Staff Writer - Audrey Linton
Imagine this! Your call in life is to lead nearly 2 million people from an old culture to a new one, from an old paradigm to a paradigm shift, from a zone of comfort to change, upheaval and uncertainty. Only two people from your workforce catches the vision. The other 1,999,998 people are not willing to budge and they start to complain against you.
Well our dear friend Moses found himself in this position with the Israelites, once again!
“Why didn’t you leave us in Egypt and let us die there, rather than taking us to a land where we will be killed”, they murmured.
“We don’t want to go to a land flowing with milk and honey – let’s return to Egypt!”
Moses sent twelve of his top leaders on a special mission to go into enemy territory, which indeed was the promised land. Their mission was to check out its people, their military capacity, their agriculture and their infrastructure.
Ten of the leaders returned with a negative report and said “We see giants in the land and next to them we are like grasshoppers.” (Numbers 13 verse 33)
They were overwhelmed by the military might of the inhabitants of the land. This consequently had debilitating effects on the rest of the children of Israel and as a result the majority of them wandered in the wilderness for forty years until they eventually died there.
The other two leaders saw the potential within the land and had no doubt that they could overcome the obstacles.
The two in question were Joshua and Caleb who were the only two men* who left Egypt that entered into the promised land. Joshua eventually became Moses’ successor, Caleb will be remembered as having ‘a different spirit.’ (*Those over 20 years of age – Numbers chapters 13 and 14).
Interesting perspective!
I recently read the story of Harriet Tubman the great slave abolitionist. Her vision was to move as many slaves to freedom as she possibly could during her life time. She set out on her journey with some of her family, but they were afraid and went back into slavery. Harriet escaped and won her freedom.
Indeed, she did not look like a leader, in fact she too was once a slave, she had the scares of a slave, had the look of a slave, but what made her succeed? She had a ‘different spirit’ – she saw things differently.
She was honoured by successive presidents because of her bravery and vision.
Interesting perspective!
So what does this tell us?
We all come from different backgrounds, cultures and bring different perspectives as a result of our life experience.
Harriet Tubman experienced much of what the other slaves experienced,
Harriet Tubman Photo courtesy freedomarchives.org
suffered the same hardships and knew the consequences of her actions if she tried to escape from slavery. What made her different?
She believed she was called by God to help her people. She told one interviewer:
“The Lord told me to take care of my people as long as I live….and so I do what I am told to do.”
She may have seemed like a grasshopper to the mighty demon of slavery, but she will be remembered as a giant (killer) for years to come.
Caleb and Joshua experienced pretty much the same things as the other 10 men. They all left Egypt together; they all saw the greatness of God in action as He protected them from Pharoah’s army. But what made them different?
It was their unflinching faith in God.
I believe they did indeed see giants and they no doubt felt insignificant like grasshoppers. However, God said that they could take the land and destroy the enemies and they didn’t need to worry.
If Joshua did not believe God he would never see the walls of Jericho come tumbling down.
And what of Caleb – the amazing thing about this man who had a ‘different perspective’ was that in his eighties he actually inherited the land where the giants lived by strategically ‘driving them out’. Can you believe it! This 80 year old grasshopper eventually became a giant (killer).
Let me know your stories.
