Disobeying God's Command (Num. 14:39-45 & Deut. 1:41-46)

1/3/2009 10:28 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Disobeying God’s command

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Num. 14:39-45; Deut. 1:41-46

          Message of the verses:  “39  When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.  40  In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, "Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised."  41  But Moses said, "Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD, when it will not succeed?  42  "Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.  43  "For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the LORD. And the LORD will not be with you."  44  But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.  45  Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.”

            41  "Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.

42  "And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated before your enemies."’  43  "So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the LORD, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country.  44  "The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah.  45  "Then you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.  46  "So you remained in Kadesh many days, the days that you spent there.

            This section speaks of the last of the five sins that were committed by the children of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea.  The sin was that the children of Israel did not listen to what the Lord told them, and that was not to go up to the land because the Lord would not be with them.  The Lord did forgive their sin as Moses asked Him to, but the Lord told them that they would be wandering around in the wilderness for the next thirty-eight years until all of those who were twenty years and older at the censes would then die in the wilderness.  Dr. Wiersbe says that this was the longest funeral march in the history of man as over a million people died before the children of the older generation entered the Promised Land.  The second generation had to also wander around the wilderness waiting for the older generation to die so even though they did not commit the sin they were still involved in the judgment of the sin for those thirty-eight years. 

            “Man’s efforts without God’s blessing do more harm than good, for Jesus said, ‘Without me you can do nothing.’”  (Be Counted)  “Evangelist D. L. Moody said that ‘real true faith is man’s weakness leaning on God’s strength.’  It’s taking God as His Word and proving it by obeying what He tells us to do.”  (Be Counted)

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  After reading this section and Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this section it reminds me of when I was getting a check from my investment each month, and remembering that I did kind of feel like maybe this was not the right thing to be doing with the money God had entrusted me with so I would begin to think about how I could invest some of it into God’s kingdom.  I would give money to different Christian works and think that that would make everything all right, but as I have learned in this section it probably was not what God wanted me to do and thus I have been disciplined for not following what it was that God wanted me to do.  It is kind of hard to explain all of this from my thoughts, but I do believe in my heart that I was not handling this hard earned money the way that God wanted me to.  Now what happened afterwards and it is still going on, is that God has taught me lessons about money and about Himself that to me, are more valuable than the money that I do not have at this time.  One of the things that I regret most of all is that every since became a believer is to go to Israel and walk where Jesus walked and experience some of the same kind of things that Jesus experienced, for people who have gone there have said that it truly makes the Bible come alive.  I would love to go to Israel and live on a Kibitz for a few months and work with the people of Israel and then be able to see the same things that Jesus saw when He was on the earth.  If it is to be done for us it will be because God wants it to happen and not because I want it to happen. 

            I have learned a lot about faith in these last few sections.  I have learned that I must live my life by faith, faith in what God has told me in His Word and not just say that I am stepping out on faith like that first generation did, which wasn’t faith at all for they did not go about it in the correct way. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. To get to know my Lord and Savior better.
2. To continue to learn contentment.
3. To trust the Lord to guide my path.
4. To continue to memorize Scripture.
5. To continue to learn more about faith is and have the right kind of faith.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:14-18

14.    For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

15.    What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it never be!

16.    Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?

17.    But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

18.    and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

1/3/2009 12:27 PM