This morning, for example, I was reading in Numbers chapter 20, and the chapter heading in my Bible said, "A new generation." That was kind of intriguing, and reading further I discovered what prompted the Bible editors to give it that title. The chapter begins with the death of Moses' sister Miriam, and ends with the death of his brother Aaron.
Of course, this brother and sister were not the only ones to die in the wilderness. After the events of Numbers chapters 13 and 14, when the people rebelled against God and didn't believe He was big enough to give them victory in the Promised Land, God made a decision that no one over the age of 20 would enter and settle in the land; He told the people that they would wander for forty years in the desert, that most of them would die there, and that He would wait for a new generation to grow up and claim His promises of a land flowing with milk and honey.
It seems so sad. People like Moses, Miriam and Aaron had been part of the Exodus from Egypt, but they never got to the point of taking the Promised Land. That whole generation, with only a few exceptions, experienced the exhilaration of being set free, but they never really progressed to the lifestyle of living in freedom. And I suppose it's like that for many Christians today: they're "saved," but their attitudes, unbelief and old ways of thinking prevent them from entering into the fullness of what God has for them. Their whole Christian experience ends up being sort of second best, something less than what God would have wanted for them.
The case of Moses and Aaron is particularly sad. Each of them died on a mountain top in the desert (Aaron on Mount Horeb, pictured above, and Moses on Mount Nebo when they were so close to entering the Promised Land) because of what happened in Numbers chapter 20, when they disobeyed God's instructions about how to get drinking water from the rock for the people. The reason given in that chapter is that they didn't trust God enough and so they failed to demonstrate His holiness to others.
Aaron dies with dignity, on that mountain top in God's presence... and there's no doubt that those who have committed their lives to Christ will also be with the Lord when they die. But how sad if that mountain top is in the desert and they never go far enough to experience all of God's wonderful promises before they go to be with Him!
What a challenge that is to let go of our unbelief and our old ways of thinking, so that we can embrace the new life that God wants us to have.
