We should choose
a leader and go back to Egypt (Numbers
14:4).
After the spies came
back from their Canaan reconnaissance, they couldn’t spread their bad news fast
enough: We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked
the same to them (13:33). After infecting their neighbors with fear, they tried to
organize a “return to Egypt” movement. We should choose a leader.
Obviously, in spite
of their complaint, the problem here was not the lack of a leader, but the lack
of followers. Of the twelve spies sent into Canaan ,
ten saw only the problems, while Joshua and Caleb saw the possibilities. And,
as usual, the naysayers carried the day.
When I stand before
the judgment bar of God, I pray that I’m not counted among those who stopped
the forward momentum of the church because they saw their glasses as half
empty.
The Israelites
wanted to choose a leader who would take them, with their tails
between their legs, back to Egypt. In other words, they were looking for
someone who would take polls and follow majority rule. That’s not leadership.
Leaders don’t let a group turn tail because of fear; they confront that fear
and find one way or another to move the group forward.
In his incredible
book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Mark Batterson writes that our greatest
opportunities “usually come disguised as insurmountable problems” [4]. Rather
than fomenting fear, God wants us to catalyze those in our sphere of influence
to do great things.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
If you’re presently facing
a crisis, what are the potential problems? …the possibilities?
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