Fear Or Faith [Numbers 13]

 ²"Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers' tribes, every one a leader among them."

 ³So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel.

²⁵When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,

 ²⁶they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

 ²⁷Thus they told him, and said, "We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

 ²⁸"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.

 ²⁹"Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan."

 ³⁰Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it."

 ³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us."

 ³²So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.

 ³³"There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

Only 2 of the 12 men who spied out the land could see the promises of God being fulfilled and trusted God deal with the people who occupied the land. Unfortunately, as we will see in the next chapter, the people of Israel listened to the ones who focused on their fears and not on God's faithfulness to guard and guide them.

Whenever we are faced with fearful situations, we have a choice as believers to either focus on the the situation or to focus on God. Fear is like a smokescreen that keeps us from seeing God's promised land and from moving toward it by grace through faith in Him.

The smokescreen looks so real and scary to our flesh that has a strong tendency to run away instead of stand in the promises of God. But the scary stuff is nothing to God who can carry us safely through the smoky places by His amazing grace.

God, we praise you that you are a safe refuge in the midst of fearful situations as we journey on our path to Your promised land. Keep us focused on You and Your grace in the fearful places where it is impossible to see where we are headed and the truth of Your care. Cause us to exchange our fear for faith so that we can stay on Your path enjoying Your peace in spite of what is going on around us.