Focus Chapters:
- Numbers 14-15
Standout Verse(s):
THE ACTION
Numbers 14:1-4 NLT
Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
THE REACTION
Numbers 14:26-28, 31-33 NLT
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.
“‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness. And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.
Observation (s):
- There is power in the tongue. In their fear and state of complaining, the Israelites declared negative outcomes into the atmosphere, forgetting all that the Lord had brought them through.
Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”.
- God brought to life, the negativity that the Israelites had declared into the atmosphere.
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.
- The Israelites, the heat of their complaining, forgot that their plan to oust their leader would mean usurping God, their Leader whose instructions Moses and Aaron executed. In return, God ousted them from the promise, giving it to their children.
Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
“‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised.But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness.”
Application:
Everytime we stop behind a truck at a stoplight, we place immense faith in the truck driver keeping his foot on the brake. When we place our children in a booster seat, we trust that the strap won’t break and toss our children during an accident. Everytime we step into a building, we trust that the building won’t collapse upon us. Our faith seem to come quite easily with things that are manmade. These are the things in which we willingly entrust our safety and that of our children without thought.
Ironically, when God, our maker, tells us to move or makes us promises, we, like the Israelites, question everything, forgetting God’s past demonstrations of His power. Oftentimes, in questioning God, complaining in fear and declaring all the possible negative outcomes, we start looking back towards Egypt and entertain thoughts of ousting God’s authority over our lives. Our faithlessness and unbelief in God’s ability to fulfill His promises comes at a high price. Suddenly, the promise’s fruition date increases from days to years and you miss the opportunity to see the promise brought to fruition as God ousts you from the promise, putting your children in your stead.
The next time God tells you its time to move into the promise and you start feeling doubts and the urge to complain based on your perception of what you believe is God’s inability. Stop and ask yourself, “Will my unbelief and faithlessness be worth it?”
