The Promised Land - Heaven

We can learn a lot from the Israelite’s journey to the Promised Land. Heaven is the Christian’s promised land. It is a wonderful place, promising rest, peace and fellowship with God. Canaan promised the same to the weary wanderers.

God separated the Israelites from the rest of the world. He wanted them to be Holy. They were given rules to live by. They learned how to worship and how to have relationships with others. Christians are called to be separate from the world. We also have rules to live by. The Ten Commandments and The Golden Rule are just as necessary today as they ever were. We are to worship, obey and trust God that someday we will get where we are going and our journey will be worth it.

What He told them in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy is in the Bible for us to know and study. Through Moses, God brought the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery. Through Jesus, God brings us out of the bondage of sin. God told them all along what to do to become free and saved. He does the same for us. Their journey was taken in faith. So is ours. When they camped, God told them to put the Tabernacle in the center: God should be the center of our lives also.

In Deuteronomy 1:2 we see that the Israelites spent forty years on a journey that should have lasted eleven days! Christ’s return is taking longer than the early Christians expected. God was preparing the Israelites to live in the Promised Land. He is preparing us to live in Heaven. Our Promised Land is Heaven, and we’re going in!

God is bigger then our problems

There is a story in the 13th and 14th chapters of Numbers where the people are on the edge of the Promised Land and God tells Moses to send 12 men to “spy out the land of Canaan.”

One man from each tribe was sent out for 40 days. When they returned, ten of the men said that although the land did flow with milk and honey, the people who dwelled in the land were like giants and the cities too fortified. Only Caleb and Joshua suggested going in according to God’s plan.

The people wept and complained, saying they would have been better off dying in the dessert than having to face this, and made plans to pick a new leader to take them back to Egypt.

The ten spies compared the giants to themselves while Caleb and Joshua compared them to God. Moses prayed to God to forgive the people’s rebellion and in Numbers 14:20-24 God told Moses He would pardon the people, but "none of the men who had seen His glory and His signs would see the land He swore to give to their fathers and none of the men who despised Him would see it." Only “Caleb because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully” and in verse 30 “Joshua the son of Nun.”

So God made the Israelites wander the dessert another 38 years until that generation died out. The only two still alive to go in were Caleb and Joshua.

God doesn’t need much from us to accomplish His plan in our lives. Only a willing and trusting spirit. Focusing on our human predicament can paralyze us because the situation may appear humanly impossible. But, concentrating on God and His power will help us see the way out. We need to trust God. We need to know Him and His promises. When we face great problems, God has an opportunity to exercise His great power.