wretched below...blessed above

From the time the people of Israel leave Egypt, we see them at their wretched worst. They quarrel. They complain. They challenge authority. They rebel. God deals with their sin over and over in discipline--the ground opens up and swallows one group of rebels and fire devours another. Yet He keeps instructing them in how to worship Him. Sets up His sanctuary in the middle of the camp and hovers there as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The view from below is of a wretched people whom God is shaping, through discipline and instruction, to be His.

The view from above, however, is quite different. When the Israelites come to the border of Moab, the king of that country gets scared. He calls for a famous (or infamous, really) diviner to come and curse the Israelites for him. Balaam comes, but God tells him he can only speak what He tells him to say. He looks over the camp and sees the formation God told them to set up each time they reached a new destination: the shape of a cross with the tabernacle in the middle. Hmmmm. He is not allowed to curse them, in fact he says, at God's command:

“He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them....

“For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any divination against Israel.
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’" Numbers 23:21, 23 NKJV

From above, God does not see sin in His people. He doesn't see wickedness. He sees Himself in the midst and He tells the enemy that there is nothing he can do to harm His people. They cannot be cursed, b/c God Himself has blessed them. Instead, all people must look at Israel and see miracles that He does for and through them. He is shaping them, through discipline and instruction, to be a holy people--but He doesn't discuss that with the enemy. That's between Him and His kids. 

Are you a Christian? If so, despite the wretchedness of our flesh that we live in the midst of, despite the quarreling and complaining and rebellion we deal with in our flesh all the time (I don't know about you, but sometimes I am just miserable with myself, all by myself...no one else even knows!)---God looks down from above, through His Son Jesus, and sees us clean from sin. He sees Himself in the midst of us, in the tabernacle of our heart. He is shaping us, through discipline and instruction, to be holy; but that's between each of us and Him. He will not put us on blast to the enemy. There is nothing the enemy can do to change our standing. We cannot be cursed, b/c God has blessed us. Everyone around us must look at us and see miracles God has done for and through us. 

Glory to God. Thank You Jesus.