Window of Opportunity
Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. -Numbers 13:30
These bold words were from Caleb, who, along with Joshua, was trying to convince his people (the nation of Israel) to move forward with God’s plans and inherit the promised land. I believe he spoke with intensity and urgency, because he knew that there had been opened a window of opportunity, and it would soon be closed.
Opportunity does not last indefinitely
Immediately after Caleb had given his charge to go up and take the land that God had promised, the ten other spies spoke up and began to discourage the people:
But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. -Numbers 13:31-32
And so the people became afraid. They despaired, and missed the window of opportunity that God had given them. And, on top of all that, God was mad. He was angry that they had so little faith that they wouldn’t obey Him. Hear God’s reply to Moses:
How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? -Numbers 14:11
And so the window was slammed shut, and they could not return to it until God opened it again.
What God shuts, no man can open
Afterward, when God had pronounced His punishment on the people for their fear, doubt, and unbelief, they started to change their minds. Once they realized what they had done, and the opportunity that they had missed, they tried to go back to the place that God wanted them to go. But, God was not with them, and they failed:
Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. …But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah. -Numbers 14:40-41, 44-45
When we are given a window, GO!
In all this history, we should learn that sometimes God puts an opportunity before us, and it’s up to us to seize the moment and grab it. Time is of the essence.
Take a look at one such encounter that Philip (the evangelist) had in the New Testament:
He came across a man riding in a chariot, and I’m sure that it wouldn’t be long before the man would be gone, and along with him the opportunity. But God spoke to Philip: “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” (Acts 8:29).
And how did Philip treat this opportunity? He seized it. Scripture says that “Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?” (Acts 8:30). And before long, he was able to share the gospel, and by a chance meeting, save another man’s soul from an eternity in hell. “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
The key lies in being prepared
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: -1 Peter 3:15
It may seem strange, but those tiny little sins that we do, those sinful thoughts that we think that distract us from the Lord, those harmless interests we keep: they are all causes of our lack of readiness. What appears to be harmless one hour may soon turn out to be the damning of a soul in the next hour. We never know when a window will be opened before us, and if we’re not prepared, it will utterly pass us by in uselessness.
One of the most important admonitions in the New Testament for believers is to be sober. That is, we are not to be distracted or intoxicated with the lightness and vanity of this present world. We are to be serious about matters, and thereby well-prepared. God’s final judgment day is coming as a thief in the night: this great and awful day ought to give us ample cause to keep us sober.
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. -1 Thessalonians 5:5-6
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