2018 Weekly Devotional - Week 15
Week 15
Numbers 13:25-33
“At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
For those of you who have been at Currey Creek for a while, you know the difficulties we have had getting the new building built. There have been obstacles seemingly at every turn. We had to get a new contractor, there were engineering issues, acoustical challenges, fire suppression, drainage, and so on. Even though we had believed that the Lord had led us to build, we kept encountering obstacles. These obstacles taken as a whole proved quite intimidating as well as confusing. From time to time we needed to bring clarity to the situation. Simply stated, we needed a larger meeting space and believed the Lord had given us the freedom to build one. So in spite of all the turmoil brought on by the challenges, we believed the Lord was leading us to build. Therefore, we should crack on! In times of difficulty and confusion, clarity is priceless.
The Israelites are camped at Kadesh-Barnea on the edge of the land God had promised to give them. Scouts were sent in to check out the land and came back with a report that the land was as God said it would be, namely, awesome. But along with validating God’s promise, the majority report was that in spite of what God had declared, the people should not take the land. The foreign people were too strong, the cities were too strong, and the Israelites would have to fight too many battles. Enter faithful Caleb! Caleb brought clarity to the situation by telling the people that they should indeed go up and take possession of the land in spite of the obstacles. How could Caleb speak with such clarity in that situation? He simply took God at His word, which is called faith.
The hymn Before the Throne, written in 1863, has a stanza that states, “When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there Who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Saviour died My sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.”
As a child of God the Lord has declared many things about you. Here are just a few of the things scripture says about you as a Christ-follower. You are an heir (Romans 8:17), you are a friend of Jesus (John 15:15), you have been justified and redeemed (Romans 3:24), you are not a slave to sin (Romans 6:6), you are not condemned (Romans 8:1), you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:21), and you are blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)! When difficult situations arise in your life and bring confusion, when Satan tempts you to despair, take up these verses by faith and get some clarity about your identity in Christ and what God has promised to the faithful.
In Christ,
John