Friday, February 27

Scripture: The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes (Deuteronomy 1:30).

Observation: The Book of Deuteronomy begins with Moses retelling the story of the wilderness journey since the Israelites departed from Mt. Sinai and came to settle in their present location on the east side of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho. A turning point, in both the symbolic and geographic meanings of “turning point,” was when the Israelites reached a place called Kadesh Barnea on the southern tip of the Promised Land after a mere two years of the would-be forty-year journey. The Israelites sent spies, one spy from each of the twelve tribes, to surveil the Promised Land and return with a report on the quality of the soil for farming and the prowess of the peoples they would have to conquer. The twelve spies returned with a grape vine weighed down by heavy grape clusters, showing the promise of generations of abundant harvests in the land, and they verbally reported the land was flowing with milk and honey. However, ten of the spies reported on the huge people who live in land, people who are taller and larger than the Israelites, people who might squash the Israelites like professional football linebackers would squash ants if it came to battle. These spies argued that the Israelites should not enter the Promised Land, leading much of Israel to give up hope of ever entering the Promised Land and opt for returning to Egypt instead. But two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, said the Israelites were more than a match for the peoples of the Promised Land and argued, essentially, let’s go for it. Moses sided with Caleb and Joshua. In Deuteronomy, Moses says he told the Israelites that God would fight for the Israelites, just as God fought for them in the exodus out of Egypt. But that was 38 years ago. The nay-sayers won. The Israelites sided with the ten spies and turned the camp around almost 180 degrees, even though Israel was at the threshold of the Promised Land. Why did the Israelites spend forty-years in the wilderness? One reason is because they could have entered the Promised after only two years, but when the people had to choose if they would see possibility where others saw threat, the bulk of the people sided with threat.

Application: The twelve spies looked at the same data and arrived at different conclusions. Ten saw threat, and two saw possibility. When the spies argued their cases before the congregation of Israel, most people chose to see threat. It really was a choice, given both options, threat and possibility and the substantiating evidence for both, were presented. Were there good reasons behind the threat? Yes indeed. But there were good reasons behind the possibility, too. There is a tendency within us – and I see it in me as I write this – to see threats, all the ways something could go wrong, when I could just as easily see possibilities, all the ways something could go well. I tend to follow the downward spiral of the doom of threat, even though the upward hill of the call of possibility is an equally compelling path. Why do I choose to see threats instead of possibilities? I hear Moses telling me, “Because you didn’t believe God was in front of you the whole time.” With God in front, victory is not guaranteed, but possibility is. With God in front, there is always a next thing after the worst thing. With God in front, there is always a fresh tomorrow after the crush of defeat. With God in front, there are always opportunities, literally “open portals,” for new beginnings, new seasons, new life sprouting out of failure. The choice to see possibility instead of threat is the choice to believe that God is ahead of me and not absent from me.

Prayer:

Remember the father who has a son who is possessed by an evil spirit or mental illness or a neurological disorder or childhood trauma or maybe two of these or more at the same time? And remember when this father begs Jesus to make his son well? And remember Your Word inviting the father to bare the true raw sincerity of the father’s belief in a good and loving God, belief that is comingled with doubt, belief inseparable from doubt, belief that marries doubt like water droplets making their home in the same puddle? And remember the prayer with a life of its own that escapes the father’s lips? “I believe! Help my unbelief!” Remember that father, Father? Because that would be me: wearied and thrilled and scared and burned and in love with You and this precious life. I believe in You and the uncountable joyous possibilities waiting for us, and this belief gives me a spirit of expectancy: God only knows the everyday miracles you have waiting for me! And I have unbelief in You, which is to say, doubt: not flat-out denial or rejection of You, but doubt in You, doubt born of my proclivity to see threat and danger and failure and rejection where none exist though my brain would beg to differ. Holy Merciful One, I believe in You. Help me to unbelieve my unbelief in You, so I may see possibility where my modest brain would trick me into seeing threat, for You are evermore in front of me, just ahead, calling me and all. Onward we go: amen.