The Bible highlights two days—two today’s—in the history of Israel’s possession of the promised land.
The first today reminds us of the time Israel stood on the very brink of blessing and refused to enter. “Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness” (Ps. 95:7-8). When Hebrews comments on this event, it repeatedly states that this was the result of unbelief: “And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief” (Heb. 3:19; but also see Heb. 3:12; 4:2, 3). As a result, none of those unbelieving men were ever allowed to enter Canaan; they had chosen to reject the Lord’s provision and so they died in the wilderness. Hebrews uses this day to warn unbelievers of the need to not just stand on the verge of Christianity, but by faith, to enter in.
The other today took place within the promised land. As Joshua dismissed the people to their inheritances, he urged them to “choose for yourselves this day [today] whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Jsh. 24:15). This day can be applied to believers—those already in the promised land. Serving the Lord is a noble goal, but it will not happen by chance. Being a useful believer is the result of a conscious choice to serve Him, followed by diligent effort.
These two days form bookends of Israel’s possession of the land. The first occurred at Israel’s first opportunity to enter Canaan. The other took place decades later, after Israel had successfully conquered the land. The first has application to unbelievers; the second has application to believers. But, although they apply to different groups of people, there are some aspects of today that apply to everyone.
Today, not tomorrow. The devil’s word is “tomorrow.” Convincing people to say, “Never!” to the Lord is a pretty hard sell. So often, his tactic is to say, “By all means, get saved … tomorrow.” Or, “Serve the Lord with all your heart … tomorrow.” Thus, many people postpone salvation or service their entire lives and assuage their guilty conscience by saying that they really are going to get around to it after college or once their job calms down a little or after the wedding or once the kids don’t require so much attention…someday, just not today.
When is your last today? One of the many problems of postponing the Lord until tomorrow is that we have no guarantee that we will have a tomorrow. The Lord may come today. Or we might die today. Or maybe, as in the case of Israel at Kadesh Barnea, we may be throwing away our last chance. After all, some of those men lived another 38 years but never had another chance to enter the land.
Why wait? But even if we could guarantee another tomorrow, why would we wait? Why waste one more day—or even one more moment—wandering in the wilderness or being defeated by the enemy instead of enjoying the grace, goodness and glory of God? Why fritter away another day living for time instead of eternity? And why spend another second without the fellowship of the most wonderful Person in the universe?