If you’ve ever bought a house, you likely know that even the “most perfect” house really isn’t perfect. There seems to always be some compromise that must be made: location, yard size, location of a bathroom, school district, price, and so forth. The choice is then ours to make: do we live with the compromises we need to make, or do we pass on the house—no matter how perfect it is in other ways—and keep looking?
When the Israelites reached the border of the land of Abraham and their ancestors, they sent in twelve men to scout the territory. The report was glowing: The land was amazing—plenty of room and abundant crops. It was perfect in almost every way. There was a concern, and it was a big one: the people living there were scary-big.
Think back to that house you had fallen in love with. You were already imagining what it would be like to live in it. You were deciding where your furniture would go. It seemed too good to be true. But then, you discovered that imperfection, and your hopes and dreams came crashing down. Now magnify that many times over, and you can begin to relate with what the Israelites must have felt like in that moment. Now where would they go? What would they do?
The tragedy of this account is not found in what the people felt in that moment; rather, it is found in their failure to recognize that the land was indeed perfect in every way. There was no drawback or compromise. The people living there were inconsequential.
Why? Because this was the land of promise—of God’s promise. The same God who had promised this land to them and to their ancestors before them was the same God who had revealed His infinite power in rescuing them from the Egyptians. He was the same God who was with them at that moment. Did they believe the people were too big, or did they believe God was too small?
Joshua, Caleb, and Moses would try to plead with the people to trust in God, but the people refused. Instead of entering the land in faith, they turned from the land in fear. Not one of the adults of that generation, except Joshua and Caleb, would step foot into that land. Instead, they were forced to wander in the wilderness of judgment because of their rebellion against God. That is the tragedy of this account.
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