Whose Report Will We Believe?

When Moses sent spies to the Promised Land they brought back a good report. The land was fertile and productive. God had indeed directed them to a land where they could flourish. But Numbers 13 says when ten of the men saw the defenses they were overcome with fear. What they saw with their natural eyes carried more weight than what God had told them. Despite the pleading of Caleb and Joshua, the report of the ten spies won out. You know the rest of the story; it was 40 years and a lot of funerals before the Chosen entered the Land.  When I read through Numbers 13 and 14 I noticed two things. The first was that God told Moses to send the men...leaders from each of the tribes. So He didn't have a problem with the people knowing there were giants in the land. If you frame the theme of the entire Bible as “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” this makes perfect sense. God didn’t want to give the infant nation a false sense of their own abilities. He wanted them to know without a doubt that they needed to rely on Him. He had already trashed the mightiest empire on the planet, rescued the people from slavery (carrying gold, silver, livestock and other goodies) and brought them through a sea walking on dry land. He miraculously gave them food and water and physically showed them where and when to travel. None of that was possible in the natural. None of that depended on human wisdom or strength or ability. God did it all. Here then was another chance to see God work miracles for them. All they had to do was do what He said, but we all know that is often easier said than done.  Today is much the same--God has made promises of a victorious church, yet everywhere we turn the report is bad--the dark is rising and gaining strength. The world is giving itself to any and everything as it loses hope that there is anything worth living for. Things have tilted badly off-center and appear headed over a cliff. Whether the crisis is global, national or personal, it is difficult to look on giants without fear. It is only natural to consider all this with the eyes of the ten spies. This brings me to the second thing I noticed:  the good report came “from a different spirit.” Caleb and Joshua saw the same things the other spies saw--walled cities, giants, and the impossibility of the task before them. Were they naturally brave? In denial? Terminally optimistic? I think not. I also don’t believe they were somehow supernaturally immune from fear. I think the answer lies in Exodus 33. On their travels, Moses had pitched a tent for seeking the Lord. This Tent of Meeting was outside the camp so folks could come to a place separate from daily life, to seek God and worship. Moses went there regularly to be with the Lord. It is where God spoke to Moses, "face to face as a man speaks to his friend."  The closing verse in that section is almost a throw-away but holds the key to Joshua's different spirit. "When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent." Joshua was present when the Presence descended on the Tent of Meeting. There he too met the Lord. He learned to love God's presence, to hear God's voice, to fear His name. The relationship he built during those times of worship and encounter was a place of shelter from which he could view giants with calm confidence. Joshua knew Israel couldn’t take the Land. He also knew that God could and had told them that He would. That is the report Joshua and Caleb chose to believe. In times of crisis, information about God is too flimsy a support, we must lean on God Himself. This is possible if we spend time knowing Him, learning to press into His loving kindness, rest in His peace. Then even in confusion and pain we can focus on Him, trusting that He will bring us through...whether it’s winning the Promised Land, American politics, or personal turmoil. We can expect reports of persecution, violence and lost hope to continue, but there is another report. As we face our own giants we can turn our eyes to God, believing His word just as Joshua and Caleb did. Jesus told us that the darkness will increase, but the light will increase also. While acknowledging the one we must look to the other. Caleb and Joshua were able to give a good report because they knew that it is not the bigness of our challenges but the bigness of our God that matters. Let's encourage one another with the good things that God is doing in His ever advancing Kingdom. Let's lean on God and wait for His salvation, which is surely coming. Maranatha!

Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said,

“Let us go up at once and take possession of it; for we will certainly conquer.” 

Numbers 14:7b-9 [Caleb and Joshua] spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we passed as spies is an exceedingly good  land.

If the Lord delights in 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.”