Standing on the Brink of Faith

It’s a breathtaking, almost infuriating moment.  The people of Israel were there, in Kadesh-barnea, on the cusp of blessing.  A little more than a year after leaving 400 hundred years of slavery in Egypt, they were on the doorstep of Canaan.  They were about to receive the next step in God’s covenant promise to Abraham.  At God’s command, Moses sent spies into the land.  The spies’ report was good, yet fearsome: “The land is rich, but it’s full of warriors whom we can’t face” (Num. 13:27-29).  So said ten of the twelve men who spied out Canaan.  Two said, “Let’s go!  Yahweh is with us!” (Num. 13:30, 14:6-9).  Rather than hear the two, Israel listened to the ten:

“Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?  Our wives and our little ones will become a prey.  Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’  And they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt’” (Num. 14:1-4).

This is Israel’s response after the plagues in Egypt…after deliverance across the sea…after the glory and terror of Sinai…after the manna…after the quail…and so on.  They don’t doubt God’s reality (in a sense), but they doubt his goodness.  They rebel against his rule.

As it was with Israel, so it always is in the fight of faith when sinful flesh rears its head.  When faith requires that which seems risky en route to God’s blessing, fleshly faithlessness attacks the goodness of God.  In anxiety, it catastrophizes (“They’ll kill us!”), reasoning as if God does not exist and is not faithful to his promises.

Ever found yourself on the brink of faith in your battles with the world, the flesh, and the devil?

Ever found yourself pining for the good old days of bondage; bondage to sinful patterns, to an easy life, to immature faith, to childish ways of thinking and living, etc.?

Ever found yourself wanting a return to Egypt because you’re not willing to risk everything on the premise that God is good?

Ever found yourself forgetting God’s track record of faithfulness in your life, not to mention across history itself?

“[We have not received] the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but [we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba!  Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).  When you find yourself standing on the brink of faith, take care against the temptation to doubt the goodness of God.  Take refuge in God’s Word, and let your heart and your mouth cry, “Abba!”  After that, press forward into the land of promise.  Will God who began a good work in you, and for you, fail to finish his work (Phil. 1:6)?  “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do [according to his promise]” (1 Thess. 5:24).