March 11, 2017. Deuteronomy 1-2.

 

Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, able to see across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. This was the land of Canaan that God promised them but which they had not occupied for 400 years. This generation about to enter into the promised land had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

1.2 Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir. 3a But forty years after the Israelites left Egypt, 

Kadesh-barnea is the place where, in Numbers 13 and 14, where Israel rebelled against God, refusing to go into the Promised Land.

The journey from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea only took eleven days. But from Kadesh Barnea (the threshold of the Promised Land) back to Kadesh Barnea (back to the threshold of the Promised Land) took forty years. Do you sometimes feel that the route your are taking to receive the promises of God is taking a little to long to traverse? Do you think “it’s about time” to get moving toward those promises becoming a reality?

It was God's desire all along to bring Israel into the land but not for the entire first generation of people to die in the wilderness. That was a tragedy of failure on their part. They failed to enter by faith into God’s promises but instead saw the giants and listened to 10 fear filled spies. They placed their focus upon the obstacles and negative thinking rather of than the power of God that overcomes everything.  

Anytime we hear the promises of God for ourselves and respond with “But” our eyes and mind are focused on all the reasons it cant happen for us… and it does not. Our own words become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just like the the first generation of Israelites we so often make the mistake of looking at our own ability, the obstacles in our way, our pitiful self-esteem and say "Oh, I'm so weak, I’m so afraid, I cant see a way to make this happen". Those are confessions of a person fixing their eyes on obstacles rather than promises of God and the power of God to make those promises a reality. This is a person that will spend a long amount of time in their current predicament, hopefully not 40 years.

6 “When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 It is time to break camp and move on.

Is God saying to you “It’s about time to move forward and experience my promises for your life”.

Hebrews 11.11 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said.  It’s about time we started believing God above all else!