Numbers 13:25-29
(NASB): When they returned from spying out the land,
at the end of forty days, they proceeded to
come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of
Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back
word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of
the land. Thus they told him, and said, “We
went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow
with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless,
the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are
fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of
Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of
the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are
living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea
and by the side of the Jordan.”
There’s nothing wrong with the report
so far; if you carefully examine what Moses asked them to do
(13:17-20), the report indicates that they were quite thorough. The
perceptions of the faithful and the perceptions of the fearful
regarding the land were in agreement—so far. The majority report of
Numbers 13:27-29 is not disputed by anyone.
It is in the reaction to the
report that the trouble lies. Caleb tries to calm the people but to
no avail. Fear began spreading among the children of Israel, and as
is almost always the case, fear brings a distortion of reality.
Numbers 13:30-33
(NASB): Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses,
and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it,
for we shall surely overcome it.” But the
men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up
against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So
they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which
they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone,
in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the
people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There
also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim);
and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in
their sight.”
Once
the fearful had given way to their fears, the difficulties became
distorted and magnified (vs 32-33). Yielding to their fear
fueled it, and they wound up being dominated by it. Their fears
became self-fulfilling.
Numbers 14:1-4
(NASB): Then all the congregation lifted up their
voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And
all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the
whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the
land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
“And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to
fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder;
would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So
they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to
Egypt.”
Their fears also moved them to attack
the character and purposes of God (why is the Lord bringing us
into this land to fall by the sword?). Their fears led them to
distorted memories of the “good old days” in Egypt when they were
in hard servitude (would it not be better for us to return to
Egypt?).
Finally, what is most significant for
our purposes is that, because they chose to follow their fear rather
than their faith, God gave them over to their fears. Their
fears became self-fulfilling in a tragic way. They feared falling by
the sword of the Canaanites, their children becoming plunder.
And so they did fall, but by the hand
of God Himself, not the Canaanites. They wandered for forty
years until every last one over the age of twenty (at the time of the
rebellion) died, except for the two faithful ones—Joshua and
Caleb. Everyone else died.
The
irony is that God faithfully brought their children—whom they
feared would become plunder—into the Promised Land. Their
children—who walked in faith, not fear—became under the hand of
God an invincible military juggernaut, conquering kings and cities
and alliances by the power of God. No one was able to stand before
them (other than Ai, and that defeat was due to sin).
There
are some important observations about fear we can draw from this
text.
- Fear can distort reality.
- Fear feeds on itself.
- Fear can become self-fulfilling.
- Our fears can accuse God of either being inadequate to protect us, or of having evil motives. Sinful fear is ultimately a slander on the character of God.
- When we choose to live by our fears instead of our faith, God may give us over to them.
Isn’t it about putting your trust in the promises of God? Thank you for your observations from the Bible on fear. Understanding a biblical view of fear and the effects of it is so very helpful in relying on the providence of God.
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