We have made two moves in our lives in which we have moved away from family and familiarity. We have yanked our kids away from family and friends to follow where we believed God was leading us. When we arrived in our new location, there was longing to return to what was familiar. I remember during our first move, sleeping on the floor of a duplex with my kids on the floor next to me in which we had tracked the neighbor’s dog poop all over the rug thinking, “What have I done?”
My experiences do not even compare to a military men or women who find themselves lying on a desert floor far away from their families. Their kids lying in bed back home with no Mom or Dad to kiss them goodnight; a spouse back home sleeping alone for a year. One might question whether their decision to serve in the military is causing too much physical or emotional damage. Military men, women, and their families know what it means to put their families in harm’s way to serve in the military.
A Big Question: Can we trust God to take care of our families when He asks us to do things that seem like it will put our families in harm’s way?
Numbers, chapter 14 addresses this issue. God had given the promise land to the people of Israel. All they needed to do was to go in and take it. Moses sent out twelve men to spy out the land. When they returned, two said they could take it based on God’s promise, ten said they would perish because of the occupants of the land. When the people of Israel heard the reports, here was their response:
Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” – Numbers 14:3-3
Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed God would take care of their families as they carried out His good will. Ten spies and all the people did not. They put their families above the will of God. There is a danger as we put our families first in life to put them above God in priority. If God is going to accomplish His work to redeem the world from a hostile enemy, will it not be dangerous? If God is going to set captives free and bring salvation to all nations, will it not require sacrifice? But even in the midst of sacrifice, God promises to bless us for eternity. God put His only Son in harm’s way, even to death so that He could redeem us. And then He highly exalted His son for all eternity. We receive our example from His Son, Jesus, who trusted and obeyed God till death.
How did God respond to the response of the people of Israel? If the people would not keep God as their number one priority because they exalted their family above God, how would God respond? Notice what God says about their kids.
“Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. – Numbers 14:28-31
God does take care of their kids. He intended to deliver the whole nation into the promise land, but because the people refused to trust Him, they forfeited the blessing. God would show His sovereignty and power to us all by fulfilling His promise through the children. History shows that they did enter the promise land and they did conquer it, just as God promised.
If God takes care of our kids even in the midst of parental unfaithfulness, how much more can He accomplish in them through our faithfulness. God does not promise to deliver our families from harm, but He does promise to love them, to be with them, to be a comfort and peace. He promises to make Himself known to them. He promises to demonstrate His faithfulness through all generations.
Lord, I desire to remain faithful and obedient to you and trust you to take care of my family.
