Day 45, or February the 14th. How supportive are you? Our thoughts today are rooted in
Numbers chapter 14 verse 11. The Lord said to Moses, How long will these people treat
me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs
I have performed among them? Now the big picture surrounding this verse. At God's instigation,
spies are sent into the promised land. One spy came from each of the tribes, twelve in
all. They brought back conclusive evidence that the land was truly a land of milk and
honey. But the people were unconvinced when they heard that only two of the twelve spies
were urging them to believe God and claim the land. This resulted in revolt in the camp,
and the whole nation was condemned to forty years of wandering in the wilderness, during
which time that faithless generation would die. The Israelites rebel against God, and
Moses prays for them to get another chance, and they are duly pardoned. However, they
would still wander in the wilderness, due to their lack of faith.
And now today's action step. God tests Moses by appearing to lose patience with the Israelites
and threatening to destroy his unbelieving people and create a new nation through the
descendants of Moses. It was clearly a test, because there was no way God would break his
promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The reaction of Moses is very interesting. He
argues with God that if this happened, other nations would lose respect for the living
God, who has done such marvelous things for the Israelites. He begs God to forgive his
wayward people and give them another chance. God's reputation was of paramount importance
to Moses. Do you defend God's reputation as vehemently as this? The biggest area of
failure can often be within the church itself. We stay in the name of God by criticizing
fellow Christians. We need to stop. If we don't speak positively about our God and
His church, who will?