April 15th, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Bitter Forfeit

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Opening Prayer

Lord, break through the stillness. Change my heart that I might seek You; change my mind that I might know You.

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.

Meditate

“Uncertainty is one of the forms of suffering that can produce character. Maybe part of trusting God is trusting that he will give me full knowledge of him when the time is right” (John Ortberg).

Think Further

Israel’s crisis at Kadesh and the predicament confronting many churches today have a common origin: unbelief! The divine complaint “How long will they refuse to believe in me?” (11) may well find an echo in heaven today as the Lord looks down on the Western church!

The Bible regards unbelief as the most deadly sin of all. Three features of unbelief surface at Kadesh. We find all of them resonating with us! First, unbelief deceives the human heart, stimulating erratic behavior (Heb. 3:13). The Israelites consider returning to Egypt under a new leader (1-3), but when judgment falls (36-38), they suddenly change plans and decide to invade Canaan after all. They want to go back, then to go astray, but not to go forward! The result is disaster (41-45). Is not a similar propensity to try anything but God’s way a characteristic of Western culture today?

A second feature of unbelief follows. It deprives the people of God of their inheritance. It robbed a whole generation of entry to the Promised Land. Centuries later the writer to the Hebrews discerns a parallel danger with the half-hearted community he was addressing (Heb. 3:7–4:13). Is there also a parallel with today’s nominal Christianity?

The most serious feature of unbelief is that it disparages God. Twice we are told that God’s promise to his people was made on oath (16,30). Despite this, they disbelieve, doubt, and rebel. They think God cannot be trusted. They still address God as “the Lord” (40), but they are taking his name in vain (KJV; they “misuse” his name, NIV, cf.  Exod. 20:7). Every time we say we believe in God, but in fact don’t, we also misuse his name.

Apply

Ask yourself: Am I misusing God’s name when I pray? When I praise him? When I witness for him?

Closing prayer

Father, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.

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