Where Are You Looking?
As I was reading this week in Numbers 13–14, I was drawn to the profound influence of the words “see,“ saw,” and “sight.”
God had promised to give His people (Israel) the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. He told Moses to select a leader from each one of the 12 tribes of Israel to “spy out the land of Canaan” and watch this: “SEE” what the land is like (“good or bad…fat or lean…trees or not”), what the people were like (“strong or weak…few or many”), how the cities were in which they lived (“open camps or with fortifications”), and to “get some of the fruit of the land” (Num. 13:18–20).
So, the 12 tribal leaders spent 40 days spying out the land and brought back a “bad report” (Num. 13:32). They reported to Moses and the people that the land was truly flowing with milk and honey and they showed a cluster of its grapes (all good so far), but then the report went south. Listen to this, “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we SAW the descendants of Anak there.” It “is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people we SAW in it are men of great size. There also we SAW the Nephilim (the sons of Anak)” (Num. 13:28–33).
Now notice what happens next:
Caleb (one of the tribal leaders) got so excited that he said, “we should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it” (Num. 13:30).
The other 10 tribal leaders (apart from Joshua & Caleb) said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us…and we became like grasshoppers in our own SIGHT, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:31, 33).
This report incited God’s people (“all” of them) to cry and weep and grumble and to attempt a coup against Moses and Aaron (Num. 14:1–5).
However, Joshua and Caleb responded dramatically and told God’s people that “the land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them” (Num. 14:7–9).
What a motivating speech right? Not so much with God’s people, as they instead wanted “to stone them with stones” (Num 14:10).
Well, the rest of the story is very sad and tragic. God judged the 10 tribal leaders with death from a plague for their bad report, then He judged all the children of Israel twenty years old and older who “complained against God” to wander around the wilderness for forty years (one year for each day of the spy mission), and to die without entering the promised land (God starkly put it this way: “your corpses will fall in this wilderness”).
Notice what God said in His judgment: They have “not listened to My voice” and “they shall not SEE the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me SEE it” (Num. 14:23) “EXCEPT Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun” (Num. 14:30).
The Lesson? It matters what you and I SEE.
As one of God’s children, do you tend to LOOK through the eyes of the flesh to see all the scary or discouraging things that might or could happen to you OR do you LOOK through the eyes of faith to see what God promises will happen (remember Num. 13:1: “Send out for yourselves men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel”)?
Again, where you and I spiritually look truly matters:
Elisha prayed for his attendant to see beyond the great army of horses and chariots that encircled the city and when he prayed “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see,” Elisha’s attendant saw “the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” because Elisha said “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Kings 6:15–19).
Righteous and devout Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel” and the Holy Spirit revealed to him he would “not see death before he had SEEN the Lord’s Christ” which He did in the temple and as he held the Christ child and said, “for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples” (Luke 2:25–31).
“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, who see the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1).
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:18–19a).
Abraham was “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb. 11:13).
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb. 11:24–27).
“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.” (2 Peter 3:13-14)
Let’s keep “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” as we seek to live a life that is worthy of the gospel.
Pastor Jeff
““The absence of blessings—rejection, vanity, reviling, illness, poverty—often is the crucible in which we learn to love God for who he is. In our idolatry we make gifts out to be gods, and make the Giver into the errand boy of our desires.””