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Numbers Chapter 13 (ESV)
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 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. 28 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. 29 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.”
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 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.” 32 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. 33 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.”
REFLECTION:
- Faith has to do with marrying the Invisible and the Visible. When we engage in an act of faith as Caleb did, we give up insisting that head knowledge is our primary means of understanding.
- Faith isn’t a conclusion we come to simply on the basis of what we see. It’s a conclusion we come to on the basis of who God is. And that fusing of the Visible with the Invisible gives us a different way of looking at the world around us.
- It’s often said that living by faith is a risky way to live. What isn’t so often said is that living by sight has risks, too. Even greater risks. As the story of Joshua and Caleb unfolds in the next chapter, we find that the greater danger wasn’t living by faith but living by unbelief, the way the rest of the nation lived.
PRAYER:
Today’s song was based on Mark 9:14-27 when the father called to Jesus: “I believe, help thou my unbelief.” Written By Bill & Gloria Gaither. Use it as my petition to God.
I believe help thou my unbelief, I’d take the finite risk of trusting as a child
I believe help thou my unbelief, I walk into the unknown trusting all the while
I long so much to feel the touch that others seem to know,
but should I never feel a thing I claim him even so
I believe help thou my unbelief, I walk into the unknown trusting all the while
HYMN:
I Believe, Help Thou My Unbelief – https://youtu.be/ZGXdlFF_Lp4
