Reflections from April 22, 2011

Today is Good Friday, the day we recognize the death of Jesus. It is a great day to reflect on our relationship with the Lord and to remember what He did for us and our salvation.

Just as Jesus was recognized by the Father for what He did, God recognized Moses and his efforts and faithfulness. When Moses was challenged by his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam, God spoke up on his behalf and said in Numbers 12:7-8,
"My servant Moses is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face; even plainly and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord."

Moses' relationship with the Lord was so strong that he was one of the only humans to see God in His form, to hear from God directly as one friend to another. Many times Moses spoke to God to reason in ways that took God in a different direction.

How strong is your relationship with God? Does He speak to you and do you listen? Do you challenge God or do you praise Him for all that He does? God was clear that Moses was favored by Him, but it was because of Moses' belief in God's direction and complete, absolute trust in God.

Moses sent twelve men to the Promised land to check it out; ten were scared by what they saw, and two were ready to go and take what God had promised. We read in Numbers 13:30-31,
"Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.'"

This is a fascinating thought given all that God had done for them, especially in saving them from the force of the Egyptians as they chased them to the Red Sea. But two, Caleb and Joshua, trusted in the Lord because of what He did for them, and had the vision to see Israel going in and inhabiting the Promised Land, just as God said they would do. For us the question is, do we look at the data we take in, just like these twelve men did for their forty day journey, and process it according to our own human limitations, or whether we factor in the power and promises of God. God rewards those who trust in Him and He is worthy of our trust.

Because of this lack of trust, God became furious with the children of Israel, and was ready to do away with them. Here is another example of Moses reasoning with God, and interceding on their behalf. Moses says in Numbers 14:18,
"The Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation."

As a result of this griping, and lack of trust that God will deliver them into the Promised Land, God ruled that the people who complained will not see the Promised Land and that their carcasses will rot in the wilderness. We need to take this to heart, and not complain against God's plan, knowing it to be perfect. It's not our timing, but the Lord's timing.

We would do well to keep the words of David in our hearts, from Psalms 28:6-7,
"Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications! The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him."

Blessings to all