Moses was not entering the promised land and God has him remind the people to drive out all the inhabitants from the land and to destroy their idols. This was a crucial fact that will be forgotten as the the years pass in the promised land. Numbers 33:55 tells what will happen to the people if they do not drive everyone out, “but if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.” Anyone who the Israelites did not drive out became a stumbling block to them. What things in my life are stumbling blocks? What areas have I compromised?

The glimpse into the future for the Israelites is laid out in Numbers chapter 34. God tells the people what will be the border of their land. It must have been a great encouragement as well as a tremendous hurdle in faith. The people are told that this land will be theirs but it required faith and dependance upon God. This land was inhabited by many people that would have to be driven out. Did the people believe that God was able to deliver the land to them? Throughout their journeying in the wilderness the people saw God work time and time again but their obstinate and headstrong natures caused them to constantly stray away from God. Were they aware of their nature to stray? The story of the people of Israel constantly falling away makes me thankful that Jesus Christ came to be the final and perfect sacrifice for sin. My actions are not the key to Jesus Christ’s faithfulness to me. I can rise in the morning and make it through any day because of what Jesus Christ has done. I am just as obstinate and headstrong as the children of Israel but I can find hope in the fact that God loved me enough while I was purely sinful to send Jesus Christ to die for me. My hope is built upon this singular fact and I am so very thankful.

How often do I express my desire to know God more to God? It is all too easy to share my struggles and lack of hunger for my relationship with God at times with my friends. Does it really matter that I tell them that? Absolutely not. I need to talk to God about my relationship with Him. It is like a person struggles in a relationship and they talk to every random person on the street but never to the person who they are having the problem with. I love how Moses found favor in God’s sight and God knows his name. What a thought that is that a small insignificant being can find favor in the Creator God’s sight! Do I find that kind of favor? I think that in my own flesh I do not and never will. I am evil to my core but through Jesus Christ I do find that favor and freedom. Also I know that my name is written in God’s book of life and I can relish in that fact.

Imagine the awe and splendor Moses saw when he saw but a glimpse of the glory of God when he was hide in the cleft of the rock! Wow! And the name of God, ‘The Lord, the compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the forth generations.” God is holy and reading through the new testament reminds me of how unable I am to approach god because of my inherent sin. I want to jump ahead to the the good new, the Gospels but I need to see and ponder the sinfulness that is me first.