Trying to Get Out of the Wilderness

We’ve been discussing Moses and his dealings with the children of Israel. They are now all sitting in a wilderness. To an outsider, they probably looked busy, maybe even prayerful, however, there was an obvious lack of spiritual power and growth.

At some point, Moses is inspired to gather 12 leaders and send them to the land of Canaan, outside the wilderness.

Pretending to be spies, the twelve men go to Canaan and scout out the region. They return with their report. All of the spies, except Caleb and Joshua, say, “We can’t overtake the people of Canaan.”

Caleb and Joshua feel differently, and tell the people, “We think we can move out of this wilderness and into the promised land.” These 2 men were ready and willing to tackle new ideas.

Fear and sloth though swelled and the majority decided to stay in the wilderness, convinced their way was “the way.” But they died. And rotted.

40 years later, when the tide shifted and there were more people who knew they could move forward than there were nay-sayers, Caleb and Joshua led the way into the land of Canaan.

It isn’t that life then became hunky-dorry, but that the people’s minds showed some progress. For forty years, no progress was evidenced, only death. Now, they were forced to interact and think.

I doubt that during those 40 years, Caleb and Joshua were waiting around for the nay-sayers to die. I doubt Caleb and Joshua gave up on God either. There is no mention in the Bible that Caleb and Joshua took it upon themselves to strike out on a vendetta against the old ways.

They knew God and progress were the law, but they also knew it was their responsibility to manifest God and progress. Caleb and Joshua must have continued in their understanding of God and experienced it to a higher degree each day, while manifesting evidence of progress, even while in the wilderness.