"Not Just Words"

     So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them. "Go up this way into the south, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like ... Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole.  They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
     The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
     So they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
     Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
     The Amalekites dwell in the land south; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.
     Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, " Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."
     But 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." 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 great men of 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," Numbers 13:17- 33

So here we have the account of when Moses sent out some men to spy out the land and the report they came back with. In chapter 14:6-9 we have some additional words that Joshua and Caleb spoke in God's defense and His ability to take them into the land flowing with milk and honey. Which I would challenge you to go read as they are powerful and full of faith. Normally I would be focused on them because they were very powerful words that should have convinced the congregation to not fear but to go up and possess the land but today He has led me to share something a little different.

Back in Exodus 3:8,17 God had already told them during His "I AM" conversation with Moses that He would deliver them and bring them to a land of various 'ites.' and to a land flowing with milk and honey.'
The thing is it was not just His words that they were refusing to trust. It wasn't just words that should have caused them to believe the good report of the land.  It was everything that He had brought them through. He had brought them exactly to the place He had promised when He called Moses to lead them out of Egypt. He brought them to the edge of the 'land of all the 'ites' just as He had promised and He did it with more that words. He did it with plagues and by heaping up the waters to let them pass in safety. He did it with a pillar of fire and a cloud. He did it by feeding them with manna. He was with them in so many ways. He was ready to give them the land that He had promised and they didn't dare to enter in.

He showed them it was the land as they spied it out. The people, or rather all the 'ites' He had told them about before they left Egypt were there. They carried the fruit of the land back as proof. One cluster of grapes took two grown men to carry. The words from there own mouth testified that it was indeed the land 'flowing with milk and honey.' Yet, they rejected Him. It wasn't just His words they were rejecting. It was His loving care and provision every step of the way. The word "report here in this section of scripture means, "slander." They believed the words that slandered the 'place of provision' that He had brought them to even though the truth or proof had been carried on the shoulders of two men and placed before them.

God put it this way, "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?" Numbers 14:11 God didn't feel as though they were rejecting just some words He had thrown out there, He felt like they were rejecting Him. So, thought for today is this, "How often do we forget all that He has done for us every step of the way so that He can bring us to the place He has promised us? Are we rejecting His ultimate provision, His Presence?