Littered with graves: Dt 2:14-15

“Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. Moreover the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.” (Deuteronomy 2:14-15)

Their thirty eight years of wandering in the wilderness was not always unpleasant for the people of Israel. “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” (Deuteronomy 8:4) They also had the presence of the Lord as a column of smoke during the day and a pillar of fire at night. The Lord also provided food and water supernaturally to feed and nourish His people. While there were many pleasantries associated with their wanderings, those thirty eight years were predominantly years of death. By the end of their wanderings, millions of graves littered the wilderness. A whole generation, to whom God had promised to them the Promised Land, died and were buried in the wilderness of their wanderings. Daily, hundreds of people perished and were buried until none of their generation remained.

God loves us, and even when we yield to our fears and unbelief, there is a portion of His grace and blessings that remains upon us. However, we must never forget that the end result of our disobedience to God is always death. “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8) When we turn our minds from the things of the Spirit to live by the things of the flesh, death begins working in our lives, not a physical death, but a death in our soul, our morals, and our relationship with God. We cannot disobey God without encoring the resulting consequences of our choices. As King Solomon asked, “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Proverbs 6:27-28) The answer is an inequitable, “No!” and the same is with sin. A man (or woman) cannot embrace sin without being burned. There is always grace, there is always forgiveness, but there are also almost always consequences. Paul warns us not to be deceived, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8) Let us not be like the children of Israel who reaped death upon themselves because of their unbelief and disobedience, but let’s be like those who sow to the Spirit and from the Spirit reap new life.

David Robison

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