Love in the Wilderness

God sent Moses to free His people from Egypt's bondage. But they challenged his leadership when faced with freedom's obstacles. Did they recall the Red Sea miracle as they met other challenges? They did not. Instead, they complained about everything, telling Moses they should have stayed in Egypt.

God lovingly cared for His stubborn people and showed mercy repeatedly though they walked by sight and not faith in Him. Yet, His longsuffering was limited when ten of the twelve men returning from spying out the land flowing with milk and honey before them gave doubt-filled, undesirable reports, stirring fear among the skeptical people (Num 13–14). They paid dearly for negatively influencing God's people, and so did those who doubted God's ability. Even faithful Moses would catch only a glimpse of the Promise Land and not cross over because he disobeyed God's command in a moment of anger. God loved and cared for the Israelites as they wandered for forty years in the wilderness, but only the two spies who gave a faith-filled report, trusting God to go before them, and those under twenty years old would enter the land of promise.

Our words, actions, and reactions matter because they influence others; unbelief, distrust, complaints, and grumbling against God cause us, and others who follow our disobedience, to miss His best and undergo His discipline. We experience God's love and watchful care and have proof of His miracles. But we sometimes forget what He did only yesterday, doubting and whining, testing God's longsuffering when believers should be shining lights, pointing others to our Savior. Philippians 2:14–15 "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."