Our Bible passage for this morning opens with a promise. It wasn’t a new promise that the people had never heard before but instead, a promise that had been carried down generation by generation. Parents took time to pass the stories of this promise on to their children. The entire community of Israel longed and hoped for the day that the promise would be fulfilled.
The promise was first given to a man named Abram. In an amazing act of faith, Abram left everything that he had known behind Him and obeyed God’s command to leave his home for a new land that God would show him. Upon arriving in the land of Canaan, the Lord appeared to Abram and the promise was born. “I will give this land to your descendants,” declared God. And if once wasn’t enough, later on God repeated himself telling Abram to look around in every direction—north, south, east and west. “I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants.” It was here that Abram lived out his life as a foreigner in the land, heeding God’s promise that someday the land would be his families.
Long after Abram had died, his son Isaac began to contemplate leaving the land of Canaan and head to Egypt. Before he could pack up his belongings and head south, God appeared to Isaac and reminded him of the same promise that he had given his father. “I will give all these lands to you and your descendants.”
God repeated this reminder with Isaac’s son Jacob and then again with Jacob’s son Joseph. Joseph took this promise from God so seriously that when he died, he made his brothers promise him that when God lead the people out of Egypt, and into this Promised Land, they would bring his bones and bury them there.
As the Israelites’ slowly shifted from simply being foreigners in Egypt to slaves, God stepped in to deliver His people. God used a man named Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the dessert and towards the Promised Land. It is here that our text for this morning picks up the story. The Israelites have wandered through the land following God’s lead and now the people sit on the edge of the Dessert of Paran, just south of the land promised to them by God.
As the people waited, no doubt fully aware of what was ahead of them, God spoke to Moses telling him, “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites.” God is so excited to finally give this land to the Israelites that He just can’t wait any longer. “Go and take a peek,” God exclaims. “I know it isn’t time yet but just go, explore and see how amazing it is! It is going to give you so much joy and pleasure living there!”
As we read through the promise that God gave to the Israelites, we need to remember our own promise. The story which leads to our promise is not unlike the story of the Israelites. As Paul tells us, we too are living as foreigners in a land that is not our home. We were created to be in paradise with God, being in perfect relationship with Him. Yet we have been separated from Him because of our disobedience to what He laid out for us in the Bible. Because of this disobedience, our punishment was declared as death.
Despite all that, even though we didn’t deserve it, God sent someone to lead us out of this slavery of sin and death. That someone is Jesus Christ. Christ took our punishment for us; dying on the cross in our place. He then rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all, allowing us to once again have a relationship with God.
The promise that is before us is that of life and an eternity in heaven with God: a life full of joy, provision, and blessing; better than anything else that we could ever imagine. It is a life where the Creator of it says He will never leave you or forsake you and that He will work for your good in everything. No where else will you find greater love or care, as He promises to come alongside of you and guide you home to heaven.
This is an amazing promise from God that not many would dispute. I think most people would not disagree that God says these things and promises them but our issue tends to be more so with actually trusting that God will fulfill them. We see but we don’t believe we can obtain them. This is much the same of what happened to the Israelite scouts as they explored the Promised Land.
For forty days, the men explored as much of the land as they could. The men, I am sure, were full of excitement as they saw the beauty and the bounty of the land. The awe they must have felt would have rivaled the awe of the children who made their way through Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
At one point, the men stop to cut down a cluster of grapes to bring back to the people of Israel. The cluster of grapes was so big and so good that it took two men to carry it on a pole between them. (I don’t know about you, but the fact that it took two grown men to carry a cluster of grapes just blows my mind.) Along with the grapes, they also brought back some pomegranates and figs as well.
Upon their return, they reported to the entire community what they had seen and showed everyone the fruit. “It is an amazing and bountiful land,” they exclaimed. The people of the community listened intently to the report and their eyes widened as they saw these amazing fruits “It is certainly a land flowing with milk and honey,” the scouts shared, “but…” And this is where the story takes a dramatic turn. With the excitement in their voices changing to fear and concern they continue. “The land is flowing with milk and honey but the people who live there are powerful! Their cities have huge walls around them, we couldn’t get through them. Plus, the people themselves are giants! They are so much bigger than us that we felt like grasshoppers!”
At this point Caleb tries to interrupt but the other men just talk over him. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” The report from the scouts quickly spread throughout the camp and we read that the people were so upset that they cried all night long. Eventually they begin to question the leadership of Moses and Aaron and then they begin to question God – “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder!” The people decide they want to choose a new leader and head back to Egypt.
Just like the Israelites, as they sat on the edge of the Promised Land after exploring it and came up with all the reasons they could think of to not enter into it, we too, as we explore deeper and deeper into a relationship with Jesus, tend to do the same thing. Instead of taking God’s promises to heart and actually trusting in Him, we tend to focus on everything else and simply come up with excuses to not go deeper.
We could spend the whole rest of our morning listing the excuses we come up with. We have them when it comes to being in church on Sunday’s, especially during the summer. We have them when it comes to putting money in the offering plate. We have them for not spending time with God during the week. We have them when it comes to getting drunk, having sex, listening to certain music, our language, our time spent in general, not sharing our faith and on and on. We are a people full of excuses!
By focusing on all these excuses there are two important things that are happening. First, we are expressing that we don’t trust God. If we actually trusted that God was going to completely come through for us and fulfill his promise then we would have no problems and wouldn’t need excuses. That might be a little hard to hear but that’s really what it comes down to. It’s really not a bad thing though because being able to admit that creates a great opportunity for growth and going deeper with God. Trusting in God is not easy at all and there will be times where we will seemingly have to go up against a giant or something we think is unbeatable. But instead of focusing all our attention on the excuse or reason for not doing something, we need to just admit we don’t trust God’s promise and instead figure out why. If we are honest with God and ourselves about these things we will find ourselves much closer to God in the long run and in a much better place personally than if we just get angry at God and try to go out on our own.
The second thing that is happening is we are missing out! The reason God lays out laws, and guidelines, and ask so much of us isn’t because He’s a jerk and wants to take all our fun and pleasure away. Instead, it is exactly the opposite. He knows what will make us truly happy! He created us and knows how we work. The things He asks of us are for our blessing and to fulfill more of the promise of a perfect relationship with Him here on earth. In a lot of ways it is similar to parents setting rules for their children. Sometimes, from a child’s perspective, the rules ruin their fun but in reality, from the parent’s perspective, it is what is best for the child and in the long run, will give them a better life filled with joy and happiness.
We have a tremendous promise in front of us through Jesus Christ. A promise for eternal love, joy, and blessing that is unmatched. It is a promise so good that we could not even begin to fathom it in its perfection. As we sit here today in our own dessert, some of us having explored God’s promise a great deal and others are just on the verge of taking their first step, a simple question is before us. That question is, are you ready? Are you ready to go deeper? Are you ready to find everything that you have ever wanted? Are you ready to be loved like you have never been loved before? It won’t be easy, but it will be magnificent. Are you ready?
