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November 1, 2007 I was thinking the other day of an incident that happened back when I was in first or second grade. In a playground near our home was a huge vacant lot that was one of the favorite spots for all the kids in the neighborhood to hang out . One Saturday afternoon, I wandered over to play in the park. One part of the lot had undergone a transition. It was full of giant kids who had taken cardboard boxes and made a fort in the sand. None of the smaller kids were allowed anywhere near the sandbox because the big kids told us they would beat us up. The fort was massive. I remember it was taller than I was, so in my young mind it was as impregnable as a real castle guarded by an army. In retrospect the giants were probably in the third or fourth grade, but they seemed so big that we were awed by them and terrified by them. All it would have taken was a brother a little bigger than the kids in the fort or an assertive adult and we could have claimed our playground back. We just didn't think about that and felt afraid and went home. A similar thing happened to the people of Israel. Moses sent them to scout out the Promised Land. When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." 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." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." Numbers 13:17-14:4 NIV Now these were the very same people that God had delivered out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea for and provided for supernaturally in the desert. They had seen Him be faithful in ways that staggered the imagination time and time again. Yet at the first sign of an obstacle, they were ready to pack it all in, stone Moses and run away. They showed as much bravery and insight as I did as a young kid at the vacant lot. The reality is that you and I in some aspects are not so different than the people of Israel. We have seen and read of innumerable times when God has delivered people out of seemingly impossible situations. He has brought solutions that only God could bring to bear. Yet when we're faced with a problem. Our minds magnify the size of the problem and minimize the power of God. We're quick to give up. We're quick to whine about God having abandoned us. We're quick to think about giving up on our faith. The same God who parted the Red Sea and worked in the lives of so many biblical characters is still alive and working in the lives of believers today. The way we approach our problems is a matter of perspective. We can let them defeat us without any effort like the Israelites did or we can choose to remember God and His faithfulness and press on. God is still alive. He's still powerful and He can still overcome any obstacle. Until next time, remember who we serve and press on in His name and under His power. Don't let some situation or circumstance intimidate you out of your inheritance. Don't let something tell you it is bigger than God! Darrel Mason |