When we employ the best of our human reasoning and intellectual powers, we are prone to make mistake after mistake. In addition to this, we all have short memories and often fail to learn from the past. Many times, our mistakes seem so insignificant at the time. Consider David, "a man after God's own heart", abundantly blessed, yet we read in 2 Samuel 11:1, "It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when Kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab...". David stayed back rather than joining his army which resulted in the adulteress affair with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah, and the rest is history.

We come to the book of Numbers and immediately come upon a census taken one year into their journey out of Egypt. We read in Numbers 1:2-3, "Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above - all who are able to go to war in Israel...". We see the conclusion in 1:46, "all who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred fifty." We will see that the Israelites are brought to the brink of the Promised Land, but due to disobedience and unbelief they refuse to enter. Hearing about the giants in the land they used their human logic and were absolutely wrong. As a result, as we go through the book of Numbers, 603,548 of these men will die in a wilderness journey which did not have to happen (only Joshua and Caleb remain). The amazing thing is 39 years later when all of these men died in the desert, God had Moses take another census when they were again on the brink, as we read in 26:51, "These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel: six hundred and one thousand seven hundred thirty." God knew how many He wanted to send in, unfortunately, for the first group they lost out due to a bad decision. We see this logic at the conclusion of Judges 21:25, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

God's plan will always move forward as planned; the question is what part any particular person will play in that plan. We read in 2 Peter 3:8-9, "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." With world events coming together as they are, it certainly seems that the Rapture is imminent and that for many of us we are on the doorstep of the Promised Land. The question is who will enter? Does God have a certain number in mind as He did during the time Moses? For those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can believe His promise and live the life of victory. For those who believe they know better and are uninteresting in KNOWING Him they reject His offer of salvation. Like the Israelites, they can spend their lives wandering, walking in circles, grumbling in their unbelief and never enter into His promised rest. God has given us all free will, so it is up to each of us which path we desire.