In Numbers chapter 14 we see that consequences are a very real thing,
and they’re not always very easy to live with.
The Israelites saw that they were on the doorstep of the promised land.
They sent the scouts in to bring back a report.
They spent 40 days there, came back said, “The land is great but there are some enemies there,” and
they got scared.
Instead of trusting God and his promise, they became afraid.
They wanted to go back to Egypt.
They wanted different leadership instead of Moses.
They wanted different leadership instead of God.
And
because of that, there was, well,
God gave them a consequence.
So because you didn’t trust me,
all of you who complained,
you’re never going to get into the promised land.
There’s a consequence for sin.
There’s a consequence for not trusting God and not following his lead.
Bad things happen.
“And,” he went on,
“Your time in the wilderness is now going to be extended.”
He said, “You will be in the wilderness now for one year for every day that the scouts were gone.”
So, 40 years.
They weren’t going to be in the 40 . . . in the wilderness 40 years originally,
but now they were
as a consequence to remind them,
to remind them of their sin.
And that wasn’t going to be easy to live with.
Both a reminder of they messed it up, they brought it on themselves,
and also the reminder that they’re going to miss out on something good
that god was ready to just give to them.
40 years.
Those consequences were hard and yet,
those consequences didn’t take away the better gift
that God had already prepared for them.
Before God told them that they wouldn’t get into the promised land,
before God told them that you were “now going to spend 40 years in the desert,”
he also said this to them.
“But I have forgiven you.”
I have forgiven your sin.
Which means that
they were still one day going to see heaven.
Their hearts and souls and bodies would be at perfect rest
where they could never be hurt ever again.
Their temporary consequences didn’t take away from them the better gifts that God had already
prepared for them.
And the same is true for us,
no matter what consequences we have to live with.
You know that there are consequences to elections.
That things change, policies change,
day-to-day life, in some ways, changes depending on who gets elected.
That’s why you care so passionately about, about things like elections.
There are consequences to those decisions
There are also consequences to the decisions that are made during a pandemic.
Whether or not to wear a mask.
Whether or not to shut down schools.
Whether or not to shut down communities and businesses.
There are consequences, and sometimes very hard consequences, to live with.
A business can’t make it anymore.
You can’t go visit someone you love.
You can’t say goodbye to them.
You can’t grieve their loss
like you were planning.
And then, of course, there are the consequences that are hardest to live with;
the ones that we bring on ourselves by our decisions.
And we all have them.
The lines that we crossed and something happened and now we have to live with that.
The person that you hurt
and what you said or what you did, you can’t take it back.
The thing that happened because you made a mistake
and you can’t undo it.
Those are the consequences that are maybe most likely to make us doubt
that they won’t get the best of us.
But they won’t.
Because the same thing that God said to Israel, he says to you.
You are forgiven.
Which means, whatever consequences you have to live with, whether
they are self-inflicted whether they come from politics or pandemics or anything else,
they’re not going to get the best of you.
Because waiting for you is the better gift,
all the better gifts,
that God has already prepared for you.
So whatever it is that you're living with today or whatever you're afraid of having to live with
because of decisions that are made,
rest well tonight, my friends,
because God knows the better thing that is still coming
and you do too.