They Got It

03.05.13

Deuteronomy 1.3 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them... (ESV)

An ancient hymn of Israel contains this stanza: For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” (See Psalm 95.10,11) That’s kind of a tough pill to swallow: “I loathed that generation…” But their hearts were not with God and because they rebelled against Him He gave them forty years to repent or die.

Today, I thought about change and what it takes to change; something has to happen in our lives in order for us to change. I once studied (briefly) under a guy who called that something: a burning platform. When the platform’s ablaze, I’ll want to get off and find a safer place. And I thought about this: God gave them forty years to learn their lesson and to change. The ancient song seems to imply they never got the message.

We call doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results: insanity. Sometimes I wonder about those people wandering around in that desert from place to place, doing the same thing over and over and one by one, their bodies littered the desert in the death of un-repentance.

But now, forty years later, there they were on the threshold of the land they had been given and God told them, ‘See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the [I] swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’ The days of loathing were over – the unrepentant and unchanged ones were all gone.

Change doesn’t happen overnight (usually) and old habits often die hard, but with God, change happens and with God change endures. And here they were forty years later, a changed people ready to take possession of the land they’d been given, but having had to wait forty years for the change to take place. And the unchanged people had been given forty years to make up their minds…

The lesson for me today is, recognize the burning platform and move: take action, repent, learn! The lesson for me today is, God gives me time to get it, but I’d better engage because my time does have its limits. The lesson for me today is, with God change will happen and it will always be for my good. The lesson for me today is: learn from the mistakes of others, and try not to repeat them. The lesson for me today is: God rewards those who stick with Him and in the end, it’s a new day, a new place, and a new life.

Lord, help me to learn my lessons and live the life you’ve promised; help me to get it. Forty years from now, maybe somebody will sing about it in celebration: he got it! Amen.