Daily Manna 4 November
KEY VERSE: “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” – (Numbers 14:24)
TEXT: Numbers 14:11-25
11 Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject[a] Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the [b]signs which I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 And Moses said to the Lord: “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 16 ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’ 17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; 21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— 22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I [c]swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. 25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.”
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
An elderly minister was noted for a favourite verse in the Old Testament each time he preached about the believer’s race to heaven. He would read from Genesis 12:5: “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered…and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came”. His message was always that Christians must be like Abraham who set out for Canaan and got there, not elsewhere.
Just as Abraham reached where God appointed for him without losing focus or turning aside, Caleb had that unbending spirit that would strive for a goal and make it to that destination without deviating. When the Israelites complained about the giants in the land the Lord had given them, Caleb had “another spirit” that chose to believe that with the Almighty on their side, they would easily access the territory for their possession, in spite of any giant.
The unbelieving stance of the children of Israel as they neared the Promised Land brought swift divine judgment that made them unqualified for Canaan, the place they set out for from Egypt. They toiled hard for forty years in the wilderness. But alas; it was a wasted effort. On the other hand, the simple faith of Caleb that touched the Lord, earned him entry into the land despite the contrary circumstances that prevailed.
To make heaven, the believer must be armed with a spirit completely dead to what the world offers. We must resist powerful currents that blow on the sidelines of the narrow way as the age witnesses an explosion in seducing religions, philosophies with scientific and technological inventions. We should not allow their tidal waves to drown us and thus, deny us our place in heaven after our long and profitable walk with the Lord.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Resist the three ‘Ds’ on the way to heaven: Despair, distractions and defilement.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Jeremiah 39-42
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Reward For Unbending Spirit – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 4 November 2021
