What are some of God’s promises to us? Do you ever forget those promises? Sure, it is easy to do. Do you ever doubt God’s promises will come true? That too is easy to do. How about this one: Do you ever want to disobey God because obedience is really, really hard? Sadly, of course. Today’s story is about promises. It’s about God keeping his promises and about God’s people remembering his promises. But it goes one step farther than just remembering God’s promises. It’s about being brave enough to trust that God will keep his promises, even when it seems impossible.

After forty years of wandering, Moses finally brought Israel to the edge of the promised land. Then Moses sent twelve spies into the land. What do you think their job was? To spy! The spies carefully spied out the land. They returned and gave some good news. Milk. Honey. Figs. Pomegranates. And the world’s biggest grapes! They also gave some bad news. Ten of the spies said, “The big cities have big walls guarded by big people. We will look like grasshoppers! We can’t go into the land. They’ll crush us under their big feet!” The people cried out loudly in fear. Joshua and Caleb, two of the spies, disagreed. They said, “The people are big. True enough. But our God is so much bigger. Listen, our big God is with us, and he will give us the land!” Many grumbled because they were afraid. So Joshua and Caleb said, “God delights in us and promised us this land. Do not fear the people living there!” But the scared people replied: “We believe the ten not the two! We want to go back to Egypt.” What!? Can you believe that? Yes, sometimes people, even God’s people, choose the bad things we know over the good things we can’t see yet.

How happy do you think God was with Israel’s decision not to enter the land? Not so happy. In fact, God was angry. Moses had to step in again. He prayed for the people. And once again, God did not destroy the people like they deserved. But he still punished those who doubted God after all he had done for them. He told them, “No one who said no to entering the promised land will see it.” The people had more lessons to learn in the wilderness. God was on their side, but the people could not take the land that he had promised until they were brave enough to trust his promises.