It’s Decision Time

Let me tell you a short story that will help your perspective along the way. The Bible tells the story of the children of Israel, God’s chosen people. According to the story, the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt under the rule of the Pharaoh. However, God desired for His people to be free. Thus He chose a leader, Moses – a man with his own weaknesses – to lead His people out of the bondage of Egyptian slavery and into the Promised Land. God sent Moses to Pharaoh and commanded Pharaoh to let His people go, but Pharaoh resisted, hardening his heart and refused to free the Israelites. However, after God struck Egypt with ten horrible plagues, including killing Pharaoh’s first born, Pharaoh finally let the children of Israel go. The Israelites fled in haste.

Shortly thereafter, Pharaoh had a change of heart about letting these people go, and he commanded his army to pursue them in order to kill them. By the time the army neared the children of Israel, the freed people had arrived at the Red Sea, which God miraculously opened in order to let them cross. After each one of the children of Israel had crossed through the sea on dry land, the enemies that pursued them tried to follow them across; however, God closed the sea on top of Pharaoh’s army, and Israel’s enemies were washed away.

Now that the children of Israel were on the other side of captivity and finally free, they found themselves in the wilderness, and they immediately had a decision to make: continue to move ahead into what God had promised them or go back to Egypt, the place of bondage. In front of them was the land that God told them they would possess, the Promised Land that flowed with milk and honey (an abundance of resources). Behind them was their former life in Egypt where they were simply slaves.

Initially, they sent several spies to scout out the Promised Land, which was currently inhabited by others. After spying out the land, the spies were to report back to Moses and the people about what they saw. The spies came back with a negative report crying, “We are like grasshoppers in our own sight!” or in modern day language, “We’ve got to overcome giants to get this done! It’ll never work!” They were fearful of the obstacles that they saw that separated them from their Promised Land, and they did not believe God despite all of the miracles He had done in delivering them out of bondage and by providing for them in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, the people who had heard the negative report of the spies were persuaded that they would not be able to possess this land that was filled with giants. Why? Because they were fearful! Having an abundance of resources was foreign to this group of former slaves. They did not know how to appreciate the blessings of God, so instead of believing God and moving forward to possess their Promised Land, they opted to stay in the wilderness. To make matters worse, they blamed their leader, Moses, for their situation and said silly things like, “We would have been better off had we not left Pharaoh’s camp. At least there, we could eat!” Amazingly, they would have preferred to go back into slavery than to put forth a little effort in a fixed fight that God had already won on their behalf.

Ultimately, the people decided that it was too hard to acquire the abundance and wealth that the Promised Land had to offer, even though God Himself said that He would give it to them. They decided to stay where they were most comfortable (in poverty, broke, in debt, etc.) – in the wilderness. Consequently, God had to allow that entire generation to die before He could use Joshua (the spy with the favorable report who believed that they were well able to take the land) to lead the next generation into the Promised Land.