Lesson One: Evaluate our success in following God based on our own resources.
It seems that at least part of the book of Numbers could be used for a “how not to” book on following God.
That’s what occurred to me anyway as I read through this this morning.
Now lest you think I am all puffed up and full of myself (which is probably true more often than I realize, but I digress as that is another discussion) and that I think that I am impervious to these shortcomings, let me say that my prayer is that by learning from this example I can win in some of these areas.
So I have decided to trust God and learn how to better follow God by learning from the “how not to” lessons contained herein. Whew!
Are you following any of that, dude?
In other words, we can’t judge them because we all face the same challenges. We have all folded in the heat of battle and turned from faith to sight and disappointed our God.
(Numbers 13:31 ESV) 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.”
Can’t do it, God! We have checked our resources and after evaluating our strengths and weaknesses, we see that we cannot do what you are asking. We hope you understand.
They had forgotten that God had brought them this far. They had forgotten all the previous miracles and daily provision. Their perspective was dominated by giants.
They were more impressed by the giants than by God. Oops!
1 Corinthians 10:1-12 MSG Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. (2) They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. (3) They all ate (4) and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. (5) But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much–most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. (6) The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. (7) And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did–“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” (8) We must not be sexually promiscuous–they paid for that, remember, with twenty-three thousand deaths in one day! (9) We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. (10) We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. (11) These are all warning markers—DANGER!–in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel–they at the beginning, we at the end–and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. (12) Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
