Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1911-06-16

deuteronomy, 1:19.
Kadeshbarnea was the place Of the
Israelites greatest opportunity to pos
sess the promised" land Of Canaan.
and their failure to do so at this par.
ticular time and place brought great
sorrow 20 the heart of Moses, their
Leader and caused the Israelites them.
selves to wander in the wilderness 40
years trying to recover that which
they might have won in a single day
II their faith in God had been sufl-
Gent to make them follow his com.
mands. Opportunities come In the
life OF every man and nation, and
when they are not embraced in many
instances they are rrevocable-there-
fore we should ever be on the watch
for the "Kadesh barneas" of life. The
past, present and future of Israel met
at Kadeshbarnea and made supreme
moment in the life Of the individual
and nation. They had marched many
miles, had toiled and struggled and
denied themselves of many comforts
to reach this very place, the threshold
of the promised Canaan, yet upon the
threshold they failed. Every day Is
not a May-day in the life of men, and
opportunities are not toys to be played
with, for it is possible, as in the case
of Israel, to reach the margin of a
glorious destiny and then for lack of
moral strength or living faith turn and
20 wandering in the desert.
Kadeshbarnea proved to be a place
of difficulties, and difficulties always
bring forth either faith" or "unbe-
lief and In this instance only two
men Caleb and joshua, after listen
ing to the stories of the spies about
the great difficulties to be encountered,
stood Arm in their faith; all of the
others lost their grip on God and be-
gan to make excuses for not underta-
king the conquest Of the land. Not
outstanding the fact that they had
already endured more hardness in
their marches to Kadeshbarnea than
they would have to endure in their
march to Canaan, yet their unbelief
sapped their courage and left them
with all kinds OF prudential fears,
turning them practically into towards
Their unbelief begins to grow by their
cowardly fears and stage after stage
in their spiritual life begins to unfold.
The unbelief OF the people that God
would not fulfill his promise caused
them to act foolishly; they had been
seeking crown, q crown that was IN
deed hard to win. 1t was the crown
OF their liberty, their happiness and
their home as nation; yet standing
at Kadeshbarnea, with God telling
them to go up and possess the land,
they view the crown of their toilsome
Journey from Egypt and with foolish
unbelief that God would fail them
they deliberately destroy the crown
SO hard 10 win. The faith of Caleb
and Joshua stimulates them to en-
deavor, and they try in vain to wake
up the people, but unbelief, like a poi
son, has enervated them, their spirit
ual life is changed, and the golden op-
portunity Of Kadeshbarnea is lost for
ever to the entire generation and
causes the younger generation to en-
dure 40 years of wandering In the will
derness that might have been spent in
the promised land of Canaan. Their
unbelief practically maligned Jehovah
himself. They doubted the promise Of
God and gave no heed to his warnings,
and in doing so they made God liar.
Such unbelief is the essence of bias
phemy, tho seed of misery and the
germ of hell. The law of the New
Testament concerning unbelief is the
same as the law of the Old Testament.
Because, says the writer of the ep.s-
tie to the Hebrews, "of the unbelief Of
the people at Kadeshbarnea God
sWore that they should not enter into
his rest, so he has sworn that those
who are unbelivers shall not enter into
the heavenly Canaan. the rest of the
people Of God" When people say to
God Depart from me" there is a Sc
we're but equitable retribution when
God says to the people Depart from
me-"
When opportunities come, though
they may be surrounded by many diff
culties, If We do not accept them the
punishment Of losing them Is greater
than the hardships Of the fight to win
them. When the Israelites at Ka-
deshbarnea said "We will not march
to Canaan, for the journey Is too
rough and stony" then God said "The
opportunity Is lost-there is no other
way to march but in the DESERT" and
SO for 40 years they wandered around
the place Of rest, but never set foot
upon 1t. They paid dearly for their
unbelief, and like Esau, who sold his
birthright for mess Of pottage,
sought 1t afterward with many tears.
but found no place for its redemption.
SO with this generation Of Israelites.
Only Caleb and Joshua lived to set up
the banner Of victory in the land flow
ing with milk and honey. Many Of
them, no doubt spent day after day
weeping over their lost opportunity,
but God did not regard their tears and
they moved drearily on to nowhere"
their lives as empty as the desert
over which they walked.
There Is q solemn lesson in our
text. The great leader of the nation,
before his own departure for the heav-
emily Canaan, tells those who were
too young to remember the splendid
opportunity Of the Israelites at Ka-
deshbarnea, the sad event in their his
tory, and as he rehearses it we can
Imagine We hear his voice trembling
as he says: "And then we came to Ka-
deshbarnea." For to Moses the name