Through The Lens with Rabbi Eric Walker – Knowing God’s Perspective
Shalom and welcome to this edition of through the lens I’m Rabbi Eric Walker.
Two men are standing back to back each one facing the opposite direction and proclaiming that from where they stand the two are literally a world apart in their view each remained firm in their position as far as they could see neither came into each other’s view from each one’s vantage point they were as far away from each other as they could possibly be yet there they stood back to back with only a few feet distance separating them.
In numbers chapter 13 the lord said to moses send men to explore canaan which i’m giving to the israelites send one leader from each of their ancestors tribes so at the lord’s command moses sent these men from the desert of quran all of them were leaders of the israelites all were given the same set of instructions when moses sent them to explore canaan he told them go through the negev and then into the mountain region see what the land is like and whether the people living there are strong or weak few or many is the land they live in good or bad do their cities have walls around them or not is the soil rich or poor does the land have trees or not do your best to bring back some fruit from the land it was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen so the men explored the land from the desert of zinn to the border of hamath they went through the negev and came to hebron where ahman sheshai and tamai lived they are descendants of anak hebron was built seven years before zoan in egypt when they came to the escort valley they cut off a branch with only one bunch of grapes on it they carried it on a pole between two of them they also brought some pomegranates and figs so they called the valley eshkol meaning buns of grapes because of the bunch of grapes the israelites cut off there forty days later they came back from exploring the land they came back to moses aaron and the whole community of israel kadesh in the desert of bhuran they gave the report and showed them the fruit from the land this is what they reported to moses we went to the land where you sent us it really is a land flowing with milk and honey here’s some of its fruit but the people who live there are strong and the city have walls and are very large we even saw the descendants of anak there the amalekites live in the negev the hittites jebusites and amorites live in the mountain region and the canaanites live along the coast of the mediterranean sea and all along the jordan river caleb told the people to be quiet and listen to moses caleb said let’s go now and take possession of the land we should be more than able to conquer it but the men who had gone with them said we can’t attack those people they’re too strong for us so they began to spread lies among the israelites about the land they had explored they said the land we explored is one that devours those who live there all the people we saw there are very tall we saw nephilim there the descendants of anak are the nephilim we felt as small as grasshoppers and that’s how we must have looked to them the narrative continues in chapter 14. then all the people in the israelite community raised their voices and cried out loud all that night they complained to moses and aaron if only we had died in egypt or this desert why is the lord bringing us to this land just to have us die in battle our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to egypt they said to each other let’s choose a leader and go back to egypt immediately moses and aaron bowed with their faces touching the ground in front of the whole community of israel assembled there at the same time two of those who had explored the land joshua son of nun and caleb son of jeffena tore their clothes in despair they said to the whole community of israel the land we explored is very good if the lord is pleased with us he will bring us into this land and give it to us this is a land flowing with milk and honey don’t rebel against the lord and don’t be afraid of the people of the land we will devour them like bread they have no protection and the lord is with us so don’t be afraid of them in this case two stood back to back with the other ten and from their vantage point they seemed worlds apart during their forty days of inspection and often forwarding the bible refers to testing they all maintained their same position yet only two brought a different perspective none of what the twelve looked at was any different and they all saw the same land the same produce and the same people ten came back and proclaimed death and two came back and proclaimed life and victory although there are many individual battles we all face at this point in time we’re facing as much in common as we are individually covet 19 the elections fires hurricanes flooding famine pestilence and many are gripped in fear because they have forgotten the promises of god for all of job’s faithfulness even he declared in job 3:25 for the thing i feared has overtaken me and what i dreaded has befallen me the fate of the ten who brought a reported defeat and death died in the wilderness yet the two who saw the same set of circumstances and proclaimed life and victory or granted access to the promised land it was their faith in the promises of god and none of those promises were exclusive to them they are the same promises we have in the victory one against death through the shed blood of messiah regardless of our circumstances and the challenges we are facing as a nation and as a body of believers we are being called to be ambassadors of hope this is all temporary and god is still on the throne if we focus on the temporal we rob ourselves of the eternal the eternal hope we have in messiah when asked what report will you give death and defeat or victory we cannot be overcomers if we have nothing to overcome and if we are overcomers then jesus reserves a place for us at his right hand to eat from the tree of life you may not be willing to change your position but are you willing to change your perspective as so many stand back back back to back believing they are worlds apart if they would just turn their heads to the right or the left they would realize we’re much closer than we think in this season of testing what report will we give in second corinthians 2 here was paul’s report blessed be the god and father of our lord messiah yeshua the father of mercies and god of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god for as we share abundantly in messiah’s sufferings so through a messiah we share abundantly in comfort too if we are afflicted it is for your comfort and salvation and if we are comforted it is for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer our hope for you is unshaken for we know that as you share in our sufferings you also share in our comfort for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of its of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on god who raises the dead he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he would deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many for our boast is this the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of god and supremely so toward you for we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and i hope you will fully understand just as you did partially understand us that on the day of our lord messiah yeshua you will boast of us as we will most of you because i was sure of this i wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace i wanted you to visit you on my way to macedonia and to come back to you from macedonia and have you send me on my way to judea was i vacillating when i wanted to do this do i make my plans according to the flesh ready to say yes yes and no no at the same time as surely as god is faithful our word to you has not been yes and no for the son of god yeshua messiah whom we proclaimed among you sylvanas and timothy and i was not yes and no but in him it is always yes for all the promises of god find their yes in him that is why it is through him that we utter our remain to god for his glory and it is god who establishes us with you and messiah and has anointed us and who has also put his steel on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee but i call god to witness against me it was to spare you that i refrained from coming again to corinth not that we lord it over you in faith but we work with you for your joy for you stand firm in your faith paul encouraged us to stand firm in our faith and trust in the promises of god in spite of all that’s going on around us i can only say all is well with my soul for god is in his inner sovereignty has it all planned out and it’s a good plan to move us closer to the return of messiah and the defeat of the evil that seems to be gaining ground proverbs 3 5 and 6 reminds us to trust in the lord and lean not on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him and he will direct our paths it is by faith we walk and that faith even as small as a mustard seed is one million times larger than the coronavirus cell our perspective can change the lives of those we touch and our faith can bring hope to the hopeless and life from death a change in perspective gives you a whole new point of view.
And that my friends is this edition of through the lens visit ignitionnation.com for our guest lineup for our daily broadcast of revealing the truth seen live monday through friday from 10 a.m to 1 p.m central time download our app subscribe to our youtube channel and please consider supporting our ministry through the donate button on our website until we see you for the next edition of revealing the truth. I thank you for watching and bid you shalom!