When I was a pastor of students, one of the core truths that we tried to teach students on a regular basis was: "When you see as God sees, you'll do as God says" (Andy Stanley deserves the credit for the phrase). The problem with the people whom Moses sent to inspect the Promised Land is that they didn't see as God sees. It was a classic case of examining life through a human perspective and drawing the conclusion that there was an impossible situation in front of them. Forgetting all that the Lord did to bring them out of Egyptian slavery, ten of the men saw certain death for themselves and for their kin.
The truly amazing part is that the emotionally defeated nation decided to start making plans for the long journey back to Egypt! They decided that they would prefer to return to their miserable lives of slavery than to attempt to pursue what God was leading them to do. And what of the two men who attempted to bring inspirational talk to the situation? The decision was to stone them to death! The Israelites were so distraught over the bad news that they wanted to silence the voices of those who were pointing them back to God and His ultimate plan for them.
Unfortunately, their lack of willingness to trust the Lord caused them to pay dearly. They lost sight of what God was doing, and they forfeited their right to the Promised Land. Not only this, but their children had to suffer wandering in the desert for 40 years so that the untrusting generation could die. If only they had seen the Promised Land as God saw the Promised Land – they wouldn't have turned back. We need to see as God sees, too. And when we do, we can trust that what He's calling us to do is for our benefit and not for our misery. He has our best in mind – always.
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