Focus Chapters:
- Numbers 11-13
Standout Verse(s):
Number 13:30-33 NLT
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
Observation (s):
- Caleb stood alone in his belief that they could conquer the land now, if God commanded it. All the other men disagreed.
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”
- The men who came back with the negative reports though themselves inferior or less than the Canaanite dwellers.
But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
- The Canaanite dwellers saw the fear of the Israelite men and played on it.
Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
Application:
Whenever God starts readying me to go down a new path, I sometimes find that the naysayers in my head and around me increase exponentially. Suddenly, I am flooded with doubts and all the reasons why I shouldn’t take the new step or why I will fail. In the midst of all this doubting, I find myself hesitating to make the God-ordained move because my mind is swamped by all the “what-ifs” and the giants and obstacles that I am seeing. I forgot that God has already proved Himself. The God who showed His constant presence, parted the Red Sea and took care of my Egyptian enemies will be there, make a way and fight for me on any path that He takes me on.
What has God promised you? Where is He telling you to go? Canaan is a singular representative of God’s promise to you. Are you willing to take the first step towards that promise? In order to gain that promise, the journey to Canaan calls for your Caleb-type belief in two things:
- God will equip you to conquer all giants and tear down all fortified walls and cities that stand between you and His promise.
- If God has commanded you to move, you need to move now.
