Sermon, On the Threshold of a New Year, Numbers 14

Written by Argile Smith

The following model sermon first appeared in Let's Worship Magazine. It's a great example of the great resources available in that resource. Learn how to subscribe to Let's Worship Magazine.

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A threshold symbolizes a new beginning. After the wedding, for example, a new husband will cradle his new wife in his arms at the front door of their honeymoon suite. Then he will carry her across the threshold to signify the new life they will have together. Similarly, the owner of a new store in town will mark the first day of business by walking across the threshold with a photographer nearby to capture the moment with a photograph.

As Christians begin a new year, we stand at a threshold. Before us are new possibilities and challenges. Also ahead of us are obstacles that can disappoint or even frighten us. God used Moses to lead His people out of their miserable past as slaves in Egypt to the threshold of their future in the Promised Land. There in the desert south of Israel, God showed them the land that He had promised to Abraham, their forefather, many years earlier.

God had already told Moses to send out an advance team to determine what the Israelites needed to do in order to take the land. Everything was set for them to cross the threshold to take what God had already given to them. But the advance team threw a wrench in the plan. Twelve men had been sent out, and ten of them came back with a report that frightened everyone who heard it. Only two young men believed that God would give them the land the team had explored. Having heard both reports, the Israelite elders had to make a decision about whether to cross the threshold into their future.

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On the threshold of a new year, God gives individual Christians, as well as entire congregations, a similar opportunity. What decision will you make as you stand on the threshold of your future?

We can be frightened by the future (vv.2-4).
The advance team’s majority report must have scared the leaders of Israel nearly to death! In their fear, they began to let their imaginations get the best of them. They began to think that God had brought them to the new land only to brutalize them and their families. Then they began to rethink their decision to leave Egypt. In their fear they came to the conclusion that returning to Egypt would be a good idea. They even talked about appointing someone who would lead them back to safety in Egypt.

Numbers 11:4-6 gives us the impression that they had considered a retreat to Egypt earlier in their journey. Apparently they had grown tired of the manna God had given them to eat as they traveled through the desert. They wanted to return to Egypt so they could enjoy all of the culinary delicacies there.

But one problem had obviously not crossed their minds. The Egypt in their nostalgic imaginations didn’t exist anymore—if it ever existed at all.

When we face our future with fear, we can choose to reach for a blanket of nostalgia and warm ourselves in the recollections of what we considered to be the better days of the past. When we make that choice, we face the same problem. The better days we long for don’t exist anymore, and they never will again. In fact, the past of our nostalgia probably never existed at all.

We can embrace the future (vv.5-10).
Two young men, Joshua and Caleb, gave the minority report. Then they pleaded with the leaders to move ahead to the land of their dreams instead of retreating to the land of their memories.

In their plea Joshua and Caleb pointed out some facts that could not be ignored. First, the land would give them the opportunity to flourish as God’s people. Even though they would have to face certain challenges as they stepped across the threshold into their future, the risk would be smaller than the reward. Second, God would go with them as they took the land. They could not fail because God had already given them the land. Moving ahead would be an act of obedience to God.

Similarly, the year before us will bring with it some challenges, but it also promises to be rewarding. Our best choice is to embrace the future in faithful obedience to God. Go ahead, step across the threshold as you hold His hand. God has promised to go with you.

By the way, God showed up in the meeting of the Israelite leaders to give the last word (v. 10). He always does, and He always will. So choose well.