Read: Duet. 1-3:20
It took the children of Israel three days to get from Egypt to Mt. Horeb and today we read that the promised land was eleven days from Mt. Horeb. So in fifteen days they could have gotten to their possession and taken the land. Notice that the first plan was to just go in and take the land. The people stalled and wanted to send spies first. They believed the report of the spies over the report of the Lord and forever lost their land. We don’t want that to happen to us. If God has given us a promise then us need to march toward it fearlessly.
I used to wonder what to think about God giving them land that was someone else’s land until reading today’s scripture. The land they took from the Ammonites used to be the land of the Rephaites. The land that the descendants of Esau lived was once the land of the Horites. The land of the Avvites was taken by the Caphtorites. In Deut. 2:22 it explains that God did this exchange of ownership. It is God’s land and he can give his land to whoever he wants. It makes me ponder how the settlers came to America and took the land from the Indians. God has purposes that are higher than our understanding. His ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts because his are higher.
Interestingly, we might know why he placed the descendants of Esau in the land and the Moabites. They allowed the children of Israel to pass through peacefully where King Sihon would not. God wanted them to defeat his people and the people in the land of Bashan.
Sometimes God parts the Red Sea for us and answers our prayers in a way that is peaceable and wonderfully easy. Other times he causes a stir because he wants us to fight. Our fight is carrying more spiritual weight than we can imagine and we are given the privilege to go to battle because God entrusts us with his victory. We need discernment to know the difference.
Lord, help us to shorten our journey through trials with obedience but know when we need to stand and fight.
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