Sermons

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Shrinking Giants
March 10, 2002
Ninth in a series on “Walking By Faith”
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Numbers 13 & 14

“Walking By Faith” is what we have called this sermon series. This morning, our walk with Moses and the Israelite people continues as we look once into the Old Testament book of Numbers. The Israelites have arrived at a point near the outskirts of the Promised Land. Moses has sent a group of 12 men to spy out the land, and the 12 have returned to report to the people.

Numbers 13:25-33

If you know me at all, you’ll know I love basketball. I am a big basketball fan. I particularly love watching high school and college basketball. And right now, we have three kids, all playing basketball on different teams. So, as you can imagine, I see a lot of games over the course of a season. A lot.

And one thing that has happened…is that I really have become an expert referee! Constantly, I find a could ref a game much better from the stands than the referee on the court…if only they’d give me a whistle! There are some games when I get downright incredulous, and wonder: Are this ref and I watching the same game? I watch the game, and see a kid on our team get slapped, hacked, mugged and tripped to the point I’m thinking of calling 9-1-1. And the ref blows his whistle and calls a foul on our player! And I think (or occasionally say!): “What?! You saw that poor, bleeding kid commit a foul?! Are you nuts?! Are we even watching the same game?”

I think Caleb must have had these exact same thoughts…are we even watching the same game? Caleb is one of the 12 spies sent out, one from each tribe. And the group returns in two groups…a majority of 10, and then Caleb and Joshua. The Israelites are now in their second year out of Egypt. And they actually are getting close to Canaan, the land near the Dead Sea which God has called them to, the Promised Land. And God tells Moses to send spies out, and here are their instructions for the spying mission:

a) spy out the PEOPLE, and see if they are strong or weak, many or few.
b) spy out the LAND, and see if it is good or bad, rich or poor, with vegetation or barren.
c) spy out the CITIES: see if they are walled and fortified, or not.

The spies are gone for 40 days…the Bible’s way of saying “a long time.” Archeologists think they may have gone on a 500-mile round trip. And they walk into camp, and the congregation looks at the grapes and pomegranates and figs that they are carrying, which they think must surely be a good sign. And everybody is dying to know: What did you see?! What did you think? And the spies say… “do you want the good news or the bad news?”

Oh, there’s plenty of good news. The land truly is a good land, flowing with milk and honey, bearing fruit like all this that we’ve brought back with us. The bad news? Well…the people are strong, the towns are walled…and there are all sorts of people there, including: the descendants of Anak. The Anakites were LARGE people, whose very stature scared others.

Caleb is one of the twelve. And as he listens to this pessimistic report, his mouth falls open in shock. “Are you watching the same game I am?!” Let’s go! We can take this land, let’s move out right now…whatever is there, we can overcome.”

Now it’s the turn of those who gave the first report. They dig in their heels…what’s wrong with Caleb? Is he watching the same game we are? They become much clearer. In fact, they change the original report to be much scarier. WE ARE NOT ABLE…NO WAY can we take this land. The PEOPLE are stronger than we are. The LAND (which a minute ago was a delightful place) now suddenly becomes “a land that devours its inhabitants.” And the PEOPLE there are the Nephillim, giants of great size…so large, they say, “we felt like grasshoppers next to them.”

And the majority opinion rules the day. The report on the Giants seals it, and the Israelite people who have come so very far…lose all hope. They cry and weep and…guess what? COMPLAIN! And guess what else? They say “LET’S GO BACK TO EGYPT!” We’ve heard it over and over…but now they look serious. In fact, they even begin to choose a leader to take them back. And the whole journey looks like it is going up in smoke. They’re going the right direction, and suddenly they totally reverse engines. Why? There are giants in the land. It’s these giants I’d like us to think about this morning. At the very least, there are three observations we might make.

First, the giants are real. There really are some tribes of very large, physical specimens. In fact, the giant Goliath in the story of King David is related to these same people. No one is just dreaming them up. The giants are real, and there’s no point in saying that they’re not there.

And if we continue to look at this journey as not only a geographical and historical one, but also a faith journey…we’ll need to acknowledge that there are giants on our journey with God. Giants are things that make us fearful, and keep us from living by faith. Some of them are external…like a culture that tries to put limits around faith, or physical illness or war. Others are internal…like the fear of failure, or depression or a feeling of hopelessness. What are the giants that keep you from living by faith? Whatever they are, following after Jesus Christ does not mean telling yourself that they aren’t there. They are. It doesn’t mean just become a person who always says “the glass is half full.” Living faithfully will mean confronting those very giants in some way.

One of my own giants is the hopelessness I can feel over the events that go on in our world. I can begin to lose hope. Last week I sat at Starbucks one morning and read the paper. First I read about the Hindu and Muslim attacks that senselessly killed so many in India. Then I read about a group of high schoolers here in the U.S. who went out and broke the arm of a rival high school’s basketball star so he couldn’t play against them in the championship game. Then I turned the page to a large article about the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons pouring into countries in Africa…many from the United States. By the time I made it through those three articles, I was totally depressed, almost in despair.

What are we doing? How can we treat one another like this? And it is easy then to become fearful. And I begin to feel like, “Maybe I should just move out to a mountain cabin somewhere with my family, and just live out my days in seclusion.” But God doesn’t want us to live by fear…but by faith. And in looking through the stories of Jesus, of Paul, of Peter, of so many Christians throughout history and the world…it seems that there will ALWAYS be giants. In fact, if there are not, we might begin to wonder if we’re on the right road.

Some of you have been reading C.S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters with me these last few weeks. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. These letters from Wormwood, a Senior Devil, to his nephew are full of insights. When you look at the book as a whole, you realize that many of the “giants” that keep us from a living faith that reaches out to God…don’t appear at first to be large, giant things. Listen to this passage from chapter 12: Wormwood has been writing to his nephew about small things like shallow conversations, or time simply idled away. He says,

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small (the sins are), provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the nothing.”

Some giants we immediately recognize, and some we don’t…but we will encounter giants, and lots of them…on our journey, things that will encourage us to live fearfully.

Secondly, in the presence of giants…people of faith are called to put forth…a MINORITY REPORT. That means, by definition, BEING DIFFERENT. Christians willing to walk by faith will look different. They have to. They will operate with a totally different world view from the people around them. This guy Caleb, joined by one other, Joshua…gives this Minority Report. Now, surely they did not want to be opposed, argued with, threatened. I don’t think they were people who loved confrontation. But what THEY had learned about walking by faith so far in those two years…was that they were compelled to speak what was true, and what God asked them to…regardless.

Flannery O’Connor once said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you…odd!” The problem is, we don’t want to be odd, we want to be the same as all the others around us. And the problem is, we can’t possibly be the same AND live by faith. The call of Christ is to such a different way of living: Acknowledging weakness instead of portraying strength. Caring for people instead of things. Giving away rather than hoarding. Watching out for others instead of ourselves. Allowing God to transform us instead trying to do it ourselves. Living by faith cannot look the same as living by fear.

In 1934, as Adolph Hitler was tightening his grip on Germany, most of the Christian Church was complacently mixing nationalism, militarism and Christianity together, capitulating to the control of Hitler. Most of the church…but not all. There was a minority report. In a document called The Barmen Declaration, the Church was compelled to state how it would live. The document is found in our Book of Confessions, and says things like this:

“We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one word of God (Jesus Christ), still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.” Or “We reject the false doctrine…that the state might fulfill the function of the Church.”

As you might imagine, the majority of the church, which had cozied up to the Nazis, was not happy with this document, nor was Hitler. Some of the signers were thrown out of the country. Others were put in prison and others were executed. One of my great fears…for myself, and for the community of faith…is that our lives so often begin to look no differently than everyone around us. The statistics scare me: financial giving, marital infidelity, abuse, divorce, material possessions…seem to indicate that most of the church is indistinguishable from the culture around us. Even in the face of giants, especially in the face of giants…the church is called to provide a minority report.

Thirdly, living by faith in the presence of giants…means learning from Caleb and Joshua. What was it that they saw that the other 10 did not? Oh, they saw the giants. But they chose to look past them to something else…to the PROMISED LAND. Not just the land of Canaan, not just the land near the Dead Sea, not just a hilly or fertile or dry piece of land, but the PROMISED LAND. They were following the promises of God.

In fact, they were staking their very lives on the promise. Caleb, now with Joshua beside him, listens to the people begin to crank up the return trip to Egypt, and they just can’t take it. They fall on their faces, they beg, they declare: “Listen: The Lord is with us (the greatest of God’s promises, for them or us)! And if the Lord is with us, then those giants are HIS problem, not ours. We’re supposed to move ahead in faith.” You see, Caleb and Joshua had been walking with their eyes open for more than a year. They called people to remember how, when they feared dying of thirst, God provided water. When they feared starvation, God provided food. When they feared being alone, God traveled with them. And now, they reminded the people, “God has promised this land…it’s a free gift. Believe the promise.”

Craig Barnes says, “Nothing will shape your identity more…than the promises you choose to believe.” We look most like God’s people…when we accept the free gift of grace in Jesus Christ. Jesus holds out to us God’s promise of forgiveness, the promise of God’s presence, the promise of eternal life. When we believe those promises, the giants in our lives begin to shrink. And as they shrink…we get a little bolder. And soon, the grasshoppers stare the giants eyeball to eyeball.

What are the giants in your life that want you to live by fear instead of faith? They’re probably real. But when we keep our eyes fixed on the promises of God, made firm in Christ…we will have the courage to walk by faith, as God’s people, giving a Minority Report.

I want to close by reading from Hebrews 10 (verse 39), a verse just after what Margie read earlier in the service. It says this:

“But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost…but we are among those who have faith and so are saved.”

Amen.