How Very Displeasing to God Is Want of Confidence

pie by confidence in God we greatly honor and please His Divine Majesty, and it is a means to draw down upon us many blessings at His hands, so on the contrary one of the things by which God is most offended, a thing which most particularly displeases Him and which He punishes with the greatest severity, is want of confidence, since that touches His honor. So we see that this was one of the things for which God was most angry with the children of Israel and for which He punished them. Holy Scripture relates that, when Moses sent the spies into the Land of Promise, they came back in consternation and told the people that they had seen giants so stout and strong that in comparison with them they were as locusts; and cities they had seen so fortified with walls and towers that there was no making way into them. Thereupon such terror fell upon the people and such despair of ever being able to enter into the Land of Promise, that they debated among themselves the question of choosing a captain to lead them back into Egypt. God was very angry with the people, and said to Moses: How long shall this people fail to believe or trust me, after having seen so many signs and wonders as I have done for them? I will send upon them a pestilence, and put an end to them all at one stroke (Num. xiv. 11-12). Moses set himself to mediate, and implored God to pardon them; and God said: “For love of thee I pardon them for the present; but all those who have seen the wonders and signs that I did in Egypt, and afterwards in the desert, and have failed to believe and trust Me, shall be excluded from entering into the Land of Promise. I warrant thee, not one shall set eyes upon it.” And as He swore it, so He carried it out. Six hundred thousand men were they whom God delivered from Egypt, not counting women and children (Num. i. 46), and all died in the desert without entering into the Land of Promise or setting eyes upon it, in punishment of their want of confidence. Josuah and Caleb alone, who had the confidence to believe that they should enter and overcome the enemy, and encouraged the people thereto, did enter, and the little children, who, the spies said, were sure to be made captives and the prey of their enemies. Hereby is seen how much God abhors want of confidence in Him.

Even Moses himself and Aaron, because in striking the rock with their rod they had some doubt as to whether they should draw water, whereas God had told them that they should draw it, for this want of confidence were punished in the same way. Because ye have not believed nor trusted me, to sanctify me in the sight of the children of Israel, ye shall not be the men who shall lead this people into the land which I will give them (Num. xx. 10, 12) ; ye shall not enter into the Land of Promise either. Moses saw it from a mountain top hard by, but entered not into it. Thou hast seen it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not enter therein (Deut. xxxiv. 4) ; as though to say: “Thou hast seen it, but thou shall not enjoy it.” This matter of distrust is a matter that touches the honor of God, and therefore He punished it in this manner.

Hence we may draw two lessons. First, how evil and how displeasing to God are these fits of distrust and discouragement in which some people indulge—now in temptations, at other times on the question of their spiritual advancement, at others in the functions and affairs which obedience imposes upon them. They fancy these fits proceed from humility, and in reality they proceed from nothing but pride; for they fix their eyes on themselves, expecting to be able to do the thing out of their own strength, industry, and diligence, which is great pride. The second lesson that we must draw from hence is that, in all our affairs, necessities, and labors, the first thing to do is to have recourse to God and put our whole trust in Him. It should not be the first thing to fix our eyes on human means and on our own diligence and industry, and the last thing to have recourse to God. That is a great abuse, common in the world. The first thing people do is to fix their eyes on human means, and try them all without recourse to God; then, when they find that nothing comes of it and the business seems desperate, they betake themselves to God. So His Majesty allows these very human means to fail us in which we trusted, as He said to King Asa: Because thou hast put thy trust in the king of Syria, and not in the Lord thy God, therefore his army hath escaped thy hand (II Chron. xvi. 7). God is mightily offended and aggrieved at our falling back upon any basis of support but Him. Our eyes should be turned to God at once. One of the chief things that we can gain in meditation is to have firm-seated in our heart this great confidence in God; for we go to meditation to plant virtues in our soul, and this is one of the chiefest and most necessary of virtues. We must not rest until our heart is thoroughly habituated to have recourse to God in all things, and thoroughly trusts in Him, not going to seek remedy elsewhere but in God, God being all our refuge and our whole strength, according to those words of Josaphat, King of Israel: Since we know not what we ought to do, we have this only remaining to us to lift up our hearts to thee (II Chron. xx. 12). Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord (Psalm xxxix. 5).