How Long?

In Numbers 14 Yah asks Moses a question that I see is still pertinent to this very day. In Verse 11 we read, “How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

He refers to these people a few more times: 

Isaiah 43:8 ~ Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, and who have ears but are deaf. Jeremiah 4:22 ~ "For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good."

Here's an example of this type of behavior that Isaiah pointed out in his day being brought up again by Paul in Acts 28:25 after a day of teaching from Torah and the prophets to this group of people, who, after hearing all these words some refused to listen or try to understand. These people left arguing among themselves (just the same as folks in today's world). Paul says "Well did the Ruach haKodesh by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet speak concerning your fathers, saying... Hearing you will hear and will not understand, and you will see and will not comprehend."

We have read that the wheat and the tares grow together until the end, when the harvest of the earth begins. There is nothing new under the sun and we are experiencing the same sort of mindset in our day as in the days of Isaiah the prophet and the days of Paul the Apostle.  How many of us have gathered with 'like minded folks' only to leave the assembly in disagreement? How many times have I heard the excuse, 'we'll just have to agree to disagree'.  It is time to give up those convenient comfort zone excuses!

How can we have eyes and ears but not see or hear?  Our lack of understanding Scriptures is the meaning of the metaphor. We give it a light reading and it makes no sense. We'd rather close the book and go do something else than continue to study it out until it makes sense.  If we do not have a love for the truth we will fall short and be destroyed for lack of knowledge.

How do we continue to 'spurn' YHWH? Who of us are still celebrating various man-made holidays? How many of us celebrate His 'feast days' the way we think they should be celebrated, ignoring His clear Instructions? Maybe many have stopped partaking of holiday parties but still eat pork chops, crab and shrimp.  Others may have adopted His Menu but still think the 7th day rest is on a sat.day. The tangled web which has been woven over hundreds of years is a tough one to separate ourselves from but it can be done and should be done if we want to show our love for our Creator.

Our lives today have become much more complicated in comparison to that mixed multitude that spent 40 years in the wilderness - only two of the original group made it into the promised land.... what do we have to look forward to?