Unearned Luck

Photo by Gavin Spear on Unsplash And the L ORD 's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander  in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation  that had done evil in the sight of the L ORD was consumed. -Numbers 32:13 Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest, but those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. -Hebrews 3:12, 16-19 The generation, "that had done evil in the sight of the L ORD ," had been the oldest generation and the one who had spent the most time in Egypt. Throughout Exodus and Numbers, the ...

Photo by  Pietro Rancan  on  Unsplash Then came Am′alek and fought with Israel at Reph′idim. And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out, fight with Am′alek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” -Exodus 17:8-9 Rightly, we think of God as all-powerful, but then we draw a false conclusion: God, therefore, should eradicate all evil or, at least, the evil we see in our own lives. Sacred Scripture, though, has a different understanding of the way in which God exercises His omnipotence. The battle of Amalek against Israel recorded in Exodus 17:8-13 provides a good understanding of how God wants us to fight evil. Amalek marches on Israel with the intention of killing every last one of them. The Israelites prayed for deliverance, but God did not snap His fingers and make Amalek and his army disappear. No. God fully expected the Israelite army to march out of their camp and fight Amalek's army to t...