When All You See Is What's Wrong

Numbers 13:25–14:9

For the last several weeks in our Peace of Mind series, we have been looking at battles that take place inside us.

We have talked about anxiety.

We have talked about what happens when the darkness will not lift.

But there is another battle of the mind that can quietly become a way of life.

It happens when we become so accustomed to noticing what is wrong that eventually what is wrong becomes almost all we can see.

Numbers 13 brings us to one of those moments.

Israel is standing on the edge of the land God had promised them.

God had brought them out of Egypt.

And now Canaan was in front of them.

Moses selected twelve men, one from each tribe, and sent them into the land.

For forty days they searched it.

They saw the cities, the people, the mountains, and the valleys.

But they also saw its goodness.

At the brook of Eshcol, they cut down a cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it between them upon a staff.

Then the twelve spies returned.

The congregation gathered, and the report began exactly as everyone had hoped.

Numbers 13:27 says, “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.”

God had told the truth. The land really was good.

But then came the next word.

Verse 28 says, “Nevertheless…”

And with that word the report changed.

Yes, the land is good—nevertheless, the people are strong.

Yes, the fruit is abundant—nevertheless, the cities are walled.

Yes, God brought us here—nevertheless, there are giants in the land.

Caleb stepped forward and stilled the people. He said, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”

But the other men answered, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”

By verse 33 they were saying, “we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Twelve men saw the same fruit, the same walls, and the same giants, yet came back with two radically different ways of seeing what was in front of them.

The ten spies were not wrong because they saw giants.

The giants were real.

They were not wrong because they saw fortified cities.

The walls were real.

Their problem was that the giants became so large in their thinking that everything else disappeared behind them.

They could hold evidence of God’s goodness in their hands and still talk almost entirely about what was wrong.

What happens when what is wrong becomes all we can see?

There is a difference between recognizing problems and developing a negative outlook.

There is a difference between discernment and allowing what is wrong to become the lens through which we see everything.

Numbers 13–14 shows us how people who had every reason to remember God’s faithfulness allowed obstacles to dominate the way they interpreted their circumstances.

God calls us to face life’s problems honestly without allowing them to become the controlling lens through which we interpret everything else.

As we follow Israel’s response at the edge of Canaan, we see four ways a negative outlook can shape us—and how faith learns to see the same problems differently.

I. Negativity Fixates on What Is Wrong

Numbers 13:25–29

The spies return and say, “Surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.”

They cannot deny the evidence. God has been good. The land is what He said it would be.

But then comes “Nevertheless.”

A. Overlooks the Good

The spies do not say there is nothing good in the land. They admit the good and then almost immediately move past it.

That is often how negativity works. It does not always say, “Nothing good has happened.” Sometimes it simply gives what is wrong far more attention than what is good.

You can have ten things go right and one thing go wrong, and which one do you replay at night?

Someone can give you several words of encouragement and one criticism, and somehow that criticism can become the sentence you keep hearing.

The picture in Numbers 13 is unforgettable.

They are carrying grapes from Canaan while talking about why Canaan cannot be possessed.

Psalm 103:2 KJV

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits:

Negativity does not always deny God’s goodness.

Sometimes it simply stops noticing it.

Philippians 4:8 KJV

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Biblical thinking is not pretending that everything is pleasant.

It is deliberately refusing to let one painful part of reality crowd out everything else that is also true.

B. Focuses on Obstacles

Verse 28 says, “the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great.”

Those statements were true.

There are situations in life that really are difficult.

Discernment notices what is wrong so something wise can be done about it.

Negativity keeps staring at what is wrong until it becomes difficult to see anything else.

If every conversation in your home eventually turns to what is wrong, something is shaping the atmosphere of that home.

If every discussion about church becomes a list of frustrations, something is shaping your outlook.

C. Lets Problems Dominate

Listen to the report: strong people, walled cities, Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Canaanites.

The fruit nearly disappears from the conversation.

This is what happens when all you see is what is wrong.

What is wrong begins controlling how you see everything else.

So ask yourself: What do I naturally notice first?

When I walk into my home, do I immediately see what was not done?

When I look at another person, do I see weaknesses before strengths?

When I look at my own life, do I see only what is unfinished or disappointing?

We should not become naïve.

But neither should we train our eyes to search for trouble until trouble is the only thing they recognize.

Because what we repeatedly focus on eventually begins shaping what we believe.

II. Negativity Distorts What We Believe

Numbers 13:30–33

Caleb says, “Let us go up at once, and possess it.”

But verse 31 says, “We be not able.”

Now the report has moved from observation to conclusion.

A. Difficulty Becomes Impossibility

“There are strong people” was an observation.

“We be not able” was a conclusion.

Something can be difficult without being impossible. Something can involve risk without guaranteeing failure.

Negativity takes “This is hard” and turns it into “This will never work.”

“This relationship is strained” becomes “Nothing will ever get better.”

The Bible does not promise every difficult circumstance will resolve the way we want.

Sometimes doors close.

Sometimes efforts fail.

But negativity writes the ending before God has finished the chapter.

Israel declared defeat before taking the first step of obedience.

B. Weakness Becomes Identity

Verse 33 says, “we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.”

The giants are no longer merely large. Israel has become small in their own eyes.

There is a difference between “I failed” and “I am a failure.”

Biblical humility does not require us to despise ourselves.

And the answer is not inflated self-esteem.

Israel’s confidence was never supposed to rest in Israel.

Their confidence was supposed to rest in the God who had called them.

C. Assumption Becomes Fact

Then they say, “and so we were in their sight.”

They knew how they saw themselves.

But how did they know what the Canaanites thought?

They are speaking an assumption as though it were a fact.

Later, Rahab says in Joshua 2, “your terror is fallen upon us,” and “our hearts did melt.”

Israel assumed, “They see us as grasshoppers.”

Meanwhile, Canaan had heard what Israel’s God had done and was afraid.

Negativity fills in the blanks—and usually with the worst possible explanation.

“They did not speak to me. They must be angry.”

“They did not respond. They do not care.”

Sometimes those conclusions may be true.

But sometimes we are suffering from a story we wrote ourselves.

Ask: What do I actually know, and what am I merely assuming?

Proverbs 18:17 KJV

17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; But his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.

Our first interpretation can feel completely convincing until more information comes to light. Wisdom leaves room for the possibility that the story we are telling ourselves may not be the whole story.

And once we believe negative conclusions, we rarely keep them to ourselves.

What fills the mind eventually finds its way into the mouth.

Proverbs 12:25 KJV

25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: But a good word maketh it glad.

Our words carry weight.

We can add to someone’s burden, or we can help lift it.

III. Negativity Spreads to Those Around Us

Numbers 14:1–4

Ten men gave a report.

By chapter 14, an entire congregation is crying.

Verse 1 says, “all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.”

Verse 2 says, “all the children of Israel murmured.”

A. Discouragement Spreads

Negativity is contagious. So is encouragement.

Our words help create an atmosphere around us.

That does not mean Christians must be artificially cheerful.

There are times to grieve, warn, and confront.

But there is a difference between honesty and a habitual spirit of discouragement.

Philippians 2:14 KJV

14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Here is a question worth considering:

What happens to the atmosphere of a room after I have been talking for ten minutes?

Do people leave with clearer perspective, or have I trained them to notice another ten things that are wrong?

Parents can do this in a home.

Leaders can do it in a church.

Friends can do it to one another.

There is another danger here.

Once discouragement spreads, it can begin to sound like common sense simply because everybody is saying the same thing.

Ten men spoke, then the congregation echoed them, and soon the negative report felt like the obvious conclusion.

That is why we have to be careful about the voices we allow to shape our outlook.

Proverbs 13:20 KJV

20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

The voices we continually listen to help shape the way we think.

A steady diet of cynicism, outrage, suspicion, and complaint can quietly train us to see life through the same lens.

B. Complaining Rewrites the Past

Israel says, “Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!”

Then: “were it not better for us to return into Egypt?”

Egypt?

Egypt was slavery.

Egypt was oppression.

Yet because the present is difficult, the past is being edited.

Negativity has a selective memory.

It enlarges today’s problems and softens yesterday’s pain.

We can do this too.

“Everything used to be better.”

Sometimes certain things were better, but not everything was.

We remember an earlier season and forget the burdens we carried then.

We can even look backward at unhealthy patterns and remember the comfort while forgetting the bondage.

C. Negativity Shapes Decisions

Verse 4 says, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”

Now their outlook is determining their direction.

A negative perspective does not merely make us unpleasant.

It can keep us from faithfully following God.

“This will never change,” so I quit too soon.

“They will never understand,” so I never have the conversation.

“I could never do that,” so I refuse an opportunity to obey.

Sometimes caution is wise. Sometimes stopping is wise.

But we should never allow a habit of expecting the worst to make decisions that ought to be made by faith and wisdom.

The ten spies saw giants and concluded, “We cannot go.”

Joshua and Caleb saw the same giants and came to a different conclusion.

IV. Faith Sees What Is Wrong Without Losing Sight of God

Numbers 14:6–9

Joshua and Caleb walked the same land.

They saw the same walls and giants.

But they had a different decision.

FAith!

So we see four things that faith does…faith…

A. Faces the Problem

Joshua and Caleb did not see fewer problems.

They saw a bigger picture.

Faith can look directly at difficulty.

There may be something wrong in your family, finances, health, church, or heart that needs attention.

But faith will not stop there.

Faith…

B. Remembers the Promise

Verse 7 says, “The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.”

Verse 8 says, “he will bring us into this land, and give it us.”

Joshua and Caleb bring God’s Word back into the discussion.

For Israel, God had specifically promised the land.

We should not turn that into a guarantee that every obstacle in our lives will disappear.

But we can ask: What has God actually said?

He has promised His presence.

His grace is sufficient.

Nothing can separate the believer from His love.

Faith does not build confidence on wishful thinking.

Faith builds on what God has actually spoken.

And Faith…

C. Counts on God’s Presence

Verse 9 says, “the LORD is with us: fear them not.”

There is the missing reality in the ten spies’ report.

They talked about people, walls, and giants.

Joshua and Caleb talked about God.

They saw the same giants, but they refused to see the giants without God.

Hebrews 13:5–6 KJV

5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Faith does not make the opposition disappear; it brings God’s presence back into the calculation.

The problem may still be large, but it is no longer the only reality in view.

A healthy biblical perspective says, “Yes, this is hard—and God is still here.”

“Yes, there is something wrong—but what is wrong is not the whole picture.”

And notice that Joshua and Caleb do not merely add a cheerful thought.

They bring God back to the center of the discussion.

That is the difference between biblical faith and positive thinking.

Positive thinking says, “Maybe everything will turn out fine.”

Faith says, “Whatever happens, I’m going to interpret this moment in light of what God has actually said and who God has proven Himself to be.”

That does not remove every question.

But it keeps the problem from becoming larger than the truth.

Faith Faces the Problem

Faith Remembers the Promise

Faith Counts on God’s Presence

and fourthly…Faith…

D. Chooses Obedience

Joshua says, “Only rebel not ye against the LORD.”

That is where the passage lands.

The final question is not, “Am I a positive person?”

Some people naturally see possibilities first.

Others see risks first.

A cautious person can be wise.

A cheerful person can be foolish.

The issue is not personality.

The issue is whether our outlook leaves room for God and leads us toward obedience.

God is not asking you to become an optimist. He is asking you to become a person whose outlook leaves room for Him.

Ask yourself:

Am I seeing what is actually true?

Am I giving the good any attention?

Am I turning difficulty into impossibility?

Am I treating assumptions like facts?

Are my words spreading discouragement?

Is my outlook keeping me from something God has clearly called me to do?

Conclusion

Israel stood at the edge of Canaan with evidence of God’s goodness in their hands and giants before their eyes.

Ten men said, “We be not able.”

Joshua and Caleb said, “The LORD is with us.”

The difference was not that one group saw problems and the other did not.

The difference was what they allowed to become the controlling truth.

Maybe this morning you can see what is wrong very clearly.

There may truly be a problem.

There may be a wall you do not know how to get around or a giant you do not feel strong enough to face.

God is not asking you to pretend it is not there.

But He is calling you not to let what is wrong become all you see.

Maybe a negative outlook has begun shaping the way you see your circumstances, other people, or even what God is asking you to do.

Put the giants back into the whole picture.

There are giants.

There are walls.

There are difficulties.

And there is God.

Philippians 4:8 tells us to think on “whatsoever things are true.”

Not merely pleasant things.

True things.

The truth includes the problem.

But the truth also includes God.

His presence is true.

His faithfulness is true.

His Word is true.

His grace is true.

His goodness is true.

And for the believer, His salvation in Jesus Christ is true.

If you do not know Christ as your Saviour, your greatest need is not simply a more positive outlook.

You need peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

He offers forgiveness and eternal life to those who trust Him.

And if you belong to Christ, perhaps the decision this morning is simple:

I will face what is wrong honestly, but I will not look at any part of my life as though God were absent from the picture.

We must learn to see what is wrong without allowing what is wrong to become all we see.

A negative perspective can distort our thinking, it can spread discouragement, and and it can keep us from faithfully following God.

The giants may be real.

But they are not all that is real.