What's Worse?

I have been in Lubbock for pretty much exactly a year now. I haven't really had the time to blog the way I should. I really should make it priority and just make time for it. I find time for so many other things. I was praying this morning and was really struck by something we studied with the kids a couple weeks ago. 

In Numbers 13 and 14, you find the story of the 12 spies sent into Canaan. They went looking for a land of milk and honey. They went looking for a great promise that God had made them. They went looking for a place they could call home after leaving generations of slavery and oppression. God had told him his will was for them to go take the land. These 12 spies went in and found exactly that, a land that lived up to its promise. They also found super fortified cities. They found giants and armies. They found a road that was going to be difficult. The spies came back with their report and only two said, "Hey, let's take the land!" The other ten came back and said, "We can't attack those people, they are stronger than we are" (Numbers 13:31). Then the rest of the country sided with the ten and forced the hand of Moses to not go into the promised land. They decided to not follow God's will. 

These people made the choice to not follow God's will and it cost them God's promise. They ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They didn't see what God had given them for 2080 weeks. They were lost for 14,560 days. For 349,440 hours they missed out on the blessings that were promised. A generation was lost for 20,966,400 minutes. The punishment for this sin, not following God's will lasted 1,257,984,000 seconds. Such a hefty cost for a simple thing. 

I am willing to say, not following God's will is a huge sin. I mean we don't think of it as a sin usually. When you look at the scale of sins though, you know even though we all know sin is sin and will get you sent to the same place. Yet, we all have this scale of sins in our head. You start with the big 10. Then, depending on where you are in history and culture will create this weighted system of which sin is the worst. I think though, if you look at the punishment the Hebrew people faced, not following God's will has to be ranked pretty high. 

These people weren't sleeping around in homosexual communes. They weren't strung out on crack. They didn't go around murdering each other for fun. They didn't lie without ceasing. They just didn't go where God told them to. They didn't trust God to provide for them. They didn't believe they were God's chosen people. 

What does all this say about us when God tells us to share our faith? What kind of punishment are we looking at when we don't give something God has given us to give? Where does it have us when we do what we think is best and not what God thinks is best? 

I hope and pray that I am following God's will in all the things that I do. I hope and pray that I listen when I have the Holy Spirit telling me to share. I don't want to spend my time wandering in the desert. I don't want to find myself in sin because I was to busy.