“Now
behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years,
from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the
wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. I am still as
strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my
strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.” Joshua 14:10-11
(NASB95)
In the
devotional yesterday, Caleb and Joshua returned from scouting the Promised Land
and told the children of Israel that they could do it…they could claim the
Promised Land. For the next 40 years Caleb
waited to lay hold to that claim. He
remembered what he saw and told the story repeatedly of what they had
seen.
But the
children of Israel did not obey God and go into the Promised Land. As punishment they continued to wander. And wander they did for 40 more years. Not only did they wander but consider this –
they were so close to the Promised Land that they were able to send the spies
in and have them return within a short period of time; so you know they were
pretty close. They didn’t have cars or
planes; they travelled on foot so they must have been close. Yet, they chose to disobey and turn away from
the promise of God. The people showed
unbelief when they said, “We are not
able!” Instead of reporting the blessings of the land, the ten spies
emphasized the difficulties, giving an “evil report” of God’s holy land.
Unbelief always sees the obstacles; faith always sees the
opportunities.
Isn’t
that how we operate sometimes? We may
not realize it but we may be so close to the promise that God has for us and
yet we choose not to claim it by being disobedient. Don’t you know that God is watching and saying
to Himself, “You’re right there! Just obey me and my promise for you is yours
to claim! You are so close! Don’t blow it now!” Yes I can imagine I have given Him cause to
shake His holy head a few times.
Imagine
how Caleb and Joshua must have felt as well.
They knew that they could win this battle and claim this mountain if
only they could get everyone else to go along.
But they would not and the majority rules. So they continued to wander. The real interesting thing about the next 40
years for the Children of Israel is that they wandered and wandered, but not
far from the Promised Land at all.
Consider
this by Wayne Blank: If one looks at a map of the region between Egypt and Israel,
the question of why it took 40 years to travel a straight-line distance of only
about 240 miles is rather startling. Why an average of only 6 miles per year,
which seems incredibly slow, even for people on foot? The answer is because the
40 years wilderness wandering wasn't a journey, as much as it was a death
sentence for those who had refused the opportunity to enter the Promised Land
not long after they left Egypt. Instead of a relatively direct course from
Egypt to Israel, the generation that refused to enter the land promised to the
descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob turned back and wandered around and
around in the wilderness until they were all gone. For those who rebelled
against God, the Exodus became a journey without a destination, and for the
others, it became a matter of taking the long way home.
“Many of life's failures are people who did
not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison
Don’t miss your opportunity to claim God’s promise
for you when He is leading. Don’t be
afraid you cannot conquer the giants in the way of your promise because through
you God can take the giants down. If you
are wandering, perhaps because of the disobedience of someone else like Caleb
and Joshua were, keep believing and stay close to God. It cannot be emphasized too much that God
honors faith and judges unbelief. Faith leads to obedience and glorifies God;
unbelief leads to rebellion and death. By the time they were able to claim the
promise, the ten spies who brought the negative report were dead. Caleb and Joshua were the only two of the
twelve spies still living. Caleb was a
man of spiritual vision that gave him spiritual vitality, and it led him to
spiritual victory. Ten men behind him
lay in the dusty grave because they neglected to nurture their faith in a
powerful God when the chips are down.
We have the Word of God filled with His
promises and assurances. There is no reason why any of us should wander in
unbelief when we can be walking in victory and caiming the spiritual riches we
have in Christ.
Scripture to Claim:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
