Are these words familiar? Have you ever cried them aloud to God or just
the world in general? These five words
are usually reserved for times of great stress, tribulation and sorrow and the
times I haven’t cried them aloud, I’ve certainly spoken them to
myself in my head over and over again as the giant of tribulation arrogantly stands
before me laughing in my face. “Ha! You
can’t do this! You are too weak; your strength is all used up! You’ve failed
before and you will fail this time too!
It’s too much for anyone to bear!”
Sometimes we can’t ‘see the forest for
the trees’. In other words, we are so
focused on the details of our issues or problems that we can’t see the bigger
picture such as how big our God is- how much He loves us- how He is with us
through the worst of times- even if we can’t feel Him near. Sometimes we can’t ‘see’ His salvation of us
in the past and the remarkable things He has done in our lives. Instead we see the giant mountain of troubles
in front of us.
There was another group of people with
the same issue in the Bible during Moses’ day.
Twelve spies (all were leaders within their tribes) were sent into the
Promised Land, saw its fruitfulness and wonders, came back, and this is what
they said:
(28) However, the people that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are walled, very great. And also we saw the children of
Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in
the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of
Jordan… (31) But the men that went up with him
said, We are not able to go up against the
people, for they are stronger than
we. (32) And they brought up an evil
report of the land which they had searched to the sons of Israel,
saying, The land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up
those who live in it. And all the
people whom we saw in it were men of stature. (33) And
there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak,
of the giants. And we were in our own sight like
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Num. 13
So we see
that ten of the twelve believed the lies in their hearts that said, “We can’t do
this!” It is interesting to note that
this lie took on a threefold approach similar to what it does in our own lives:
1. There are too many people in the land (28, 29). They're too strong for us.
2. The cities are walled and very great. The
land devours the people.
(the cities
are inaccessible, fortified and great in number, intensity, importance and
older thus
have withstood much and not fallen.
The land devours, consumes, wastes the people)
3. Big men and giants live there. We're no match
for them. We are weak, nobodies.
OR
1. This is too
much, too overpowering for me, there are too many problems.
2. This is too big,
too dangerous for me, too overwhelming.
3. I am too weak,
too sinful, too worthless… to resist, to continue, to fight, to stand.
The Hebrews
lost courage, wept, despaired all night (14:1), and by the next day were ready
to throw in the towel and run back to their bondage in Egypt!
(14:4) They
were focused more on their own weak condition and inabilities than in the powerful
God who created them and had already provided great miracles for them. So their fears overcame their trust in God.
But there
were two men who focused on God who was stronger than the problems of the land:
Caleb and Joshua. Caleb said, “Let us go
up at once and possess it. For we are well able to overcome it.” (13:30) Joshua and Caleb tore their robes after the
Hebrews wanted to return to Egypt (14:6) and said it’s an exceeding good land God will
bring us in and give us if He delights in us, but don’t rebel against Him now
or fear the people for God is with us (14:6-9).
God says of
Caleb and Joshua that they fully followed Him (Num. 32:12) What a great testimony. It wasn’t because they were personally
strong, big, or powerful. It wasn’t
because they were better than anyone else.
It wasn’t because they didn’t understand the problems of the land and
the difficulties ahead. It was because
they saw the powerful, almighty God who was bigger than all the problems…
and they trusted in Him!
