Has God prepared you for the future?

My wife and I enjoy going to this little diner in Charlotte. The atmosphere takes us back to long-ago days. They have the best hot dogs and when we sit in the booth, we relive our childhood to some extent.

Who wouldn’t want that, right?

Plenty of folks. Not everyone has a history they’d want to experience again. Whether we cherish or despise our past, it might be what has prepared us for the future.

In our Discipleship Class Sunday, we talked about what Moses must have thought when God told him to go up on Mount Nebo see the land God had given the Israelites.

Here’s the backstory to that command. Strap in, this is going to be fast.

Many years ago, Pharaoh of Egypt felt threatened by the growing population of the Israelite nation. To curb their population, he orders the killing of all newborn Hebrew boys. One of those babies was Moses. Moses’ mother puts him in a small ark of sorts and places him in the river for safekeeping. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and Pharaoh happens to employ Moses’ mother to nurse Moses while Pharaoh’s daughter raises him as her son.

Moses grows to be powerful in speech and wisdom. He lives a comfortable Egyptian life until he kills an Egyptian for mistreating a Hebrew slave. Moses flees, gets married and has a family. He works as a shepherd for his father-in-law. After forty years of this hands-on training, God calls Moses to save His people. God uses Moses and his brother Aaron to successfully gain their freedom and the nation begins their trip to the Promised Land. When they get close, Moses sends spies to test the land. Ten of the twelve spies convince the people that God couldn’t protect them, even though He told them he would.

Because of this, God makes them wander forty years in the wilderness until that generation dies off. Near the end of the wandering, Moses and Aaron disobey God by not treating Him holy. God decides Moses and Aaron will not enter the Promised Land.

This brings us to God telling Moses to go up on the mountain.

Moses knew the last person required to go up on a mountain was Aaron. While on the mountain, and according to God’s plan, Aaron died. I imagine Moses knew his fate as well. I wonder if he thought back on his life as he climbed the mountain. What could he have done differently in his life? What if he had not let his anger get the best of him? What if he had not disobeyed God? If only he had made a different decision. If only…

Would he be walking into the Promised Land, rather than just seeing it from afar?

Some of you may have the similar thoughts. If only I had not attended this or that school. If only I had married this person instead of that person. If only I had taken better care of myself. If only I had taken this job or that job. If only…

As you read the story of Moses in the book of Numbers 27, right after God reminds Moses of why he is where he is, Moses looks to the future. He considers what is most important and acts on it. Look at what he says in Numbers 27:16 (NASB).

“May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep which have no shepherd.”

While he may very well have had doubts and regrets as he climbed the mountain, he didn’t dwell on them or spend a lot of time wishing he had done things differently. He moved forward in fulfilling God’s plan for him and God’s people.

In these times of doubt about decisions you’ve made or paths you’ve taken, I want to encourage you that God has a plan for you.

Look at the story of Moses. God’s provision in his life was nothing short of amazing. The small ark, his mother’s nursing, the timely training in Egypt and as a shepherd, the miracle of the plagues, and God-sized provision in the wilderness.

Do you have a similar story? Please share a time that in retrospect you see God’s plan for your future.