MapQuest anybody? How to get from here to there: Don’t follow Israelite directions! Reading through chapter 33 we are reminded of how much roaming these “Hebrews” did during their forty plus years of wilderness wanderings. Originally led to the land of Canaan, their disobedience cost them a forty year prolonged sentence as vagabonds, still to this point never having a land to call their own. These people, a nation from the days of Abraham, have in their history only owned one plot of land, a burial site for the patriarch families.
But now, after fulfilling God’s judgment, they are receiving instructions from Moses which must have been overwhelming. Just after the long list of cities and regions through which they have drifted are recited, chapter 34 follows… “When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders” (Numbers 34:2).
Throughout the next 29 verses, God lays out the borders of the new nation of Israel! He even lists the men through whom the allotments were to be dispersed to each tribe. What an awesome moment of hope! God is speaking over His people prophetic words, not just of victory, but of detailed inheritance.
At some points, I have felt like these wandering Israelites. As I write, I sit in a house in Oldham County that is for the most part vacant, while my wife and children reside with in-laws, and most of our belongings are locked up in storage. For seven short months my family has been in a holding pattern. I could not imagine forty years. I will be so excited to hear when this house sells and we are able to move into our own house in NKY. So for these Israelites to hear the “contract” spoken over their future home after waiting so long, I know they must have been ecstatic!
But you know what? Whether we, in our own lives, are literally wandering around like the Israelites or not, we still share a common struggle, hope and excitement with Israel, and can relate to this moment of anticipation. For you see, if you are in Christ, you too have had God speak over you prophetic words, not just of earthy victory, but of a detailed inheritance of your own, heaven.
For most, the years on this planet will be very reminiscence to Israel’s journey. There will be moments when we will want to turn back from our efforts. There will be moments of victory and others of failure. There will be flashes of God’s grace and dashes of His chastisement. Yet God speaks over us a promise, just as He did to Israel.
Hear these words of Jesus, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3) “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26).
Christian, what separates us from the world is that we “wander,” not aimlessly… not selfishly… not hopelessly, rather we “wander” purposefully (if there could ever be such a thing). We face trials, struggles, good times and bad, but we do it through God’s grace, for God’s glory, and within God’s promises. We stand on the brink of our own promise land, no matter what our age.
Today be reminded of the hope we have in Christ and rejoice in the promise land for all those who believe on Christ. Then go out and tell someone else about that hope… For it is certain, if they will hear it, they will embrace it just as much as you have!
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