Life is too Short

I've been soaring through Finals week over here, and I'm just about ready to go home. But I have also reached a conclusion that I am pretty much insane because this Finals week here has been one of the most fun weeks I've had in a while. Yes, I have immensely enjoyed Finals week. I'm confused too.

As I continued to work my way slowly through the book of Psalms, I came across a psalm written by Moses. Indeed, it is specifically Psalm 90.

Through much of Moses' life, you would have expected him to be very much familiar with the frailty of life. As miraculous as it was for him to be spared in the first place, can you imagine growing up knowing that several from your generation your kinsfolk were killed as babies? Can you imagine knowing that your people were slaves living a life of turmoil? Yes, Moses indeed understood the trauma of the world.

So it comes as no surprise when he makes reference to the brevity of life in Psalm 90:10-14,

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Moses knew one thing from all of his experiences with the trials in the midst of his life - life is too short not to spend it wisely serving the Lord, not to spend it rejoicing in God's mercy.

I believe the challenge speaks for itself.

"For Your Sakes:" The Blame Game

In Numbers 20, (a passage I've looked at before), the Israelites complain to Moses about their want and thirst for water. They even go so far as saying Moses took them out of the land of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness due to their lack of water.

Moses immediately does the right thing. He takes his issue up with the Lord to consult his help. This is something we should all do with any trials or difficult positions in which we find ourselves.

God tells Moses to speak to the rock, and water will come out. However, Moses decides God's way is no longer the best way to solve the problem and decides instead to strike the rock as he had done before in Exodus 17.

This disobedience to the Lord would ultimately cause Moses not to be able to enter the Promised Land. As Numbers 20:11-12 states,

"And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them."

Clearly, Moses made a mistake, and this mistake kept him out of the Promised Land. Simply, it was his fault and his alone that he was unable to enter therein.

Yet, in the book of Deuteronomy, commonly considered Moses' farewell address, Moses mentions nothing of this. In Deuteronomy 1:37, Moses proclaims.

"Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither."

"For your sakes." On two other occasions (Deuteronomy 3:25-27 and Deuteronomy 4:21), Moses blames the Israelites for his own actions, saying the Lord would not let me into the Promised Land "for your sakes." In this area, Moses refuses to take responsibility for his own actions, instead blaming it on the Israelites. Although the point can be made that the Israelites caused his sin by putting him in a precarious situation, it was still his responsibility to handle that situation with obedience to the Lord. In the end, he needed to take responsibility for his own actions and not blame it on someone else.

Of course, we need to do the same. Even the most humble servant of the Lord is not immune to making mistakes. But what is perhaps most telling of our character is how we respond. Do we take the blame or do we find someone else we can assess as the cause of all our problems?

We are Hungry!

As I read through Numbers in my daily devotions, I came across a sad trend. The Israelites  seem to be cursed with forgetfulness. Every time a new trial comes up, they completely forget what miracles God did in their past trials and go complain to Moses about bringing them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. (Never mind for a second that Moses didn't lead them out of Egypt at all. That credit goes to the Lord, yet somehow it's much easier to target God's servant than it is to target God, isn't it?)

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Chapters 20 and 21. In chapter 20, the Israelites are distraught over not having any water to drink. The Lord tells Moses to strike a rock with his rod, and water will come out. So he did, and so it came to pass, that the Israelites were given water to quench their thirst.

You would think then that they would be content for a while, but you know they weren't. In the very next chapter, they again are without food and water, and instead of just asking the Lord to provide as he had done before, they again complain to Moses that he brought them out to kill them off in the wilderness. This time the Lord responds with punishment of fiery serpents which brought with them a deadly disease. This causes the Israelites once again to remember that their Lord is the all-powerful God.

But for how long? We know that these same Israelites as they wander for forty years will once again complain to Moses about want of water. How is it that they keep forgetting God's past miracles?

Is it possible that we ourselves keep forgetting God's majesty in our own lives? I believe too often we have our own version of short-term memory loss that limits us to see the miracles God has provided both in the Bible and our everyday life. When one forgets such things, he will find himself much more easily caught in sin and distrust in the Lord, just as the Israelites did here. That is the main reason why I think it is so important that we start our day off reminding ourselves of the Lord's majesty and power. We can do this by reading our Bible and praying to our Lord as soon as we awake in the morning. That is how we can avoid the plague of forgetfulness that affected the Israelites in this situation.