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| Wadi Kadesh...this is where the people would have camped. |
Can We Do...Anything?
By Rev. William Dohle
Is there anything you CAN'T do??
I remember in high school, on occasion, we were summoned to the auditorium and there, in front of everyone who came to the assembly, a speaker would come at us with words of motivation.
"There isn't anything you can't do..." they'd say.
"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything..."
Such speakers were often quoted at graduation time. "The world is ours!" our valedictorian said. "All we have to do is claim it!"
As an adult, there are other motivational speakers who seem just as wise as they were in high school. Like Pastor Joel Osteen who declares in one of his sermons, "...if you're going to tap into that hidden treasure you've gotta go where you haven't been before."
But are they right? Is there really no limit to what you can do if you put your mind to it?
The people of Israel struggled with this very question in the book of Numbers. Here, at the Jordan river, they faced a choice... to believe Joshua and Caleb's report and enter into the promised land confident in God's presence or to believe the other spies who discouraged them. A hard choice to be sure. One way promised them temporal safety. The other promised risk...and reward. Which way would the people choose?
The people chose to believe...the other spies, mocking Joshua and Caleb for their report. God couldn't do that! Why would God have brought them into the wilderness to die! Then they had the nerve to complain about what God had done to get them there in the first place.
What gall, huh?
So... God tells them what will happen. "As I live, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you..."(Num 14:28-30)
Is this harsh? Or punishing? Is God being too mean?
No...not really. You see, just previously, the people had said that God would leave them in the desert to die. What God is doing is fulfilling their own prophecy.
"Fine...you want to die in the wilderness? Be my guest! I'm in no hurry. I'll fulfill my promises to your children instead."
You see God knows what the motivational speakers are hinting at. In some cases, we decide. We decide what will happen to us. In our minds, we erupt some crazy scheme or plot or plan. We prophecy to ourselves...and then make that prophecy happen.
That's what the people did. They said God would leave them...and God left them. They said they'd be defeated by the Canaanites and, guess what? They were defeated by them! God left them to their own devices. God let their self-fulfilling prophecies, fulfill themselves.
That's why Moses tells them, "Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you!"
And the other reason Moses says "No"? Moses says, "because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you."
Once again, consequences follow our actions. BECAUSE you have not listened to God, God isn't listening to you.
So...can we really do anything if we put our minds to it?
I admit, I believe our positive attitude does help our lives. In my life, I have found self-fulfilling prophecy to be a scary thing. God used it to drive me to become the pastor I am today. Seeds of my ministry were sown back when I was in grade school at Vacation Bible School. God used self-fulfilling prophecy to bring me to this congregation and to a city that I've always dreamed about. "I wish I could live in a place..." became reality with God.
Our attitudes can also harm us too. "They're going to get mad..." I've thought or said...and I've learned those thoughts can actually sour the mood between you and someone else. Thinking "They're probably not going to like this..." doesn't help you get a good response out of people.
Staying positive and believing can help you in any situation. But we can't really "do anything."
No amount of positive thinking is going to change your spouse...or cure your cancer...or make you immortal and invincible. I can think I can fly all I like and believe it in my heart, but that doesn't mean it will be true!
And following God and staying positive doesn't mean bad things aren't going to happen to you either. It doesn't mean you'll always triumph and succeed with this formula. Even Moses, with his unshakable faith, didn't live to see the promises of God fulfilled.
Instead in every and any situation we must trust. Trust that God has our back, our front, and is along side us too. Trust in God's promises. Stay positive...and then let life come! Life might be rough before we die, but we have a God who doesn't leave us behind, but instead calls us forward into the future whatever that future might bring.
Blessed are you, Lord God, king of the universe, for you have called us to follow and obey, to trust, hope, and live in your promises of grace. Give us confidence and boldness that, even when faced with crazy decisions, we may stand out as people of faith, confident in you. Amen.
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