BE
THE EXCEPTION
Part
two of two in Trust God series
Numbers
13:30
“’Then
Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take
possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’”
The first part of this Trust God series showed that ten of the twelve explorers who God said were to check out
Canaan were scared. Their report added
the seemingly insignificant word but. After that word, the spies and the people
who heard the report ignored the good news.
What scared them?
“We even saw descendants of Anak there.” Numbers 13:28b added this phrase, almost as a
matter-of-fact. The Anakites were said
to be the Nephilim. Mentioning the
“descendants of Anak” intended to scare the Israelites—because those explorers
were scared of descendants of Anak.
Wouldn’t God ensure the safety of whomever He offers a
promise?
Genesis 6:4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in
those days [before God brought a flood to earth, saving only Noah and his
family from destruction]—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the
daughters of men and had children by them.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” (Numbers 13:33 shows that Nephilim were
giants, too).
People love heroes.
We invent them, write about them, then make movies about them. Spiderman and Superman are heroes. But Hancock can do stuff they can’t, so he’s
a super-hero. God created heroes
once-upon-a-time.
But after mankind
became too wicked, He destroyed everything and started mankind over with Noah
and his family.
So, Nephilim
descendants scared the Israelites from entering their promised land. Only Caleb wasn’t scared. He hushed the crowd. Then he urged the Israelites to enter Canaan. I’ll bet that you could have heard a pin drop
when Caleb dared the Israelites to obey God.
When God gives people a direction to go, they often find
excuses to disobey. They have no idea
what they lose. They may even receive
God’s wrath for disobeying! I dare you
to check out the lesson, linked below, to see how God dealt with the rebelling
Israelites compared to how He blessed Caleb for obeying.
Joshua also agreed with Caleb. But
Caleb spoke out first. He boldly stuck
out his neck and stood up for God. Both
men dared to go against the crowd and stand firm to claim the land God promised
to the Israelites.
Take
Home Nugget
“The one who follows
the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find
himself in places no one has ever been.”
Albert Einstein
Walking with God always stands on
truth. But we often walk alone—as the
exception—going where the crowd can’t go.
J.D.
Griffith
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