I thought it would be a good time to post one of my past devotions that deals with one of the most damaging words in the English language – discouragement. As Christians we need to banish this trait from our character. Instead, we should always strive to be an encourager; especially in a world that is so full of darkness and despair.
I am pretty sure that Igal and Palti are two biblical characters that most Christians can’t place. But these two men are part of one of the most important biblical narratives in all of Scripture. For you see they were part of a group of leaders that set into motion one of the worst failures in biblical history. Igal and Palti were two of the twelve men that Moses commissioned to spy out the land of Canaan in (Numbers 13). The context can be seen in this long portion of Scripture:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, everyone a leader among them.” So, Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. (Numbers 13:1-16).
Many of you may be familiar with the story of how God told Moses that He was going to give the land of Canaan to the nation of Israel. You can read all about this important part of Israel’s history in (Numbers 13 and 14). In summary God promised to deliver the inhabitants of Canaan into the hands of the people of Israel. When the 12 spies came back to report on the land, 10 of the 12 spies, including Igal and Palti, said that even though the land was a good land the inhabitants would prove too strong for them. As a result, they issued the famous bad report. So instead of going in and taking possession of the land of Canaan in a matter of a few weeks, the people of Israel were sentenced by God to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Even though two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, said they were able to go in and take possession of the land, the 10 to 2 negative vote proved too much of a discouragement and thus 40 years of wandering was their new lot in life.
For the remainder of this devotion, I would like to share how dangerous discouragement can be for the Christian. We are all wired with a need for encouragement. Receiving a compliment or having someone say a job well done has a wonderful way of making us feel appreciated and important. However, discouragement can have just the opposite effect. As with our 40 year wilderness wandering story the bad report issued by the 10 negative spies caused Israel to become scared and even worse doubt God’s faithfulness.
Discouragement can cause us to doubt ourselves which can lead to thoughts of inferiority, despair, and even depression. But worst of all it can cause us to doubt God’s goodness and His character. When this happens discouragement can have ripple effects that can cause us to pray less, praise God less, read our Bible’s less, and sadly in some cases abandon God completely.
While our faith in God shouldn’t be based on feelings alone, we are human and all of us need positive affirmations from time to time. I usually find that if you are not an encourager your behavior and words are often just the opposite and can be a source of discouragement toward others. And nobody likes to be around a negative person. A key verse in this whole discussion can be found in (Hebrews 3:13): “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Chances are if you are not encouraging others you will be a discourager and this verse in Hebrews shows that if we get weighed down in discouragement it can lead to not trusting in God; which is sin.
Discouragement can be like a cancer that eats away at our faith in God. I have often said if you don’t have anything positive to say to a person then zip it. We all need to practice the Christian “one another” verses such as love one another, pray for one another, forgive one another, and yes encourage one another.
God clearly promised that He would give the land of Canaan into the hands of Israel. Don’t be an Igal or a Palti but instead why not be a Caleb or a Joshua. Igal and Palti took their eyes off God and only looked at the circumstances. Caleb and Joshua chose to not look at the circumstances but instead to trust in what God had told them. I have never heard of a parent naming their child Igal, but many choose to name their sons Joshua. I wonder why?