Episode 25: 2/23/09

Readings:

Psalm 15
Deuteronomy 6:10-15
Hebrews 1:1-14
John 1:1-18

Sermon:

“And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.”
The Book of Numbers 14:20-24

Grace, Mercy and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Trust…

There is little that God does ask of us, except trust… trust in Him and His divine plan, trust that He will be faithful to us, trust that He will never fail us nor forsake us (Joshua 1:5).

It was trust, not obedience that God would ask of Adam and Eve even in the Garden of Eden as gave to them all that He had created, and yet told to them not to eat of that Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There, their betrayal, their disobedience, though sins, would not be what would cast them from Paradise, rather, it would be that lack of trust in the Lord that would lead to their disobedience. That… that would be their first sin.

For thousands of years.... for generations to come… it would be the same story… though great would their sins be, it would all stem from that same basic, fundamental self righteousness that would take their trust from the Lord and place it into their own hands, believing they were the masters of their own destinies.

Even after seeing miracle after miracle, the children of Israel would be no exception.

For them, they had seen firsthand the power of the Lord God Almighty at work. He had lead them from the hands of their Egyptian Masters, freeing them from the chains of slavery, from that dark bondage of the task master whip. Even as they seemed trapped, with nowhere else to go God parted the waters that they might cross to safety as the chariots of Pharaoh chased quickly behind them. Wandering in the desert He provided for them food and water and direction to those places they needed to be that they might find their way to that Land of Promise He was to deliver them into.

Each and every step of the way the Lord was there, the Lord was at work, His hand could be seen guiding them through the wilderness.

There all He asked for was trust…

In our text today we read of both the mercy of the Lord and His disappointment. In Numbers 13 we read the story of the spies sent from the Israeli camp in Kadesh to Canaan to report on the force of their enemies. There God, He would ask that the children of Israel trust Him and His judgment to deliver their enemies into their hands, as he had with the Amlekites. Yet fear would once more overtake them and their courage would be fleeting “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” (Numbers 13:31). Moses would hear their rumbling as they prepared to rebel, “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2 and 3)

But Moses would not be alone, God too would hear their voices, and how his prophet would waver under the pressure.

There, though God would forgive the Israelites for their distrust still He could not reward it. And in that, a generation, that same generation that had escaped the hands of the Egyptians and yet were so eager to go back to their masters when the path appeared to get a little bit difficult, would never set their feet upon the promised land. They would see but never enter into it.

It serves as a lesson for all people in all places in all times. We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews that faith, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) and how better to explain faith except as trust… a basic and fundamental trust in the Lord and His divine plans.

Through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, we know that God is a merciful God, and yet what we also learn is that He is a faithful God, one who keeps his promises, and who provides for us all that is needed for our salvation. Even since the beginning of creation, since that first fall, He promised to us a Savior to deliver us from the iniquities of our sins, and there, He would provide, according to His word.

But this is not all that God provides for us. In the words of Christ we learn “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:26) God gives to His children all that they need through His divine love and mercy, through His divine word, if we trust in Him and His plans for us, understanding that He will always be there for us.

There, our trust, it must be in the power of the Lord, it must be placed squarely in Him, knowing that He is true and faithful and always beholden to His word. Perhaps at times things may not go the way we had hoped or perhaps at times we do not get that which we want, it could be at times that the odds seem to be stacked against us and we are left to wonder if we have the strength to go on, but there, when our trust is placed in the Lord God Almighty as those who are redeemed by the blood of that precious lamb, then we have a sure foundation, a rock that will anchor us regardless of the tides that beat against us, threatening to wash us away, and we receive all that we need, even if we don’t understand what it is that we need at that time.

That trust, it shall always lead our way, it will always guide our stay, even unto the Promised Land of our Salvation.

Therefore trust, dear brothers and sisters… trust in the Lord and the power of His might, knowing that through it all we may not get all we want, after all it could be that which we want is not that which is right for us, but He will provide for us all it is that we could ever need. So long as this is what we know, so long as this is what we fasten ourselves in, we shall be forever secure, affixed to a God of love who will always provide, and will always be merciful to us even to the end of the ages.

Lord, grant this unto us all….

Now may the peace of the Lord, that peace that transcends all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting, Amen.