Living the Promised Land Life

One of the more significant historical events in the life of the people of Israel was the exodus event. It is recorded for us in the books of Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. After 400 years of bondage in Egypt, God responds to Israel’s cries for deliverance, raises up Moses and supernaturally delivers the people. The promise of a Promised Land, originally given to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21, confirmed to Isaac, is about to be fulfilled. Unfortunately, all but 2 who were living at the time would never see it, though they had the opportunity to live in it. Extraordinary isn’t it!

The ten plagues that preceded their deliverance were an over the top demonstration of Yahweh’s power over the so-called gods of the land. Each plague demonstrated in a visual and dramatic way the Lord has no equal and He alone is worthy of our wholehearted worship and devotion. Even in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. Said another way it was another reminder that God is fully capable of keeping His promises, even when circumstances suggest otherwise. And yet in spite of having just experienced God’s supernatural deliverance, when it mattered most, the people faltered in fear and unbelief. The report of the spies sent in to do reconnaissance sums it up for us.

We went into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are very large; and moreover we saw the descendants of Anak (giant sized people) …and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:27-28, 33)

In the terms of an overused contemporary expression, it was an epic failure!

The temptation I suppose is to just write it off as a piece of unfortunate ancient history. But the apostle Paul says not so fast. He writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we have something to learn here. In 1 Corinthians 10 he references the Exodus and then writes the following, “these things happened as examples to us,” “that we would not crave evil things” and “they were written for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:6,11). Clearly, they have been written in order that we would not repeat the same mistakes.

As new covenant believers in Jesus Christ, we have been promised, by God Himself, our own Promised Land, “flowing with milk and honey.” Jesus called it the abundant life (John 10:10). And like our old covenant predecessors, the only way to have that life is to rise up in faith, overcome our fears and defeat the adversity that co-exists alongside all of God’s promises. Our first mistake often is to believe that God’s abundant life for us will come easily and without significant sacrifice on our part. We need to be confirmed in our true identity as a follower of Jesus, we need to learn to trust God in every circumstance and we need to become skilled in spiritual warfare to overcome the enemy.

Finally, we need to choose to believe that God is going to make good on all His promises. In the heat of the moment, when the pressure is really on, we often act as if we believe we don’t have a choice or maybe we have conditioned ourselves to really believe that we don’t have a choice? Reason, common sense, logic and outside counsel all seem like the better, maybe safer, choice? Most likely it seemed this way to the Israelites as well. In his letter to the Hebrews, chapter 3, the author references the same exodus event and uses words like rebellion, disobedience, and unbelief to describe the people’s failure. These are all words of choice. We choose to rebel, we choose to disobey and we choose not to take God at His Word. We have lots of excuses and more spiritual ways of trying to explain it away but the issue at its core is there needs to be a decision. We need to always remember it is a choice to believe in God’s promises.

Many of us look upon our current life situation and we know we are not living the abundant life that Jesus died to give us. There are times when we think we have it but they don’t last very long. Or maybe we have never experienced the superabundant, supernatural life that Jesus and the author New Testament writers describe. Either way, the remedy is the same. We start by asking ourselves are we taking God at His Word and believing His promises, even in the most difficult circumstances? It isn’t the only question that needs to be answered but it is one of them.

God’s plan for your life, the supernatural abundant life, cannot be realized by remaining comfortable and playing life safe but choosing to believe God. Let’s each of us take that first step today and experience the Promised Land life!