Wandering Chapter 6

How do you respond to hardship?

Is the arm of the Lord too short?

Numbers 11:23 (NIV) 23 The L ORD answered Moses, “Is the L ORD ’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

In every hardship you face in life, will you trust God to get you through?

Deuteronomy 8:2 (NIV) 2 Remember how the L ORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV) 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the L ORD.

Do you see every trial you face as a test: “What is in your heart?”

Numbers 11:1 (NIV) 1 Now the people complained about their hardships.

Numbers 11:4 (NIV) 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!

Numbers 12:1 (NIV) 1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.

You will always have a “rabble” in your life! You will always have people in your midst who will incite you to complain.

Complaining is an excuse for not asking God!

Numbers 11:23 (NIV) 23 The L ORD answered Moses, “Is the L ORD ’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

In some respects you can look at every day of your live as a walk in the wilderness with this question looming before us: What do I believe about the Lord?

John 16:33 (NIV) 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Numbers 13:2 (NIV) 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.

Numbers 13:27–28 (NIV) 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.

Numbers 13:31 (NIV) 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

Numbers 13:32 (NIV) 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.

Seeing life only from their own strength.

Numbers 14:1–2 (NIV) 1 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!

Numbers 14:3 (NIV) 3 Why is the L ORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Numbers 14:4 (NIV) 4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

The Complainers Pattern: My life is too hard, my God is too weak, my leaders are too incompetent.

Numbers 14:11 (NIV) 11 The L ORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

Numbers 14:12 (NIV) 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

Numbers 14:20 (NIV) 20 The L ORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.

Numbers 14:21 (NIV) 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the L ORD fills the whole earth,

Numbers 14:22 (NIV) 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—

Numbers 14:23 (NIV) 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Wandering Chapter 6

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 “ Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the L ORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”

Deuteronomy 4:39 (NIV) 39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the L ORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (NIV) 4 Hear, O Israel: The L ORD our God, the L ORD is one. 5 Love the L ORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

We have a choice. We can complain all the way, or we can trust the arm of the Lord is not to short to see us through.