I remember quite well a conversation I had with a young woman one day as we were discussing scriptures that clearly imply those who abide in Jesus no longer continue to practice sin. I had just finished sharing some of those familiar passages like 1 John 2:6; 3:6-9; 5:18; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; Matt. 5:48; John 5:14 & 8:11.

She looked at me with such an incredulous expression and just flat out said: “We can’t live in this life without sinning! That’s impossible.” And this was someone who had grown up in a Christian home and was ‘raised on the Bible’.

I remember being taken back by her refusal to even consider what God had to say about the matter and honestly had no idea what to say in response. I remember driving home later as I prayed ...asking God...’what spirit am I coming up against here, Lord, where people who claim to love you... refuse to believe what Your word has so clearly declared?”

His response was quick and concise: “The same spirit that first generation of My people who I led out of Egypt yielded to... which eventually kept them out of the promised land.” As soon as I got home, I dove in to Numbers 13-14 and it became so clear. This was the same group Paul spent time pointing to as ‘examples and warnings to us’ so we would not ‘be like them’. (1 Cor. 10:4-11; Heb. 3)

You know the story...several million of them are making their way through the wilderness on a two week journey to the land of Canaan where God has promised to bless them in. This was a ‘blueprint’ or ‘type’ of what God would eventually do with us today. And may I remind you that the ‘wilderness’ journey is simply a ‘testing ground’ to see how serious we are about yielding to and obeying God. (Deut. 8:2; 1 Thess. 2:4; Luke 6:46; Heb. 5:9)

When you study this out, you quickly see how God repeated Himself over and over regarding three significant truths that needed to get planted in their hearts. One, this place was going to be an amazing land where they could not imagine the blessings of God’s protection and provision which awaited them. Two, in order to experience and continue on being the recipient of these promised blessings, trusting and obeying Him was imperative, and not an option. There were plenty of warnings (not threats) given as to what they would face if they failed on their end to simply obey Him.

But it is third piece of this plan that we need to sit up and make note of. God forewarned them that this land was inhabited by numerous nations or groups of people who were hostile towards the things of God and needed to be ‘removed from the land’. He even told them that they were a strong and mighty people whom the Israelites were no match for, in their own strength. He also assured them there was no need to fear these people because He was going to defeat them and hand them over to the Israelites to be disposed of. It was not a question of ‘could this happen’, but a matter of fact...this ‘would’ happen.

There was just one problem. When they sent spies over to check things out before they entered in to Canaan, they not only saw a sampling of the good fruit on the land, they also caught sight of the ‘giants’ on the land, and their ‘faith’ in God dissolved quickly. “There is no way we can overcome those giants!”, they exclaimed, and their negative report and refusal to believe what God said spread among the people. This was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ and God was done with them. And entire generation of people whom God wanted to bless were banned from entering in because of their refusal to believe God could do what He said He would do. Oh, with the exception of two men, Joshua and Caleb, who spoke up quickly and tried to counter this tidal wave of unbelief. That did not go over well as the people were ready to pick up rocks and stone the very two who actually were confident that God could do what He promised. (Num. 14:10)

Do yourself a favor...and spend some time now reading Numbers 13 & 14. You might just see how once again, we don’t learn from history. Oh, that’s the group of folks Paul told us to ‘don’t be like them’. (1 Cor. 10:1-11). Did you catch yesterday’s post?