Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20020703.htm

DEUTERONOMY: GETTING OTHERS TO BE VICTORS, NOT CASUALTIES
Part I: Teaching Subordinates To Follow God When Their Human Spiritual Leaders Fail
(Deuteronomy 1:1-46)
  1. Introduction
    1. God sets up spiritual leaders to influence His people to heed the Lord's will.
    2. However, sometimes these leaders fail the Lord, and fail to lead their subordinates to do so as well.
    3. In such times, the subordinates have a responsibility to God as Moses taught in Deuteronomy 1:1-46:
  2. Teaching Subordinates To Follow God When Their Human Spiritual Leaders Fail, Deut. 1:1-46.
    1. Originally, God planned for Moses to lead Israel to conquer the Promised Land, Deut. 1:1-8:
      1. God had led Moses to defeat the armies of Sihon and Og in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 1:3-4.
      2. Accordingly, He urged Moses to continue leading Israel to conquer the Promised Land where the Amorites dwelt based upon this precedent of military victories, Deuteronomy 1:5-8.
    2. However, due to the greatly expanded number of people in Israel, Moses delegated authority out to "middle managers" to help him bear the load of the nation, Deuteronomy 1:9-18:
      1. Moses told the people of Israel he was overburdened with administrative duties due to the large number of the people in the nation, Deuteronomy 1:9-12.
      2. Accordingly, he urged the people to select qualified, reputable leaders among the tribes to serve as subordinates to him to help him bear the load, Deuteronomy 1:13.
      3. The suggestion pleased the people, so a group of "middle management" men was set up, Deut. 1:14-18.
    3. This use of "middle management" leaders led to the people asking for men to spy out the Promised Land in preparation for its military conquest, Deut. 1:19-24. However, when these "middle management" men became FAITHLESS, it created a STUMBLINGBLOCK for the people, Deuteronomy 1:25-28:
      1. Ten of the spies sent back a faithless report, saying the land's inhabitants were giants and too hard for them humanly to conquer, cf. Numbers 13:28, 31-33.
      2. This report influenced the people to lose heart and not want to attack as God willed, Deut. 1:28, 25-27.
    4. In CONTRAST, Moses reported he tried to get the people to focus on God's RECORD of provision for them against great human ODDS to encourage them to TRUST Him versus the unbelief of their leaders:
      1. Moses tried to encourage the people of Israel not to fear the land's inhabitants, Deuteronomy 1:29.
      2. He based this encouragement upon God's track record of provisions against huge human odds:
        1. Moses reported how God had fought to overcome the greatest military force in the area, the Egyptian forces, when He had delivered them at the Red Sea crossing, cf. Deuteronomy 1:30.
        2. Moses reported how God provided for their numerous livelihood needs through a very hostile wilderness until then as evidence He could and would do so in their conquest of Canaan, 1:31.
        3. Moses reported how God had given tangible evidence of His encouraging, clear leading of them by way of the dramatic pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day all the way out of Egypt as evidence He would be with them to help them to conquer Canaan, Deuteronomy 1:33.
    5. Nevertheless, the people had failed to trust God in spite of all these evidence of His faithfulness, 1:32.
    6. God had then judged all that generation (including Moses who had become frustrated at Israel's unbelief into sinning himself, cf. Deut. 1:37 with Num. 20:12) accept Caleb and Joshua who tried to encourage the people to trust the Lord to take the Land; the unbelievers would perish in the wilderness while their children, whom they thought would die there, would take the land, Deuteronomy 1:34-40.
    7. At that point, the people sought to "repent" by attacking the land on their own against God's and Moses' warning, only to lose and spend a long time going nowhere at Kadesh-Barnea, Deuteronomy 1:41-46.
    8. Moses VERBALLY reported all of this as a TEACHING tool for Israel to follow GOD even when her HUMAN LEADERS failed to EXAMPLE following the LORD!
Lesson: By recalling the PAST to show the FUTILITY of heeding FAITHLESS leaders when God has proved so RELIABLE, Moses taught the new generation to heed God when LEADERS FAIL the Lord!

Application: Leaders are set up to EXAMPLE following God for us; however, leaders can FAIL to heed GOD, so we must ALWAYS ULTIMATELY focus on heeding the LORD and NOT MEN!