And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Num 13:32-33).
The scriptural text above summarises the verbal expression of the unfortunate attitude that denied the generation of Israel who had came out of Egypt entry into the promised land. A whole generation of the Israelites lost an inheritance which God had given them, because they had the wrong perception of themselves. They saw themselves differently from the way God saw them. Truly, perception makes a difference. No wonder the Bible says, “… as he thinks in his heart, so is he. …” (Prov 23:7).
Years of continuous slavery in Egypt —a condition into which they were born — had severely distorted their perception of themselves, and given them an inferiority complex. Hence, they lacked one of the most important requirements for success in life—courage. Without courage, any expectation of success in life is a mirage. Courage is the noble quality that enables its possessor to take appropriate actions in spite of feeling frightened, but without being incautious or inconsiderate. There were twelve spies who had undertaken the forty-day espionage of Canaan, yet only two of them (Joshua and Caleb) had the required courage to take the land. While Joshua and Caleb interpreted the situation before them as a challenge, their counterparts interpreted it as both a hindrance and a lost cause.
No matter how anointed you are, if you lack courage you will fail. The ten spies were just as much heirs to the promised land as Joshua and Caleb were, yet only Joshua and Caleb entered the land. Our advancement and success in life are just as much conditional on attitude as they are on God’s promises. Regardless of how much God offers us, our attitude can preclude us from receiving it. Moses recollected how that generation of Israel had missed the golden opportunity to possess the promised land: “And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.’…“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deut 1:20-21, 26-27). Regrettably, they cast aspersions on God’s character.
It is a tragedy to settle for less than God planned for you, simply because you THINK it is not possible for you to reach that height. That was Israel’s unfortunate experience, because rather than looking to the LORD and His strength, they looked to themselves and their inadequate human strength. Therefore, they could not see how it was possible for them to conquer the giants. Part of their misstep was that they did not note that courage was not the absence of fear, but the decision to act appropriately in spite of it. It is only when we are willing to go forward in God’s will, in spite of how we feel, that we are ready to experience His might. God’s word to Joshua (and to you by extension) was clear: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses” (Josh 1:3). Israel would possess the land God had already given them, only if they would tread upon it. That was why God commanded him to “Be strong and of good courage,… and Only be strong and very courageous,…” (Josh 1:6-7). We would do well to heed the timeless command. Shalom.
