Our Real Enemies

Num 13:30  But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 

Num 13:31  Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 

Num 13:32  So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 

Num 14:1  Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 

Num 14:2  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 

Num 14:3  Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 

We are all familiar with the account of the 12 spies that spied out Canaan and only two came back and encouraged Israel to take the land while the other 10 said it would be impossible to take the land.  The verses above reveal part of the problem these 10 spies had.  All these men could see was the size of their physical enemies.  They never once mention the power of God or the fact that the Lord had already told them that he was going to give them the land.  In Num. 14:8-9 we see Joshua looking at this from spiritual eyes, “If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”   Clearly he and Caleb feared the Lord more than a few giants.

The 10 spies like the majority of Israel throughout their history did not have regenerated hearts and so could not see the glory of God; they could only see the glory of physical things.  Their problem throughout their history was that they never could identify their real enemy.  Their enemy and ours is never that which can destroy the body but that which can destroy the soul.  It is interesting that they were afraid of the size of the Canaanites but not afraid of the gods of the Canaanites. 

We see why in this account.  To them the giants of the land appeared more fearsome and stronger than Yahweh.  Their enemy wasn’t the Canaanites but the idolatry of their own hearts that refused to honor the Lord but instead only cared about the ease and pleasure of the flesh.  As in vs. 2 above, every time food or water got a little scarce and they were forced to rely on the providence of God they balked and started yearning for the food they had back in Egypt.  Never mind that they were slaves and the king was killing their children and working them to death.

What a picture of this world that will sell its soul for a few moments or years of pleasure rather than worship the Lord and give him his due.  One can’t help but remember Esau who for one meal gave up his inheritance.  To him his enemy was an empty belly but that only showed that his belly was his real enemy; in other words his enemy was his flesh that would be satisfied at all cost.

As Christians it is imperative that we recognize our true enemies.   Pain, sickness, poverty, injustice, loneliness, obscurity and such things are not what we need to fear.  Such things are sent by a loving God to demonstrate his power and that we need him more than these things.  These things can only cause discomfort for a short time.  But we must recognize that our enemy is the remaining sin in our heart that would cause us to flee from them rather than use them to serve the Lord.  When we do, then we will do battle with the way we think and the things we love more than the Lord.  When we live by sight and not by faith, we end up doing battle with God by complaining about his providence. 

As Jesus said in Mat 10:28, And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.   Our true enemy is anything that would become an idol to us; anything that would cause us to fear it more than the Lord or anything that would cause us to love it more than the Lord.

Israel should have been more concerned with the idolatry of the Canaanites rather than the size of their army because one could only kill their bodies, the other destroy their souls.  Of course, most of the Jews never had a regenerated heart but if we are Christ’s, we do and that makes all the difference.  Our problem often is that we don’t live spiritually minded, judging all things by the Scriptures, but we tend to live according to what we can see and feel.  But this is to walk as we did before we were saved and it is of the utmost importance that we walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh. 

The fourth chapter of Ephesians deals with this concept but I will quote just part of it here.  Read it and see if it doesn’t support what I have just conveyed. 

Eph 4:17  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 

Eph 4:18  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 

Eph 4:19  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 

Eph 4:20  But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 

Eph 4:21  assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 

Eph 4:22  to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 

Eph 4:23  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.