Missing out in the end

"Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years.' Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways' As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" (He.3:7-11). These were the people of Israel to whom God revealed Himself as 'I am', who were given a promise of being taken to the Promised Land, who witnessed how God made a distinction between them as He sent the plagues to Egypt, parted the Red Sea for them to walk through, destroyed their enemy in the sea, led them with cloud and fire, fed them supernaturally each day, gave them water from a rock, preserved them without sickness in the desert, revealed His laws to them, etc. Yet they all perished in the desert except Joshua and Caleb.

Even after experiencing miracle after miracle, the people kept complaining against God, instead of learning from their experience and trusting God whenever a new difficulty came up. This was a problem of their heart. They did not trust God thinking that He who had taken care of them supernaturally till then would not fail to keep His promises. Ten of their spies who had seen the land of promise looked only at their own natural ability and kept God entirely out of the picture (Nu.13:32,33). Joshua and Caleb trusted God (Nu.14:7-9). This point became the determining factor. Joshua and Caleb who trusted God to lead them to victory over the enemy according to His promise were allowed to enter the Promised Land, while all the others perished in the desert in the next forty years.

Can we see the difference between the so-called faith that takes for granted that God ought to take care of us and spare us from all trouble, and the faith that trusts in God and goes forward in obedience to Him even in the face of potential danger? In such situations, our choice will show whether we trust God enough to obey Him. The cheap kind of faith that merely believes mentally that Jesus died and rose again gets exposed at such times. Saving faith trusts God in such a way that we are willing to place our life into His hands and do what He says. Isn't this the response that God deserves after He gave Himself for us (Ro.12:1)?

Just think of God's love that gave His Son to go through the suffering of death for us so that He could make us His children! Think of all the ways through which He has demonstrated His love and power and taken care of us till now! Now when we are faced with a matter of obedience to God, will we trust God and obey Him, trusting Him to take care of us whatever the consequences are going to be? If we are not willing to obey God no matter what may happen to us, how can we say we trust in God (Da.3:16-18)? This is the point that will determine our place in the kingdom of God.