It has been five years this month since we uprooted our lives and moved to Puerto Escondido to serve with GEM. Those five years, we saw God do many things. We had many expectations of what we believed God could do. We saw lives changed by the Gospel. We saw some of our school parent’s marriages restored. In those five years, we saw God do many things and He will continue to do them through His people. As well as all the things we saw God do, there were many challenges. Conflicts that arose between staff members at the school, covid shutting the school down for two years, and many more challenges that arose. In light of all these things, God didn’t change who He was and what He does.
God is faithful to keep his promises. He is loving, kind, gracious, compassionate, and forgiving. These aspects of his character are the foundation for all the things He does. It is out of these things that He forgives, cares, loves, and pursues the lost and broken.
Recently, I have been reading through the book of Numbers. It is a continuation of the story of the people of Israel whom God had rescued from slavery in Egypt. God rescues them from slavery in Egypt and desires to guide them into a new land, the promise land. In Numbers 13:1-2, God tells Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan in which He is going to give them. God is promising in these first two verses that He will give Israel this land.
Somewhere along the line, the people of Israel missed this. Israel sent twelve spies into the land and they came back to report all that they had seen. The report revealed that the land was exceedingly great, a land full of milk and honey, and the produce was rich. However, ten of these men stated that the land was occupied by people who were very strong and the cities too strong as well.
Caleb and Joshua were two men who believed in the promises and character of God. Yes, there was the challenge of this land and all the people that had occupied it, but they had an expectation in their God and his character that proves true over and over. When the people heard Joshua and Caleb’s encouragement to go into the land, they almost were stoned by some of the people of Israel before God intervened. The story goes on, but because of the people complaining, God led them into the desert for 40 years. Those that complained against God and doubted his promises did not see the promise land.
There is a major difference between Joshua and Caleb and the ten other spies. We could say that for Joshua and Caleb that they had expectations of God’s promises to come true and embraced the many challenges that Israel faced because they knew they could trust the character of God. The other ten spies had expectations of what life should be like. They complained because life was not as they had expected which led to the challenges moving them into fear and doubt because they did not trust in God’s character.
May we all remember that “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression (Numbers 14:18). It is through our hope in the never changing character of God that we can embrace challenges and difficulties knowing that Christ is with us all the way through. Because of this, we can hope in the promises of our faithful God.
– Daniel McDonald, Director of Global Engagement