Are You Keeping Yourself From the Promised Land?

Numbers 14: 19-23 (MSG)

“Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people out of the extravagance of your loyal love just as all along, from the time they left Egypt, you have been forgiving this people.” God said, “I forgive them, honoring your words. But as I live and as the Glory of God fills the whole Earth—not a single person of those who saw my Glory, saw the miracle signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, and who have tested me over and over and over again, turning a deaf ear to me—not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it.“

The Israelites never seemed to learn their lesson. No sooner did God perform a miracle on their behalf than they forgot all about the miracle and all the miracles that proceeded it and began to grumble and complain and accuse God of wanting nothing but evil for them. They looked on their past with rose-colored glasses, forgetting that Egypt was a place of slavery and oppression. They only remembered the food and abundance around them.

So when they experienced difficulty in the wilderness, instead of recounting all the ways God had saved them and provided for them up to this point and all the promises He had given them about what would be awaiting them on the other side, they recounted all the good memories of Egypt and claimed that God had brought them from Egypt just to kill them all. We read these stories, and we tend to look pretty negatively on the Israelites. We marvel at how stubborn and ungrateful they were in the Old Testament stories. We are sure that we would be so much more grateful if God would just split a Red Sea on our behalf or drop some manna from heaven for us to eat.

But the truth is that we are just like the Israelites a great majority of the time. We often forget the things God has done for us. We don’t remember the everyday miracles He brings our way. We forget the promises in His word that He will provide for us, that He knows what we need before we ask, that nothing is too big for Him to do on our behalf, and that His plans for us are all for good. Instead, we pray that if God would just do this one new thing for us, then life would be great! The truth is that God doesn’t owe us anything new. He has done more than enough by forgiving our sins. If He never did anything else on our behalf, we would still have an enormous amount to be grateful for.

So take a moment, and reflect on what a great miracle and gift forgiveness truly is. Take a moment to remember the everyday moments where God has provided, where He has protected, and where He has blessed you. Be grateful for those, and when you are done thanking Him for those things, see if you still have a list of things you’re asking Him to give you.

Father, I thank you that you are a patient God. You put up with our ungratefulness and our complaining and our constant requests. You don’t hold them against us, but you continue to forgive, provide, protect, and bless. Help us not take you for granted. We don’t want to be like the Israelites and test you and treat you with contempt. We want to enter into the promised land you have in mind for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.