There are a lot of giants in this world. The government. The media. Companies that put political agendas ahead of their customers. The love of money is a huge giant. All these giants seek to control their areas. They limit our freedom by censoring what we say; directing what we do; what we wear; where we go and what we buy. Yes, we believe we make the final decision, but what drives our decisions? How are they influenced? Are our decisions based on what the giants in our lives want us to do? Or are our decisions based on our faith in God the Father? God gave us freedom of choice. He delights in our freedom, but is the control of the giants more powerful than our faith and God’s gift of freedom?
By a miraculous act of God, Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. These people witnessed first-hand the outstretched arm of God deliver them from the pursuit of the Egyptians through the parting sea. They saw when they needed food and water how God provided for them. Yet they whined and complained and wanted to go back to Egypt where they were slaves. Notwithstanding, Moses led them on. In Numbers 13:2, the Lord came to Moses and told him to send spies into the land of Canaan, “which I give unto the children of Israel.” The spies saw that the land was good, the fruit of the land, they said, “flowed with milk and honey.” But there was a big problem reported by the spies—giants.
As Numbers 13:32-33 says, the spies “brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel…and there we saw giants…and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers…” This report set the Israelites on edge and they started questioning God’s intent of delivering them from Egypt. They murmured against Moses and they said, “were it not better for us to return to Egypt?” Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, however, remembered God’s promise and had faith where the others didn’t. In Numbers 14:9, they exhorted, “Do not rebel against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.” The Israelites would rather be slaves in Egpyt than rely on their faith that God would deliver them from the giants.
It was this lack of faith that caused God to make the Israelites wander 40 more years before entering the promised land. All because of some little giants. They felt they were small because they had forgotten their identity as Gods chosen people. Their sin was not just that they doubted God’s ability to conquer the giants, but they forgot who they were in the Lord. They were seeing with eyes of flesh, not by the Spirit. Galatians 5:16 commands, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” As is written in Hebrews 11:1, ”Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” When we are faced with giants in this world, let us remember Christ’s words in Mark 9:23, “all things are possible to him that believes.” Don’t let the giants of this world enslave you because of a lack of faith in God.
