Exodus 13:26-31; 14:1-4
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.
14 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
This particular passage of scripture represents the report of the 12 spies sent to Canaan to spy out the land that God promised the children of Israel. (Numbers 13:1-25) When the spies returned they saw that the land was plentiful. I imagine they were excited to see all that the land of Canaan had to offer, but they saw other inhabitants of the land ‘giants’, and their ‘but’ ‘doubt’ and ‘fear’ got in the way. …the people are strong, they are giants, the cities are walled, etc. But Caleb had no doubt that they could go up and possess this land, after all, God promised them that He would give them that land (Exodus 6:1-8, Exodus 23:20-31, Exodus 33:1-3, Deuteronomy 8:6-9; 9:1-3 so the ‘giants’ should not have been a problem. He had it all under His control.
We all have been in this situation. God had shown us a vision, impressed something upon our hearts and in our spirit and as soon as we began to go forward to fulfill the assignment at the first sight of a possible issue, we magnified the issue more than we magnified God. We began to put our ‘but’ in the way. God said it, believe it and do it. Don’t you know the devil knows what God wants you do and it’s his job to create as much opposition or the ‘thought’ of opposition to make you shrink back.
Let’s look at verse 30 and 31. Now Caleb, which was one of the people to inherit the Promised Land along with Caleb followed God wholeheartedly. He was ready to take possession of the land. He believed God and there were no more questions to be asked, but here comes fearful Freddie putting his ‘but in the way,’ magnifying a problem that God had already solved. Because of this, the people began to get fearful. That’s why we have to watch the news we bring back and sometimes you just can’t take another ‘reporter’ with you. Because of the ‘bad report,’ it caused a great uproar in the community and the people wanted to return to bondage.
Problems, challenges, and opposition will come, doubt and fear may arise, but don’t magnify the problem, magnify God. Those problems are ‘tiny ants’ in His eyes. God is the giant, the problem is merely a tool used to bring you into a closer relationship with Him. Stop giving your problems ‘giant’ status.
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