Passage Read: Numbers 16-19
Meditation Verses: 17:12-13
Thought
This is exactly what the Lord promised, that that generation would all perish in the wilderness. But it is not as if the Lord were seeking occasions to destroy them, rather the people themselves were creating the circumstances of their demise! They didn't listen or learn from their refusal to follow the Lord into the promised land; they didn't accept that they were the ones who rebelled in unbelief. Instead, they grumbled against Moses and blamed him for their present wanderings in the wilderness. And they rightly cried out that they were all perishing! But they were wrong to say that everyone who comes near to the Lord must die. If they could accept that it was their sin that brought trouble and death, they would be able to humble themselves and repent, and approach the Lord as He directed and enjoy His favor. They were all dying because they refused to understand the Lord and honor His directives. God wasn't out to get them; they just didn't care to listen to anything God was saying.
Application
Neither is God out to get me or anyone else. It is because of our own sin that we suffer at His hands, but the suffering He brings isn't to destroy, unless we've gone to far. At least early on, His purpose is to wake us up and bring us to repentance. If I don't learn from early lessons, then the rebuke will get stronger, and if I don't listen to those, then the day will come when He ends my life. But God is not my enemy, and if I am humble and sensitive to His leading, then I will enjoy His favor and have nothing to fear from Him. If I'm tempted to fear Him and see Him as impossible to live with, I need to recognize that the problem is not with Him but with me. I'm not listening to Him; I'm not trying to understand His ways and do them.