One step at a time

 

 

READ Numbers 13–16

This week I’ve determined to deal with unused stuff in my home. Toss or repurpose? Donate or use it? Decisions. I’m asking God to show me and today’s reading illustrates His eagerness to be my guide. I’ve long since left ‘Egypt’ and am working my way through life’s wilderness. This task looms large in my mind and I can identify with the fears and uncertainty of God’s people. Which way to go?

Through Moses, God sent a group to check out the promised land and determine its characteristics. This is what I am doing with my stuff and like them, I’m filled with mixed emotions. They told Moses:

“We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Numbers 13:27–33)

I look at fabric people have given me or I purchased, unused patterns for sewing, reams of various types of paper, art supplies, hobby and craft equipment, clothing I seldom wear, tools in the storage room, etc. and feel much like those spies. Part of me wants to tackle and use all of it. Part of me says I will not live long enough. Another part says ignore it — leave it for my children to figure out.

That OT congregation cried and wept. They grumbled. They wished they were back at the time when this was not an issue. Some even wished they had died rather than get this far. They even wanted a different leader who would take them from this place. I sense the same feelings, but also think of the blessings God gives when I press on doing the ‘hard stuff’ for His glory . . .

If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:8–9)

Moses had to intercede for he knew the danger of disobeying God. He had taken them thus far yet said, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them . . . .” (Numbers 14:11–12)

However, Moses appealed to God with, “If you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’” (Numbers 14:15–16)

Of course, God kept His covenant. He  brought His people into the land, yet those who protested spent forty years wandering in the wilderness until all that generation perished. God would not tolerate their hesitancy nor any disobedience. Only Joshua and Caleb remained alive. (Numbers 14:34–38)

Then God gave instructions for offerings and a way to remember His commands so they would not give up and do their own thing as they were prone to. Whatever He tells me concerning my current decisions, I need the same reminders for I am prone to revert to ‘my way’ when His way becomes difficult.

Of note, some Levites complained about their assigned roles. God separated them from the others and the earth opened up and swallowed them, the first recorded earthquake. It happened because their ambition was more than what God had willed for them. The rest of the people were also in danger to a plague until their leaders interceded for them.

Out of all this, I’m still not certain what God wants me to do other than listen for His voice and do what He says, as He says it. His wise plans will unfold — perhaps slowly – and certainly one step at a time.