“That night all the members of the community
raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly
said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by
the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to
Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and
go back to Egypt.” Numbers 14:1-4
Why all the
panic?
They had
just received the report of the twelve spies on the perils of the Promised
Land. There were giants over there!
Although
there were two versions of the report, they chose to believe the one offered by
the ten spies rather than the faith-driven opinion of Caleb and Joshua. When you believe a false report you are going
to end up in fear.
I share this
story because it illustrates how easy it is to become entrenched in and
attached to comfort even when the comfort zone is a desert.
The fact
that we can become comfortable with life in a desert should be enough reason
for concern. But for the past forty years God had led them with a cloud by day
and a pillar of fire at night. God had fed some 6,000, 000 people every day for
four decades with manna from heaven and given them water from a rock. For forty
years their clothing and their shoes did not wear out.
I think it
is fair to say they had grown comfortable with God’s power and provision as He
fed them and fought their battles.
So you would
think that now they stood on the verge of entering the Promised Land, they
would have been excited about following Him into Canaan to claim their destiny.
But the thought of a new adventure was uncomfortable to them. A more comfortable thought was to retreat
back to slavery in Egypt.
Such is the
power of comfort! In times of doubt or fear the known becomes more comfortable
to us than the unknown even when the known is a desert and the unknown is your
destiny.
God had
delivered them from the cruel bondage of the pharaoh. And God had opened the
Red Sea to lead them through on dry ground!
Why could
they not trust Him to bring them safely into the Land of Promise?
Think about
it! If they would choose to trust Him in this one more uncomfortable challenge
of crossing the Jordan and conquering the Promised Land then they would know
comfort and safety for the rest of their lives.
But, they
wanted to elect a new leader and retreat to the comforts of the past. Obviously,
they must have assumed that God would continue to feed them and give the water
as they headed back to slavery.
That begs
the question, “If they could trust Him to provide for them on their trip BACK,
why wouldn’t they trust Him to provide for their trip AHEAD?
The past was
familiar and familiar is comfortable.
I love to be
comfortable. I have as many comforts as I can afford. But I don’t want to
become a captive to comfort. I don’t want to ever become more comfortable in
the past than I am in the present. I don’t want my comfort level with the
desert keep me from capturing my destiny.
I want to
learn from the mistakes of Israel here in Numbers 14.
I want to
learn to listen to the “Calebs” and the “Joshuas”.
I want to
remember that the God Who led me TO the Jordan River can lead me THROUGH the
Jordan and into His promises.
I want that
for you, too!
I want that
for FredWes.
There are
some giants in our future.
It will
require some risks to reach the next great thing God has for us.
When the time
comes to stare down the giants and weigh the risks, I pray we won’t retreat to
a comfortable past. I pray that we will remember all that God provided to get
us this far. I pray that we will recognize His presence with us now. And I pray
we will reach from His promises ahead. I pray that whenever we become uncomfortable
with what He calls us to, we will learn to find our comfort in Him.
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