The Good News

Trusting in God at all times

Numbers 13:1-2, 25–14:1

The LORD said to Moses [in the desert of Paran,] “Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving the children of Israel. You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe, all of them princes.”

After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed the fruit of the country to the whole congregation. They told Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan.”

            Life rarely brings us just good news; it’s usually an admixture of both good and bad.  Have you heard the jokes that begin, “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news”?  Here are a few I recently came across that apply to pastors of churches and they hit a little close to home for me!  The good news is the Women’s Guild voted to send you a get well card.  The bad news is the vote passed 30—31.  The good news is Mrs. Jones is wild about your sermons.  The bad news is Mrs. Jones is also wild about the Gong Show, Bevis and Butthead, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The good news is your women’s softball team finally won a game.  The bad news is they beat your men’s softball team.  Okay, one last one.  The good news is your deacons want to send you to the Holy Land.  The bad news is they are stalling until war breaks out there again.  Life is rarely all good news.

            In the first reading from the book of Numbers, we hear more good news and bad news, but this time it’s no laughing matter.  The scouts that Moses had sent to reconnoiter the Promised Land return and report: the good news is the land is flowing with milk and honey; the bad news is it is inhabited by giants who would crush us if we tried to invade.  And so the people grumble and groan against Moses.  But then God delivers his own version of news for the people.  He says, “The good news is all you had to do is trust me.  The bad news is because you didn’t trust me, you’ll now spend 40 years wandering in the desert as your punishment.”  God’s version of good news/bad news is never very funny.

            Folks, life is always filled with both good news and bad news.  One day you win the powerball at bingo, and the next day you are in a car accident.  One day you get a promotion and a raise at work, and the next day you learn you father has cancer.  Here’s my version of this joke.  Every Sunday I get up and think, “The good news is we have enough money to run this church.  The bad news is it’s still in the people’s pockets!”  But whatever life throws at us, good or bad, we just need to trust in God.  He has a plan to lead us into the Promised Land.  You see, trusting in God allows us to work God’s plan, in good times and in bad, just like married couples must trust each other, in good times and in bad.  Trust in him is the only good news God wants to hear.

            The one Person you do not want to give you good news and bad news is God.  He doesn’t tell very funny jokes.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!