3:1 In the beginning verse of this chapter we receive very dynamic imagery: beautiful, terrifying, hilarious, ironic imagery. The children of Israel are travelling toward their destination when suddenly they are being charged at by a powerful king and all his people! A battle is literally encroaching upon them.
This verse calls us to considering our own encroaching battles, internal and external. Those storms on the horizon we can visually see but cannot see how to defeat.
3:2 And the Lord responds to us with the same solemnity as He does here with the children of Israel: do not fear him; do not fear that thing; I have already placed him, it, into your hand. You have and control its reigns. Very delicately, deftly, God removes the power from our enemy and places it in our hands. He gives us the power, the wisdom, the perception, the ability and opportunity to disable the battles encroaching upon us before they even get close.
When God tells us not to fear; he does so firmly and gently. He is not in a panic. He doesn't say it because He is frustrated with our fear. He doesn't say it because He doesn't understand. He tells us not to fear with love and promise in His heart. He projects His love and promise over us, over our fear, and says: my love, you do not have to worry because I'm never going to let that thing confront you. I'm never going to put you in harms way.
The reason we do not have to fear is not because our enemies are not ferocious. They often are. The reason we do not have to fear is because completely dissipates their ferocity... it cannot stand the heat of His powerful love for us. That storm can go on brewing in the horizon; it can work up every trick in its book but it's never going to be permitted to cross the barrier God's love have surrounded us with.
3:3-5 We are fortunate in a way the children of Israel were not: we read of these triumphant battles in simple sentences. Within five minutes we know that God was right and everything turned out exactly as He promised. The children of Israel never had that foundation of proof on which to build their trust.
But we do. We have the opportunity to apply these fulfilled promises to our own lives and our own battles. In the moment of the present, our lives seem disconnected, perhaps, from the children of Israel. When we put our bibles down, maybe it feels like we are putting the story away until we pick the book up again. Not so, our lives are a continuation of this story. A deep and intimate piece of the fabric.
The children of Israel really never did have to fear because as we read here, despite the extremely fortified boundary, this enemy nation could not keep out the promises of God.
God tells us to charge forward. Straight toward Him. To disregard the barriers and the quagmire. God tells us to just plow on through, straight toward Him, straight toward Home. God tries to explain to us that we do not need to grit our teeth and push and force and manipulate our way. He's already carved our path out. He's gently sliding mountains out from our way as we continue in faith to walk. 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith not by sight; so the mountains should not intimidate us.
The difference, the make or break, is our perception. If we are walking toward a mountain, in a wilderness, we are worrying about food, water, shelter, the incline, the predators. Yet if we are walking toward faith, if we allow that mountain to be totally blocked, made totally irrelevant, by faith... those fears and worries are made irrelevant, too.
In the metaphorical garden of the book of Genesis, humanity grabbed autonomy out of God. God was the organizer of our lives but we dispossessed Him of the job He does so expertly well. The children of Israel are forging ahead on what that decision really meant. This journey through the wilderness is an effort toward a home. Symbolic of our lives on earth, this journey through the wilderness is an effort back toward home.
Because we did not have to go anywhere before. We were home. Now we are scattered asunder, like the stars in the sky in the midst of a darkness. Little lights journeying toward home. It's time we, like the stars, race toward God at the speed of light. As fast as we possible can. Breaking sound barriers. Charging after Him so fast, so wholeheartedly that what is in the way does not matter because our faith is going to shatter right through.
3:6-11 This battle that moved ominously toward the children of Israel could have crippled them with fear. The trusting faith and leadership of Moses, Joshua and men and women like Caleb enabled the children of Israel to be triumphant when they were likely to be destroyed.
At face value, this group of the children of Israel were nomads. A stranger would view them as ragamuffins, no land, no home... orphaned in the desert. A group of slaves. That is the perception we have of life when we do not input our faith, our God. That is the view of every situation, bleak and desperate, when we do not input out faith and our God.
The limitations of the world do not apply to children of God. With God, the maybes become definitely. The hopes are manifested. The darkness is transformed to light. Barriers are made passageways. And it is impossible to the rest of the world. Romans 8:31, if God is with us, who can be against us? It is a rhetorical question; the answer is obvious: no one. No thing.
When we are pursing Him, when we are pursuing order and restoration, God promises us that He will place blessings into our lives, love into our souls and enemies into our hands. Whatever you ask of Him, you shall receive, John 14:13.
3:12-22 God begins to distribute land allotments. Notice that as He answers the prayers of some, He places others in a comforting place to wait for theirs as He brings them into fruition. Wait patiently as God weaves the perfect conditions of your future. If you are a guest, waiting for God to distribute allotment to you, remain faithful and trusting in Him. Listen to Him, follow the little steps He's directing you to take. The little steps always come to reach His doorstep.
On the other side, if you have received a great blessing, host others. Be a host; offering the blessings you have to others who are in a season of waiting. Receiving blessings does not extricate you from the love and hope and waiting and the community. You do not detach like a shuttle as soon as God blesses or propels you. Remain in Him; proliferate His blessings. Extend them to others. Let blessings abound; turn your blessing into an opportunity to give blessings to others.
3:23-25 Moses can feel it in his soul; the children of Israel are about to receive God's blessing. He's exciting; Moses wants to see this land, to enter into it. But we can't help but wonder if Moses is momentarily forgetting about the ultimate blessing, the ultimate home and destination... life, return to spirit after earth. The true promise land.
The excitement is natural and it is good. Because Moses does not forget to be awed by God. He's amazed by the work that God is able to do and accomplish.
3:26 But as He does for us, He does for Moses too: He overrides the prayers we make that are not good for our well-being. He says no when we want to touch the stove. Not because He's mean or thirsty for power but because He's looking out for us. He's constantly guiding us along in our journey; even removing us from our when it is time or our journey to take place elsewhere. Romans 8:26, He knows what we need better than we do.
If God ever says no, it is because He has something better planned. No matter how much we grow up, we seems to retain the inability to understand "No's" as blessings. We always think of "No's" as punishment. As a thwarting. An inhibitor. A prison, even. But God's no is a redirection, a propellant toward something new. Toward something we need more than what we think we want. God's "No" is a staircase up a platform... a set of stairs that if we are willing to climb, will lead us up to a place where we can be more impactful to humanity that we ever thought possible. God's "No" unlocks happiness we've only ever dreamed of.
God's no says, as He does to Moses here, "Enough of that. Speak no more to Me of this matter." God's no says: Stop trying to walk off of this cliff, stop beginning me to allow you to do it... I'm not going to let you ruin yourself. Stop asking, stop wasting time and start walking toward this inclination... rather than toward that drop. God is always going to bring you up and away from that which will only ever bring you down.
3:27 God allows Moses to look. Our eyes to see, our eyes perceptive in faith, are able to see His will manifested across humanity and the earth. God involves us with the entire process but He still extricates us as participants when it is time. In His home, we all have a place and a love and an ability and God makes sure we are perfectly aligned to claim those things. Moses does not belong in that place; he belongs in a new place. Understand when God is trying to teach you the same lesson.
3:28-29 Moses's job as a leader on earth is coming to a close. God wants Joshua to be aptly prepared to take over. Moses's job here was over, but God already had the next phase of his life planned. God has known each of us before He even created the earth... He is so intricately involved with every aspect and moment of our lives. Ephesians 1:4.
