Tuesday, July 19: Numbers 26- Standing the test of TIME.

An unnamed actor in the last 13 chapters of Numbers (since chapter 13) had been Time. Without ever mentioning it, 40-years of time has passed.  As Israel stands again on the threshold of the Promised Land, God takes a census of the people. According to verses 63-65 the faithless generation, who first stood on the edge of the Promised Land, were dead and buried.  

These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. For the LORD had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Time is always on its silent march. Day folds into days, weeks, months, years and decades do the same. Time never stops, never rests, always ticks…

Israel paraded for 40 years. Babies were born, others died. Two of the original escapees from Egypt held to their faith in the Lord…Caleb and Joshua.

The examples of Caleb and Joshua burned into me… men who kept the faith, brothers who held onto the truth, examples who show it can be done. They have years to go, people to lead, and cities to take.

Time marches for all of us. I have recently crossed the 40 years ‘walking with the Lord’ mark. There can be no letting up, no placing life in neutral. To keep the faith I, too, must march forward and take on every task my Lord will give me. What they will be I do not know. What I do know is that the Lord, who has been with me, will be with me and by His Spirit I will have the strength and the wherewithal to do everything He charges me to do.

I want to be a Caleb or Joshua, a person who stands strong in my faith through every obstacle, living into every promise and blessing God has for me. To do so I need to live each day, one faithful day at a time.

Lord, give me strength to be faithful today… and then all of my todays for Your honor and glory. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.