“The Lord said to Moses, ² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” ³ So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites. 

  ¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country, ¹⁸ and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, ¹⁹ and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, ²⁰ and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.”²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶ And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large…” Numbers 13:1-3, 17-20, 25-28

The spies are sent out into the land and they return to give an unfavorable report – that it does flow with milk and honey, but the people who live there are enormous, too large and strong to be defeated. All along, G-d has provided for these people – in every respect G-d has supplied all that they need. Yet, they continue to lack one important thing—complete trust in G-d. So, in a final act of disobedience, in lying about the state of the inhabitants of the land, G-d’s wrath turns against them and they are sentenced to wander the wilderness for one generation – 40 years – one year for every day that the spies were in the land. What do we learn? It seems to me, we can discern that if we knowingly engage in deliberate, determined, disobedience of G-d, we run the risk of falling away from our spiritual journey with G-d—and instead trusting and following the path of our own humanity—a path that is full of potholes, and off ramps.

Look, even if we remain on our spiritual paths, even if our trust is completely in G-d, we will also encounter potholes and off ramps. The difference is this—with G-d as our co-pilot, we will always be guided back onto the right path. Having G-d as our co-pilot does not prevent us from accidents and dangers, it just means our recovery will be more complete. Do you agree?

Pastor Dave

⁵¹ And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, ⁵² but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.” Mark 14:51-52

The text from Mark includes this story – the story of a young man who is also a follower of Jesus and who gets away from the angry mob BAREly with his life but without his linen cloth. There is much speculation about this text, its meaning and purpose, but the NAKED truth is that there are no definitive answers to this mystery. It could serve as a short story that BUFFers the text of Jesus’ arrest and his appearance in front of the high priest. Another purpose that the story could serve is as a foreshadowing of the High Priest tearing his own clothes, or of Jesus being STRIPPED of his own dignity, or being EXPOSED to those who will mock him, humiliate, and kill him. Some even see this as a foreshadowing of the cloth that will be draped over the naked body of Jesus in the tomb—what we know now as the shroud of Turin. Whatever the purpose, we may not be able to UNDRESS the mystery, but we can enjoy the cameo of the young man and wonder, maybe just wonder, if it was all just a bad dream.

Pastor Dave