By Robert Olsen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Christian Studies, University of Mobile
THE LAND
Numbers 13:17–31
The Task Outlined (17–20)
The Israelites left Egypt and headed to the promised land. God spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting (Ex. 33:11) and instructed the Israelites to follow Moses. God told Moses to send out 12 spies — one from each tribe — into the land of Canaan to scout it out.
While we do not have the luxury of a modern Moses giving us instructions on how to carry out God’s will, we have God’s Word and also the Holy Spirit within us. The Bible clearly tells us how we ought to live our lives, and God also reveals His will to us in prayer. When we pray, God leads us through the Holy Spirit and often nudges us toward certain actions.
The Land Assessed (21–25)
Even though God had promised the land to the Israelites, He still told them to spy out the land. God could have easily just told them to go in and take the land, but instead they were required to scout the land. This shows us that when God tells us to do something, we need to listen and obey. It does not mean that He does not expect us to do our part.
God teaches us many lessons in being obedient. God may tell us to take a certain job or travel to a certain location for missions work or even to go across the street to our neighbors.
Sometimes, the Holy Spirit tells us to obey immediately. Other times, we need to be patient and do our part. It might mean we need to study more, work on our education or learn more about a family or people group before going.
God often teaches us through the process of obedience. Christians are sometimes prone to being lazy and wanting the easy way to sanctification. We might think God will make all the obstacles disappear.
While this is a possibility, we need to work on moving obstacles through the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
The history of missions is filled with Christians who obey God in going to other countries but then doing the work of learning cultural differences and connections for the gospel.
The Decision at Hand (26–31)
When the scouts returned from their journey, they relayed to the people what they saw — that the land was indeed good and plentiful, but the people who lived in the land were giants, and it would be impossible to take the land from them. Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to take the land because they trusted in God’s promises.
This is a good lesson for us today. God often asks us to do things that are not easy or simple. For example, being a pastor requires a lot of time and study. Being a Sunday School teacher requires research and patience. Yet in spite of this, we can trust God’s promises that He will work through us to accomplish His goals.
All Christians have a calling on our lives, whether it be a job or our position in our family as a grandparent, parent or child. God has duties for us and in the doing of these duties, we mature as Christians. We can be sure we will face trials in our lives, but we can be confident that God will give us the strength to accomplish what He has called us to do.
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