Wednesday Reading: Numbers 32:20-23
Key Verse: Numbers 32:23
23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Jehovah. And be sure your sin will find you out.
Devotion:
No matter how strong we do think we are we will always manage to find a weakness at the most inappropriate time we could imagine! I’m not talking about finding out that you really hate snakes just when you are confronted by one but rather the things like we think we are strong enough to do something until we try it and find out we cannot stomach it! In those circumstances we need to be able to call on help from others to see us through and if we did not get that help we may well be the ones falling flat on our faces.
Nearing the end of their time in the desert, the children of Israel were on one bank of the Jordan knowing that they had to cross over the river to go and take the land which God had told them would be theirs. This would mean that they would all have to go forward together, fight together and continue to rely on God and His direction for them. They had seen what happens to them when they disobeyed God and that should not have been one of the things that they were even thinking about at that time. But one of the tribe turned round and said that they wanted the land on this side of the Jordan and not the land on the other side that God had promised them!
Fortunately for them they were not going to go against God’s will by not going forward with the rest of Israel. They promised to go forward and fight along with the others. They promised to continue fighting until all the land was allocated; only then would they return to the land this side of the river and take it for their own. Whilst that is not what was the initial design of things, they were allowed to do that but for one thing. Moses said “if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against God!” In other words, no matter how much you try to say you did things right, God knows exactly what you actually do get up to and exactly where your heart is. Your own actions and thought will be what let you down – directly in front of God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like getting away with things?
Do you really think you get away with it?