Title Numbers 14:26-45
Contents
<Text> Num 14:26-45
Chan 384 "Let My Way Go All My Way"
Yesterday, while meditating on the first half of Numbers 14, we talked about how the people reacted after hearing the report of the spies, what God thought about and how God dealt with the actions of those people, and God’s character revealed in the process. I looked it up.
Moses offers his life's prayer for the people who are trying to stone him. How would God reject such a prayer? Of course, he heard Moses' prayer. God, who heard Moses' prayer, changed his mind about the immediate destruction of Israel, but his position that he would not bring them into Canaan did not change. This is God's punishment.
“Your corpses shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall bear the sins of your rebellion and wander in the wilderness forty years, until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness” (verses 32-33).
God promised to give us the land of death where we had to die when we had a son, the land of destruction where the price was cut off, and if we left Egypt and passed through the wilderness, He would give us the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey.
However, the first generation of Exodus who did not believe in God's promise died in the wilderness without being able to enter the promised land of Canaan, and their children became wanderers in the wilderness bearing the sins of their parents. ‘I will become a wanderer’ This was God’s discipline.
Until the day before, the wilderness was the path toward the goal of Canaanite welfare. It was a path of hope, believing in God's promises and embracing a vision. But now the wilderness is a wandering path that has lost its purpose. The moment we deviate from the path of faith, we become the same person, the same place, but not hope, but a path of wandering that we must constantly walk toward death.
Another person has been punished for this. This is Cain. Cain commits a crime by killing his brother Abel. The courts of the world would have sentenced them to death. However, God punished Cain as a 'wanderer'.
'Even if you plow the field, the ground will no longer give you its effect, and you will be a refugee from the land (Genesis 4:12). is it? To be a wanderer means to wander here and there, losing the purpose of life.
Many people don't succeed because of a lack of opportunity or lack of ability. Many people don't set goals. Of course, you don't have a plan, and you don't seize those countless opportunities.
Why not set goals or action plans? It is partly because of indolence and complacency in life, but also because of the fear of failure. Because if you don't plan, you don't have to try and then you won't fail. Is your life a success without failures? A life without failure and without success is a life of failure in itself. loss of vision. Those who do not believe in God and do not know His promises will eventually vanish like a ephemera.
There is a field mouse called lemming in Northern Europe. I thought I was committing suicide by suddenly jumping into an ice-free river while wandering around the northern European meadows in search of food in early spring. But they're not committing suicide, they're being slaughtered. When a group of lemmings, who were wandering around in search of food, reached the cliff, they slipped and died in droves. The rat in the front accidentally finds a cliff while running in search of food, and tries to make a sudden stop, but is pushed to death by the rats following it. Knowing that the mouse in front of you is their target, they follow you and you are killed in droves. It is the end of a life without purpose.
The Israeli spies did. We entered the promised land of God. As elites of each tribe and leaders of the next generation, they spyed out the land of Canaan with a keen eye. However, I did not believe in the promises God gave me, did not see the vision, and only saw the thick walls and the people of that place as large as a pole. Fear of failure took over. Not believing in the God who promised and set a purpose, he fell into a grasshopper himself and fell down and wept. So they were punished as ‘wanderers’.
However, God protects and is with those who believe in his promises under any circumstance. And he will surely keep that promise. “You will never enter the land that I swore to make you live, except Caleb the son of Jebunneh and Joshua the son of Nun” (verse 30). “Only among those who went to spy out the land, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh. lives” (verse 38).
After that, they walked the same 40 years in the same wilderness, but Joshua and Caleb were not wandering and wandering for 40 years. Their life was truly meaningful. Of course, they thirsted together and were attacked by the enemy together, but they still believed in God's promise and were on the blessed path toward the goal of the promised land of Canaan.
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father,
Don't let the problems that overwhelm your life forget God's promises. Please help me to live a purposeful life that believes in God's promises and moves forward in the realities of life that is difficult to overcome, rather than a life of wandering away from God's promises. I believe you will. Even though there are difficult times, I pray that God will be with us and give thanks to those who believe and keep going.
I pray in Jesus name. Amen