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March 1st
Today’s bible reading is in Numbers chapters 14,15 and Psalms 90.
The twelve spies went up from the wilderness into Canaan. We “read” about that yesterday from chapter 13.
If you recall, after checking out the land of milk and honey for forty days, the spies returned to the camp of Israel. Ten of the spies said that the people of that good land were too great to defeat. Two of the spies said differently. “
“Do not rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the Land...they are bread for us...their protection is removed from them...and the Lord is with us...do not fear them...let us go up at once...”
But the people went with the “faithless” report of the ten. And they denied the strength of God’s promise. They should have gone with the courageous faith and obedience of Caleb and Joshua. These men believed God more than the perspectives and counsel of the other spies. These two feared God more than the giants of Canaan.
These two remembered the promise of God....to give the land of promise to them. The others forgot it. These two remembered the power of God in their deliverance from almighty Egypt. The others forgot it. And so Israel disobeyed God’s command to go to war for the promised land and the glory of God.
Friends, aren’t we glad that Jesus did not balk at the assignment bestowed up him by the Godhead? I'm glad that He didn't think that the Father had a plan to do evil toward him...but rather trusted the eternal purposes of God...to the glory of God...that’s our Savior!
So after the people refused to go up into Canaan, God declared judgment upon the congregation. No one twenty years of age and older would live to see the promised land...except...Joshua and Caleb and their families.
The Israelites would wander in the wilderness for forty years...so that every adult that rebelled against God would die in the wilderness...and only their youngest children would enter the promised land.
The people mourned day and night...but it was not a mourning of repentance. It was a mourning of anger and resentment toward God. They accused God of plotting to do evil against them.
Can you believe that God’s kids would say that about their faithful loving God? I guess we can. We’re looking in a mirror. God had not made everything easy for them. They had experienced hard times. What was God doing?
God was making them into a “Promised Land people”....it was going to take a God-sized faith and courage and determination to overcome what lay ahead. Trials and tribulations would produce in them a steadfastness they would need. If ....they would just trust God.
But instead of trusting God’s good purposes, they became bitter against God for it...openly and secretly.
You know some well-meaning counselors tell their clients...” get it out...Hollar scream cuss at God...let him know how you feel. Quit bottling it up...He understands. He can take it.”
But listen to James... the brother of Jesus...teach the way to healing...“Confess “your own” faults “one to another” and “pray” for each other....“that you may be healed...”
Nothing in there gives license to curse God for anything. And though outsiders looking in may have sympathized with their loud disrespectful anger...that faithlessness was sin...even for God’s treasured ones.
So what did God do? He gave them what they wanted...” to rather die here in the wilderness than to go on with the Lord and what He had planned for them.”
By the way...the stubborn unbelieving Israelites justified their careless words against God based on a concern for their wives and children.
Notice...it was the wives and children of these unbelieving family leaders that would wind up paying for their husbands’ and fathers’ destructive outbursts toward God. Let this be a word to the wise.
And one more thing from the text...God told Moses that He was going to destroy the stiff-necked nation of Israel for their rebellion. Moses prayed for the people...and God listened...quite a prayer...it’s the rest of the story found in Psalms 90.
Have a great day.
