Giants in the Promised Land

When the Israelites arrived at the borders of the land of Canaan, the land God had promised them as their own, they did what any army would do. They sent out spies to see the strength of the people in the land of which they were about to take possession. The twelve spies carefully looked at all the different aspects of the land. When they came back to the waiting peoples they gave their report.


The report – there are giants in the land! Ten of the spies spread fear and dread among the people with their talk of the strengths and defenses of the people who currently held the land. The people mourned their children, whom they knew would be killed in the battle to come.

However, two of the spies had a different perspective of the land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us (Numbers 14:8). They didn’t deny the presence of the giants. They didn’t claim that the soldiers of the people of Israel were stronger than the people who already had possession of the land. They didn’t claim to have bigger giants than the Canaanites. They didn’t have more advanced weaponry. None of that mattered.

It didn’t matter who the opposition was as long they continued to try to please the Lord. Throughout your life, you have faced giants in your journey to your Promised Land. They were real. Giants of failed relationships, of destroyed financial futures, of lives gone off track and wrecked. Giants of substance abuse, of abandonment, of abuse, giants that are scary and too big for us to tackle. These things aren’t allegories or part of someone’s imagination. They are real, and they have happened to many of you.

The good news is that your Promised Land is as secured for you as the Israelites Promised Land was for them. God wants to show you his strength, not your own. God wants your trust to be in the fact that he is with you, that he is the one able to handle any situation, not you.

The interesting thing is that the Israelites did not go up and take the land at that time. They ended up wandering in the wilderness until all the adults of that doubtful generation had died out. You know who did take the land for the Israelites? Those children that they feared would perish in the battles to come!

The giants you face are just as real as the giants confronting the Israelites. Just remember, your Savior is just as real too.

Pastor Craig