Evidence

Have you ever been up against a wall?  You are faced with a choice and unsure of how to choose?  Perhaps a new job opportunity, or a new love in your life, or maybe, a medical emergency; and now you need to decide what to do.   Do you gather all the facts you can?   Making a list of the pros and cons about the issue is often helpful.  Having a list of all the evidence you can find to inform your decision is not only smart, it is necessary if you want to choose wisely.

So what constitutes evidence?  A dictionary definition reads; “evidence is the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.”  Evidence is all that information we can gather with our senses and learn with our brains.  Gathering evidence can be as simple as asking if the sun is shining or if it is raining outside.  We are all gathering evidence daily.  But, when it comes to making an important decision, we all want as much evidence as we can, in order to make right choices.  Evidence is important.

As I read the account in Numbers 10:17-33 where Moses sends out twelve men to spy out the land of promise I was challenged to consider the importance of evidence gathering.   The spies were sent out to gather facts about the type of people lived in the land, what their fortifications were like, what the land was like in geography and the types of produce grown there.  They were to gather evidence, using their five senses, about the land.  This was the land promised to them by God. It was known to them as the land of milk and honey, the place God had told them about, their promised future home.   They had departed Egypt under miraculous circumstances less than two years previous and now they were nearing their goal, they were soon to be settling in the Promised Land.

So the twelve men set out to gather first-hand eyewitness evidence of the Promised Land.  Can you imagine the excitement?  They were to be the first to actually see the land.  Having heard about it for ages, they were now going to experience it for real.  From the desert, they trekked north, nearly as far as modern day Lebanon, and then returned back.  For forty days they looked at cities and farmland. They were able to see the type of people that populated the land and how they lived.   All the evidence they were asked to gather, they did.  

Once they returned to the camp, the twelve men were called upon to give their report on the evidence they had gathered with their own eyes.  And so they did.  The men reported that the land was a good land.  The soil was fertile for growing crops and fruit; they even brought back an enormous cluster of grapes as evidence of the productiveness of the land.  Indeed the land did flow with milk and honey.   It was a beautiful land, this land of promise.  The men also reported on the type of people that lived in the land and how the people fortified their land.  The spies reported that the people were frightening. The land was super fortified, the cities were walled. Giants lived in the land!   This was the evidence the men had gathered on their exploration of the Promised Land.  This was their list of the pros and cons on whether or not to enter the land.

Twelve men spied on the land and gave the facts about the land, but only two of the twelve supplemented that evidence with additional facts.  Recall that evidence is “the available body of facts…”

 In that list of pros and cons, ten of the spies neglected additional evidence, evidence of recent experience, which was also necessary to make an informed decision.  That evidence, of seeing the God of promise work and of believing His words was as crucial for them as it is for us. All the people, spies included had not only seen this evidence, they had actually lived it.   Not more that a couple of years earlier, all these men had seen plagues affect their Egyptian masters, but not themselves, to the detriment of the entire land of Egypt.  Not more that a couple of years previous, all these men had seen their first born sons protected from a plague which took the life of all the first born sons of the Egyptians.  Not more than a couple of years in the past, all these men had seen the barrier to their freedom, an uncrossable  body of water, drawn aside to allow them to escape from their captors as they walked  on dry ground through a parted sea.  And not more than a couple of years previous, these men had all seen the mighty army of the Pharaoh of Egypt drowned in the very waters that had been parted for them.  

The evidence of the power of God for them was right there.   The proof that God would protect them, lead them, fight for them was a part of their experience, a part of the evidence.  Two spies believed this, the other ten did not.  The ten did not count the evidence of God’s fulfilled promises, of His track record.  Promises kept, leading that has proven true; these are as much evidence as the size and type of fortifications and need to be as much a part of the decision making.  The ten ignored these remembered facts, perhaps out of fear, perhaps due to unbelief.  For whatever reason, the ten spies did not evaluate all the evidence.  Their list of pros and cons concerning this decision was woefully incomplete. 

What about us?  Do we believe the evidence of God’s work in our lives or do we doubt He can or will do it again?  When we are up against giants and fortified cities, do we forget that God has already dealt with all that in our past and can do it again?  When the evidence we see looks bleak, do we not recall that God has already proven Himself?  When we are hemmed in, do we forget Who is leading the way, Who has called us?

Evidence that is seen always looks bigger than facts that are remembered.   We may fear that God will not come through this time; that He won’t be there or rescue, or protect.  And that fear is what quashes the evidence of the past, the evidence of God’s track record.  If you are facing a difficult decision, a closed door or an uncertain future, what ever the evidence before you, recall the evidence of the past too.  Recall what God has already done, what He has already promised you, how He has proven His words to you.  Don’t be like the ten spies and leave your list of evidence incomplete.  When you draw up your catalog of evidence, can choose to list only what you see with your eyes or you can list the evidence of your eyes and the evidence of God’s faithfulness.  Make sure you consider all the evidence, because it could mean the difference between reaching your goal or taking a long, dry detour.