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News From the Quiver August 2004 |
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Holy Highway, Sacred Road |
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The Sacred Road contains many stories of our Creator and our Savior that help us with our walk today. One story is found in Numbers chapters 13 & 14. It is part of a much larger story told of Creator leading his people out of slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness and into their own land. Under the leadership of a man named Moses, Creator promised to bring his people into a very rich land This part of the story begins when the people are at the end of their travels and are near to this land that they were to inherit. Creator told Moses to send out one leader from each tribe to go and scout out this new land. 12 leaders in all scouted for 40 days. They came back and said the land is truly ‘flowing with milk and honey’. They brought back one cluster of grapes that was so big it took 2 men to carry it. But they also said that there were giants in the land. They said that next to these people, they felt like grasshoppers. They brought back fear to the people based on what they saw in the land. But Caleb, one of the 12 leaders, tried to encourage the people. He said they should go and take the land that was promised to them by the Creator. But the people were afraid. They grumbled against Moses and against Creator. They asked Creator why He had brought them this far just to be killed by giants. They wanted to go back to Egypt and live like slaves again. The next morning, 2 of the leaders who had scouted out this land, Joshua and Caleb, tried to encourage the people. "The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land--very good indeed. If GOD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he'll give it to us. “ Nu 14:7-8. Joshua and Caleb pleaded for the people to not rebel against God or complain or lose faith. Moses reminded Creator of His great love for the people and of His faithfulness to always forgive. “GOD said, "I forgive them, honoring your words. But as I live and as the Glory of GOD fills the whole Earth-- not a single person of those who saw my Glory, saw the miracle signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, and who have tested me over and over and over again, turning a deaf ear to me-- not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it. “ Nu 14:20-23.
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But Creator said that He would allow Joshua and Caleb to see the Promised Land, because they did not bring back a bad, faithless, report of the land. However, the other 10 leaders who scouted the land died soon after in a plague. The rest of the people spent 40 more years wandering in the wilderness before Creator would bring the survivors back into the Promised Land. Many times we set out to follow Creator and the path gets hard and the way gets rough and we become afraid. Sometimes, we even try to reason that maybe we are doing something or going somewhere that Creator does not want us to and so we retreat. But Jesus taught us to have faith. In Matt 8, Jesus spent the better part of the day teaching and healing people. “As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said. Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know." Matt 8:19-20. Jesus and his disciples got in a boat to cross to the other side of the lake. Without warning, a powerful storm came up and huge waves came over the boat. Jesus was sleeping. The disciples became afraid and woke Jesus up asking him to save them from drowning. “Jesus reprimanded them. "Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?" Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: "Silence!" The sea became smooth as glass.” Matt 8:26 Jesus and the disciples arrived safely to the other side of the lake, where Jesus healed two madmen. They had been mad for so long and terrorized that area for so long, that the people there did not think it was safe to even walk on the road where they lived. Many times, the storms that we encounter and the giants that we meet are not always evidence that we are on the wrong path, but that we are on the right path. We just need to increase our faith so we can inherit the land that He has for us and help the people. Are there giants in your life right now? Is there a storm in your midst? I have good news. Jesus calms storms and defeats giants. Don’t turn back yet based on only what you see. Be ready to “rough it” wherever and whenever He leads you. The reward on the other side for yourself and for those you can help is far too wonderful to miss because of fear, unbelief, or grumbling.
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