READING: Numbers 14-15, Mark 9:2-29
God was ready to bring judgment on the Israelites, for they had rejected His leadership into the promised land. Instead, they cried out to go back to Egypt and refused to listen to the more faith-filled report of Joshua and Caleb. In fact, they sought to stone these obedient men. No wonder God was ready to plague them!
Moses then did what he often did—intercede for the people. He rejected God’s offer of making of him a great nation, and he instead called on God to honor His Word and His reputation. If God destroyed the Hebrews, the Egyptians would conclude that God was unable to bring them to the land. Yes, He may have led them day and night, but He couldn’t take them on the full journey.
What catches my attention, though, is that the Egyptians had already heard that God was among His people and had led them by cloud in the day and a fire by night. Apparently, so great was the work of God that word had gotten back to the Egyptians. They, Moses said, had heard about God’s fame. You would think that God’s very people, too, would have trusted the One who so made Himself known to them to take them all the way into the land He promised. Fear and rebellion, though, captured them.
That happens to us, too, when fear grips us in the present tense. We forget God’s power and presence so evident in the past.
PRAYER: “Lord, remind me today of all the ways You’ve led me in the past.”
DAILY ACTION STEP: If something frightens you today, trust God.
TOMORROW’S READING: Numbers 16-18, Mark 9:30-10:12