The twelve scouts went out to
explore the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey promised to
them. They came back and confirmed exactly what God had said, it is
a beautiful wonderful land! Indeed a land of plenty and they
brought back the fruit to prove it. But then they continued with
their report of the land.
'But the people living there are
powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large.
We also saw descendants of Anak who are living there!' Numbers
13:28
'The land we explored will swallow
up any who go to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We
even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like
grasshoppers next to them, and that is what we looked like to
them!' Numbers 13:32, 33
They were scared to death! It was
only Joshua and Caleb who wasn't. They believed in the power of the
Almighty God and knew that with Him by their side, the so called
'giants' will evaporate into thin air. But the other ten scouts
didn't believe that. They couldn't see further than the natural,
they only saw the problems ahead.
It is actually amazing to think
that they didn't trust God enough to take them into the Promised
Land. They saw the ten plagues in Egypt, they saw God parting the
Red Sea for them, they saw the miracle of the daily food that God
provided for them, they actually heard His Voice and they saw Him
moving with them every day in the form of a cloud/fire. They saw
everything and yet they didn't believe in His power.
This made me think of the disciples
too. Jesus performed the miracle of feeding five thousand men with
only five loaves of bread and two fishes and the disciples were
amazed. Right after that He sends the disciples away on a boat and
He went up into the hills to pray. A storm came up and the
disciples were in trouble. Jesus saw that and walked on the water
to them, and when He climbed into the boat, the storm ceased. The
disciples were amazed when they saw this, but notice this
astonishing verse right after this event:
'They still didn't understand the
significance of the miracle of the multiplied loaves, for their
hearts were hard and they did not believe.' Mark 6:52
Really shocking if you think about
it. And this proved to be true, for just a while after this, Jesus
wanted to feed four thousand men and notice the reaction of the
disciples:
"How are we supposed to find enough
food for them here in the wilderness?" His disciples asked.' Mark
8:4
Amazing. They just saw the miracle
of Jesus feeding five thousand and of Him walking on water and
calming a storm and yet they didn't believe that He could feed
these four thousand! They didn't truly believe in His power to help
them at this stage. And the same was true of the Israelites, they
have seen God at work and yet they didn't truly believe.
And I find myself sometimes in that
position too. Sometimes the 'giants' in my life, the obstacles
coming my way seem insurmountable, and I forget of all the various
times that God has helped me in my life in the past. I forget that
He is faithful and true. I forget that He told me to go on this
path and that He will make everything work out according to His
good Will. We need to look past the natural and into the
supernatural. God wants to lead us unto new heights, but we need to
let go of our insecurities and fears. He is Almighty and powerful
and He can do anything. Believe it!
Father, thank you very much for our
Promised Land that You want to lead us into. Please forgive us if
we are scared and do not trust in Your power. Take our hands and
lead the way. Thank you Jesus. Amen