What Do You See?

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Numbers 14:7-9

The setting of the above scripture takes place during the children of Israel’s journey to the Promise Land that has been given to them by God. Moses picks 12 men, one from each of the tribes to go on a reconnaissance mission through the land that they are to settle in. The chosen team spends 40 days collecting information and samples of the land to bring back to Moses and their awaiting families.

The bounty that was brought as evidence for the Israelites was exactly as God had told them—it was amazing! However, there was a problem. A big problem—called giants and according to 10 of the spies, “they saw themselves as grasshoppers in comparison to them.” Only two spies, Caleb and Joshua, saw what God saw.

Think about this for a minute. These Hebrews had been in captivity for 400 years, then God provides Moses as a leader that delivers them from Egypt (the most powerful nation of the day), killed the Egyptian army without a fight, provided miracle after miracle in provision, protection, guidance and God’s presence was shown to them continually. Now this group that is so familiar with God’s miraculous power hears a bad report while viewing incredible evidence before their very eyes, and they fold to fear.

What do we see when we are faced with the bad news that challenges our faith? Do we see the promises of God or the problems before us. Only two of the ten spies said, “the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” We have such an advantage over the Hebrew children. Not only do we know their God, we have experienced the power of the risen Savior that fights our battles along with the precious Holy Spirit that indwells us and leads us into all truth. May our prayer be to see clearly as Caleb and Joshua beyond the obstacles to claim the promises of the God who always keeps His Word.