SATURDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2023
TEXT:
Numbers 14:26-45
26:
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
27:
“How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the
complaints of these grumbling Israelites.
28:
So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the
very thing I heard you say:
29:
In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or
more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
30:
Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your
home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31:
As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them
in to enjoy the land you have rejected.
32:
But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.
33:
Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your
unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
34:
For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you
will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’
35:
I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole
wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their
end in this wilderness; here they will die.”
36:
So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole
community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—
37:
these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were
struck down and died of a plague before the Lord.
38:
Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son
of Jephunneh survived.
39:
When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly.
40:
Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country,
saying, “Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised. Surely we
have sinned!”
41:
But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not
succeed!
42:
Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your
enemies,
43:
for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have
turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the
sword.”
44:
Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the
hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved
from the camp.
45:
Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down
and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.
(New International Version Holy
Bible)
TOPIC:
TAKING DECISIONS OUTSIDE GOD'S WILL
There is serious danger
in taking decisions without involving God. Moses got back to the Israelites to
update them on the plagues that inflicted those who went to spy the land and
brought back bad reports which made the people grumble.
The next day, the
Israelites decided, outside God's will, to continue the Journey, contrary to
God's intention.
The outcome was
disastrous because the Lord was not with them (vs.41). Note how the Amalekites
and the Canaanites mercilessly descended on them. They took this step without Moses
their leader and the Ark of the Lord which represented God's presence.
Despite the daily
challenges we face from terrorists and bandits, we must listen to God's
direction and not the promptings of the flesh.
QUESTION:
How is God leading and directing your decisions in these challenging times?
PRAYER:
Father, You know how we are suffering in the hands of bandits and other
undesirable elements around us. Please subject us to Your will so that we do
not give in to the desires of our flesh. Amen.
Remain
Blessed
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