Numbers 13:30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Caleb and Joshua expected the blessing, because, not only had God promised them the land, but their minds had been trained to leave the door of faith wide open at all times, in any given situation. But the other ten spies immediately limited God to mere finite modes of thought and action, and as a direct result, their eyes became blinded to limitless possibilities. The same tendency to limit God is what drove those in Saul’s army to jump ship, when defeat seemed to be certain. They remembered not God’s miraculous power exercised in behalf of Israel in times past, and their hearts sank as they observed the massive army before them.
1st Samuel 13:5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.
[Testimonies 9] “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history.” When the Christian lives with the expectation of a blessing, he must realize that it may not happen in ways that conform to logic. The Lord might bring us into situations where, to human reasoning, there may seem no way out. But that should not dampen our expectations from Him.
Psalms 78:11 They forgot his works and his wonders that he had shewed them. 22 Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. 42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
May The Lord add His blessing to the study of His word. God bless!