Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - 38

38

We are often told that the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert before coming to the promised land. In truth, it was about 38 years that were spent wondering about as punishment for their disbelief and unfaithfulness to God. This is documented in Deuteronomy chapter 2 

And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea 

until we crossed over the Valley of the Zared 

was thirty-eight years, 

until all the generation of the men war 

was consumed from the midst of the camp…

(Deuteronomy 2:14)

Now, this little detail does not seem of too much consequence at first glance, but it becomes more relevant when we look at another story in the New Testament. In the book of John, Jesus heals a man by the pool of Bethesda.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew he already 

had been in that condition a long time, He said to him,

"Do you want to be made well?”

…Jesus said to him “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

And immediately the man was made well…

(John 5:5-9)

In Hebrew, the numeric value for “his heart” is 38, and by asking him if he wanted healing, Jesus was really asking what was in his heart. Did he want to have the same mentality of servitude and being a victim as had the people who kept rebelling and complaining as they left Egypt or did he really want to change? The man’s answer demonstrated that he wished to change and not have the same victim mentality that he had had for 38 years and that the Israelites had had before him.  

The point here is simply this: The Israelites were in the wilderness 38 years because they kept testing and trying God and as a result most of them died without ever seeing the promised land.

…All the people who came out of Egypt who were males,

all the men of war,

had died in the wilderness on the way… 

(Joshua 5:4)

The man at the well showed that a victim mentality does not have to define us and by choosing to believe and have faith we can escape whatever “desert” we may be in. What is really in our “heart,” whether to follow Christ or not, is what ultimately determines whether we die in the desert or enter into the new beginning that was meant for us all.

It really is something to think about.