Three Strikes

Why is it so hard to trust God?  Sin makes us so short-sighted and forgetful!  Ten plagues against Egyptian oppressors ought to be hard to forget.  A divided Red Sea and the annihilation of the Egyptian army ought to secure God’s position as the central figure in all future concerns.  Daily, the Jewish people watch a visible manifestation of God’s guidance and presence among them, in the pillars of cloud and fire. 

                Yet, the Israelites were already displaying an ominous propensity to whine before God about their circumstances.  In the desert, God tested them to see what was in their hearts.  Three times preceding the events at Kadesh-Barnea, Israel complained and incurred the wrath of God:

                Taberah- Because of a “strong craving,” the people complain about their misfortunes before the Lord and God gives manna.  The Lord’s anger is also kindled and outlying parts of the camp are consumed (Numbers 11:1-9).

                Kibroth-hattaavah- The people whine for meat and God gives quail for a month (Numbers 11:19-20), “until it comes out your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.”  The people are also struck with a plague.

                Hazeroth- God challenges the authority of those who challenge Moses, even those in Moses’ own family.  He calls Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the Tent of Meeting and defends Moses as “faithful in all my house.”  Miriam is given leprosy and sent outside the camp for seven days in shame (Numbers 12:1-16). 

Three strikes is bad preparation for inheriting the promised land.  It signals conflict yet to come.  However, before we stand in judgment on the Israelites whining trek out of Egypt, let us examine ourselves:

1.  Do we spend more time thinking about the promises of God or the circumstances of our lives?

2.  Do our prayers have a whining quality?

3.  Do others see in our relationship with God something attractive or desirous?

4.  In what ways have I faltered before the culmination of the promises of God?

It is possible, as the passages indicate, that the judgment of God falls even on His people when they refuse to trust Him.  A final question gives me pause.  Are there signs of God’s judgment at work in my life? 

Caleb: A Good and Broad Land

               God has been good to me.  There have been many times in my life when he has brought me to a land where I could say with the psalmist, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (cp. Psalm 16:5-6)   I have friends scattered throughout the world, good friends, who have stamped my soul with their care for me.  Though now they may have forgotten my name, I bask in the light of their kindness and love for me.  If any of them had need, I would rise with whatever zeal and resources I could muster to come to their aid.

                There have also been times when I have been discontented.  It was only later that I recognized the good land to which I had been led.  I had different expectations, and in the midst of what God had planned for me, I was disappointed.  God was to be my portion and my cup, and I missed it.

                I am no different than the Jews of Moses’ day.  The pattern of God’s blessing for me follows the same steps as the Exodus:

                1.  God sees our slavery.  In Exodus 3, God tells Moses, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt.  God is not oblivious to our sufferings.  He will come to our aid.  “The cry of the people of Israel has come to me.”  We are not outcasts in a random, barren world.  The love of God has heard our cries, understood our pain and risen to help us.

                2.  God announces His intent to provide full deliverance:  “I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites… a land flowing with milk and honey.”  God’s promise had two sides.  He would bring them out of slavery and into blessing, out of pain and into rest.  It was a good land.

                3.  God’s promise comes with an invitation to be accepted by faith.  Listen to the richness of God’s plan:

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.  And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land He has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:7ff).

The goal of His plan is always His glory and our good.  We will be satisfied and He will be glorified.  And our fellowship with Him will be sweet.

                To a man in slavery, that kind of promise and that kind of God can capture your imagination.  It can kindle a zealous heart for following Him.  “A land flowing with milk and honey” described a fertile and abundant harvest, a rich blessing in the agricultural world of the Exodus.  A good and stalwart man like Caleb will clutch the refrain tightly to his breast, not because it presents a change in his circumstances, but because it represents by faith a new and intimate relationship with a powerful, caring God.

                Like the children of Israel, God knows our suffering and has heard our cries.  He has announced His intent to deliver us from our sin, and to bring us into a good and broad land.  Like Caleb, I will arise and follow- only God has what I need.

"Melting Hearts" and Rebellion

God does an unusual thing when he talks to Joshua about the upcoming battle with Jericho. He says, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands." In God's eyes, the war was already over. God was the deciding factor. The weapons and defenses and soldiers of Jericho do not need to be taken into account before an omnipotent God. It was time again for the nation to trust, to witness, and to prepare for building another memorial of faith.
While such faith is laudable (see Hebrews 11), God did not mean it to be rare. Such trust is the only possible answer when the circumstances are understood as they really are. The problem comes when our eyes fix on the circumstances of war and not on the Lord of Hosts. The people become big in our minds and God becomes small. And God calls that rebellion.
"How long will these people treat me with contempt?" he asks Moses (Numbers 14:11). God argues that refusing to believe in spite of the miraculous things he has done (Remember the Red Sea parting?) was equal in His mind to rebellion. God's glory and reputation were bound up in His activity. His people had seen miracles yet refused to believe. God says that first generation tested Him 10 times, the full measure of His patience, and that not one of them would see the land He had promised to them.
In the passage in Numbers, Caleb provides the laudable pattern of response. "My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly." If we are going to see miracles, then we need a spirit of submission, humility, and obedience. We need a desire to follow Christ wholeheartedly. May God grant us a tribe of Calebs.

God, forgive the focus of my eyes. I did not mean to turn them from You. Remember my weakness. Restore a right spirit in me.