I wrote this November of last year...well, all except the last two sentences, which I added today because I never actually finished the article. How much has changed in a year! But as I was reading it, I thought it best to publish it. Hopefully someone can benefit from it.
You know, a year ago, today, I was probably raking leaves or cooking dinner, or enjoying a movie, maybe I was dancing with abandon, because no one was watching me. I don't know. But looking back, I see that a lot has changed. It's funny, sometimes, to look at the past and see how different it was. It's funny to look at the future and see what it could be...what's different yet is to look at the present and see what it might have been...today is one of those days. But rather than say "today might have been the day that..." I can say "today is the day of God's faithfulness.
The Israelites were taken out of Egypt...God performed many miraculous signs and wonders to accomplish this. So the people were taken out. Then they were taken through the desert, past mount Sainai, where God gave them the 10 commandments (which they broke before they even heard), and finally they get to the promised land! Yay!!!! But, wait. They're not quite IN yet. They've come to the edge, the brink, they can almost taste it! So they send out spies...12 to be exact, one representative from each family clan, so to speak, and the job of the spies is to find out what they're up against...to see how powerful their enemies are, and see what the land is like. Well, the land is amazing! Truly, it flows with milk and honey, just as they had been promised...but I guess the people of the land ate plenty of that wonderful produce, because they were giants. And 10 of the 12 representatives got really scared. See, they started looking at those giants and chickened out. So what if God had promised them the land...I mean, REALLY? Did He really expect them to win against such giants? Especially when we weren't just talking about 1 galiath here...but whole cities full? What were they against so great (literally) a force? So they went back to the people and told them how the land was good, but unatainable. And the people freaked out. They complained, they wept (I mean, literally wept and mourned!) because they decided it was impossible to receive what God had promised. Just impossible. That's when two of the 12 stepped up...Numbers 14:8-9a records a bit of this conversation, "If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread;" (NKJV). But the people didn't beleive them. They rebelled against God...after all, they were just using their heads! The ones God gave them to think with! But rather than looking at God who made those heads to think with, they looked at the giants that could, potentially, crush those thinking tanks. And they froze up and decided to grumble and complain against God. And, that was it. God was merciful, He didn't kill them all then and there (although He wanted to), instead He decided to let them wander in the desert...they didn't want His promise, so be it...maybe their children would, after living in tents for 40 years. Uh, yeah. If my parants made a bad life choice like that, I'd like to think I would learn from it!
Ok, so hold on...that's a nice story and everything, but how does it translate? To me? Now? Is that me? "God, that land looks nice...I mean it's all you've promised me...abundant life, protection, hope, peace, all that stuff...sounds good...but, uh, you want me to what? Leave home? Ok, no prob..." (10 days later) "ok, maybe a little problem..." (10 days later) "ok, maybe a bigger problem...God you forgot to tell me where I'm going." (2 days later) "I'm super excited, Lord, now I know where I'm going, but there's one thing missing...today was supposed to be my wedding day! You took the man, you took the family, you took the home, the car, the job, the life, and now I'm wandering off into the desert to the promised land, and all those promises seem lost. How will I ever get married if you take me away from everyone I've ever known?" Did Ruth ask this? Or did she obey? Did Mary ask this? Or did she believe? Do not run from the promised land just because you have to fight giants to get there. If God brings you to the land, He will make a way in.
z
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