Lessons from the Israelites Episode 4

The other lessons from the Israelits can be found here, here, and here.

In Numbers 13, Moses sends some of the Israelites to spy on the Promised Land. He asks them to check it out, and to bring back some fruit. So, a guy from each tribe goes out and spies on the new city--the city God had promised them.

The Promised Land is amazing--flowing with milk and honey, which was pretty awesome back then. Sticky, but awesome. The spies even brought back this one cluster of grapes that two men carried back.

But the descendants of a giant live in the city. And they have walls and weapons and are...giant. The Israelites are therefore discouraged, naturally (if I lived in a desert for that many years, I'd be easily discouraged, too. and sunburnt.). They began to whine and tell Moses and God that the women and the kids were going to be plundered and stuff.

I understand the Israelites. They had a dream of the Promised Land. They had heard about it and talked about it and dreamt about it for years. They had probably already planned what they would do once they had it.

Dreams are easy to get excited about. Trust me on this one; I am a dreamer. A lot of our dreams probably even come from God, like the Promised Land. He wants us to acheive them. They seem awesome, and probably really are.

But then, at least for me and the Israelites, we realize how difficult it may be to reach our goals. There are "giants" in our way. Maybe giants of personal comfort or ignorance or finances or other people's opinions. We get discouraged. And we begin to whine. We ask God if he led us all the way out here and gave us this big dream just so we can fail.

The thing is, though, the Israelites eventually reached the Promised Land. Well, the faithful ones did. The ones that believed with God anything is possible, even defeating giants.