Year 7, Day 136: Numbers 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The Hebrew people are getting ready to enter into the Promised Land.  Their forty years of wandering in the desert are coming to an end.  The begin to advance upon the nations surrounding Canaan.  Naturally, they experience resistance.

Do you hear how many of the nations don’t want the Hebrew people coming through their land?  On one hand, it makes no logical sense.  Why would you make yourself a stench in the eyes of a group of people who are numerous and who just want to cross through your land and get to their real destination?  Why come out and fight them and risk losing?  Why not just let them through?

On the other hand, though, it makes perfect sense.  In order to let them through your land, you have to trust them.  The native people have no reason to trust these wandering Hebrew people.  Furthermore, they are on their way to drive out the residents of Canaan.  This proposes two potential problems.  First, where are the dispossessed Canaanites going to go?  Second, if the Hebrew people are strong enough to possess Canaan, who is to say that they aren’t strong enough to come back and possess the land that they got a free pass to walk through and inspect?

In any case, though, these neighboring nations resist the Hebrew people.  In resisting, they make the wrong choice and oppose God.  They are defeated by the Hebrew people on their way to accomplishing the will of the Lord.  The lesson we can take from this is that God’s will shall be done.  There will be all kinds of exterior resistance, but God will prevail in the end.

However, this is not the extent of the resistance.  Do you hear the internal resistance?  The people are nearing the end of their journey and they are still complaining?  They are still troubled by the food that has literally been falling into their laps six out of every seven days for the last forty years!  The truth is that our own internal resistance to God’s will is just as much of a danger as the external resistance.  We like to think that we are in line with God.  The truth, though, is that if we are not careful we will find ourselves in every bit as much resistance internally as those who are external to God’s will.

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