Deuteronomy 1:6-8

New Living Translation

“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.’”

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 Horeb, 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 to fear. (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 in Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The frightening report from ten out of the twelve 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). Their insistence on evidence led to their doom. This serves as a cautionary tale, a stark reminder of the consequences when we cannot trust God’s word.

Regrettably, the situation has changed little for us today. Many Christians struggle to take God at His word. They demand evidence before they believe, a trend that has given rise to the proliferation of false prophets. But we, as followers of Christ, are called to live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Faith, however, is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb. 11:1). It is this unwavering faith that should guide our journey. 

God may choose to reveal certain things to us before an event. That is His gracious prerogative. However, in His infinite wisdom, He keeps many things from us and asks us to trust Him (Deut. 29:29). The Israelite experience is not an excellent model for our walk with Jesus. Abraham presents the best example to us as we learn to trust God in everything (Gen. 12:1-4; 22:1-3).

Can you trust God’s word without demanding evidence?