Throughout their journeys, God provided all the Israelites needed. They had miraculous food everyday, and water flowed for them out of a rock. Their sandals did not wear out, even though they were walking through hot deserts for years (Deuteronomy 29:2-6). They saw the pillar of cloud and fire every day and night, and God worked miracles to overthrow their enemies.
Yet, in spite of all these daily miracles, the Israelites were unable to understand the main message that God was trying to tell them.
God’s message was simple – “I love you.”
God wanted Israel to know that he loved them. He took care of them faithfully, year after year. He worked many miracles that proved his love for them. And yet, in spite of all of this, Israel just could not believe it. They didn’t believe that God loved them. They didn’t believe he would continue to be good to them. They didn’t believe he would keep taking care of them. They doubted his love so much that they accused him wanting them to starve. When times got tough, they even accused God of wanting to kill them. They hated God so much they wanted to run away from him and go back to slavery in Egypt.
Loving God by Knowing his Love
We need to know that God loves us. This is the starting point of our spiritual lives. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:36-40). In order to obey this command, we must first know the love God has for us. God loves us with supernatural, agape love. Agape love originates only in God. To know agape love, we must receive it first from God, for there is no other source of agape love. If we don’t know how much God loves us, then we won’t be able to have any agape love whether for God or for anyone else. We love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
God has done so many good things for us, including sending his Son to die for our sins. He did all this because he loves us.
Love Causes us to Enter Rest
If we don’t know God’s love, we won’t be at Rest. The Israelites could not enter into God’s rest (Hebrews 4:10) because they kept doubting God’s love for them. God wanted them to rest and relax in his love. But they didn’t want to. They were frenzied with worry and anxiety. This is because they didn’t believe that God loved them and would take care of them. They thought, “We have to run around and do all these things because God doesn’t love us. He won’t take care of us. He won’t provide for us.”
The Israelites couldn’t enter God’s rest because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19).
Jesus told us that if we seek first his kingdom and righteousness, he will give us food and clothing and whatever we need (Luke 13:29-31). If we believe this, we can enter into rest. But if we don’t believe this, then we won’t be at rest. Instead we will chase after all these things and be dominated by mammon (the god of money). This is what the rest of the world is doing. God wants us to live differently. Jesus wants us to be at rest in him. He wants us to stop stressing out. This is only possible when we believe that he loves us.
Experience is Insufficient
How will anyone learn about the love of God?
Some people want a miraculous sign to prove God’s love for them. “God, just show me a sign that you love me. Let me feel your presence. If you do that then I will know that you love me.” This doesn’t work. The Israelites saw many miracles day after day. They felt his presence, saw his glory, and heard his voice. Yet, in spite of all these miracles, they still didn’t believe he loved them. They had many experiences, yet they had no faith. No matter what God did for them, it didn’t convince them. No wonder Jesus said that some people won’t believe even if they see someone rise from the dead (Luke 16:31).
God’s Word is the Basis of True Faith
God’s word must be the basis of our faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). We don’t need experience in order to have faith. This is because God doesn’t want our faith to be limited. We can believe God’s word for things that we’ve never experienced.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). We don’t see it yet, but we believe it. This is true faith. True faith comes first, and it makes experiencing God possible. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Walking by sight will hold us back, but walking by faith will open doors for us to move forward.
Faith is powerful. It opens doors for us to access God’s infinite grace and resources.
Joshua and Caleb believed God before they had experience. God told them he would defeat the giants in the Promised Land. They had not seen that happen yet, but they believed God’s word. Therefore they had faith that made that possible.
Connection Between Love and Faith
There is an important connection between love and faith. Faith and love go hand in hand. When we know how much God love us, we can believe his word. We believe that he won’t lie. We know that he will take care of us and provide for our needs. He won’t forsake us. But if we don’t know that God loves us, then we won’t be able to believe him.
Knowing God’s love is the basis for our faith.
Faith works through love (Galatians 5:6). Faith has an energy or power that operates because of love. The basis of faith is love. Love never fails (1 Corinthinas 13:13). Love sustains faith. Love makes faith possible.
Israel didn’t have faith in God because they didn’t have love. Without love for God, they couldn’t believe God’s word. This is why love for God is the first and most important commandment, because it is the starting point for obeying all others.
The reason Israel didn’t have love for God because they didn’t know that God loved them.
It all starts with knowing that God loves us.
When we know that God loves us, we can believe God’s word. Then we will enter into his Rest.
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