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Ponders via Email | Ponder Archive
March 12, 2010 Ponder
TWO EXTREME DESIRES
Our words are powerful and lasting and we need to remember that what we say might bring regret. Consider the great leader Moses. He had an amazing relationship with Creator God and participated in numerous miracles that God performed. I would think that he woke up each day thinking, “I wonder what God will do today!”
But there was a time in Moses’ life that he told God he would rather be dead than experience the challenge he was facing. Numbers 11 records the story of the Israelites in one of their many complaining episodes. They had experienced deliverance from Egypt, something only Creator God could make happen. En route toward the Land of Promise, God provided water in the desert along with food from heaven. All of this came with the promise of protection and safety in the land He was giving to them.
But the people, hundreds of thousands of them, were not satisfied with how God was caring for them and they demanded meat to eat. Apparently, they just could not wait for the benefits of the future. They wanted their desires fulfilled immediately. They recalled “the good old days” of life in Egypt where the food had more variety. They should have remembered their life of slavery in those days and then anticipated that in a short time they would have more crops and variety of food than imaginable. Caught up in the immediate, however, they grumbled.
In response to their complaining, Moses became aggravated. He wondered why God gave him the burden of leading this group of people and he indicated lack of desire to continue. After some rather specific statements, he told God he would rather have Him kill him than be treated like this; he wanted to be spared further misery.
I do not know how many times during his life Moses felt like this but certainly he was at a low point on that occasion. To be in the middle of the most challenging and exciting adventure of your life and want to have God kill you because you are tired of having people complain to you is certainly a statement of frustration and loss of perspective. But this is where Moses was at during that time of his life.
Obviously, God did not kill him and they worked out that situation, only to be faced by more similar challenges during the coming years as the people rebelled and refused to believe God. Fast forward the story nearly 40 years and you hear a totally opposite attitude as Moses wanted to live and enter the Promised Land. But God told him that would not be allowed. This time Moses desired to live but God took him on a walk up the mountain and let him die.
There was a time when Moses became frustrated with the Israelites to the point that he showed his anger and disobeyed God’s directive. The result was that God told him he would not be allowed to enter the land. He could view it from the top of a mountain but he would die on the desert side of the river. When Moses wanted to live, perhaps more than at any time of his life, God let him die.
The story reminds me of the need to be careful not to let circumstances of today influence me in such a way that my reaction will bring undesirable consequences tomorrow. The pressure of life situations can become so large in our view that we lose perspective. It was not that unusual for the people to be a frustrating challenge to Moses, but on that one occasion his response was not appropriate in God’s view, and it cost Moses dearly.
Consistent Holy Spirit control is available to every follower of Jesus, but God does not force this on us. We need to be careful to cooperate with God and enjoy the benefits of His Presence – for the immediate value and long term consequence.
-Pastor Bill
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