Deuteronomy 1 – Following God’s will

Deuteronomy 1:28-45 “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”‘ 29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. 30 ‘The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes…32 “But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God, 33 who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. 34 “Then the LORD heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, 35 ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the LORD fully.’ 37 “The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. 38 ‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it…42 “And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated before your enemies.”‘ 43 “So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the LORD, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. 44 “The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. 45 “Then you returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

The childlike attitude of the Israelites amazes me. First, they say “no God, we don’t want to go.” Then, God tells them that they are being disobedient and will be punished. Then, they say “oh, our bad God, we didn’t really mean it, let’s go kick some Amorite butt.” God says, “no, you had your chance and blew it”; but they decide to go ahead and attack without God. Surprise, surprise, they are defeated. How many times can you be unfaithful to God at one sitting?

The Israelites may be acting like children, but that does not mean that we act much better. How often do we ignore God’s leading, or push God off until later, with the excuse “that would make me uncomfortable”, “I can’t go out of my way”, or “I don’t have enough time.”

Only recently have I become some what consistent on faithfully following through on God’s leading in my life. To obey God you have to do three things.

1) Be aware of God in everyday life. I have come to recognize the leading of God as the unexpected thoughts that entery my head such as “you should go talk to him”, “you should help her out”, “you should go ask this question”.

2) Take the time to do what God asks you to do. It’s easy to brush God off; God is not usually overly-persistent and seldom begs. It’s easy to ignore the situation, to drive on by, to pretend you did not see. It takes effort and time to actually do what God is asking of you.

3) See it through to the end. Don’t wuss out half way through. If your going to follow God down his rabbit trail, follow God all the way. Make sure you accomplished what God was calling you to do.

It takes time, effort, emotional will-power, and a willingness to put yourself into some uncomfortable positions. But when God calls you to do something, do it.

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