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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.”
“But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
“Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?"
And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."
Numbers 13:26-33, 14:1-4
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Look up the definition of pessimism in the dictionary and this is what you find:
1. An inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome
2. The doctrine that reality is essentially evil
3. The doctrine that evil overbalances happiness in life.
Looking back to my childhood, I remember back in watching a cartoon called “The Adventures of Gulliver”. In the show, the main character, Gulliver, had several Lilliputian sidekicks (think very tiny people) who would help him through the different trials they encountered. Many of these trials were dangerous and placed Gulliver and his miniature friends in danger and it was during those times, when it looked like the worst was to come, that one of the Lilliputs named Glum would move to the forefront. For no matter how optimistic and positive everyone else tried to be, there was Glum saying things like:
“We’re doomed.”
or
“We’re never going to get out of here alive.”
or
“Oh no! We’re all going to die.”
Essentially, Glum never saw any bright side to anything, only gloom and hopelessness.
Well in our scripture for today, we see a biblical example of Glum in ten of the men who returned from their scouting assignment in Canaan. You’ll recall the men, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, had been gone for forty days to check out the land that God had promised Israel after which time they were to return and make report.
In yesterday’s message, we saw where the men returned with some great news initially. They announced that the land did indeed ‘flow with milk and honey” just as God said while showing everyone the “fruit of the land” that they had brought back. Their words had to encourage and buoy the spirits of the people of Israel who had journeyed so long and endured so much to get to this point and place. But as the men continued their report, we see where there was also some bad news to share, news that would allow pessimism to creep in to ruin the party and extinguish the flames of hope.
Have you ever had this happen to you?
Have you ever been feeling really good about life only to have someone with a negative viewpoint on things say something that served to turn your joy into worry and anxiety?
I know I have, so many times that I have developed a general distaste for pessimistic people. You’ve seen these people before in life, those who can’t seem to see any good coming out of any circumstance, those who always want to see the bad in every situation, those who consistently see the glass half empty all the time. Unfortunately, these pessimists can powerfully influence others to see things their way, even to the point where an entire group of people begin to believe that there isn’t a chance that things can and will work out within any particular manner.
With this in mind, let’s return to the scriptures for right after the returning scouts share the good things that they witnessed in Canaan, we see a classic turn in attitude that is prompted by that word “but”. Yes, the land is flowing with milk and honey…but…and then we see the pessimism begin. Sort of like someone saying, “They’re a nice person...but…before starting to discredit the person they just said something nice about.
Ever hear someone do that?
So in our passage today, what came after the “but”?
The scriptures tell us as the men reported the following:
“…the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
In other words, the land is not only flowing with milk and honey but swarming with people who the men saw the Israelites as having no chance of defeating, people who would just as well kill them before they would hand their land over.
We get a sense that this part of the report sent a buzz among the people of Israel because we read where they began to get afraid, frustrated, and angry at the picture painted by the men, a picture that took away all the hope they had felt just moments earlier about this land God had promised. And let’s not forget as they did that the Lord also promised that He would be with His people.
Now, not all of the scouts held such a negative view of things for we see where Caleb tried to be the voice of reason, speaking out to try and override and overturn the pessimistic rhetoric that had turned the Israelites’ light into darkness. The scriptures tell us that he “silenced the people before Moses” and then said the following:
“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
In Caleb’s mind, God had sent them to Canaan and promised to give them the land and He never goes back on His promises, no matter what. After all, the people occupying Canaan were no less human than the people of Israel. They weren’t gods and so what chance would they have against the God of all creation, the Maker and Master of all things?
Well, in response to Caleb’s viewpoint, we find the pessimistic scouts quickly countering him for such was the evil nature of the sinful cynicism occupying their hearts and minds. Whereas Caleb was trying to encourage the people to trust that God would deliver them into Canaan just as He had delivered them out of Egypt, the men tried to convince the people to give up and reject what would be a foolish venture to go to Canaan and die at the hands of its current inhabitants. They held firm to their negative report, saying:
“We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are….the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
It was a final attempt at influencing the Israelites that was laced with exaggeration and distortion with no mention of the God they were supposed to trust and serve. And unfortunately, it worked for we next read where the people begin to give into their fear and anxiety, raising their voices and weeping aloud while grumbling against Moses and Aaron saying:
“If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."
Imagine what God must have felt when He heard this. His people had completely lost their faith. Disconnecting themselves from Him, the devil was more than happy to step into the gap and take His place, bringing his doctrine of evil that outweighed the happiness that had been in the hearts of the Israelites. Despite witnessing first-hand the awesome, miraculous, wonder-working power of their Lord so many times, they refused to believe that He could go before them and defeat any adversaries in Canaan.
And so they chose to cower, afraid and resigned to the possibility of encountering adversity and danger. In fact, they were so spiritually disoriented in their thinking that they began to believe that they were actually better when they were being held in bondage by the Egyptians.
Friends, this is where negative thinking takes you, to a place where you fail to believe that God is able to enter in and alter your circumstances to make things work out for the good, the exact place that Satan wants you to be.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul spoke words to the Christian believers in Philippi that still apply to us as believers today. They are words given by our Lord that we are to put into action, words that serve to counter any feelings of pessimism that might try to get into our hearts and minds so to influence us. He wrote the following:
“…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
In other words, the Lord is commanding us to think positively and do so because He is good and mighty, able to make the impossible possible and the improbable probable. He is all capable to do whatever He wants to do and this includes perfectly fulfilling all His promises. All His people need to do is trust Him, keep the faith, and persevere, waiting patiently for Him to do His perfect work in His perfect way and in His perfect time.
As we wait with patience, let us do so with the strength He provides and with a sure confidence in Him. We can do this, not by our own power but rather the power of God within us, the same power that resurrected our Savior Jesus from the grave (Ephesians 1:17-21). Going back to Paul and his letter to the Philippians, he shared what he discovered saying:
“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” 4:13
My prayer is that we will remember this and allow it to help us when we might begin to feel negative thought and emotions like the people of Israel, even getting to the point where we feel hopeless. For we serve a Lord who loves us and has purposed us for great things in life, kingdom-work to be done to honor and glorify His holy name. Let us throw off any pessimism as we work to do just that and practice the power of positive thinking for when we turn to the Lord, we will always see Him working things for the good of those who love Him, just as He promised (Romans 8:28).
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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