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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When the Lord heard what you said, He was angry and solemnly swore: "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly."
“Because of you, the Lord became angry with me also and said, ‘You shall not enter it, either. But your assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad - they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.’"
“Then you replied, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.’ So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.”
“But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, “Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.”'
“So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before the Lord, but He paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there."
Deuteronomy 1:34-46
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In yesterday’s message, we saw Moses reviewing the history of the Israelites, revisiting the time when they failed to trust in the God who had delivered them from their Egyptian enslavement, led them through the desert wilderness and providing for them every step of the way, and helped them arrive safely on the brink of the land of Canaan, the land He had promised to them through their ancestors, beginning with Abraham. After receiving a negative report from the scouts who had checked out the land in advance, the people rebelled against God, even going as far as wishing they were back in Egypt, feeling they were actually better off living in oppression. That’s how out of whack the Israelites were.
Well, this didn’t sit well with the Lord and as we see at the beginning of today’s passage, as Moses once again shares the words from God that were directed to His people:
“Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly."
We also see where His anger was pointed at Moses as well as He said:
“You shall not enter it, either. But your assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad - they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea."
Why did Moses fall out of God’s favor?
We need to go back to chapter 20 of the Book of Numbers for the answer:
The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Vv. 7-12
Here, we find Moses and Aaron failing to carry out what God had commanded. And while it might appear that the end result was as hoped, water flowing from the rock to provide for the Israelites and their animals, the act served to only glorify the two brothers and not God Himself.
You see, God had told the two to simply speak to the rock and the water would flow, something that only an all powerful, miraculous Lord could do. This would have left the people praising and giving thanks to their God. But Moses and Aaron chose to first stake claim to credit for what was about to happen saying:
“Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”
And then Moses rose up his arms, lifted his staff, and brought it down twice on the rock, leading to the water flowing. His actions would have drawn the attention of the Israelites to himself, stealing away the honor that God deserved. Aaron, not intervening and correcting his brother, was complicit and considered just as guilty
This is why God speaks out against Moses and Aaron saying:
“Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
The punishment for disobedience was very harsh but deserved. Neither Moses or Aaron would get to enter the Promised Land when the Israelites finally got to that point. We read more about this in our passage for today as Moses recounts these words from the Lord:
“You (Moses) shall not enter it, either. But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.”
Well, after learning that God was going to bring judgment on them for their rebellious attitude, the people of Israel decided to fall back on what they had always done when they got into trouble, try to wiggle their way out of the Lord’s bad graces. In this instance, they took it upon themselves to go ahead and enter Canaan to “go up and fight, as the Lord” commanded us". They put on their weapons and decided to enter “the hill country”.
There was one big problem with this plan. It wasn’t put in place or endorsed by God, the God who sent this warning through Moses:
“Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.’”
But the Israelites were a stubborn people and so they once again failed to heed what God told them, choosing instead to go into Canaan and fight anyways, and as you would expect, it didn’t go well. Moses remembered it well when he said:
“So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before the Lord, but He paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there."
You know, the behavior of the Israelites reminds me of what a young child does when they know they are in trouble for doing something they weren’t supposed to do. In those instances, they suddenly say they are sorry after they know they are in trouble with the hope of escaping punishment. Rarely does this tact ever work for after the offense, it’s usually too late and discipline is imposed with the hope that next time, the child will make the proper choice when it comes to doing right or wrong.
In the case of the people of Israel, we see that they think God will return to their side and allow “bygones to be bygones” if they just admit their sins and then go and do what He wanted them to do in the first place. In this instance, it was to go into Canaan and claim the land as their own, fighting for it if needed.
Well, we read that this isn’t what God wanted as He warns them that if they did go into the land, He wouldn’t be there with them. Essentially, they would be fighting on their own. But, the Israelites had their minds made up and so they ‘rebelled against the Lord's command” and in “arrogance marched up into the hill country”. The outcomes weren’t surprising as the Amorites, who lived in the hills, came out against Israel and “chased (them) like a swarm of bees” beating them “down from Seir…to Hormah”. Returning to Kadesh, God’s people “wept before the Lord” but the scriptures tell us “He paid no attention” and “turned a deaf ear”.
In the end translation, the people of Israel had lost God’s favor and this included Him not fighting alongside them, especially when they were carrying out something outside of His will.
And so too is it with us.
For believe it or not, there can be times in life when God might withdraw Himself from us as well, like when we abandon Him and are completely consumed and saturated with sin. The Lord doesn’t take willing sinfulness lightly for it was that very attitude that led Him to offer up His only Son, Jesus, so to give us a chance for redemption and salvation. Indeed, it was Jesus who bore the weight of our transgressions, carrying them onto the cross of Calvary as He was crucified, bearing the punishment and judgment that should have been upon us. It was there that He experienced a separation from His Father and cried out saying this while laden with our iniquities:
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - which means, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46
Can you imagine the heartbreak God had to feel when He couldn’t be with His Son in His greatest time of need? And what about our Savior who needed the love of His Father who couldn’t provide it because of our sins being upon His Son.
Friends, we need our God, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. For without Him, we have no hope of making it through this thing called life.
In order for this to happen, we have to expunge all sin from our lives, the sin that Jesus died to take away from the world (John 1:29), the sin that we too often are too stubborn to surrender, just like the Old Testament Israelites. When comes right down to it, we all have a fundamental choice to make.
We can partner with God or partner with Satan and sin, and whichever we choose will be our master.
If we choose to partner with the enemy and opt for wickedness, then we can expect that God will have no part in our behavior nor with us. He will never be in the midst of our transgressions and we will learn quickly that we can't make it without Him.
Conversely, if we opt to reject sinfulness, living like Jesus while striving for the righteousness that God desires, then we can expect that He will be fully with us and for us, helping us become the people He wants us to be each and every day in this worldly existence until that day when we enter into the eternal life He promises for those who believe in His Son, a life where we will be set free from sin so to live with Him in perfect holiness forever.
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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