Numbers
13
– 15
Verse 13:18 has God sending the people to scout the Promised
Land:
I want you to tell us
about the land and especially about its people—are they strong
or weak? Are there a lot of them or only a few?
This is actually the start of a very big problem, but God
wanted the people to understand what they were going into. He wanted them to
understand the beauty and the problems.
Verse 13:33 has the report:
We saw the massive Anakites
who descended from the ancient Nephilim! We look like grasshoppers
compared to them, and they know it.
They had seen the 10 plagues, parting of the Red Sea, water
from a rock and Manna from heaven yet they did not have faith God would conquer
the “giants”. I can never understand how
they could do that yet at the same time I do it daily. We have what seems to be
a God prompt to move to the West. I had the heart problem, my father got cancer
and the children all moved to the west. We had no reason to stay other than the
anchor called the farm.
A developer came by and made an offer the day after we
decided to move!! This seemed to be God!! Anyway we found a “perfect” home
which we wanted to make an offer, but the developer pushed back closing for 6
months. During that time we determined it wasn’t “perfect” and finally found
the spot. Well during this time the “giants” or neighbors fought the zoning and
appear to have won. Was this a mistake or should we have faith the God will
conquer our “giants”? I started to look for other avenues to get the money and
finally realized I am doing EXACTLY what the Israelites did.
I am back to settling into waiting on God, I just hope and
pray my brief panic did not cause us to be stuck in the “wilderness” for 40
more years!! I must realize it’s not me
but rather GOD who is in control … I am just in charge of making sure we are
operating in FAITH!!
Verse 14:11 has God ranting:
How many
times will this ungrateful people turn their backs to Me? How
long will they persist in their faithlessness, refusing to
recognize all the wondrous signs I performed in their midst?
He was going to kill ‘em all, but Moses convinced Him not to
do that. The punishment was wander the desert for 40 years until that
generation died off. Harsh but in reality fair punishment for a lack of faith
that God will provide.
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