Gods Sabbath

K ADESH B ARNEA

79

own mistakes, or the failures demonstrated in history. The way in which, from generation to generation, the same patterns of unsuccessful behavior are repeated with predictable regularity, is most discouraging. Not until we learn to turn to God in trust for both His general and His specific orders, will God have an enlightened people to follow His ways at last.

Specific Orders From Whom?

Let us consider the precise course the Israelites should have adopted when God directed them to go in and possess the land. Had they known God’s ways, His people would have come to Him humbly asking for specific directions for the invasion, and would then have waited till these were supplied before making any moves. God had already prepared detailed and perfect plans for the campaign, such as where to begin, how to attack, etc. These He was ready and willing to communicate to them, but their immediate responsibility was to ask for and trustingly re ceive this instruction and then obey it to the letter. If they had done this, they would probably have had to spy out some details as they did in Jericho, but their entry into the promised inherit ance would not have been a failure but imminent, and the sub jugation of the Canaanites totally successful. After all the wonderful experiences with which they had been blessed since their departure from Egypt, the Israelites ought to have entertained no thought of any other course. God had dem onstrated His ability to lead them with faultless certainty from one victory to another. Their confidence and trust should have been in Him, not in themselves. There was no excuse for turning aside from God’s flawless leadership to any other plan maker or problem solver. Yet this is what Israel did. Trusting in self, they decided that human plan makers would take the place of the divine. With out realizing what they were doing or the consequences that would follow, they determined to replace the mystery of God with the mystery of iniquity. They called for the appointment of a representative committee which would be commissioned to survey the land and, from the accumulated information, devise