How Do You Enter Unknown Territory?
Good Morning Friends,
God calls us to have faith that will not fold. We see the challenge and the truth of it in today’s lectionary selections. Both deal with the requirements of having the faith to encounter the unfamiliar and discover a way to succeed. We see the challenge of this in the journey to Canaan and the God imposed delay on entering the promised land for the Israelites. And we see it in Jesus extending the meaning of Christianity beyond men to women and beyond Jews to Gentiles. This requires faith but also some planning and optimism. How Do You Enter Unknown Territory?
Scripture: The Lord said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.” At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.
And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.” But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.” So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me. Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say: your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.” I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.
Numbers 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29a, 34-35 (NRSV)
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Matthew 15:21-28 (NRSV)
Message: God has blessed us in so many ways. Yes, we should look back at what God has given us and give thanks, but we also need to keep an eye on the road ahead and be prepared for what is to come. Today we look at what happened to the Israelites as they prepared to enter Canaan and the faith of a Canaanite woman who believed in the power of Jesus to extend the blessing of healing to her daughter. It would be wise to examine the actions of the characters in today’s scripture and take notice of how we can apply their situation to ours. It is about overcoming barriers. For example, the passage from Matthew is about a woman who had three cultural barriers for that time. First, she was a woman, second, she was a Gentile, and third, she was a Canaanite. She had multiple challenges. So too, God was challenging the Israelites to stretch their faith. He not only wanted them to have a desire for the land, but he wanted them to take a good look at their adversaries. He wanted them to turn to Him in faith to conquer these powerful people. In like manner, God challenges us in our Christian walk. We have a challenge before us, one that is not going to come without its share of difficulties. But know this, if we try to do it alone we are doomed for defeat. However, if we allow God to lead us we will enter the place of promise with victory. So, learn from the Canaanite woman. Learn from the Israelites. Learn that God can grant us faith, a faith so great that it will not give up even in the face of uncertainty, a faith so great that it seeks Jesus Christ relentlessly, a faith so great that it believes God’s blessings are too big for one nation, a faith so great that it never quits.
Pray we realize that God is in control. Pray we act when God wants us to act. Pray we consider the good and the bad. Pray we consider the barriers to engagement. Pray we find a way to defeat the enemy. Pray we establish our presence, strengthen ourselves, and settle the place of promise. Pray we consider the opportunities of change. Pray we realize that God finds pleasure when our faith persists despite pressure. Pray God grant us the faith of a woman who had nowhere else to turn except to worship at Jesus’ feet.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 