Thursday, February 25, 2016

Not Technically Evangelism, but Good Stuff

So,  dove headlong into an amazing rabbit hole two days ago.  Yesterday morning I still had not come out of it... not exactly sure where it is going to end up.  It started with reading Numbers.  Sometimes you need to read big chunks of Scripture, to get familiar with it before you drill down.  That's what I was doing, but I noticed something that I had not noticed before.  Numbers 13, the spies that the Israelites send out into the promised land.  They send 12 men, one from each tribe.  They come back and 10 of them give a false, bad report saying they can not take the land.  Caleb and Joshua, however, say that with faith in God they can surely take it.

In verses 6 and 8, Numbers tells us that Caleb was from the tribe of Judah and Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim.  Lights went off.  That can't be an incidental piece of information--as if there were such a thing in Scripture.  Long story short (and not the point of this post), Judah is the tribe of David and Jesus.  Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph who receives the birthright that belonged to Reuben.  Ephraim "stands in" in Scripture for the ten northern tribes and Judah, well, Judah stands in for Judah and Benjamin. [Thanks to Theo Hagg and Wes Holland for diving down the rabbit hole with me]

ANYWAY. I thought, "I need to look up what Adam Clarke as to say about this..." Sadly, he passes it by, at least in Numbers.  Maybe he picks it up in comments on Hosea or Chronicles.  I'll see.  But when I got to the end of his Numbers commentary, he has this to say:
 "Canaan was a type of the kingdom of God; the wilderness through which the Israelites passed, of the difficulties and the trials to be met with in the present world. The promise of the Kingdom of God is given to every believer; but how many are discouraged by the difficulties in the way! A slothful heart sees dangers, lions and giants everywhere; and therefore refuses to proceed in the heavenly path.  Many spies contribute to this by the bad report they bring of the heavenly country,  Certain preachers allow that the land is good, that it flows with milk and honey," and go so far as to show some of its fruits; but they discourage people by stating the impossibility of overcoming their enemies.  'Sin,' they say, 'cannot be destroyed in this life--it will always dwell in you....'  Here and there, a Joshua and a Caleb , trusting alone in the power of God, armed with faith in the infinite efficacy of that blood which cleanses from all unrighteousness, boldly stand forth and say, 'Their defence is departed, and the Lord is with us. Let us go up and possess the land, for we are well able to overcome.' We can do all things through Christ strengthening us: he will purify us unto Himself, and give us that rest from sin here which his death has procured and His word has promised. Reader, canst thou not take God at His word? He has never yet failed thee. Surely, then, thou hast no reason to doubt. Thou hast never yet tried Him to the uttermost. Thou knowest not how far and how fully he can save."