“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.’” —Numbers 13:31
The people of Israel had witnessed God doing amazing things on their behalf. He destroyed the land of their slavery with ten terrible plagues but brought them out unharmed. He overthrew their enemies in the Red Sea but allowed them to cross on dry ground. He led them to a land of wilderness without food or water but provided them with everything they needed.
When they finally arrived at the land He had promised for their own, they had no reason to doubt that He would be with them as they overtook it.
But doubting is exactly what they did. They sent twelve spies into the land to observe it and ascertain exactly what they were up against in terms of enemies. The spies brought back mixed reviews. The land was wonderful, they said, plentiful and fruitful. But the current inhabitants were giants. They had huge cities and massive armies. They would never be defeated.
Hearing the spies’ report sent the people into a panic. They accused God of bringing them all this way only to kill them. Forgetting the dozens of times He had already preserved their lives in miraculous ways, they focused only on the impossibility of their task. They would never get to the land God had supposedly promised them. It was nothing but a cruel trick.
Their doubts turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When God saw their unbelief, He sentenced them to forty years of wandering in the wilderness—one year for every day the spies had spent in the land. In that time, the doubting generation would die off. They would indeed never dwell in the land.
Doubt is a serious thing. Listening to the people’s complaints, God asked how long they would despise Him. When we focus on the insurmountable difficulties in front of us, we’re saying that God isn’t big enough. We’re saying that He can’t win everything. We’re saying that some things are greater than God.
The people of Israel serve as a warning to us. Their doubts led to their deaths. How far will we let our doubts go?
留言