Living From A Heavenly Perspective

God made a promise to a nation of enslaved Israelites that He would cause them to possess and inherit a land flowing with milk and honey. When Moses sent out the twelve spies to spy out the land of Canaan, they found that indeed the land was flowing with milk and honey, but there was one problem, the land was also overflowing with the descendants of the Nephilim also called the Anakim.

I will try and give a short dive down on who the descendants of the Nephilim were so that we can fully appreciate why the ten spies and the larger nation of Israel became intimidated by them. Genesis chapter 6 speaks of when the “Sons of God” (believed to be rebellious angels) mated with the human daughters to produce a different race of giants who were called the Nephilim. While the subject of the existence of the Nephilim race after the floods is still a matter of discourse, it is believed that the people the ten spies saw descended from this race.

To bring this into further perspective, I will refer to the story of David and Goliath who was a giant and a descendant of the Anakim, who was a descendant of the Nephilim. 1 Samuel 17 describes Goliath to have been six cubits and a span tall. A cubit was approximately 18 inches and a span nine inches, making Goliath 9 feet 9 inches tall. If you read keenly what the Bible says about Goliath and other giants in the Bible, you will realize that Goliath was not even the tallest or greatest of them and these were the kind of people that the ten spies saw filled the land of Canaan. The Israelites were so afraid and intimidated that the enslavement of Egypt seemed like a better option.

Now, I’d like to take a moment of reflection and pause a question to the reader, from the statements I’ve made above, we see that the Israelites had every single reason to be afraid, the ten spies did not lie when they said that the land was full of giants and that they were like grasshoppers before them, it was a factual imagery representation of Israelites standing before Canaanites. Now, the report that the ten spies gave was, for all intents and purposes “true”. Hence I ask, why was God angry at them and why did he punish that generation by making them wander in the wilderness for sharing a “true” report? In fact God says in Psalm 95 that He loathed that generation and He swore that they would not enter His rest. Perhaps the report was “true” but it was not good, because the report subjected the promises of God to the factual reality and not the other way around

As I meditated on the question above, my heart was convicted that perhaps God does not want us to live by the factual realities of what our eyes see but by the seemingly great and “unbelievable” promises that He has made to us. The Israelites had two realities presented before them, one by Yawheh; a promise of land full of milk and honey and completely annihilating their gigantic enemies and yet another reality by the world; stating that the challenges facing them were greater than the promises given.

Perhaps, we too have similar paradoxical realities in our lives; on one hand we have God’s promises and on the other hand the factual realities of life that look like the complete opposite of what God has promised. What is my clarion call to the one reading this today? To make unbelief our enemy, for all the promises of God are attained by believing that the One who promised is faithful, His integrity is in His word. May we elevate God’s perspective above any reality our fleshly eyes can see. I pray for the person reading this, may you choose to be fully immersed in the reality of God’s promises like Caleb and Joshua, the only two spies who gave a good report and the only two in their generation that lived to see the realization of God’s promises.