“When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on … Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.’”

Deuteronomy 1:6-8

For Meditation

Why is it so difficult to take God at His word? This question makes the account of the twelve spies the Israelites sent into Canaan interesting to read (Deut. 1: 22-23).  

Moses tells us that after a prolonged stay at Mt. Sinai, God commanded the Israelites to go up and take possession of the Promised Land (Deut. 1:6-8). When they reached Kadesh Barnea, Moses repeated God’s command to go up and take the land; and not be afraid. (21). But the people did not trust the Lord enough to take Him at His word. Rather, they were fear-stricken. They preferred to know the general conditions of the land before the attack. Often, we want to assess our chances before doing what God tells us to do. 

At the people’s request, Moses sent twelve men to spy on the land (Deut. 1:22-23). It becomes clear from Moses’s narration that the people proposed the idea. It sounded perfect to Moses, so he took it to the Lord, who approved and commanded it (Nu. 13:1-2). That resolves the supposed contradiction of the two accounts.

The frightening report from the spies incited a rebellion against Moses. As a result, God condemned them to the harshness of the wilderness until all the men of military age who left Egypt died (Nu. 14:20-35). What they sought to know caused their doom. What a fatal mistake when we cannot take God at His word!

Unfortunately, the situation has changed little for us today. Many Christians cannot take God at His word. They want some evidence before they believe, a trend that has given birth to the proliferation of many false prophets. But we live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). And “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). 

God may choose to reveal certain things to us before an event. That’s His gracious prerogative. But in His infinite wisdom, He keeps many things from us and asks us to trust Him. The Israelite experience is not an excellent model for our walk with Jesus. So, may we learn to trust Him in everything! 

Can you do that without evidence?