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“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan … . and Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan … . and they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff” (Numbers 13:2,17,23).
The time had come for the children of Israel to enter the land of Canaan, and the Lord directed Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land. They went out and looked at the land for forty days. Finally they came back with one bunch of grapes that was so big that two men had to carry it on a pole between them. Have you ever seen a bunch of grapes that big?
On the farm where I grew up we used to grow grapes, and so did a lot of other farmers in the area. Yet I never saw a bunch of grapes like that! How wonderful and productive that land was in those days!
That bunch of grapes is a picture of the heavenly blessings the Lord has for us. In one sense we look forward to them when the Lord comes and takes us home. Yet, in another sense, the Lord wants us to enjoy those blessings now, for they are already ours. According to Ephesians 1:3, we are already “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Just as that bunch of grapes was far bigger than anything the Israelites had seen before, so our heavenly blessings are far better than anything this world has to offer. Are we enjoying them?
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