So last week when I was deathly sick with the flu and strep throat, I began my quiet time in the Book of Numbers– I know, it’s like double punishment– but here’s the curious part: why does God do all the smiting and rage so unforgivingly to His own people. The smiting by God is so intense here 14,700+ people die by God’s smiting in a span of four chapters (I want to say the equivalent of a few days). When you read this, you have to wonder if the God of the Old Testament is really the God of the New. Then you read the following: And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? (Numbers 14:11 ESV) Then you know God was patient. God was kind. God did provide. Yet, despite all of that, the people of Israel still hated God and wanted nothing to do with Him because the fear within them was greater than their “fear of God.” God struck down hard on the Israelites as a way to purify them and make them holy; that is to erase the perceived fear of the world for the purposes of inheriting the gift of God in His delight. But we don’t want to accept that as discipline– we want to see it as a cruel, uncaring God who punishes and then asks questions later and that is foolish of us to think. You see, we’re often no different than the Israelites that were fleeing into the promise land. We are freed by our faith in God, and we witness God supernaturally intervening on our behalf every step of the way, and yet we fear a potential danger over the God who actually silences those fears– it’s a misplaced and misguided irrationality that needs to be smitten by God. And God does smite those areas of doubt and sinful rebellion from our lives, each time leaving us more raw, but more holy. God has us experience what we perceive as undue punishment to refine us and set our “fears” in order. He doesn’t do this because He hates us or wants to ruin our insignificant lives. He does this to make us more significant and worthy of receiving His inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey (soothing sweetness). The next time we think about how we are being “afflicted” by God, we should focus instead on how this affliction is setting us apart to receive a great inheritance. God faithfully shows us His power in signs and wonders in our lives, it may be time for us to love Him for making us more like Him.