Numbers 14:40-45 “And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!" (41) And Moses said, "Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed. (42) Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. (43) For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." (44) But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. (45) Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is an example of how acting without faith always ends in disaster. The context of this passage is that Israel rebelled against the Lord after they heard the reports from the twelve spies that had come back from spying out the land of Canaan. God had allowed one spy from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to go into the land of Canaan to assess the strength of the nations that they were supposed to conquer. Two of the spies, i.e. Joshua and Caleb had come back with a good report telling the Israelites that they were well able to conquer the land because God was with them. Ten of the spies however said the exact opposite, i.e. that it was impossible for them to be able to conquer the land, for the nations living there were too powerful for them to overcome. The Israelites chose to believe the ten spies that gave the evil report and refused to obey God’s instruction to invade the land. And so because of their disobedience God judged them and committed the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for forty years until that generation had passed away. We pick up the account in the above passage of scripture which records what transpired the following morning after they heard God’s judgement. This account reveals to us that the Israelites had changed their minds and now they wanted to go up and fight. Moses instructed them not to do so because God had already pronounced His judgement on them. The Israelites ignored Moses counsel however and the scripture declares that they presumed to go up and attack the Canaanites. The problem was that they were not acting in faith however but rather in presumption, and as a result God was not with them and they were soundly defeated. This example clearly teaches us that if we want God’s power to be manifested on our behalf then we must act in faith not in doubt.
Michael E.B. Maher
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