numbers 13:30-33
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 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. 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.”
my streams in the desert devotional this morning pointed out the fact that the israelites only saw the giants when they faced the promised land. if they faced back toward the desert and slavery it looked clearer. less threatening.
It is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was when Israel was going forward that the, giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none.
There is a prevalent idea that the power of God in a human life should lift us above all trials and conflicts. The fact is, the power of God always brings a conflict and a struggle. One would have thought that on his great missionary journey to Rome, Paul would have been carried by some mighty providence above the power of storms and tempests and enemies. But, on the contrary, it was one long, hard fight with persecuting Jews, with wild tempests, with venomous vipers and all the powers of earth and hell, and at last he was saved, as it seemed, by the narrowest margin, and had to swim ashore at Malta on a piece of wreckage and barely escape a watery grave.
Was that like a God of infinite power? Yes, just like Him. And so Paul tells us that when he took the Lord Jesus Christ as the life of his body, a severe conflict immediately came; indeed, a conflict that never ended, a pressure that was persistent, but out of which he always emerged victorious through the strength of Jesus Christ.
The language in which he describes this is most graphic. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body."
What a ceaseless, strenuous struggle! It is impossible to express in English the forcible language of the original. There are five pictures in succession. In the first, the idea is crowding enemies pressing in from every side, and yet not crushing him because the police of heaven cleared the way just wide enough for him to get through. The literal translation would be, "We are crowded on every side, but not crushed."
The second picture is that of one whose way seems utterly closed and yet he has pressed through; there is light enough to show him the next step. The Revised Version translates it, "Perplexed but not unto despair." Rotherham still more literally renders it, "Without a way, but not without a by-way."
The third figure is that of an enemy in hot pursuit while the divine Defender still stands by, and he is not left alone. Again we adopt the fine rendering of Rotherham, "Pursued but not abandoned."
The fourth figure is still more vivid and dramatic. The enemy has overtaken him, has struck him, has knocked him down. But it is not a fatal blow; he is able to rise again. It might be translated, "Overthrown but not overcome."
Once more the figure advances, and now it seems to be even death itself, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." But he does not die, for "the life also of Jesus" now comes to his aid and he lives in the life of another until his life work is done.
The reason so many fail in this experience of divine healing is because they expect to have it all without a struggle, and when the conflict comes and the battle wages long, they become discouraged and surrender. God has nothing worth having that is easy. There are no cheap goods in the heavenly market.
Our redemption cost all that God had to give, and everything worth having is expensive. Hard places are the very school of faith and character, and if we are to rise over mere human strength and prove the power of life divine in these mortal bodies, it must be through a process of conflict that may well be called the birth travail of a new life. It is the old figure of the bush that burned, but was not consumed, or of the Vision in the house of the Interpreter of the flame that would not expire, notwithstanding the fact that the demon ceaselessly poured water on it, because in the background stood an angel ever pouring oil and keeping the flame aglow.
No, dear suffering child of God, you cannot fail if only you dare to believe, to stand fast and refuse to be overcome.
lb cowart from streams in the desert
this was just another sweet personal love letter from God to my soul. because if you read my blog yesterday you may be able to tell that i saw some giants recently. they looked HUGE and HOSTILE and UNBEATABLE. in most of all they look like that are blocking my way to the promises of God. but the very reason that we are seeing giants is because we are facing the right way. we don't see giants (based on the Bible) unless we are heading in the right direction. we think God leads us away from nasty wasty giants. but this Bible historical account shows us the exact opposite principe.
there be giants. they are HUGE and HOSTILE. but they aren't unbeatable. they have already been beaten. they just don't know it yet.
so that was a sweet word from God.
but in the middle of that passage was something even sweeter. more personal.
you see yesterday i texted a few of my nearest and dearest prayer warriors this text...
please pray for me today... feeling very 2 corinthians 4. hard pressed but not crushed. perplexed but not in despair.... fixing my eyes on what is unseen...
and then God takes that very verse that i texted yesterday. the verse that He Himself put into my heart yesterday to explain how i was feeling about staring some giants right in their beady little death eyes. He puts THAT VERSE smack dab in the middle of the devotional that i would read first thing this morning. and He unfolds its meaning to me even more clearly. my own little walk to emmaus.
from luke 24 (the trip to emmaus)
He (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself...
...When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
i love the message version of this passage from 2 corinthians 4...
7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized;
we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do;
we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!
the most often heard phrase from my lips these days (and heart) is "i don't know what to do." but God knows what to do. and He is doing it. He has promised to be at work. for my good. even if i am faithless, He is faithful.
jeremiah 32:40
I will make an everlasting covenant with them:
I will never stop doing good to them,
and I will inspire them to fear Me, so that they will never turn away from Me.
He has inspired me to fear Him. i will never turn away. even if there be giants. giants just mean that i am heading in the right direction...