“At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.” Numbers 9:18 (NIV)
When the Israelites escaped the slavery of Egypt, they were left in no doubt that they were on their way to Canaan – The Promised Land. They also did not doubt that their supreme leader was God and that Moses was His representative among them. While they listened to whatever Moses had to say from God, another way they recognised God’s intent was through their observation of the cloud of glory that represented God’s physical presence amongst His people. Whenever the cloud moved, they knew it was time to move camp and when it stopped, they knew it was time to set up camp. They clearly understood never to move unless the cloud moved because they knew that their temporal safety as well as achieving their long term objective of reaching and possessing Canaan, the Promised Land depended on it. Therefore, the Israelites were walking with God in an Old Testament way. Theirs’ was not mere religion.
We, the Church and New Testament equivalent of the Israelites, pride ourselves as being the fulfilment of God’s promise to save mankind from the slavery of sin. The reality of our lives is that we have exchanged the death of Egypt for the hope of the Promised Land. We accept that we are on a journey that will take us to the place of fulfilment where we are assured of rest from our labours. We also acknowledge that only God can lead us to this desired end. Nevertheless, we often struggle to keep in step with Him. Whenever we fail to walk in step with God or fulfil His expectations, our vibrant spiritual relation becomes degraded into mere religion. While all may seem well outwardly, and we may even seem to be making progress, we are nonethe-less out of tune with God and risk missing out on the best that He has for us.
Well, if your contention is that you are still managing to keep in step with God, albeit several steps behind the main body, my question is, have you heard of the fate of the Israelite stragglers? These consisted of the young, old and the infirm who could not keep pace with their stronger counterparts. Although they tried their best to keep up, they could not help losing ground to the main body of Israelites. These made them soft targets for Israelites’ enemies particularly the Amalekites who picked them up at will and killed them. So, what is your personal spiritual status? Are you vibrant or sick in the spiritual sense? Are you now too old or too sophisticated to keep up with God’s revelation for the time? Are you stubbornly refusing to grow and become a mature Christian in line with God’s expectation for your life? Well, any of these makes you a spiritual straggler and constitutes rich pickings for the devil. A spiritual straggler is practicing mere religion and is never strong enough to resist the devil so that he would flee from you. You need to choose to receive God’s cure for spiritual stragglers in the form of His living word and grow strong and mature thereby. You then need to determine to hear and do God’s word and thus maintain your place at the centre of the pack, for in the multitude of God’s wisdom lies safety.
Prayer:
Father, give me a hearing ear and the willingness to do your will whatever its impact on my life. Help me to walk in step with you so that I will be able to make it to my Promised Land and thus bring glory to your name. Amen.