The Promise Ignored

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, being brutally mistreated. God selects and calls Moses to be the instrument of deliverance to lead the people to a promised land.

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Exodus 3:7-8

At this moment in time, God’s promise was improbable and unbelievable. There was seemingly no way the Israelites would be allowed to leave Egypt.

Greatly summarizing the story, Moses finally agrees with God, delivers the message to the Israelites, confronts the evil King of Egypt, and God delivers 10 astounding plagues on the land. From locusts to frogs to turning the river to blood, amazing miracles were performed before the king and all the people, until Pharoah surrendered and let the people go.

Obstacle after obstacle continued to present itself before the Israelites as they left Egypt. With the Egyptians bearing down on them, the Israelites were hemmed in between the Red Sea and their enemy. God parts the Red Sea, the Israelites walk through on dry ground, then, when the Egyptians follow, the sea swallows them up. For food, God delivered wafers called manna, appearing like dew each morning. When water was short, God literally brought water out of a rock when they needed drink. All the while, God was leading them by a cloud in the day and a fire at night.

On several occasions, the Israelites wanted to turn back, but the miracles, seeing God overcome obstacles, kept them on pace. Travel distance is said to be an 11 day journey in Deuteronomy 1:2. Tough travel, no doubt, but all the while the Israelites had been seeing the presence of God and obstacles ripped down miraculously in front of their eyes. They were following the promise of God, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He was a visible presence leading them.

They arrive at the border of the promised land. The land that God had promised was now before them. Moses sends in 12 spies to check out the land, and the reports come back.

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. 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. 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.” Numbers 13:27-29

Ten of the spies come back with the above report. The land indeed “flows with milk and honey,” but the people in the land are strong. God had already told the people who inhabitated the land, so this should not have been a surprise. The ten spies expand a bit on what they saw.

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.” 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. 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.” Numbers 13:31-33

The strength of the people living there was an insurmountable. The obstacle was too great to overcome, fear swept the people, and, before you know it, all of the Israelites “raised up a loud cry and wept all night.” In fact, they wanted to elect a different leader and head back to Egypt to slavery.

The Israelites completely ignored the promise of God. Although they had seen miracle and miracle from God, they viewed the obstacle in front of them too great to overcome.

In the middle of all the negativity, there were two men that hung on to the promise of God, Caleb and Joshua.

And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Numbers 14:6-9

Joshua and Caleb declared the promise of God, acknowledging that He would give them the land. God had promised them the land flowing with milk and honey, and He would fight their battles and give it to them. Caleb and Joshua saw through the obstacle to the promise of God. This promise was enough to overcome fear and give them confidence. Unfortunately for the people, their call to believe the promise of God was drowned out by the negative report of the ten spies.

The path is always full of obstacles. The road is never easy. The Bible is crystal clear on the difficulty of the journey that we are all on. There will inevitably be suffering that requires endurance.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Numbers 5:3-5

The key to journeying well is to hang on to the promise of God. Like Caleb and Joshua, if we hold to His promises, every obstacle is surmountable. The obstacle may not be cleared like we think it should, but we have His promises to hold onto. Without God’s promise, fear and insecurity reign. The Bible is a book of His promises.

Let the promises of God found in His Word be your strength on the journey.

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