Numbers 14:45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.
At the word of scouts who brought back a bad report of the Promised Land, Israel had complained against God and were going to turn back to Egypt. In His anger God told Israel that they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years, one year for each day the scouts spent in the Promised Land. In that time, no adult Israelite, except for Joshua and Caleb, would survive to enter into the Promised Land. In His mercy, God pardoned Israel according to the prayer of Moses. Israel mourned at the news, but incredibly, they again decided to rebel against God and try to take the land on their own.
Israel went up to take the land, but they did so apart from the blessing of God, and they were soundly defeated, but they were not destroyed. Numbers 14 says they were pushed back as far as Hormah, which means “Utter Destruction,” but the name was not given to the place at this time. The place was first called “Utter Destruction” in Numbers 21, after God lead Israel in battle against these same Canaanites, and the Canaanite cities were utterly destroyed.
I’m reminded that though we may face setbacks, and sometimes those setbacks are because we have doubted God or even rebelled against Him, yet we are not destroyed because our God is greater.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
God is greater than any obstacle or situation and we should be reminded that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. The Israelites could not move forward into the land and they could not go back to Egypt. All they could do was accept God’s judgment and surrender to His will.
There may be times in your life where you feel like your stuck, or perhaps you see that God’s will for you leads to something you had not wanted, perhaps even years in a place you don’t want to be in. Far better to wander in the wilderness in the will of God than to fight a losing battle out of the will of God.
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