Your giants and mine can represent a garden variety of things. It may range from financial lack to illness, relational stress to business strain, spiritual dryness to deep depression.
The Israelites were told to send men to enter the land God had promised to give them. However, they allowed circumstances to dictate their response rather than keeping their eyes on the God of their circumstances.
The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” (Numbers 13:1-2, ESV)
It was clear what God wanted to accomplish. He was giving them the land. They weren’t even taking it on their own. It was being given to them.
Coming back from the exploratory trip, the 12 men that were sent into the land of Canaan allowed their circumstances to dictate how they would respond.
A few lessons here.
1. Don’t doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.
Opposition is inevitable. To a certain degree, it is to be expected. God didn’t promise that it was going to be easy. But He promised that He will carry us through it.
Challenges in life will come. And when they do, remember what God told you before those challenges came and hold on the them as Gollum would to the “preciouuussss” ring.
2. Hear the facts but hold on to the truth.
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” (Numbers 13:31)
The fact is, they are bigger.
The fact is, they are stronger.
The fact is, they are more numerous.
Those may be facts but the truth of God’s Word holds true.
“I am giving the land to you.”
The fact is, they are bigger, but the truth is, God is fighting the battle for you.
The fact is, you don’t have enough, but the truth is, God is going to supply all your needs. (Philippians 4:19)
The fact is, you are lying in bed sick, but the truth is, He is Jehovah Rapha, the God who is your healer.
3. What you see with your physical eyes may not necessarily be what God wants you to see through your spiritual eyes.
And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. (Numbers 13:32)
It is true that the Nephilim were much bigger. But they missed the fact that their God is way bigger.
When we place our thumb right in front of our right eye while closing our left, it seems way bigger than anything we look at. It will look like our thumb is bigger than a car, an airplane or even a skyscraper.
But God wants you to look at your situation from a different perspective. He is way bigger than you can even define.
4. The way you see yourselves is how others will eventually see you.
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:31-33)
The 10 men (not including Joshua and Caleb) saw themselves a certain way. The Bible says, that they looked like grasshoppers in their own eyes and as a result, they looked that way from their enemies vantage point as well.
You and I are who we are not because of how we see ourselves or how others see us. We are who we are because of who God created us to be.
More so, because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on Calvary, we are no longer enemies of God but His own children.
Think about it. We may need to shift from staring at our giants to focusing our eyes on our God who is way bigger than any giant we will ever face.
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