NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

March 20

Scripture focus: Not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me…will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. Numbers 14:22-23 NIV

Not only did Moses make a mess of the freedom march toward the Promised Land, but ten of the twelve spies sent in to assess the lay of the land also got it wrong. Instead of trusting God to do as he promised – give them the land – they forgot God’s power to save and grew terribly afraid of the people already occupying the land. Eventually, the few who trusted God did indeed make it into the land flowing with milk and honey. But it didn’t turn out to be a proverbial picnic.

As usual, it wasn’t long before God’s chosen people were at it again – forgetting God.

“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the saves behind us!” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

If the bible were written to provide a detailed history of mankind, what we would learn might discourage us. But the bible isn’t a history book. It is His Story. It is the story of God. Throughout history God is revealing himself to us. As we read scripture, here are some things about God that we can expect to discover:

* God is present. He doesn’t just sit up in the heavenlies. In the Old Testament he shows up as a burning bush, a cloud, a pillar of fire, on Mount Sinai, and takes up permanent dwelling in the “Holy of Holies” section of the Tabernacle. In the New Testament, he sends his son and leaves us with the Holy Spirit. God is with us.

* God is beyond human. He is the Creator of the universe; nature bows to him.

* God keeps his promises. As I’m reading scripture, if I come across a promise, I write it in my notebook. Unlike me, who makes promises to myself and break them all the time – God keeps his promises.

* God is holy. You can’t miss this one.

* God is personal. Scriptures tells us that he knows the hairs on our head; he knows our name; he wants relationship with us; we’re made in his image. He doesn’t give up on us just because we try his every last nerve.

I hang with a bunch of people who often live with the consequences of their poor choices. When we read about those silly gooses who forgot God’s promise and provision and ended up having to sit out in the desert until the unfaithful died off before the faithful could seize the land – we relate to the forgetful ones. Blessing of all blessings – we also know that we are not the point. We may suffer consequences, but we will never suffer alone. God is with us, even when we give him good reason to leave us in the desert. May we all enjoy his presence today!

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