A Culture of Distrust

“They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.’

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’

But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’” (Numbers 13:26-33 NIV)

The Lord had promised the Israelites to give them the land of Canaan. Now He told them to assemble a reconnaissance team to enter the Promised Land.  When they returned, the consensus was the obstacles were too great for them to enter.  The people were too big, too strong, and too many.  The conclusion was attempting to occupy the new land would be suicidal.  

This reflected a cultural distrust that had long existed among the Israelites.  Countless times since their God-led escape from Egypt, they had questioned His wisdom and ability as He led them on this journey. Only a very small minority had trusted the Lord throughout, and one of those was Caleb.  His was the only voice raised to object to the pessimistic findings of the team. “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it,” he confidently proclaimed. However, they would have none of this wistful thinking.  They understood the realities on the ground and would not listen to such foolishness.

As I look at Christians today in our culture, I see many similarities with the Israelites.  On campus right now, students are in their final weeks of the semester and most are stressed out and worried about their projects and exams.  I try to remind students that worrying is actually a sin and that they should hand over their anxieties to the Lord, but it usually has little effect because all around them their brothers and sisters in the Lord are stressed and worried. It is the culture in which they live and they are carried away by it.

It is a similar culture in the adult world.  We live by sight rather than by faith in the God who always keeps His promises.  It is a culture of distrust.  

This is what Caleb faced and we face it, too.  The vast majority does not trust God.  What they say and how they live provides the evidence for that.  They worry about money, the future, the present, the past; they avoid an intimate relationship with the Lord for fear of what He might ask them to do; they think prayer often is an excuse for not taking “real” action; they fear suffering and death so take whatever steps to avoid either; they fear being outcasts so do everything to fit in.  In sum, they live in distrust of God and rely rather on themselves.

Even in the face of “reality,” Caleb held fast to the promise of God.  He had promised them possession of Canaan; thus, He would deliver no matter how impossible or impractical it seemed.  He went against his culture and was rewarded for it.

Today, consider our culture’s effect on your walk with the Lord.  Are you living boldly by faith, following Him wherever He leads you, being obedient to His commands no matter how difficult or impractical they seem to be? Or are you allowing the culture of distrust to influence you, to where, while claiming faith, you are relying on yourself rather than God?  Caleb has given all of us an example to follow.  We would be wise to do so.

© Jim Musser 2016