Adult Lesson Plan

OPENING (2–3 minutes)

Put this question on the board and let it hang for a moment: How long does it take to walk from Sinai to Canaan?

Then read the Come, Follow Me framing line that answers it with a spiritual paradox: the issue was never geography.

“Even on foot, it wouldn’t take 40 years to travel from the wilderness of Sinai to the promised land in Canaan. But that’s how long the children of Israel needed, not to cover the geographical distance but to cover the spiritual distance: the distance between who they were and who they could become as God’s covenant people.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “May 4–10. ‘Rebel Not Ye against the Lord, Neither Fear’”)

Ask the class: Where do adults most often feel that “spiritual distance,” not from a lack of information, but from a lack of trust?

SCRIPTURE EXPLORATION (15–20 minutes)

Read Numbers 11:29 aloud, then pause on Moses’s surprising lack of insecurity.

“And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29)

Let the class notice what Moses does not say. He does not protect his status. He wants more revelation in the camp, not less. Then connect it to the Lord’s earlier solution for Moses’s overload.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel… and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.” (Numbers 11:16–17)

Ask: When have you seen the Lord “share the burden” in a ward, a family, or a calling, without removing the need for a prophet?

Now move to Numbers 12 and read the question Miriam and Aaron raise.

“And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.” (Numbers 12:2)

Then read the Lord’s clarification about stewardships.

“If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so… With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6–8)

Let the class wrestle with the balance: the Spirit can rest on many, and the Lord still appoints a presiding servant with a distinct responsibility. Ask: What helps you tell the difference between personal revelation for your stewardship and claims that would pull you out of prophetic order?

Shift to Numbers 13–14, where the class can feel how fear spreads. Read the ten spies’ conclusion.

“We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” (Numbers 13:31)

Then read Caleb’s counter-speech.

“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)

Ask: What changed, if the land and the walled cities stayed the same? Then read Joshua and Caleb’s plea, because it frames fear as a spiritual decision.

“And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us… Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land… for the Lord is with us: fear them not.” (Numbers 14:7–9)

Hold that phrase from the week’s title, “Rebel not… neither fear” (Numbers 14:9). Ask: When does fear cross the line into rebellion, not because someone feels anxious, but because they decide the Lord cannot be trusted?

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSION (10–15 minutes)

First doctrine: The Lord wants a revelatory people, and He governs His Church through prophetic stewardship. Numbers 11 gives a generous picture of the Spirit, even spilling beyond the expected boundaries of the tabernacle. Moses’s wish, “would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29), fits the Come, Follow Me theme: “Revelation is available to everyone, but God guides His Church through His prophet.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Learning at Home and Church”)

Bring in the cautionary edge from Numbers 12. The Lord did not rebuke Miriam and Aaron for receiving revelation. He rebuked them for challenging Moses’s appointed role, and He explained, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth” (Numbers 12:8). Ask the class: What practices help a ward become more revelatory without becoming more chaotic? What does it look like to sustain prophetic keys while seeking real answers from heaven for your own life?

Second doctrine: Faith and fear are competing readings of the same reality. All twelve spies saw grapes and fortifications. Ten said, “We be not able” (Numbers 13:31). Caleb said, “Let us go up at once” (Numbers 13:30). Israel then tried to solve spiritual fear with political regression: “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt” (Numbers 14:4). That line can open a tender adult conversation. Egypt can be an old coping style, an old sin, an old identity, or an old way of managing life without trusting the Lord. Ask: What are modern “captains” we appoint when trust feels risky? What does it mean, in adult discipleship, to refuse the fantasy that slavery was safer?

Third doctrine: The Lord heals through appointed, sometimes plain means, and pride can reject “simpleness.” Read the Lord’s remedy in Numbers 21.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8)

Then read the fulfillment.

“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:9)

Now let the Book of Mormon interpret the story with doctrinal clarity, using Alma’s language about why people refuse help.

“But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them.” (Alma 33:20)

Ask: What forms of “looking” feel too simple for adults, especially educated, capable adults? What spiritual remedies do we dismiss because they do not flatter our sophistication?

If time allows, connect this to Balaam. Balak tries to purchase a curse, but Balaam keeps returning to a boundary line that adults also need: persuasion, honor, and money do not change God’s will.

“If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.” (Numbers 22:18)

Ask: Where do you feel pressure to go “beyond the word of the Lord,” to do “less or more,” because someone offers approval, comfort, or advantage?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION (5–7 minutes)

Invite the class to choose one wilderness moment from the week that sounds like adult life.

Some live Numbers 11. They are doing their best and still feel overburdened, like Moses. The Lord’s response included shared labor and shared Spirit: “they shall bear the burden of the people with thee” (Numbers 11:17). Adults can ask for help without surrendering responsibility. They can also become the “seventy,” bearing burdens with spiritual power rather than mere competence.

Some live Numbers 13–14. They have enough information to be afraid, and enough promises to be brave. The question becomes whose voice gets repeated at the dinner table, in the group text, or in the private mind at 2 a.m. Caleb did not deny the obstacles. He refused to let obstacles define the future (Numbers 13:30). Joshua and Caleb tied courage to the Lord’s presence: “the Lord is with us” (Numbers 14:9). Adults can practice saying that sentence aloud in real decisions.

Some live Numbers 21. They want healing, but they want it on their terms. The Lord’s way often requires a steady gaze, returning again and again to Christ through prayer, sacrament worship, scripture, and covenant loyalty. Alma’s warning stays relevant: “they would not look… because they did not believe that it would heal them” (Alma 33:20). Adults can ask, with honesty, where disbelief has disguised itself as busyness or cynicism.

If someone raises temple-specific questions while applying these ideas, respond gently: This is sacred and personal, please speak with your bishop or refer to the temple recommend questions.

CLOSING TESTIMONY & INVITATION (2–3 minutes)

Return to the opening paradox. The Lord can bring a people out of Egypt quickly. The longer work is bringing Egypt out of a people. Numbers shows the Lord doing that work through revelation and order (Numbers 11–12), through the hard schooling of consequences (Numbers 14), and through healing that centers on looking and living (Numbers 21:8–9; Alma 33:20).

Invite the class to carry one question into the week: Where am I being asked to “look” instead of “solve,” and to trust the Lord’s appointed way to heal?

Bear testimony that the Lord Jesus Christ heals covenant people as they turn their eyes to Him in faith, and that God still guides His Church through His chosen prophet while enlarging revelation among His people, just as He did in the camp of Israel (Numbers 11:29; Numbers 12:6–8).