In Our Own Eyes

This post was inspired form my pastor’s message this past Sunday on the Israelite leader’s report on their Canaan exploration (Nu 13:25-33).  There were some things that stood out to me from that scripture. 

First of all, an overview:  The Lord told Moses to send out men to explore the land of Canaan, which he was giving them.  Moses sent twelve, representatives of the various tribes to report.  He told them what look for:  type of land, strength of the people, whether the towns were walled, check the fertility of the soil and whether there were trees or not.  And they were also to bring back samples of the land’s fruit.  They came back, and told the people how plentiful the land was and showed them all of the fruit they’d collected.  It was flowing with milk and honey!  But they continued with a ‘but’, telling the people that basically the people living there were giants.  Caleb (and Joshua) attempted to put an end to what were clearly expressions intended to frighten and dishearten the people.  It may’ve been inhabited by large people, but Caleb expressed faith in God in saying, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’   

Then the other men continued saying, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are’.  They even then changed their report about the land saying, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it.’ And exaggerated by adding, ‘we saw Nephilim there...’  The reference to the Nephilim seems deliberately intended to evoke fear (NIV note).  And finally, the truth of the matter, ‘We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’

·         First of all, the land had already been set aside for them by God (Nu 13:1-2).

·         God didn’t want them to be ignorant of the situation they faced, but faithful enough to trust him.  The land was rich and the people may’ve been giants, but ‘faith never denies reality, but leaves room for God to grant a new reality’. (Jim Cymbala, from ‘Praying God’s Word’ by Beth Moore). It was for them to speak and act based on faith in God.  God always does his part. The question is:  Will we do ours?

·         It was the leadership’s responsibility to instill confidence in the people based on God’s ability, not their own.  Instead they expressed doubt based on their own ability (or inability), which is nothing more than pride.  There own so-called ability had never been a factor in any success they’d experienced in the past, so why should it be then?

·         Caleb and Joshua’s report came from faith in God, which is an expression of love, while the other’s report came from fear.  The two are always in opposition (1 Jn 4:18).

·         Real power is in faith, and faith comes by hearing the word of God (Ro 10:17).  The Canaanites were faithless pagans, so imagine how much more powerful the Israelites would’ve been had they just stood on God’s word?  They would’ve been the real giants (Ro 8:31)!  But since they seemed like grasshoppers in their own eyes, they looked the same to their opposition (v. 33).