"...and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great:" (Num.13:27,28)
"But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
And they brought this evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
And we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their own sight." (31-33)
From a human point of view it was a land that was impossible to take, the cities were well fortified with no weakness in them. They had forgotten the times that God had looked after them, the crossing of the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness, "WE have nothing to fear of the future, except we gorget the way the Lord has led us in the past."
"The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes." (Deut.130)
Apart from the children there would only be Caleb and Joshua that would go into the promised land.
As a people we have been camped at the borders of the promised land, over 150 years waiting to go home. Have we learnt the lesson from the Children of Israel? It would appear not or we would not be here.
"But because the people are disobedient, unthankful, unholy, as were ancient Israel, time is prolonged that all may hear the last message of mercy proclaimed with a loud voice. The Lord's work has been hindered, the sealing time delayed. Many have not heard the truth. But the Lord will give them a chance to hear and be converted, and the great work of God will go forward." (15MR 292)
Clive
