KEY SCRIPTURE: Numbers 13:30-32
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
RELEVANCE
I was praying about what to write for the 500th post and thought some encouragement in awareness might be apt.
Often in the Bible, people are represented as floods or rivers, which means a majority. Believers can follow majorities, thinking they are doing right. Only to find they are opposed to God's will.
As I put my fingers to the keyboard, I thought of a saying I heard in my 20s—"The most can err as easily as the few!"
Number 13:17-22. Moses sent Israelite spies to spy out Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham. Ten spies out of twelve returned with a faithless, human report. Despite being the majority, God punished them. In this case, His faith was with the minority, Joshua and Caleb.
Many times, God is seen in the minority, not the majority. In fact, we often find Him opposed to the majority.
Genesis 6-10. Noah and his family vs the rest of society. Over all the years that Noah was building the Ark, finding, sorting and loading the animals and provisions, God was with him, not the majority. But the majority thought they were right and Noah was a fool.
Judges 6-8. Gideon's 300 went up against 135,000 invading warriors. They only won because God was with them.
In 1 Kings 19:11-13, God showed Elijah that He wasn't found in the strong winds that broke rocks off mountains, earthquakes, or fires but in the still, small voice.
Further, there were 7000 hidden believers that Elijah was unaware of. Which was the opposite of the 2-3 million population of Israel whom God was not with.
2 KIngs 6:7 tells of the time when Syria warred against Israel, and Israel feared. Elisha prayed, eyes were opened, and reality was acknowledged—the mountain was full of previously invisible horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. These days, we know very little about the heavenlies.
Jesus spoke of the Strait Gate, a small spiritual entrance and a place we cannot enter unless we aim to strip off all human desires and put on Christ. That gate opposes the broad gate next to it that most people enter to their destruction. Where do we find God? Not in the broad gate, but the Strait or narrow gate of spiritual birth.
Jesus was one person against the multitudes in the priesthood, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Yet God was with Him.
In Matthew 7, Jesus tells a story about the future and the many people who will tell Him they've prophesied and healed in His name. Yet He will reject them as liars. Conversely, He recognises the few who did His will.
In Romans 11:4-6, Paul speaks of a remnant of believers, similar to Elijah's 7000, whom God will be with according to the election of grace.
If we think that these things don't happen now, in the Yom Kippur War, 1973, the far bigger army that invaded Israel on their holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement, stopped in its tracks. The commander said they saw mountains of previously invisible angel warriors ready to join the battle on Israel's behalf. They ran.
In this small gathering of examples, God shows us that when our enemies seem bigger or greater in number or smarter, or the storms are rougher than we think God can handle— the times we fear and tremble, we are not to lose faith.
However, regardless of whether we are standing with the majority or the minority, if God is not with them, you are on the wrong side. If God is with them, you cannot lose.
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PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank you for the 500 posts and the support and leadership of all these examples. Thank you also for your greatness in my life now. Please lead me on!
Photo by Adrianna Geo
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