“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” Numbers 13:2
If you are a parent you will probably be very familiar with the trauma of saying goodbye to your child on their first day at school. As a former primary school teacher I was used to the start of a new year with tearful kids & sometimes parents. Some kids run into school without even looking behind them while others would be clinging to their Mum’s or Dads at the door. However, no matter how much you know the drill and how quickly you have seen the kids settle down and content themselves, you are still left with that ache in your heart and lump in your throat when it’s your turn. How can you convince them that you will come back? How can you get them to understand that you would never do anything that would ever harm them?As loving parents we would never bring pain or suffering into their lives, our intentions towards them are always for their good. So how much more does our loving Heavenly Father want us to know and understand this truth when it comes to how he will lead and guide us everyday.
In today's verse we see the Lord speaking to the children of Israel. He makes a promise to them about their future. He has just delivered them from 400 years of slavery and now he is about to show what He has in store for them. He is sending spies out into the land to give them a vision of what they are about to inherit. He is not taking them there to show them an incredible land and then allow them to be destroyed by the inhabitants. What kind of a Father would do that? Who would set their children up to fail? This would be the antithesis of what love looks like. And yet we know from the story that although God makes this declaration that He will give them this land, the spies struggle to believe it to be true. In fact 10 of the 12 come back with a bad report. They recognise that the land is a good land, ‘flowing with milk and honey´, but their enthusiasm for the land pales away when they see the size of the people living there. They do not see that God has used these strong giants to do all the hard labour of building cities and cultivating the land. They can’t see the potential of what life could look like! All they can see is their inability to be able to overcome!
And yet they had not left Egypt because of their brute strength or their cunning plans. They had escaped Egypt by the hand of the Lord and by following his ways. Why would this next step in the journey be any different? This is why it is so important to remember. To look back, to recall what God has done. To carry around in our hearts the stories of his goodness, his love, his protection, his faithfulness and his deliverance. How often do we find ourselves in trying situations and we forget what God has already done. We allow the giants to overshadow us and we suddenly believe we are at the mercy of the world’s system or the schemes of the enemy.
Don’t be like the children of Israel who ended up wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years because they put their confidence in their own ability rather than in the Lord´s. Believe today in his love for you. Know that although there may be challenges ahead the Lord will use them to develop you and grow you. Every obstacle that is put in your path the Lord will use as a stepping stone to take you higher into his purposes and closer to fulfilling the calling He has on your life. He loves you, He is committed to you and He has the best life in store for you, better than anything you could ask or hope for. Trust him and take him at his word today!
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Unshakeable Hope Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2021