Giving a Good Report

When Moses led the House of Isreal out of captivity in Egypt and just before entering into their promised land in Canaan, God sent representatives from each tribe to explore the land of Israel. Instead of reporting back how great the land was and how blessed they were to receive it, 10 of the 12 spies gave bad reports telling Israel that the land was filled with giants and their was no hope that they could ever possess it. Only Joshua of the tribe Ephraim and Caleb of the tribe Judah gave good faithful reports. 

In consequence for the evil reports, God commanded that Moses and the House of Israel wander in the desert for 40 years until that entire generation had died out except for Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, upon entering the land were rewarded with their own cities of Timnath Serah and Hebron respectively. 

Are we just as guilty and faithless as the 10 spies who gave evil reports? Satan has ruled over this Earth for 6000 years.  But God has always desired to possess the Earth to be an inheritance for the righteous. Why do the righteous allow the wicked and corrupt ideologies to rule? In many cases the good people just throw up our hands convinced that there is nothing we can do about it. 

The righteous are meant to rule over the Earth and cause that the groves (places of false worship and false ideology) be completely removed. This isn't a militant thing, but a struggle of morality and ideology. Virtue begets morality. Morality begets values. Values beget idealogy. Idealogy begets policy.  And policy begets law. What we need is a return to virtue beginning with observance of the Sabbath Day which will provide the needed perspective to see our way forward on the correct path to greatest happiness.

The same principle applies in our own life.  Have we given up on ourselves?  Have we been fooled into thinking that our sins and weaknesses are giants that cannot be overcome?  God hates this attitude because the consequences become a self-fulfilling prophecy. God cannot help us without faith or hope. If we think there is no hope, we are right, but with God all things are possible.

Virtue = empathy and self-restraint required to do no harm to others.

Golden Rule = treat others how you would want others to treat you.

Morality = principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

Values = a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.