Bible Reading: Numbers 26; 27. Mark: 8:1-19
“For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephuneh, and Joshua the son of Nun” Numbers 26:65 (KJV)
Israel left Egypt with a bang! The bible recorded that the Egyptians were in haste to let Israel go when they saw the raw act of God. They indirectly paid back to Israel the price of all their labour which hitherto was done in slavery. See what the bible said in Exodus 12: 35-36 (KJV), “And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment: [36] And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.” This was a great deliverance witnessed by the Israelites.
Again when Israel got to the Red Sea they saw the mighty hand of God come for their deliverance. The bible recorded thus, “And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remaineth not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left” Exodus 14:28-29 (KJV). These mighty acts of God were enough to trust, have great confidence and be positive in their dealing with God. Instead, Israel, at every little obstacle, murmured and remembered the cucumber and onions they ate in Egypt. What an act of ungratefulness! The act of murmuring displeases God because it is the voice of ungratefulness. In their murmuring they were easily given to despair and discouragement.
Israel murmured and grossly disappointed God continuously until the tenth time that God swore that none of those murmurers, except Joshua and Caleb, who gave their spy report based on their faith in God’s ability to deliver them, would see the promised land. In numbers 14:1 we were told that the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried throughout the night and even planned to raise a captain to take them back to Egypt. God pronounced His judgment on the murmurers whose unbelief, after seeing His mighty acts, grieved Him for forty years in the wilderness. “Because all these men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it” Numbers 14:22-23 (KJV).
This is a lesson we must learn in our Christian journey. We may easily pass judgment on Israel for being ungrateful but most of us have shown so much unbelief towards God and have murmured so much in our heart, in the church etc. etc.,. This is one area we must as Christians repent from and make right with God. As great and mighty our God is, some of us do not have faith for what he promised in His world. Our trust and confidence in God’s word gives us victory over life issues (1 John 5:4). Most of us are grounded by the enemy not because God has not made provision for our triumph but we are victims of our unbelief. We must begin to release our faith on these great and precious promises because they carry potency for accomplishment. God cannot and has never said what He cannot do. We must hold Him to His word because He is not a man that He should lie. We must kill unbelief and murmuring.
We must come to terms with God’s position concerning any issue in our life. We must exercise the authority inherent in our confidence and trust on God’s word. God hate unbelief and murmuring. This why the scriptures admonish us in Philippians 4:6(KJV), “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.”
Prayer: Father give me grace to trust You in every situation I find myself in my Christian Journey.
Bro. Joel Ezeugo