“HOW LONG?”

 Numbers 14:11-12                        (ESV)

“11 And the LORD said to Moses, "”HOW LONG” will this people despise ME? And “HOW LONG” will they not believe in ME, IN SPITE OF ALL THE SIGN that I have done among them?

12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."”

Not long ago while reading a commentary, my EYES saw Numbers 14:11, only the translation was slightly different than what I had ever seen.  The version I read then says “Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will they refuse to believe in ME, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them”. That reminded me of my medical records from the first doctor visit following the Brain Hemorrhage.  My doctor wrote “However, he had had a remarkable recovery that could only be defined as a miracle from GOD”!  The words “miraculous signs” and “miracle from GOD” caused a pause in my hurried reading.  

Sometimes I get so busy with what “my plans” are for the Kingdom that I begin ask ALMIGHTY GOD “HOW LONG” until I am able to do something different than that which HE has for me to do today.  GOD places many people in our paths explicitly for us to reflect HIS GLORY!  So why is it that I would want to miss an opportunity to GLORIFY HIS NAME just because I want “my way”???

The Children of Israel had just sent spies into the Promised Land to see what GOD had in store for them.  They found a land “flowing with milk and honey” and “cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs” (Numbers 13:23)!  But the inhabitants of the Promised Land were very big and mighty.  They appeared to be far too strong for the Israelites to conquer. But GOD knew that the battle was HIS, and HE didn’t want the Israelites thinking anything about their foes, only about GODS MIGHT!!

We need to remember that the same GOD WHO delivered the Israelites has promised to never leave us nor forsake us!  We need not be concerned about “HOW LONG” until we get what “we want”, rather that HE is being Glorified with our actions WHERE HE HAS US!