“Not one person on this list had been among those listed in the previous registration taken by Moses and Aaron in the wilderness of Sinai.” (Numbers 26:64 NLT)
There were two censuses taken in the wilderness. The first happened in the first chapter of Exodus. The second happened 40 years after the Israelite’s rejection of the Promised Land. These two censuses – four decades apart – tell us two things. First, not one of the complainers at the border of Canaan lived to take the land forty years later. Second, even in the midst of desert hardship the people of God had been fruitful and multiplied. When we make these observations we realize that God is faithful, even if we aren’t. He promised a people and land and He would make good on that promise.
But what of our personal journey to the Promised Land? We’ve talked about before about how leaving Egypt represents our own extraction from slavery and how the wilderness wandering relates to our personal sanctification process. I wonder if this chapter and verse in Numbers doesn’t serve to remind us that the new man enters heaven, not the old. We cannot hang on to our sinful nature and take hold of Canaan. The old man; the selfish, carnal, sinful man has to die. The new man; the spirit-filled creation is the one who is allowed to access the Heavenly Kingdom.
“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose it’s power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ we will also live with Him.” (Romans 6:6-8 NLT)
The desert is where we learn to die. It’s the dusty, uncomfortable place where we slowly learn to break up with our old nature and take up Christ’s nature. It’s uncomfortable, it’s tedious, humbling and time-consuming, but it’s necessary.
“…Consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ.” (Romans 6:11 NLT)
Lord, give us grace in the wilderness. Sustain us supernaturally as we learn to starve our flesh. Teach us patience and repeat as necessary. Help us leave our old man in the desert so we are a new creation as we take Canaan. Amen.
Check out this amazing song that we have been singing in youth.