The VCR is a wonderful invention. If you’ve got it set to tape your favorite shows it matters a whole lot less whether you’ll be home in time, doesn’t it. It makes meetings a whole lot less tense. Some things you have to be on time for, though. Movies, buses, job interviews... There’s a sort of window of opportunity that
may or may not come around again. If you miss the movie, or the bus, you can usually catch a later one, but a job interview is likely to be a whole 'nother story. Missing one of those is not going to endear you to your prospective boss... Other appointments are somewhere in the middle... If you miss a flight you can probably
get another one, but you may have to pay more or take a more roundabout route. Space launches have windows of varying length... Gemini XII had only a 30-second launch window, but the next launch for the space station Mir has 6 days, from July 8th to the 14th. There’s some slack, in case things take a little longer than expected, or the weather doesn’t cooperate.
But those are all things the people involved know about, and can prepare for. What about the things that happen just because someone “happens” to be in the right place at the right time? There are at least as many things that we miss out on because we were in the wrong place when the right time came around, or were looking in the wrong direction. A lot of military historians believe that the only reason the Americans won the Revolution was because Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day and caught the Hessians in Trenton napping. They were far stronger, better fed and better armed, than the rebel troops, but they didn’t expect to be attacked, and so they lost. And from that moment on the rebels had the momentum.
The funny thing about windows of opportunity is that the more important they are, the less often they come around. Shakespeare put it well in Julius Caesar. “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
The Israelites had been preparing for their big moment for 14 months, though. They had been rescued from slavery in Egypt, had been fed with manna and received the law, they’d almost blown it completely with the incident of the golden calf, but got back with the program after Moses interceded for them, they had built the tabernacle, ordained their priests, and celebrated the first Passover.
Now it was time. From the very moment God had first called to Moses from the burning bush the promise of land had been dangling out in front of them like a carrot on a stick. YHWH declared to Moses, “... I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.'[Ex 3:17] The promise was repeated a half dozen more times over the next few months. The Israelites knew the land was inhabited, but they also knew that God intended for them to have it. The time had come.
But there was still work to be done. It was not going to be a shoo-in. This would be a military campaign, needing planning and foresight and discipline. God would be asking his people to use the resources he had given them, their eyes and ears and hands and feet, to become active partners in the enterprise. He would give the orders, but they were expected to have some clue about what they were doing. So he had Moses send out secret agents.
They went out for more than one reason, though. Half their mission had to do with military intelligence, the other had more to do with public relations. According to Deuteronomy, the spies went up “to explore the land for us and bring back a report to us regarding the route by which we should go up and the cities we will come to." [Dt 1:22] They weren’t to see whether they would be able to take it, but to start planning how. But I also think they went up to whet the people’s appetite for conquest, to see how fair and fertile the land was, to get them excited about their new home. Sort of like a Parade of Homes - without the owners’ permission.
Remember, these people had lived in Egypt for 400 years. Egypt and Canaan were about as different as two countries could be. Egypt was mostly desert, except for a very narrow strip of land on either side of the huge river Nile. It didn’t rain; crops were watered by the Nile overflowing its banks once a year. The Israelites had lived in the land of Goshen, to the north where the Nile fed into the Mediterranean, and that was flat and marshy. The land they were coming into would be completely new to them. The only river of any note was the Jordan, but they wouldn’t see that coming up from the south through Kadesh Barnea. All they had seen for 14 months was more desert.
They needed to know two things: (1) the land they were going to would NOT be like Egypt, and (2) it was nevertheless worth fighting for.
But they blew it. At first the twelve men did everything they were supposed to do. From where they were camped on the southern border of the Negev, they traveled north as far as Hebron. It was the largest town in the hill country of Judah, 50 miles or so southeast of Jerusalem. It was also where God had originally promised Abraham that he would inherit the land, where Abraham had bought his only piece of real estate for Sarah’s burial, and where he too was buried. It was a place with a lot of historical and emotional meaning for them;
you’d think they’d be all gung-ho about getting it back. Sort of like Serbia was about getting back their religious sites from the Muslim Albanians... Champing at the bit, raring to go, price no object. The grapes they picked at Wadi Eshcol were enormous, ripe and juicy; Hebron is still famous for its grapes. They also brought back other fruits, pomegranates and figs. They agreed that the land was indeed very fertile, just as YHWH had promised, “flowing with milk and honey.”
But they also came back totally intimidated by what they had seen. They had forgotten everything that they had learned about YHWH over the past 14 months.
The first thing they forgot was that God provides. When God calls his people to a task, he provides everything necessary to get it done: the tools, the raw materials, the human resources, you name it. Notice in verse 2 when YHWH tells Moses to "send men to spy out the land." Right in the middle of the verse is the most important piece: God was "giving" the land to His people. He didn’t say “I am... going to let you fight for it, or “I am... ordering you to take it” or “I am... telling you to get it from the inhabitants somehow." Far from it. YHWH told them to check out the gift. He simply wanted them to see it first. And they were impressed. Now, he didn’t say it would be easy. He didn’t say they wouldn’t have to lift a finger. But he did say it would be theirs. And he did show them that it would
be worth the effort.
God often shows us what he is going to give to us in order to put a desire in our hearts that will keep us going when the road gets rocky. And God is also honest with us about what we are likely to face when we follow him. And that is what he is doing here. You see, God's challenge to the Israelites at this point in their journey with him was to be a test of their faith. The idea was not only for them to desire the land, but to get a good look at their adversaries. He wanted them to trust Him - even in the face of what looked like formidable enemies.
And God often does the same today, challenging us as individual believers. Maybe God is calling you to get involved in some kind of ministry that seems risky, maybe even downright impossible. Maybe God has challenged you to do something for your family that you just know is totally beyond you. Maybe God
is asking you to give money, time or resources you‘re sure you don't have. Learn from the Israelites: If God is calling you, God will provide.
The second thing the spies forgot is that what we see is determined by our faith in God. The spies had been gone for 40 days. Imagine what the people had been doing while they had been gone; picture their excitement! In just a little while they would get to leave the barren desert behind, and enter into their new homeland. Can’t you hear them talking, planning the homes they would build, the fields they would plow, the businesses they would start? They wouldn't have to eat manna any more! They wouldn’t have to live in tents! Imagine the oohs and aahs as the spies "showed them the fruit of the land." The giant cluster of grapes and the other produce must really have made their mouths water.
But then came the report. Ten of the spies said, “not so fast... “the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.” [Num 13:28] “It's a great place to live,” they said, “but it’s too much for us.” These spies had a case of "sticker shock."
Ever go new car shopping? You love the car but you just can't get around the price. Their fear clouded the vision. They forgot that God was giving them the land.
Two of the spies gave a minority report, urging adoption of the resolution, but they were drowned out by the fears of the majority. Caleb managed to "quiet the people" long enough to get heard, but not long enough to change their minds. Caleb tried to get them to remember that this land was God's promise to them, that YHWH was on their side, that they weren’t expected to do it on their own. He said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it!" Perhaps he tried to remind them of what God had done in the past: promise to Abraham... Freedom from slavery... Red Sea crossing... Food and water in the desert... victory over the Amalekites... When you remember what God has done, it becomes much easier to have faith in what God will do. The people should have shouted, "Amen! Let's go." Instead they responded in fear.
The other ten even exaggerated the opposition, to justify their lack of enthusiasm for the task and to get the people on their side. All of a sudden it wasn’t just the Anakites who were giants, but the other tribes, the Hittites and Jebusites and Amorites, all grew to 10 feet, too. In other words, the ten exaggerated the risk and spoke negatively. Faithless people always do that. No one likes to be afraid alone, it makes them look small, so they do their best to spread the fear.
And the third thing the spies forgot was that it is only when we obey God that the promised blessings truly become our own. Their disobedience lost them their opportunity to share in the promise. In Chapter 14, YHWH gets tired of listening to them wailing and complaining and threatening to stone Moses and return to Egypt. He almost pulls the plug on the whole enterprise. Moses pleads with him, but gets only a partial reprieve. The faithless ones will not see the Promised Land.
When they realize what they have done, of course, the people are sorry. After hey "mourned greatly" all night long, they "rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain." They said, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised." [Num 14:39-40]
But it was too late. God only gave them the one chance. The kind of obedience God wants is not the kind that is only offered under threat of punishment.
It is extremely likely that God is asking some of us, here, to be obedient to his call today. Some of us, looking out at the prospect, see only the risks, the obstacles. The Hittites and Amorites and Jebusites are out there, God doesn’t ask us to wear blinders. But he does expect the eyes of faith to not turn them into giants.
How many of you know the VeggieTales song, “God is bigger than the bogeyman?” Even if they were giants, God is still bigger.
Who are your bogeymen? What are the giants that keep you from going into the Promised Land? God is bigger than they are. God is stronger than they are. Opportunities for following God into a new place come along all the time; when they do, we have to choose whether to look into the future with eyes of faith, and walk into the future with a heart of faith - or not. Remember that the spies didn’t say, “We don’t trust God, we won’t go.” They just acted that way. Let’s not be like them.
The writer to the Hebrews, talking to the church over a thousand years later wrote, “...the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.' As in my anger I swore, 'They will not enter my rest.'" Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." [Heb 3:7-15]
