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This chapter covers the fateful spying-out of the Promised
Land and the report upon the return of the spies. My commentary said, “This tragic failure … is
a reminder to us today that it’s a dangerous thing to trifle with the will of
God. You may end up spending the rest of
your life wandering around, just waiting to die … Canaan is not a picture of
heaven … It is a picture of the inheritance
God has planned for each of His
children today, the work He wants us
to do, and the places He wants us to
occupy … The Lord has a perfect plan for each of His children, but we can claim these blessings only by faith and obedience.”
Multiple times God had promised
the land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “God’s promise was Israel’s title deed to the land as well as His guarantee that they would defeat their
enemies. It was all they needed, but the
nation doubted God’s Word and began to walk by sight instead of by faith.”
When they asked Moses to let them search out the land, they
were expressing doubt. My commentary said God permitted it, but “it appears that God was letting the Jews have their own
way, not because their way was the right
way, but because He wanted to teach them a lesson. They needed to learn to trust the Word of God and do
the will of God His way and not
their own way.”
I’d never thought about it, but my commentary said that the
spied discovered nothing that God
hadn’t already told them as detailed
in Genesis and Exodus! The patriarchs of
Israel were even buried at Hebron
when they went there. Yet their faith didn’t seem to encourage
the faith of the ten unbelieving spies.
When the spies returned, the ten unbelieving spies never referred
to the land as that which God was giving
to Israel, only as the land to which He’d sent
them.
A quote in my commentary by John Gardner said, “We are
continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as
insoluble problems.” “A faith that can’t
be tested can’t be trusted, and God tests our faith to help us make sure it’s genuine and to help make
it grow,” my commentary added. Romans 14:23 says, “For whatever is not of faith is sin.”
Father, I now relish the times when You’ve tested my faith
and I trusted You and believed. Those
were hard times, but You had taught me to say, “I trust You, God!” Please
continue to build my faith by Your faithful promises.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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