Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Counted. Living a Life That Counts for God

BE COUNTED

Published by David C. Cook

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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the

Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; NLT are taken from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers; and ASV are from The American Standard Version. (Public Domain.)

LCCN 2010923220

ISBN 978-1-4347-6498-0

eISBN 978-1-4347-0216-6

1999 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Counted published by Victor Books in 1999 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 978-1-56476-703-5

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: iStockphoto

Second Edition 2010

To the memory of GEORGE W. PATCHEN, our beloved friend and accountant, who knew how to count and be counted

CONTENTS

The Big Idea: An Introduction to Be Counted by Ken Baugh

A Word from the Author

1. Order in the Camp (Numbers 14; 9:114)

2. Dedication and CelebrationPart I (Numbers 57)

3. Dedication and CelebrationPart II (Numbers 8; 9:1510:10)

4. Marching to Moab (Numbers 10:1112:16)

5. Crisis at Kadesh (Numbers 1314)

6. A Question of Authority (Numbers 1517)

7. Another Crisis at Kadesh (Numbers 1820)

8. Marching in Victoryand Defeat (Numbers 21)

Interlude

9. Principalities and PowersPart I (Numbers 22:123:26)

10. Principalities and PowersPart II (Numbers 23:2725:18)

11. A New Beginning (Numbers 2629; 36)

12. Preparing for Conquest (Numbers 3035)

13. The Wilderness School (Summary and Review)

Notes

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Counted
by Ken Baugh

See if you can finish this phrase: Red rover, red rover Do you remember? Red Rover was one of those cheesy games that many of us played at recess during elementary school, but if for some reason you were deprived as a child and never played this game, let me explain how it works. Two teams of say ten to fifteen kids are chosen and stand opposite each other. The team members join hands and form a line as long as their arms will extend. The game begins as one team calls out to a child on the opposing team to run over and try to break through. For example: Red rover, red rover, send Kenny right over. Kenny leaves his team and runs as fast as he can, crashing into the arms of the other team and trying to break through the line. If Kenny is successful in breaking through the line, he selects one of the opposing teammates to go back with him and join the ranks of his team. If Kenny fails to overpower the line, he must become a part of the other team.

The game of Red Rover shows that your team is only as strong as its weakest link. There are some children who, try as hard as they might, just cannot hold on to others hands as the opposing team member breaks through. This is how I picture the children of Israel throughout the book of Numbers: They are like two opposing teams standing in two lines facing each other. The names of the teams are the Faithful and the Faithless. When I say Faithful , I mean those Israelites who were full of faith in God; they trusted in His character and believed His promises. When I say Faithless , I mean all the other Israelites who had less faith; they doubted Gods character and questioned His faithfulness. Its not that the Faithless team had no faith at all; it was just weaker than the Faithful team. Let me explain this by using the example of the twelve spies.

In Numbers 13, the Lord tells Moses to choose one leader from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to go and spy out the Promised Land. These twelve men go in and explore the land for forty days. Upon their return, the spies give their report to Moses and Aaron as they stand before all the people. It isnt a good report. They saw giants and fortified cities that seemed impossible to conquer, and their report arouses great fear among the people.

Then one spy stands up and gives a different report. His name is Caleb. 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 (Num. 13:30 NIV ). Now here is the interesting thing to me. Caleb has seen the same giants and the same fortified cities as the other spies, but he is not afraid. Why not? Because Caleb believes that God always keeps His promises no matter what the odds and no matter how impossible their fulfillment might seem. God promised Abraham centuries earlier (Gen. 15:1221) that his descendants, the Israelites, would take possession of the land, and Caleb not only knows this promise but also believes it! Caleb faces his own fear and the imposing odds through faith in his God who keeps His promises.

And Caleb is not alone. Another man stands with him in faith. His name is Joshua. Caleb and Joshua form a team we might call the Faithful, who stand strong against the onslaught from the team Faithless. Look at what they said to the Faithless team:

The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the L ORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the L ORD . And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the L ORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them. (Num. 14:79 NIV )

Tragically, the lack of faith among the Faithless team of Israelites brought alarming consequences as God punished their unbelief by sentencing every person over twenty years of age to wander in the desert until death. The Lord said, Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun (Num. 14:30 NIV ). What a tragic outcome for the Faithless.

The lesson for us in all this resides in what I believe to be the Big Idea that runs throughout the book of Numbers. Its found in a single question: Will I trust God? Will I be counted among the members of Team Faithful or will I join the ranks of Team Faithless? That choice is up to each of us as we decide what to do with our fears. You might wonder, how in the world can I remain faithful to God in the midst of all the challenges in this life? I have a simple answer for you. You can remain faithful if you choose to hold on to the promises of God found in His Word. If you hold fast to Gods promises, you will not give in to fear when it tries to break through the ranks of your faith. Instead, you will stand firm and be counted among the faithful like Caleb and Joshua. As you read through this commentary, look for the different members of Team Faithless and Team Faithful, and ask yourself this question: Where will I be counted?