Are You Able? - Day 67 Through the Bible

One of the many rock tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mt.  Celo Church

Whose Perspective?  Numbers 13 - The Israelites continue their complaining against the LORD and against Moses.  The Lord sends out 12 spies (one from each tribe)  - to give the people a foretaste of the Promised Land.  Only Caleb and Joshua are able to see "the land flowing with milk and honey" as the leading perspective - the one that will form their thinking, speech and actions.  The other ten can only see the difficulties they will face - without God's strength.  They cried, "WE are not able."(v.31).  That was true.  What was a greater and deeper truth was that they didn't really believe God - that this was all from Him - despite all the miracles and consequences of their sin.  But Caleb and Joshua believed.  Both sides saw the bounty of the land and the difficulties the strong inhabitants could pose.  But Caleb and Joshua said, "if the LORD delights in us, then HE will bring us into this land and give it to us." (v. 8)  

Lesson/Application - Throughout the Bible, the root problem is unbelief.  The Israelites had witnessed the miracle of the plagues against Egypt, the Passover where the Israelites and their animals were spared, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna, the presence of the LORD by cloud and by fire - yet they still did not believe.  And - only 2 of these would see the Promised Land - the 2 who believed - Joshua and Caleb.  The young children - called "victims" by the unbelievers would be taken into the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua warned the people:  don't fear men; know the LORD is with us; don't rebel against God.  Where am I emotionally and spiritually when all seems against me?  

Are You Able?  Numbers 13-14 and Mark 10 - Often it amazes me how the OT and the NT readings complement each other.  In Numbers 13, the unbelieving Israelites said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." (v. 31) In Numbers 14:16 Moses again stands in the gap for the people, pleading for God not to destroy them based on God's honor and character, knowing what the unbelieving Egyptians would say:  "Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness."  In Mark 10: 38 Jesus asks the presuming James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who asked to be first in the kingdom of God - to sit on Christ's right and left:  "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"  In v. 39, they boastfully say, "We are able."

Lesson/Application - We know from the Gethsemane agony of Jesus that the cup was the cup of suffering in completing God's Plan.  For believers, the baptism is the baptism of death to self unto Christ. (Romans 6:4).  The Bible is clear in this:  We cannot do the things of God in our own strength.  Phil 4:13, also John 15:5 - "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."  There are many OT teachings of this as well.  Prov. 3: 5. Am I able?  No, not without Christ.  Moses got this.  "LORD, if you don't go with us, then don't send us from here." (Exodus 33:15)  Joshua and Caleb learned this.  That whole generation of Israelites did not.

For Many -  Numbers 14: Note that the majority of the Israelites were consumed by God in the wilderness - for not heeding Him, rejecting Him (14:23) Note in Mark 10: 45 that Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give His life a ransom for many."

Lesson/Application - Am I heeding God's voice, relying on His strength, His salvation, not my own?  2 Peter 1:10 "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"Are ye able," said the Master, "to be crucified with me?" "Yea," the sturdy dreamers answered, "to the death we follow thee."  Are ye able to remember, when a thief lifts up his eyes, that his pardoned soul is worthy of a place in paradise? Are ye able when the shadows close around you with the sod, to believe that spirit triumphs, to commend your soul to God? Are ye able? Still the Master whispers down eternity, and heroic spirits answer, now as then in Galilee. Lord, we are able. Our spirits are thine. Remold them, make us, like thee, divine. Thy guiding radiance above us shall be a beacon to God, to love, and loyalty.

Text: Earl Marlatt, 1892-

Music: Harry S. Mason, 1881-1964