Let me give a little scriptural context for where we are headed…. God directed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and centuries of slavery by CROSSING the Red Sea to safety.

Exodus 14 [paraphrased] ¹⁰ the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” ¹⁶ [God to Moses] Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ The Egyptians will go in after them. ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued them ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians.” ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. 

There were hiccups along the way, but Moses led the Israelites to the land promised to them by the Lord. Moses sent spies into the land who came back and said there was no way they could take on the giants of this land.

Numbers 13 [paraphrased] ²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. ²⁷ They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. ³² They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” 

SAY WHAT? After all that the Lord had already done for them, you would think they might have been struggling with pride, not doubt! I can envision people that had expereinced the amazing works of God first hand with puffed up chests and just trying to pick a fight with anyone who gave them a second glance. It would be easier to believe that they would be out LOOKING for a fight! I can hear them now….

Bring it!

You wanna fight God?

Yeah I didn’t think so!

Keep walking!

That’s right, you know you can’t win against us with God on our side.

Can’t you just picture it? One would think that they would have expected to be able to take down ANY enemy with God on their side; it is almost unbelievable that they were still living in fear and doubt! Without any resistance at all, it only took the words of 10 spies to keep an entire people from the land that God had promised them! THEY CHOSE TO LISTEN TO THESE VOICES AND BE ROBBED OF THEIR DIVINE DESTINY! What convincing voices are you listening to that are seemingly louder than God’s directions for your life?

When I was younger I used to read about the Israelites actions and think they were incredibly foolish all the time. They never seemed to learn their lessons and continued to repeat their mistakes over and over. Somehow never understanding that they could trust God after all He had delivered them from! Now that I am older, I see how much I am just like the Israelites. Why wouldn’t God be bigger than my present circumstances AFTER HE has proven himself worthy and capable so many times before in my life and yours? If we just listened to our Lord, how much easier this life would be! Instead we listen to convincing speeches that tell us this new situation is just too much for God! This is exactly what the Israelites did when they got to Canaan. They sent in spies to scope things out and the spies returned in fear and convinced an ENTIRE body of people to retreat in fear. As if the whole community just looked God straight in the face and said. “This is more than you can handle God.”

Numbers 14:11, 34 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? ³⁴ For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.”

As ridiculous as this sounds, isn’t this exactly what WE do so often? We think we can handle it better on our own. We are persuaded by the voices telling us how things are going to be and that there is no other option. We embrace defeat before even challenging the offense. Imagine just for a moment that we ALWAYS trusted God first! What if we ALWAYS believed that our Lord was more than capable to defeat any situation or enemy….because HE IS! What kind of life and faith would we be living in then? This should be what we are thinking about when we think of the Israelites basically choosing to admit defeat, not trust God, and decide to roam around the desert for 40 years instead.

If we looked at the challenges before us and CHOSE to trust God NO MATTER WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, we would KNOW that He would lead us. I am not saying that you get whatever you want in this life and that it’s lollipops and daisies. What I am saying is that if we WHOLE HEARTEDLY TRUST God, He will be with us. We can avoid missing His purpose for our life because we chose to doubt. We can enter into the promised land, whatever direction that may mean for our life, instead of taking a 40 year detour. What do you choose? Imagine if they had listened to Caleb remind them that the Lord was with them and that they could take the land. Let us listen to the voices that remind us to put our trust in the Lord, not the voices and visions of the world. 

Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”