Numbers

I’ve been reading through the book of Numbers in the Bible. It has its moments where it’s a little dry and hard to focus, but the other day my heart was rattled! I came away with three lessons that I’ve never heard preached from this particular passage of scripture. I’m sure someone has, but I’ve never heard someone speak on this topic and passage before. It’s not your typical scripture you see quoted or referenced as a learning lesson. It has always flown under the radar for me and it wasn’t until the other day where I found myself thinking “How have I never heard this?!”. It is sprinkled throughout Numbers, so I won’t be quoting a specific passage because I think you need to read all of it to have full context. To set the scene, Moses was called by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Let’s first just acknowledge the story of that which I feel like most people know. Moses was born during a time that babies were being murdered because this was one of many attempts for the enemy to try to stop God’s plan from taking place. Moses was placed in a basket and floated down the river where he was then found and raised within the pharaoh’s family as his son. So, miracle number one is the fact that he was born, hidden, placed in a basket, FLOATED DOWN A RIVER, and raised in the very home of the man trying to have him killed before this. He then grows up, and is called by God to lead His people out of Egypt. There are many other miracles that happen throughout all of that as well. The most notable to me is as they’re being chased by Egyptians, they arrive at the Red Sea, GOD PARTS THE SEA, and they safely go through. The sea closes as their enemies chasing them are in the opening of the sea. God protects them because he lead them there. He worked a massive miracle and lead them to safety.

I prefaced all of this with those examples because in Numbers, we are now at the point where Moses is leading them to the promised land. They are in the wilderness, and times seem a little harder than they once were. Despite the Israelites being enslaved in Egypt, they had minimal unknowns in life. They had stability, despite it not being God’s best for them, it was still a life they were used to. Now, God has promised to lead them to the promised land, but they haven’t arrived. They have just experienced these MASSIVE miracles to lead them to now being in the wilderness, traveling to their final destination. They have been lead over the first hurdle, if you will, but they still have a long road ahead. God literally rains food from the sky so they wake up to enough food to eat every day. God provides protection and nourishment for them every day, but the people are complaining to Moses. They’re getting tired of the food that the Lord is providing. They’re starting to have distrust that they’re ever actually going to reach their final destination. They’re starting to reminisce on their time in Egypt and say they wish they had meat to eat instead of the manna that God is providing them. They’re starting to complain so much that God then provides them with an insane amount of quail and says He will do that until they become sick of that too! I finished off in my reading right before they were to continue on and have to conquer land. They were skeptical whether they could successfully conquer this currently occupied land that was filled with an army that they didn’t think they could overtake.

So, you’re telling me that people who have witnessed GOD PART A SEA and RAIN DOWN FOOD FROM THE SKY are still questioning whether He will get them to the promised land, are complaining, and still not convinced whether this whole thing is legit? When you read that from an outside perspective my first thought was these people are so ungrateful and so unintelligent. How could you witness all of that and still not trust God who is providing that?? Then I started to reflect on my own life and God taught me three lessons that I can’t get out of my head.

Lesson number one is that I have witnessed so many times where I’m in a situation whether it be financially, emotionally, mentally, or physically struggling in some aspect of my life. Something is gone wrong or I’ve ended up in a difficult spot. I find myself feeling like there’s no way out. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel and it feels like all hope is lost. Then, suddenly God works it out and I’m standing on the other side wondering why I ever doubted that He would take care of me. Sometimes it works out exactly how I prayed for it to and other times it works out in a way I’d never thought it would and ends up better than I ever thought it could be. Yet, every time I run into trouble I still always wonder if this is the time it won’t work out. Is this the time that it just doesn’t get better? Then I am always given so much GRACE from God time after time as he kindly shows me that he will always have me. So why do I ever doubt? I have seen Him do it time and time again and each time my faith is stronger and stronger, but I long for the day that it doesn’t even cross my mind to doubt if things will work out. I don’t know if it’s even possible on this side of heaven when we still live in our human form that, despite our best efforts still sometimes desire to sin and doubt. This lesson was definitely God kindly showing me that I need to always strive to trust him and to just combat that inclination to doubt. I pray that I always default to trusting wherever God leads me and trusting that he will always provide. He will always work things for my good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose.

Lesson number two, Moses still sometimes questioned God in the sense of questioning whether he was up for the task of leading His people. He would question how God planned to do something. He was still flawed in his humanity that he still wasn’t always 100% convinced at all times no matter what and would sometimes have a confusion about him when God told him what He planned to do. I’m no theologian and certainly am not a scholar. So, my interpretation is just my interpretation. Moses was still flawed in that he still had questions for God, but it didn’t seem that he ever had doubts. He would wonder how God would do what He said He would do, but because he was so close to God and had seen what He had done in his life, he didn’t doubt. He didn’t seem to ever not trust God. My lesson in that is the people saw all of the same things that Moses did, but they didn’t talk with God daily. They didn’t have a one on one relationship with God therefore the miracles they witnessed still would sometimes not convince them to keep their faith. Moses, however, had a close relationship with God. He knew God and God knew him and because of that, Moses trusted Him. What does that teach me? Well, when you have a close relationship with God and seek him by being prayerful and being rooted in the truth of His word, you trust Him more. We witness miracles day in and day out, but a lot of them just get normalized and a lot of them are sometimes even explained away by trying to diminish it down to an explanation of chance. It’s just a coincidence. It’s just science. It’s just luck. When you know God, you see his promises and you trust that He will continue to provide. You trust Him. I even see it in my own life. As soon as I get too wrapped up in something else and my focus isn’t on Him, I become so much less thankful and so much less trusting in Him.

Lesson number three, is that nothing can prevent God’s plan from happening. You see this all throughout scripture of the enemy trying to stop God’s plan from coming to fruition, but God always wins. It is sometimes easy to see all the evil in this world and forget that for all the evil, there is God working in the hearts of many believers to combat that evil. God uses us in normal day to day scenarios to combat evil. He uses miracles to combat evil. He wins in the end, and we are still in the midst of the story. We know the end of the story. We know that God ultimately wins in the end, but in the midst of it in the big picture, we are still in the midst of God’s plan. Even in the smaller picture of each of our individual lives, we are still in the midst of His story of our lives. We spend so much time as a society in the big picture stuff trying to control the outcome of things. We do it in our individual lives and try to control the outcomes of things. Ultimately though, no amount of effort can stop or interfere with God’s plan. You can try or not try with all your might, but He will still fulfill His plan. It’s still important that we follow His call on our lives because we are called to not just sit and idle, but God’s plan will always be done.

I hope this encourages you today. It was a big learning lesson for me and I hope it is for you as well. Thanks for following along!