Of Good Courage

Of Good Courage

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Caleb couldn't wait to get back to Kadesh to see Moses and Aaron and show them the things they brought back from their clandestine mission in enemy territory. He was ready to gather his family and start a new life in the land God promised to his people, the Hebrews. Forty long days of scouting was exhausting, but that was nothing compared to the couple of years it had been since Moses walked out of the desert back into the land of his birth to demand that the Pharaoh grant freedom to the descendants of Jacob. Finally their time had come...or had it?

Forgetting to Remember

The Bible tells how most of the twelve men that Moses sent to spy out the land of Canaan in advance of the soon to be Israelite conquest failed to do their job. All of them were men of renown, leaders in their particular tribes. Moses told them to check out the land, and to see what the people were like. Were there a lot of people? Were they strong or weak? The most important command Moses gave them was to “Be of good courage.”

Why did they need to be brave? Because Moses knew what kind of tricks the mind could play on people. It is so easy for us to forget who our God is when times get tough. We begin to focus only on what we see. We listen to and believe what the negative news cycles tell us 24 hours a day.  There they were, in the land for forty days, they found good things, and then returned with a cluster of grapes that had to be carried by two of them on a pole because of its size. The men even said to the people, “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey.”  There were very visible evidences that showed them what a great blessing lay ahead, yet they still saw themselves as weak in comparison to their enemies.

Remember just a short time before this God had miraculously freed the Israelites from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. He ruined the country with ten horrible plagues. The people of Israel saw Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and make their demands. They felt the negative consequences of Moses’ actions from retributions by the Egyptians, but then they saw the results of Pharaoh’s refusals; Egypt’s total devastation. The ten plagues were meant to demonstrate the superiority of God to the false gods of Egypt, including Pharaoh himself.

Once the Israelites were set free they were led in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. This was yet another miracle witnessed by these people. Of course Pharaoh changed his mind and decided to pursue the Hebrews all the way to the Red Sea. The army of Egypt was then blocked by the fire and cloud before it could reach the fleeing slaves. With the staff and leadership of Moses, Israel passed through the parted waters of the Red Sea.

We could fill a book with the astonishing wonders that God did for Israel. Over the next year He fed them with bread from heaven, and made water gush out of a rock, and that must have been one big gusher to quench the thirst of over two million people with their flocks and herds. Moses organized the tribes into a nation. He brought down the Ten Commandments from Mt Sinai chiseled in stone by the finger of God. He set up the sacrificial system with the tabernacle and all the holy articles of worship. When they erected the tabernacle a cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. This had to be sensational for the gathered masses. Even though they came from the land of the Pyramid and the Sphinx, a country whose king was a living god, they had never seen anything this marvelous.

Now was the moment of truth. All that had happened before was but preparation for this moment; crossing the Jordan River and entering the Land of Promise.  Regrettably, after God had visibly demonstrated his power and care for the people, they failed to act because of fear that they would not be able to take the land away from its current inhabitants. What a travesty! Were they blind? How could they fail to see that the mighty hand of God, that had brought them this far, would bring them the rest of the way?  Yes there were giants to face, but hadn’t God proved He was much greater than giants?

The ten nay saying spies remind me of myself.  At times I want to give up when life gets hard and things don't go the way I had hoped. Sometimes I expect that because I believe in Christ all my problems should disappear, and I should always be happy, even though nowhere in scripture is that shown to be the case. When Stephen, the Spirit led deacon so full of potential, preached his one recorded sermon, the people liked it so much that they threw stones and killed him! So much for potential! The truth is that instead of being rewarded for their proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus, most of the early Christian evangelists were imprisoned, put to death, or both.

Changing Direction

I come from a family that is very much knit to the traditions of the church and one of my cousins is a priest. For them it was difficult to understand that at the age of 19 I had become a “Christian.” After all, wasn't I Christened as a baby?  So when I told my parents that instead of entering the University of Massachusetts I was going to go to a small Bible College to get to know God, it was like lighting a fire in a dynamite factory. After a few frustrating conversations with my folks, my uncle called me to set up a meeting with our Parrish priest, Father John, who was a gentle old man from Lebanon. When he didn't convince me to change my direction things got even more intense. The folks didn't understand and I moved out of their house. Our relationship went from bad to worse over the years that followed as I pursued my education and my calling to become a missionary and a pastor. And though over time things got much better and our family is closer than ever, there was a high price to be paid for following the Lord. I had to do things that were not only costly, but hurt those who were close to me who didn't understand God's calling.

Following Jesus means that we turn from the path we are on and take a new one; the one He’s on. It's a choice to change directions. The Bible calls it repentance. When Jesus said to Peter, Andrew, James and John “Follow Me,” they dropped what they were doing and followed. That decision took them on a difficult three year journey with the Lord. They saw, heard and experienced things that no one else ever did. At times it was like heaven on earth, but often they were attacked and rejected. Traveling from place to place without a lot of money meant that they had to rely on the generosity others for food and a place to sleep. Despite all the turmoil in their lives that came about because of their encounter with Jesus, I'm sure that if we asked them if it was worth it they would give a resounding yes.

From Failure to Fried Chicken

Harlan Sanders was born in 1890, a hardworking man, he opened a Shell gas station in 1940 in Kentucky. At the gas station he decided to cook food and invite customers to come inside and buy some of his wife’s homemade vittles. The reputation of His restaurant grew and people came from all around the region for his good food, especially Harlan’s fried chicken with his recipe of 11 secret herbs and spices.

Things went well for the Sanders until 1955 when a highway was built, by-passing the town where his restaurant was. His business suffered to the point that he had to sell his property. At that time Harlan, also known as Colonel Sanders, was 65 years old. That’s when most are expected to retire; especially when their livelihood is stolen from them in the name of  the Interstate Highway System. Harlan had another idea. He took his fried chicken recipe on the road and began franchising it to local restaurants all over Kentucky and beyond. He called it simply, Kentucky Fried Chicken. He would get 5 cents for every chicken sold by the franchisee. By 1963 he had 600 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. This from a man whose thriving business failed by no fault of his own. Instead of giving up and being bitter and angry at his misfortune, he worked even harder and fathered the first worldwide Fast Food Chicken Restaurant chain, now called simply, KFC.

In 2007 I had the opportunity to visit China. While in Beijing I went to Tiananmen Square. From there you can see, above the entrance of the Forbidden City, a huge portrait of Mao Zedong. Later that same day descending the stairs to the Beijing train station I could not avoid an enormous painting of Colonel Sanders on the wall! Here was the image of a man who came so close to failure, but decided that it wasn't going to happen. Kentucky Fried Chicken was the first western fast food restaurant to do business in China, and Colonel Sanders is to this day the depiction of that success. The Colonel traveled the world representing KFC until his death in 1980 at the age of ninety. Harlan didn't let failure define him. He surely made some mistakes along the way, and though he must have been fearful and apprehensive at times, he continued to believe what could be rather than what was.

 A Doomed Generation

Moses' spies were not tasked with evaluating whether the enemies could be defeated or not. Their mission was simple; they were to get details of what might obstruct the conquest of Canaan. Only two followed instructions. The others tried to gauge the potential for success when God had already promised they would have it. James Daane wrote, “God spoke to nothing and nothing heard His voice and became something." That’s what God does for us. Had the contrary spies owned the same outlook as the confident ones, Joshua and Caleb, they would have led Israel into the Promised Land right then and there despite the hard times that surely lay ahead. Had they stopped and thought of how God had spent more than a year proving He was all powerful instead of collapsing in self-pity, they would not have doomed a generation to thirty nine more years of wandering till every last one, except Joshua and Caleb, was buried in the dirt.

Think It.. Say It.. Do It

Let’s not give too much credit to our problems. Often they are not as big as we make them out to be. It’s not that they aren't real. God didn't tell the Israelites that they were just going to walk in and take the land without a struggle. We too have to make our way in life, and work through the challenges that confront us. The difference is that we do it with the attitude of Caleb. He said to the children of Israel, “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.” When God gives us a charge, he provides what we need to get it done.

The statement of Caleb is the kind of expression we need; words that engender faith in God’s ability to take us through any problem that life throws at us. As the oft quoted verse in the Gospel of Matthew reads,  “And Jesus looked upon them and said, with men [it is] impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible."

When we look at the giants we see that we don't have the ability to defeat them. That's why we must look to Jesus. We see in Him a man that was written off as a failure, a fraud, and a fool, sealed in a tomb and soon to be forgotten by His enemies and friends alike. Then came the events that dumbfounded the wise and gave hope to the humble changing the world forever: an empty tomb and a resurrected Savior. Our faith in Jesus means we won’t merely get through life but we’ll do it victoriously. Because of His ability we are more than able, which allows us to always be of good courage.