The Flesh—Our Biggest Enemy
The Israelites were always complaining against the Almighty. They weren’t happy with the manna, they weren’t happy with anything that He did for them. They always wanted something different; Yahveh was not enough. When it came to their flesh, their strength in the flesh was a bigger enemy than the giants in the land. Their flesh, our flesh, is our biggest enemy. It is not the demons out there, it is not the ones who don’t like us, or who persecute us, Yahveh God is not with them! It is our flesh, and when our flesh overtakes us our God is not with us.
The Almighty gave Israel what she wanted, as we read in Numbers 11:20, until it was coming out of her nostrils, hanging out of her teeth, but He struck them. Yahveh (the Lord) has not changed, the blood of Yahshua (Jesus) is on the altar for those who are truly humble and repentant of heart. The Savior’s blood is on the altar for those who do not want to return to “trampling the blood under their feet”, or who confess their sins and go back and keep on doing them (Hebrews 10:29). Remember, He says (my own paraphrase), “You tested Me one too many times with your shallow confessions of faith and with your strong lustful desires of the flesh. Your flesh won out and it destroyed you.”
The flesh was your enemy. So Yahveh our God says “As I live, just as you have spoken in My hearing, (grumbling, passing bad reports about My character) so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men … from 20 years old and upward, who have grumble against Me” (Numbers 14:29). The Holy One in essence was saying, “The Promised Land, where I am going to dwell, is not going to be filled with grumblers and murmurers, with the riffraff of those who do not love and trust Me with all their heart and fully obey Me. They will die in this wilderness journey.” He says, “Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb … and Joshua” (Numbers 14:30). (The two out of the twelve who had the faith, courage, and trust in Yahveh that they would overcome.)
“Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey – I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your corpses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years … and they shall suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness … you shall know My opposition” (Numbers 14:31-34). It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
