Never Forsaken: Stepping Out in Faith

 

Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.  Numbers 14:30-31

 God tells you to do something and you don’t. You’re scared, or intimidated or ashamed. Whatever your reason, you decide not to do what God has told you to. Then comes God’s judgement, the correct response to your disobedience. You don’t want whatever the consequences are even more than whatever had kept you from obeying in the first place, but now it’s too late. Yes, God forgives, but that doesn’t mean He rewinds and makes everything the way it was. Because of your disobedience, you now have a new course, a new path to follow, and to not follow it would be further disobedience. That will not go well.

 God had brought the people to the promised land. They were to send delegates to go scope it out, to see just how good the land was, if it was truly flowing with milk and honey. They went and spent 40 days touring their new home, seeing all the amazing blessings God had in store for them. They came back to the people and correctly reported, “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces,” (Exodus 13:27) and they showed a single cluster of grapes they had cut that took two men to carry it between them on a pole. God had not exaggerated the abundance of the blessing He was guiding them into! But then they went on… “But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!... We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” (Numbers 13:28,31)

 Here the people had a choice: believe the report of the delegates, or believe God. You see, God had told them that He would go before them, that He would protect and provide, that He would conquer their enemies. This reminds me of a story I heard not too long ago about the great Charles Blondin (video below). Charles was an acrobat of great notoriety. He had performed in circuses across France, and his fame brought him over the ocean to America. In 1853, he visited Niagara Falls and was entranced. He decided then and there that he must cross it on a tightrope. It was a fantastic feat, never before accomplished, or even attempted. To shorten the telling (and I highly recommend you watch the video and hear the whole story), Charles successfully crossed, and the recrossed the gorge on the tightrope. He repeated this over and over in the coming years, adding on to the difficulty each time. He brought a camera with him and took a picture mid-crossing. He crossed on stilts. He’s even reported to have carried a stove across on his back and stopped midway to make himself an omelet and then eat it before continuing! The crowd was amazed! They shouted his name and cheered him on. He asked, “Do you believe in me, that I can do this?” and they shouted their affirmation. But when he asked, “Who of you will come with me?” and brought out a wheelbarrow to carry one of them across, not one person stepped forward. You see, they believed in him, but they did not trust him.

 And this is where the people of Israel landed as well, sadly. They professed their belief in God. They agreed and made covenants with Him to follow Him. But when it came time to act on that belief, to show their trust that God could actually do what He said He would, they faltered. There were giants in the land, descendants of Anak. The cities were fortified and vast. How could this motely band of misfits, fresh out of slavery, possibly take on these formidable foes? But God had never asked them to do this. He had asked them to trust that He would handle their enemies, that He would bring them into the land that He had promised to their forefathers, and to them. Of the adults, the 603,550 men over the age of 20 (Exodus 38:26) and their wives with them, numbering over a million people, only two – Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun – professed both their belief in God’s ability to do what He said and their trust and willingness to follow Him.

Here’s the Thing: That day, the people of Israel missed out – big time. Because of their disobedience, every last one of the adults that refused to follow God into the promised land died in the wilderness. You believe in God, but do you trust Him? Are you willing to climb in His wheelbarrow and allow Him to push you out over the flimsy, quivering tightrope to the other side? I will. I am. I’ll tell you more about that later.