Numbers 13

The Long, Long Awaited Promise

When Moses sent in his 12 spies, only two of them came back with a good report. Caleb and Joshua. Joshua took the mantle of leadership from Moses while Caleb was passed over for that role. But when the time came to send in spies again, Caleb was called on once more. And once more he believed the Lord.

40 years passed between these two incidences. 40 years.

After the first show of faith, Caleb was promised (Num 13:24) to inherit the land that his fellow spies didn’t believe God could give them, and then he had to wait. And wait. And wait.

This is how it can feel sometimes, isn’t it? we feel like God is leading us somewhere, we get a glimpse of our own “Promised Land” and then we are asked to wait. Doors close in front of us. I, myself, feel like this happened to me for about 4 years while God was preparing to bring me back into ministry. But while the wait for God’s faithfulness to come through often feels… long, He knows better than we do why the fulfilment of that promise will come when it does.

Israel had to wait through 400 years of prophetic silence for John the Baptist to show up on the scene and herald their long-awaited messiah. Abraham was shown told about the Promised Land — again — 400 years before his descendants would actually possess it WELL after his death.

What I am saying is that while the waiting is indeed the hardest part, it is worth it. When the fulfillment finally comes it is incredible to look back at the path you’ve come down and how thoroughly it has prepared you for what lies ahead.

Be blessed today, friends.

Joshua 12:7-15:12 | 085/365

The Power of Positive Thinking

I don’t want to get all “Joel Osteen” on everyone, but I think it’s worth comparing how Moses’ sending of the spies and Joshua’s sending of the spies came out quite differently and what conclusions we might draw.

Back in Numbers 13 we read about the 12 spies who went into the Promised Land and when they returned, 10 of them stoked fear, uncertainty, and doubt amongst the Hebrew people. This ultimately led to God’s judgement and 40 years of wandering about in the wilderness. There were only 2 holdouts who had faith in God: Caleb and Joshua.

Here at the beginning of Joshua’s book we instead read that one of those faithful spies would send out spies of his own, but just two of them. And unlike Moses’ account, Joshua does not name the spies who were sent. While we can never be certain about their identities, the Jewish Midrash claims they were Caleb – the other original spy – and Phinehas our spear-wielding friend from a few chapters back. This seems entirely plausible to me. So these spies return with a favourable account. They are terrified of us! They heard about what happened in the Red Sea!

Wait… what? The citizenry of Jericho was scared of Israel because of what happened at the Red Sea? Are they more scared NOW than they were 40 years ago? Doubtful. Rather, the original spies had an idea about how this was going to go and their confirmation bias only allowing them to see the problems rather than the path. How often do we do this? We come up with a bunch of reasons why we can’t do a thing, rather than looking to the God who can do anything.

(Probably also worth noting that this time the leader only chose 2 men who were trustworthy and had adopted the vision of leadership. We should not invest in the council of people who don’t even believe in what we’re doing.)

Let’s not defeat ourselves before God even gets a chance to come through. Push past the lies that try to keep you mired in complacency and watch God make you say “WOW!”

Deuteronomy 33-24; Joshua 1-2 | 081/365

Rabble Rousers

In Numbers 11 we see a group of discontents bad-mouthing God’s provision. They wanted more than manna, they wanted meat! “If He truly loved us, He would give us what we WANT, not merely what we need!” and this sentiment spread among the people. We have very little trouble becoming self-focused. We are actually quite good at it.

If I’m being honest, I don’t really understand why they needed God to provide above what he had already given them, we know they had herds and livestock, and we know in the case of AT LEAST Peace Offerings, they ate those animals.

In either case, God decided to give the people what they wanted. I’ve heard it said that “God is a gentleman”, in that He will not force His will upon you (my Calvinist brothers and sisters would disagree, so for their sake, maybe I’ll just say it’s explained by “tension”). Essentially this means that if we do not come before God and pray, “let Your will be done”, then He will — with great sadness — give you over to the desires of Your heart and let your will be done.

Such is the case here. God sent the Israelites an exceptional amount of quail. And they caught it and ate it and they were fat and satisfied… until it made them sick. And more than that, the instigators DIED as a result of this tainted bird.

Don’t spit on God’s provision. He has giving you what you need to accomplish His will. Be satisfied with what you have and steward it well. If you do, then He will continue to trust you with more and more. But if you chose to complain about what God has done, don’t be surprised if He stops giving you gifts that you don’t appreciate anyway.

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