Do you remember Shammua? Shaphat? Igal? How about Palti or Gaddiel or Gaddi or Ammiel? Okay, lets try Sethur? Nahbi? Geuel? Certainly you must recognize one of those men?
Numbers 13:16 reports, "These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land." Oh... I missed the other two names: Joshua and Caleb. As our children have been learning the song, Twelve men went to spy on Canaan, we talked about the names of the two men who "saw God was in it all" and they naturally asked, "what were the names of the other guys?"
I admit, I had to go back to Numbers 13 to look up their names. Why? Because we don't remember the names of the naysayers or the pessimists. We remember the names of those who become the leaders - the ones who see the challenges as opportunities. Leaders see what God can do and trust Him to go before them to win any battles.
2 comments:
Really? We don't remember the names of the naysayers or the pessimists?...going back to Numbers 13 & 14, the case could be made that Caleb and Joshua were the naysayers. "The whole congregation" believed the 10 spies and the people of Israel as a whole "wept that night". Caleb and Joshua were definitely the naysayers in this instance.
Jae
Jae, thanks for taking the time to comment on my blogpost. I appreciate you offering your thoughts.
I don't quite understand how you view Joshua & Caleb as the naysayers. In Numbers 13:30 Caleb speaks up and says "we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." The response of the rest of the spies (v.31) said "no way" and spread a bad report throughout the camp, so much so that the rest of the Israelites started grumbling to Moses & Aaron in ch 14. Joshua then again spoke up (v6-9) exhorting the people to not listen to the bad reports but to take the land God had promised to them. Again, the assembly of the Israelites refused with the result being 40 years of wandering.
Post a Comment