Hi again!

This month we are learning stories from Leviticus-Ruth. Today’s story comes from Numbers 13-14.

Moses and the Israelites had been freed from Egypt and led to Mt Sinai where God established the rules for His people. Then they set out and God was leading them to the promised land, Canaan.

When they got there, God told Moses to send one man from each tribe/family (so 12 men) to go look at the land. They looked for 40 days and came back to the rest of the Israelites.

When they came back they said “It’s BEAUTIFUL! It has great grass and trees and lots of fruit to eat! But….there are big scary people there. They are too big for us. We can’t take over that land and live there…they are too big, they will win.”

That night, the rest of the Israelites got scared too. “WHY did God bring us here just so we could fight these people and die?! WHYYYYYYYYY?” (They were whining again!) What should they do? (They should trust God).

Moses and two of his helpers, Joshua and Caleb got up and reminded the people that God could take care of them and that nothing is too big or too hard for God.

Did the people listen?

No.

And God was so frustrated. He told Moses that all the people who doubted Him and didn’t trust Him would NOT get to see the promised land. God told them that their children and grandchildren would get to live in Canaan…but not them. Everyone except Joshua and Caleb would die and only their children would get to live in the promised land. The grown ups who didn’t trust God would have to wander around the desert for 40 years!

It’s ok to be scared, but we can ALWAYS trust God. If He asks us to do something, even if it seems impossible or scary, we can know that He will make it happen. God was giving His people a beautiful new place to live, but they couldn’t trust Him. And now they would have to wander around the dust and sand desert for 40 years!

We drew some pictures to go along with today’s story. We started by using green to draw grass and a blue river. Then we drew big scary Canaanites and some scared Israelites.

That’s all for today, thanks for joining us. Love to you all!