Wednesday, Nov. 13
Numbers Chapters 13 and 14 Click here to read
One of the most comforting passages in the Bible appears in today’s reading, but in an unexpected context.
We often have trouble understanding the balance between the righteousness of God and the love of God. Many stray into a sentimentalized understanding of God not taking sin and rebellion seriously and being endlessly tolerant of wrongdoing.
God, though, is forgiving rather than tolerant. He will forgive sin, but doesn’t trivialize it.
In Chapter 13 some of the Israelites get their first look at the Promised Land, Canaan.
This is the land that God promised their ancestors generations earlier, and has promised to this particular generation when he called them out of Egypt. They have been following the pillar of cloud and fire, and are now close to their destination.
God instructs Moses to call out some of the leading men from each tribe to go ahead into the Promised Land to spy it out.
This was long before our easy access to computer images of any point on Earth…even before maps and atlases. The only way to know what a land was like was to visit it in person, or to listen to a report from someone who had.
God has promised that the land is good, and that he will give it to the Israelites. Now the time has come for representatives to go see it for themselves and report back what the land is like, and what the people who live there now are like.
When the spies return after 40 days, part of their report matches what God has promised. “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!”
But their fear outweighs their honesty, and they lie about the people there, making it appear that God’s promised possession of the land is beyond their reach (and beyond God’s reach). They say that the people are strong; even that they are giants who are much larger than the Israelites. “The land devours those living in it,” they report.
As they have so often in the past, the people give in to their fear and believe the lies.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, give an honest report and join Moses and Aaron in trying to convince the people, but their fear is too great and the people threaten to stone them.
God is again angered at their lack of faith and threatens to destroy them.
The passage that looks so comforting taken out of context is not spoken by God, but by Moses in his argument defending the people. He argues with God that if God strikes the people down, the Egyptians will hear of it and will believe God was unable to protect his people. And, Moses argues, God’s nature is to forgive, not to destroy.
“The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion,” he says to God.
Yet, Moses recognizes that God does not leave the guilty unpunished.
As punishment for the people’s lack of faith, God decrees that none of the people then alive will actually enter the Promised Land except for the faithful Caleb. The rest will die wandering in the wilderness, leaving their children to see the fulfillment of God’s promise.
The sin of the people is one that is still common today. We often deny the truth of God’s blessings and exaggerate how evil our day is or how great our suffering is. We invent giants to justify our fear and lack of faith.
When God calls us, he empowers us. Rather than imagining obstacles, respond with faith.