EXAMPLES OF HUMAN AND DIVINE VIEWPOINT


1. early in Moses' career. 
HVP: he did not think he was eloquent enough to be the leader of Israel (Exod. 4:10). 

HVP: he lapsed into human viewpoint when Pharaoh denied his request and increased Israel's 
workload (Exod. 5:22–23). 

HVP: he lapsed into human viewpoint when God asked him to go to Pharaoh and request Israel's 
freedom again (Exod. 6:12). 

2. at the Red Sea (Exod. 14:10–14). 
HVP: the people thought they were going to die when the chariots of Pharaoh had them backed up 
to the Red Sea (Exod. 14:11–12). They were afraid (14:10) and accused Moses (14:11–12). 

DVP: Moses exhorts the people to watch the deliverance of the Lord (14:13–14). 

3. The report of the spies at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 13:25–33). 
HVP: ten of the twelve spies were afraid and advised the people not to fight (Num. 13:31–33). 
Their human viewpoint infected the people (14:1–4) and kept them from believing God's 
promise of victory (14:11, 40; Psa. 106:24) and from obeying God's command to fight 
(Deut. 1:41). HVP led to weeping (Num. 14:1), grumbling (14:2–3, 27), rejection of God's 
leading (14:3–4), and mutiny (14:4; Neh. 9:17). It resulted in an immediate sin unto death 
for the ten spies (Num. 14:36–37); also disinheritance (14:22–23, 30) and a prolonged 
sin unto death for the men 20 years old and older (14:29, 32–35). 

DVP: Caleb and Joshua exhorted the people to attack the Canaanites and conquer the land 
(Num. 13:30; Num. 14:6–9). Their DVP nearly cost them their lives (Num. 14:10) but kept 
them from the sin unto death (26:65) and secured their inheritance in the land (14:24, 30; 
32:11–12; Deut. 1:35–36; Josh. 14:6–15). 

4. at the annointing of David (1 Sam. 16:6–7). 
HVP: Samuel looked at the outward appearance (1 Sam. 16:6).
DVP: he should have looked at the heart as the Lord does (1 Sam. 16:7).


5. in battle against the Philistines (1 Sam. 16–17). 
HVP: Saul and all Israel were afraid of Goliath (1 Sam. 16:10–11, 24).
DVP: David was not afraid to fight Goliath (1 Sam. 16:32).


HVP: Saul thought David would be no match for Goliath (1 Sam. 17:33). 

DVP: David was confident the Lord would help him kill Goliath (1 Sam. 17:36–37). Goliath had
defied God and David was God's servant.


HVP: Saul's mental attitude: the Lord's help plus armor (1 Sam. 17:38). 

DVP: David's mental attitude: the Lord's help plus nothing (1 Sam. 17:39–40). "He will deliver me" 
(17:37). 

HVP: Goliath trusted in his weapons: "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin"
(1 Sam. 17:45).


DVP: David trusted in the Lord: "but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts" (1 Sam. 17:45). 

HVP: Goliath thought David would be easy to beat: "I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky
and the beasts of the field" (1 Sam. 17:41–44).


DVP: David was confident of victory: "This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands" (1 Sam. 
17:45–47). We usually emphasize what David did in defeating Goliath, but the Bible puts the 
emphasis on what David thought. The spiritual quality that distinguished David from all other 
men in Israel was not what he did but what he thought: he habitually looked at life from the 
divine viewpoint.