January 2, 2025
Passage Read: Numbers 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:29
Thought
Moses got his wish: This is the promise of the New Covenant, that God would put His Spirit in His people and write His Law on our hearts, so that we would know the Lord, ideally even as Moses knew Him. What Moses longs for is that everyone knows the Lord to the same degree, so no one is needed to lead them and no longer is there any rebellion or complaining. If only. The reality is that there are so many in our churches who claim to believe in Jesus but seem to have little or no knowledge of Him. Even those who have great learning and training and education debate among themselves what is true and right. As if God's Spirit had a bunch of different ideas, some even competing or contradictory. There is still an inability to trust that a single individual can know the Lord and live in obedience to Him. We still want leaders and teachers; indeed, we're still given those things, as if the people of God are still unruly. It is true that there is still a rabble among the believers; there are still wolves among the sheep, seeking to get control over a crowd and use them for their own selfish ends. We apparently have not yet entered into the complete fulfillment of Moses' wish and the New Covenant promise.
Application
Paul told the Corinthians that there doubtless had to be differences among them in order to show who truly had God's Spirit. That is our lot today. But that implies that there is a single understanding of truth from God. Not everyone who claims to know what is true and right actually does, and we are obligated to judge between them all, to discern who is from God and who is not, what teachings are truly from the Lord and which are not. If we're expected to do so, then there is still a standard of doctrine that is accessible and understandable to all believers, if we will avail ourselves of it and trust it to be true. I believe Moses' wish has actually been granted, and all those who are willing to trust and believe and obey the Scriptures with the discernment and power given by the Spirit, can in fact know the Lord in truth. Sadly, we still prefer a division of labor: We would rather someone else put in the effort to know the Lord while we pursue other things more interesting to us. And so the church, by and large, remains confused and divided, distracted and deceived, and happily so. I believe I can know the Lord in truth, so I will commit myself to believing and obeying the Scriptures above the thoughts of any man.