Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120826.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part L: Gaining God's Rich Blessing Regardless Of Our Background
(Numbers 34:16-29 et al.)
    u>Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    People with certain "disadvantaged" backgrounds are often seen in today's world as victims of society who are destined for a lack of fulfillment, and it can tempt them to feel a sense of hopelessness:

    (1) With the recent rash of mass shootings, Jack Levin, Brudnick Professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University, in his article, "Hate hovers over Sikh deaths" in the August 8, 2012 nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 7A, claimed "most mass murderers . . . have suffered prolonged frustrations . . . been socially isolated . . . and experienced some catastrophic loss." (emphasis ours)

    Mr. Levin admitted he saw no solution for such people, Ibid.

    (2) Law-abiding groups can be seen as helpless victims, too: the lead editorial, "Too many schools let their best teachers get away," Ibid., p. 6A, noted "about 55% of the irreplaceables' [in the teaching profession] earn lower salaries than the average ineffective teacher . . ."

    (3) The same paper's lead story (Ibid., p. 1A, "Life's good for older Americans, poll finds," by Haya El Nasser) claimed "young people these days" are the big victims of the Great Recession since they are "the most anxious, most depressed, and the 60-76 are the most resilient, most financially protected" of the nation's people groups.

    (4) Even voters are treated as society's victims: the paper's August 15 cover story ("The NO Votes," by Susan Page) stated, "90 million Americans could vote in November but likely won't . . . Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate . . . says There's a lot of lack of trust in our leaders, a lack of positive feelings about political institutions . . . cynicism of the coverage of politics - I could go on with a long litany.'"

    (5) Internationally, the Palestinian Arabs are viewed as helpless victims of society: in a letter to the editor in the August 10 issue of the same paper, p. 8A, Kyle T. Reynolds of Cyprus, Texas critiqued Jonah Goldberg's August 7 column ("Mitt, more gaffes like this, please") where Goldberg wrote the Palestinians were "half ruled by murderous terrorists of Hamas, half ruled by the kleptocratic thugs of the Palestinian Authority" so they could not know "peace and prosperity." Reynolds countered: "The . . . truth . . . [is] the military occupation dooms Palestinian prosperity more than any cultural link . . ."

    So we ask, "If I am of a disadvantaged' background, am I hopelessly destined to stay unfulfilled?! What would God say?"

    Need: "If I am from a disadvantaged' background, am I hopelessly destined to remain unfulfilled?! What would God suggest?"

  1. Of the tribal heads blessed of God to lead Israel in distributing the Promised Land to all Israel, just ONE man was of the ORIGINAL tribal heads, and he had a DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUND:
    1. God had Moses select a head of each of the 9 tribes left to get their land to distribute the Promised Land to these tribes, Num. 34:16-29.
    2. Besides Joshua who would be elevated to lead Israel after Moses, only Caleb in this list survived of the original twelve tribal heads who had spied out Canaan, Numbers 34:16-29; 13:1-16; B. K. C., O. T., p. 255.
    3. Yet, remarkably, Caleb was from a very disadvantaged background:
      1. Caleb was from a group destined to lack fertile land:
        1. Caleb's father was Jephunneh, a "Kenezite," or qenizi in the Hebrew text, Numbers 32:12; Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 251; B. D. B., A Hebrew-English Lexicon of the O. T., p. 889.
        2. Well, qenizi is a "patronymic" derivative of qenaz, meaning the Kenezites descended from the man Kenaz, a grandson of Esau, James Strong, The Exhaus. Conc. of the Bib. Hebr. And Chald. Dict., p. 104; Ibid., B. D. B.; Gen. 36:1-11; Ibid., Kittel, p. 54.
        3. However, Isaac had prophesied that Esau would receive land lacking in agricultural fertility, Genesis 27:1-40.
      2. Caleb was from a group destined to be dispossessed of their land:
        1. Genesis 15:18-21 shows the "Kenizzites," the same word qenizi translated "Kenezite" in Numbers 32:12 (Ibid., Kittel, p. 20; Ibid., B. D. B.), was a nation in Canaan Israel was to dispossess!
        2. To explain, Esau married a Hittite in Canaan named Adah, and by her begat Eliphaz who in turn begat Kenaz, Genesis 36:2a, 4a, 11. Kenaz settled in Canaan among his Canaanite kin, so his descendants stood to be eventually dispossessed by Israel!
        3. Thus, God in Genesis 15:18-21 predicted the rise and fall of the Kenezites who came by Abraham's great-great-grandson Kenaz.
      3. Caleb was from a group destined for enslavement: the Hittite Adah Esau wed who produced the Kenezites was of the "sons of Heth" (Gen. 26:34; 27:46), who was a son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15) whose line was divinely cursed to be enslaved to Shem's and Japheth's lines for the sin of Canaan's father, Ham, Gen. 9:20-27!
      4. Caleb's name humanly destined him for mistreatment: his name means "dog/slave" in cuneiform literature, a term for "abject servitude," demeaning for a man in that era ( Z. P. E. B., v. One, p. 686) that would make acceptance by honorable people difficult!
  2. Yet, regardless of such a background, Caleb ended up greatly blessed because he WHOLLY FOLLOWED and SERVED the Lord:
    1. The other [ten] spies [besides Joshua] had failed wholly to follow the Lord, bringing a faithless report that they could not conquer the land, so they soon died in divine judgment, Numbers 14:36-38.
    2. However, not only did Caleb survive that judgment, but he became greatly blessed of the Lord for wholly following and serving Him:
      1. God in Numbers 14:24 promised that since Caleb had wholly followed Him unlike the ten faithless spies, the Lord would bring him into the land he had spied, and his children would possess it.
      2. God there also called Caleb "My servant", a play on the meaning of "Caleb" as God elevated one called a "dog/slave" by man as he made himself a "slave of God"! Similarly, Jesus said in John 12:26 that if any man served Him, "him will my Father honor"!
      3. Thus, the blessings Caleb received for wholeheartedly following the Lord and making himself a "slave of God" overcame all of the humanly debilitating issues of his background:
        1. Though Caleb's Kenezite ancestors were dispossessed of their land in Canaan, he inherited Hebron that the giant Anakim had bested all the other Canaanite nations to possess, Jos. 14:13-15; Num. 13:33; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Num. 13:32.
        2. Opposite his Edomite ancestors who possessed agriculturally poor land, Caleb inherited the agriculturally fertile region of Hebron! (Ibid., Zon. Pict. Ency. of the Bible , v. Three, p. 108)
        3. Opposite being a dishonored "slave" as in his likely Canaanite ancestry and name, only Caleb survived as a tribal head to spy out Canaan, to divide it, to conquer it and finally to possess it!
<Application: If we come from a "disadvantaged" background, may we wholeheartedly follow the Lord in (1) trusting in Christ as Savior, John 3:16; Acts 17:30. (2) Then, may we wholeheartedly rely on the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9b; Gal. 5:16-23) for the power (3) wholeheartedly to heed all Scripture in faith for God's blessing, (4) committing ourselves to heed the LORD as HIS SERVANT!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The extensive story behind the information given in this sermon from the Hebrew Bible illustrates this sermon's lesson (as follows):

(1) Your pastor who shared this Hebrew information with you today received his undergraduate degree from the Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon that had as its first president Dr. B. B. Sutcliffe. He was an alcoholic who received Christ and followed Him.

(2) Your pastor who shared this Hebrew information with you later received his master's degree from the Dallas Theological Seminary, and its origin was heavily impacted by Dr. C. I. Schofield, author of the Schofield Reference Bible. Dr. C. I. Schofield was also an alcoholic who accepted Christ as his Savior and followed the Lord.

(3) Also, your pastor who shared this information with you was raised by parents who were each adopted or fostered as children by devout Christians so he might trust in Christ and learn God's Word!

(4) These parents became missionaries to Nigeria a generation after pioneer missionaries Bingham, Gowen and Kent tried to take the gospel into "the white man's graveyard" of inland Nigeria! Only Bingham survived the initial effort, but others were spurred by their work to go to the Nigerian inland until your pastor was raised there!

(5) Finally, your pastor who shared this Hebrew information with you read it in a copy of Biblia Hebraica, Rudolf Kittel's Hebrew Old Testament text, given to him in 1973 by Dallas Seminary doctoral student Byang Kato. Byang was the son of a Nigerian witch doctor who was led to faith in Jesus Christ as a boy by a missionary lady in Nigeria who was with the S. I. M. mission of your pastor's parents.

Dr. Kato later drowned, but he was a potent voice for the truth!

(6) In summary, then, B. B. Sutcliffe, C. I. Schofield, Byang Kato, Bob and Madge Shell, Bingham, Gowen, Kent and others of a "disadvantaged" background or lot in life, for devoting themselves to serve Christ, were honored and used of Him to equip your pastor to give you the Hebrew information in today's sermon!

I trust you will appreciate the huge investment God has made to get you this information today, and may He use it for His eternal glory!

So, for ANYONE, REGARDLESS of his background or lot in life, may we wholeheartedly follow the Lord in His Word as did Caleb to escape the world's "victim" status and be blessed of God! May we also SERVE Him wholeheartedly and fine great blessing!