GRUMPY OLD MAN vs THE FATHER

The Israelites said to Moses, “We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die! Are we all going to die?”
Numbers 17:12-13

(Background: The Isaraelites said this after the budding of Aaron’s staff. Before this happened, they (1) disbelieved Caleb’s and Joshua’s reports of Canaan, and thought the Lord would not give them victory and take the promised land; (2) suffered a terrible defeat because they invaded Canaan anyway, assuming that God would go with them although Moses told them otherwise; (3) grumbled against Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership after seeing, with their very own eyes, the ground swallow up Korah and his family alive; and (4) suffered a plague that killed 14,700 because of this grumbling.)

I think the budding of Aaron’s staff was a way in which God was INSTRUCTING them (as opposed to punishing or rebuking them harshly), a merciful act since a long time (after all, this time, no one died!)

Although God taught the Israelites in a gentle manner, they didn’t learn.
Instead of seeing God the Father of love, they saw God the grumpy old man, ready to vent years of stored bitterness.
Instead of restoring the fear of the Lord, they reacted in fearfulness of God’s vengeance.
Instead of responding to God, they reacted to God.
Instead of coming back to God, they ran away from God.

How many times have I done the same thing?
When I act in hopelessness and resignation (“I’m like that one lah, never learn and never change!”) instead of asking God for His strength to change.
When I think that God must be so tired of me that He must have given up on me long ago.
When I think there’s no use in praying since I’m so far gone.
That’s a classic example of how one acts in the knowledge of God the grumpy-old-man-with-a-vengeance.

But didn’t God’s word clearly say:

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me, your love, O LORD, endures forever – do not abandon the works of your hands. (Psalm 138:8)

And again:

…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)