3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
To refuse entering the Land seems to have been an unpardonable sin. Right there and then the Father condemned the Children of Israel to forty years of wondering in the desert. This meant that though they will not inherit the promise, their children might. The sage Rashi notices it when he points out that after the sad episode of the spies, the narrative of the Book of Numbers continues with offering instructions saying 'when' and not 'if' they are in the Land.
Here we have an example of God taking children to fulfill the promises made to the fathers. The fathers had been negative examples of grumbling and murmuring even to the point of refusing to enter the Land and wanting to elect a new leader, someone who would lead them back to Egypt. This is a very natural reaction and we shouldn't self-righteously blame them. How many of us are guilty of settling in the comfort of familiar roads and surroundings fearing to venture into the new unfamiliar terrain of something God may have us to do? These were parents who also feared for their children (Numbers 14:31). I say we shouldn't blame them because if we honestly look at the components of our lives, if we honestly look at ourselves the way God looks at us, we are probably doing the same. Very few of us have the courage required to go face the 'giants' of the 'Promised Land' of God's will for our lives. When we don't though, our lives may god haywire, and the things we fear would happen to us would we follow God happen to us anyways. What we fear the most in life is the one thing none of us has control over: death, and death happens anyways.
Look here at the mercies of the Almighty God of all compassions. After He finished telling the Children of Israel that their carcasses will rot in the desert (Numbers 14: 28-35), He continues the narration in the second person plural referring to them, not in the third person plural referring to their children who will undergo forty years of obedience training. He says 'When you have come into the Land you are going to live' (Numbers 15:2).
I thank and honor Abba for His everlasting providence that whereas children receive the promises made even to the disobedient fathers, fathers seem to also inherit from the virtues of the retrained children. In this way, the Children of disobedient Israel who received the promised Messiah are portent to the salvation of their parents.
May we all forward that in the 'World to Come', even in the distant future, God has provided us with childrien who by His Words, will fulfill the promises that we have failed in. Maybe this is what all these promises refer to made to Eve about her 'seed' (Genesis 3:15). The Hebrew Scriptures also have many reference to spiritual inheritance in one's 'seed' (Genesis 4:25; 9:9; 1 Timothy 2:15).
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
To refuse entering the Land seems to have been an unpardonable sin. Right there and then the Father condemned the Children of Israel to forty years of wondering in the desert. This meant that though they will not inherit the promise, their children might. The sage Rashi notices it when he points out that after the sad episode of the spies, the narrative of the Book of Numbers continues with offering instructions saying 'when' and not 'if' they are in the Land.
Here we have an example of God taking children to fulfill the promises made to the fathers. The fathers had been negative examples of grumbling and murmuring even to the point of refusing to enter the Land and wanting to elect a new leader, someone who would lead them back to Egypt. This is a very natural reaction and we shouldn't self-righteously blame them. How many of us are guilty of settling in the comfort of familiar roads and surroundings fearing to venture into the new unfamiliar terrain of something God may have us to do? These were parents who also feared for their children (Numbers 14:31). I say we shouldn't blame them because if we honestly look at the components of our lives, if we honestly look at ourselves the way God looks at us, we are probably doing the same. Very few of us have the courage required to go face the 'giants' of the 'Promised Land' of God's will for our lives. When we don't though, our lives may god haywire, and the things we fear would happen to us would we follow God happen to us anyways. What we fear the most in life is the one thing none of us has control over: death, and death happens anyways.
Look here at the mercies of the Almighty God of all compassions. After He finished telling the Children of Israel that their carcasses will rot in the desert (Numbers 14: 28-35), He continues the narration in the second person plural referring to them, not in the third person plural referring to their children who will undergo forty years of obedience training. He says 'When you have come into the Land you are going to live' (Numbers 15:2).
I thank and honor Abba for His everlasting providence that whereas children receive the promises made even to the disobedient fathers, fathers seem to also inherit from the virtues of the retrained children. In this way, the Children of disobedient Israel who received the promised Messiah are portent to the salvation of their parents.
May we all forward that in the 'World to Come', even in the distant future, God has provided us with childrien who by His Words, will fulfill the promises that we have failed in. Maybe this is what all these promises refer to made to Eve about her 'seed' (Genesis 3:15). The Hebrew Scriptures also have many reference to spiritual inheritance in one's 'seed' (Genesis 4:25; 9:9; 1 Timothy 2:15).
RSS Feed
