When God calls us and all we see is difficulties!
Num 13:17-27 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. (18) See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. (19) What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? (20) How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) (21) So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. (22) They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) (23) When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. (24) That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. (25) At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. (26) They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
Here you see that from Moses' directions they had a pretty complete package from which to spy out the land; if the people were strong or weak, to cities, to the land and its produce - all of these types of things. So they got a pretty good view of things, and we read that they returned from spying out the land after 40 days. We know that the number 40 in scripture stands for trial and testing. 40 days here, 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days rain with Noah, 40 days temptation of Christ, 40 is always a picture of testing or trial. So when they came back to Moses, they brought in a report but it came in two parts. You can imagine the nation... They have been waiting---knowing that this is God's inheritance for them, this is their possession; what are our brethren going to say to us and what are they going to bring out for us to see? They bring back a large cluster of grapes. I have a pretty good grape vine at home but I have never seen a cluster that took two men to carry it between poles. You can fit my clusters in one hand!
So the first thing that they did as part of their testimony was that they testified that God was true and that His word was true. He had told them when they came out of Egypt 'I am sending you to a land that flows with abundance.' It flows with milk and honey. It is a land of blessing and they find it to be exactly what God had said. He had already gone in before them and spied out the land, so there was no need really for the spies to go in. So the first part of their report was that God was actually true, it is a land that has abundance, it is a land of blessing, and it is a land that is incredibly fruitful. God is true. What He says is true. But the second part of their report is very different. In verse 28 you get the word 'nevertheless' or it could be 'but'
Num 13:28-33 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." (30) Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." (31) But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." (32) 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. (33) 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."
Nevertheless, despite God's word being true, that it was a land of blessing, there was this 'but'. Way back when they wanted to send out the spies that seed of unbelief and departure from fully trusting in God was starting to grow and you see the outworking of it here. They took their eyes off God, and onto the problems which they had seen. Now the difficulties took preeminence, and they brought back a bad report. It is like this when unbelief starts to grow in our hearts and fear begins to dominate. The things that we notice are what? It's all the little hindrances, all the little problems, and God is completely shut out. They said, 'yes the land is what God said it would be.' Nevertheless... then there is this list of things that they were afraid of. Whenever r we depart from a simple trust in Christ fear and unbelief just rush in. The smallest of problems can become mountains in our thinking. If ever you are afraid of a situation, it is amazing the excuses you can find not to do something. These things just spring up and all of a sudden, they dominate our thinking, and God is pushed right into the background. He is nowhere to be seen. Unbelief works from the difficulties toward God and faith works from God towards the difficulties. So they had this word 'nevertheless.' All that they can see now is not that God is faithful and that His word is true, it is 'nevertheless.' All of these things stand in the way, so we are unable to go forward because we are not willing to believe that God, in response to our faith is willing to step in. So they brought back a bad report and said 'Moreover, the descendants of Anak were there.' Here they are confronted by something that they are really afraid of; a race of giants!