"The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Numbers 14:18
This is a prayer that Moses prayed on behalf of Israel. After all that God had done for the Israelites they were impatient with the Lord, they had discussed returning to Egypt. At this point they had even thought that God had brought them to this land to simply die. In verse 4 we see "And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." What total stupidly on their part. Folks, if we are to learn anything from the Israelites it is that we never give up on God. Jesus told us He would return, Jesus told us to occupy till He returns, and there are some in this world giving-up on God. After all that God had done for the Israelite people, they had no right to be ungrateful and give up on God's promises to them. Here they are wanting to return to the land where they had served many years in slavery. Folks, God never, ever, reneges on His promises. God is not a man, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numbers 23:19 When Believers and churches began to doubt God and His word then they also become "ungrateful servants" of the Lord. We as believers must remain faithful to God, He will fulfill His promises to us just as He did with the Israelites. Moses said that if it's God will's then He will delivers to us on His promise. "If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey." Numbers 14:8. Moses went on in verse 9 "Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land..." Folks, we have nothing to fear, God's will, will see us through this. Verse 10 "But all the congregation bade stone them with stones..." Now it is not believed that all the people wanted to stone them but some were. As minister we cannot fulfill the will of God, God has a plan and God will accomplish that plan as He chooses. It is our responsibility as God's elect, and the blessed of God to wait on the Lord. We will not be destroyed in this world unless it is God's will. We are to do what no other people have ever done before, and wait patiently on the Lord. God went on to say in verse 12 that "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them..." God said what I ought to do is to cast them out as I have done with the non-elect. People, even Christians sometimes gets impatient with the Lord and I am sure that God sometimes says the same about some of us. Moses went on in verse 17 to say "And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken..." Moses says Lord, you have the power to do as you please but we ask for grace and mercy. In verse 18 Moses said " We thank the LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression..." The God of longsuffering and mercy that He is, we sure need a merciful and longsuffering God. Folk, with all that has went on in history, all that people have done to God, He has not ever cast His people out. God was under no obligation to choose Israel, He was under no obligation to choose the remnant of the world that He did, but He did. We ought to be grateful to Him that He has chosen us, so much so that we ought to have the longsuffering of God within us to be patient to His will. Just as God had freed the Israelites from the power of the Egyptians, He has freed us from the power of Satan to the slavery of sin. We ought not be ungrateful servants in not being patient with the Lord. God has never let us down, and He never will. We need to continue to serve the Lord with everything we have and not grow impatient. God's predestinated is on God's time table and when it is time for something to happen it will.
