Day 64/365- Numbers 16:49

"Learning the Hard Way"

But 14,700 people died in that plague, in addition to those who had died in the affair involving Korah. (Numbers 16:49 NLT)

Some of us have to learn the hard way. We were told as kids that the stove was hot but until we touched it & felt the burn, we would not believe it. Even in the face of clear truth & examples we still want to experience things ourselves. This is where the people of Israel are with God. They are continually shown what they are to do & who they are to be & yet they still question & challenge God over & over again! You start to wonder when they will learn. It is said that a people that doesn't learn from its history will be destined to repeat it. This is the case here in Numbers.

The people have just seen what happened to Miriam for challenging Moses' leadership & rebelling against the Lord. The people have just refused to follow God into the land that he promised to give & they have been given the consequences of that rebellion. After they disobeyed God by not taking the land they then tried to do it on their own & got defeated in battle because the Lord did not go with them. All that to say, you would think that they would be primed for history not to repeat itself. You would think they would have learned. Not so.

Now Korah comes with his group who want new leadership. Again we see the humility of Moses & Aaron. They are challenged & do not retaliate but rather fall face down before the Lord! The Lord again deals with their wayward hearts & Korah's whole family is swallowed up by the earth. What a scene that would have been. Over 14,000 people die in this rebelliousness. When will God's people learn?

It's so easy to be critical of others in Scripture isn't it? We read verse after verse & chapter after chapter & can't seem to figure out why they are so dense. Then, we come to our own lives & do the exact same things.

We have so many examples in our own lives & from our own experiences to make better decisions with our lives. We have seen sin, self, & Satan wreck the lives of those around us. We see in Scripture the many experiences of others, either bad or good. We have more than enough information to adjust our lives to God, his word, & his ways. And yet somehow we remain dense, just like those in Scripture. How do we avoid this type of history repeating itself? How do we break the godless patterns in our lives that are destined to repeat themselves over & over? The answer is found in the text here.

First, we must realize that sin has great consequences. In every passage we have read we see that the consequences for living lives apart from God are always horrendous.

Second, we must realize our own hearts. Where are we harboring rebelliousness & sin in our hearts? As long as we harbor sin we will be destined to repeat the same patterns that we see in the Bible & all around us.