Our inheritance requires faith and endurance

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The land was all that the Lord had said it would be, a land flowing with milk and honey. Indeed, they had brought back with them evidence of the plenty of the land. God’s promise was true. They carried the evidence upon their shoulders, whilst they carried unbelief in their hearts! What were the grapes? They were the earnest of their inheritance. Today, the Holy Spirit is the earnest of the believer’s inheritance, Eph. 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5.

Up to now their report had been positive. They had seen the desirability of the land and were convinced of that. Then, came the ‘nevertheless’, v. 28. They had also seen the difficulties and, in comparison with their enemies, they saw themselves as grasshoppers. What was lacking in their report was any mention of God. There was much about the walled cities, the giants, their enemies, but they had lost sight of God completely. They saw the difficulties. They did not see the Lord at all. They looked at things which were seen rather than at things which were unseen, cf. 2 Cor. 4:18. Had not God delivered them from Egypt? Could He not deliver them again? At the Red Sea they had lifted up their voices and sung. Now they lift up their voices and weep. If we see only the difficulties and lose sight of God, our heart will fail us, and we shall become despondent and defeated. There were two spies who saw God in the situation, and what a difference that made. They had first seen Jehovah, then the goodness of the land, and then the difficulties. It was the vision of God that made the difference.

In the New Testament the parallel to Canaan is Ephesians. It tells us of our inheritance, 1:3, but it is also the sphere of our greatest conflicts, 6:12. We are expected to possess our inheritance. If we do not, it will not be because of our weakness, or because of the strength of our enemies, but because of unbelief. It is because we measure our enemies with ourselves, instead of measuring them with the Lord. We might be grasshoppers in their sight, but what are they in the sight of God? May this thought galvanize our hearts for the Lord’s service today.

Osborne, B. (2004). February 2nd: The Land Flowing with Milk and Honey (Numbers 13:26–30). In J. Bennett (Ed.), Day by Day: Bible Promises (p. 51). West Glamorgan, UK: Precious Seed.

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