Deeper

There I told you, “You’ve made it to the Amorite hill country that God, our God, is giving us. Look, God, your God, has placed this land as a gift before you. Go ahead and take it now. God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised it to you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t lose heart.”
22 But then you all came to me and said, “Let’s send some men on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find.”
23-25 That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve men, one from each tribe. They set out, climbing through the hills. They came to the Eshcol Valley and looked it over. They took samples of the produce of the land and brought them back to us, saying, “It’s a good land that God, our God, is giving us!”
26-28 But then you weren’t willing to go up. You rebelled against God, your God’s plain word. You complained in your tents: “God hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites—a death sentence for sure! How can we go up? We’re trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, ‘The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive—we even saw Anakite giants there!’”
29-33 I tried to relieve your fears: “Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go.”
34-36 When God heard what you said, he exploded in anger. He swore, “Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents. Not one—except for Caleb son of Jephunneh. He’ll see it. I’ll give him and his descendants the land he walked on because he was all for following God, heart and soul.”
41 You spoke up, “We’ve sinned against God. We’ll go up and fight, following all the orders that God, our God, has commanded.” You took your weapons and dressed for battle—you thought it would be so easy going into those hills!
42 But God told me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t do it; don’t go up to fight—I’m not with you in this. Your enemies will waste you.’”
43-46 I told you but you wouldn’t listen. You rebelled at the plain word of God. You threw out your chests and strutted into the hills. And those Amorites, who had lived in those hills all their lives, swarmed all over you like a hive of bees, chasing you from Seir all the way to Hormah, a stinging defeat. You came back and wept in the presence of God, but he didn’t pay a bit of attention to you; God didn’t give you the time of day. You stayed there in Kadesh a long time, about as long as you had stayed there earlier.
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I read this story from the first chapter of Deuteronomy this morning. Its so rich. So full of lessons. What struck me most was not only the faithlessness of the Israelites (which isn't really a new occurrence, right?!) but the picture we see of God. He had, as it says, basically "carried" them the whole way. Providing for their every need. I don't know about you, but if God literally gave me a cloud to follow during the day and a fire at night, food that fell from the sky - heck, just the fact that he gave a rather cowardly man the ability to help me and my people escape slavery - I think I would have the faith to accept the land He promised me and not let the last hurdle stand in my way of finally resting and enjoying life in my new home that we had finally reached after HOW many years?!
I SAY that anyway...

Moses even reminded the people of God's provision and faithfulness. Didn't work. They were afraid. They whined and complained and out-and-out refused to go. So Moses had to talk to God and relay His message to the people.
I feel kind of sorry for Moses at this point. He had to feel like an older sibling left in charge while the parents are away. Upon their return and discovery of a major disaster that happened while in his care, he gets an earful. The younger ones are punished for their crime, but he gets double: he's held responsible.

So no one (of age) gets to see the promised land now. Except Caleb. He's the good kid. The one that always tries to get everyone to obey and get along. He's exempt from the punishment because apparently his heart was to follow God, even though those around him didn't. So he is rewarded.
After hearing this, suddenly the Israelites take it all back - nothing like getting something taken from you (while someone else gets to keep it), to make you realize how wrong you are and fill you with courage to obey!

But it was too late. God had given them their last chance. Obviously their hearts weren't to follow Him, just to get what they wanted, and God was done. He wanted to bless them, but I believe He mainly wanted their trust. Their hearts. And they just wanted the blessings. He told them to forget it, not to go in and fight now, that they wouldn't win - because they were on their own.
And guess what?! They didn't listen to this either! They "threw out their chests and strutted into the hills." I'm sorry, but this image makes me laugh: stubborn pride personified!

The ending is tragic though. They lost the battle (imagine that!) and still thought they could come back and beg for mercy from God. After he told them to go; and they refused. He took away their blessing; so they decided to go. He told them it was too late, not to go; and they went anyway, like they could demand back what God had taken from them. It makes my head spin!
They were left to wander around in the dessert the rest of their lives, it sounds like. Talk about depressing!

But this shows us such a vivid picture of our God. He wants to bless us. Longs for our trust. Our hearts. He's a loving Father, who enjoys giving us good things. But He cares more about our souls and our knowing Him. He showed both His tender care and love and His power and holiness in this same story.

I don't know about you, but there's a lot of lessons here for me. It makes me want to fear, know and love Him deeper.
So much deeper...