Where are you looking? (Numbers 12-14, Psalm 28, Colossians 2)

When I used to teach windsurfing, one of the most important things I would tell someone is look “where you are going”! It’s amazing how often people end up looking at their feet and then it’s not long until they are in the water! You end up where you are looking.

For God’s people, we should be looking to God and remembering He’s in control, but so often we can end up looking at our circumstances and panicking, and before long we’re in the water! In Numbers 13, God’s people have spied out the promised land, and it is absolutely amazing. But instead of looking up to God, they look down at the people of the land who seem very big – “we can’t possibly defeat them!” No, but God might just be able to! Have they forgotten God’s amazing rescue from the Egyptians? Have they forgotten God’s miraculous provision of food?

And because they are looking at the people around them, rather than the God who is able to save, they end up once again saying those awful words “I wish we were back in Egypt”! Once again they have forgotten how awful life in Egypt was, the awful slavery they endured. How offensive to God that they are actually planning to go back to Egypt (14:3).

Thankfully, two men, Joshua and Caleb, are looking up, and they say, “do not rebel against the LORD, do not fear the people of the land” (14:9). Out of all that generation, these are the only two who will enter the land. All the rest will die out because of their failure to trust the Lord.

Where are you looking?

The truth is there is only one man who never rebelled against the LORD and who kept His eyes fixed on doing the will of His Father in heaven. Our reading from Colossians tells us that He took all the record of debt that was against us, every single time that we’ve failed to trust God as we should. For all who turn to Jesus, he takes the entire record of our wrongdoing, nailing it to the cross, so that we can enjoy the promised land of the new heaven and earth.

It’s no wonder that the next chapter begins by telling us to fix our eyes on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:1). How should we respond? Keep walking with Jesus, rooted and built up in Him…abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7).

It’s harder to grumble when you’re abounding in thanksgiving!