Good Seed, but Bad Soil

In chapter 13 of the book of Numbers we have the well-known story of when the Israelites are in the wilderness and Moses sends spies to scout out the land of Canaan before entering and invading it.

Before reaching the wilderness, the Hebrews had lived in Egypt for several centuries, part of that time as captives. They had been slaves, and in fact God had allowed them to dwell in Egypt only while they grew and became a numerous and viable people, so that He could then bring them out and lead them to the Promised Land.

The Hebrews grew in number, and the time came when they had become a very large population—more than a million people—and God decided to bring them out of Egypt. And the Lord—we all remember the story—sent Moses as a deliverer and freed the Hebrew people from the clutches of the Egyptians.

God’s purpose was to bring them to Canaan, a land He had reserved for them in another part of the Middle East. And there the Lord had prepared a great blessing for them, great provision, great abundance for His people. A land, He says, flowing with milk and honey—a land of great abundance.

God had decreed that the tribes, the nations that possessed those lands of Canaan, were to be exterminated; they had to be uprooted from the land because of their great wickedness, their great sin. They had become morally corrupt through human sacrifices, gross sexual perversions, and every kind of corruption. And God had decreed that those nations had to be driven out of the land so that it could be given to the Hebrews.

We also know that Abraham, centuries before the Hebrews went to Egypt, when he was simply a nomadic man, had traveled through those lands and marked them out for God and His future people.

Centuries earlier, God had already purposed to give those lands to His people, and everything that came between Abraham’s exploratory journey and the Hebrews’ arrival in Canaan was simply God’s preparation throughout history. God was preparing the stage so that the Hebrews could finally reach the Promised Land.

And so here in Numbers chapter 13, the Hebrews are now very close to entering Canaan. They have come out of Egypt, and everything is now ready for them to enter the land God has appointed for them. God has already purposed for it to be so.

Notice this: the Hebrews are now on the very threshold of entering into the blessing, the inheritance God has prepared for them since the foundation of the world.

Later we will see that, despite God’s good purposes, that first generation of Hebrews who came out of Egypt was unable to enter into the blessing God had appointed for them. They all died in the wilderness.

Because there was unbelief in them, they could not enter God’s rest. Only Caleb and Joshua attained the blessing because they believed God. We want to be like Caleb and Joshua. We want to be good soil, so that when the word of blessing falls upon us, it will find an attitude of faith ready to receive it and allow it to grow.

I want you to grow in your faith and become fertile soil for the seeds of blessing that God wants to plant in you.