As I press into reading the Bible, I stumbled through Leviticus, Numbers leading me not absolutely eager to read Deuteronomy. After pages and pages of rules for the Israelites to follow, I began to question what this next book in the bible would offer.
Oh boy, did Jesus smile, shake His head and say “you of little faith”.
As I read through the first chapter of Deuteronomy, already there was something stirring. I read it again, this time focusing on Deuteronomy 1:29-38.
29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
34 When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35 “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”
37 Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either. 38 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.
Then came God’s truth and a lesson. The first point He brought to my attention was the word TRUST. In my mind, after reading Exodus and “witnessing” to God’s strength and might in Egypt, that would have been enough for me to be like “WHOA. I see you Abba.”. Even a few generations down the line, if my grandma were to tell me that she walked on the floor of the Red Sea as our powerful Lord split the waters, I would know whose team I’d want to be on.
In spite of this, the Israelites “did not trust in the Lord”. You see, the spies God had sent out came back to Moses and said, “Moses, we will lose! We cannot go forward…”. In that moment, they chose to place their faith in their own understanding, rather than their Provider. Can you imagine, being witness to God’s majesty in the way of the Israelites and still falling into the temptation of placing trust in something besides the Lord? If that temptation was that strong then, what does that mean for us? I reflected on this verse and found that I can be tempted to follow in the “Evil Generation’s” footsteps. I can look in my past and see the times that I chose to follow and trust in my own understanding instead of the Lord.
Even Moses experienced this temptation. He allowed for his generation to not go into battle in pursuit of the plan that God had laid before His people. Because of this, God dropped the bomb – “You shall not enter it” in reference to the Promised Land that Moses had been called to deliver God’s people to (and read in Gandalf’s voice). In reading that, my eyes got a little wider. Did God just do that?? Yes, and Moses being the expectant servant exemplified the next word I was given for this passage. EXPECTANT, as in LIVE EXPECTANT.
Have you ever played a game before, or took part in some sort of competition? Take yourself back to that moment. Imagine that you lost – Let that grief overcome you. You really wanted to win, remember? At this point, you have two options – To be a “Sore Loser” and throw a fit, or to be supportive of the winner, encouraging them and sharing in their joy.
Back to Moses, this man kind of lost the trophy, and a big one at that. He had listened to God, served His Lord and his people faithfully and, from my perspective, probably was under the impression that when God said “Deliver my people to the Promised Land” that he’d get to see it, too. In order to respond gracefully to this decision Moses had to have been living expectant of the Lord, rather than in expectation. I think we often get that confused in today’s society. We like to put God in a box, live by labels and can often find ourselves disappointed when things don’t turn out the way we planned.
I don’t think that’s how God has called us to live though. When we chose to live expectant, we remove the expectation of “I should get to see the Promised Land for all my hard work” and instead start to think “Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity to serve. I know you’ll provide for me in a way that is best fit for Your plan.” BIG difference.
In living expectant, Moses was able exemplify what my third word/phrase is – WALK HUMBLY. Just like that choice we have to make when we don’t get what our heart desires, Moses had to make a choice. God called Moses in that moment higher by telling Moses to encourage Joshua, the man who would be the one to take Moses’ place and lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.
I think that last word is a cool part of our walk with Jesus. Many people in today’s world may chose to walk humbly in order to gain their salvation. As followers of Jesus though, we recognize that from the moment we chose to place our trust in HIM, we gain salvation. You see, good works don’t lead to salvation but rather our salvation in Jesus leads us to good works.
And that leads me to the big question…where do you place your trust? Once we put our trust in the Lord, we learn to live expectant and to walk humbly in serving His Kingdom.
But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
Micah 6:8 | The Message
