Numbers 13 – 15

Verse 13:18 has God sending the people to scout the Promised Land:

I want you to tell us about the land and especially about its people—are they strong or weak? Are there a lot of them or only a few?

This is actually the start of a very big problem, but God wanted the people to understand what they were going into. He wanted them to understand the beauty and the problems.

Verse 13:33 has the report:

We saw the massive Anakites who descended from the ancient Nephilim! We look like grasshoppers compared to them, and they know it.

They had seen the 10 plagues, parting of the Red Sea, water from a rock and Manna from heaven yet they did not have faith God would conquer the “giants”.  I can never understand how they could do that yet at the same time I do it daily. We have what seems to be a God prompt to move to the West. I had the heart problem, my father got cancer and the children all moved to the west. We had no reason to stay other than the anchor called the farm.

A developer came by and made an offer the day after we decided to move!! This seemed to be God!! Anyway we found a “perfect” home which we wanted to make an offer, but the developer pushed back closing for 6 months. During that time we determined it wasn’t “perfect” and finally found the spot. Well during this time the “giants” or neighbors fought the zoning and appear to have won. Was this a mistake or should we have faith the God will conquer our “giants”? I started to look for other avenues to get the money and finally realized I am doing EXACTLY what the Israelites did.

I am back to settling into waiting on God, I just hope and pray my brief panic did not cause us to be stuck in the “wilderness” for 40 more years!!  I must realize it’s not me but rather GOD who is in control … I am just in charge of making sure we are operating in FAITH!!

Verse 14:11 has God ranting:

 How many times will this ungrateful people turn their backs to Me? How long will they persist in their faithlessness, refusing to recognize all the wondrous signs I performed in their midst? 

He was going to kill ‘em all, but Moses convinced Him not to do that. The punishment was wander the desert for 40 years until that generation died off. Harsh but in reality fair punishment for a lack of faith that God will provide.