Ten Scared Spies and Two Who Believed

God had promised his people a home.

Not just any place. A good place. A wide, green, growing place, where the rivers ran cool and the fruit hung so heavy it bent the branches low. A place where they could finally stop wandering and rest. They had marched out of Egypt, through the sea that opened, past the mountain where God gave his law, and now, at last, the good land was near. God had been carrying them toward it the whole long way, the way a father carries a tired child home through the dark.

So they sent twelve men ahead to look. Twelve spies, to walk the good land and come back and tell.

And oh, the land was good. So good that it took two strong men to lug home a single bunch of grapes, slung on a pole between their shoulders. They brought figs. They brought sweet, dripping pomegranates. They set the fruit down in front of everyone, and for one breath the whole camp could taste the promise.

But then ten of the spies began to shake.

"Did you see the people who live there?" they said. "Did you see the walls, high as the sky? Did you see the giants? Next to them we looked like tiny grasshoppers. We can't go in. We'll be crushed."

Fear does a strange thing. Fear makes the good place look like the scary place. The very land God had promised, the land flowing with milk and honey, now looked like a trap. The grapes were still sweet in their hands. But all they could see were the giants.

And the people believed the ten. They wept all night long. They said, "Why did God bring us here to die? Let's go back. Back to where we were slaves. At least we knew what that was."

They were so close. The fruit was right there. And they turned around.

But two of the spies were not shaking.

Joshua and Caleb stood up in front of everyone. They tore their clothes, the way you do when your heart is breaking, and they said, "Don't be afraid. Yes, the land is full of giants. But the land is good, and God is with us. Do you remember the sea he split open to bring us out? If God delights in us, he will bring us in. He always keeps his promise."

Only two believed. Only two could see past the giants to the God who was bigger than all of them.

Because the people were too afraid to step into the good place, that whole grown-up generation never went in. They wandered. They grew old under the open sky. The home was real, and the home was waiting, and their fear kept them outside the door.

But the promise did not die. God does not forget a promise. The children grew up, and one day, with Joshua walking out in front, they crossed over at last into the land of rest.

There has always been a home we cannot quite reach on our own. A rest too good for us, with a door we are too small and too afraid to open by ourselves.

So one day God sent a better Joshua. (His name is just another way of saying Jesus.) And this one does not send us in alone, trembling, hoping we are brave enough. He goes in first. He has already thrown the door wide, and he stands in it, and he says, Come in. Don't be afraid. There is room. I have gone ahead of you, and I will not lose a single one of you on the way.

So the door is open now. You can walk in today, your hand in his.

And the grapes the spies carried? They were only the first small taste of the feast Jesus is getting ready even now. The table is being set in the land of rest, and he is saving a place at it for you.