"Then they despised the land". God brought them to the border of the promised land and the Israelites were supposed to go in, but they refused (Numbers 14). They did not believe that God would give them the land, they did not believe that He would enable them to overcome their enemies. When God brings us to the brink of fulfilment of His promise we need to believe Him. It will take faith to grasp hold of what God is giving to us.
When we refuse to believe we grumble instead. To try and justify our failure to trust God we make excuses about how difficult things are. We are very adept at doing this! So God made them wander in the wilderness.
Still they did not learn, instead they worshipped false gods and were only saved by the zeal of Phinehas. The best way to maintain our faith is to keep living by faith, to take steps of faith, steps of risk. It is a bit like riding a bicycle. If we stop, we fall off. When we stop living by faith we start relying on ourselves or natural means of support, and quickly end up in trouble.
The people continued to grumble and rebel all the way through the desert. And when they did eventually enter the land they still did not obey God. This even involved child sacrifice. The consequences of turning away from God are horrific. We may think we do not do such things today, but what about the thousands upon thousands of abortions that take place each year?
There was a cycle of discipline and then rescue by God, but the people never learnt. He sent them into captivity and caused their captors to be merciful to them. Still they did not listen.
The Psalmists finishes by calling on the Lord to have mercy once again. In Christ there is hope, for through the gift of the Holy Spirit a work of change takes place within us. We start to become all that we should always have been.
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