Valleys: Find Courageous Conviction in Life’s LowsSample

Trusting God with Your Giant-Sized Doubts

If you don’t spend much time reading the book of Numbers, you’re in good company. Every time I revisit a story in Numbers, I reorient myself to God’s redemption storyline to find my bearings.

On page one of the Bible, God created the first man and woman in his image and started a relationship with his people. But Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s good plan to bless the whole world. This is the first of many times that God forgives sin and creates a way for people to remain in relationship with him.

In one of God’s many acts of grace, he chooses Abraham and his family to bless the world. By the time we get to the next book of the Bible, Exodus, we find God’s people enslaved under the Egyptians. God acts again, rescuing his people through a man named Moses, who leads the Israelites out of oppression, through the Red Sea and to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. Again, God proves that he longs to forgive—and restore a loving relationship with—his people. At Mount Sinai, he does this through a covenant that reassures the Israelites of their inheritance: the Promised Land. This was a place of fruitfulness and abundance, overflowing with plenty, a home for God’s people to settle and grow.

Right off the bat, you and I should sense that the Promised Land is a sacred echo of the Garden of Eden, a place of promise and hope. Even the valley's name, Eshkol, which means cluster (as in a cluster of grapes), has symbolic meaning as an area with deep soil where lush produce can grow.

The forty days the twelve spies spent scouting the land also represents a sacred echo, hearkening back to Noah’s forty days in the ark during the Flood. In the Bible, a forty-day window is a pattern: enough time to test our faith. And that’s what we see happening to Caleb in the valley of Eshkol.

Caleb displayed courage when he trusted God’s power over the giants of the Valley of Eshkol. For Caleb, occupying the Promised Land was as sure as God is strong. But the scouts’ report was a failed faith test for the rest of the Israelites.

The Israelites fixated on legitimate fears about the fortified cities occupied by giants. They compare themselves to the giants and assume their average-sized selves are too small. They blame their leaders for leading them astray, and worst of all, they doubt God’s capabilities. Their rebellion delays God’s blessing—forty days of testing becomes forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

If you’re having a hard time counting on God, you’re not alone––it’s part of the human experience. But on the other side of doubt is deeper relationship with God and the abundant life he offers. Giants may be in the land, but you are not abandoned. God is with you and for you and will carry you into the promise.

Prayer: God, Thank you for your unyielding commitment to making a way for humanity to be in relationship with you. Help me to trust you in the valleys, confident that you can bring forth fruit in the low, lush places. In Jesus’ name, Amen