God sends Moses into the land of Egypt to rescue and deliver His people from their slavery to the Egyptians. He throws 10 whopper plaques at the Pharaoh in order to get him to release His people from their bondage. God literally parts the Red Sea to complete the deliverance mission. God the Father performs one of the most powerful supernatural displays of signs and wonders that the world has ever seen to get His people pulled out of Egypt.
Moses tells God’s people that God will give them what He calls the Promised Land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. He will settle His people down in this land and this is where He will then break the Israelites off into 12 different tribes.
However, there is one little catch to this story. Before they are allowed to enter into this Promised Land, they must all first pass a test with the Lord. God allows them to stay in the wilderness for 40 years. He gives them all the basics as far as food and water in order to survive in the wilderness for the 40 years. God purposely tested His people to see if they would hold fast to Him and follow all of His ways while in this wilderness setting. And time after time, they continued to get themselves in major trouble with the Lord.
At one point, God got so mad at their rebellious attitude, that He literally wanted to kill them. But Moses went into the gap for his people, pleaded his case before God as to why He should not kill His people, and the Bible said God relented and changed His mind – all because Moses stood in the gap and effectively pleaded his case before God.
However, just after a little over 2 years into this 40 year wilderness journey is where they finally blew it for the last time with God the Father. The Israelites sent twelve spies into the Promised Land to check out who the enemy was and to develop battle strategies to defeat them. God was going to allow them to go into the Promised Land, but they first had to defeat and drive out some of their enemies in order to conquer and possess the land.
When the spies came back, ten of them came back with a bad report. They said their enemies were giants and that their kingdoms were too well fortified and they would not be able to defeat them.
Now mind you, God had just got done delivering them out of Egypt with one of the greatest displays of His supernatural power the world has ever seen with Him throwing 10 whopper plaques against the Egyptians and then parting the Red Sea to give them safe passage into the wilderness.
When God saw all of their negative attitudes and their lack of faith and belief in Him and His power, He literally threw up His hands and said that was going to be it. At this point, He tells them that all of the men who are 20 years and older would not enter into the Promised Land due to their lack of faith and belief in Him. He said they would all wander in the desert for the next 40 years until they all literally died out in the desert. God says that their carcasses would fall in this wilderness and that their sons would be their shepherds bearing the brunt of their infidelity towards God.
The spies that went went in to spy out the land did so for 40 days. As a result of this bad report – God pronounces judgment that they should wander in the wilderness for 40 years to match up with the 40 days that they had spied out the land for.
Now this is where Joshua and Caleb come in. God then tells Joshua and Caleb that they and the younger generation under 20 years of age would be the ones who would be able to go into the Promised Land because they had “wholeheartedly followed God.” They had full faith and belief in God that He could defeat all of their enemies once they went into the Promised Land to conquer and possess it.
Joshua was the leader that eventually led them in. Moses himself was not allowed to go in and he died and was buried out in the wilderness. Joshua then took Moses’ position as leader of the Israelites. Joshua then goes into the Promised Land with his strong faith and belief in God, and then proceeds to literally wipe their enemies off the face of the earth and conquer and possess the land that God had promised their earlier forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I will leave you with one last thought. Joshua and Caleb took their strong faith and belief in God, entered the Promised Land, and achieved total victory in God. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. What He will do for one, He will do for another.
If God is calling you to go through this door, then rest assured that you will have the full power of God operating through you to achieve total victory just like Joshua did!
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need someone to be my guide.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
and pray for strength to carry on.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and cannot ever pay the debt.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
my flaws are too visible
but God believes I'm worth it.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
which is why I seek His name.
When I say..."I am a Christian"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.
-Author Carol Wimmer - Copyright 1988
