The
Thirteenth Spy
Ezekiel 20 contains an interesting
revelation about God’s plan for Israel and the Promised Land. The stage
was set when a group of elders came to Ezekiel, asked of him that he
would enquire of God for them (20:1). God tells Ezekiel he has NO
interest in hearing their inquiry. He proceeds to tell Ezekiel WHY--for
centuries up until the present they’ve cultivated a deaf ear toward him
(20:3). Then the history lesson begins.
The Jews in Egyptian bondage were
engulfed in the worship of Egyptian idols. The notion Israelites in
bondage were all true Jehovah worshippers suffering under their
Egyptian taskmasters is not an accurate one. When Moses led the Jews
out of Egypt, many carried their Egyptian gods with them. The
miraculous Red Sea crossing was insufficient to shake them loose from
those gods. No sooner had Moses ascended Mount Sinai for
six-weeks of one-on-one time with God that they broke out their gods,
and, with Aaron’s help, fashioned a golden calf for worship.
In 20:6, God shares this revelation:
“In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth
of the land of Egypt into a land THAT I HAD ESPIED FOR THEM, flowing
with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.” The verb
“espied” was an instructive play on words. For every one of those
elders was no doubt familiar with the twelve spies Israel sent to ESPY
the Promised Land.
God himself was the FIRST of thirteen
spies. His report to his people was: “You can TAKE the
land because I have both SEEN it and have GIVEN it to you.”
Two of the twelve spies—Joshua and Caleb—were men of faith. They KNEW
there was nothing they could SEE from a spy mission that would cause
them to question what God had SAID. The other ten did not share that
conviction. It turns out what they SAW caused them to REBEL against
what God had SAID. The rebellion resulted in a forty-year death march
in the wilderness for an entire nation.
Joshua and Caleb were
dot-connectors. They understood CONQUEST of the land would of necessity
involve CONFLICTS, even with giants. So when God tells his elect they
are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37), does that not imply they come
out on the winning end of conflicts?
The spiritual lesson for us: Whatever
God has in mind for us regarding our FUTURE, whenever he sets the
FUTURE before us as he did Israel, we can be sure he’s ALREADY BEEN
THERE, having “espied” it for us.
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