Imagine you’re in the crowd, waiting for the big reveal. The six weeks have passed and the twelve adventurers are finally back!
Moses is there. Aaron looks nervous as the crowd murmurs. Then, one by one from the folds of the tent, the explorers emerge... to rapturous applause! There’s Palti, Ammiel, Shammua, and Caleb. Nahbi, Gaddiel, Joshua, Sethur, Geuel, Igal; and Shaphat and Gaddi are carrying an enormous bunch of grapes.
Shammua begins to speak. The land is good and the fruit is abundant! He gestures to the grapes, suspended between Shaphat and Gaddi.
But... he says, that eyes flicking to his fellow explorers, there are... giants in the land. The cities are fortified and packed with our enemies. We’ll be crushed.
You can hear hope evaporating. But then, with a roar, Caleb leaps to the front.
“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.’” - Numbers 13:30
His eyes are fierce and bright. Joshua stands alongside him. But the others aren’t convinced.
“We can’t do it!” protests Gaddi. “The land devours everything in it! We’re like grasshoppers compared to them!”
Joshua cries, “If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land ... and will give it to us!”
“Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them,” says Caleb, “Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them!’
The crowd around you is stunned into silence. It’s 10 against 2.
Moses looks out across the thousands of people and just for a second, seems to catch your eye.
What do you do? Which report will you believe?
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