Have you ever had to face something that was bigger than you? Have you ever had to face something where you weren’t sure what the outcome was going to be? Have you ever had to face a giant?
I want to look at a story in the Old Testament that has to do with facing a giant. The story I want to look at is not David and Goliath as you might have been thinking, but it does involve the same group of people - the Israelites.
The Israelite people had been journey to the land that God had promised to them - the Promised Land as it is often referenced. They were standing on the edge of this land when God told them to do the following:
“The Lord said to 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 NIV
So that is what Moses tells the people to do. They send 12 men (one from each tribe) to explore the Promised Land. They go and spend 40 days exploring the land. Then the men returned to the Israelite camp and gave a report to the people. They told them:
“There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 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.’” - Numbers 13:26-27 NIV
This report was pretty much telling the people that what God said about the land was true. The fruit was huge and good and that it was truly an awesome land. But this was only the beginning of the report. The men continued their report by telling the Israelite camp that the people in the land were huge and that the cities are well fortified and large. After they said that, a man named Caleb spoke up and said that they could certainly take the land. But the men continued to report how big they were and that next to them we would look like grasshoppers.
This report sent Israel into a state of fear and grumbling. They verbally attacked Moses and Aaron saying that they were better off back in Egypt and should have just died there or that they should just die in this wilderness. (They shouldn’t have said that!) They grumbled and grumbled. God then finally spoke up and said this to them:
“So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.’”- Numbers 14:28-29 NIV
They lost the Promised Land. They were left to wander in the desert for 40 years (until the generation that grumbled against God had died off). But what if it didn’t have to be that way. Did you catch what I mean?
“The Lord said to 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 NIV
God was giving the land to them just as He had promised them. He also told them that He was giving them the land. But the Israelites forgot who was on their side. They saw the giants in the land and saw that they were bigger than them. But they forgot that while the giants were big - God was bigger! They forgot what God had done for them in the past. God had told them to go and get the land “which I am giving to you”. This tells me that all they had to do was go and get the land and watch God do His thing. Israel could have just walked into the Promised Land and all those giants could have just dropped dead without them even lifting a sword. But they were afraid of the giants. Israel could have walked into the Promised Land and the all those giants could have ran away scared. But they were afraid and their fear caused them to forget.
The same happens with us. We forget Who is on our side. We forget what God has done for us in the past. But our giants look different. Our giants can be divorce, sickness, death of a loved one, loss of property due to a disaster, the loss of a job or a pay cut. We face our giants and let them scare us and we forget that God has already given us a victory over our giants. But God’s words to Israel are the same words He says to us. God does not change [1] and neither do His words. God told Israel He had given them the victory and He tell us the same thing. God is on our side and He tells us when we face our giants:
“I am giving you this victory!”
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[1] Malachi 3:6
This post references Numbers 13-14.
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