There is a story from Aesop's Fables that has always intrigued me. It is about a fox that tried to reach a cluster of grapes hanging high on a vine. Despite his best efforts, he could not reach them, so he proclaimed them to be sour. From the story, we get the expression, "sour grapes." And so it is with some of the promises of the Bible. Jesus promised to do what we ask of Him in prayer. He promised that anyone who believes in Him would do the works that He did. These promises are straightforward, at least in my mind, even though there are conditions. But I have heard them explained away more than once, as if they were some kind of poetic hyperbole on Jesus' part, or as if they did not apply to the average Christian. I know some people claim every little thing is a miracle, and it is easy to get skeptical. Sometimes, I think people don't want to be thought of as "health and wealth" Christians, and so they are afraid of approaching the subject of believing God for anything good, especially anything related to money or health. If you have never heard of the "health and wealth" gospel, it is the idea that Jesus wants you healthy and wealthy. This sounds to people like selfishness, masquerading as faith, so they shy away. Unfortunately, the "poor and sick" gospel can also be enticing to some. This takes many forms. For example, Jesus promised us an "abundant" life, full of joy. If you are a believer, this is part of your inheritance. You could say that you are entitled to it in Christ. In other words, it is perfectly OK to have an "entitlement mentality" about certain things, because you are a child of God and an heir to the kingdom of heaven. But, it feels uncomfortable to think like that, doesn't it? Isn't it a lot more comfortable to proclaim your satisfaction with "less." Doesn't it almost feel holy? Let me ask you straight out: is your life full of joy? Are you living a life of abundance? Can you identify with Jesus' prediction that "rivers of living waters" would flow out of your innermost being? I think many Christians pass over those promises, and they don't like to think about them. I know what I used to think about them. I used to think that, if I just lived my life a little bit holier, that I would have joy, but I wasn't quite ready to try harder to be holy. Mostly, whatever I was experiencing must be the joy He was talking about, because it was certainly better than being like some other people I knew. I thought rivers of living water must be something that happens, and you don't really know about it till maybe you get to heaven. I think a lot of people have gotten used to the way things are. And it is worse than sour grapes, because the joy, the abundance, the rivers of living water, are reachable, but we aren't reaching for them. They don't taste sour; we are just tasting the sour stuff of our life and pretending it is sweet. Jesus also proclaimed that He had come to set captives, and all who were oppressed, free. So, here we have guarantees from Jesus of joy, abundance, rivers of living water, freedom from oppression, and answers to prayer for believers in Him, and, yet, many people who call themselves believers in Him do not experience these things. In the place of joy, we have discipline. Instead of living a full life, we feel frustrated and dry. We don't receive answers to prayer, because we rarely pray. When we do pray, God seems distant. Instead of freedom, we go through repeated cycles of resolution, determination, and defeat. Maybe we think, "God is good, but I am not, so much. I must be the problem. I just can't do what the Bible tells me to do. " For some people, it is taboo to question, so we pretend to be OK.
I want to call your attention, now, to the ill-fated journey of the Children of Israel. Moses led them out of Egypt, but, except for two men, none of them (the adults, anyway) made it into the land that God had promised to them. It is my contention that many, if not most, Christians are like those Israelites. They have made it out of Egypt, but they have never set foot in the promised land. I want to make it clear that by "promised land" I mean the place where you experience the promises of Jesus for joy, abundance, and rivers of living water.
In the book of Numbers, chapter 13, God tells Moses to send twelve men, one from each tribe, to "spy out the land . . . which I am going to give to the sons of Israel." Fine, so far. The problem starts, I believe, when Moses gives them instructions. Here is the part that I think is a problem:
"See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not . . ."
Does anyone else see a problem with these instructions? God says He is going to give them this land. Yet, though I don't know if it was Moses' intention, the instructions seem to imply that possessing the land is still an open question. Moses appears to be telling them to check it out to see if it is suitable and easy to be conquered. But God had already settled that question.
I have children. When they were little, I would give them some instruction to do something or other. But, my children were argumentative. They would start a dialogue that would include detailed questions about everything related to the instructions. Exactly how long would it take? Couldn't I do it this way, instead? Why do I have to do this? Everything was negotiable. And I was required to supply all information in advance, so they could make an informed decision about compliance. We do the same thing with God. He gives us an instruction with a promise. We study it. God promised to give the land to Israel. They studied it. So, it is no wonder that ten out of the twelve spies brought back a report full of fear. "Yeah, the land is great, but we aren't strong enough to take it." So, here is reason one that we don't enter our own personal promised land. God has promised us something, but we don't think we are strong enough to take it. It is funny that we can read Numbers 13 and be frustrated with the spies for doing the same thing that we do. Yes, all those wonderful things from Jesus are available to us, but we are not strong enough to take them.
Now, if you know the story fairly well, you might ask about Moses. He didn't accept the bad report. Yet he was not allowed to enter. I have looked at God's reason for not allowing him to enter the promised land, and, to be honest, it seems a little harsh, at first. In Exodus 17, God told Moses to strike the rock at Mt. Horeb, and water would come out. Moses obeyed, and there was a miracle of water gushing out of the rock. Then, later, in Numbers 20, God told Moses to speak to the rock, and water would come out. Moses struck the rock for the second time, instead, but water still came gushing out. God told Moses that because he struck the rock the second time, instead of speaking to it, he would not be allowed to enter the promised land. So what is the big deal? It was still a miracle. God still honored it, and water still gushed from the rock.
The answer is that God made Moses an example for our sakes. In Moses' example is the key to understanding the second reason people don't obtain the promises we've been talking about. Let me explain. Striking the rock is a picture of Jesus dying on the cross for our salvation. Jesus is the rock. Striking it is the cross. Water gushing out is everlasting life that is possible because of His death on the cross. It is one of many beautiful pictures of salvation in the Old Testament that look forward prophetically to Jesus in the New Testament. The problem is that Moses struck the rock twice. When Moses struck the rock the second time, (from God's perspective) it was like he was trying to put Jesus back up on the cross. Jesus died on the cross for you once. Now, this is important. When He died on the cross for you, all your sins were forgiven, even the ones you have not yet committed. God now says, "What sins?" When you believe in Christ, the Father looks at you and sees Jesus. The mind wants to be rewarded for good behavior and expects punishment for bad behavior, and so it recoils from God's grace. It explains it away. But, this is the truth that needs to sink deep into your heart and stay there. You may say, "Doesn't that give me a free ticket to do wrong?" It is just the opposite. It sets you free to do right.
Moses, in the New Testament, represents the law. The law called for the offering of the blood of animals as sacrifices for sins over and over again. You might ask, "How am I going back to the law? I am not offering animal sacrifices." Today, we do not generally offer animal sacrifices. But we are tempted to think that doing good is necessary for salvation, either on its own, or in addition to Christ's death on the cross. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you may experience great joy and peace. But, many times, a voice creeps in that says, "It can't be that easy. You need to ask God to forgive you every time you sin, or you will be lost again." Or someone will tell you that you need to add something in order to be truly saved, like baptism, or communion, or church attendance, or Bible reading, or prayer. Or you need to subtract something to be truly saved, like bad habits or friends who don't share your new found faith. In my experience, almost everyone who claims salvation by faith is hedging on at least one or two of the things I just mentioned. Every single one of those things, if you do them to make yourself right before God, is a "work of the law." And "by the works of the law no one will be justified" (Galatians 2:16). So, Moses represented the law, and when he struck the rock the second time, he was doing a work of the law. And God wants to make it clear that no one enters the land of promise through the law. When God told Moses he was not allowed to enter the promised land, He did not say it was because of disobedience. He said it was because of unbelief. So we enter our own promised land through belief in grace that saves us, not only someday in eternity, but right now. It is funny that we enter into God's family by faith in Jesus, but we think growing up in His family is by some other means. But aren't those things good and commendable? Aren't we supposed to do them? Not one of the good works I mentioned, or any others that I haven't mentioned, is of any value in gaining any points with God. If you are a believer in Jesus, you already have His full favor. If we do any of those things, it is because we love Him, and because He loves us.
In case you were wondering, the promised land is not symbolic of heaven. Remember the Israelites entered it as an army. There will be no battles to fight in heaven. So how do we enter the land of promise? The Israelites assumed they were not strong enough, but God said He was going to give it to them. Here is key number one: God told Joshua, Israel's leader after Moses, He was giving him every place where he set his foot. You can have a great inheritance, but if you never claim it, it doesn't really matter, does it? Whether you want to believe it or not, you have an enemy. And he is squatting on your land. If you never set foot on the thing God has promised you and you never lay claim to it, you will receive no benefit from it. The second key is just as important. When the Israelites crossed into the promised land, they had to cross the Jordan river at flood season. Currently, the Jordan River is syphoned off for irrigation, but then it was powerful and wide. Crossing the river meant an "all in" commitment to conquering the land, because they would be trapped against the river. This is the inverse of their position at the Red Sea, where their enemies were chasing them, and crossing the waters meant escape. Now, crossing the river into the promised land meant putting their enemies in front of them, with no possible retreat. I will talk about the nature of the battle another time, but we need to settle the question of how they crossed, because it means everything to us, today. If you read Joshua 3, you will see that the Ark of the Covenant was the key. Yes, that Ark. The one Harrison Ford was looking for in that movie. The Ark was where God located His presence for the people of Israel. When the priests carried the Ark into the Jordan, the flood waters piled high upstream until everyone had crossed over. When the Ark came up out of the Jordan, the waters returned. It is the very presence of God that leads us into our own land of promise. That is why Moses was told to speak to the rock. There are a lot of things I could say about this, but I don't want to get lost in the theology. I used to be the one substituting discipline for freedom and frustration for joy. I thought spiritual growth was based primarily on knowledge and obedience. Following that path left me dry. I was a believer. I had trusted Christ to be my Savior when I was young, but I thought I still had to earn God's favor, not for heaven, but for blessing. I was wonderfully, amazingly wrong about that. I found out God loved me even more than I had imagined, and His love awakened an awareness of His presence in my life. Since that time, I can truly say I understand what joy is. I understand what Jesus meant when He said, "My yoke is easy. My burden is light." My prayer is that you will, too.
Now to summarize. You need to believe there is more to your Christian life than you are currently experiencing, including joy, abundance, freedom, and true satisfaction. You need to believe that God has already given you these things in Jesus, and you just need to lay claim to them. Your enemy may try to put up a fight, but Jesus has already won your battle. Finally, you need to understand that the path to this land of promise is not through doing, but through loving; not even you loving Jesus, but through Jesus loving you.