When Lies Oppose the Lord

Scripture: So the majority report of the spies was negative: "The land is full of warriors, the people are powerfully built, and we saw some of the Anakim there, descendants of the ancient race of giants. We felt like grasshoppers before them, they were so tall!" Numbers 13:32-33

Observation: The spies return from the promised land and give their report. Of the land, they declare it to be great, truly blessed with abundance. However, most are afraid of the residents. Ten of the spies talk about how all the nations there already possess the land. They report on the Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites, and tell of their fortified cities. While certainly all the the people should have by now understood how the Lord would protect them in opposing these people, these reports from the spies are in fact true and accurate.

But then ... there's the Anakim. The spies declare there are mythical giants in the land, even going into hyperbole about how they felt 'like grasshoppers before them'. They take the lie beyond even a reasonable exaggeration, making it absurd. It is by this wild lie they convince the people to rebel against the Lord.

Everything that was true about the promised land - the quality of the land, and the existence of the other nations ... the good and the bad - the Lord had in fact already told them. Everything the Lord had not told them, was in fact a falsehood. And it is by the new lies that the people are deceived, tossed into a state of fear, and thus reject the Lord's instructions.

Application: How true is it today, as churches are ready to fully re-open after the pandemic, that every fear and worry about how to do so is ... a lie?  I would go as far as to say that everything that has been said for the past year that would generate fear in the hearts of believers about faithful gathering and worship has been lies, declared to mislead believers and his Church, which is now farther from the Lord than ever before.

That isn't to say everything about the disease is a lie. There is truth ... there is a disease, there are precautions to take, there is a need to proceed with safety in mind ... just as the spies truthfully reported that nations with fortified cities would oppose Israel. However, obediently proceeding in faith was called for then, and it is called for now.

We know the lies we are being told, for we know the "government instructions" that stand in direct opposition to the truths of the Lord. Such instructions are in fact the definition of evil lies. We had better not turn back now.

Prayer: Lord, it is time for your Church to proceed, stronger than before, and guided by your loving and powerful hand. May we serve you as Caleb would have, shrugging off the obvious lies. Amen.