LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
"This Also Shall Not Go Well With You"
"And Moses said: Why do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? This also shall not go well with you" (Num. 14:41).
It is easy to imagine the broken voice of the Lord's servant pleading with the Israelites not to venture into a war whose defeat was assured before it began.
In those days the clumsy procedures of Israel, this immature people of God, were very common. The negative report of ten of the twelve spies who had traveled through the Promised Land for forty days, provoked such discouragement that it resulted in widespread rebellion. With such unbelief they so irritated God that, with an oath (14:21-22), he determined not to give the land to this perverse generation.
Then Israel reacts. What they did not do before out of obedience they want to do now with obstinacy. Moses, having an ear accustomed to hearing the Lord, and knowing that He always keeps His word, knows perfectly well that Israel's belated repentance and their 'courageous' decision to now go up to the land, will have no effect on the heart of Jehovah. They mistakenly tried to impress God with a bravery as vain as fog. Such is the pretense of human nature.
"This also shall not go well with you". They failed to obey at the proper time, rebelled violently and wanted to return to enslave themselves to Egypt. That was sin and evil on the face of it; this other decision has the stamp of a 'good deed', of a 'praiseworthy attitude'. Did they intend to remedy their sin with another disobedience? "Here are we to go up to the place of which the LORD has spoken; for we have sinned", they said (14:40); to which Moses replies: "This also shall not go well with you".
"This also shall not", that is, do not presume that with your good intentions you will make God's designs change. But human obstinacy was stronger and they continued in their mad and blind race. "But the ark of the covenant and Moses did not move from the camp" (v. 44), that is, they went up alone, without God and without their mediator. The result could not be other than a bloody and humiliating defeat.
Have we already learned this solemn lesson? Stubbornness is as evil as rebellion; at one point, we disregard the direct instructions of God's word, and at the other, we go even further, thinking that we will do better by following our own impressions, in open defiance of God's authority and wisdom. Let us run to embrace Him who said: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11:29).