The great British architect Christopher Wren was asked to design a city hall in England. He drew a plan where the weight of the roof was distributed in such a way that the building did not require a pillar in the large hall. The city councillors were nervous about this and asked Wren to include a pillar in his plan. When he refused, they consulted the people of the city, who voted for a pillar. Wren reluctantly added a pillar to his design, and the building was completed. Many years later, when some refurbishing was being done, someone who was working near the top of the pillar found that it ended about two inches short of the wood of the roof! This space, of course, was not visible from the ground.¹ Wren satisfied the fearful people by including the item they wanted, while making the point that it was completely unnecessary.

In the same way, God sometimes makes concessions for our weak faith. When God commanded the Israelites to journey through a ″vast and dreadful wilderness″ from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, located at the southern edge of the promised land (Deuteronomy 1:19), they obeyed. After they had made that encouraging progress, God commanded them to ″go up and take possession″ of the promised land without being ″discouraged″ or ″afraid″ (v. 21). But they probably panicked and asked to have people go and spy out the land (v. 22). Moses must have consulted God before approving the idea (v. 23; see Numbers 13:1-2), even though it was not necessary.

Despite God's concessions, the people refused to obey God's command to take the land. They were troubled by the report about the size of the people and the city. Just like we might when we disobey God, the Israelites exaggerated the challenge and said that the walls went ″up to the sky″ (Deuteronomy 1:28). Moses' reassurance by way of reciting evidence of God's amazing protection, provision, and victory in battles fell upon deaf ears (vv. 29-33). Nothing would change what their evil heart of unbelief had resolved to do. Moses described their refusal to obey as rebellion against God (v. 26).

Following God does bring difficult challenges. But it also comes with the assurance of God's provision of victory. Sadly, many Christians refuse to believe God and follow the path of obedience, even when He provides concessions for their weak faith. As a result, they miss the blessings God intends for them. To encourage us to believe, we have a whole history of God's glorious dealing with His people recorded for us in the Bible. Fear is a reality, but it does not need to overcome us and lead to defeat. We can overcome it with our faith in God's sovereignty, goodness, power, and love.