Standing Firm

When the children of Israel arrived at the edge of the Promised Land, they sent in twelve men to spy out the land. Among them were Joshua and Caleb.

Ten of the spies returned to Kadesh-Barnea terrified by what they’d seen. They looked at the land through eyes of unbelief and concluded, “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” (Numbers 13:31 NLT). They were paralyzed by fear.

Joshua and Caleb, however, brought back a favorable report. Caleb told them, “Let’s go at once to take the land… We can certainly conquer it!” (verse 30 NLT).

But the people were swayed by the majority report. They allowed the fear and paranoia of ten people to influence them rather than the words of faith and belief brought to them by two people. In fact, they were so angry with Joshua and Caleb for even suggesting that they go into the land that they wanted to kill the two.

However, Joshua and Caleb held their ground. They didn’t do what everyone else did and stood firm at the risk of being ostracized and losing their friends, even their lives.

At this point, God had a message for the people: “You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun” (Numbers 14:30 NLT).

The Bible says, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25 NKJV). We can become paranoid about what others think and go along with the crowd instead of being concerned with what God thinks.

If we want to fully follow the Lord and finish well in the race of life, we must refuse to compromise and instead stand our ground. We must be more concerned with God’s approval than with anyone else’s approval.