Today’s Reading Deuteronomy 1-2
Focal Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:26 “But you were not willing to go up. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.”
Sometimes a group of people have to leave before you can go where you have been called. This is exactly what is taking place in Deuteronomy. When Moses begins this book he is speaking directly to the generation that is after the ones who refused to enter the promised land. These young people are now adults and are ready to head where God promised.
Moses needed to remind them about what they have witnessed and the consequences of not obeying the command of the Lord. An entire generation of people were refused entrance into a great place because unbelief, doubt, and negativity ruled them in every way. Moses goes into great detail to make sure they can’t say they were unaware of the consequences of rebellion.
It is difficult to have a conversation like this but it is one that must take place. The nation of Israel had consequences because they refused to believe and doubt God. They were considered stiff necked, complainers, naggers, and wanted their leaders gone because they disagreed with the direction they were leading. Oddly enough the leaders were doing exactly what God commanded and the people disliked them for it greatly.
There is so much to take away from this story for believers today. First, rebellion against God will lead to consequences. We may not wander the wilderness for forty years but rest assured disobedience will cause heartache. Second, some people do not want to follow God leading. If you have been in church long enough you will see this truth rear its ugly head. People want to be in charge and it shows when they are lead down a path they personally did not pick. If the leader is submitted to God and his authority and its obvious they are spending time with God why fight the direction they are leading. Answer, is pride. It comes from a thought process that a ministry in a church belongs to them or maybe even the church itself belongs to them.
This thinking can be troublesome and as witnessed in this Exodus story the people suffered 4o years of wandering because a group of people wanted things their way and rebelled against God’s leadership. Today if that happens churches, ministries, and families suffer. The community suffers. The witness of the church suffers.
How can this be avoided in today’s setting. First, pray for you leaders that they will be in love with God. They will spend more time with him than they do anything else during the day. Second, check your own heart for pride, rebellion and sin that can derail a ministry you serve in or hurt the church. Church people forget that a simple way the enemy works is not by sending attacks from the outside but by starting wars on the inside.
We know from the book of Joshua that the unbelieving people were waiting to be conquered because of God’s great work that was told by others. The Israelites doubted that great work and walked in rebellion.
Let it not be said of us that unbelievers have a greater faith in what our God can do than those who have been chosen by him. Let us not be a people of rebellion but a people of faith, commitment and holiness. Finally, let us be a people that follows God’s lead because he knows best.
Tomorrow I plan on reading Deuteronomy 3-4
