INTERESTING FACTS : Old Testament books were scrolls, a strip of animal skin that was rolled up on two sticks. One ancient copy of the book of Isaiah is twenty-four feet long.[1]

DAILY READING [NUMBERS 11 - 13]

TEXT : Num 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Num 13:2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, everyone a ruler among them.

THEME : FAITH

As the children of Israel approach the land promised to their forefathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God gives an order to send men to search out the land. No doubt, all of them had heard for centuries of the covenant made with Abraham, and now they would finally see what God had sworn to give them.

The leaders or heads of each tribe are chosen to be the witnesses to this Promised Land. We would expect these men - because they have such responsibility and influence on their families - to be men of great faith. However, we will soon learn they are not. That is, ten of them are not men of faith. Only two heads of the tribes - Joshua and Caleb are true men of faith, who will not walk by sight but by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. This path - one of walking and believing what God has said rather than by the sight of the eyes has always been the pattern for men of faith. In addition, unbelief in men of position and prominence who give an evil report of the promises and principles of God has also been the testimony of the Holy Scriptures and history. Yet, there have always been true men of God in every generation who will not bow to the opinion of the majority, but will give glory to God, testifying with their voice and their lives by obeying God.

After forty days in the land, it is Joshua and Caleb who, seeing the same giants and walled cities the others saw, state they are able to defeat the Canaanites. The other ten, see insurmountable obstacles. They forget their God who has been providing for them since their deliverance from Egypt. Plato said - ""Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may."[2] From this quote we get the paraphrase - "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." All twelve of these spies should have been the friend of God and seen - by faith, what God said concerning His promise and power. Instead they walked by their eyes and ears rather than God's Word.

The ten men who brought an evil report against God and His Word with Joshua and Caleb, all saw the same people and fortifications. Ten said "we cannot," two said "we can." Of course, we know which men God favored. For - "the just shall live by his faith." We learn in chapter fourteen that the ten who brought the evil report died by the plague, and Joshua and Caleb lived long on the land and conquered.

TRUTH FOR TODAY : WE WALK BY FAITH!

We know - "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." [Rom 15:4] As we read the Bible, we observe the lives of people and how they respond to God and His Word. The heroes of faith recorded in Hebrews chapter eleven in the New Testament, like the ten spies, saw what everyone everywhere saw. The difference was - the heroes of faith did not let the world with all of its challenges, obstacles, and opposition discourage them from believing God. Like the salmon that swims upstream in riverbeds and small streams to spawn [though adult salmon live in the depths of the Pacific Ocean] true men and women of God walk according to the ways of God's Word which, is contrary to the ways of the world.

We must emulate the Joshua's and Caleb's of the Bible. We must not "be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." [Heb 6:12] True faith in God is a fight as the Apostle Paul shares. "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." [2 Ti 4: 6 - 8] For we too are in a wilderness and we are walking to our Promised Land as the Scriptures say.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. [2 Cor 5:1 - 11]