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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Deuteronomy 1:2
(It takes 11 days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)
This is only a passing comment in brackets. But it is full of significance.
The Israelites’ story is recorded for us so that we might listen, read and learn. Sometimes it acts as a mirror to reveal to us what we are really like. It always feels good to laugh at others; their stupid mistakes, their stubbornness, their lack of faith, their seeming blindness and ignorance - but how often it really just reveals who we are and gives us a window into our own souls, attitudes and values.
“It takes (only) 11 days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea.” It takes only 11 days - that is, unless you want to keep ‘going around the same mountain’ for 40 years. Disobedience and faithlessness are two very stern taskmasters.
How often God gives us a revelation and the issue can be settled in “11 days”, but we prefer to take the long route for another 40 years. Yes, all the time they walked around in the Wilderness, the ‘manna and quails’ did not cease. What wonderful grace of God. But that is what our God is like - even today. Oh yes, God is gracious - our sandals don’t wear out, and He remains our Provider but we do not enter the Promised Land.
Heaven - the resting-place of the righteous - the destiny of the saints - the prize of the redeemed, is not ‘The Promised Land’. The Promised Land is for us to experience here on earth, and yet I believe there are many Christians who will die and go to Heaven, but like the Israelites in the wilderness - they will die without ever entering the ‘Promised Land’.
If Heaven is the ‘Promised Land’, where in Scripture does it say we have to fight for it? Where in Scripture does it say there will be enemies to fight, conquer and subdue? Nowhere. No, Heaven is our spiritual Sabbath rest (see Hebrews 4:8-11).
The ‘Promised Land’ is here for us now. We enter through obedience to the will and purposes of God for our lives. We enter by faith and live in victory. We challenge the enemy by our lifestyle, prayer and evangelism. We bring in the ‘Promised Land’ by preaching Good News to the poor, giving sight to the blind, setting the captives free and preaching the year of the Lord’s favour (see Isaiah 61:1-3).
Not by sitting back and waiting for Heaven, nor walking around the same old problems, discouragements, disappointments, failures, sins or bitterness for the next 40 years.
Today is a wake-up call. Will you take 11 days or 40 years?
Will you enter the ‘Promised Land’ or ‘die in the wilderness’? Go for gold and enjoy your obedient, challenging but victorious Christian life. It is there for you to experience and enjoy now, today. (You don’t even have to wait another 11 days.)
Ask God to take you in right now.
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