NIV 365 / Tainted Trust

The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading Plan

Day 204 of 365 Tainted Trust God instructs Moses: "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites" (Numbers 13:2). The recon team spends forty days in stealthy exploration. They return to camp with good news and bad news. It's a land flowing with milk and honey, they say . . . but a fierce street gang who call themselves the Anakim roam the neighborhood . . . Fearless Caleb speaks up and says, "Let's go wipe 'em out and seize the territory!" His intimidated cohorts protest, "No way! They'll have us for breakfast." The Israelite community vacillates, then starts weeping and wailing . . . They believe in God. They have faith in Yahweh, and yet - because of fear of the Anakim - they abandon hope in his promise that they will take possession of Canaan. With the exception of Moses, Aaron and Caleb, despair contaminates the Chosen People. Confronted with stronger battalions, faced with apparently insuperable obstacles, they allow their trust in Yahweh's guidance and protection to collapse. But faith in God without hope in his promises is tainted trust. How well we know the Israelites' conundrum. Hesitation and uncertainty prevail. The craving for tangible reassurance of God's faithfulness increases. We press for more convincing proofs of abiding, divine presence. When they are not forthcoming, we decide to take control. Safety is our only passion. In a spiritual life charged with ambiguity, we cannot afford to make mistakes. Endless analysis replaces creative action. The willingness to risk is submerged in a raging sea of nagging doubts. We must have absolute clarity before we can proceed. What we have failed to learn is that clarity, reassurance and proof cannot create trust, sustain it or guarantee any certainty of its presence. Taken from NIV Ragamuffin Bible Numbers 13:26-33 Numbers 13:26-33 KJV 26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.