January 9, 2025

Passage Read: Numbers 36 - Deuteronomy 3
Meditation Verses: Deuteronomy 1:41-43

Thought

They thought it was easy to go in and take the land, but it wasn't. It required the Lord's help. These Canaanite nations were stronger than the Israelites, and this proved it. It would be a reminder that only with the Lord's help could the Israelites defeat the Canaanites. So if He refuses to help, they should not go. They should have accepted the Lord's punishment and learned from it, but instead they tried to take the land themselves and failed. Then they kept rising up in their arrogance against Moses, as if anyone could speak to the Lord, or as if He was make-believe and Moses really was ruling over them by his own ideas.

Application

Unbelief brings all kinds of trouble and really stems from arrogance. That is why the Lord delights in humility. The humble believe and obey Him; the arrogant think they are wise enough and powerful enough to accomplish all their selfish will. This event should be illustration enough that God is real and we are not as powerful as we think. But time has passed and technology has progressed, and we again think we're so great, that there's nothing we can't defeat, so we can be our own gods. The stage is set for the end of this age, and man will soon be reminded that they can't defeat God. I'll choose humility now and believe and submit to the Lord, so I can be on the winning side in those days.