What’s a “Mahanaim”? - Part 2
- Bible Prophet
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
“Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel [Numbers 14:9-10].
Incredible. Utterly incredible. Ten spies and all Israel witnessed the Lord bring the mighty Pharaoh to his knees. Egypt was the world power of the day, and the Canaanites cowered before Pharaoh. If the Lord made mincemeat of Pharaoh, how could the Israelites believe He was impotent against the Canaanites?! Sin makes us crazy, dear friends. Sin makes us wicked crazy.
The two faithful spies were Joshua bin Nun and Caleb ben Jephunneh. In the Bible verses quoted to kick off this study, the words in quotation marks were spoken by them. Those words were their ticket into the Promised Land.
Standing opposite those two were the other ten spies, with all the Israelites on their side. Let me tell you, those guys (i.e., all the Israelites) were schoolyard bullies! As reported in the Bible verse, all the Israelites wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb. We might be inclined to ask them why.
I mean, they saw with their own eyes how the Lord put the lumber to the side of Pharaoh’s head and set him straight. It didn’t even require faith to trust the Lord for victory. Eyesight sufficed in their case! But no, they preferred to disobey the Word of God because there wasn’t a soupçon of true spirituality in them.
The Israelites looked at the enemy, then they gazed at themselves, and they drew their conclusions based upon what they saw at the time. This is known in Scripture as walking by sight. Trouble is, without faith it is impossible to please God. They needed to walk by faith in the Word of God. That is how we depend on God to solve the problem.
So there were Joshua and Caleb on one side, and over against them were the other 3½ million Israelites. Joshua and Caleb exhorted them to obey the Word of God. The 3½ million folks threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb to death. But the Lord…
Ah, throughout history those words have spelled the conclusion to the matter. They did so in Egypt. They did so at the Red Sea. They did so at Mount Sinai. And guess what? They did so at Kadesh-barnea too.
The Lord appeared in the tent of meeting as the Shekinah glory, and the matter was resolved pronto. The adult Israelites would not be permitted to enter the Promised Land and receive it as their inheritance because they hadn’t faith in the Word of God. Instead, they would walk the desert sands for another thirty-eight years, until the entire lot of them had died.
After they died, their grown children would be permitted the pleasure of entering the land, conquering it, and receiving it as their inheritance. Joshua and Caleb were the only adult Israelites at Kadesh-barnea who would enter with the younger generation thirty-eight years thence.
The picture painted by the two Bible verses we quoted is an exact replica of all human history. The world stage is composed of two camps:
1. the Lord
2. mankind
Mankind is made up of two camps (aka Mahanaim):
1. those with faith in the Word of God
2. those without faith in the Word of God
It has always been this way, it is this way now, and it will be this way until Jesus comes again and sets all things right. Every human being is permitted to choose whom he will serve. We can choose to believe the Word of God and act accordingly, or we can choose to believe self and act in kind.
So which camp are you in?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my books in the Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes Bible study series. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).
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