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Then I said to you, \u201cYou 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.\u201d\xa0 Then all of you came to me and said, \u201cLet 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.\u201d 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, \u201cIt is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.\u201d (Deuteronomy 1:20-25)

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This set of verses lays out fully one half of the Bible.\xa0 Arguably the best part.\xa0 The other part, we\u2019ll come to tomorrow.\xa0 So what is this first half of the Bible about?\xa0 It is about what God has given.\xa0 The other half is about how we respond.\xa0 But first things first.

Three times in this passage some form of the word \u201cgiven\u201d rings out.\xa0 \u201cYou have reached [the land], which the Lord our God is giving us.\u201d\xa0 \u201cSee the Lord your God has given you the land.\u201d\xa0 \u201cIt is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.\u201d\xa0 Gift, gift, gift.\xa0 Three times gift.\xa0 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.\xa0

So, what is it that we do with gifts\u2026?\xa0 Earn them?\xa0 Win them?\xa0 Of course not.\xa0 Ask any child: they know.\xa0 The thing to do with gifts is to receive them!\xa0 Open them! \xa0Rip into them, play with them, enjoy and take delight in them!\xa0 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.\xa0 It\u2019s never a bad time to get presents.\xa0 Of course, adults often reply with a corrective: \u201cbe grateful for what you got!\u201d\xa0 In other words: don\u2019t expect anything, don\u2019t think you deserve anything, don\u2019t be too eager to receive anything.\xa0 After all, hand outs are bad.\xa0 Too much of that might spoil a child and make them lazy.

Sorry to say, adults, but we\u2019re the ones who\u2019ve got this all wrong.\xa0 As Jesus will tell us later on in the Gospels: \u201cTruly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\xa0 It is not only childlike humility that we need to emulate, I think, it is also that childlike ability to receive what\u2019s given and to live with hopeful expectation.\xa0

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.\xa0 But Saul cannot see the giftedness of life as God has created, provided, and redeemed it.\xa0 So much so, that he declares on oath that even if the transgression against his ill curse should lie with the \u201cgift of God\u201d (i.e. Jonathan)\u2014he won\u2019t hesitate to put that gift to death.\xa0 It is religious zeal, bereft of the Spirit of God and purified by fear (see tomorrow\u2019s devotion) at it\u2019s worst.\xa0

Tomorrow we\u2019ll discover that the story of the wandering Israelites was not so different.\xa0 They believed their fear of \u201cthe facts\u201d more than they believed in the perfectly sufficient gift of God.\xa0 The results?\xa0 They all died in the desert.\xa0 Death is the result of giving up on the gift of God.\xa0 The same thing happened to those religious leaders who crucified the gift of God in the Gospels.\xa0 You can hear Saul\u2019s zealous vow and the Israelites disbelieving fear just underneath the din of \u201ccrucify!\u201d

Everything needful has been given by God.\xa0 A creation of life and abundance, a salvation against every enemy, and place with God to call home.\xa0 Will you receive it as children?\xa0 If so, you will find that there remains a place of rest, life, hope, and peace for the people of God\u2026

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