Sermon, 03/23/03 am

Jim Huskey, Discourage Not Your Brethren

The children of Israel had gone through the wilderness, and they stood on

the brink of going into the land of Canaan. In Numbers, chapter 32, there

is a very interesting and challenging lesson presented. It's tied to

some events that preceeded, at least in principle. I want to take a

few minutes and read several verses.

"Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great

multitude of cattle; and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of

Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; the children of

Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to

Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,

Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and

Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before

the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have

cattle; Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let

this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not

over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children

of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And

wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going

over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did your

fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. For when

they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they dis-

couraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go

into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was

kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that

came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the

land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because

they have not wholly followed me; save Caleb and son of Jephunneh the

Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun; for they have wholly followed the

Lord." Num. 32:1-12.

There is an interesting and challenging principle in those verses; and

it's a timely one. Two things stand out. First of all, Moses raised

the question, Shall ye sit here and your brethren go to war. Then he

says, Wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from

going over. He refers them back to the time they first came to

Kadeshbarnea. Well, if you want to turn back to the 13th chapter of

the book of Numbers, you'll find that incident recorded. Let's see if

we can figure out what happened to provide the discouragement.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may

search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel;

of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler

among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from

the wilderness of Paran; all those men were heads of the children of

Israel. (The names of each man is given).....And Moses sent them to

spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way

southward, and go up into the mountain; and see the land, what it is;

and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak,

few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good

or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents,

or in strong holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean,

whether there be wood there, or not. And be ye of good courage, and

bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the

firstripe grapes. So they went up, and searched the land from the

wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended

by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai,

the children of Anak were. Now Hebron was built seven years before

Zoan in Egypt. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down

from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it

between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of

the figs. The place was called the brook Eschol, because of the

cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And

they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, and to all the congregation

of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh;

and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and

showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We

came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with

milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people

be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very

great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites

dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites,

and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by

the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people

before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are

well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We

be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched

unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have

gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof;

and all the peole that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And

there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants;

and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their

sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried;

and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel

murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation

said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or

would God we had died in this wilderness!" Numbers 13:1-3, 17-33;

Numbers 14:1,2.

Now a little later, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives three

addresses. This is from the first address. Deuteronomy, 1:22

beginning, he's telling of when they approached Kadeshbarnea the first

time and the spies were sent out. "And ye came near unto me every one

of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search

us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up,

and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well;

and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe; And they turned and went

up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eschol, and searched

it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and

brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is

a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Nothwithstanding ye

would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your

God; and ye murmured in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us,

he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into

the hand of the Amorities, to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? Our

brethren have DISCOURAGED OUR HEART, saying, The people is greater and

taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and

moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there." Deut. 1:22-28.

Did you get that? OUR BRETHREN HAVE DISCOURAGED OUR HEARTS!!!!!!!!!!

Now, there were twelve men sent to spy out the land. They were the

ones, at least ten of the twelve, who did the discouraging. Joshua and

Caleb both affirmed that if God gave them the land, 'we are well able,

let us go immediately and possess it.' But the rest of the people, the

rest of the leaders gave a discouraging report.

Now, most of the time it is easier to get people to believe something

that is DIScouraging than it is some that is ENcouraging. You need

to understand that God held them accountable. God held the

accountable for discouraging their brethren. Now I realize that the

circumstances there were different; but I realize too that there is a

principle involved. God never has had "much truck" with discouragers!

Now think about it. God never has had "much truck" with folks who

want all the benefits and blessings laid to them on a platter without

having to pay the price for them. God told those Israelites, 'I've

given you the land, but you've got to go over and take it.' Now if

God had run the children of Anak out, the giants out, all the people

out, I'm sure the other ten spies would have said, 'You konw, God's

run them out; now we can go get the stuff that's left.' God said he'd

given them the land; but it was up to them to go over. Now God was

going to be with them and bless them in the effort; but they had to

GET UP AND GO. The record says, 'they discouraged the heart of the

children of Israel.' Then Moses said the children of Israel said, 'our

brethren discouraged our heart, that we should not go over' because of

what they said.

I wonder, as things in the world have developed as they are today and

our nation is at war, how our men in uniform must feel when they see

these IDIOTS in cities like San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, elsewhere,

parading up and down the streets???? You know, the very freedom that

gives them the right to walk up and down the streets with that sign

that says 'don't go to war' WAS WON BY FIGHTING A WAY, AND BY THE SHED

BLOOD OF MEN. I'll tell you something else. If the truth were known,

the majority of those people are not against war per se; they're against

spending the money they want to be given to them. That's what most

of it involves. But it's the principle of discouragement; true with

a nation, it was true then.

But you know that same principle is also applicable in the church. I

have seen in my years, and I've been preaching now since 1959, that's

a lot of years, about 44 I think - I have seen so many good works

destroyed because of one or two who would do everything they could to

see that that particular work didn't succeed, because they were not

for it. I've seen a lot of good works never get off the ground, because

of discouragers. That is a REAL problem - a REAL problem. It really

disturbs me. So many of our veterans of the Viet Nam war came home

only to have their own people spit on them. That's tragic! That's

tragic! Those men did not ask to be sent into battle. They went.

Many of them came back maimed, many of them in body bags; then the

people here, some who had run to Canada, ex-presidents included, then

belittled their efforts. I'm going to tell you something, folks.

Folks like that don't deserve the freedoms they have. They don't

deserve the freedoms they have!!!!! Now there's two sides of this

picture. Not a one of those spies of the ten who brought evil report

was allowed to live. The plague got them. Those who listened to

the discourager died in the wilderness. There might just be a dual

lesson there. The ones who brought the evil report died in the plague.

The ones who listened to them died wandering in the wilderness.

Now contrast that, and I like contrast, especially to something like

the above. Over in the New Testament, the church is rapidly growing.

Things are happening; but the gospel has just been preached to Jews.

Then the book of Acts lays that foundation, as the gospel spreads to

the proselyte, the half-breed, to those who could not have been

priests of God under the Jewish system. Then finally some of those

brethren who had been scattered abroad due to the persecution of

Stephen went up to Antioch and preached to the Gentiles. Word of that

reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. Do you know what they

did? They sent a man by the name of Barnabas. Barnabas was an

ENcourager. You see, it was Barnabas who, when Saul was converted and

everybody else was afraid of him, Barnabas took him. So Barnabas went

up to Antioch and he Encouraged them. It wasn't long until he departed

to Tarsus to seek for Saul and he brought him to Antioch and they

taught much people. (Ref. Acts 9, Acts 11, Acts 12) But the point

I way to make is this - it was a time when encouragement was needed,

a battle was raging. It was a spiritual battle, but it was a battle,

nonetheless. They sent an ENcourage. Later Barnabas and Saul (Paul)

would part company. The reason they would part company was because

John Mark had begun a journey with them but he didn't finish it. When

they got ready to make another journey, Barnabas wanted to take John

Mark with them and Paul didn't, because John didn't go with them to the

work. So Paul chose Silas and they went one direction, and Barnabas

chose John Mark and they went another direction. The calendar moves

forward. Paul is in prison and he writes to Timothy. What does he

write? "...Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is profitable

to me for the ministry." II Tim. 4:11. Well I wonder why. I wonder

how he got that way. I'll have to say, it wasn't becausse of Paul.

It was because of Barnabas. Barnabas took him when Paul wouldn't.

Now Barnabas was an encourager and look what his encouragement helped

do!!! It helped make the congregation at Antioch the radiating center

for the gospel. It helped encourage him who would become perhaps the

greatest preacher of all time - the apostle Paul. It helped encourage

a young man by the name of John Mark whom Paul would later looked to

for help. Why? because of ENcouragement. Barnabas was an encourager.

His name means 'the son of consolation.'

The church, our nation, our leaders, our people, at a time like this,

need, maybe more than ever, ENcouragement. We don't need to be

discouraged. I read of something occurring in one of our northern states

that just tears me apart. There are some elementary school teachers hwo

have been making it very difficult on some of their young students - some

of them as young as age 7, because their parents are in the military.

These teachers have been making very disconcerting remarks to these young

children about their parents. 'If your parents leave, you know they may

die; that's what happens when you go to war.' One little fellow who

wanted to go say 'good-bye' when his parent was shipping out was told

'no you can't go; if you do go, that will be an unexcused absence.'

Maybe those teaches would be better suited to Iraq. They sure don't need

to be teaching our children. Young children t that age are very

impressionable. They're proud of their parents. They go through enough

stress when the family is separated as a result of father or mother being

called to active duty. They don't need some idiot with a degree causing

more problems. They need ENCOURAGEMENT. So does our nation; so does

the church.

The church is at war too; it's just a different kind of war. There have

been an awful lot of folks uttering some very discouraging words. As in

the Old Testament, I'm telling you folks, God doesn't forget that. He

doesn't forget that!!!! He didn't with Israel and I'm sure he still

doesn't. I still haven't figured out what some of these folks who are

out demonstrating and tearing up do with the passage of scripture that

says "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no

power but of God; the powers that be ARE ORDAINED OF GOD." Rom. 13:1.

And the real tragedy is that some of those idiots are calling themselves

'preachers'. Oh, it was that was in the 60's; this is nothing new.

These folks who think they've found something new, a new way to do things,

they don't know what they're talking about; this has been around for a

long time - all way back to the desert when the Israelites came from

Egypt.

We need Encouragement. All of us need Encouragement, but especially in

times like this. Our military boys and girls and our leaders need to know

we're praying for, we stand with them. Nobody likes war. It's not

pleasant. As one of our generals said, Sherman, I believe it was, when

he marched through Atlanta, said, "War is hell." And it is. But oftimes

it's necessary, whether a spiritual or a military war, and in either

incident, the people don't need to be discouraged, but encouraged.