“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not neither be dismayed.”
Moses was preparing the Israelites to go to their new home in Canaan. God had already given the land to them but they would have to claim it. He knew that they would have to be prepared to go in and do what God wanted them to do in order to take the land. He wanted to build up their confidence in God before they undertook that task. The same thing that Moses told the Israelites is true for us as we make our way through the challenges of this life. He told them that the Lord was going before them. We have to realize that this is true in our lives as well. There is nothing that we face that God has not gone before us. Along the same line, David expressed about God in Psalm 132:1-5: “O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4. for there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” There was nothing that Israel, or David, would face that God would not know about. There is nothing that will happen in our lives that He does not know about. Whenever we get where we are going, God/Jesus has already been there, and He has surrounded us on the way. This is a Biblical fact that we can depend on. Not only will He be there when we get there, we will discover that He was with us while we are on the way. Moses promised the Israelites, “He will be with thee.” This is a great comfort as we face the contingencies of life. Sometimes we do not know which way to turn, but there is One who is with us at every moment who knows exactly which way we are to turn. I have had to make decisions in my life where God's presence was all-important. There are times when we will think He has led us to a dead-end, but with God there is no dead-end. He is with us and will not lead us to any place where there will not be a purpose, and in which He will not gives us His power to do it. Since He with us, we do not need to fear or be discouraged. This does not mean that we will never be afraid or discouraged, but that we do not need to be. He will remind us of that. Furthermore, Moses told them that, “He will not fail thee.” This does not mean that we will never fail. It does mean that when we do, we can know that God did not fail and that He will pick us up and lead us to whatever success we need. In fact, He allows us to fail sometime so that we will lean on Him a little more heavily and know that He will not fail us. God occasionally let Israel fail so that they would learn to depend on Him. With all of this, Moses told the Israelites that God would never forsake them. This is true in our lives as well. Understand that there are times in all Christian’s lives when it seems that God has forsaken them, but it is not so. It is at these times that we realize He has not forsaken us, but that we have moved away from Him. Any time we feel that God has forsaken us; we need to check our prayer lives, because if someone has moved it is not God. Even in our most difficult times we can discover that God has not forsaken us. Because of all of the above, Moses told the Israelites that they should not be afraid or dismayed. After all, it is fear that often makes us feel dismayed. When we are dismayed, we are in despair. This is a place that we do not have to be. We will occasionally go there, but we never need to stay there. Read this and believe it: Everything that Moses told Israel is true for us as well, so we can take heart and live joyful lives. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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