No Sore Feet

Good Morning,

I’m sure you have heard the idiom “The devil is in the detail”. In other words, even though at first glance something might seem simple, when you get deeper into it, more time and effort are often required.  I bet you have experienced something of this nature.  It might surprise you to know that this saying was derived from an earlier phrase (the mid to late 1800’s).  “God is in the detail” – meaning that whatever one does should be done thoroughly and that details matter.

Recently, I was struck by a small, but “divine” detail as I read Nehemiah chapter 9. Here the people of Israel are confessing their sins before God and also remembering the wandering in the dessert that had lasted forty long years.  This had been the punishment for unbelief, fear and disobedience in not taking the land God had promised them. So, two generations of people had to die off.

Yet tucked away in the middle of this recounting, is a nugget, a detail if you will, that tells us something amazing about God’s character and His divine attention to detail. Verse 21 reads: For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

Forty years of constant wandering, walking and working and not one single article of clothing wore out.  Forty years of perambulating dusty, rocky, uneven soil and nobody’s feet got sore or swollen. I find that astounding.  That truly is divine attention to detail. Let me make two brief observations that will hopefully encourage you in your journey this morning.

First, even though the people were being punished for their rebellion, God did not punish them outside the rest of His character.  His discipline flowed out of his love, mercy, grace, equity and all that He is.  That’s what God does.  He does not set aside part of His essence so He can simply be vindictive. How thankful we can be that even in correction God is ardently for us. We truly don’t get what we deserve.

Second, God never misses a single detail that is important.  He will always provide exactly what we need, for as long as we need it, even if we don’t realize we need it. God knows it all, sees it all and supplies it all – all the time!  God is never found wanting in His care and attention for us.

But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. Ne. 9:17b

Live this week on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein