20:12 "But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.' "
God punishes Moses and Aaron for not taking His instruction seriously and coming up with their own plan.
How often do I try to get things done my own way? I almost blew it when we bought our first house. My wife and I found a really cute house that we really like and that we could afford. It was in really good shape, so we wouldn't have to do a whole lot of work on it.... but it was tiny. Very small. Keep in mind, we had one boy and another in utero. We felt we could make it work, but everyone we knew kept saying "that's a bad idea".
Well, we decided against it, not because we changed our minds on whether we could make it work, but because I read Proverbs 23:9 and it freaked me out. So we eventually found the house we bought and it was much bigger than the tiny house, but needed a lot more work. By the grace of God, we had the money, time and help to get it ready to live in before we moved in. It was two months of maddening work at break-neck speed, but now it's awesome. We love the house, everyone else loves the house, and without planning it, we live about 3 minutes from our best friends.
I'm not sure I want to think what it would be like living in a house 2/3 the size of this one, but I'm glad that God gives us guidelines for a reason. Just like with Moses and Aaron, God doesn't just make up rules so He can laugh at us when we fail. Had the Levite brothers obeyed God, there would have been one more foreshadowing of the coming dispensation of grace. There is an element of gracy and mercy in every instruction from the Lord. We would all do well to accept them as such.
Lord, help me to love Your law, and let nothing cause me to stumble. Help me to be freed by obedience, not enslaved by rebelliousness.
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