trust

The people refused to enter the pleasant land,

     for they wouldn't believe His promise to care for them.

Psalm 106:24



This is just a short reference about the children of Israel who refused to enter the Promised Land.

Here's a short version of the their back story...


The Jews were slaves in Egypt.

God sent Moses to get the pharaoh to let them go.

Pharaoh said no.

God sent 7 plagues down on Egypt.

Finally, Pharaoh said they could go.

They left.

Pharaoh changed his mind & came after them with the whole Egyptian army.

The Jews were on the beach w/ the army coming & the Red Sea behind them.

God opened the Red Sea & they walk across on dry ground.

When the army came through the opening in the sea, God closed it back upon them & killed all of the army.

God protected the Jews as they traveled across the Sinai Peninsula.

They finally arrived at the border of Canaan, the Promised Land.

Moses sent in 12 spies to check things out.

The spies came back - 10 said it was impossible to take Canaan, 2 said they could do it; God would take care of them.

The Jews refused to go into Canaan because even after all those miracles, the Jews didn't believe God would take care of them.

So God got so angry at them, He made them wander in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years, until everyone who had been alive was dead.

Then God led the Jews into Canaan & they took it from the Canaanites.



So after all that, after all those miracles,

     after all those plagues,

     after Pharaoh set them free from slavery, 

     after crossing the Red Sea on dry land & Pharaoh's army all were killed,

     after being protected as they journeyed across the Sinai Peninsula

   the Jews didn't think God would protect them as they took the Promised Land.


iow, after all that, they still didn't trust God.


And so, they all died in the Sinai Peninsula.

Their descendants got to go in.


Here's my thought...

How often are we just like the Jews?


God bails our butts out over & over again.

He miraculously makes things happen.

He comes through in the pinch each & every time.

But every time we're faced with a new challenge,

     a scary prospect,

     or something we KNOW we can't do on our own,

   we whine & pout, & don't think God's gonna take care of us, that He's not gonna come through for us.

But He always does.


Quite actually, we're no better than those Jews who said they weren't gonna go in there & fight those gajillion giant people, because, ultimately, they didn't think God would pull it out for them.

We're just like them.

We don't trust Him.


What are WE missing out on by not trusting Him fully?