Convictions

Joshua 14:7-12 - I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

Numbers 13:30,33 - But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”...And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Numbers 14:9 - Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Application:

• ·         Only Caleb and Joshua gave a report prompted by faith in God.
• ·         There are no walls, no fortifications, no factors of size or bearing, and certainly no gods that can withstand the onslaught of God’s people when the Lord is with them.
• ·         The exaggerated and distorted reference to the Nephilim seemed deliberately intended to evoke fear. The exaggeration of the faithless led to their final folly: "We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers".

All Scripture verses taken from ESV