God has kept talking about the land that He is going to give the Israelites, and now they finally get to see it for the first time. One man from each tribe is sent into Canaan to explore the land before they enter it. This then is the beginning of the Israelites' struggle to claim the land for their own. Our battles may not be so literal, but they exist nonetheless. Peer pressure, injustice, depression addiction...we are all fighting something. And so whatever the rights and wrongs of the Israelites' struggle, there are lessons to be learned from this rather faltering start.
Lesson 1: Preparation Moses tells the twelve scouts to find out what the land is like, whether the cities are fortified and how strong the people are. As they say, know your enemy. It's the same for us. We need to know what we're fighting for or against and we need to spend time thinking and praying about what we can do about it. Just rushing in won't work.
Lesson 2: Faith The scouts are impressed by the land, but they panic when they see how strong the people of Canaan are. There's no way they can defeat them, they say. What they forget is that they are not alone. God won't fight our battles for us, and if they're the wrong battles He won't fight at all, but if we're fighting for God He will support us. We need to put our trust in Him and ask Him if we can instead of immediately saying we can't.
Lesson 3: Courage The Israelites do not have faith and so they become afraid, and the scouts start to spread lies about Canaan, saying that it is populated by the Nephilim (legendary giant warriors) and devours all who enter it. If we do not have faith, it is easy to give in to fear. Even when we do trust in God we can get a little nervous. Those feelings are not wrong in themselves, but as Yoda says, "fear is the path to the dark side". It can lead to cowardice and hate and anger, and they can in turn lead to sin and suffering. We need to stand strong, because when we act with courage we can act with honour.
Lesson 4: Intelligence God declares that no one who has failed to trust Him will see the promised land. The people will remain in the desert for another forty years, by which time all those who grumbled against Him will have died. When the people hear this, they are ashamed of their lack of faith, and despite what God has just said, they decide to try to make it up to Him by entering Canaan. Moses tells them not to because God is not with them, but they do it anyway and they are beaten back. Some battles we are just not going to win, normally the ones we shouldn't be fighting in the first place, and we need to learn to recognise those and just stay out of them. A little thought goes a long way.
Moving into the promised land hasn't worked out, so now we return to the law and God outlines supplementary offerings to be given alongside those already prescribed. What is really interesting here is how much emphasis is given to the fact that these laws apply to aliens as well as the native-born Israelites. We talk about Israel being a chosen nation, but the truth is that God always wanted all of His people to be treated equally. The Israelites were not special simply because of their birth, but because of their observance of the Law, and so anybody could follow the Law and become part of God's people. The problem was that the Israelites didn't seem to share this crucial piece of information. That's part of the reason Jesus came, but that's for later.
God then reminds the people that if they sin unintentionally, they must offer a sacrifice to make atonement; but if a person sins defiantly, they must be cut off from their people. We are told that no sin is worse than any other, so why is there this distinction? Maybe because if the sin is deliberate it is compounded by a wilful disrespect of God, and it is that disrespect that really hurts Him. Imagine someone opens a door they didn't know you were stood behind and it hits you in the face and breaks your nose. You'd want them to say sorry, but you wouldn't blame them and you wouldn't hold it against them. Now imagine someone punches you in the face and purposefully breaks your nose. It's just as broken as when the other oerson did it by accident, and again you forgive them when they eventually apologise, but it still upsets you more because you know someone wanted to hurt you. It's the same for God. I believe that He offers salvation to all who truly repent, whether their sins were deliberate or not, but it is important that we realise what we do to Him when we deliberately disobey Him.
Finally, God tells the people to put tassels on their clothing to remind them of His commands. We can all be a little forgetful at times, so it's good for us to have little reminders to keep us on track. That may be a cross we wear or an icthus fish in our car window or a prayer card in our bag or any number of other things. It doesn't really matter because it's not the thing that's important, it's what it represents. But we need to be careful that it does not fade into the background so that we scarcely notice it anymore. Every time we look at that thing, it should remind us of God's word.
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