Camping in the Wilderness of Paran, the weary travelers reflected on the long journey from Egypt.  Delivered from the bondage of slavery, the LORD God went before them, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Traveling under God’s appointed leader Moses, the children of Israel questioned the journey purpose, complained about scarcity of essentials, feared of foreign forces, and regularly considered how much better a return to Egypt would be lest they perish in the desert.    With growing uncertainty concerning the ability to survive according to their own abilities, skepticism of any promises of God including a land flowing with milk and honey intensified.

From the voice of the burning bush and deliverance from the oppression of the Egyptians, Israel found themselves at the entrance to the promised land – anticipated fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.   God commanded the dispatch of 12 spies to conduct a reconnaissance mission confirming the blessings of the Land of Canaan. They returned with evidence that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey; however, those occupying the land were great in stature dwelling in fortified cities – a formidable foe that would crush their advance.  Feeling betrayed by the certain outcome of complete destruction, the people of Israel concluded that there was but one alternative – to choose a new leader and return to Egypt.  Caleb and Joshua objected but the people would not listen, choosing instead to stone to death those who would encourage the idea of possessing the land.

But what of the display of God’s sovereign hand: the miraculous plagues against Pharoah and the Egyptian gods, salvation by the parting Red Sea, water pouring forth from rocks, manna descending from heaven, and quail to satisfy a necessary hunger? Seemingly blind to the demonstration of God’s authority, the vast majority dismissed the promise of the land choosing instead to grumble at their dire predicament displaying no faith in God who went before them.  So why did sovereign, omnipotent God ask for the spies to be sent given the proclivity of this stiff-necked people to turn away? The reconnaissance mission was a means to expose the true nature of their hearts.

Mulling over the details of this event, I was left to contemplate the condition of my own heart, convinced that I should not be too quick to judge the faithlessness of the ten spies.  God has called me to faithful service as a follower of Jesus Christ – to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow. But how often do I grumble over my circumstances, doubting the faithfulness of God, wondering why I am faced with so many trials, and how perhaps I should turn aside to another way as being a better alternative?  Oh, that I might reject the broad road of ease toward temporal worldly pleasures, choosing instead the narrow path to the promised land flowing with milk and honey. Victory over the challenges and obstacles in my walk with God are possible knowing as did Joshua and Caleb that God goes before me to accomplish that work to which I have been appointed.  Indwelt of the Holy Spirit, I am a victorious conqueror in Christ Jesus able to possess the land serving a faithful God. 

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.

Numbers 13:31-32