Senior Adults & the Promised Land

Sea of Galilee

I'm teaching about the life of Moses to the kids on Wednesday nights.  I was studying this week about Moses sending the 12 spies into the Promised Land.  If you remember, the 12 spies (a leader from each tribe) went to check out the fruitfulness of the land and to see how strong the people were.  They spied and came back.  They all talked about how fruitful the land was.  It was pretty evident---it took two men to carry one cluster of grapes between them!  But ten of the men told Moses and the people that there were GIANTS in the land--they couldn't overtake them.  Joshua & Caleb insisted that God had given these people into their hands--that they should go in and possess the land.

This threw the 3,000,000 Hebrew people who had come out of Egypt--and seen one miracle after another--into a panic!!   God had told Moses from the beginning (who had told the people) that the whole reason He was delivering them out of Pharaoh's hands was to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey.  Even though they'd seen God deliver them from Pharaoh's hands with 10 plagues, even though they'd seen God part the waters of the Red Sea and allowed them to cross on dry ground, and even though He'd fed them daily with manna and fed them quail and provided them with water gushing out of a rock....they didn't believe He could kill giants for them.  They began wailing and complaining to Moses--in unbelief.  They even said, "Would that our children had died in Egypt!"

And God was ticked off.  He told Moses to stand back so he could kill them.  Moses interceded for their lives--reminding God that Egypt would declare He wasn't able to deliver His people.  God relented and spared their lives.  But He also gave the people consequences for their unbelief.  He told the people that they would wander in the wilderness for FORTY YEARS--until every adult had died.  Every adult except Moses, Joshua & Caleb.   And then God would take the children (who the parents said should have died in Egypt) into the Promised Land.

How many senior adults went into the Promised Land forty years later?  Two.  Joshua & Caleb.  

I have to tell you that when I read this story again, my heart began to pound.  The Holy Spirit was speaking to me quite clearly!  The Promised Land is a picture of the abundant life which God offers us through the Holy Spirit.  It's imperative that we, as senior adults, don't get caught up in griping and complaining and murmuring.  We mustn't walk in fear and unbelief!!  Not only are we supposed to be examples for our children and grandchildren, but God wants us to experience all He has for us--a life of abundance, blessing, and promise--if we believe what He has told us.  Don't identify with the reports of fear and unbelief.  God hasn't changed.  He still gets fed up with murmuring, complaining, and unbelief.

Two senior adults.  That's all who went into the Promised Land.