Enter In
Deuteronomy 1: 21
See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
This is the word of the Lord for you today. Earlier this week we saw how Joshua and Caleb looked through the eyes of faith and saw the land flowing with milk and honey while the other 10 spies came back with a negative report. They didn’t deny that the land was every bit as sweet as the Lord promised. They denied their ability to take the land. However, God promised them the land and led them to it. He took them to the land of promise and told them the land was theirs and that they should take possession of it. Unfortunately, the ten spies had a self-image problem. They admitted that the land was fruitful saying, “We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit,” and they demonstrated the bountiful fruit the land produced, (Numbers 13: 27). They should have stopped right there but there were some negative Nellies in the group and, so, here is what they said, “We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight,” (Numbers 13: 33).
“We were like grasshoppers in our own sight.” Their defeat was on their lips. They couldn’t take the land and it wasn’t because of the people there, but because of their self-image. That, and they didn’t believe God. He had already promised them the land. They just needed to enter into the promise.
Oh, what a lesson this is for all of us. Enter into the promise. We, like the Israelites, have many promises from God. We need to learn to enter in. We need to learn how to receive all that He has already given us. This has been a burden on my heart recently. The truth is, we don’t really know how to receive. We pray, but then sometimes the answer to our prayer never quite reaches us. I mentioned in a recent Word of the Day that I am working on a new series for us. It is my prayer that through the new series, we all (including me) will become better receivers. Then we will live in the will of the Lord continually. Amen!
