Presumption | Wayfarer

“Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
Numbers 14:3 (NIV)

As a purely base human instinct for survival, fear is essential. Our brains react to situations instinctively to warn us and cause us to be cautious of or to flee potentially fatal dangers. As a disciple of Jesus, I have found that the spiritual journey requires the development of faith that overcomes fear. Fear is the enemy of faith. Where Jesus leads me is away from the fear of death. In fact, where Jesus leads, I walk into death as He did, believing what He asked the sister of Lazarus to believe:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Today’s chapter is one of the most crucial waypoints in the Great Story. Having quickly reached the Promised Land, the Hebrew tribes are at a point of decision. Will they have faith that the God who miraculously delivered them from Pharaoh and 400 years of slavery will also deliver to them the land He’s been promising all along, or will they now refuse to go where He is leading them?

I found an interesting pattern emerge from the story starting in yesterday’s chapter and continuing into today’s fateful moment of decision.

It begins with fear, expressed in the spies report back to Moses:

“But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.”

As the fear grew, it led the spies to exaggerate, lie, and deceive the people as they spread false claims:

“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

The fear, fueled by deception, leads the people to doubt and a presumption:

“Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. “

They don’t know this negative outcome is going to happen, but their fear has led them to believe it. Fear has led to a kind of shadow faith, the firm belief in their pessimistic presumptions.

As a confirmed pessimist, I know this road to presumption really well. I’ve trodden its path many times on this earthly journey. In fact, I can see it play out constantly in the doomsday predictions that come from both sides of the political aisle as well as conspiratorial groups that are ever with us. As Wendy and I sit over breakfast every morning and read through the news, not a day goes by that there isn’t at least one headline proclaiming some kind of doomsday scenario. I’ve observed that not only is fear a base human instinct, but its also both contagious and creates reactive responses. Among those active responses is clicking on the doomsday articles to find out how we’re all going to die, which makes media outlets money, which is why they love printing doomsday articles.

The spies fear led to deceptive exaggeration that spread their fears like contagion throughout the Hebrew camp, leading to a reactive uprising against Moses and Aaron, along with the threat to murder Joshua and Caleb for even suggesting that they enter the Promised Land. I see that same pattern happen over and over again in our own world.

Fear —> Exaggeration/Deception —> Presumption —> Reaction

In the quiet this morning, I find God’s Spirit reminding me of all the ways that Jesus called me to live by faith, not fear. All of the ways He calls me to respond with faith rather than reacting to fear. All of the ways He tells me that God’s Spirit leads to a place where my flesh instinct to fear death must give way to an understanding that the path to Life leads through death to the Resurrection.

Like the Hebrews camped outside the Promised Land, if I’m afraid to have faith that following Jesus where He is leading me will ultimately lead to Life, then I will find my fear leading me to all sorts of deadly presumptions this side of the eternal Promised Land.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well. — These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp.
Numbers 14:44 (NIV)

Faith is an amazingly powerful, amazingly mysterious spiritual root force. Jesus said that faith as small as a speck could move mountains. Repeatedly, Jesus told those whom He healed that their faith was the active ingredient in their healing. The author of Hebrews wrote that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Today’s chapter is an object lesson in faith (or lack thereof). Yesterday the Hebrew tribes spy out the promised land, but swayed by the exaggerated claims of ten of the twelve spies, the people doubt that their conquest will be successful. Swayed by their fears they speak of going back to slavery in Egypt and threaten to stone Moses to death.

When a mysterious plague afflicts the ten doubting spies, the people’s’ fear of God becomes instantly more powerful, in the moment, than the fear of death in conquest that had felt so powerful the previous day. Their fear prompts a hasty decision to move forward with the conquest despite Moses warning that their impromptu actions is doomed to fail. Why? They were acting out of fear, not faith.

What a word picture the tribes provide for fear-based thinking and reasoning. Their actions over the past few chapters have perpetually been motivated by what they feared most in the moment: starvation, discomfort, death, or plague. Fear is the constant and consistent motivator; It is the active ingredient in their words, decisions, and actions. Their fear leads them to false presumptions on which their decisions and actions were based.

This morning I’m reminded that it is that which motivates my actions that is critical to my spiritual progression in this life journey and the activator of spiritual power. If I am primarily motivated by fear or shame, by pride or personal desire my actions will certainly propel me down life’s path just like the Hebrew tribes climbing the hill. My movement, however, will be void of any real progress or direction of Spirit. As any well-trained actor knows, it is the motivation that drives the action of the character. Blocked movement disconnected from the characters underlying motivation becomes prescriptive, mindless action that empties the performance of any real power.

In the quiet this morning I find myself thinking about the actions on my multiple test lists. If, as the Bard wrote, “all the world’s a stage” then my task lists are my prescribed blocking in life’s script. Go here, do this bit of business, then go there and do that bit of necessary action so that she can proceed with her bit. Family tasks, business tasks, personal tasks… What’s the active, motivating ingredient?

Is it faith?