June 26, 2016 - The Twelve Spies

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9b) 3pts!

Does God keep his promises?  Of course He does!  So what is there to worry about?  If we live believing God’s promises to us then we never have anything to be afraid of, right?  Absolutely!  Sometimes though, God will call us to do something that can be scary.  Even though we know we have a mighty God that always keeps His promises, it is easy to forget that and become afraid when we have to face a scary situation.  Is it okay to run away from what God has told us to do because we are scared?  No!  If we do, we may miss out on the wonderful things that God has promised us.  Today’s story will make this easier to understand.

For the past few weeks we have been discussing God’s promises, namely the promise he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would make a great nation of their family in the Promised Land and that all nations would be blessed through them.  God began keeping His promise by sending Jacob/Israel and his sons to Egypt.  Four hundred years later, Pharaoh had enslaved all of the children of Israel.  God moved on to the next stage in keeping His promise, getting the Israelites out of Egypt and heading toward the Promised Land in Canaan.  Ten devastating plagues on Egypt later, the Pharaoh finally let the Israelites leave and, after God split the Red Sea for one final escape from Pharaoh, they were off to the Promised Land. 

Finally, the Israelites arrived on the very edge of Canaan.  God had given the Canaanites four hundred years to turn from their evil ways but they didn’t.  Now God was going to give their land to Israel. God told Moses to send twelve spies, one from each of the twelve

tribes of Israel, to go and spy out the land and bring back a report of what they could expect.  Over the next forty days, the spies went all throughout Canaan.  They saw giant people called the Anakim. They also saw cities that had enormous walls around

them making them hard to attack. Then they checked out the crops and found bunches of grapes so huge that they had to attach one to a pole so that two people could carry it back to show the Israelites.  It was a very good
land with cities, farms, wells, and everything you could ever want or need.  The spies knew, however, that it would not be an easy task.

When they came back to the Israelites, they showed them the grapes and told of the wonderful things that they had seen.  They also told of the dangers of giants and the challenges of trying to defeat walled cities.  Ten of the spies were so afraid that they told the people that it was too dangerous to go into the land.  One of the spies, Caleb, said differently.  He said, “We

should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30b)  The ten spies said, “But the people are so big that we must look like grasshoppers to them! They are too strong for us to defeat!” 

The ten spies fear spread to the rest of the Israelites. They began to ask, “Why did God bring us here just so we could die?”  They even talked about replacing Moses with another leader who would take them back to Egypt!  Caleb and the

twelfth spy, Joshua, were angered by the people acting like cowards that they tore their clothes to show how upset they were.  Then they stood up and said to the people, “It is a very good land.  We saw it ourselves!  If we obey God he will give it to us so, whatever you do, don’t rebel against God!  God is with us, not with them.  Do not be afraid of the people because nothing can help them against our God.”

This made the people so angry that they were about to stone Joshua and Caleb to death but God stepped in just in time. God’s glory appeared over the Tabernacle which meant that He wanted to speak to Moses.  The people stopped

what they were doing and waited to hear what God had to say.  Moses went in and God said to him, “How long will these people not respect me? How long will they refuse to believe in me? They refuse even though I have done many signs among them.  So I will strike them down with a plague. I will destroy them. But I will make you (Moses) into a greater and stronger nation than they are.” (Numbers 14:11-12 NIrV)

Moses said, “But God, if You do this then the Egyptians will hear about it and tell even the people in Canaan.  They all know that You have used Your mighty power to save us from Egypt and that You have been with us this whole way.  They will think that You failed to keep Your promise to give us this land and so You killed them all.  You said You are slow to anger, full of love, and you desire to forgive sin.  So, instead, please forgive this people one more time. 

God agreed to forgive the people again but said that they

would still need to be punished.  First, God made the ten spies that spread fear through the Israelites get very sick and die.  Then He said that, because the people refused to trust God’s promises and instead gave in to fear, the people would not be allowed to have the Promised Land.  Instead, they would have to wander around the wilderness for forty years; one year for every day the spies were in the land.  Everyone over the age of twenty would die in the wilderness and their children would receive the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel. 

When the people heard this they said, “Okay, we’re ready to obey now and take the land like God told us to.”  But it was too late.  They had missed their chance.  They tried to take the land but God was not with them and they were

quickly beaten.  So the Israelites turned around and went into the wilderness for forty years where everyone over twenty years old died.  The only two exceptions were Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that were strong and courageous and believed

God’s promise.

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June 19, 2016 - Moses Learns to Delegate

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Two people are better than one. They get more done by working together. If one person falls, the other can help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a

Have you ever been in charge of something?  There is so much to do isn’t there?  You are the one responsible to make sure everything gets done so you had better get started, right?  If you are the Children’s Pastor at your church you have to get all the chairs and classrooms set up, prepare a lesson for every class, get all the crafts and snacks ready, get the worships songs chosen and get them ready to be projected on the wall at the proper time so everyone can worship, practice the songs because you are going to have to lead worship, get all the kids checked in and checked out, and make sure ever you solve every argument, fix every problem, and everything else that might happen is taken care of!  This is what it takes to be a leader, you have to do EVERYTHING….right? WRONG!!!!

If you actually tried to do all of this you would either wear yourself out or explode.  God never called anyone to be everything at once, he created us to be a body: different parts doing different jobs.  A good leader knows how to delegate: share the work with people he/she trusts to get it done well.  A leader is the head of a team and chooses his/her teammates according to the gifts that God has given them. They appoint people to be teachers, tech people, security guards, people in charge of snacks, etc.…  Surely there was nobody in the Bible that ever made the mistake of trying to do everything themselves…right?  Wrong.

Last week we talked about how God kept His promise that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel by bringing their descendants out of Egypt and putting them on their way to the Promised Land in Canaan. 

Afterwards, God had to rescue them from Pharaoh one last time by parting the Red Sea and allowing the Israelites to

escape.  At that time, Moses found that he was the leader of somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million people!  The people all started looking to Moses to be their teacher, their judge, their problem solver, and God’s messenger to them.  It was a big job!  Moses would often be working from dawn till dusk solving problems and teaching lessons.

One day Jethro, the father of Moses’ wife, came to visit. 

He listened joyfully as Moses told him all about how God had freed them from Egypt through the Ten Plagues and parting the Red Sea.  Jethro was very happy to see that God was taking care of Moses and his people.  The next day, Jethro watched as Moses sat as the judge for all the people all day long.  Afterwards, Jethro came to Moses and said, “What are you doing?  Why are you trying to do all this by yourself?”  Moses answered him, “The people come to me to fix their problems, settle their disputes, and teach them about God.”

“It isn’t good that you’re doing this all alone, Moses.  You’re going to wear yourself out!  Listen to me, I have some really good advice you should take.” Jethro said.  “You should continue being the people’s teacher and the messenger between them and God.  However, you need to find others

to help you judge the people, solve problems, and settle disputes.  Find men that are honest and can be trusted and put them in charge of the people.  Put some over a thousand people, some over a hundred, some over fifty, and some over ten. These people will help you share the load and take care of the smaller problems.  Only if there is a problem too big for them will they bring it to you to solve.  Otherwise, you will wear out and the people won’t have any leader! 

Moses saw how wise his father-in-law’s advice was and decided to take it.  We should do the same thing if God ever puts us in charge of something.  We, as Christians, are meant to work as a team, not try to do everything by ourselves.

June 12, 2016 - The Ten Plagues

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
EXODUS 6:8a

A promise is a promise is a promise!  We’ve all heard this

said before but how much more true is this when it comes to a promise that God Himself made?  Over the last few weeks we have talked about the promise that God made to Abraham that He would make him a great nation and give them

the land of Canaan.  This promise was then passed down to his son Isaac.  Then Isaac passed this promise down to his son Jacob.  As we discussed last week, this would have passed to his older brother Esau but Jacob, with the help of his mother Rebekah, fooled his father Isaac into giving it to him instead. 

Over the years, Jacob (also named Israel) had twelve sons.  Eventually Jacob’s entire family ended up in Egypt where his sons had families of their own.  Their children then had children,

and their children had children, and their children had children and their…until there were so many children of Israel that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was afraid that they might take over.  So Pharaoh came up with a plan.  He decided to enslave all of the children of Israel and make them work for him.  They were treated very badly and began to cry out to God.  The time had come for God to keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God called Moses and his brother Aaron to go to Pharaoh

and tell him to release the Israelites.  At first, all they asked for was to go outside of Egypt for a few days to worship God but Pharaoh even said no to that!  Pharaoh’s heart was so hard and he had so much pride that he wouldn’t budge an inch.  Pharaoh, however, wasn’t big enough to stand in the way of God keeping His promise.

God decided that He would send a Plague, something that causes great harm or distress, to Egypt to show Pharaoh that He means business.  So God told Moses to have Aaron touch the Nile River, Egypt’s main source of water.  As soon as he did this, the river turned to blood and everything in it died!  Pharaoh had some sorcerers that could also turn water to blood so he wasn’t impressed.  The people of Egypt, though, suffered greatly.  Apparently this wouldn’t be enough to convince Pharaoh to change his mind.  This was no problem for God.

Next, God caused Egypt to be overrun with frogs.  They

were everywhere!  Pharaoh called Moses and said they could go if he got rid of the frogs.  Once the frogs were

gone, Pharaoh changed his mind again and didn’t let them go.  God kept sending plagues: Gnats, flies, the animals

died, painful sores, deadly hail stones, a swarm of locusts, and complete darkness.  Each time God made sure that the

plagues only affected the Egyptians.  Goshen, the land where the Israelites were living, was completely

unharmed.  Still, after all this, Pharaoh would not let them go.  He would promise to let them go in order to get God to stop the plague but then he would break his promise.  God, on the other hand, was determined to keep His.

God saw that the only way to get Pharaoh to let His people

go was to visit Egypt Himself!  He told Moses to have the people sacrifice perfectly unblemished lambs; one lamb per family.  Then they were to use the blood from the lamb and paint it on the mantle and doorposts of their houses.  They were to stay in their houses all night and not come out until morning. 

That night, God sent the Angel of Death to go through

Egypt.  He went into each house and took the life of the firstborn son in every family.  However, when the Angel of Death came to a house and saw the lamb’s blood on the mantle and doorposts, he passed over that house and everyone inside was safe.  (This is why Jews celebrate the Passover Feast today.) 

The next morning, Pharaoh realized that even his own firstborn son had died during the night.  It was a sad day throughout Egypt as many families lost sons.  Pharaoh finally decided that he’d had enough.  He told Moses to take the people and all that

they owned and go.  Finally, the children of Israel could begin their journey to the land that God had promised them.

June 5. 2016 - Jacob and Esau

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.


Last week we saw the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.  Well,

the story didn’t stop there.  Isaac and Rebekah went on to have children, a pair of twins named Jacob and Esau.  Now Esau, the firstborn, was a tough and hairy man that liked to hunt. Jacob, on the other hand, was more of a farmer

and very smooth skinned.  For twins, these two didn’t have much in common. 

Earlier this year, we talked about how Esau had sold his birthright, the larger inheritance given to the firstborn son, to his younger brother Esau for a bowl of lentil stew.  This was very foolish of Esau because the

birthright is one of the two most important things a firstborn has.  The other is the blessing that the father passes down to his firstborn.  At least Esau still had that coming….right?

As Isaac got older, he began to lose his sight.  Eventually

he went completely blind.  He knew that it may not be long before it was his time to die so he decided it was time to give Esau the blessing.  He called Esau to him and told him, “Go, hunting, Esau.  Kill an animal and bring it back here and cook it just the way I like it.”  So Esau hurried off to hunt.  What he didn’t know was that his mother, Rebekah, was listening and she

knew that Esau was about to receive the blessing. 

Rebekah thought that the blessing should belong to Jacob just like the birthright so she came up with a plan.  She told Jacob, “I will cook up a goat just the way your father

likes it and I want you to take it to him and pretend to be Esau back from hunting.  Then your father will bless you instead of Esau.”  Jacob wasn’t so sure this plan would work.  After all, his voice was different that his brother’s. Also, what if Isaac touched him? 

He knows Esau is hairy and Jacob isn’t so that would give him away.  Also, Isaac was able to identify them by their smell!  When he told this to his mother, she said, “Wear this fur so Isaac will think you are hairy like Esau, and wear some of his clothes so that you smell like him. This way, your father will think you are Esau.”

So Jacob did what his mother told him to.  Isaac was completely fooled and gave the blessing to Jacob by mistake.  This was the blessing…

May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers,
and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.

This means that the promise that God gave Abraham and Isaac was to be given now to Jacob instead of Esau.  Also, Jacob was now in charge of the family, including his brother Esau!  When Esau learned of this when he got home, he was broken-

hearted and furious.  He hated Jacob so much for stealing his blessing that their parents, Isaac and Rebekah, were afraid that Esau may eventually kill Jacob.  They figured the best thing to do was to send Jacob away to protect him from Esau.  It was many years before they saw each other again.

Over the years, Jacob did very well.  He got married, had children, and had collected great wealth and possessions; but this wasn’t enough.  Jacob eventually wanted to go

home to his family so he sent two of his servants to see Esau who was now living in Edom south of Canaan.  When they returned, the news wasn’t good.  Esau was coming and he was bringing four hundred men with him!  Jacob was very afraid.  He decided that it would be smart to split his group so at least half of them would be safe if Esau attacked.  He also thought that it would help if he sent Esau a nice gift.  So Jacob sent Esau…

200 female goats

20 male goats

200 sheep

20 rams

30 female camels & their young

40 cows

10 bulls

20 female donkeys

10 male donkeys.

That night, Jacob sent everyone ahead and stayed by

himself.  When he was alone, he was visited by an angel!  Instead of what you would expect from an angel, this one attacked Jacob.  They wrestled all night long but the angel could not overcome Jacob so he touched his hip and injured him so badly that Jacob limped.  As the morning drew near, the angel told Jacob to let him go.  Jacob refused.  “Not until you bless me!” Jacob told the angel.  So the angel blessed Jacob and gave him a new name.  Instead of his name being Jacob, which means trickster or supplanter (or heal grabber), his name was now to be Israel which meant to wrestle or contend with God. 

The next day, Jacob and Esau finally met again after years of feuding.  Jacob did not know if Esau would attack him or forgive him.  As Jacob approached Esau, he bowed down seven times.  Amazingly, Esau ran to Jacob/Israel and hugged him tight!  All had been forgiven and the long feud was finally over. 

Esau had a lot to be angry at Jacob for.  Yet, he was able to forgive him.  There is a lesson we can learn from each brother.  From Esau, we can learn to forgive even the worst things that people do to us.  From Jacob, we can learn that, when we wrong someone, we need to do whatever we can to try to make it right.  Nobody owes us forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a gift.