ODJ: he who hesitates
September 25, 2011
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” (v.30).
READ: Numbers 13:1-14:2
In 2005, amid the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US, a leading politician summed up the response to the disaster with these words: “One of the problems that we’re facing at the federal level and at the state level and at the local level is a total system-wide failure, because people making decisions hesitated.”
This was a clear example of the proverb: “He who cannot come to a decision will suffer for it.” A biblical example of this idiom is the statement of the men who went to explore the land of Canaan. They brought back a negative report and influenced the people of Israel to not enter the Promised Land (Numbers 13:31-32).
After the people of Israel had been liberated from slavery, Moses began leading them to Canaan, the land that God had promised them. As they moved closer and closer to the land, the Lord told Moses to send some men to explore Canaan (v.2). The men scouted out the land, and—though it was spacious and fertile—they brought back a bad report about it.
This negative report—the people were too powerful and big, the cities were fortified, the land devours those living in it, and we seemed like grasshoppers to the inhabitants—spread throughout the congregation, causing great angst and hesitation among the people (14:1-2). They hesitated in the face of a divine promise and command because of fear.
Though God has given us commands and promises, sometimes we find ourselves hesitating on account of fear. When faced with tough decisions, let’s ask God to give us a spirit like Caleb’s—a spirit of “at once” obedience, unswerving faith (13:30), and unstoppable courage to stand in the power of God. —Marvin Williams
When has fear caused you to hesitate in obeying God? What command do you need to obey “at once”? What promise from God do you need to embrace today in the face of fear, caution, or uncertainty?
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Often we are fast in claiming God’s promises but unbearably too slow to obey Him.