Send In the Spies…

Numbers 13:2 “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.”

On at least this one occasion God gave His people permission to “see” what was coming. They had to choose one from each tribe and each had to be a leader within the tribe. This was not for God’s benefit, this was for us, that we might know, and in knowing, the people would cast out our fear and trust God.

One would think that after all of the miracles all of Israel experienced, they would not need confirmation of God’s plans… Jeremiah 29:11 plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope… but no… trust in God’s plan was not something they did automatically, nor did it come easily, even when required in the desert. Much like our’s today, Israel’s eyesight was clouded by the cataracts of their own deceitful will and self-reliance. Out of the thirteen sent, only 2 saw a future and a hope. All saw the same thing and all reported the truth, but eleven failed to see the hope because their eyes calculated and compared only the strengths and opportunities of the human side of the equation, and concluded that they could not assume victory. In fact they believed they would be defeated.

Numbers 13:27-28 “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. (these were a race of really huge people)

Numbers 13:30-33 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim; and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” 

Only two, Joshua and Caleb, saw God in the details.

Numbers 14:7-9 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Do not rebel against the Lord… Have you ever thought of your lack of trust in what God is doing in your life as rebellion? — Who me?  I have an excuse for that!

Numbers 14:1-3 Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 

Do not fear the people of the land… Have you ever thought that your worst fears for your future is an insult to God? — Who me? I have a reason for that!

Numbers 14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?

In reading about the journey of Israel, I have sometimes (mostly) judged these “stiff – necked people. I have giggled at their habit of immediately complaining about the discomfort God was willing for them to suffer. I have rolled my eyes at all the times they forgot the things God has done for them. I have become haughty with them, bragging that I would have been/done differently!

Until this reading… God spoke… with all His love and desire for me… “How long will you, Mary, spurn Me? And how long will you not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in your midst? No longer about a distant people in a far away foreign land… God asked me… “What do you do differently when you see giants in your present &/or future?

Busted! I have done and sometimes still do the very same thing they did back in the day! …lifted up their voices and cried …wept that night …grumbled …complained …slandered God with the worst case scenario. Yep… been there, done that… all of the above! Like a toddler screaming over the pain of scraped knees but refusing the loving touch of  a mother’s hand, which may sting for a moment but will both cleanse and heal the wound, I, Mary, have often been that toddler.

How long… will you spurn Me? My heart broke because I finally HEARD the heart of God crying out His pain because of my rejection of Him. I FELT His grief for those times I refused to ask for His solution, the only solution, to all that stood in the way of the promised land. I KNOW His frustration when I turn from a land filled with His perfect will, a land made so that He and I can walk and talk in the garden.

How long… will you not believe in Me? All because there might be a battle I am called to fight alongside of Him.

The giants can be huge and scary… but if we KNOW our God and we’ve SEEN His glory in our lives and the lives of our family, fear can be cast out and trust can become the incense of worship to our more than deserving God.

We have something the Israelites didn’t have when they sent in the spies… God has written and sent to us the end of the story… we know that God wins! …our giants have had their protection removed from them, and the Lord is with us;

Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who is against us?

Romans 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Romans 8:37-39 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Yes, there will always be giants, but I need only to view them from the shelter of God’s wings. There will always be reports of scary things, but all that is necessary is to lay the reports out before the Lord.

Matthew 28:20 “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

No spies needed… He’s talking to you… Did you hear Him?…

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB      version of the Bible