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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. Then Israel made this vow to the Lord : "If You will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities."
The Lord listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.
Numbers 21:1-3
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Throughout the Book of Numbers, we have been following a meandering Israelite nation that has not exactly endeared themselves to their Lord, the Lord who delivered them from bondage and captivity in Egypt, led them through a wilderness exodus, and brought them to the brink of Canaan, just as He had promised.
Throughout the journey as documented in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, we have seen a people who complained before trusting, a people who stubbornly refused to believe in the One who had revealed His miraculous power to them over and over again, the One who had made it clear to their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, that there wasn’t anything that He couldn’t do (Genesis 18:14).
It was this reluctance to believe and trust in God fully, even going as far as rebelling against Him, that triggered His judgment as they were set to enter Canaan. You’ll recall that a twelve man advance scout team (one man from each of the Israelite tribes) had returned after forty days inside the Promised Land to make a report of what they saw. And while they verified that the land that was indeed flowing with milk and honey just as God said, they also talked at length about the adversity that would be ahead. For there was potential danger inside Canaan from the people who were already inhabiting the land. They weren’t going to relinquish the country without a fight and many were polished warriors. There were even giants reported as inhabiting the land.
This led ten of the scouts to start a narrative that the Israelites would perish if they entered Canaan and tried to possess the land. It was a speculation that created an ugly scene as the people of Israel confronted their leader, Moses, wondering why he had even convinced them to leave Egypt in the first place, as if slavery was better than entering the land of God’s promise.
And therein is where the Israelites’ main problem laid for the people who decided to ignore God’s promise to give them the land of Canaan, choosing instead to look at the was…the people decided to forget about God’s promise to them and looked at what the Lord wanted them to do from a worldly perspective. On one hand, they knew they couldn’t defeat the current Canaan residents on their own and they were right. But what they failed to hold onto is that they had God on their side and with that, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t accomplish if it was in accordance with His will.
Indeed, God wasn’t bringing His people into the Promised Land for them to be slaughtered. He had brought them through a lot to get to Canaan and He was going to see them through to enter and occupy it but the Israelites let their fear override their faith. They doubted God and so He sent them back out into the wilderness for forty years to think about their sinful, untrusting attitude. Then and only then would He give them a second chance to redeem themselves and do what they should have done the first time.
So why go through extensive summation and review?
Because in today’s scripture, we see that the people of Israel finally start to get it, signaling a positive shift in their attitude and a move in the right direction, a direction God had to be pleased with.
For we read that after the Israelites left Mount Hor following Aaron’s death and the transfer of the high priest responsibilities to his son Eleazar, they traveled “along the road to Atharim”. There, they came under attack by the "Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev". In the fray, the scriptures tell is that several of the Israelites were even taken captive.
Now, given their history, we might expect that the Israelites would deferred to their standard complaining, asking God why He ever led them out of Egypt in the first place. But that’s not what happened at all and we can see that the people of Israel were finally figuring things out and growing spiritually. For if they would simply trust their God and ask Him to come to intervene and come to their aid, then maybe He would enter in and deliver them. Maybe just maybe, something good might happen.
And so the Israelites made a "vow to the Lord" saying:
"If You will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities."
In other words, Israel didn’t think that they could take on Arad and its army by themselves but if God would enter in and deliver Arad to them then they would know with confidence that they could conquer and win the battle.
And conquer they did. For the "Lord listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them" and Israel in turn "completely destroyed them and their towns." Indeed a shift had occurred in Israel’s attitude, a shift toward fully trusting God to handle their adversity in accordance with His will. In this case against Arad, it was God’s will to hand Arad over to Israel and in turn, they made good on their end of the vow, wiping out Arad and its towns.
In the end translation, it was a mini-display of what God would have done if the Israelites would have just believed in Him with faith and entered Canaan the first go around. Indeed, the Lord was working on their weakness so they would find success when given a second opportunity.
Through the story of the Israelite people, we have seen how they fell out of favor with their Lord when they chose to complain and grumble about their circumstances instead of placing their trust in the One who had and was willing to continue to care and provide for them.
Conversely, we see in today’s passage from the opening verses of Numbers, chapter 21, how a shift in faith and a trusting attitude towards the God through which all things are possible was a game changer for the Israelite people just as it will be for us today.
Now that we have firmly entered the new year, how are you handling your present life circumstances?
My prayer is that you will maintain your trust and faith in the Lord, knowing that He always works things out for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). For in His perfect time and in His perfect place and in His perfect way according to His perfect will, He will always deliver.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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