Have you ever heard the idea that God is like a kid with a magnifying glass killing ants? With a smile on his face and surgical precision, he casts down lightning bolts from above. But what does the Bible say? How does God deal with his people? Numbers 17:1-13 provides an answer in three parts. The first and second we saw in previous devotions: 1) God deals mercifully with his people and 2) God deals miraculously with his people. Today, we take up the third—without the mercy and without the miracle, we perish.
Numbers 17 has been building and building towards these last two verses:
“And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?” ”
These are powerful words, and these are sad words—a tangible expression of unbelief meeting the realities of Truth.
These words are powerful because of the Truth they reveal: God’s total holiness. In other words, sinners have no chance before this holy God (v. 12). It is so easy for us (that is, humanity) to minimize or ignore this gap, but the fact remains that God is perfect in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. And because of our own myriad imperfections (sinfulness!), the gap between God and humanity is enormous and, indeed, unimaginable.
These words are also sad because of their lack of understanding. V. 13 is true! Everyone who comes near to God will die… except, of course, for Moses, Aaron, and the Levite priests—God’s chosen ones. And there it is. These priests—these chosen of God—represented our once for all and great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In fact, the entire priestly and sacrificial system of the Old Testament was meant to reveal these powerful and sad words, because they reveal our need for Jesus Christ! He is the one who bridges the unimaginable gap with his unimaginable sacrifice on our behalf. This is the Gospel—the Good News—that we find painting on every page of God’s Word to us!
So how does God deal with his people? God deals mercifully and miraculously with his people. Without the mercy—the staying of our deserved judgment—and without the miracle—the revelation God gives us that culminates in Jesus Christ—behold, we perish, we perish, we are all undone.
However, through belief in Jesus Christ, we sing a new song, right? Behold, we live, we live, we live eternally with God through Jesus Christ our savior. Amen and amen. Dear Christian, remember Numbers 17. Remember our Lord Jesus Christ. God is not some old man in the sky playing chess with our lives. He is not an inactive watchmaker watching us “tick.” And he is most certainly not a menacing kid with a magnifying glass seeking to do us harm. Our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Be blessed, and devote yourself unto this God today and always.