Second-guessing God
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to fear You and respond to Your discipline. Help me to be willing to learn from the start.
Read Numbers 14:26-45
[26] The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: [27] “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. [28] So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: [29] In this wilderness your bodies will fall-every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. [30] Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. [31] As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. [32] But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. [33] Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. [34] For forty years-one year for each of the forty days you explored the land-you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ [35] I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.” [36] So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it- [37] these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. [38] Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived. [39] When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. [40] Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go up to the land the LORD promised. Surely we have sinned!” [41] But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! [42] Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, [43] for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” [44] Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp. [45] Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is the Israelites' "presumption" (v. 44)?Our story wends its way to its despairing conclusion. Chapter 14 was supposed to be the entry into the land, and that would have been that. But, as we have seen, the people are afraid, they refuse to trust, and they rebel. In today’s reading, God visits upon them 40 years of wandering in the wilderness–one year for every day spent scouting out the land on that fateful first trip (13:25). And, suitably chastened at last, the people decide that maybe they should go in after all (14:40). But it’s too late. God has moved on: there’s no “direct entry to the land” option still available. Moses sees it straightforwardly: God’s word now is that they must accept the consequences of their sin. Forgiveness does not mean that everything goes back to square one. They go anyway. It’s a disaster. Moses saw it coming and called it “disobedience” (41). The mention of the ark in verse 44 reminds us of how the book of Numbers sees it: go when God goes and not in your own time.
Apply
Verse 33 says that the people’s children will suffer for their disobedience. Consider how your actions affect others.
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