“No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.” — Deuteronomy 1:35–36

The Torah portion for this week is Devarim which means “words,” from Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22, and the Haftorah is from Isaiah 1:1­–27.

A test was once conducted where 10 high school students were placed in one room and shown three lines of varying lengths. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. In reality, only one student was being tested. Nine of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. Seventy-five percent of the time, the students being tested retracted the right answer when they saw that no one else agreed with them. The researchers concluded that most people would rather be popular than be right.

It’s not easy to hold firm to our convictions. It’s far easier to follow the crowd.

In this week’s Torah reading Moses spoke about Caleb, one of the 12 spies sent to scout out the land of Canaan. Moses recalled how most of the spies gave a bad report about God’s chosen land and how the people rebelled against God as a result. They were punished for this act of disobedience and failure to trust God with a decree that none of them would enter the land. However, there was an exception. Moses recounted God’s decision: “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.” While the nation rebelled, Caleb was the exception, and because of that he received exceptional treatment.

Truth be told, Joshua also chose to stand against the other 10 spies and side with Caleb. However, it was Caleb who spoke out first; Caleb who stuck out his neck for the sake of God. The Bible tells us, “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’” (Numbers 13:30). Caleb dared to go against the crowd and was bold enough to stand up for God.

Albert Einstein once said, “The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.” Let’s be like Caleb and dare to walk alone when necessary. Stand with Israel, when the rest of the world stands against her. Bring a good report about Israel, when the rest of the world concocts a bad one. Stand with God and stand for the truth.

When we follow God instead of the crowd, He will take us to places that others only dream of!