The Pilgrim Path---Numbers 13: 30 – 33

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

“…WE SEEMED TO OURSELVES LIKE GRASSHOPPERS”

Earlier in Numbers chapter 13, you have the names of all twelve spies that ventured into the Promised Land. A man selected from each tribe in Israel. Supposedly not a light weight among them---as far as their relationship to the LORD God Almighty was concerned. Well, as it turns out---ten of the twelve---were not “much” on faith. They walked by “sight” ---when the people of God desperately needed leaders who trusted the LORD. Two of the men genuinely believed it was time to take the LORD at HIS Word--- and enter the Land “flowing with milk and honey.” Those men are well known in the biblical record: Caleb and Joshua. The other “ten” are forever recorded at the beginning of Numbers 13---with a testimony of faithlessness. Here are their names: Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, and Geuel (probably well liked, well known, and well heeled). Their problem was this one: “We’ve been over to the Promised Land---it’s wonderful and everything---But the giants there---are bigger than God. So, we vote to stay where we are…We are just grasshoppers you know---(herbivorous insects) compared to those natives!”

The response of the LORD in Numbers chapter 14 was quite sharp. HE took their attitude as a personal attack---How about that? Listen to Him…

And the LORD said to Moses, :How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” Numbers 14: 11, 12

Moses has something of the heart of the Savior Jesus within him---he pleads for these rebellious people. He tells the LORD that it would “look” awful to a watching world---if HE treated these folk so poorly---that HE-- delivered from Egypt. Of course, The Father is merely laying the groundwork for the intercession of the Christ---in the efforts of Moses. The LORD Jesus would not only plead for us---HE would “pay” our sin debt as the perfect substitute for sinners---Never having sinned---but loving His Own completely---and coming back from the dead---to show HE can forgive them---and empower them to walk HIS paths!

Going “back” through Numbers 13 & 14 ---has been very humbling. It has shown me what a terrible thing it is to distrust King Jesus…too often I have distrusted the Living Christ---and explained “away” HIS promises. This is a vile thing…Forgive me LORD…

From Charles Haddon Spurgeon: Jesus is the Son of the Highest and has unbounded wealth; it is shameful to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding, and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating. If Christ were only a cistern, we might soon exhaust His fulness, but who can drain their supplies from Him, and not one of them mas murmured at the scantiness of His resources. Away, then, with this lying traitor unbelief, for his only errand is to cut the bonds of communion and make us mourn an absent Savior. Bunyan tells us that unbelief has “as many lives as a cat:” if so, let us kill one now, and continue the work till the whole nine are gone. Down with thee, thou traitor, my heart abhors thee.

From John Duncan: I pray to see in the promises the riches of the Father’s love, the value of the Son’s obedience, and the mighty power of the Spirit’s operation. I must have them, or I die.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason