Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

June 8– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“[God said to Moses] You will now see whether my word will come to pass unto you or not.” 

—Numbers 11:23

In this passage, God made a promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month he will feed the vast nation of Israel in the wilderness with meat and not just manna. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means of making this happen and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled.

He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But does the Creator expect the creature to fulfill his promise for him? No; he who makes the promise fulfills it by his own unaided power. If he speaks it, then it is done— and he is the one who does it. His promises do not depend for their fulfillment upon the cooperation of the puny strength of man.

We can understand Moses’ mistake, and yet how often we do the same thing! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we see that the creature is weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why do we look to men at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? We act just as foolishly when we look to the weak for strength and to the creature to do the Creator’s work.

Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The foundation of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but rather, the all-sufficiency of the invisible God who will most surely do as he has said. If we clearly see that the responsibility lies with the Lord and not with the creature, and yet we mistrust, God will question us, “Is the Lord’s hand too short?” In his mercy, may he then say, “You will now see whether my word will come to pass unto you or not.” [M&E]