God is on our side, but not Always...

"Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down by your enemies." Numbers 14:42

The implications of this passage for the people of Israel must have been almost palpable: God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- the God who brought them out of Egypt, with whom they had a covenant, was not bound to protect them in their sin. They had tried God's last nerve, and he had sentenced them to forty years wandering in the wilderness. They decided they liked the previous promise of God better- you know, the one they had chickened out of seizing on?- and were going to invade the land and take it. But the time for that had passed, and Moses was warning them. Going up against the prevailing call of "God bless Israel!" Moses spoke up and said: "No, the Lord is not with you!"

This passage also has implications for any country or people that presumes to have God's blessing: there is no carte blanche. God will not back you up no matter what. God only backs you up when God wills to back you up. As Senator Carl Schurz famously said: "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." May we always have the courage of Moses and the good senator, to try to set our country right.