Imagine yourself facing the following task: a twenty foot long, 2×8 plank is placed between two cinder blocks in front of you. At the opposite end of the plank is a brick. The brick holds down a $100 bill. You are told that if you walk the entire 20 foot length of the plank, you may have the $100 bill. You practically skip to the other end of the plank thinking, “This is the easiest $100 I’ve ever made!”
Then you are offered the opportunity to make another $100, if you are game. Fail this test, and you not only don’t get the second $100, but you have to give back the first. You have to walk the length of the exact same plank to retrieve another $100 bill except this time the plank is 300 feet above the ground between two towers.
Think you could do it? What would you be thinking about as you walked out on the second plank? How would you feel? Would you be scared? I know I sure would be!
The difference in the two scenarios is a great parallel to today’s scripture reading from Numbers. In the first scenario, you are like Caleb. When Caleb returned from spying out the Promised Land, all he could see was the reward… taking the nation of Israel in to settle the land that God had promised them while they were slaves in Egypt. In the same way, your attention was only on the reward of the $100 bill at the end of the plank.
In the second scenario, the focus changes. Your attention is diverted – just like the other spies – to the DANGERS that lie ahead. You can’t keep your mind off the prospect of slipping and falling off the plank. Somehow the $100 at the other end doesn’t seem nearly attractive enough to take that kind of risk. No one can calm your fears by pointing out that it is exactly the same plank you just sauntered casually across a moment before. Suddenly it is the PLANK OF DEATH!
We learn a vitally important lesson from this amazing story from Numbers. Of course, Caleb saw exactly the same people – the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites – that the other spies saw. No doubt he was impressed with their size, too. (The other spies said, “There we saw the Nephilim and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers.” Num. 13:33). What we learn from this story is that Caleb did not see the task of entering and taking possession of the land as depending solely on his skill and strength. As he exhorted the rest of the Israelites, “The Lord is with us; do not fear them.” (Num. 14:9). Caleb COULD focus on the reward because of his faith in God’s promises. The other spies, when they looked at the challenges ahead, lost heart because the obstacles were larger than they could surmount by themselves.
I need to look back regularly at this story and remind myself to follow Caleb’s example when I confront a challenge that seems larger than I can possibly face on my own. Caleb knew that with God, nothing is impossible. He also knew that without God nothing is possible.
