Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Deal with Regret | Torah | Numbers 28-34

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

What is your biggest regret? Do you know how to process regret? Or do you try to push it aside and distract yourself? Tanya shares the regret that Israel feels in Numbers 28-34 and reminds you of the truth of God’s character. Learn how to find peace on the other side of regret. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Numbers 28-34

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Today's episode is about finding peace on the other side of regret. We're going to look at a passage in numbers where God helps his people with this, but I'm going to start off by sharing a couple of personal stories with you. The first one dates all the way back to college. And it stems from a time when I made a big life decision that kind of changed my course,

academically and professionally, and then really shaped the rest of my adult life. It's a decision that I wouldn't necessarily change if given the opportunity, but it's also one where I find myself sometimes wondering how my life would look different if I had chosen differently. Those moments of regret pop up when I face new situations and meet new people and go through transitions like when my kids went to school. Regret can sound like asking. How would my life be better if I would have chosen differently? It can come in many forms, wishing we had spent time differently, wanting to take back something we said that we shouldn't have, not speaking up when we could have helped someone.

Another experience I have with regret touches me much more deeply. The last time I saw my dad was January 5, 2018. I took him to an appointment that day to have. have a port put in for chemo treatment. Even though he was feeling really awful, we went to Arby's for lunch. It was one of his favorites. And it made me feel better to see him try to eat a sandwich. We also drove by a jewelry designer to drop off his wedding band.

He hadn't worn it since before I was born, and it had a big chunk out of it where the doctors cut it off after his finger was severed in a piece of machinery. But it was important to him again, so we dropped it off to have it repaired. I took mom and dad back to their house and went to the grocery store to stock them up with food and snacks to eat during the next week of chemo treatments, and I kissed them goodbye, kind of in a hurry, to make it to an eighth grade basketball game, which seemed really important at the time. I promised to be back the next weekend. The next Friday, my sister called and said they were taking dad to the hospital because he passed out.

The ambulance was on the way. I was really worried. I knew something was very wrong, and so did she. But she comforted me and said, don't worry, the doctors will take care of him and we'll see you when you get here. For some reason, I wanted to get all the laundry done and get groceries before I left.

Someone forgot their lunch, and I took it to school. I did errands because I thought they were very important at the time. I got a picture of my sister via text with my mom and dad's hands in it, and he was wearing his repair. ring. He asked her to take a picture. When I finally left home, I was only about 30 minutes from my house with another three and a half hours in front of me when I saw my sister and my husband calling at the same time. I knew exactly why they were calling. I had missed him. I didn't get to say

goodbye, give a hug, and I wasn't there for my sister when she had to make a really hard decision. As I sat on the side of the interstate, a feeling like heavy, led. filling up my legs and my body came over me. It was a heaviness that fogged my brain and made me feel like I was in another world. As much as I knew I had missed one of the most important days of my life, I also remember saying out loud, God, I know you had this day plan for me. Help me to trust you. I sensed that the regret over the day could chip away from me or it could shape me. Regret is a real part of our lives. We have different ways we deal with it.

We can choose to shut it down and just ignore it. We can try to distract ourselves towards something else. You probably know what that sounds like. We can hear ourselves saying, I wish that had gone differently, but it's okay because now I have this other opportunity instead. While that may be true, it's also a coping mechanism that keeps us from really dealing with the way we feel.

I think it's important to process and work through regret. Because if I've learned anything, it's that it doesn't just go away. Like the grief of losing a loved one, the way we relate to it changes, but it's always part of our lives that shapes us. At the end of the book of numbers, Moses is addressing a generation of Israelites whose parents rebel at Mount Sinai. Talk about regret. If they hadn't built that calf, a 10-day journey wouldn't have had to

turn into a 40-year camping trip, while everyone from the rebellious generation passed on so the next generation can enter the promised land. These were the ones whose parents were sent to spy out the land that was filled with fruit trees and streams and came back only to exaggerate the size and scope of their enemies. They were also the ones whose parents asked God to undo the Exodus and send them back to Egypt. But it was time for them to move forward. When Moses spoke to the them about what to do when they crossed over into the new land, it was a confidence injection for people who were genetically characterized by broken vows and promises to the Lord. On this new start forward, Moses told them to keep their oath to the Lord, to observe all the

feast and celebrations just as God commanded, and to keep the Sabbath and keep rest and worship the Lord. None of this was new information, but it was a new opportunity to choose differently, to start over in a new place as people marked by obedience to God. Now, there are two things we can learn about moving forward from the way God related to the Israelites at the end of numbers. One, we are forgiven on the basis of God's loyal love. When the Israelites rebelled against God, Moses asked God to forgive them and not to forget them or abandon them.

Moses didn't want to lead the people into the promised land if God wasn't with them. God answered Moses' request for forgiveness on the grounds of his own loyal love and faithfulness. Even though God didn't remove the consequences, he promised his steadfast presence would always be with them. You can look at Exodus 34 for that beautiful exchange. Acknowledging regret allows us to face our poor choices and missed opportunities in truth. When we acknowledge regret, it develops in us

the virtues of humility and compassion. We don't always choose and act wisely, and we can extend compassion to others when they don't. And we can find comfort

in the compassionate presence of Jesus to deal with our regret. We can ask, what would Jesus do? What did Jesus do for me? After Peter betrayed him three times

and left him while he was on the cross, Jesus sought Peter out after the resurrection. The Bible offers us a mirror to see ourselves in. We can see ourselves in Peter. Sometimes it's hard to face that mirror, especially when we know we've heard others. It's hard sometimes to truly believe that Jesus took all our consequences. We might often act like Peter and run the other way, but we aren't passive observers in the crucifixion. Jesus invited us into his death. He invited us into the reality of our addictions and poor choices and misspoken words. And our old self is crucified with him in that place.

We are set free from our brokenness and the burdens it leaves behind. Because of Jesus, our regrets and if onlys aren't the end of our story. Hope did die there on the cross, but it didn't stay dead. In Christ, we rise up and walk into a land full of God's presence, a life. where Christ lives in us and we experience true joy and peace. The second thing we learn from God calling this generation forward is that our future rests on his faithfulness. Our future rests on his faithfulness. As the Israelites go into a pagan land, they will be the ones to reflect God's character to the world.

The rebellion and the rebellion of their parents wasn't going to keep them from being God's light. Isn't that pretty incredible? We are people who have broken promises. We have fallen short, and we have regrets about the ways we've raised our children, the ways we've handled challenging relationships, the ways we've broken promises. Yet we have a Savior who's kept his vow perfectly.

We have a father who fulfills every single promise. And if we have failed to make choices that are good for our future, we aren't left to wallow in them. God's faithfulness is what gives our lives hope and purpose. Even though we aren't fit for the plan, we know it and we're not. God doesn't let us compromise his plan to make us a blessing to others. 1 John 3, 2, and 3 tells us who we're becoming in God's plan. And it says, Beloved, we are God's children now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We are beloved. We are God's children. We are a shadow of what we will be, but when he appears we will be like him, then we will see him as he is.

We have a wide variety of circumstances in our past that feel regretful, hurtful, shameful. They might feel like they can crush us or at least chip away at us until we forget who we are. But God tells us we have a purpose, and a calling to show our children and our coworkers and our friends and our neighbors and our girlfriends and our boyfriends and our teammates what the Lord is like and how good

he has been to us. And even when we can't believe it ourselves, we can believe him because he is faithful and true and never breaks a promise with us. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes. and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.