God Makes the Rules

 Psalm 42              Numbers 13-14                 2 Peter 2

As is true today, many songs of Israel where songs dealing with the difficulties of life and the feeling of abandonment. Psalm 42 is one of those that recognizes that at times we feel abandoned by God, when we cannot feel his presence or are uncertain what we should do and the future holds. It is easy to fall into depression and yet faith provides for us to know even in the darkest days God is still there. Our souls, our inner being, longs for God, like a deer pants for the refreshing quenching of thirst along the stream of water.

The hardest part is that when we do what God commands us to do it often means we feel surrounded by enemies, even our own families, yet need to trust that He has what is best for us in the long-term in hand. It is in those times our spirit cries out to the Lord, sometimes with groaning too deep for words, that we can be reminded that the day will come when we will again gladly praise the Lord.

One of the most interesting thoughts during the reading of this some is the picture of Israel, overlooking the promised land ahead, wondered if they should go forth to what was unknown and seemed so dangerous or keeping wanting to go back to where they had come from, even though the suffering there was hard to remember.

Turning in Numbers to the story of the people of Israel coming to the edge of the promised land, where they can see it and have great anticipation God is going to give them the promised land. God tells Moses to send a man from each family to spy out the land that he is about to give them. The promise hasn’t changed, and this is an opportunity to see the blessings that are before them. Moses sends them to check out the details of what lies ahead so they know what they are facing to be prepared for the success of the taking over that land. Moses sends the leaders of each of the tribes into the land so they will know how and where to lead their people.

They set out on their mission and find incredible blessings and amazing land that brings abundance in almost every way. It is as God has promised where food and milk flow like streams just as God had promised them so long ago and they bring back unbelievable examples of what it produces. It is exactly what God told them to expect on their arrival.

Then the trouble starts, when most of these leaders only see the difficult challenges before them and become afraid. They recognize that the land is what God has said it would be, but then they tell stories of how large and powerful the people of the land are. Even though two of them, Caleb and Joshua, speak out that the Lord has promised this land to them and that He would deliver it into their hands just like he did out of Egypt, they spread their fear. Returning to their people they led they told stories of the impossible power of those that lived in the land and the fear spread throughout the camp. That fear led to the demand that the ones who said to rely on God had their lives threatened when they challenged the people not to turn their backs on God.

As often happens even today, the people listen to the negatives voices and ignore God’s promises. The cry out wanting to go back to the place they came from. They even elect leaders that will take them back to being slaves in Egypt, because at least they know what to expect. At least they think they do. I wonder what changes have happened in Egypt while they were gone and if their approach wouldn’t lead to fear and the desire to destroy them. Why would God then protect them when it is what they wanted?

The next section is God ready to destroy them and start over with the elderly Moses. Moses then gives God the people’s perspective in the world and ask they be allowed to remain as God’s people. God pardons them, relieves them of the punishment they deserve, as Moses had requested.

God, however, tells Moses the earth will be filled with His glory and that there is a high cost to disobedience. This group of people that declared their children would have been better off in Egypt will no longer get to take them into the land where they would have lived with incredible blessings. They will instead grow up with their parents wondering in the wilderness until everyone except Caleb and Joshua has died. They will not get to see their children and grandchildren grow up as God had attended. Those children that they saw as the prey if they entered the promised land will be the ones that will become those that inherit the land of promise. This process will take forty years, one year for each day that the spies so the possible blessings.

It is then that the people decide they have made a mistake and are not ready to do what they should have done before. Even though Moses warns them it is too late, and the opportunity is past they move toward the promised land and are driven back into the wilderness.

In 2^nd Peter we are warned that there will be false teachers sent among us to secretly introduce heresies into the church and deceive us into dangerous and destructive ways. He points out that God did not even spare the angels so we should be prepared for judgement. It is also shown that God’s desire is to rescue the lost from judgement and punishment. The church has the role to uphold and teach the ways of God, as taught and shown by Jesus, and inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is better for someone to never have heard the good news than to have heard it, accepted it, and then reject it to make others happy.

All of todays reading are a reminder that God created the heavens and the earth and writes the rules of life. We were given the choice to follow and be blessed or to reject the ways of God and experience the consequences both here and now and then for eternity.