Slaying Giants
Numbers 14
Matthew 25: 14-28
This morning I read about the small group of Israelites who went on a mission to survey the Promised Land. You may know the story. They came back, and only two felt that God’s people would be able to conquer the giants who lived in the land. Because of that, those very scouts (minus Joshua and Caleb) were struck dead, and the entire first generation who crossed the Red Sea did not see the land God had sent them out to inhabit. This also caused the group, along with their children, to take a different route, making it a forty year trip, “one year for each of the forty days” they explored the land.
This is a sad story and it immediately brought a different story to mind. In Matthew 25 we find the parable of the talents. Some translations call this the parable of the bags of gold. A wealthy man went away on a trip and gave each of his servants a sum of gold to invest. The gentleman who was given the least amount of gold decided to bury it in the ground thereby gaining zero return on his employer’s investment.
In both of these stories, the amount of progress that was made is directly tied to the people’s view of the Master’s character. It is particularly striking in the parable of the talents. When the master asked the man with one bag of gold to give an account of what he had done with it, he said this, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.” Matthew 25:24-25
This description is quite a contrast from the way Moses described God in Numbers 14:18: “The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.”
For the aforementioned group that was wandering around the desert with Moses, it was a similar story after they surveyed the Promised Land and saw that there were obstacles. “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! 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?” Numbers 14:2b-3
Both groups viewed God as harsh, and even vindictive. Neither anticipated goodness or help from God, but rather, they felt as if God was leading them to ruin.
If only the Israelites had moved forward and slayed the giants. I want the story to end that way. I want our story to end that way too. Like them, I know that my view of God often traps me. Remember Satan whispering to Eve in the garden when she longed for the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3, “You will not certainly die….For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Essentially, Satan was implying that God was trying to keep goodness from her.
The enemy’s ultimate ploy is the character assassination of God. If we doubt His goodness, His mercy, His Sovereignty, His might, we will take the easier, forty year trip through the desert, rather than the straight path that causes us to slay giants. Only God can slay giants. Do we believe that He will or are we on a detour this morning to avoid the fight?
Rpm
