One Thing God Detests

Human nature hasn’t changed much over the years.

As I trudge through the book of Numbers, I am reminded that people have a natural proclivity to live in the past. Our mindset is a lot like the lyrics from the classic Andrew Lloyd Weber song, “Memory” that laments, “I can dream of the old days. Life was beautiful then.”

After hearing a bad report about the Promised Land, the Israelites complained and looked back, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in the wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

The Israelites wanted to choose a new leader and return to their life of slavery.

Really?

While I question the mindset, if we are honest, when life gets hard, our minds have a tendency to drift backward.

To our high school days.

College.

Twenties.

We were beautiful then.

God lost patience with the people he rescued, and I wonder if he loses patience with us when we are not content.

He told Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?”

God wanted to strike them down with a plague, and Moses reminded the LORD of his words to him on Mount Sinai: “The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.” And God relented from wiping the people out.

So what do we learn from this passage?

God detests discontent.

Why? Because it shows we don’t trust the journey. We forget how far he’s lovingly brought us. We take our eyes off him, and choose new leaders, leaders that don’t represent righteousness, and end up taking us backward to a path of hopelessness and despair.

Backward to old behavior.

Backward to old relationships.

Backward to old mistakes.

Not so beautiful.

So what does the LORD want from us?

He wants us to be thankful for who we are today. We should focus on where God wants to take us, and not pine over where we’ve been. When we dwell in the past, we are negating God’s refining work that has been accomplished in us.

In Isaiah 43:18, the LORD reminds us, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

And that is beautiful.