FOLLOW HIM FULLY

Numbers 14:1-24

Monday, 7 December 2020

"But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully,….." -Num. 14:24

The children of GOD who were delivered from their centuries-old slavery, are now at a crucial juncture- at the boundary of their Promised Land flowing with milk and honey – they are almost at the final point of receiving their promise from God. However, it is their attitude towards God that will decide whether they will finally receive it or not!

Here is a group of people, who obeyed God when He asked them to get out of Egypt; obeyed God when He asked them to cross the Red Sea; obeyed Him when He asked them to walk through the wilderness – yet they could not follow Him fully! The result – God rejected them!!

Isn’t it painful to see that after being obedient to God in several areas you get rejected in the end? Many people believe that once saved is forever saved; take their Christian walk for granted and still believe that they are going to make it to heaven! Well, the story of the people of Israel in Moses’ time portrays a different picture. 1Corinthians 10:5& 6: Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased; ……. Now these things happened as examples for us,….. Again Verse 11 says: Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction…”

Well it’s very clear – we need to learn from the lives of those people whose stories are given in the Bible. If God was not well pleased with the lives of many of His people, then what is pleasing to God? The life story of another person, Caleb, who was part of the contingent of God’s people tells us that. Caleb (i) had a different spirit (ii) he followed God fully (V.24). So to please God there is no short cut – we need to have a different perspective and follow Him (obey Him) fully – NOT PARTIALLY.

When all the people cried the whole night and rejected God’s plan for them by exalting the ”giants” and the “fortresses” above the God who was big enough to carry them through the sea and strong enough to deliver them from the hands of Pharaoh– they were actually denouncing their allegiance to the living God! Even in our lives, when we acknowledge that what we experience with our physical senses are bigger and mightier than God and His words – we are discrediting our allegiance to Him!!

See what is written in our key verse about Caleb: “because he had a different spirit.” What does that mean? Caleb had a different attitude; a different perspective; he perceived what God said in its right sense – because He mixed God’s word with faith (cf. Heb. 4:2). Therefore Caleb was able to see the unseen. You become different when you are able to see the unseen. 2Corinthinas 4:18: “... we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;”

When all the people saw the mighty fortresses of the land and the muscle power of people, Caleb saw something different- Num.14:9: “their protection has been removed from them.” When the people saw giants for whom they would become prey, Caleb said in Num14:9: “they will be our prey.” When the people felt they were helpless, Caleb said: “the LORD is with us.” (V.9)When the people were only willing to obey God’s word for a time, Caleb was willing to obey His word all through his life. Caleb testified: “if the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land.”(V.8)

Dear friend, will you decide to believe in God and fully follow Him?

Think on it: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)