Day 119: The New Generation

Numbers 32:11-12

‘Of all those I rescued from Egypt, no one who is twenty years old or older will ever see the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they have not obeyed me wholeheartedly. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have wholeheartedly followed the Lord.’

We are considered the Joshua generation. I’m not sure how many of you have heard this saying before but it seems to be a theme with Pastor’s, when they start talking about our generation specifically. . Being in church around the age of sixteen, when the pastor would talk about our generation they would always say that we are the Joshua or Caleb generation. I didn’t really know what that meant until I opened up my bible and found out.  It is just a biblical way of saying we are the new or next generation to complete the task. To receive the promise and lead our people into the promised land (no pressure). We are the ones who will inherit the blessings of our fathers and do what they could not do.

What’s crazy about the scripture above is that when you think about it, almost everyone who entered the desert died there. They never got to see the promised land, except for Joshua and Caleb. Not even Moses was allowed to enter the Promised Land.

The wilderness generation

The Joshua generation was built differently, they are  different people than the ones who left Egypt, this generation was born in the wilderness, they were born in the desert, this was all they knew. They were born into the rough times, they know what it is truly like to wander around in the desert all your life, because they have been doing it since the day they were born. Seeing that they viewed the desert as home, this is all they have know their entire life. They are the wild children, literally born in the wilderness.

They fought for the Promise

They did not just stroll across the river and enter into the promised land, they had to conquer and claim. They had to build an army and fight for the land God had promised them. They had to strategize and plan, they had to fight for what was already theirs. This land was promised to them long before they were even born. This land was promised to Abraham and his descendants (And we are all descendants of Abraham) God built up a people who were willing to fight and take what is there’s.

They Appreciate the generation before them,

Joshua and Caleb did not takeover and act like everything they ever did they did alone. If they had said that it would have been a blatant lie. They picked up the baton and finished the race, they are the ones completing what their fathers, forefathers, ancestors started. If it had not been for Moses, Aaron and the generation before them they would not be in the position they were in. It was their fathers that had to be led out of Egypt in order for them to enter into the Promised Land. Now they may have held themselves up by constantly disobeying and grumbling against God, He used it for His glory. Through them God raised up and entirely new generation.

We are that generation, we are the generation picking up the baton’s and finishing the race. We were born in a crazy era, and we are here to fight for the promise.

Reflection

Today I gave a lot of context and not much opinion, and that was on purpose. I want you to respond, go through and read the stories. How do you feel about being compared to Joshua and Caleb generation? Do you think this generation is up for the task? Take what was talked about today and put in modern times. Do we have a task to complete?

Overall how do you relate to the text?

Prayer Time

Talk to God about this current generation, pray for our generation and ask God for guidance and direction for yourself but also for our peers.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Share this with someone, start a discussion, and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 120!  

Day 118: Walking Through the Desert

Today we are going to continue with yesterday’s theme of, this idea of stepping into the desert out of bondage.

Deuteronomy 8:2, Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

We are all aware that the Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years. A journey that should have taken a few weeks ended up taking forty years because of the Israelites disobedience, complaining, and grumbling. They held themselves up. Today we aren’t going to go into too deep of detail about that (not yet), but we are going to talk about the journey. Yesterday we talked about stepping into the desert, today it’s about walking or journeying through the desert.

The only way to the promised land was through the desert.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my life is that the journey is more important, than the destination. Getting there is what is important, it’s what counts most. We cannot skip over what it takes to get to where we are or where we are going, there’s always going to be a journey and it is in these desert places that we grow the most. Which is why we often hear people talking about the journey more than the destination, there's some hills and valleys to go through first. We have to walk through those hard places, and learn some lessons in the desert. Now, one thing I must say is that our generation is the generation of immediacy. We want everything immediately, and with technology, online shopping, and social media we don’t have to travel far to get it.  We want God to do things for us, but we don’t want to go through the desert with Him. We want Him to take us places but we only want to be there for the final destination, not the journey. Life doesn’t work that way, if we want something we have to walk through the desert to get it, the same way the israelites had to walk through the desert to get to the promised land. The promised land wasn’t coming to them, they had to go to it. God has prepared a promised land for us, but we have to go to it. He opens doors for us, but we have to walk through them. We have to take the journey to get to the places we need and want to go. The journey is so important because there are some things we have to drop along the way. There are some things we have to leave in the desert.

There were some things they brought out of Egypt that couldn’t go into the promised land, they had to drop it in the desert.

A lot of times God takes us through the journey to teach us, and help us grow. In the desert we are completely stripped of all things that will lead us away from God. We cannot take the attitude of bondage into a land of freedom. I believe that, that was one of the reasons it took them forty years to get to the promised land. God had to make sure that they were not entering the promised land with the same things they left Egypt with. There is always a purpose to the journey, there is always a testimony in the desert.

Reflection/ Prayer time

Talk to God about the passages today, allow His love to serenade your heart. Thank Him for the journey you are one, even the valleys and deserts we have to go through.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Thank you for reading, share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 119! For those of you entering finals week or the last stressful parts of the school year, or college, you are in my prayers.

Day 117: Stepping into the Desert

Exodus 14:10-14,As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’” But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.  The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Exodus 16:3, “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”

Numbers 14:4, Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

The people of Israel were in bondage for four hundred years. They were slaves to the Egyptians, and throughout those four hundred years they cried out to God, praying and begging Him to free them from bondage. So God goes, “I’ve heard the cries of my people, I will free them from this bondage and give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” He sends Moses, and long story short, Moses goes to Pharaoh like, “Let my people go!” and Pharaoh is like, “No”. Then God sends all these plagues and Pharaoh is like, “Take them!” Then as they are leaving Pharaoh and his army decides to go after them, and God parts the Red Sea for their ultimate escape, and Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea. Then their is a journey they have to go on, before they can get to the place of milk and honey. They have to walk, they didn’t have cars back then all they had were horses, carriages, and sandals. Seeing that they were slaves most of them probably didn’t even have that. And it was Africa, they were near the equator, lots of dry land and heat. The Middle east was the same, desert and heat everywhere, there’s no escaping it. They had to go through the desert in order to get to the promised land.

Now the Israelites cried out to God to be free, but before they were even completely out of the sight of Pharaoh and his army they were begging to go back. They were complaining that it was too hard. THis was before they crossed the Red Sea. They saw the people who had them in bondage for four hundred years coming towards them and for a moment forgot who was really in control. I love Moses’ response to them as they are freaking out and having meltdowns. He seems to be at peace with the whole situation. He’s like, “Chill y’all, chill out God’s got us.” God will not bring us out of something and not see us all the way through. He will always make a way, to the Israelites it looked like it was over. They were caught between the enemy and the sea, but here comes God being God, splitting the water so they could walk on dry land to get across that sea. God won’t bring us to the sea and not give us a way through or across it. Not only did God make a way  for them to cross the Red Sea and out of bondage, He drowned all the oppressors in the Sea. They could no longer pursue the people of Israel. There was no one to come and take them back, if they went it was solely their choice. Which brings me to my next point.

What do we do when the grass isn’t greener on the other side. Not in a sense that where they left was better than where they were going. They had to do some gardening if they wanted that grass to be greener. Meaning what do we do when we realize we have to grow the grass; we have to do some planting and watering, and waiting before anything pops up from the ground.? These are the things the people of Israel faced, they had to go on a journey before they could get to the Promised Land, they weren’t teleporting there. They had to walk through the hot desert, and at some points they said, it would be better if we had stayed in Egypt. In this specific passage the people were in the need of food, they were hungry. They were probably hangry, and the angry part of that word go the best of them (giving them the benefit of the doubt). I don’t know, all I know is sometimes hanger makes you a little crazy. Now the people are complaining to Moses and they’re all, “At least when we were in Egypt we weren’t dying of starvation, you brought us out here to die.”  It seems like every time the journey got hard, they started to reminisce about what it would be like if they were still slaves. It wasn’t the best life but it was better than this, or that’s what they thought. God heard the cries of the people and He gave them bread from heaven in the morning, and gave them meat to eat by night. Then in Genesis 17 the people are once again complaining because they are thirsty, and God hears their grumbling, He gives them water, from a rock. From a rock!

THe israelites got what they wanted, but when the saw that it wasn’t exactly how they wanted it they were ready to go back to their old lives. But the most profound thing about this story is that if the Israelites had never stepped into the desert they would have never experienced the true glory of God. They would not have witnessed the miracles, they would not know that even when there seems to be no way, with God there is always a way. It was only when they lost faith that they started to regret leaving Egypt. But sometimes, sometimes we have to step into the  desert and watch God work. We have to venture into the unknown, we have to go places we don’t go. Stepping out into the desert is taking a step or leap even when you don’t know where you foot or feet will land. That’s called faith. If God can split an entire sea, if he could make bread and manna rain down from heaven, if He can give us water from a rock. What more can He do? God won't lead us to the sea and not give us a way through it. He won’t lead us into the desert without making sure that we are taken care of.

When we ask God to bring us through or out of something, we have to be sure that we are ready to walk into the desert. That we are ready and willing to trust Him. I know we get mad at the Israelites for doing all of this stuff. But that is or has been many of us as Christians. When things get hard, we think or even sometimes vocalize that life was a lot easier when we were living in the world. I can tell you that the trip back will be just as hard, as the trip there, the difference is one has a reward, and the other is just old news that we decided to turn back to.

Reflection

1. Can you Identify with the Israelites?  
2. Have you ever thought about going back into the world when life as a Christian gets hard?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Whatever stood out to the most today bring it God in prayer. Just talk to HIm, have an open conversation with the Lord.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. I love you so much, make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 118!