"We can certainly do it"

(Today's reading is Numbers 12:1 - 14:45)
Interesting stuff today! Moses' sister Miriam dislikes his new wife and joins with her brother Aaron to talk bad about him. God takes up for Moses and Miriam is struck with leprosy. Moses pleads for her healing and she is brought back after seven days, healed.
The people arrive at the outskirts of the promised land. The LORD tells Moses to send in twelve men to spy out the land and bring back a report about what they see. Upon return, ten of the twelve spies tell the people that the land cannot be taken. They talk about seeing giants and that the land is bad. But Joshua and Caleb tell a different story. They tell of a good land and that God will lead them to victory in the land.
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.” (Numbers 13:30) It is interesting that twelve "leaders" of God's people can experience the same thing and arrive at different opinions. The difference was one group was seeing through human eyes and the other group was seeing through the eyes of faith. As the Hebrew writer tells us, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see". Caleb and Joshua had that kind of vision. Even though they had not yet seen the victory, standing against the other ten, they declared that "the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid" of the people in the land. I like that!
Would to God that we had more people like Caleb and Joshua in the church. Too many times we listen to "the ten" and say we can't do it.  We allow fear to creep in and rule in our lives. We forget Gods' promises and doubt takes root in our hearts leading us to unfaithfulness. The Israelites said "we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt".(14:4) Doubt and fear made them want to return to slavery. Slavery, imagine that, people giving up their new lives of freedom and a relationship with God to return to the shackles of slavery.
Before we judge them too harshly, let's consider if we have ever had those feelings or witnessed someone who chose to return to their old life of slavery to sin after enjoying the freedom found in Christ.
The 6th chapter of Hebrews contains a warning that we all should listen to very carefully. "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace". Again, Hebrews chapter 11, verses 26 ff gives us the same warning. Some would say that it is impossible to fall away, for a Christian to forfeit their relationship with God. Before you buy into that idea, I encourage you to get into God's word and see what He says.
Just like the Israelites, we can choose a different leader and return to slavery. Understand, no one can force you to choose to leave, you are secure as long as you choose to stay, but just like everyone else that we read about in the Bible, we make our own choice. Even the Apostle Paul said "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize". (1 Corinthians 9:27)
May each of us determine to see through the eyes of faith and never turn back to the life we had before we met our Savior. Let us be like Paul and discipline ourselves daily so that we to will win the prize. God bless you as you follow Him, looking through the eyes of faith. We can certainly do it!