Sin has consequences. Galatians 6:8 says, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption…” God the Righteous One, redeems all things. Nothing is in vain. In His forgiveness, He chooses to not bring our sins before us again after confession. 

The Lord is Merciful. Psalm 103:10 says, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.” Sin is willful disobedience to what God has said to do in His word. Like Achan, he willfully disobeyed and reaped the consequences personally but also his family and everything he owned.

In Hosea 2, the prophet described how God’s people were unfaithful. Verses 14-15 can be applied to us. It says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.

I will give her vineyards from there and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope…” Do you have a Valley of Achor in your life? There is hope. The Lord will use it in His process of molding you into His image as a testimony.

I am picking up an account that happened after the walls of Jericho came down. The Lord told them that the city was doomed by Him for destruction. Joshua 6:18 says, “And you, by all means abstain from the accused things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”

His instructions were really clear. Yet Achan took some of the accused things and hid them under his tent. Note that all of Israel was affected. Joshua 7:12 says, “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they had become doomed to destruction…”

I encourage you to read chapters 6 & 7. Good reminder of how just one sin in the camp affected the whole. So it is in each of our local churches. The one who harbors hidden sin, weakens the whole church.

Jesus paid the penalty for all sin of all mankind. When a believer sins, we are told to confess it to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Romans 12:2 in the J. B. Phillips says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

We can measure our spiritual maturity by how much we represent Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Colossians 1:21 says that we were once alienated and enemies in our minds. Then He reconciled us.

Verse 22 says, “In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” Colossians 2:5 says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

1 Peter 1:14 says, “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts…” Ephesians 4:23 says to continually renew our minds.

Walking in the Spirit allows Him to war against any fleshly reactions, so that our manner of speech, our body language, our behavior is conformed to His holy nature.

Psalm 119:1-2 says, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.” 

It is a sobering truth in the book of Numbers. Moses sinned against the Lord, when he disobeyed God’s command. He was told to speak to the rock, but in his anger he struck it. 

God’s charge against him. Numbers 20:12 says, “…Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

When you and I disobey the Lord, He takes us to His woodshed and chastens us. Hebrews 12:10 says that His motive is, “…that we may be partakers of His holiness.” 2 Peter 1:4 says, “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…”

The Lord conforms us to His image by molding, shaping, and transforming us to His will and ways.

He was at work before we accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Hebrews 1:14 says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”

He continues to conform us to His image through our trials. Hebrews 12:21 says, “Make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Isaiah 32:17 speaks of His work. It says, “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” The Lord works His righteousness into us throughout our journey of progressive sanctification.

I like to think of it as the potter works water into hard dry clay to make it moldable. So the Lord works His word into the hardened places of unbelief in our hearts. Those are areas of unresolved issues, hidden sin, and buried emotional pains.

Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Inner transformation ~ renewed minds.

Our Creator is always at work in the lives of His children. Let’s review a few ways. He is always working on behalf of those who trust Him. Isaiah 64:4 Says, “…Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”

He is always at work to do, “…exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” Ephesians 3:20.

He is always at work through every aspect of our lives. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Verse 29 says that He is working to conform us to the image of Jesus.

Ephesians 1:11 says of His purpose, “…who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” John 1:12-13 says of those who receive Him, “Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” 

God’s will is that all men would be saved. 2 Peter 3:9.

Since they craved meat, Numbers 11:18, 20 says, “…Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat…for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you despised the Lord…”

When we crave something that the Lord never intended for us, we are actually despising the One who gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 2 Peter 1:3. Numbers 11:33 says, “But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.”

Psalm 78:40-41 says, “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” 

Psalm 106:14-15 says, “But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”

There is nothing worth spiritual leanness! What are you dialoguing about that is contrary to what He has allowed in your life?

Dialoguing about things in our past, and wishing they were the same now, leads to discontent. Note what they were thinking about in Numbers 11:5. It says, “We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” Their cravings obliterated the sufferings and the reason the Lord rescued them.

It is essential to bring up the Lord’s miraculous provision now.. His daily manna was there every morning to gather in. It tasted like wafers made with honey. Exodus 16 is the account. When they finally stepped into the promised land, the manna ceased after 40 years!

Numbers 11:6 says, “But now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” Have you ever complained when you were in a wilderness trial? Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

Each time I come to Numbers 11 in my daily reading the Holy Spirit gives me another insight. When we boil cravings down to their finest essence, we have distilled lust. The only way to counteract lustful temptations is by continually walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16.

Numbers 11 is a disclosure of fleshly traps to avoid. One is complaining. Verse 1 says, “Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.”

We don’t have to voice our complaints out loud. He knows all our thoughts behind all our verbal words. Psalm 139:2. Grumbling is synonymous with complaining. Philippians 2:14 says, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” That is translated to grumbling and quarreling.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.” Read the first part of this next verse carefully. Numbers 11:4 says, “Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving…”

Paul described God’s love. Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, no angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” The evidence of our love for Him is that His word is active in our hearts, and lived out through our lives.

Read these words out loud, but listen as though the Lord is speaking to you. Song of Solomon 5:1 in the Amplified says, “…Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one (for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine!…”

Now I encourage you to read Psalm 139:17. It says, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”