antiquity of the Gospel of Jesus. The Gospel was not first preached when Christ came. It had been preached from Genesis, and throughout the wilderness that God walked with his people. Those who disbelieved, perished, and those who believed, inherited the good land. Let us also be diligent to believe in the Gospel again and again, until we are saved:
1 Peter 1:8-9 (ESV)
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, [9] obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
It is to be noted that God says "none of this EVIL generation shall see the GOOD land". The Good Land was to be inherited by good men. The land had thus far been trashed by evil, unbelieving, sinful men, and now was the time for them to be vomited out. Likewise it is with this world. When God created the world, it was Good in His eyes. But after the fall the good land had been inhabited by evil men. But the Kingdom of God will come upon the Earth, and His glory like the waters upon the sea. And His desire is to fill the earth with good inhabitants again. There will only be Christians on the earth, those justified saints who have been glorified and made like Christ. No evil person shall ever inherit the good Kingdom of God:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Let no man who has not been born again to be a new creation in Jesus Christ expect ever to enter into heaven with the stains of sin. Nothing filthy, nor anything that defiles shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God. Its name is the Kingdom of GOD. Shall anyone who is not GODLY enter into the gates of it? By no means. As it is written:
Psalm 24:3-5 (ESV)
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? [4] He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. [5] He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Surely none of us is good, and none of us godly enough to earn a place in heaven. But as it is written in verse 5, it is those who receive God's righteousness as a blessing that will ascend to that holy hill. It is those who are clothed with Jesus Christ alone who shall qualify for a place there. It is those who are risen with Christ that will ascend there with Christ.
And in fact, spiritually speaking, we believers are already in heaven, for Christ has ascended to heaven, and we are in Him:
Ephesians 2:6 (ESV)
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Our conversation is in heaven. The man whom God will take bodily to heaven, He makes him to live in this world as though he is already in heaven, pure and undefiled. But those who do not live a godly life cannot claim to have been risen with Christ, and cannot claim to be seated with Christ in heaven. Such a man cannot claim to be of God, but he is still of this world.
Let us then remember where we are already, and where we will be later, both spirit and body. Though we battle with sin here, we shall be purified as through fire, and then when we die, we shall be presented to God as gold. We are already seen as "good" in God's eyes by the robe of righteousness that He has put over us, because we are covered His blood, which is His life. But we shall one day be truly good, when we shall be changed as He is. Then shall we inherit that good land.
I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD! This promise to Caleb is the same as one that God had made to Abraham after Lot had left him:
Genesis 13:17-18 (ESV)
Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you." [18] So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.
It is interesting that Abraham, after hearing this promise, moved his tent and settled at the oaks of Mambre, which is the land of the Amorites, to Hebron, which was where Caleb and the spies were sent:
Numbers 13:22 (ESV)
They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. ( Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
What God is saying then is that the promise that He had made to Abraham will be fulfilled in Caleb, since Abraham had trodden the land, and God said He would give all the land that he would walk on. Abraham owned none of the land of Hebron, but it would be Caleb, Abraham's offspring by flesh and by faith, who would inherit that land. Therefore God's promise was fulfilled:
Joshua 14:13-14 (ESV)
Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. [14] Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.
Thus promise that God had made to Abraham was fulfilled in not in Abraham, but in his children.
Likewise the promise of blessing was fulfilled not in Jesus but in His offspring, those who believe in Him. Christ was cursed for our sakes, so that we may receive the fullness of God's blessing. The promise that God had made to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through his Seed, had to come through the cursing that the Seed had suffer for our sins:
Genesis 22:18 (ESV)
and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."
Galatians 3:13-14 (ESV)
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"- [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
It is through our cursing that others are blessed:
Luke 6:28 (ESV)
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
It is good then we are "cursed" with persecution, suffering, hardship and even death, if it is for the blessing and pleasing of others, especially for our future generation, our children. We have a tendency to think only for our own generation, but we don't realize that it will bring a curse upon our children's generation. Our sin, and desire for a 'blessed life now' brings about judgment upon our future generations:
Exodus 20:5-6 (ESV)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
This first generation of Israel from Egypt cared nothing for their own children, and by their unbelief and rebellion against God made their children suffer forty years of vanity in the desert. If they were willing to carry the cross for their children, and were willing to die for the future of their children, then the children would have eaten the good crops of the land. But they refused to carry the burden for them, and were afraid for their own lives, and thus their children had to incur the judgement for their sins.
We must also live for our children's future, and not just live for our generation. Without bearing the cross and making the effort and being "cursed" for our children, they will never be blessed. They will live in a Sodom-like moral wasteland, because we refused to be hung on the cross for them. Let us then learn from Jesus Christ, and Abraham, and learn to forsake comfort for our future generation. If the fruit of our blood, sweat and tears means blessing for our children, then we must do so. This is our duty as a parent. Let us live for others, especially for the future generation yet not born. Let us not learn from this wicked world which cares nothing about their own children but only about their own bellies, and let us prepare a good land for our children. Lord, help us to do this thing, and to die for them. Amen.
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