Then I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."  Then all of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to." The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe. They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshkol and explored it. Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, "It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us." (Deuteronomy 1:20-25)   This set of verses lays out fully one half of the Bible.  Arguably the best part.  The other part, we'll come to tomorrow.  So what is this first half of the Bible about?  It is about what God has given.  The other half is about how we respond.  But first things first. Three times in this passage some form of the word "given" rings out.  "You have reached [the land], which the Lord our God is giving us."  "See the Lord your God has given you the land."  "It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us."  Gift, gift, gift.  Three times gift.  Three also being one of those numbers that resonate through the scriptures telling us here that the land is a complete gift, a perfect gift, a God-gift.  So, what is it that we do with gifts…?  Earn them?  Win them?  Of course not.  Ask any child: they know.  The thing to do with gifts is to receive them!  Open them!  Rip into them, play with them, enjoy and take delight in them!  Children will even correctly point out that we should all be wanting and living in eager expectation of getting even more gifts: all the time.  It's never a bad time to get presents.  Of course, adults often reply with a corrective: "be grateful for what you got!"  In other words: don't expect anything, don't think you deserve anything, don't be too eager to receive anything.  After all, hand outs are bad.  Too much of that might spoil a child and make them lazy. Sorry to say, adults, but we're the ones who've got this all wrong.  As Jesus will tell us later on in the Gospels: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  It is not only childlike humility that we need to emulate, I think, it is also that childlike ability to receive what's given and to live with hopeful expectation.  This same idea came up in our last sermon from 1 Samuel: Jonathan has the eyes to see the gifts of God in salvation from enemies and the promised land under foot simply oozing with honey.  But Saul cannot see the giftedness of life as God has created, provided, and redeemed it.  So much so, that he declares on oath that even if the transgression against his ill curse should lie with the "gift of God" (i.e. Jonathan)—he won't hesitate to put that gift to death.  It is religious zeal, bereft of the Spirit of God and purified by fear (see tomorrow's devotion) at it's worst.  Tomorrow we'll discover that the story of the wandering Israelites was not so different.  They believed their fear of "the facts" more than they believed in the perfectly sufficient gift of God.  The results?  They all died in the desert.  Death is the result of giving up on the gift of God.  The same thing happened to those religious leaders who crucified the gift of God in the Gospels.  You can hear Saul's zealous vow and the Israelites disbelieving fear just underneath the din of "crucify!" Everything needful has been given by God.  A creation of life and abundance, a salvation against every enemy, and place with God to call home.  Will you receive it as children?  If so, you will find that there remains a place of rest, life, hope, and peace for the people of God…  

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