October 26, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 13 (NIV)
Exploring Canaan
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”
3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names:……Continue Reading
Numbers 13
God asked Moses to go explore this land as a sort of reconnaissance mission to plan as this was the land He was giving to them. God had already decided that but as we see so often He still expects us to do our due diligence within His plans. He always has an order and a system in place and so this was part of that plan even though we know with God all things are possible and according to Him this land was theirs.
Everything God said about the land was true, flowing with milk and honey, a lovely place to live of course with th exception of the large current residents. This is when fear makes the spies doubt God’s plan as fear so often does for all of us. When something seems too hard, too scary, or too stressful that is when we need to lean into God for courage and strength, however, all too often we are like these spies and allow it to cloud our faith. We must daily pray for the Holy Spirit’s help to be strong and courageous in the face of fear!
Numbers 12
The land turns out to be just as God said it would be and we see why God called them to it. Faith says to move forward, fear shrinks back. We must choose in our own lives what we choose to live by. It is also interesting how self perception is often what we project on other people and then act according to it. It is found in the faithless spies saying they seemed like grasshoppers in the Canaanites eyes. They couldn’t know that, but they thought of themselves that way and projected on the possessors of the land. Then they let the fear they created take over. What an important lesson for us to be more like Joshua and Caleb than the others.
Life in Christ requires discernment. When is God calling us to proceed in faith? Proceed with caution? Ask for confirmation? Retreat in fear?
I think the world often relies on people, the church, to retreat or respond in fear. Are we discerning where this is taking place, right now? One instance I think of is the trans ideology, “you must “affirm” this or your child will commit suicide.” When in fact these medical procedures are mutilating children for profit. They use fear to control parents. I can think of many other situations where fear is being used to cause retreat or silence.
”And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.“
Numbers 13:30-31 KJV
God sent 12 spies representing the 12 tribes. They were the leaders. God told them what they would see and find there. The problem was that 10 of the spies reacted in fear and took their eyes off of God and what He had promised them. Only two believed what God had promised them and wanted to conquer through Him. They were Caleb and Joshua. God rebuked the people for their lack of faith in Him. God told them that all the people 20 years and over would die in the wilderness as it says in chapter 14. Only Caleb and Joshua being over 20 would survive. Such a reminder to us in our walk with the Lord. God bless you.
Numbers 13
NUMBERS 13