Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When Life Is More Than You Can Handle | Torah | Numbers 13

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Does God give you more than you can handle? Are there any obstacles in life too big for God? Is there anything you can't trust God with? In today's episode, Keith looks at Numbers 13 to discuss how to and how to not trust God. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Numbers 13

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. My name is Keith Simon. God doesn't give you more than you can handle. Maybe you've said that to someone or have had a person say it to you. If you have cancer, then you can handle it. If you're going through a rough time at work, don't worry, you can handle it. If you have a difficult season in your marriage, don't worry, you can handle it.

If you're having a hard time in school, don't sweat it. You can handle it. most of the time that's said to comfort people or maybe to instill a confidence in them that they're going to be okay look god doesn't give you anything you can't handle now the only problem with that is that it's completely wrong it's absolutely unbiblical god doesn't give you anything that you can't handle are you kidding me of course he does most of the time that seems like that's all he gives me so that phrase that god doesn't give me more than i can handle The problem with it is that it directs me back to me. It tells me that I can handle things, that I've got what it takes.

And I think that's just the opposite of what the Bible teaches. According to Amazon, the most highlighted passage in all books read on Kindle a few years ago. In fact, this passage was highlighted almost twice as often as any other passage. Well, it was from the second volume of The Hunger Games. Here's what the most frequently highlighted passage said. because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them. Now, the reason that was highlighted so often is because it resonated with people. It described how they feel about their life because sometimes things happen to people and

they're not equipped to deal with them. What if those things that happen to us that were not equipped to deal with? What if they come from God? And what if they're designed to teach us to trust in God? think with me for a moment about just a few of the situations that people have found themselves in since we started in Genesis. Noah had to trust God and build an ark in the face of opposition and mockery. Abraham and Sarah had to trust God to give them a child in their old age. Abraham had to trust God when he was called to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Joseph had to trust God when he was unjustly

accused and unfairly put in prison. Moses had to trust God and confront Pharaoh. Israel had to trust God and walk through the sea. In every example, people felt like they were in way over their head. God had given them way more than they could handle. That was the whole point. God wanted them to come to the end of themselves so that they'd look to him and him alone. Our life is full of situations where we are force to trust God. We have to trust God when the doctor's diagnosis isn't what we prayed for. We have to trust God when we want to go on a mission trip but are scared to raise the necessary money. We have to trust God when we want to start to lead a small group at church, or want to talk to a friend about Jesus, or want to try to resolve a conflict with another person, or when

we know we need to go to our first AA meeting and admit that we have a problem. The list of things we have to trust God for goes on and on and on. Well, Numbers 13 is a workshop on how not to trust God. We can learn a lot from this chapter. So here we go. Let's dive in. It starts this way in verse one. The Lord said to Moses, send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. So here's God sending them into a situation in which they are going to be forced to trust him. but in the process of commissioning them to explore the promised land, he reminds them of his promise that he gave this land to Israel. So Moses chooses one leader from each of the 12 tribes to serve as spies to go in and

explore the land that God had promised to them. And Moses gives them specific instructions. Here's verse 18. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live? live in, is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.

So the 12 spies set out to do as Moses instructed them. They travel throughout the land and scouted out. They even bring back some of the grapes, pomegranates, and figs that Moses asked for. At the end of the 40 days, they report back to Moses. Here's verse 27. They gave Moses this account. We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here's the fruit. So far, so good. They say the land is everything God told us it would be.

Verse 28. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. Now that little word but that began the sentence, but the people who live there are powerful. Well, that little word turned Israel's fortune. See, what they're saying is, God, you promised us, but, God, everything you said was true, but essentially the spies say that there are obstacles to God's promises. Verse 30.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. Caleb is one of the 12 spies, and he understands what's happening. He realizes that the other spies are allowing the challenges, the obstacles, to steal their faith. Verse 31. But the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are. We find out later that there were two spies who trusted God and ten who didn't.

Caleb and Joshua said, God has promised us this land. He is bigger than our obstacles. But they were in the minority. Verse 32 tells us that the majority of the spies spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them. So the majority of the spies, they look at the obstacles and say, this isn't going to work because our opponents are bigger and stronger than we are. were they right in one sense yes the people who lived in the land did have more military firepower they did outnumber the

Israelites they were bigger faster and stronger but in another sense those spies were completely wrong see they had missed the whole point god was going to fight for the israelites the issue wasn't how big and strong the Israelites were the issue was how big and strong god was god put them in a situation where they were out-gubes outmaned, out planned. He was inviting the Israelites to trust him, but instead they trusted themselves. So Numbers 13 is a turning point in the whole book of numbers. Once the people refused to trust God, they wander in the desert for decades until that whole generation has died off. Only Caleb and his friend Joshua are able to enter into the promised land because they are the only ones who trusted God. So let's bring it back to our life.

There are always going to be obstacles to our faith. There are always going to be reasons that it doesn't make sense to trust in God. The tin spies convinced the rest of the Israelites that the obstacles were too great for God to deal with. Only Caleb and Joshua believed that God was bigger than their obstacles. I know you face obstacles in your life, and I know they feel overwhelming. But they're not bigger than God. What if God brought you into the situation in which you find yourself so that you would trust in him, so that you wouldn't look to yourself or your own resources, but instead you would look to him and trust him to overcome every obstacle in your life?

God has put you in a situation where you can't handle it on your own. He wants you to trust in him. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk, newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.