After a long and arduous journey, the Israelites finally arrive at KADESH.
Soon after Moses commissions 12 leaders from each tribe to go and spy out the land so the Israelites will know what they’ll be up against when they attempt to take the land by force.
Moses knows full well the Canaanites aren’t going to be too happy when about 3 million people suddenly show up at their doorstep uninvited.
What happens next presents a great lesson for all of us.
12 men entered the land of Canaan to spy it out.
And all 12 men witnessed the same things while exploring the land.
Yet at the end of the day when they returned to Moses, they all had conflicting stories.
In a nutshell, there was a negative group and a positive one.
The negative group consisting of 10 of the 12 men reported that while the Promised Land was everything the Lord said it would be, they focused on the fact that…
…”the residents of the land are well armed and as big and strong as giants”.
So the conclusion they reached is that it would be a suicide mission to try and attack them.
The remaining two members, Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb from the tribe of Judah, held the exact opposite opinion.
Instead of looking at the difficulties, they decided to stand on the promises of God and said the Israelites should attack immediately and not hesitate.
Did you get that point?
They said they should attack immediately…as in RIGHT NOW.
Let this be a lesson to all of the wishy-washiness we participate in in our lives.
Unfortunately, because the lack of faith of the many, the Lord ended up forcing Israel to wander in the desert another 40 years before they would finally be able to enter into their land inheritance.
However, once they finally did enter into Canaan, because of the faithfulness Joshua and Caleb showed after they had reconnoitered the land, their tribes Ephraim and Judah would end up dominating to become the leaders over all the other tribes of Israel.
Indeed, God rewards the faithful…even if those rewards may be a long time in coming.
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