Yes, There Are Giants In The Land

So, my sweet hubby and I are trucking down the road of life towards some pretty cool dreams. He’s got ideas for how he wants to support some of the “least of these” in our community. And I’ve got big thoughts about sharing God’s Word with whoever will listen (thanks for taking the time, by the way…knowing you’re reading this matters to me!) We believe these desires have been planted in our hearts by God, so we’re kinda excited about where we’re going. But as we look down the road just a little ways - and I mean a hop, skip, and a jump from where this journey begins - we both hesitate. The temptation to slam on the brakes overwhelms us, and though we haven’t exactly come to a screeching halt, we’ve definitely slowed our roll way down.

Why?

We’ve got giants staring us in the face.

FEE FI FO FUM!! We stop and size up the first giant standing right in front of our noses. We look him up and down, take a big gulp, look at each other with growing despair in our eyes. Because we know he’s not alone. There’s a whole passel of ‘em straddling the path we’re on, just waiting to wreck us and leave us in the ditches of our dreams. We hear the stomping and see the size of the obstacles in front of us and know — we KNOW — we do not have what it takes to overcome the sheer size of what’s facing us. We don’t have the money, don’t have the resources, don’t know the right people, don’t have the time, and don’t have any visible means of getting any of these things so we can move forward.

I’m guessing you’ve been there, too, in big and small ways. I bet you can think of a time when you toodled off in pursuit of your dreams, following the path God laid before you and then *WHAM-O* turned the corner to find yourself eye-to-knee with a giant way bigger than you could have imagined. Maybe he came in the form of a sudden expense that drained your resources, an illness that sapped all your strength, or a family crisis that diverted your attention and emotional energy. Maybe you don’t have the education people say you need, the experience a new job requires, or the income to support your family if you try out your dreams and fail. Giants come in a lot of forms, but the one thing they have in common is that they’re huge.

You and I do not have what it takes to overcome them by our own little selves. And we know it.

As I’ve been talking (read “complaining”) to God about the giants I face, He’s reminded me of a few things from the Exodus narrative. I know He laughs at me and with me while He does it. The first Bible study I wrote was on the story of God rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt and then wandering around in the sand for a few decades. It’s not like I haven’t studied and taught a whole bunch about the Exodus. So the fact God has to remind me of this stuff is downright hilarious, and He knows it.

God takes me to Numbers 13 and 14 for a little revisit of some biblical truths that need to become very real right now. No more keeping these things tucked away as nice Bible trivia or great lessons in the abstract. It’s time to put boots in sand and live this stuff.

Picture this with me. A couple million Hebrews stand on the southern edge of the Promised Land. God rescued them from Egypt more than a year ago, parting the Red Sea, sending them manna and quail to eat. They camped out at the base of Mt. Sinai getting to know Him and His Law. Now, they’re ready to finish their desert journey and go build lives for themselves in Canaan, the land God promised to them generations ago through Abraham. In wisdom and at God’s prompting, they send scouts ahead to scope things out. Twelve men head into the Promised Land to see if it’s really filled with milk and honey as God said. Forty days later, they return with the report. The land is just as good as promised, but…

..there are giants in the land. Powerful people in walled cities who, by all appearances, could crush the Hebrews with their left pinkies.

Ten of the twelve men say there’s no way God’s people can kick the giants out. The remaining two offer a different perspective.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." (Numbers 13:30-31)

If you’re familiar with the Exodus story, you know the Hebrews listen to the majority report, turn on their leader Moses, and refuse to move ahead into the place God had prepared for them. They end up wandering the desert for forty years until the unfaithful, unbelieving generation dies out and their children get a second shot. Sad, isn’t it?

HISTORY REPEATING

I really, really don’t want to make the same mistake. These days I certainly feel a lot of the same things the Hebrews did while they were walking around the desert that first year. I depend on God for my daily bread, and though God has promised to take care of me, I can’t always see how He’ll do it. I lay my head on my pillow each night, knowing I don’t have everything I need for tomorrow or the next day, yet hoping there’s “manna” waiting for me in the morning. God has provided for every day so far in this season. Why should I believe He’ll stop now? And yet…there’s this nagging doubt whispering in the night tempting me to machinate and scheme something up so I can store provision away. God says anything I try to store right now will rot, just as the manna the Hebrews horded got maggots in it. All my attempts to provide for myself fail. God seems to want me dependent on Him for a while longer.

But not forever. I believe He’s leading all of us to a Promised Land of some kind. There’s the ultimate home of heaven for sure, but there are sweet spots He prepares for us on earth, too, from time to time. Some of us are already in our individual places of provision and comfort, at least for now. You’ve had your journey in the wilderness and God has now planted you in a pleasant place. That’s awesome. Others still languish in slavery, in bondage to something or someone, and God hasn’t set us free just yet. Hang in there, my friend. He’s coming with power and amazing wonders to loosen your chains. We don’t know when, but we know it will happen because He promises it will.

“There’s no way possible for me to take down the giants I’m facing. Nope. Not a chance. But if God is with me, if He is in fact leading me down this path, then He’s gonna have to take care of the giants for me.”

And then there are those of us wandering in our deserts, looking for pillars of cloud and fire to lead the way because the shifting sand dunes all look the same to us. We have no real idea where we’re going. All we know is that we can’t stay here. In the meantime, God reshapes us from the slaves we were into a holy people that He will bless so we can bless others. At least, that’s what we think is happening. If that’s not the plan, then we have no clue and we’re just lost.

Good thing God says that is His ultimate plan, even if we don’t understand all the twists and turns, the curly-cue path He draws in the sand instead of choosing the shortest, straightest (and perhaps more dangerous) route. All this uncertainty and doubt sort of lingers like dust bunnies collecting under our thoughts. Then, finally, we start to catch glimpses of our own Promised Land, the place God has prepared for us all along. Our excitement builds, and we stand at the edge, wondering if we should take the leap. The scouts are sent in. The report comes back.

There are giants in the land.

NO HEADS IN THE SAND

Here’s the crazy thing. In Numbers 13:30, the two spies who encourage God’s people to go ahead and go take the land DO NOT disagree with the other spies’ assessment of the situation. Yes, there are “giants” in the land, powerful obstacles that need to be overcome. No one denies or pooh-poohs the challenge facing them. God’s people aren’t going to stroll into uninhabited cities and houses all fully decorated, completely stocked, and ready for their new owners like some sort of HGTV sweepstakes winners.

But if I’m being honest with myself, I have to confess that’s exactly what I want.

Instead, the house is already occupied, and who could blame them! It’s an amazing place to live, so amazing that others have already staked their claim on it. Any land flowing with milk and honey would be. No one denies it.

God doesn’t ask me to put my head in the sand about the giants on my path, either.  He’s not telling me they’re nothing to worry about, that my vision is somehow distorted or that I’m blowing things out of proportion. He’s not even saying I won’t have to fight a few big guys along the way. No, the giants are real and will really have to be dealt with.

So, it seems I have a few options on this giant-strewn path. I could stay where I am, except “in transit” is no place to live. Just like the Hebrews wandering in the desert, I can’t make my home in this exact spot. If I put my foot down and tried to build my life *here*, my life would be so lame. I can’t stay here.

My other two choices are to move ahead or turn back.

TURNING BACK

Oh, that’s tempting. There’s a song by Sara Groves called “Painting Pictures of Egypt” that perfectly describes this whole feeling. I’ve been playing it on extra high volume lately because it’s nice to have someone echo the sentiments of my own heart, to know I’m not crazy for feeling what I feel. It would be so easy for me to go back to the places God just took me from, pursuing what’s familiar but not ideal. I could look for jobs like the ones I’ve had before, try to replicate past successes, set up life in familiar ways. Sara’s lyrics describe the feeling: “I was dying for some freedom but I’d found a way to live / and it wasn’t ‘milk and honey’ but then neither is this.”

Except God just wrenched me away from all that, and I have to believe He did that for a reason. Besides, if I look at the example of my Hebrew brothers and sisters in Numbers 14, trying to turn back only made things much, much worse. God got upset (understatement) at their rejection of the good things He wanted to give them. In their story, it was the tenth and final straw (they’d been complaining to God the whole time since they’d been set free, you see). He struck down the scouts who discouraged God’s people, and forbade the rest of the complainers from ever entering the Promised Land.  It’s as if He said, “You want to turn back? Fine…I’ll give you exactly what you ask for. You won’t die at the hands of the giants you’re so afraid of. You’ll die in the desert instead.”

Gulp.

I don’t want to stay where I am until I die. Do you?

Guess there’s only one real choice left.

MOVING FORWARD

Okay. There really are giants between us and where God’s leading us. Nobody’s questioning or denying it. The issue is whether we’ll face them on our own or with a far more powerful Ally. You and I both know the right answer to this one. God is with us, and I just spent 25 days in December posting lots of verses and thoughts that show us how “with us” God is, always has been, and always will be. On December 22, I posted the following sentence, and the more I think about it, the more I’m convicted by my own words.

“Fear’s premise relies on who we are. But God’s presence relies on Who He Is.”

There’s no way possible for me to take down the giants I’m facing. Nope. Not a chance. But if God is with me, if He is in fact leading me down this path, then He’s gonna have to take care of the giants for me. Do I really think He’s not fully aware of this fact? Or am I so blinded by my own fear, so deafened by the sound of the booming voices in my head that I don’t believe He’s with me now? Am I spending so much time focusing on the giant in front of me that I can’t see my God who dwarfs him by an infinite magnitude?

Yup. I probably am. And I can totally tell when I’m doing this because I’ll turn to my hubby and say something like, “Why in the world did God bring us here to die? Why did He bring us to a place where everything seems impossible?”

Hmmm…that sounds familiar.

And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3)

When we face giants on our path — real, live, everyone-can-see-them giants — we can learn the lesson God’s people learned the hard way. If we try to turn back to where we came from, we’ll forfeit the amazing place God has prepared for us, and we’ll spend our days wandering in the dusty, gritty wilderness. God in His grace might choose to give us another chance someday, but He might not. That’s up to Him. The choice to move forward or turn back is up to us.

Yes, there are giants in the land. But we move ahead anyway.

For me and my hubby, that looks like taking the next steps that we can see, knowing that each move brings us closer to the feet of the monster waiting for us. Even though our knees knock and we have no real idea what’s going to happen next, we choose to believe God can knock down walls like He did at Jericho and rout whatever foe stands between us and the place He’s bringing us to. He’ll provide in the meantime ‘cause that’s what He does.

When I say we choose to believe these things, I mean we’re exercising our will over our emotions and everything that seems to make sense according to what we can see with our natural eyes. It’s not an easy choice, and not one we’re always good at. It’s a daily struggle, sometimes a moment-by-moment one. And I’m so glad I don’t have to make this choice alone, that I can make it with my family and with many godly friends who encourage us. I can look into my husband’s eyes and hear him say, “Yes, there are giants, but God is with us.” And I can say the same thing to him when he’s having a rough go of it. We can call each other out for the occasional grumbling that slips past our lips, hold each other when the night feels extra dark in that big shadow. We rehearse what we know and try to put the lessons of God’s people into practice in our very real lives today.

God has put us on this journey. We can’t stay where we are. We can’t go back. Yes, there are giants ahead, but God is with us.

Take the next step.

And then repeat it over and over until we get where we’re going.