In His judgments, God announces what will happen to the people who murmured. God will deal with them according to the words He has heard from them. They said they would rather die in the wilderness than enter the land of Canaan… it will be done to them according to their declaration. So God took them at their word. They had said, “If only we had died in Egypt, or even in this wilderness!” Those who had witnessed all the miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who were considered adults among the people. Those who had seen the power of God at work will then be held responsible for their rebellious attitude and will perish as they declared to the ears of God: “Would that we had died in the wilderness!”

“Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.” Numbers 14:32-35

“You shall know what it is to be deprived of my presence,” said God. It is not to be believed that God reneges on a promise He made, but He is a God of covenants and principles.

In this story, God deemed that the ten spies as well as those who followed them despised His presence. Hence, He added another principle: “Those who despise His presence never progress in all that they do. They go around in circles and always have difficulty in achieving their goals.” May we understand through this principle the progress of some and the stagnation of others! The journey that was supposed to be completed in a few days will now take forty years!

May the Church understand this principle and may we have churches that thrive, Christians who do not go around in circles, but whose progress is evident to all. Those who despise the presence of God do not stand firm in the battle. They are easily defeated by the enemy and go from defeat to defeat even though they define themselves as children of God. They may declare themselves victorious, but in reality, they experience the opposite, they are constantly defeated…

This text is an excerpt from the book “Being present in the presence of God” written by Rev. Don Yves Kisukulu K.

We invite you to read the following article “The presence of God is the key to effective leadership“.