NOTHING
BUT GOD
Part
one of two in Trust God series
Numbers
13:27-28
“They
gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it
does flow with milk and honey! Here is
its fruit. But the people who live there
are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large!’”
Milk and honey.
Nutrition and sweetness. God chose
this land for His people, the Israelites.
They wandered in the wilderness forty year before arriving at Canaan. The young generation, poised to enter their
promised land, had buried their parents and grandparents on the way.
Israelites were grumblers. Nothing was good enough for them. God provided them water, manna and even quail. They disobeyed God and were ungrateful…so God
allowed a new generation to receive His promise. God told Moses, “Send some men to explore the
land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe, send one of its
leaders.” (Numbers 13:1-2).
Will the young generation grumble less? See the lesson, linked below, to see who requested
specific details for the explorers (spies) to include in their report.
All the good news in the world can’t make up for the
three letter word, “but.” Every word
after the opening Scripture’s “but” negates the glowing review of the land.
The Hebrew word for but is efes, which means “zero.” The
power of that tiny word turns everything positive to negative—or nothing at
all. Suddenly, the promised land lost
its appeal. It became dangerous. Conquering it became unlikely.
That opinion made God out to be a liar; His people’s
destiny unsure.
The word but has the same effect today. I’m a good student, but can’t play sports
makes me appear a terrible student. My
dad’s patient, but he yells when I don’t listen makes dad look like a bully. Try one for yourself. Admit that you use the word but when you’re specifying
a difference between what comes before and what follows that tiny word.
Ten of the twelve spies were against possessing Canaan; only
two urged taking possession of their promised land. One of the two was Joshua who led the
Israelites into Canaan after Moses died.
“Let’s go!” he insisted. Later,
Joshua wrote a prayer that praised God for the land. He used the phrase efes zulato that means “there is nothing but Him (God.”
Take
Home Nugget
This same word, (efes), debated with his fellow spies over
the land, is what Joshua used in his praise prayer. He showed one way to use the word “but” to
mean something positive.
Try it:
“There is nothing but
God, so anything is possible.”
We are children of the living God, but
we know there’s nothing better.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment