“There are Giants in the Land”

Numbers 13-14 selected verses

Moses sent [leaders from every tribe] to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is like and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.”

So they went up and spied out the land… and they cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs…

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they reported to him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and  occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we. The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “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 plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt. Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.”

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. And Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD is pleased with us, God 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 no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

It’s so good to be back with you today. I have missed you and I have missed this work that God has called me to. In the weeks leading up to my return, I've often been thinking and praying about you and trying to listen to the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us all. I think I might be more nervous for this Sunday than I was exactly a year ago for my first sermon to you as a candidate for the job. I’m nervous because now I’m not really new but I still have a “first Sunday” all over again. Of course, while it’s my first Sunday back, you all have been meeting and worshiping and growing these past four months and so I get to enter back in and discover how you have grown and changed these past four months and you will discover how I have changed too. 

For today’s sermon, I’ve chosen a story from the book of Numbers. I bet some of you are thinking, “Numbers? That sounds extremely boring” but I promise you it’s anything but! This is a passage that the Elders and Deacons and I read through together at the beginning of this year. The Session chose a verse from it to be our guiding passage for the year, but I realized I never got the chance to share it with the whole congregation and so it seemed fitting to start here today. 

Before we read today’s passage, let’s back up with a bit of context. If you’ve been around the church awhile, you might remember that at the end of the book of Genesis, the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt by Pharaoh. The book of Exodus tells the story of how God called Moses to be a leader of God’s people and God led the people out of slavery in Egypt, through the red sea and into the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land– the land of their ancestor Jacob. The book Leviticus is all about the purity laws that the people of God are supposed to follow since the presence of the Lord is dwelling among them in the tabernacle at the center of the camp, and then we get to the book of Numbers.

The Israelites' time in the wilderness does not go smoothly and almost immediately after escaping slavery, the new challenges and ambiguities of the wilderness terrify them and they quickly panic, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3). But, of course, God has not abandoned them and God provides manna and quail out of the sky for them to eat. Eventually, they make their way through the wilderness to the desert of Paran, which is about halfway to the Promised Land and this is where our story picks up today. It’s quite long, so I’ve abridged it slightly and asked a few volunteers to help me tell the story. 

Read the scripture passage above.

I told you it wasn’t boring! The Israelities have marched halfway from Egypt to Canan and now they get to hear the first reports back of what this so-called “promised land” is really like. I included all of Moses’ instructions because I love how the Bible frames it as these binaries– “whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not.” These are the questions that Moses and the Israelite people want answers to. They want to know what they will be up against when they enter the land and claim it for themselves. They want to know if it is worth the risks.

When the spies return from their mission, everything they report is larger than life. For some reason, it’s the Veggie Tales song that will always be stuck in my head when I start talking about it– “I hear its flooooowing with milk and honey (sounds sticky!) So we’re going to the Promised Land!” They bring back a cluster of grapes so large that it takes two of them to carry it, along with figs and pomegranates. For people who’ve been living in the desert off of bread and quail alone for the last few years, this must seem incredible. 

But…there’s something else in the Promised Land that is larger than life. Giants. The people there are huge. “We were like grasshoppers to them!!” The spies even say they are the Nephalim, which are a group of people mentioned twice in the Torah. The other mention is Genesis 6, just before the flood where they are called “children of God” or “fallen” angels that have procreated with human women, creating giant offspring like Goliath. They are an infamous people, talked about like we tell fairy tales of ogres and giants. Now I’m sure what it means to say if Nephilm were “real” or not. I don’t find the story of them being angels cast out of Heaven particularly convincing, but I do find it easy to imagine a few big, tall people in their big, fortified cities seeming like giants to these spies. It’s like when someone goes on a fishing trip and the size of the fish they caught gets bigger and bigger with each re-telling.  These were men born into slavery and spending their adulthood wandering the wilderness. They’d never seen cities outside of Egypt and now what they see are these incredible walled cities with strong defenses. Their awe and fear made the people there seem larger than life. 

So when the spies come back to give their report to the people, they tell them two things: It flows with milk and honey and the people there are giants. What do Israelites hear? GIANTS!! They panic and scream, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!” and start making plans to find a new leader to take them back to the hell that was slavery in Egypt but at least it was a hell that they knew. 

God is furious with the people– “How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?” and the punishment is severe– none of the adults of that generation will get to enter the Promised Land. Not even Moses. They will spend the next 40 years in the Wilderness where that generation will all die out before the next generation will enter, led by a new leader– Joshua. 

I used to think that my faith was only shaky because I hadn’t ever seen miracles firsthand so ostentatious and magnificent that it couldn’t be anything other than a sign from God. I liked to think that if I had walked through a sea parted on either side of me, followed a pillar of fire and smoke through the desert, and eaten bread that literally fell from the sky, that I would fully and resolutely trust in God’s goodness and protection. I liked to think that if I had seen those miracles, then my faith would be rock solid. I would follow God anywhere through anything no matter how scary. But what I know now is that Israelites are not “some other people” who are fundamentally different from us. They are us. I can’t pretend like I’m somehow better or more evolved than they were. We are all just like them. We are told good and bad news and all we hear is the bad. We know exactly what it’s like to get whipped up into a fury over things or people that our leaders tell us to be afraid of. I mean, that’s more or less been a leading political strategy for the last decade or so, hasn’t it? We say we trust in God and then we can’t see how the road ahead could possibly lead anywhere good and we panic. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

So why did I choose this story now? Why this year and why this Sunday? Because I believe this church is in a similar position to the Israelites in this story– in leadership transition and looking ahead to a future that is anything but certain. 

Last year, you called me to be your pastor knowing that you only had the money to guarantee me a two year contract. Our future is unclear and the only thing we know for certain is that whatever the future holds, it will not look like our past. And so now here we are– we can look ahead and imagine a future flowing with milk and honey– one where this congregation flourishes and thrives. A future where our kids grow up knowing the love of Jesus. A future where there is a church that we can call home. A future where there is a church that will be around to marry and bury us. A future where our neighbors find care and love and belonging here too. 

But in the future we can imagine, we can also see giants. They are more metaphorical than those of the Israelites but they are no less real. Back in January, our leaders knew right away how to name those giants– our congregation is old; we’re small; people are tired; that dang basement addition; we don’t have enough money; churches are failing everywhere around us; the roof is leaking; we don’t have enough money; we live in a post-christian society; what if we close our doors? what if we fail? and did we mention money? That giant looms above them all, doesn’t it? 

Yes, we can see giants out there in the Promised Land and so we have a choice– do we listen to the 10 who tell us only about how big the giants are or to the 2 who tell us, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD is pleased with us, God will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.” Caleb and Joshua do not deny that there are giants. Pretending that challenges and fears aren’t real isn’t how we overcome them. Caleb and Joshua said, “Yes there are giants, but our God is bigger. Look at what God has done for us! God won’t abandon us now.”

I want us to listen to Caleb and Joshua, not the fearful ten. I want to go forward because of what we have seen in our past. When we look back at our past, I don’t want us to be tempted by the false nostalgia that makes us think everything was easier and better back then and why can’t things be like they used to be?! I want us to look at our past to remember that God has shown up for us over and over again. When it seemed like the way forward was impossible, God made a way. On paper, I’m not really sure that this congregation should even still exist. You have been small and scrappy for a long time. Churches all around us with bigger numbers and bigger bank accounts and fancier buildings have closed their doors and still, you are here. It’s a testament not just to your faithfulness to this congregation, it’s a testament to God’s faithfulness to you. God has gotten us this far and God will not abandon us to the giants in our future. God may call us to do things that seem as crazy and impossible as marching around a city with trumpets to make the walls come crumbling down. Will we trust God and march anyway?

Friends, I am so glad to be on this journey with you. Whether we are in the desert or the promised land, we are there together. May we learn from our ancestors’ mistakes and choose to trust in God instead of listening only to the voice of fear. May we be afraid and go forth anyway. May we remember that God has brought us this far and God will not abandon us yet. And that is always good news.