Not abiding

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Today I was reading the daily "Bible Bus" (Bible in a year) and the reading this morning was Numbers 14. In summary this is the time when God tells the chosen people to take the land of the Canaanites. The spies come back with a bad report about the land- they tell the Israelites that the people there are giants, they are stronger, and the city is "well fortified." Only Caleb and Joshua disagree. In fact, Joshua encourages the camp and says;


"The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them." (Numbers 14:7-9)

Joshua said four significant things; do not rebel, do not fear the people, they are bread for us, and the Lord is with us. When God gives us a command- we need to obey, and we don't need to fear anyone as long as God is with us. Isn't our bread to do the will of God? Unfortunately the people don't believe the Word of God and they conspire to go back to Egypt and choose another leader! At this point God is angry and says several things about the people:

1. "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?" (Numbers 14:11)

2. "How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me." (Numbers 14: 27)

The people despised God- they had loathing and contempt for the God who rescued them from their oppressors. They did nothing but complain about their circumstances and they didn't believe that God wanted good for them. God wanted to give them land with everything already there- He wanted to bless them with fruit in abundance and he wanted to use them to pronounce judgement on the land.

The irony to all this;

"what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me.. "(Numbers 14:28-29)
So God pronounces judgement on the Israelites instead of the Canaanites and the people hear the words of God and they mourned. Did they mourn because of the judgement or because their relationship with God was broken? Anyway they presume that God is with them now and they decide to go back up to defeat the Canaanites. However, they are warned by Joshua;

"Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you." (Numbers 14:43)
So, sure enough they are defeated.

The people had ungrateful hearts. They saw the marvelous works of God and yet they didn't believe in His Word. They turned cowardly and wanted to go back into bondage. They were rebellious and resisted the authority of God.

It is my prayer that I would always be believing in the goodness of God, always grateful for the wonderful things that He has done for me, and that I would follow him obediently with my whole heart.

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