The last few weeks I have spent outside the country. My hubby and I spent our first week on vacation and our second week was spent with my sister in the U.S. after the passing of her husband, our brother-in-law and dear friend.  Thankfully, we know he has gone on to be with Jesus. Though it was a sad time, it was also a time of celebration. After losing a  battle with cancer he still wins. He has gone on  before us to see the lover of his soul in person.His journey ended in Heaven!

Throughout the year I read through the Bible. Once I finished I start over again in Genesis and every time I read it I find so many new treasures. I love how the Spirit of God gives us what we need and can take in when we are ready for it. In the early hours this morning I read several chapters in the book of Numbers. I couldn’t help but feel for Moses when time and time again he had to intercede on behalf of his stubborn, rebellious followers. Though God showed them miracle after miracle, they still whined and complained. At times it appeared that Moses alone really understood the holiness and faithfulness of God to his promises.

With all their whining and complaining and rebellion, he still had the burden to intercede for them and prevented their destruction on numerous occasions. He loved God and loved his children. Though some were destroyed because they rebelled and would not yield to God, many were spared and their children were eventually allowed to enter the Promised Land. Through it all, we saw God’s mercy extended to them time and time again.

This time around, I gleaned two gems from this reading. One, a true man or woman of God loves Him and also loves His children. You can’t love God and hate His kids.

Two, God always desires our fellowship. He extends His hand to us over and over and as with the rebellious followers of Moses, many refuse to receive it and follow Him.

Today, through Christ we all have a way back to God. Jesus is our Savior, Healer, Deliverer and lover of our soul.  His death and resurrection allow us a way back to the Father. He is a leader we can follow in complete confidence!

Let’s not waste any more time whining and complaining but save ourselves multiple heartaches by following our leader. A leader that loves God and loves us! A leader that continually extends His hand towards us and offers us not only salvation but the Holy Spirit to direct and guide us on our journey until we finally reach Heaven, our Promised Land.

Numbers 14:1-24 NIV 14 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! ³ Why is the Lord 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?” ⁴ And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. ⁶ Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord 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? 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.”

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. ¹⁴ And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ ¹⁹ In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. ²¹ Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 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— 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. ²⁴ But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.