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March 3, 2010 Ponder
SO SMALL BUT SO BIG
When the 12 scouts returned from evaluating the Land of Promise (Numbers 13), they were within three letters of giving the same report, but their outlook was as different as night and day. Two men said, “We can.” Ten men said, “We cannot.” All of them apparently reported on the beauty of the land and the bountiful crops and other resources. All were realistic in their evaluation of the current residents who would need to be conquered in order to possess the land. So why such a different conclusion?
Ten men saw the challenge through the eyes of humans. Two men saw the challenge through the promise of God. I think all 12 of them knew that the project was beyond their ability to accomplish, but two of them had faith that God would do what He promised – give them the land. Ten of them said, “We cannot do this; the challenge is beyond us.” Two men said, “We can do this; the task is God’s, and we are the vehicles through which He will do it.”
If the two enthusiastic men had considered the challenge without the God perspective, and the people had followed them into battle, they would have failed. It would be foolish to enter a land where people were established, trained and fortified and try to overpower them. Only divine direction and provision could bring success.
In reading the story, there is no sense of arrogance in Caleb and Joshua. In response to the rebellion of the people, they said, “If the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us safely into the land.” Their emphasis was on their confidence that “the Lord is with us.”
The people refused to move forward, even threatening the lives of the two faithful scouts. And God gave the people what they wanted. He did not force them into the land. He let them die in the wilderness. I have asked myself the question, “Did they consider the reality that either way they would eventually die – either in the wilderness or in the Land of Promise?” I think it would be more desirable to be killed while trying to do God’s will than to travel through the dust of the desert until you die of old age rebelling against His will.
I realize the human tendency to think we can accomplish something when in reality it is a human desire rather than a divine direction. And when we do that, we probably will fail. But these people had a promise and a pattern. Did they really think, as they stated, that God brought them out of Egypt to let them die en route to their land? Did they have reason to believe that their God Who had done miracles for them would not finish what He started?
It has been suggested that often the attitude “I cannot” could more accurately be stated, “I will not.” For the ten scouts and their followers, it was probably both. They felt overwhelmed and they also refused to believe. For Caleb and Joshua, the outlook was, “We can” and “We will.” Their determination was based on confidence in the One Who said, “I will.”
Such a small difference in the two decisions resulted in a 40-year delay for two men and their children, along with a complete loss of fulfillment and productivity for hundreds of thousands of people. I want to be in the group that says “I can” because of the promises of Creator God. I never want to suggest that He cannot finish His work. When I say “I cannot” to something that God has says “I will,” I am actually saying “He cannot.” I do not want to go there.
-Pastor Bill
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