Wanting the blessings of Christ without the presence of Christ – that’s really what the people in today’s passage were trying to do. They had come to the realization that they had sinned by not trusting God to take them into the Promised Land. But then they turned right around and ignored God’s Word again, imagining that they could gain God’s blessings on their own, trying to conquer the Promised Land without God going before them to defeat their enemies.

But they weren’t unique in human history. Prophets from Mohammed to Joseph Smith have tried to do basically the same thing – admitting the reality of sin, but imagining that people can somehow overcome it through their own efforts. In one way or another all of these legalists have claimed that we can climb back up into Heaven just by following the codes of ethics that they have designed. But any sort of legalism, no matter how closely it mimics the Law of God, is doomed to the same sort of failure that the people of Israel experienced in today’s passage. For if God alone has the power to determine what is sinful, God alone has the power to overcome both its temptations and its consequences.

And God has chosen to overcome sin in one way – not through the efforts of sinners, but through the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. God doesn’t ask us to save ourselves by knowing what is sinful and by following His law perfectly – none of us can do that. Instead, He simply calls us to do what the Israelites failed to do in this chapter – to trust Him to redeem us and to make us acceptable to Him and to keep us safe. He thus calls us not only to admit our sinfulness but also our helplessness, and to rely on Him alone.

So, let’s do that today. Yes, let’s allow God’s Word to convict us of our sin, to show us where our lives have fallen short of God’s expectations. But instead of imagining that we can patch ourselves up through our own efforts, let’s trust God to make us clean and whole. For only then can we begin to obey Him – not in order to save ourselves, but simply as a way of thanking and praising Him for saving us.

Numbers 14:39-45 (ESV)

39 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.”
41 But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, when that will not succeed?
42 Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies.
43 For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.