Jude 5

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

And they manifested their unbelief by not facing the challenge God was calling them to as detailed in Deutoronomy 1:23-32:

23 “The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. 24 And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. 25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.’ 26 “Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; 27 and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

God often gives us a choice when He faces us with a challenge. He wants us to choose to trust Him and manifest that trust by taking on what may seem like impossible odds. We often think that declining a challenge from God, while maybe not as exciting, is far safer and better for us and our family. We think that by "playing it safe", we may not receive all of the blessings God has for us, but at least we can stay comfortable and secure, and that is fine with us. Well, we see in this story that it doesn't always work like that. Refusing to heed the call to battle cost these Israelites everything. While their conservative approach did spare them from having to courageously risk their lives in combat with an intmidating foe, in the end it not only cost them the great blessings of the Promised Land, it also resulted in them spending the last 40 years of their lives wandering aimlessly, prior to being "destroyed" as Jude puts it, which was the very thing they were trying to avoid.

The next time you are faced with a challenge, be it sharing your faith with an unbeliever, confronting someone who is acting ungodly, or some other situation that causes you distress, don't just assume that by taking a passive role you are avoiding risk. If God is calling you to act in that situation, you are far better off charging in than walking away.