When Ye Be Come Into the Land
“But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.”Numbers 14:31 (KJV)
Numbers 14 is one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. Israel stood at the edge of the promised land and refused to go in. God told them that generation would die in the wilderness. Then he said, “But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.”
Turn the page. Numbers 15 opens with God speaking again, as if nothing had broken his plan: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you.” Not if. When.
Right after the rebellion, God was already giving instructions for life in the land. Their unbelief had cost them, but it hadn’t cancelled his promise.
Paul puts it this way: “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” Your failure is real. So is his faithfulness, and it is bigger.
Read it yourself
Read Numbers 14:26–35 and then Numbers 15:1–3. What changes between the end of one chapter and the start of the next?
Where do you need to hear God say when instead of if?
Faithful God, even when I believe not, you abide faithful. Thank you that your promises don’t depend on me. Amen.