Quote from Forum Archives on April 27, 2004, 10:37 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

CARPE DIEM
April 25, 2004

Text: Numbers 13:26-33

Confession time. The title of my sermon is not original. It has been the
title used on other books and articles, both religious and secular. In
fact, I think Mr. Jamie Callane used it as a theme at one of the Junior
National Honor Society inductions a few years ago.

Some of you may be wondering what it means, or even how to pronounce it.
Well, even though Jesus Christ our Lord did have an association with
fishing, the title is not about fish or fishing. It’s not “karp.” It’s
“karpay.” Carpe diem. It is Latin and means “seize the day,” or
non-literally “seize the moment.” In other words, if an opportunity
arises, take advantage of it. In fact, it’s application can be proactive
as well: do not merely wait for opportunity; make the opportunity. So you
get the idea that the phrase’s resurrection and application in more
modern times has to do with not letting opportunities wither and waste
away. Seize the day. Take advantage of the moment. Carpe diem.

Unfortunately, carpe diem is oftentimes easier said, even in Latin, than
done. As everyone acknowledges, hindsight is 20/20. When the moment is
upon us, though, it is unfortunately all too easy to fail to seize the
opportunity. Or to even recognize that there is an opportunity to seize
or how to seize it. I have fallen into this category many a times. At a
time in my life, for example, when I was supposed to be learning to
assert myself as a leader, I was too often afraid of making a mistake
that would result in a good dressing down. You know - getting chewed out.
Fortunately, I was never in a situation where indecision caused anyone
injury or worse, I still made mistakes because of my failure to “seize
the moment.” As an officer of the deck underway once, I picked up on some
excited talk going on in the engine room through some crosstalk in some
of our communications circuits. Even though I had not received any
official notification of what was going on, my first thought was to take
some immediate actions to place the submarine in a safer operating mode
in the event there was an emergency. My second thought was that, since I
hadn’t been notified there was an emergency, then I would have to answer
to the Commanding Officer as to why I slowed our speed and brought the
boat to a shallower depth. I didn’t know if just acting on instinct would
have been a sufficient answer for him. In the brief time that I thought
all this, the mystery was taken away entirely. The emergency situation
was passed over the communication circuit, and I took the actions I had
been thinking about doing anyway. Someone made a maintenance error that
caused a safety circuit to shut down the nuclear reactor, causing us to
lose power. In retrospect, I have often wondered had I taken action based
on my instinct if the loss of power would have been prevented. I’ll never
know.

You have probably noticed by now that the Israelites had quite a few
carpe diem moments. Before we jump into their present plight as read in
Numbers 13, let’s do some flashbacks. The Israelites were in bondage to
the Egyptians. That means they were slaves. They were slaves doing hard
labor. They had the privilege of being involved in the Egyptians’
building projects. They got to gather materials to make the bricks, then
make the bricks, then carry the bricks, and then build with the bricks.
And if they tried to goldbrick, they got beat. Not only all this, God
continued to bless the Israelites with a robust birthrate. The Egyptians,
always fearful of an uprising, sought to reduce it by killing the males
when they were born. Life was not pleasant as an Egyptian slave.

So one day, Moses the shepherd got intrigued by a bush that burned with
fire but was not consumed. Turn to Exodus 3:7. There, we read what the
Lord spoke to Moses. “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in
Egypt. I have heard them crying because of their slave drivers, and I am
concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from
the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a
good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey - the home of
the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way
the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to
Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Here was a carpe diem moment for Moses, and how did he respond? “Who am,
I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Or,
as we might be inclined to say, “Thanks, but no thanks, God. Better pick
someone else.” After a significant interchange between Moses and God,
Moses finally did decide that this was a carpe diem moment and finally
seized it.

The series of events continued. Moses went to Egypt and confronted the
Pharaoh. With the power of God, he brought signs of wonder and power to
Pharaoh, who chose to decline this carpe diem moment as well. The
workload increased for the Hebrew slaves, who began grumbling to Moses to
go away, leave them alone, and mind his own business. The people who
groaned to God for deliverance then sought to turn the deliverer away
when the going began getting tougher. Talk about a premonition of things
to come with God’s own Son. Another carpe diem moment passed up.

Of course, most of us know the story of the plagues, the Passover, the
exodus from Egypt, the pursuit by the Egyptian army, the crossing of the
Red Sea, and the destruction of the pursuing army. We know of the giving
of the ten commandments, the miraculous provisions of water and food in
the wilderness, and even the miraculous presence of God Himself to guide
the Hebrews through the wilderness. Just keep reading Exodus for all of
these events.

Time after time, the Israelites faced moments they could seize. They
could seize every miracle of deliverance, from the greatest to the
smallest, as an opportunity to deepen their faith in God. They saw
first-hand events in their lives that no other generation has ever come
close to. Yet, how did they respond over and over to every adversity? Try
Exodus 16:3 as just one typical example: “If only we had died by the
Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the
food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve
this entire assembly to death.” They certainly had vivid imaginations,
didn’t they? And warped memories.

Fast forward to Numbers 13. The Israelites are on the verge of the
Promised Land, the land that God told Moses about way back at the burning
bush. Send in a few men to explore the land, make a report, and then
possess it. They are about to be given a land of their own by the Lord
Almighty. Freedom from slavery and bondage to anyone else. All they have
to do is seize the moment in whatever way God directed them. We would
think that this would be a no-brainer. Through the power and grace of
God, they have arrived. Seize the faith! Seize the moment! Carpe diem!

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk
and honey! Here is the fruit. But… the people who live there are
powerful, and the cities fortified and very large… We can’t attack these
people; they are stronger than we are… 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.”

There you have it. The moment to seize the opportunity of their lifetime,
and they would not do it. Two members of the exploration group, Caleb and
Joshua, knew what to do with opportunity when they saw it. “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.’”

We can certainly do it! How many times have we turned our backs on
someone who has said those words? Here’s the opportunity - to witness, to
minister, to grow, to show God’s power and compassion and love - we can
certainly do it! Oh, wait. We’re too small. We don’t have enough people,
enough money, enough faith. “The land we explored devours those living in
it.” Numbers 14:2-4, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert!
Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the
sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be
better for us to go back to Egypt?… We should choose a leader to back to
Egypt.” Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb were threatened with stoning
because they wanted to seize the moment God had given them. Carpe diem
offered; carpe diem declined.

The moral of this sad tale is that not even the blessings from God on
these people He chose to deliver from slavery and into a land flowing
with milk and honey were enough to convince them to seize the moment. No
word from His anointed leaders, no testimony from Joshua or Caleb, no
miracle that the Israelites had experienced through this entire
pilgrimage were enough to convince the assembly that if they merely
reached out to seize the opportunity that they would succeed. Fear of the
unknown ahead and rationalization of a better past combined to trump the
care, the miracles, and the commands of God.

Those Israelites standing on the threshold of their Promised Land could
have had it all - the start of a better life for themselves and their
children; freedom from bondage to any other people; and favor, blessing,
and protection from God Almighty. They threw it all away and ended up
with only forty years of wandering in the wilderness. “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. As for your children that
you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the
land you have rejected. But you - your bodies will fall in this desert.
Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your
unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For
forty years - one year for each of the forty days you explored the land -
you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against
you. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this
whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will
meet their end in this desert; here they will die.”

That was then, this is now. I always think, when I read any of the
Scriptures about the Exodus and the Promised Land, that I would never
have been like them. I would have been amazed and joyful at the sight of
God’s deliverance miracles. I would never have doubted God’s vision of
the future even though I could not see it myself. Point me to that
Promised Land; I’ll take it!

But I also ask myself, “Is that really true?” Am I really so different
than the typical Israelite? Are any of us? When we are truly honest with
ourselves, can we not identify God-given opportunities that we have
declined? “Thanks, God, but no thanks?” Opportunities to seize are still
being given by God, but are we seizing them? Having experienced God’s
miracle of saving, do we stop believing that God will do anything else
for us? Or are we so moved by God’s miracle of salvation that we believe
that we can accomplish anything that is done in obedience to God’s will?
Do we take the Promised Land, or do we wander in the wilderness? God has
not stopped bringing His people opportunities to seize. Carpe diem. Seize
the day.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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