Once a person starts a journey it is difficult to stop and turn back especially when you are almost there. Many thoughts come through the mind when in a journey, such as, are we there, or how much longer. Desperation sometimes plays a factor of whether we make it to our destination or we turn back. Turning back seems to an easier way out when you are in a journey. In fact, there was a time when God was going to do a healing in me; I had a bad tooth ache, and while at the alter waiting for prayer I decided not to wait any longer, so I went back to my seat. Once I got to my seat the preacher said “you that have a tooth ache, because you went back to your seat you missed out on a miracle; he did not know it was me with the tooth ache. The people of Israel got tired of being in the wilderness and desired to go back to bondage and so turned against Moses and God.
Numbers 14:2-3
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
The people of Israel came out of Egypt by God’s mighty hand with signs and wonders; hail, frogs, flees, darkness, famine, blood and more. They were in a journey to the promise land; the land of Cana, where all their necessities were going to be fulfilled in abundance. As they got closed to the land most of the spies gave a bad report of the land. They said that the land was filled with mighty giants and that they looked like grasshoppers next to them. The people were terrified with the report even after Joshua and Caleb gave their positive report and they turned rebellious. Turning rebellious sometimes is a factor of wanting to turn back (Is. 50:5). Their journey at the point of closure was lengthened because of their desperation and faithlessness. They missed out on the promise land; a land that flowed with milk and honey, a place of miracles. This same land is where Jesus did his first open crowd miracle (Jh. 4:46). Jesus turned water into wine in the wedding at Cana. The servants at the wedding did everything Jesus told them and were witnesses of a great miracle. The Israelites missed out because they wanted to go back.
We cannot turn back once we have begun this journey towards eternal life. When we turn back we are thought of as unworthy of the prize. Jesus said that in the last days when the tribulation comes do not go back to get your stuff (Lk. 17:31-33), because you will miss out on the promise land. In fact, there are consequences when we turn back to the old way of living. The situations become worsen when we turn back. Lots wife experienced a worsening in her life after the angels had taken their family out of Sodom and Gomorrah they commanded them not to look back, but she did (Ge. 19:26). She became a pillar of Salt, because her heart was on going back and not forward. When we find ourselves wanting to go back to the way it used to be we find ourselves missing out on many blessings that are meant for us. The Psalmist said to God that his heart was not turned back (Ps. 44:18), because he knew that the blessing is on forward not on backwards. Once we start with God there is no turning back (Lk. 9:62).