Choosing 100% Faith in God

By Dean Collins

You have probably heard of the Pareto principle or what some refer to as the 80/20 ratio. The idea is that 80 percent of the outcomes are determined by 20 percent of the inputs or work. This concept is often referred to in business, and some people live by the idea. There are others who argue that this ratio is not well validated in research, and when applied to your workforce, it could result in a negative culture. But we are all familiar with the idea that in many places it is a smaller number who give the most and work the most, while some seem to just coast by.

In Numbers 13 we read the familiar story of the 12 men chosen to spy out the land in Canaan. They were amazed by what they saw: clusters of grapes, pomegranates, figs, a true land of milk and honey. They also saw that the people of the land were larger in size than they were. When they came back from their surveillance, they bought large clusters of grapes and other fruit, but 10 of the 12 spies gave a cautionary report. They couldn’t deny the richness of the land, but their fear got the best of them, and they focused on the opposition they would face and stirred up the crowd that going into the land was an impossible mission.

Joshua and Caleb gave a different report. They acknowledged what they saw but also that they were fully capable of taking the land. Their faith was in God, and they were not concerned about how many or how big the opposition was nor how fortified their land seemed to be. It seems that the 10 who were afraid did some embellishing of the details: “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

So, in this situation it was about 20 percent of 12 that had 100 percent of the faith. And the outcome was that the roughly 80 percent stirred up the Israelites to the point that the whole congregation cried and moaned all night. By the next day, the crying turned to complaining about the leadership of Aaron and Moses. 

A worked-up crowd can be a dangerous crowd and discussions of replacing Moses and Aaron began to gain ground. The situation got worse as the crowd began to control the messaging. They began to question the Lord’s plan, their leadership team, and as they questioned and protested, their fear increased. Here are some of the messages that were flying through the camp:

“Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!”

“Or would that we had died in this wilderness!”

“Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?”

“Our wives and our little ones will become a prey.”

“Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 

 “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 

Picture the scene. The 10 leaders who gave the embellished report because of their fear had worked the crowd up. Moses and Aaron, who realize the consequences of their rebellion, are face down on the ground before the Lord. Joshua and Caleb, who have 100 percent confidence in God, give an impassioned plea to the Israelites:

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 

The response of the masses was to gather stones and stone them. God had enough of this rebellion and made his presence known. When his glory appeared, the Lord spoke to Moses and was fed up with the rebellion and was about to wipe out the whole bunch, but Moses appealed to the Lord’s reputation and his compassion.

“And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

The Lord relented from ending things right then and there but declared that the generation that left Egypt would not be able to enter the promised land. Their rebellion came with a price. In God’s compassion, he would allow Joshua and Caleb and the next generation to enter the promised land. When the people heard what was about to happen, they tried to change course and decided that they would go now and take the land the spies had seen, but Moses warned them that if they tried that God would not go with them. They tried anyway and failed.

What can we learn from the hard lessons of spiritual ancestors? Maybe the first and most important lesson is that God keeps his promises even when our circumstances suggest that God is absent or uninvolved. God has called us into a relationship with him through his son Jesus. When we accept this gift, he not only forgives us of our sins, but he also fills us with his Holy Spirit and makes us royal ambassadors. As his ambassadors, we cannot listen to the crowds who suggest that they have a better plan than God. We cannot listen to and follow our fears. And we must evaluate our decisions through the lens of God’s word.

In our current moment there is a lot of noise in the news. There is also a lot of chaos in our country and in the world. In times of chaos and constant chatter in all media platforms, we must evaluate what we hear through the lens of scripture. When we participate in promoting fear and anger, we give the enemy more ammunition to destroy the unity that God calls his people to experience in Christ.

 Our big decision is not whether we join the 20 percent or the 80 percent on any topic or activity. God calls us to place 100 percent of our faith and confidence in Him. When the church unifies around Jesus as Lord, his word as fully trustworthy, and obeys the nudges of the Holy Spirit as He leads us, we will see the glory of the Lord at work in our lives, our communities, and throughout the world. The apostle John’s warning in the last sentence of his first epistle is relevant to our current moment: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Father, in our current moment in history we see the enemy stir anger, fear, and arrogance throughout our country and even throughout the world. Yet we know that your plans are going forward even in the midst of the tensions and chaos around us. Today we choose to put 100 percent of our faith in you. Today we turn to your word to guide us. Today we ask your Holy Spirit to direct our paths that we might be resolute in our obedience to you and to your plans for our lives, no matter what is going on around us. Help us to act with kindness, love, and grace with each person you place in our paths. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Numbers 13:17-33, 14:1-25, 27-45 ESV

Photo by Photo by Selim Özgün
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