The Perspective of Trust
Part of the Mining The Scriptures series
Isn’t it amazing how two people can view the same situation and see it completely different? What that suggests is that our biases and beliefs influence the way we see things. It’s the age-old question of whether the glass is half empty or half full.
Read the story of Joshua and Caleb in Numbers 13-14. The Lord commanded Moses to send spies into Canaan; that group included Joshua and Caleb. They were to bring back information concerning the condition of the land, its fruit and its people.
All the spies agreed on what they saw; the land flowed with milk and honey as suggested and the people were strong and of great size. Joshua and Caleb were different from the others because they saw that the land could be entered. Caleb said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it” (Numbers 13:30). The other spies disagreed. They gave a bad report, saying that they would not be able to enter the land.
Upon hearing their report the people rebelled. Even after Joshua and Caleb reassured them of the land’s goodness and God’s willingness to give it to them, the people were still unwilling to enter the land. They even suggested stoning Moses and the others.
These people were a stone’s throw away from the land God had promised to them. They missed their opportunity and privilege of entering into it. Why? They were unable to trust in God as they should have. After God pronounced their punishment, some tried to enter the land on their own. Without God as their help they were slaughtered by the Amalekites and Canaanites.
The other spies saw the same thing as Joshua and Caleb; so why the difference in their actions? Joshua and Caleb trusted in the Lord and His willingness to aid them. They remembered God and His faithfulness to deliver what He promised. They were not afraid to put all of their hope and trust into God’s hands.
The other spies failed to do that. They let their own thoughts and opinions cloud their perspectives and eventually paid the price for their lack of trust. “Even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord” (Numbers 14:37).
Our perspectives are clouded by biases, opinions, and beliefs. The other spies didn’t really see the same thing as Joshua and Caleb. They didn’t see that they should trust in God, and they left God out of their evaluation of the situation. How you perceive your need to trust in the Lord will affect the way you serve Him. If we don’t have a true understanding of our need to trust, we’ll be in the same situation as these people — we will not trust God as we should, and we will fail in our service to Him.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).