We are back, friends, to continue from where we stopped last time. We asked the question: How big is your GOD? It is based on the experience of the Children of Israel in their Wilderness Journey, with specific reference to Number 13. Last time we read from verses 1-3 and from 26-33.

It is the story of the spies that were sent to spy out the Promised Land. That is verse 13:1-3. It seems as if the idea was that of GOD. But we saw last time that it was not so – as we compared scripture with scripture we saw, from Deuteronomy chapter 1 later, when Moses was recounting their experience when they were about to enter the Promised Land which they did not possess at that point. It was because of this spying of the land and the rebellion that that brought about that caused GOD to give them forty years to wander in the wilderness.

So let’s pick it up from where we stopped. We said last time that the majority, ten of them, gave a negative report of the land that they spied. First of all, the genesis or the root of the problem was the unnecessary mission because the mission was not GOD’s idea. It was the idea of the Children of Israel. Then secondly the wrong perception of the ten worsened matters.

Numbers 13:31-33

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” ³² And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³ There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

The problem that started as loss of confidence in GOD has now blossomed into an open rebellion against GOD. For in Numbers 14 from verse 1 we see the rebellion.

Numbers 14:1-4

¹So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. ²And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”

I want to conclude our discussion with what I call reflections of daily living. Based on this text let me make a couple of observations:

1. The men who had the perception problem resulting in a negative report were leaders among the people.

I want you to take note of that.

Numbers 2 and 3: “…send men to spy out the land of Canaan everyone a leader among them ³ So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

Those who magnified their problems and diminished themselves and in the process diminished God may occupy positions of leadership in the home, government or church. They may be very influential in the community or church. Leaders are supposed to inspire those they lead by a positive perception of GOD and of themselves otherwise they disqualify themselves as leaders.

1. These men acknowledged that what GOD said about the land was true.

And they returned with the proof of it, as seen in verse 27. Yet they nullified all that evidence with nevertheless. “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey [and this is the evidence], and this is its fruit. Nevertheless!

Often we doubt GOD and His ability in the face of all the assurances and evidence of His ability. We do so with a nevertheless or but. I know that GOD is able. I know that He did it for Abraham, and I know He did it for Isaac, and I know He did it for Jacob, I know He did it for the people we read about in the scriptures. But I am not one of them.

• The men were in the majority. They gave the majority report while Caleb and Joshua gave the minority report.

In the things of GOD majority is not necessarily right. God does not run a democracy. People need to know this, especially people who are in church. After all democracy is the worst form of government but for the rest. I didn’t say that. It was Winston Churchill who said it, that democracy is the worst form of government except for the rest. In other words, the rest are wolves. I would say this observation of Wilson Churchill is even truer in the society where democracy is by selection rather than by election. We can identify with that, can’t we? God is more interested in the hearts of men and women, not in the show of alms. He said of Caleb in Numbers 14, and later of Joshua in Numbers 32, that they had a different spirit in them, different from the rest ten, and they had followed Him fully.

Recall what GOD said to Samuel when he came close to anointing the wrong person, David’s elder brother, Eliab as king of Israel. God said to him in:

1 Samuel 16:7

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

GOD does not run a democracy. And He is not interested in the show of hands because He looks at the heart.

1. When we have a poor perception of God, even His attempt to help us could be misunderstood and misinterpreted.

God must have gone ahead of the Israelites to depopulate the Canaanites before Israel would fight them…because these spies witnessed so many burials, so many funerals and so they concluded that the land was devouring its inhabitants…but that probably was GOD trying to help them out. So when GOD is working on your behalf you may misunderstand it if you have the wrong perception of GOD.

1. In saying that they were like grasshoppers in their own eyes and in the eyes of their enemies. The ten men unwittingly exalted their enemies and diminished their GOD.

According to Isaiah 40:22 only in the sight of the GOD of Israel do men appear like grasshoppers, because in:

Isaiah 40:22

²² It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

If these Israelites were like grasshoppers in the eyes of the descendants of Anak then the descendants of Anak have been exalted to the position of GOD. You can’t do that and still win. When we see nothing else but our problems we are magnifying our problems above GOD.

How big is you GOD relative to your problems, friend. More often than not the issue is our perception of GOD not the size of our problems. And our perception of GOD is derived from the information we have concerning Him. Those who do not take GOD’s Word seriously will always have faulty perception of GOD. For those who know their GOD through an accurate knowledge of His Word the scripture says, shall be strong and carry out great exploits: Daniel 11:32.

Friend, let me conclude. Remember David, a shepherd boy saw the same giant that the army of Israel saw and ran away. But the difference between David and the rest of the armies of Israel was the perception of GOD relative to the giant. David had a big GOD. He perceived his GOD as able to do all things; and this perception of a big GOD David had cut Goliath down to size, cut him down literally, eventually. Pray that you will see God more clearly, friend. Pray that you will see GOD in His Word. Pray that you will love Him more dearly and follow Him more closely day by day. You have a right perception of Him. If you do your problems will be dwarfed while your GOD is magnified. All He is and have are for all who will draw close to Him through Christ. He assumes there are liabilities or deficits and releases His access to them. Our GOD is big in mercy, big in grace, big in patience, big in love, big in power.

The song writer has it right:

He is bigger than all my problems, bigger than all my fears. God is bigger than any mountain that I can or cannot see. Bigger than all my questions, bigger than anything. GOD is bigger than the mountains that I can or cannot see.

PRAYER:

Father, I thank You again for this time we have spent in Your Word. I pray that for those that have read, the problems that they have that loom very large, please by Your Word, give them the right perception of You that will lead to the right perception of their problem, for You are big enough to handle anything. We thank You in Jesus Name, Amen!