God can do anything He wants. Period. Let’s just get that out of the way.
But that doesn’t mean that people necessarily believe that. I’ve heard lots of people say that God “can’t forgive what I’ve done” or “God can’t change who I am.” Garbage like that.
What we perceive about God doesn’t change His nature. It doesn’t affect His abilities, His love, His mercy, or His grace. Which is a good thing, I think. Can you imagine if God was at the mercy of everyone’s imposed conceptions of His Deity?
Nevertheless, Moses recognized that God’s reputation was at stake in Numbers 14. If God actually wiped all of Israel out, as He threatened to, then other nations would look at this so-called “Exodus” and say that God “couldn’t lead them into Canaan.”
This automatically places Egypt in a position of power over Jehovah. After all, they could control Israel and make them do what they wanted. Why couldn’t God?
There’s a sense in which regional understandings of deities comes into play as well. Most ancient people’s believed that gods only had power over a tract of land; that’s why Naaman wanted to take some dirt back to Syria with him after he was healed by Elisha (2 Kings 5:17).
If God was able to demonstrate His power in Egypt, but not in Canaan (or in Sinai), that would mean His abilities were limited in some way.
Regardless, Moses knew the cost of allowing God to make him a “great nation.” Doing so would hurt God in the process.
Of course, we know the truth: The problem wasn’t that God couldn’t lead them, it’s that the people weren’t allowing themselves to be led.
That’s the same dynamic we see in our lives with God. God has the ability to guide all of us through His Word. We all have the capabilities to follow Him, to serve Him, to trust Him, and to listen to Him.
When we turn away from Him, that’s on us, not God. And yet people still look at others who call themselves Christians but who refuse to do His will and say, “See? God couldn’t handle that guy.”
It’s not that God can’t, but that we won’t let Him. When we refuse to let God be the guiding path of our life, we unknowingly give His critics more ammunition.
Moses understood that. It’s high time we understand it as well.
