FAITH CAPSULE: The word of God that cannot be broken broke them all in the wilderness.

Numbers 14, Joshua 5

The children of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt into the Promise Land were filled with miracles. Despite the manifestations of miracle, they did not travel far when they began to complicate their breakthrough with complains and negative confessions. The journey of eleven days was converted to be journey of forty years. Constant and consistent complaining led to acts of rebellion directed onto God through Moses. The Bible recorded that after they went to spy on the land that God promised to give them, they came back announcing “…we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we.” (Numbers 13:31) The statement is an indirect way of calling God a liar. It was rebellious and it moved God to reject them. Complaining and rebellion is sin unto God. God did not overlook their sin but responded, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.”(Numbers 14:28-31) The Lord reproached the children of Israel for their acts of rebellion towards His promises. The word of God that cannot be broken broke them all in the wilderness. All who left Egypt got left in the wilderness, when they died the younger generation took over. Through Joshua, God commanded circumcision for their children. After their circumcision, God sent Joshua to them saying, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.” (Joshua 5:9) Their Complaints, led to rebellious acts, which was a demonstration of rejecting God. Evidently they became reproached before God. As a vessel of reproach, promise could not be released, they were repositioned from bondage to wilderness and eventually they were replaced by their children. God in His goodness and mercy, through circumcision, rolled away their reproach and they ate from the fruit of the Promised Land. Stop complaining; take off to your Gilgal.

Prayer for today: O Lord, My creator, cause me not to miss my Gilgal. Let reproached be rolled away from me.