"…not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure." I the LORD have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.

Numbers 14:30-35

The Israelites were at the very border of the Promised Land. But the people doubted and condemned themselves to 40 years of wandering and death in the desert. They were so near and yet so far away.

Have you heard about Jesus' love for you but remain uncommitted to Him? Are you near yet so far away? Choose now to cross over into the "promised land" of salvation found in Jesus.

Now is the time to choose the LORD,

Later may never come.

Our Daily Bread - May 2, 2004