Good morning,
John Reynolds, in his Anecdotes of the Rev. John Wesley, tells the story of Wesley’s student days at Lincoln College in Oxford. A porter knocked on Wesley’s door one evening and asked to speak with him. After some conversation, Wesley noted the man’s thin coat (it was a cold winter night), and suggested that he had better get a warmer one. The porter replied: "This coat ... is the only coat I have in the world - and I thank God for it." When asked if he had eaten, he replied: "I have had nothing today but a draught of spring water ... and I thank God for that."
Wesley, growing uneasy in the man’s presence, reminded him that the headmaster would lock him out if he did not soon return to his quarters. "Then what shall you have to thank God for?" Wesley asked. "I will thank Him," replied the porter, "that I have dry stones to lie upon."
Deeply moved by the man’s sincerity, Wesley said, "You thank God when you have nothing to wear; ... nothing to eat ... [and] no bed to lie on. I cannot see what you have to thank God for." The man replied: "I thank God... that he has given me life and being; a heart to love Him, and a desire to serve Him."
The man left with a coat from Wesley’s closet, some money for food and words of appreciation for his living testimony. Wesley later wrote these words in his Journal: "I shall never forget that porter. He convinced me there is something in religion to which I am a stranger." It is impressive, challenging, and begs the question, “Do I offer that kind of thanksgiving to God, or am I, as Wesley put it, a stranger to that side of religion?”
Within the Psalms, we find writings that encompass the whole of human existence: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We hear shouts of joy, cries of despair, praise and thanksgiving. We see the whole of Israel’s history portrayed in the psalms (or hymns) that she sings in her worship. When the community of Israel gathered to give thanks, they would sing hymns of thanksgiving; Psalm 65 is one such hymn where we discover the Magnificence of His Providence: God of Grace, God of Might, and God of Plenty.
Praise awaits you. It may sometimes be the height of worship, in other words, to fall silent before God in awe at his presence and in submission to his will. Our vows will be fulfilled is Israel’s response to God, for the blessing of answered prayer and forgiveness that he gives them.
The Israelites believed that blessing was reciprocal; as God blessed them they had to respond in order to complete the cycle. Therefore, in this verse, they respond to his blessing by honoring the vows they made. To you all men shall come. All humanity can find grace and forgiveness from God.
How blessed are those you draw near to you. This implies that not everyone accepts God’s grace, though it is available to all. God fills those who draw near to him with the good things of your house - abundantly blessed). The God of grace reached out to his people when sin overwhelmed them; and that is worth celebrating! The emphasis now turns to the God of might, whose power to put the unruly in their place is as welcome as it is formidable. The hope of all (v.5)… does not imply that all men trust in God, but rather that they should.
The mountains, which seem awesome and secure, and the sea that roars with all its power, are still subject to their Creator. Nature, regardless of how impressive and daunting it may be, is under the control of the God of might. The God of might subdues even the warring nations, frightful and ruthless in their pursuits. The whole expanse of the earth, from east to west, praises its Creator.
Israel offers praise to the Lord for his omnipotence. He is the all-powerful God, greater than any of the pagan gods; so powerful is he that both nature and nations revere him. It is hard to surpass the Psalmist’s imagery of the fertile earth given in vv. 9-13. It begins with an analytical description, and then moves to poetic refrain, where the hills and fields put on their finest clothes and make merry together. The imagery is spectacular. The God of plenty provides all that the earth needs to bring forth crops to feed its inhabitants. This statement is impressive, given the understanding of the pagan nations around Israel.
Ancients believed in fertility gods, who, when properly manipulated, caused crops to grow. Good harvests meant they were happy; lean years meant they were angry. Pagan worshippers, in this model, were responsible for the outcome of their crops. The Psalmist contradicts this fallacy, declaring the God of plenty as Creator and sustainer of the earth, bringing forth the crops on his own accord.
So good is God to the earth, so healthy and vibrant does the earth, feel that the whole,earth, joins Israel in songs of praise! Imagine – the hills, meadows and seas singing their praises to God! The hills are laughing and shouting.
When the community of Israel gathered to worship, they gave thanks to God for his grace, might and providence. The God of Grace, who, when they were overwhelmed in sin, forgave them mercifully. The God of Might, who preserved them amidst threats from warring nations and natural disasters. The God of Plenty, who fed the earth so that it might feed the people. Israel worshipped the magnificence of his providence; giving thanks for the past and future.
We are a people prone to see what is missing, rather than what is present. We see a nation at war, endless political infighting, economic woes, and declining moral values. We bemoan the downward spiral of our time without regard to our relationship with the God of grace, might and providence.
Our goal must be to give thanks to him who controls every aspect of creation, to respond to his blessing with thanks, praise, adoration, offerings; reciprocating to his blessing with fervor and delight, facing each day in the presence of Almighty God.
The porter’s response to Wesley’s cynicism was, "I thank God... that he has given me life and being; a heart to love Him, and a desire to serve Him."
With Gratitude and Thanksgiving,
Brown
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Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 11-15-07
Dear friends,
We often don’t realize how blessed we are, or how thankful we ought to be, until what we have is threatened to be taken away. It is good and fitting that, as Christians, we ought to celebrate Thanksgiving, for God has certainly been good to every single one of us. Someone once said that gratitude is the source for all other Christian virtues. If that be the case, then perhaps we need to reason that ingratitude may well be the source of all, or at least many of our faults as well. When we begin to take for granted what God has done for us, then we become calloused and filled with pride and then God can no longer use us. For a Christian, every day ought to be a day of thanksgiving.
Dr. Luke recorded how ten lepers met Jesus and had a life changing encounter with the Lord. When we break this story down to it’s simplest elements, it describes every Christian. We were outcasts from the Kingdom of God, on our way to certain death, but then we had a life changing encounter with Jesus. We should never forget where the Lord has brought us from. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 51:1, "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." In other words, look at where God has brought you from, remember what God has done for you. One thing so significant about these lepers who were healed is that, out of the 10, only one returned to say thanks. There were nine who did not take the time to say thank you.
If we were to infer the truth of this story on general humanity, we could say that nine out of ten people never really pause to give thanks for what they have. One man, Charles Brown, gave several suggestions as to why the other nine never returned to give thanks. Keep in mind that these are only suggestions, but they reveal a lot about human nature.
· One waited to see if the cure was real.
· One waited to see if it would last.
· One said he would see Jesus later.
· One decided that he had never had leprosy.
· One said he would have gotten well anyway.
· One gave the glory to the priests.
· One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."
· One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
· One said, "I was already much improved."
And then there was one who returned to give God thanks. We are told that as they began their journey to the priests they were cleansed or healed. What is significant is that, out of the 10, there was one who reacted differently than the rest. The Bibles says that he saw that he was healed, he turned back and glorified God, and he came to Jesus and gave Him thanks. The others, no doubt, knew that they were healed, but there was something different here. He realized that something wonderful had happened to him. He was sensitive to the power of Christ working in his life. His perception had entirely changed.
There is an old Jewish story that illustrates this point. A man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat -- only the nine of us."
The situation was the same as at first, but now his perception had changed. He realized that he was blessed to begin with. As a Christian, you have been given everything through Christ Jesus our Lord. The devil will do his best to keep our mind off the blessings of God. He will constantly tell us how bad we have it, and how everything is wrong in our lives. It is only when we begin to realize how much we have in the Lord that we truly begin to be thankful, and when we are thankful, our heart abound with love for the Lord, who has so graciously given all to us. An unthankful Christian is a defeated Christian for he/she has lost his/her joy.
When the one leper saw that he was healed, he turned around. Though the Lord had given the command to go to the priest he delayed, he turned around, and he went back to the Lord. Why didn’t the Lord rebuke him for this? The reason is because this man realized the priority of gratitude and worship. It is fitting and proper to give thanks and praise to the Lord for what He has done in our lives.
As the man drew near to where the Lord was, he glorified God. The Greek word means that he made the Lord glorious, he manifested the worth of the Lord. He came to Jesus and fell down before Him in perfect submission and gave Him thanks. The Lord asked the question, "Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" Then note what He told this man, “Arise, go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole.”
This was something that the others did not receive. One scholar said that a new power was given to him that day. He had faith, not just to be healed, but many commentaries agree that he had the faith to follow Christ.
We will be going out to Boston next week to spend Thanksgiving with Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon. Alice was out last weekend, and is eager and excited to go out again. Laureen is there this week, reacquainting and bonding with the little ones, and filling in on the days that Janice works.
In Christ,
Brown
We often don’t realize how blessed we are, or how thankful we ought to be, until what we have is threatened to be taken away. It is good and fitting that, as Christians, we ought to celebrate Thanksgiving, for God has certainly been good to every single one of us. Someone once said that gratitude is the source for all other Christian virtues. If that be the case, then perhaps we need to reason that ingratitude may well be the source of all, or at least many of our faults as well. When we begin to take for granted what God has done for us, then we become calloused and filled with pride and then God can no longer use us. For a Christian, every day ought to be a day of thanksgiving.
Dr. Luke recorded how ten lepers met Jesus and had a life changing encounter with the Lord. When we break this story down to it’s simplest elements, it describes every Christian. We were outcasts from the Kingdom of God, on our way to certain death, but then we had a life changing encounter with Jesus. We should never forget where the Lord has brought us from. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 51:1, "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." In other words, look at where God has brought you from, remember what God has done for you. One thing so significant about these lepers who were healed is that, out of the 10, only one returned to say thanks. There were nine who did not take the time to say thank you.
If we were to infer the truth of this story on general humanity, we could say that nine out of ten people never really pause to give thanks for what they have. One man, Charles Brown, gave several suggestions as to why the other nine never returned to give thanks. Keep in mind that these are only suggestions, but they reveal a lot about human nature.
· One waited to see if the cure was real.
· One waited to see if it would last.
· One said he would see Jesus later.
· One decided that he had never had leprosy.
· One said he would have gotten well anyway.
· One gave the glory to the priests.
· One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."
· One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
· One said, "I was already much improved."
And then there was one who returned to give God thanks. We are told that as they began their journey to the priests they were cleansed or healed. What is significant is that, out of the 10, there was one who reacted differently than the rest. The Bibles says that he saw that he was healed, he turned back and glorified God, and he came to Jesus and gave Him thanks. The others, no doubt, knew that they were healed, but there was something different here. He realized that something wonderful had happened to him. He was sensitive to the power of Christ working in his life. His perception had entirely changed.
There is an old Jewish story that illustrates this point. A man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat -- only the nine of us."
The situation was the same as at first, but now his perception had changed. He realized that he was blessed to begin with. As a Christian, you have been given everything through Christ Jesus our Lord. The devil will do his best to keep our mind off the blessings of God. He will constantly tell us how bad we have it, and how everything is wrong in our lives. It is only when we begin to realize how much we have in the Lord that we truly begin to be thankful, and when we are thankful, our heart abound with love for the Lord, who has so graciously given all to us. An unthankful Christian is a defeated Christian for he/she has lost his/her joy.
When the one leper saw that he was healed, he turned around. Though the Lord had given the command to go to the priest he delayed, he turned around, and he went back to the Lord. Why didn’t the Lord rebuke him for this? The reason is because this man realized the priority of gratitude and worship. It is fitting and proper to give thanks and praise to the Lord for what He has done in our lives.
As the man drew near to where the Lord was, he glorified God. The Greek word means that he made the Lord glorious, he manifested the worth of the Lord. He came to Jesus and fell down before Him in perfect submission and gave Him thanks. The Lord asked the question, "Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" Then note what He told this man, “Arise, go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole.”
This was something that the others did not receive. One scholar said that a new power was given to him that day. He had faith, not just to be healed, but many commentaries agree that he had the faith to follow Christ.
We will be going out to Boston next week to spend Thanksgiving with Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon. Alice was out last weekend, and is eager and excited to go out again. Laureen is there this week, reacquainting and bonding with the little ones, and filling in on the days that Janice works.
In Christ,
Brown
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Brown's Daily Word 11-14-07
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord. We are just a week away from celebrating Thanksgiving. The Lord blessed us with a great weekend of celebration, worship, and fellowship this past weekend. Saturday morning was the men's gathering. The fellowship around the breakfast table was sweet. The breakfast buffet prepared by the women was sumptuous. The Lord spoke to us through our speaker, Chris Seavey, from Davis College. The Russians Men's Ensemble from St Petersburg, Russia brought music for our Sunday morning worship services at 8:30, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. We gathered for our annual church-wide Thanksgiving feast at 12.30 PM. Our cups ran over with much love. The Lord provided for us so much food... all home made turkey, dressing, potatoes, pies and all the works. We shared with the Russians and many international students from the Binghamton University a very traditional American Thanksgiving feast. The Russians Ensemble presented their full concert in the evening. It was powerful and awesome. Love in any language can be fluently spoken because of Jesus Christ, who is the incarnation and embodiment of love and grace. Praise the Lord that we can celebrate His great love, His amazing grace, and His tender mercies.
I have heard it said that you cannot determine a man’s greatness by his wealth and ability, but rather by what it takes to discourage him. Joshua was born as a slave in the land of Egypt and was just a young man when God sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of that land of slavery and into the Promised Land.
The Bible doesn’t say when it happened, but it does say that Joshua was the personal assistant to Moses from the time that he was a young man. Joshua was there when the 10 plagues went throughout Egypt. He was there when God opened up the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk through and he was there when that same sea closed back up on the Egyptian army.
Then comes the battle with the Amalekites. God told Moses the plan and in turn Moses told the Israelites the plan. Moses would stand at the top of a nearby hill with the staff in his hand. As long as Moses held the staff up the Israelites would win, and Joshua would be the man who would lead the Israelite army. Moses held up the staff and Joshua and the Israelites CRUSHED the Amalekites.
Joshua was there when God met the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. He was there when the mountain was smoking, and the trumpets of God were blaring and all the people watched as Moses called out to God and God answered back in the thunder.
Joshua was there when God called Moses up the mountain, because Joshua went with Moses up that mountain into the very presence of God. And God gave to Moses the plans for the ark of the covenant, and he planned out how the people could worship him. God wrote the 10 commandments on 2 tablets of stone for Moses to take back to the people. When Moses and Joshua were going back down the mountain they heard a lot of noise coming from the camp of the Israelites. Joshua represented the tribe of Ephraim and he took his place amongst the others in what would be one of the biggest tests of his life. Though at the beginning of the journey, I’m sure that it felt more like an opportunity and an adventure than a test. These 12 spies would be the first to see the Promised Land, they would be Israelites eyes, was this truly a land flowing with Milk and Honey?
The spies went up into the land on a 40 day journey and they found a land that had crops bigger than they had ever seen in Egypt. They went just as the first harvest of grapes were ready and they cut down a cluster that was so large that they had to hold it on a pole between two men. THAT’S A BIG CLUSTER!
The grapes weren’t the only big thing that the spies saw though, the land was also filled with giants, and a people who were powerful in cities that were large and well fortified.
Now this journey had transition from an exciting first look to a defining moment in Joshua’s life. Those spies were the eyes of the people of Israel. Their words would either give life, or give death.
The spies returned and gave 2 reports. The first report was from the 10 who were afraid. 10 men who believed that they could not have what God had promised to them. 10 men who believed that the giants were stronger and more powerful than God. These 10 men gave a report that convinced a nation to lose there faith in God. The second report was from Caleb, who I believe was the spokesman for him and Joshua. “Let’s Go, God will surely give us this land.” Don’t look at the Giant, look at God.
But the people of Israel chose to believe the negative, doubt filled, fear mangled report instead. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in disbelief and the people of God decided that they would choose a new leader to take them back to Egypt.
Those spies played a vital role in the direction that the Israelites would go. We can see from how they made their decisions and from the 2 different reports that were given that 12 men were looking out of 2 different kinds of eyes.
The first were relying on human eyes. The Israelites always fell into sin when they did what was right in their own eyes. Our eyes can serve as our rational and our reasoning in life. We believe what we see. Some people say, “I have to see it to believe it.”
And God says, If I have promised it, then it is even better than if you had seen it with your own eyes. Because your eyes might deceive you, but I never will.
When we have the faith to see it through, we rely on the supernatural instead of the natural. We rely on Faith on not on sight. Not only did Joshua have to rely on Faith to be his eyes, he also had to rely on Faith to respond to the pressure of the people around him. Maybe we have never thought about the kind of pressure that was on Joshua and Caleb that day. It would have been a really intense situation.
It was 2 men trying to convince a million that they should rely on God. And the people were so upset that they wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb. They were so frustrated that they wanted to kill these 2. That’s pressure. But even the possibility of death was not enough to shake their faith.
It takes faith to make it through pressure in life. There will always be voices telling you that you are on the wrong track.
Joshua and Caleb responded to the voices of the people around them tactfully and in full submission and obedience to God.
Numbers 14:7-9 They said to the community of Israel, "The land we explored is a wonderful land! 8 And if the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey, and he will give it to us! 9 Do not rebel against the LORD, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the LORD is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!"
Because Joshua and Caleb took that stand God spared them from the punishment that the rest of their generation went through. God commanded that all of the people in that Generation would die in the desert while there children would enter the promised Land. This was the result of disobedient parents. They relied on their eyes instead of on God. As parents, our faith greatly impacts the lives of our children.
The Israelites who died in the desert put their children through an extra 40 years of waiting and wandering. They wasted the best years of there children’s life because they didn’t have the faith to take the promise that God put before them.
While 40 years passes and Joshua and Caleb are the only people of that generation still alive and so now God will allow the next generation to go into the Promised Land.
They get to the Jordan River and at this point the Promise is not yet in their hands, they can’t taste it, they can’t touch it. At this point they are just believing God. It was the harvest season and the Jordan river was overflowing its banks.
And God says, “Joshua, I am going to establish you as leader today. Command the Priests who carry the ark of the covenant to step into the river. Once they step in I will cut off the flow of water and the people will walk across on dry ground.”
This action that the priest were to do defines faith. They walked into the water while it was still overflowing the banks, they stepped into it before God had done anything, believing that He would do everything he said.
And they stepped into the water and God performed the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan River.
Then God gave another command of Faith to the Israelite army. Walk around Jericho once a day for 6 days and then 7 times on the seventh day. Walk in silence but after you have marched around the city 7 times on the 7th day the priests will sound the rams horn and your will shout with everything that you have got and God will give you the victory.
How many of us know that there was a week a marching in silence before they saw God do anything?
Faith before sight. Faith before understanding. Let faith be the filter for our life, everything that we say and think gets filtered through the word of God and our faith.
When a situation arises let us put it through the filter of faith. When the people all around us point at the Giants we point to God. When the voices that come at us shout compromise we listen to the still small voice of God that is more powerful than anything we have ever experienced.
Hebrews 3:14 . For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. So let us be encouraged in the Promises of God. Let us encouraged in his goodness and his grace. When his eyes saw the giants , through faith, he, saw the promise. May we see His promises, through Faith in our Lord Jesus, May we claim all His promises, may we seek His continual presence with us.
In Christ,
Brown
Praise the Lord. We are just a week away from celebrating Thanksgiving. The Lord blessed us with a great weekend of celebration, worship, and fellowship this past weekend. Saturday morning was the men's gathering. The fellowship around the breakfast table was sweet. The breakfast buffet prepared by the women was sumptuous. The Lord spoke to us through our speaker, Chris Seavey, from Davis College. The Russians Men's Ensemble from St Petersburg, Russia brought music for our Sunday morning worship services at 8:30, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. We gathered for our annual church-wide Thanksgiving feast at 12.30 PM. Our cups ran over with much love. The Lord provided for us so much food... all home made turkey, dressing, potatoes, pies and all the works. We shared with the Russians and many international students from the Binghamton University a very traditional American Thanksgiving feast. The Russians Ensemble presented their full concert in the evening. It was powerful and awesome. Love in any language can be fluently spoken because of Jesus Christ, who is the incarnation and embodiment of love and grace. Praise the Lord that we can celebrate His great love, His amazing grace, and His tender mercies.
I have heard it said that you cannot determine a man’s greatness by his wealth and ability, but rather by what it takes to discourage him. Joshua was born as a slave in the land of Egypt and was just a young man when God sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of that land of slavery and into the Promised Land.
The Bible doesn’t say when it happened, but it does say that Joshua was the personal assistant to Moses from the time that he was a young man. Joshua was there when the 10 plagues went throughout Egypt. He was there when God opened up the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk through and he was there when that same sea closed back up on the Egyptian army.
Then comes the battle with the Amalekites. God told Moses the plan and in turn Moses told the Israelites the plan. Moses would stand at the top of a nearby hill with the staff in his hand. As long as Moses held the staff up the Israelites would win, and Joshua would be the man who would lead the Israelite army. Moses held up the staff and Joshua and the Israelites CRUSHED the Amalekites.
Joshua was there when God met the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. He was there when the mountain was smoking, and the trumpets of God were blaring and all the people watched as Moses called out to God and God answered back in the thunder.
Joshua was there when God called Moses up the mountain, because Joshua went with Moses up that mountain into the very presence of God. And God gave to Moses the plans for the ark of the covenant, and he planned out how the people could worship him. God wrote the 10 commandments on 2 tablets of stone for Moses to take back to the people. When Moses and Joshua were going back down the mountain they heard a lot of noise coming from the camp of the Israelites. Joshua represented the tribe of Ephraim and he took his place amongst the others in what would be one of the biggest tests of his life. Though at the beginning of the journey, I’m sure that it felt more like an opportunity and an adventure than a test. These 12 spies would be the first to see the Promised Land, they would be Israelites eyes, was this truly a land flowing with Milk and Honey?
The spies went up into the land on a 40 day journey and they found a land that had crops bigger than they had ever seen in Egypt. They went just as the first harvest of grapes were ready and they cut down a cluster that was so large that they had to hold it on a pole between two men. THAT’S A BIG CLUSTER!
The grapes weren’t the only big thing that the spies saw though, the land was also filled with giants, and a people who were powerful in cities that were large and well fortified.
Now this journey had transition from an exciting first look to a defining moment in Joshua’s life. Those spies were the eyes of the people of Israel. Their words would either give life, or give death.
The spies returned and gave 2 reports. The first report was from the 10 who were afraid. 10 men who believed that they could not have what God had promised to them. 10 men who believed that the giants were stronger and more powerful than God. These 10 men gave a report that convinced a nation to lose there faith in God. The second report was from Caleb, who I believe was the spokesman for him and Joshua. “Let’s Go, God will surely give us this land.” Don’t look at the Giant, look at God.
But the people of Israel chose to believe the negative, doubt filled, fear mangled report instead. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in disbelief and the people of God decided that they would choose a new leader to take them back to Egypt.
Those spies played a vital role in the direction that the Israelites would go. We can see from how they made their decisions and from the 2 different reports that were given that 12 men were looking out of 2 different kinds of eyes.
The first were relying on human eyes. The Israelites always fell into sin when they did what was right in their own eyes. Our eyes can serve as our rational and our reasoning in life. We believe what we see. Some people say, “I have to see it to believe it.”
And God says, If I have promised it, then it is even better than if you had seen it with your own eyes. Because your eyes might deceive you, but I never will.
When we have the faith to see it through, we rely on the supernatural instead of the natural. We rely on Faith on not on sight. Not only did Joshua have to rely on Faith to be his eyes, he also had to rely on Faith to respond to the pressure of the people around him. Maybe we have never thought about the kind of pressure that was on Joshua and Caleb that day. It would have been a really intense situation.
It was 2 men trying to convince a million that they should rely on God. And the people were so upset that they wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb. They were so frustrated that they wanted to kill these 2. That’s pressure. But even the possibility of death was not enough to shake their faith.
It takes faith to make it through pressure in life. There will always be voices telling you that you are on the wrong track.
Joshua and Caleb responded to the voices of the people around them tactfully and in full submission and obedience to God.
Numbers 14:7-9 They said to the community of Israel, "The land we explored is a wonderful land! 8 And if the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey, and he will give it to us! 9 Do not rebel against the LORD, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the LORD is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!"
Because Joshua and Caleb took that stand God spared them from the punishment that the rest of their generation went through. God commanded that all of the people in that Generation would die in the desert while there children would enter the promised Land. This was the result of disobedient parents. They relied on their eyes instead of on God. As parents, our faith greatly impacts the lives of our children.
The Israelites who died in the desert put their children through an extra 40 years of waiting and wandering. They wasted the best years of there children’s life because they didn’t have the faith to take the promise that God put before them.
While 40 years passes and Joshua and Caleb are the only people of that generation still alive and so now God will allow the next generation to go into the Promised Land.
They get to the Jordan River and at this point the Promise is not yet in their hands, they can’t taste it, they can’t touch it. At this point they are just believing God. It was the harvest season and the Jordan river was overflowing its banks.
And God says, “Joshua, I am going to establish you as leader today. Command the Priests who carry the ark of the covenant to step into the river. Once they step in I will cut off the flow of water and the people will walk across on dry ground.”
This action that the priest were to do defines faith. They walked into the water while it was still overflowing the banks, they stepped into it before God had done anything, believing that He would do everything he said.
And they stepped into the water and God performed the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan River.
Then God gave another command of Faith to the Israelite army. Walk around Jericho once a day for 6 days and then 7 times on the seventh day. Walk in silence but after you have marched around the city 7 times on the 7th day the priests will sound the rams horn and your will shout with everything that you have got and God will give you the victory.
How many of us know that there was a week a marching in silence before they saw God do anything?
Faith before sight. Faith before understanding. Let faith be the filter for our life, everything that we say and think gets filtered through the word of God and our faith.
When a situation arises let us put it through the filter of faith. When the people all around us point at the Giants we point to God. When the voices that come at us shout compromise we listen to the still small voice of God that is more powerful than anything we have ever experienced.
Hebrews 3:14 . For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. So let us be encouraged in the Promises of God. Let us encouraged in his goodness and his grace. When his eyes saw the giants , through faith, he, saw the promise. May we see His promises, through Faith in our Lord Jesus, May we claim all His promises, may we seek His continual presence with us.
In Christ,
Brown
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