Do we spy out the land in faith or fear?

From: Hans (Jan) Collaert (Antwerp, 1566-1628), Rahab (Hol. 13-32). Engraving after Marten de Vos, c. 1581. Plate 8 from a set of Celebrated Women of the Old Testament consisting of twenty engravings (plus frontispiece) by Hans or Adrien Collaert and Carel van Mallery published in Antwerp by Phillip Galle (1537-1612) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.For forty days these men did just what Moses asked. They scouted the land and returned with encouraging reports: The land was “flowing with milk and honey,” and was flush with produce. It was every bit as rich and verdant as the Lord had promised. Each of the twelve men agreed on this. But then ten stepped forward and said, “There’s just one problem: We could never take this land. The people there are strong and scary and will destroy us.” Obviously when God had promised them the land, he had forgotten to account for the people who lived there—people who weren’t quite ready to give up their homeland without a fight.
Only two of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, took a dissenting view and said “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”
Despite what Joshua and Caleb claimed, the people of Israel believed the other ten spies and grumbled against the Lord. The Lord responded with justice, saying that of that entire generation, only Joshua and Caleb would ever enter the promised land. The rest would be forced to wander until they died; only when the generation was gone would God allow them to cross the river.
Fear not Faith. It’s the fear that comes when God’s promises seem to conflict with the evidence before us. Each of us encounters times in life where we are forced to decide whether we will trust God despite what appears to be evidence that his way just won’t work, that it’s foolhardy, that it’s impossible. Before us we have the giants and the promises of God; we respond with fear of the giants (which is to say, with comfort) or with faith in the promises.
You might look at your salary or bank account and ask, “How will I ever pay my bills if I give this much of it to the Lord’s work?” The Lord tells me to give and to give generously, he assures me that he will provide, but my eyes tell me that it’s impossible. The promises and the giants come into conflict and I have to choose. Too often I choose what is comfortable.
Think of your children. There is part of you that longs for them to have friendships only with Christians, to live their lives inside a safe little world of my own creating where every family is Christian and every parent shares my values. You want to bubble-wrap them spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally. But then you have to remember that the Lord has called us to live in this world, even if we are not of this world. You have to remember that we are to be light, and that light is not given so that it can be hidden away, suffocated under a basket. You have to remember that the Lord really is sovereign, that he really does reign and rule in this world, and that his purposes will prevail, even in the lives of my children. Those giants are terrifying and can so often look much bigger than God and his promises. It takes no faith at all to believe in the giants, but it takes a great stretching of my faith to believe in the promises.
When that generation of Israelite doubters had died and the Lord was ready to lead the people into the land, two spies went on ahead to scout out the land and to take a look at Jericho. They met a woman named Rahab who told them that all those years ago the two had been right and the ten had been wrong. The people had heard what the Lord had done to Egypt and “as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.”
The assessment of those ten spies was dead wrong. They saw the giants in the land and assumed far too much. The giants were quaking in fear, knowing that they could do nothing before the power and the promises of the Lord. The pagan giants had more faith than God’s people did. Forty years and an entire generation was wasted because fear and a desire for comfort overcame trust in the promises of God. 

I wonder what opportunities I have wasted already, and what opportunities I will be tempted to waste today, all in the name of comfort.