How long?

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? – Numbers 14.11

If God were a man you could almost sense the frustration in this question. Time after time God had proved Himself and time after time God’s people failed to trust Him. They made their choice regarding Canaan. The decided to walk by sight and not by faith.

How sad. How tragic. How hard to believe. How much like us today.

There is a sadness in the words of the Lord here – ‘how long are they going to provoke me? How long will it be before they believe me?’

After all that the Lord had done for them they still could not or would not trust Him enough to obey Him. They could not believe that God’s way was the best way. God had proven Himself over and over again, but they still did not have the faith to follow his direction.

When we look at the Old Testament we find ourselves wondering how they could not trust God. I is obvious from our perspective.

But the really puzzling thing is why we don’t have any more faith than they did. Year after year God proves Himself faithful and yet the next time we face a challenge we doubt his ability to take care of us and we too walk by sight and not by faith.

It makes me sad to think that God might say ‘how long is Roger going to provoke me? How long before Roger believes for all that I have already done for him?’

Are you and I any better than these Israelites?