After forty long years wandering in the wilderness, Moses and the children of Israel once again stood on the banks of the river Jordan, overlooking the Promised Land. As one of his last acts as leader, Moses gave this second generation of Israelites a history lesson. While their parents had seen God part the Red Sea, destroy the armies of Pharaoh, and rain manna from heaven, they had still managed to disbelieve and disobey God when they were commanded to take the Promised Land the first time. Moses lamented in Deuteronomy 1:26, “Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God.” At that point, forty years ago, the Israelites had chosen to follow what their own senses told them rather than following what God had already told them. God had told them, “fear not, neither be discouraged,” (Deuteronomy 1:21) but they had said, “our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we.” (Dueteronomy 1:28) They based their decision to fear on their own numbers and strength rather than basing their decision to go on God’s commandment and promise. Moses then reminded this new generation how he had pleaded with their parents, “Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.” (Deuteronomy 1:29-31) The former generation of Israelites had seen God fight for them as they left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. They had seen God carry them, like a father tenderly carries his child, through the wilderness. And yet they had allowed one bad report from ten spies to derail their trust in their God. As Moses put it, “Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 1:32) What a sad and startling conjunction—yet! Yet, in spite of all the evidence they had stacked in favor of trusting God again, they chose not to trust God and chose instead to trust their finite senses.
This new generation that Moses addressed in Deuteronomy 1 had seen the results of such disbelief and disobedience. They had the same advantage that their parents had had forty years before—the advantage of seeing God work in the past. Now it was up to them whether they would take what they knew about God in the past and apply that knowledge to their situation in the present. Would they interpret their current situation according to their senses or according to God’s character? To do the former would be short-sighted. The latter would require surrender.
While we often think ourselves so much more spiritual than the children of Israel, we often fall into the very same trap. When a new situation arises that we have never seen before, we assume that God’s approach to the situation will be new as well. We tend to interpret our present situation according to what we sense and feel rather than according to God’s unshakeable character and unbeatable track record. We look ahead at the unknown instead of looking back at the evidence for God’s trustworthiness. The very definition of short-sighted is allowing some new situation to shake our belief in the God who has proven Himself again and again.
In contrast with that short-sighted approach to a present and scary situation, we can and should choose surrender. Surrender is not a blind leap of faith. It is a reasonable decision, based on the unshakable character of God and His unbeatable track record of fighting for us. Surrender means rest. In Hebrews 3, God attributes Israel’s disobedience to their hardened hearts. How could they disbelieve God after clearly hearing His Word and seeing His works? Their hearts had been hardened through short-sightedness. They had judged their situation based on their own senses so often that they simply could not overcome the hurtle of crossing the Jordan River to take Canaan. As a result, God said, “they could not enter.” (Hebrews 3:19) Yet God offers this same rest to us in Hebrews 4, if we will learn from Israel’s mistake. Hebrews 4 defines this surrender—this rest—as ceasing from work. The author compares this rest to God’s rest from His work of creation on the seventh day. It paints the picture of someone leaning back, taking a deep breath, and closing his eyes. This is what God wants us to do—He wants us to lean back into His arms, take a deep breath, and close our eyes to our own perspective. Hebrew 4:9-10 says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” This rest—or surrender—means that we cease from working to keep ourselves afloat and start trusting in the God who fights for us. Just as we ceased from our work and rested in Christ’s finished work for salvation, so we must cease from our work and rest in Christ’s work for sanctification.
Like Moses pled with the new generation of Israelites standing on the brink of the Promised Land, the Holy Spirit is pleading with you. Do not be fooled by your own senses about a new and scary situation. While it is true that you have never been here before, God already has. Gain strength and confidence from the battles God has fought for you in the past. Rather than trying to fight this one, surrender it to God. As He had done for the children of Israel, God has already provided a plan and path forward for you. All He is waiting for you to do is surrender.
In Deuteronomy 4, Moses finishes his history lesson with this exhortation, “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” (Deuteronomy 4:9) The children of Israel are not alone in this human tendency to forget in a moment of fear. As finite humans, we are constantly stumbling upon situations that are new and scary to us. In those moments, we tend to go on autopilot—trust our senses about the situation. We tend to be short-sighted and, therefore, are misguided. This means that we must be on guard, diligent, intentional about remembering the unshakable character and unbeatable track record of the God who fights for us. We need to keep God’s character and track record in our own hearts as well as pass it down to our children after us.
History has given us all the evidence we need to believe in God for today. Why would we be so short-sighted as to depend on our own senses? Let us take to heart the question that Moses posed to the Israelites on the brink of Canaan: Are you short-sighted or surrendered?