Christian Living

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Joshua 13:4-33

“And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.

And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Moses sent these men to survey the land in obedience to a command from the Lord. Now this is important to know because the question should come to mind, Why would God command Moses to send spies into a land that He’d already given or promised to the Israelites?

God spoke of this promised land on more than one occasion. So there was no doubt that God was serious about giving them this land. But still when time had come near for the people to posses the land, they had to send representatives into the land to check things out. I want to point our three things that are important in possessing the promise.

The first point is obvious, this was a matter of faith. The Lord has given promises to us corporately as well as individually and still, many of us have yet to walk in them. We have heard the words of the Lord and have nodded in mental assent to the promises but we have not accepted the word of God as a reality for our lives. Yes, it sounds good and it’s what we want but we struggle with believing to the degree that causes us act accordingly. A person doesn’t sit in a chair if they don’t believe it will hold them. True belief causes an action even if it’s simply seeking God concerning what to do while we wait. We can be more concerned with the inhabitants in the land than we are with possessing the promise. Did not the Lord promise or say certain things concerning you?

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ( Numbers 23:19)?”

We treat God as if He is one of us. We act as if He says things just to hear himself speak but everything the Lord says has weight to it. His word is sure.

“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).”

God is not like man. He doesn’t have to wonder whether or not he will be able to do the things He has said He would do. WE can tell someone that we’ll be there but plans change, we change our mind or we just don’t feel like it but God doesn’t mix words nor does he have ulterior motives like some of us do. When He decides to do something, we can rest assured that it will come to pass.

The biggest problem God has with blessing us is us. We doubt Him because of what we see in the natural, or how we feel, or what we think. Why not trust Him? If you could bless yourself you would have done so by now. We wrestle with relinquishing control in situations and we forfeit blessings and prolong promises all because of our lack of faith. As a result, we don’t receive what we’ve been promised we wonder why the Lord hasn’t come through for us.

Second, the company you keep should match your faith. What do I mean by this? The ten that doubted caused a nation to be denied the promise. What some would say is good common sense was called an “evil report”. Recognize that faith and common sense rarely agree. The carnal mind cannot comprehend spiritual matters and yet some of us listen to folks ‘cause they can make stuff sound good.

We should be careful not to surround ourselves with people who have no faith. They may cost you your promise. Have you ever made the mistake of sharing a vision or aspiration with someone who in turn had nothing good to say? Some people will always try to talks others out of their faith because they aren’t able to believe God for anything for themselves. If they can’t receive a blessing, you can’t because they won’t allow it. Be careful of the company you keep. Those who doubted never set foot in the Promised Land.

Last, Thank God for where you are and what you have but don’t be afraid to expect more. I talked about this one before. Some of us have confused contentment for complacency. Some of the Israelites wanted to settle for the land to the west if Jordan, which was not the land of promise. They got caught up in what was “good enough. We shouldn’t give up on God. He is the one who gave the promise and the one who will bring it to pass but we can get comfortable with the provision He gives while in the “wilderness” and never look toward the promise.

We get saved but experience abundant life, we get a job but are never debt free, and we get healed but don’t walk in divine health. Our lives are filled with mediocrity and God wants to give us more.

God has said some things about you but what is your report? Are you too comfortable to move forward in Him? Does the fear of failure hinder you from reaching beyond what’s easy? The manna of the Lord has gotten you this far, but there is a place where there is plenty. There is abundance. A land where the things you sow have great return. God has told us to survey the land.
Look around you. What do you see? There may be obstacles that seem impossible to overcome.

There may be people that attempt to stand in your way but we, as the people of God, should have a report that acknowledges God’s greatness. Don’t deny that there are giants in the land but recognize that the giants are nothing compared to the God who sent you into their midst. He’ll give the victory to you-all we need to do is trust Him and give Him the glory.

Blessings,

Christy

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