NO Water, Grumbling Sheep, and Towering Giants? Just Believe!

[Timothea Galoner]

God counts his sheep.  He says they count.  Down to the hairs on their head, which he also counts.  We are numbered in His book of life, our names so precious that He knows each one.  So with the Israelite people.  The old generation, the first to see His glorious miracles and walk from Egypt to (almost) the Promised Land, encountered a stumbling block so big that they were robbed of the promise of milk and honey and “ate dust” for 40 years.  What was this stumbling block?  Themselves.  Their ingratitude.  Grumbling and stumbling, they cut off their nose to spite their face by challenging God with disbelief, even in the face of miracles that were so obvious (who can explain a dry rock spewing refreshing water instantly after Moses struck it?) that other generations shake their heads at their lack of faith.  As did Joshua and Caleb who believed with passion that the Promised Land was theirs for the taking because God said so.  Maybe that’s not fair.  Maybe we would have done much the same as the Israelite people.  I want to say we would have been more like Joshua and Caleb.

The next generation, however, learned.  They heard Moses.  They turned to God.  They stopped the generational curse from flowing over them and did not buy into the complaining narrative their parents adopted.  It took 40 years for the old generation to die out and for the new generation to spring forth.  Grumbling and complaining pollutes our hearts.  Rebellion will take over your heart if you do not rebuke it immediately.  The instructions God gave were to deal with the inward condition of the heart regarding purity, honesty, love, holiness, free-will worship and setting apart for God.  The first generation failed and God gave the second generation a second chance.  STOP GRUMBLING.  BELIEVE I WILL REWARD YOU.  There are consequences to our unbelief.  The Israelite people ate dust for 40 years.  Moses did not make it into the Promised Land (he hit the rock out of anger at the grumblers instead of speaking to it as God said), 10 out of 12 men decided the giants in the land were bigger than God.  These are lessons we need to apply to our own lives and live (as Joshua and Caleb did) in the Victory that whatever the situation is – God is there for us and “He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6b)

[Author]

Posts